Anxious for Nothing Session 1 Rejoice in the Lord Always

[Music] [Applause] [Music] anxiety it's a low-grade fear an edginess a dread it's not so much the onslaught of a storm is the continual threat that one is coming sunny days are just a brief interlude you can't relax you can't let your guard down storm clouds of trepidation suspicion and apprehension swirl all around you you're certain the sky is falling and it's falling disproportionately on you anxiety is a big heap of what-ifs a cascading storm uncertainties built one on top of the other what if I don't get the bonus what if I can't afford braces for the kids and what if crooked teeth keep them from having friends career or a spouse in everyday life it might look a lot like the story of a couple we'll call John and Mary they had been married for more than 30 years and at that time they had experienced their share of ups and downs but life in general had been steady is some would say even comfortable predictable that is until the day came for Katie their youngest child to leave the nest Katie had been accepted to an out-of-state College her parents couldn't have been more proud but the trip across the country was hard on Mary each mile further from home brought with it another anxious worry but her relationship with her youngest ever be the same they had been so close would she be safe with her new friends be kind to her but she remembered a call to check in regularly but she want to come home for visits each new thought brought with it a dark ominous cloud of uncertainty in the weeks that followed her anxiety grew the house was so quiet she cooked meals for two she missed the soccer games the sleepovers the hustle and bustle of family life she missed the sweet sound of children's voices echoing through the hallways everything seemed so empty a few months went by Mary thought she might be learning to cope when suddenly the company John worked for lost an important client John's hours were cut and with it went the couple's dreams of helping Katie with her tuition the stress increased for Mary she felt she needed to go back to work to make ends meet but it had been years since she held a job what skills did she have that an employer would want where would she even begin an endless blanket of storm clouds had gathered around their once happy home in a cryptic message Mary received from the doctor's late one Friday afternoon just made things worse what were these findings from her last test that the nurse referred to why did she need to come into the office first thing Monday to discuss them with the doctor in Mary's mind the storm had reached hurricane proportions and there was no safe place left for her and John to hide they had gone from calm and quiet to perplexed and panicked the worry was stripping away their peace their sense of joy their comfort would they ever see the light of day again would they escape this impending doom would they even survive [Music] perhaps you have experienced something like this in your life one day the sky seemed sunny and bright and the next their dark and foreboding it's as if the air has been taken out of your lungs and you're left trying to catch your breath you know the word anxiety actually comes from a latin root that means to choke or to squeeze it takes your breath away for sure and it also takes your sleep your energy your well-being it makes you want to cry out as King David once did Lord how many are my foes how many rise up against me you know anxiety can twist you into an emotional pretzel that can make your eyes twitch your blood pressure rise in your headache it's a close cousin to fear but the two are not twins that fear sees a threat while anxiety imagines one fear screams get out anxiety Ponder's what if fear results in fight-or-flight anxiety creates doom and gloom fear is the pulse that pounce when you see a coiled rattlesnake in your yard anxiety is the voice that tells you never ever walk barefooted through the grass there might be a snake out there somewhere the chances are you or someone you know has a serious struggle with anxiety according to recent studies in a given year 17 percent of Americans will feel the effects of a panic attack the United States is now the most anxious nation in the world the land of stars and stripes has become the country of stress and strife it's a costly achievement stress-related ailments now cost the country an estimated 300 billion dollars each year in medical bills and lost productivity between 97 and 2004 alone Americans more than doubled their yearly spending on anti-anxiety medications we've also seen an exponential increase over the years and rates of depression but how can this be our cars are safer than ever we regulate food and water and electricity though gangs still prowl our streets most of us do not live under the danger of imminent attack yet if worried were an Olympic event we'd win the gold medal one would think that Christians at least would be exempt from anxiety but were not we've been taught that the Christian life is a life of peace and when we don't have peace we assume the problem lies within us we not only feel anxious but we feel guilty about our anxiety and the result it's a downward spiral of worry guilt worry guilt it's enough to cause a person to get anxious it's also enough to make us wonder if Paul was out of touch with reality when he wrote in Philippians 4:6 be anxious for nothing we might think be anxious for less would have been enough for being Chaisson Thursday's only or be anxious but only in seasons of severe affliction but Paul doesn't seem to offer any leeway here be anxious for nothing nada zilch zero is this what he means well not exactly that Paul wrote the phrase in the present active tense which implies an ongoing state it's the life of Perpetual anxiety that Paul wants to address the Lucado revised translation reads don't let anything in life leave you perpetually in angst and breathless the presence of anxiety is unavoidable but the prison of anxiety is optional it's interesting Paul chose these words because if anyone had caused to be anxious it was he and if anyone knew about literal prisons with literal walls that close a person in it was Paul step back in time with me for a moment about 2,000 years a picture of Paul at about 60 years old he's been a Christian for thirty years now and there's scarcely a seaport across the Mediterranean Sea that he does No he spread the gospel of Jesus to the Jews and Gentiles alike across the known world but now he's confined in a Roman prison peered through the tiny window of the cell there he is bent and frail shackled to the arm of a Roman guard who knows when his back last felt a bed or his mouth knew a good meal the trouble began for him a couple of years earlier in Jerusalem when the Jewish religious leaders accused him of blasphemy they nearly killed him and then unfairly imprisoned him they maligned his name violated his rights and disrupted his plans fortunately for Paul his roman citizenship saved his neck entitled to a Roman hearing he journeyed from Jerusalem to Rome he survived a hurricane and a shipwreck on the way only to be bitten by a snake he survived this think bite only to be stranded on an island for three months and when he was finally delivered to Rome his case languished for two years but at least he can take comfort in the thought of the United congregations he helped strengthen right well hardly there's competition in Corinth legal is swarming in Galatia creat this plagued by money grabbers and Ephesus is stalked by womanizers false preachers are accusing him of profiteering off the gospel even some of his own friends have turned against him even worse Paul has every reason to believe his life will soon be over the Emperor Nero has learned to curry the favor of Roman citizens by killing believers of which Paul is the best-known Nero feeds disciples to the Lions for lunch and Paul has no guarantee that the same won't happened to him Paul knows the only thing between him and death is a nod from Moody Nero yet to read Paul's words in his letter to the Philippians you'd think that he just arrived at a Jamaican beach hotel I mean just look at the words rejoice in the Lord always again I will say rejoice let your gentleness be known to all men the Lord is at hand be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus finally brethren whatever things are true whatever things are noble whatever things are just whatever things are pure whatever things are lovely whatever things are of good report if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy meditate on these things Paul's letter bears not one word of fear or complaint not one he never shakes a fist at God instead he lifts his thanks to the Lord in the midst of his trials his prescription for anxiety begins with a call to rejoice and he uses every tool in the box to call this to our attention first he employs a present imperative tense so we will hear him say continually habitually rejoice next as if the verb tense isn't enough he removes the expiration date rejoice in the Lord always not just on paydays or Fridays or good days or birthdays but always and if perchance the verb tense and the repetition are inadequate he repeats the command again I say rejoice we aren't the first to read the word always and arch and eyebrow I mean how can we do this it's one thing to rejoice in the Lord when life is good but how can we rejoice when the odds are against us when the skies have become dark and gray as they did for John and Mary and the life we now have is the one we want to run away from is it possible for any of us to maintain an uninterrupted spirit of gladness note from the passage that this is not Paul's challenge the urge or the command is to rejoice in the Lord that this is a call not to a feeling but to a decision it is a deeply rooted confidence that God exists that he is in control and that he is good that he is sovereign the Bible uses this word sovereignty to describe God's perfect management of the universe it reveals how God preserves and governs every element and how he is continually involved with all created things directing them to act in a way that fulfills his divine purpose Paul's firm belief in God's sovereignty enables him to see himself not as a victim of unseen turbulent random forces but as a conqueror in Christ this was what enabled Paul to hold firm to his faith in spite of his circumstances he had erected cast-iron stabilizers in the center of his soul let Nero rage let the preachers accuse let the church members bicker let the storms blow his faith would never collapse for he had stabilized it with a sturdy belief system Paul knew this proper understanding of sovereignty was huge in the treatment of anxiety he knew that belief always precedes behavior if you want to change the way a person responds to life you have to first change what that person believes about life this is why he advises his readers not to seek total control but to relinquish all control to a God who is truly in control we can't run the world but we can entrust it to God peace is within reach not for lack of problems but for the presence of a sovereign Lord so rather than rehearse the chaos of the world we rejoice in the Lord sovereignty as Paul did Paul believed God highly exalted Jesus and gave him the name that is above every name the conditions in Paul's prison might be miserable but he knew that high above it all God was at work for his good pleasure to read Paul is to read the words of a man who believed in the innermost part of his being in the steady hand of a good God he lived beneath the shadow of God's wings the shadow of storm clouds was what Mary chose to see in her situation the conditions of her prison were certainly miserable but things begin to change one day when she read these words from King David you Lord are a shield about me my glory the one who lifts my head high and she decided to see God's shield as the shadow surrounding her protecting her from the storm now her circumstances did not change that night or the next week but what did change is how she began to approach those circumstances instead of viewing herself as exposed to the elements and at the mercy of the storm as she began to picture herself in the shelter of God's grace as she rejoiced in the Lord in spite of the storm the skies began to clear Mary also came to realize that many of the scenarios she had built up in her mind were exactly that in her mind her daughter in college did not lose contact with her as she feared yes their relationship was different and she still missed her but her daughter called frequently and even made plans for coming home on winter break she stopped worrying about what employers might think of her and actually received from callbacks when she sent out her resume she began to actually look forward to the idea of rejoining the workforce and the news from the doctor wasn't as dire as she had built up in her mind yes her blood pressure was high and she would need to make changes in her life to manage it but no longer did she fear the future for she chose to trust in God's sovereignty now there's no doubt that life will bring us pain but we have a choice as to how we view our situation we can where are hurt or where our hope we can outfit ourselves and our misfortune or clothe ourselves in God's providence we can cave in to the pandemonium of life or lean into the perfect plan of God we can say with Paul that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him who have been called according to his purpose we can agree that God doesn't make up the plan as he goes along but he works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will when you trust in the sovereignty of God and learn to rejoice in him it reframes the way you face your fears you discover how to talk yourself off the ledge have you bad news through the lens of God's will discern the lies of Satan and tell yourself the truth you discover a life that is characterized by calm and developed tools for facing the on slots of anxiety of course this requires some work on your part and I certainly don't mean to leave the impression that anxiety can be waved away with a simple pep talk in fact for some of you God's healing will include the help of therapy or medication but this much is sure it is not God's will that you lead a life of Perpetual anxiety it is not his will that you face every day with dread and trepidation he made you for more than a life of breath stealing angst and mind splitting worry he has a new chapter for your life and he is ready to write it so if today your troubled restless and sleepless I challenge you to rejoice in the Lord sovereignty I challenge you to believe that good things will happen and that God was speaking to you when he said and everything God works for the good of those who love him I challenge you to expose your worries to an hour of worship and when you do I believe you will find your concerns melting away I believe that by his power and sovereignty you can be anxious for nothing and discover the peace that passes understanding [Music] you [Music]

Channel: Evan Asselstine

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Length: 20min 46sec (1246 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 30 2020