If I were to do a survey this morning and ask the question, “What are the things that you are most concerned about; the things that you worry the most over; the things that you would least like to happen, I think most of the things that would appear on the survey would fall into five basic categories.  Let me just challenge you to answer this in your own head.  Quickly, what are you anxious about?  I won’t ask anyone to answer out loud, but answer to yourself.  Think big picture.  I am not talking about worrying about what’s for lunch; think big worries.  See if these five categories cover most of what we worry about. 

One category would be death.  This is something we try not to think about very much, but I know occasionally I wonder what would happen if.  Do you ever play the “What would happened if” game?  I’m talking not only our own death, but the death of someone we love.  Each of us would have a list of people we would most not want to die anytime soon.  Category one has to be, what about dieing. 

A second category would be sickness.  This is a big category.  There are all kinds of illnesses, diseases, conditions, aliments, bugs, and syndromes.  You really don’t want any syndromes.   Once again these concerns are not only about ourselves, but others who are close to us.  Once again we can play the “what if” game about cancer or Alzheimer’s, or arthritis and on and on.  This may be as big a category

A third category would have to be some sort of accident.  Whether what happens would be like a car wreck or falling off a ladder or getting struck by lightning or a tornado.  People have accidents.  There were an estimated 6,420,000 cars involved in accidents in the US in 2005. The cost of these accidents exceeds 230+ Billion dollars. There were about 2.9 million injury cases and 42,636 car accident deaths. An average of 115 persons die each day in motor vehicle crashes in the United States -- one every 13 minutes.  This is something real to worry about. 

I suspect I have covered most of the physical kind of worries. I want to add the spiritual.  What if I loose my faith?  What if I succumb to some sin?  What if I can’t control myself and Satan just gets a hold of me and won’t let go.  What if I loose my soul?  This probably didn’t occur too many of us, but perhaps it should have.  In the big picture of things this should be near the top of our lists.  What happens if someone I love looses the spiritual battle and is wiped out?  Do we worry about the spiritual war we are in and that we, or someone we love might lose?

One last category that is going to be pretty broad, what happens if I end up with no one who cares about me?  What if I have no family?  Wouldn’t it be terrible to live without anyone who really cares about me, or loves me? We worry about relationships.  We worry about how we are going to get along with our families and friends.  Our families are important, but often fragile.  Perhaps there is this whole area of social worries.  Will there always be people there who love me? 

I think my original statement of most of our worries fall into these five categories is safe.  I sure we could add money – bankrupt - and other things but these five cover a lot of what we might be concerned with especially in the big picture of things.  I mention these particular five areas of concern because Luke does.  In Luke chapter 8 he relates five Jesus’ stories which deal with each of our five categories of worry.  Quickly let’s hit the high points of the five stories in Luke 8, then, after we have looked at these stories I want tell you why, I believe, Luke choose these stores.  He is making a single amazing point about faith and fear. 
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Luke 8:19-21  Now Jesus' mother and brothers came to see him, but they were not able to get near him because of the crowd.  Someone told him, "Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to see you."  He replied, "My mother and brothers are those who hear God's word and put it into practice."

This would have been a shocking statement in Jesus’ time.  There was nothing more important than family to the people of Jesus’ day.  Family was number one.  And for Jesus to say that God’s family is his real family over his natural family would have raised more than a couple eyebrows.  This was revolutionary.  Note for now that Jesus says there is family among those who hear and practice his word.  Luke covers the loved by someone category. 

Luke continues with another of our categories of fears; accidents.

Luke 8:22-25  One day Jesus said to his disciples, "Let's go over to the other side of the lake." So they got into a boat and set out.  As they sailed, he fell asleep. A squall came down on the lake, so that the boat was being swamped, and they were in great danger.  The disciples went and woke him, saying, "Master, Master, we're going to drown!" He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm.  "Where is your faith?" he asked his disciples. In fear and amazement they asked one another, "Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him."

The disciples were afraid.  They thought it was all over but the funerals.  “We’re goin’ down.  We’re gana drown.”  But Jesus saves them. Jesus has power over the wind and the waves.  “Who is this guy?” they ask.  Luke says Jesus has power over accidents.

Quickly:

Luke 8:26-37  They sailed to the region of the Gerasenes, which is across the lake from Galilee.  When Jesus stepped ashore, he was met by a demon-possessed man from the town. For a long time this man had not worn clothes or lived in a house, but had lived in the tombs.  When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell at his feet, shouting at the top of his voice, "What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, don't torture me!"  For Jesus had commanded the evil spirit to come out of the man. Many times it had seized him, and though he was chained hand and foot and kept under guard, he had broken his chains and had been driven by the demon into solitary places.  Jesus asked him, "What is your name?" "Legion," he replied, because many demons had gone into him.  31 And they begged him repeatedly not to order them to go into the Abyss.  32 A large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside. The demons begged Jesus to let them go into them, and he gave them permission.  33 When the demons came out of the man, they went into the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.  34 When those tending the pigs saw what had happened, they ran off and reported this in the town and countryside,  35 and the people went out to see what had happened. When they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting at Jesus' feet, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid.  36 Those who had seen it told the people how the demon-possessed man had been cured.  37 Then all the people of the region of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them, because they were overcome with fear. So he got into the boat and left.

This man was spiritually destroyed.  He was as bad off as it gets.  He is not just in the clutches of Satan, he was possessed by tons of demons.  He had no life but the demons’ life.  He was more damaged than any drug addict, more destitute than any prostitute, he was more homeless than the  homeless…  But Jesus saved him.  Jesus was able to bring him back to God.  “Wow, really, who is this guy?”

Luke continues with another big category;

Luke 8:40-47   Now when Jesus returned, a crowd welcomed him, for they were all expecting him.  Then a man named Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue, came and fell at Jesus' feet, pleading with him to come to his house  because his only daughter, a girl of about twelve, was dying. As Jesus was on his way, the crowds almost crushed him. 

And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years, but no one could heal her.  She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped.  "Who touched me?" Jesus asked. When they all denied it, Peter said, "Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you."  But Jesus said, "Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me."  Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at his feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed. 

Here is a story within a story.  Let’s do the sickness one first.  This woman had been ill for 12 years.  She had been ill as long as the little girl who is about to die had been alive.  She had no more hope.  She was done.  It was all over but the funeral.  There was only one chance; to touch Jesus. So, she sneaks up, not wanting to take a chance of being embarrassed or turned down and covertly touches his robe.  It was enough to cure her.  Jesus cured her.

Finish the other story and our last category. 

Luke 8:48-56    Then he said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace."  While Jesus was still speaking, someone came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue ruler. "Your daughter is dead," he said. "Don't bother the teacher any more."  Hearing this, Jesus said to Jairus, "Don't be afraid; just believe, and she will be healed."  When he arrived at the house of Jairus, he did not let anyone go in with him except Peter, John and James, and the child's father and mother.  Meanwhile, all the people were wailing and mourning for her. "Stop wailing," Jesus said. "She is not dead but asleep."  They laughed at him, knowing that she was dead.  But he took her by the hand and said, "My child, get up!"  Her spirit returned, and at once she stood up. Then Jesus told them to give her something to eat.  Her parents were astonished, but he ordered them not to tell anyone what had happened.

Is there anything worse than the death of a little girl?  It is every parent’s worse nightmare.  Their precious little girl was dead.  But then she wasn’t.  Jesus is that powerful. 
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Now, I read all those stories to get to Luke’s main point this morning.  It is found in the preceding three verses to these five stories.  Before Luke goes through the five categories of our fears he tells us why. Let’s go back to:

Luke 8:16-18   "No one lights a lamp and hides it in a jar or puts it under a bed. Instead, he puts it on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light.  For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open.  Therefore consider carefully how you listen. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has will be taken from him."

Here is Luke’s point. You may disagree and it may be an onion thing, but here is what I see in Luke chapter 8.  Jesus is the lamp on the table.  He is the one who reveals all that is hidden.  The light of Jesus is going to expose everything.  Here it is; the light of Jesus is going to disclose our faith.  In the five categories of things we fear most, the true nature, the true quality, the strength of our faith is going to be revealed.  In these five stories faith is exposed in the light of who Jesus is.    

®Families – The light of Jesus says, “Our family is God’s family.”
Luke 8:21  "My mother and brothers are those who hear God's word and put it into practice."
Do we trust Jesus in our family relations?  Jesus says I am the one who gives life to families?  The light of Jesus reveals our family struggles.  What does it tell about our faith?

®Accidents – There was the storm and the disciples failed.  The light of Jesus revealed their lack of faith.
Luke 8:25  Where is your faith?" he asked his disciples.
What is revealed about our faith in the uncertainty of this world?

®Spiritual struggles – The demon was way lost.  But Jesus’ light revealed the man under the curse.
Luke 8:39  "Return home and tell how much God has done for you." So the man went away and told all over town how much Jesus had done for him. 
God and Jesus are interchangeable.  In the light of the lamp the man formally known as Legion was restored to God.  He was a missionary before any of the apostles. His faith was revealed.

®Illness – The woman took her illness to the light of the world and her faith was not allowed to stay hidden but Jesus exalted her faith. 
Luke 8:48  48 Then he said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace."
What is revealed about our faith in the challenge of illness?

®Even in death, especially in death, our faith is on stage for all to see.
Luke 8:50  Jesus said to Jairus, "Don't be afraid; just believe, and she will be healed."
Jesus says to us, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.” 
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Luke 8 is all about our faith.  It is all about our trusting the exuberantly gracious Messiah. In all of this, in all five categories of our fears, our faith is going to be exposed.  It is when what we don’t want to happen, happens that we, and others, discover the nature of our faith.    

I have good news and bad news.  Both are found in one verse; Luke 8:18.

Luke 8:16-18  "No one lights a lamp and hides it in a jar or puts it under a bed. Instead, he puts it on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light.  17 For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open.  18 Therefore consider carefully how you listen. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has will be taken from him."

When we make the choice of faith and that choice is revealed in any of the five categories of our fears, we get more faith. “Whoever has will be given more!” That is the good news. Faith disclosed is faith increased.  But if our faith is revealed as lacking, what’s there will be lost. Faith missing is faith lost. That is bad news. 

So, bottom line, in the good times, before any of the five categories come, we need to carefully listen to God’s word.