Sermon Transcript
Well, good morning and welcome again. It is great to see you all. Just a reminder, if you’re just joining us, that this summer we are doing a series called This Is My Story. Dan continues his time of sabbatical. Don’t worry, he’ll be back soon.
You won’t have to look at me nearly as much once he’s back, and I’ll be glad. But we are continuing our series, This Is My Story, showing how God works the same today as he has always worked. The principles that we find in Scripture are the principles for our lives today. And today, we are going to hear from Don Darcy, who will share how God has carried him through many seasons in his life that would otherwise be quite fearful. In order to set the stage for him, we’re gonna take a look at Isaiah 41:10.
Which says, so do not fear, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. You know, that verse comes in the middle of a chapter written to people who were weary, uncertain, and afraid.
Isaiah 40 begins with the words, Comfort, comfort my people. God speaks to people carrying burdens, experiencing disappointment, and wondering if they have been forgotten. Into that fear and exhaustion, God announces that he is coming with strength, authority, and with compassion. It’s remarkable how often the Scripture— in Scripture, God tells his people, Do not fear. Depending on the translation, you may see fear not, or do not be afraid, or take courage, or be strong and courageous.
However it’s translated, the command appears again and again throughout Scripture. From Abraham to Moses, from Joshua to the prophets, from the angels announcing Christ’s birth to Jesus speaking to his disciples, God repeatedly addresses one of humanity’s deepest struggles. Fear. Do not fear is the most common command in Scripture. It appears hundreds of times throughout the Bible.
Why? Because fear is one of the most universal human experiences. We fear failure. We fear rejection or suffering or loss. We fear the future.
We fear the things that we cannot control. Control, and we fear that we will deal with those other fears alone. The Bible never minimizes these fears, but God never says there’s nothing to be afraid of. Instead, he repeatedly says, do not fear, for I am with you. This is an important distinction.
The command is not rooted in the absence of danger. It is rooted in the presence of God. Throughout Scripture, we see the same pattern. First, God acknowledges reality. He knows his people are facing circumstances that are frightening.
Second, God reminds them of his presence. He says, I am with you. Third, God calls them to trust him. Faith is not the absence of fear. Faith is trusting God in the middle of fear.
That is exactly what Isaiah is emphasizing. The Sovereign Lord comes with power. God is not distant. He is not detached. He is not an uninvolved observer watching from heaven.
He is the God who acts, the God who saves, the God who comes near to his people. What makes Isaiah 40 so beautiful is that God’s power is paired with his tenderness. Just a few verses later, Isaiah describes God as a shepherd who gathers his flock and carries the lambs in his arms. The God who rules with a mighty arm is also the God who gently carries his people. And that promise finds its fullest expression in Jesus Christ.
When we come to the New Testament, we discover that God did not remain far away from human suffering and fear. He entered our world. Jesus experienced rejection, betrayal, loneliness, grief, injustice, pain, and death. He knows what it’s like to live in a broken world. On the cross, he faced the ultimate fear, the only thing that can really hurt us in the end, complete and utter separation or rejection from God.
The only thing that can ruin us eternally, Jesus took in our place. At the cross, Jesus took our sin upon himself. He bore the judgment we deserved. He entered the darkness that we could never overcome on our own. He faced death itself, and then he rose victorious from the grave, meaning the greatest battle has already been won.
The ultimate fear has already been faced. The final enemy has already been defeated. This does not mean that believers never experience fear. The Bible is filled with faithful people struggling with fear. David feared for his life.
Elijah became overwhelmed and discouraged. The disciples panicked during the storms, even after witnessing miracles, they still struggled to trust. Fear itself is not the problem. The question is what we do with it. Do we allow fear to rule us, or do we bring our fears to the God who rules over all things?
The Christian life is not learning how to eliminate fear completely. The Christian life is learning to trust God more than we trust our fears. The God who says, do not fear, is the same God who came to us in Jesus Christ, conquered sin and death, and continues to hold his people with his righteous right hand. Isaiah 40 reminds us that God’s presence is greater than our uncertainty. His power is greater than our weakness.
His faithfulness is greater than our doubts. God is not absent. God is not weak. God is not indifferent. And because Jesus has already faced the ultimate fear on our behalf, we can hear God’s repeated command not as a burden but as an invitation.
Do not fear, for I am with you. We do not know every detail of tomorrow, but we know the one who holds tomorrow. We do not control every circumstance, but we belong to the one who rules with power and shepherds his people with love. Would you help me welcome up here my friend, Don Darcy.
Good to see you, Don. Let me pray for you. Thank you. Lord God, we thank you again for this beautiful day, this day that you have given to us to gather together to worship. God, I thank you for my friend Don, and I thank you for this story, uh, that is his story, but we know, God, it is your story through him.
God, speak through him today that we may hear exactly what you want us to hear. God, encourage our hearts, inform us, draw us nearer to you through this story. We thank you for Don, and Lord, we thank you for Jesus. In his name I pray, amen. Amen.
Good morning, saints. Oh, come on. Let’s do better than that. Good morning, sinners.
Now I like to hear that. Very good. Thank you.
I’m 70 years old, so I get to do this.
Okay.
Good morning. My name is Don DeArcy, and I know some of you know who I am, but there’s a group of you that don’t, I’m sure. And I hope that you will like me after this.
I have been attending here at Bridges since 2017. After Martha and I were married.
I currently am serving as a deacon chairperson. I volunteer as the kitchen coordinator, and I’ve helped host a monthly men’s foodie group gathering for our men’s ministries. Now for my story. I would love to say that I was raised in a loving, Christian home, but that would be far from the truth. I always envied Christians that were raised in that atmosphere and in the faith.
I was born and raised in Colorado. I have 3 siblings. I have a— had a younger brother and 2 older sisters, and one of my older sisters is a special needs person that my mother felt that she could not take care of her, so she turned her over to the state, and she became a state— a ward of the state. At this point, I don’t know where she lives. If she lives and how to get a hold of her.
But I trust that God does and she is in His hands.
I was raised Catholic, so I was aware of God. I wasn’t very savvy in catechism, and I never was confirmed in the Catholic Church. My home life was tumultuous.
It was filled with violence and fear.
Later in life, I realized that my father had suffered from PTSD because he had served in World War II. That was something that was never diagnosed in those days. 5 years after he returned from World War II, he re-enlisted to serve in the Korean War. It wasn’t long before he was sent home, and the War Department sent my mom a letter saying that it was better for him and for the troops that he not serve anymore at this time. Anything could set him off.
So I learned to stay away from him. I was so afraid of him that it made our relationship somewhat nonexistent. I invited my friends to— I never, I’m sorry, I never invited my friends to my house because I never knew how my dad would be. And having a sleepover or birthday party was definitely out of the question.
So it was a prison of sorts for all of us. We weren’t allowed to tell anyone, including other family members, what went on behind our closed doors. And in the family or— if the family or neighbors asked anything about what was going on or heard something or if they’d seen something, we were supposed to lie to protect ourselves from any violence from my dad. Even though we weren’t the most devout Catholics, I still knew inside that I could turn to God in prayer.
We did not go to church often because my mom didn’t want people to see her black eyes and bruises. One night was one of the most violent nights of all nights. When my dad started to yell at my mom, I could tell this was not being gonna be good. So I got my brother and my sister and we had them hide in the storage closet in the basement. And then I went to find another place to hide.
Excuse me.
I could hear the commotion and every blow of his fist. I heard my mom begging him to stop. That night in my hiding place, I got on my knees and I told God that if he would spare my mom, I would serve Him, whatever that meant. I wasn’t sure what that meant. I didn’t know whether that meant I would join the priesthood, the Catholic priesthood, or what.
But little did I know that God had a plan, and His plan for me was a different kind of priesthood.
Sometime after that, maybe 4 or 5 years later, I had to go help my dad in our convenience store and restaurant. In the mountains of Colorado near Cripple Creek, Colorado. I was 16 at the time. I had not made new friends there, and the friends I did have were 100 miles away. My time consisted of going to school and working in our restaurant or convenience store, and my high school was about 40 miles away from where we lived.
And so it was a 2-hour bus ride there and back. When I got home from school, I would either go to work at the store or in my restaurant, whichever I was needed the most. This was my schedule for the next couple years. I knew once I turned 18, I would not be living at home any longer. I found myself talking with God a lot.
More conversation than prayer. I wasn’t sure if He was listening or even if He heard me, or maybe even if He cared. One moonlight— moonlit night after a day of fishing, I was walking home and I was overcome with this real strong presence of something.
I just couldn’t describe it. It was, it was not a vision. It was not anything that could be heard. It just was this presence. And out of fear, I felt compelled to ask Jesus to be with me and to guide me home, and again vowed to serve Him, whatever that meant, as long as I got home safe.
A few days later, my best friend called me and told me that he had something to tell me. When I got back to Denver. I met him that weekend, and he told me that a few days before, he had made a commitment to Christ and became born again. I, of course, didn’t know what that meant, and it turned out that I had encountered that indescribable presence on the same night that he came to Christ. He explained to me about being born again and showed me the scriptures to help me understand.
He explained repentance to me, and then he asked me if I would like to pray the sinner’s prayer with him. I said yes, and that started a new journey for me. Even though I was baptized as a baby, I wanted to express my faith to my friends, so I was baptized as a testament of my newfound faith. My journey was not an easy one. Pretty rocky for the next few years.
During the height of the Jesus Movement in the ’70s, I was involved with a group that you might call cultish.
Because of that, I wound up walking away from the Lord, believing that I was not forgiven and I was bound for hell. During that time, I still carried my Bible, with me everywhere I went. I did read it occasionally, but I wasn’t finding comfort in what I was reading. And then one time I read— when I read it, I came across the scripture Isaiah 41:10: So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
This became my life verse that I repeated to myself often to give me comfort and help through all of my fears. In 1980, I left my home and job in Denver and moved to San Francisco. I was running from everything that hurt, and I wanted to be as far away as I could get. Jobs were hard to find here, and so it wasn’t long before I ran out of money and I could no longer afford the rent. So I wound up on the streets for a period of time, even though I still owned my home in Colorado, which was on the market but hadn’t sold yet.
I knew that I would never return there, and I didn’t want to. I just didn’t. I didn’t want to. No matter what, I wasn’t going to do that. I was really struggling with not knowing that God really loves me, that He had a plan for me, and that He wants me to be with Him in heaven.
At that point, I wasn’t sure that I even wanted to continue to live in the grief, pain, and fear. The life I was living was disgraceful, and I was full of shame. I had a lot of— a lot to sort out in my mind.
Because of my living situation, I became very sick. I had nowhere to go to get myself well again. So I just kept wandering around in the city. One day I was walking down 18th Street in San Francisco and I got to Castro and I met a man there on the corner. His name is Carlos.
He was handing out Jews for Jesus tracts. So I questioned him, or maybe I harassed him.
Tauntingly asked, how can someone be absolutely sure that they are going to heaven? He sat down with me and talked with me for 5 hours. He shared with me that assurance comes from believing Jesus died for my sins and rose again, and I needed to lean into the power of the Resurrection. He said that I needed to accept salvation as a free gift, a gift of grace, turn away from my sin, and trust God’s promises. He shared with me a plethora of scripture.
A few stood out to me, one being Ephesians 2:3-8. All of us lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following the desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath, but because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions. It is by grace you have been saved, and God has raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, and through faith— and it is not from yourselves, it is a gift of God.
Then also in Romans 6:21-23, what benefit did you reap at the time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness. And the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Carlos asked me several times during our conversation if I understood what he was telling me, and he also asked me if I’d like to recommit my heart to God. I didn’t know what to answer. Fear stepped in again. I was afraid that God would not forgive me. I felt that I was beyond forgiveness.
At this point, Carlos got up and started walking away. And I said, where are you going? He said, all you’re doing right now is making excuses for your sin. So if you don’t want to pray with me, then I’m going to go home and have dinner. And at that point, I knew deep down that God was calling me back to Him, and I felt that this might be my last chance.
So I told Carlos I did want to pray with him and recommit my heart. Once we were done, he said, now you’re coming home with me so you can get well again. I lived with him for 6 months while I looked for work and found my own apartment. I found a church in the inner city of San Francisco where I saw families firmly grounded in their Christian faith. This became a desire of my heart.
I met my late wife at that church. We were married in 1983, and we were happily married for 31 years before her passing in 2014. For the first time in my life, I had experienced the joy of a loving Christian family.
We never had children, mostly because I was afraid that I would be a father like my dad was to me. The night before she passed, she asked me to read her Joshua 1:9. Have I not commanded you, be strong and courageous, courageous. Do not be afraid. Do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.
I am sure that she had me read this for my benefit. This has been another encouraging promise that I’ve held on to. The next morning, I went back to the hospital, and an hour after my arrival, she slipped into the everlasting arms of God. It wasn’t long afterwards I felt I was too young to face old age alone.
So I did what every modern man would do. I got online to find my bride, and that’s where I met Martha.
When I first met her, I thought she wouldn’t be interested in someone like me, especially since I weighed 375 pounds. My old fears and doubt of worthiness arose again, and then those scriptures came back to mind: Joshua 1:9 and Isaiah 41:10. Be not afraid. God is with me wherever I go. He has a plan.
I proposed to her the night of the Chinese New Year celebration in San Francisco. Which also happened to have been Valentine’s Day.
Yes, all 375 pounds of my former self got down on one knee.
Remarkably, I was able to get up again.
Ashlyn, would you come down, please?
Where is he? Ashwin, come on up.
Ashwin represents the amount of weight I have lost.
And truly grateful. Thank you.
And of course, if it wasn’t for the support and love that I had from my wife, that wouldn’t have happened either. Martha and I were married in August of 2017, and Martha has, Martha has been solidly planted in this church for many years, and so there was no question that we would stay here. Having no children of my own, I am so privileged to have 2 bonus children. I am sure everyone knows my beautiful bonus daughter, Carrie Miller, and my favorite son-in-law, Greg Miller, who have blessed me with 2 grandchildren. And my bonus son, Chris Morrison, lives in Washington, D.C.
Throughout my life, in every aspect and turn of my journey, I have had fight against fear, but I learned to challenge fear with faith and truth. Because God is with me and He is holding me with His righteous right hand, never again will I have the need to have to fear everything and run. He has a plan. Everyone knows Jeremiah 29:11.
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, the plans to prosper you, not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then in Psalms, Psalms 139, it’s one of my favorite Psalms. It talks a lot about how God saw us in, in our mother’s womb before we were even born. But in 16 it says, your eyes saw my unformed body, All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them can be— before one of them came to be. Excuse me.
Part of His plan for me was to give me a deep desire to serve others. That is partially the reason why I’m committed to serving in the Church in any capacity. The other part was serving people in my career and in my community. Over the years, my journey has given me the opportunity to serve as a chaplain for the police and fire departments, to serve in my former church heading up the men’s ministry and serving on the board— church boards. I love being able to work with the men at Teen Challenge in San Francisco.
So a drug and alcohol rehabilitation program and help those men go through their journey and get over the mountains that they have to face.
It has been quite the journey. I have adopted the motto, don’t just go to church, but be the church.
There is so much opportunity here and so many needs and so many things that need to be done right here. I could always use a few more deacons. So I would encourage you to just come and talk with me if you want to find your place here in this church, or go to bridges.info to find ways to serve and to give, serve. But that’s my story. Let’s pray.
Father, I just thank you for this opportunity to share my life with my family here. And Father, I ask that in some way you’ll take these words and touch a heart that maybe needs to hear them. And I ask, Father, that you be with us for the rest of the day and bless our time together. In Your name, Jesus, amen.
