Dealing with Anxiety | Ps Shane Willard - Highway at Home

[Music] hello and welcome to highway at home my name is Dan and I'm Mel we have an amazing service plan for you today if it's your first time here please subscribe to our YouTube channel we have social media channels you can follow and we'd love for you to get involved with the conversation also if you have kids make sure you go across to the highway kids YouTube channel now and check out the content they're uploading every single week so much fun Church we are constantly praying for you if you have a need that we can continue to pray for you please email us at prayer at highway comte you we're about to worship God in just a moment but right now it's time to put a minute on the clock so that you can get communion prepared invite somebody to church and get expectant for what God's about to do in your life today [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] without your girl I would be disparate without your slave to the darkness he if it were the car she's feed and where [Music] Thank You tea how [Music] with your mud you [Music] [Music] be mine [Music] Oh the car [Music] thank you [Music] people [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] thank you Jesus I was a prisoner now with your my friend [Music] [Music] [Music] is hard thank you Jesus I was a prisoner now with your blood you you born my free holla for the crime [Music] Church it's time for communion I'll be reading from Philippians chapter 4 verses 8 to 9 I'm reading from the message translation it says this summing it all up friends I'd say you'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true noble reputable authentic compelling gracious the best not the worst the beautiful not the ugly things to praise not to curse put into practice what you have learned from me what you've heard and saw and realized do that and God who makes everything work together will work you into his most excellent harmonies this is Paul preaching to the Philippian church he's telling them and urging them to set their minds on something higher that despite where they find themselves in their world that it's very time to set their eyes on to what God is doing in their life there and then in the 21st century we have 24-hour news cycles social media the television Netflix stand we can fill our minds with so much stuff so much information but Paul is urging the Christians then and he'd be urging the Christians now fill your minds with that which is noble true authentic gracious you see we have a spirit living within us this spirit is a brand a seal as the Bible says it's the seal of ownership that we are sons and daughters of a living King we are not confined or restrained to our life with a world around us but we have a higher mentality we have heavens perspective we have heavens resource we have heavens power within us and it's our ability to let that into our world to let that expand through our life that is the reality of communion when Jesus says do this in remembrance of me he's saying do this take what you have take the biscuit take the juice and remember the price that I've paid for you remember the price that I paid so that you can live life to the fullest remember the limitless life that I have already destined for you to have you see the truth of the matter is sometimes we get so religious or so much in the routine of taking part in communion that we forget the emblems on what they actually symbolize you see I have some here the body the body and the in the blood III when I think and I hold these in my hands it can be so easy for me just to do the process of taking part without really taking it in we can take part in this moment or we can take in this moment what does it mean for me what does it mean for you to live in the reflection of what these truths actually bring see these symbols when we think about symbols in life we think of the nike tick and I think of the words just do it maybe you're looking through an Apple product right now think different you see all of these symbols mean something and when we look at the body and we look at the blood it means something for us today that we can set our minds on something new that we can set our minds on hope that we can set our minds on joy that we can set our minds on being fully restored and empowered to live the life that God has for us no matter where you are no matter where you're watching from no matter if this is your first time watching church or your hundredth time it is just as powerful for you today as it is for anyone this is our symbol of hope this is our symbol of peace and this reminds us of who we are we are a product of grace for God did not send his Son into the world to condemn it but to save the world through it that's John chapter 3 verse 17 and it's powerful today when we remember that despite all of our in inaccuracies despite all of our mistakes despite all of our pain and our suffering we are free and we are products of God's grace let's eat and drink today [Music] boomer darkest we will wait with our heart with up till from help you Karen there was worse [Music] to the fifth floor and profits to a virgin came more from the throne moving miss glory to the Creator [Music] the [Music] three [Music] please fall the key [Music] the kingdom come conserve [Music] Oh Chris [Music] you no we [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] I've held its breath till the stone was smooth for the van Kooten and the deadness from [Music] who [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] is for of key we give Him praise Jesus [Music] the king of my heart be the man the fans in urging phone let the kid [Music] for my you are okay you are [Music] you are [Music] and the king of my neither [Music] [Applause] [Music] the key [Music] you never go to let me die and you're never gonna let you're never gonna back me - but you're never gonna you never gonna let me die but you're never - you'll never go [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] never you never [Music] you're never gonna let you're never gonna let me down you're you never gone [Music] you're you're never gonna live [Music] me me you never gotten [Music] [Music] hello everybody it's such an honor to come into your homes today I get the opportunity of opening the scripture and I take that very seriously um anytime we open the scripture we want Jesus to get bigger the cross to work better the resurrection to be central and scriptures to get bigger not smaller I hope that we can bring something out description be inspired by some of these stories to live life that exemplifies Christ in our world as we go out today so I want to talk to you about anxiety anxiety is one of those things that it's it's a buzzword and and and because of that one of the things that frustrated me particularly when I was a younger teenager is when well-meaning people used platitudes to explain scriptural things so like like when the word anxiety come up right you have your you have your scripture they even used to have these things where you would put in the topic you know and and it would spit out all the scripture references that would solve that topic for you so for instance if somebody said well I'm struggling with a bit of worry or anxiety and then so you could easily quote Jesus you know give no thought about tomorrow don't worry about tomorrow tomorrow have enough cares enough just be present here or or Peter saying cast all your anxiety on him cuz he cares for you or Paul like be anxious for nothing but with everything by prayer and supplication right so you got you've got these you've got these awesome scriptural truths but with not a whole lot of language around it so a platitude would be something like well you know listen you just quit worrying because the Bible says don't worry or just give it to Jesus because the Bible says give it to Jesus with no language around what that might actually look like although that is a profound truth what we need language to what that might actually look like tomorrow so my goal today is to open up this this this topic in a way that my goal is to put some language around it that will help us deal with it in sometimes preaching is like bullet pointed bullets literally like this this this this today I want to do something that's more like buckshot like more like a spread because my goal is is that somebody on this might get it here and somebody over here might get it another way and so we can pick up something that can help us with this so let's talk about anxiety and then let's talk about some solutions for it the word in the New Testament translated anxiety or worth or worry is the word ma'am not oh now one of the things when we talk about words his words are important but what's more important than the words are our imagination of how that word functions so if I say all-powerful if we picture all controlling that's not going to help us at all with how actual power functions so if I say anxiety if all we picture is I'm worrying about something it's not wrong it's just only one side of the diamond and we need to we need to twist it to see different dimensions of it so let me give you a few definitions of this word that gets translated worry or anxiety in the New Testament the word is Mirim not oh it actually literally means to be split apart to be divided or distracted one way to think about it is is anxiety isn't just worry anxiety is anytime you're here but you're actually there in your head so you're here right now but with the failure to be fully present you're actually somewhere else entirely so you're here with your daughter but you're thinking about a business meeting tomorrow which then cheapens the time with your daughter and then when you're at the business meeting tomorrow you're thinking about the time that you should have been fully present with your daughter so in in in point of fact both actually get robbed of something that's anxiety anxiety is anytime we're here but we're actually there figuratively it could be translated to go to pieces and we would use that as a metaphor regularly ourselves like like oh I just I'm so worried I feel like I'm going to pieces it's it's literally a failure to be present and the Scriptures have a lot to say about it Jesus says don't don't worry about tomorrow for tomorrow have enough cares for itself in other words Jesus's challenge on how to live the best life was allow yourself to be disciplined enough to be fully present in this moment right here that you don't want to miss what God has for you right here thinking about what tomorrow might bring Peter says it to cast all your anxiety on him for he cares for you so there's this idea of being able to give it away to something else Paul in Philippians chapter 4 he talks about it as well and this is quite inspiring if you look at Paul's story because at this point Paul's being tortured on a daily basis by a guy named Nero who eventually is going to kill him and so Paul's writing this letter back about you know don't be anxious for anything he's writing this from a torturous Roman jail cell and here's what he says in Philippians 4 verse 4 we're gonna look at four five six seven and eight eventually rejoice in the Lord always and I'll say it again rejoice so for Paul the cure for anxiety is rejoicing which brings me back to platitudes platitudes are things that are obviously true but then we lack language if we wracked ask one question about it so like if someone said listen just walk in the spirit and you go what's it mean to walk in the spirit and they go well to walk in the spirit means you're walking in the spirit what we need is better language around this so if someone said well look if you're if you're struggling with anxiety the cure for that's to rejoice just rejoice man just for Joyce well once again what does that mean and it's really important because Paul says it twice rejoice in the Lord always and I'll say it again rejoice so what does it mean to be joyful let me see if I can put some language around this that might help us grasp it a bit better rejoicing is a disciplined awareness of God being up to something in the middle of all things so rejoicing isn't this just willy-nilly happiness it's actually from a jail cell being aware that God is weaving in and out of the situation that God is at work in everything we are facing rejoicing is the ability to see God's hand moving in and out and through all things that is rejoicing rejoicing isn't just on the end where we get out of something rejoicing is being able to see and live and an awareness of God in the middle of that something number 2 rejoicing is learning to perceive things that run counter to how we have been taught the world works so Paul whose doing nothing wrong but spreading compassion and inclusivity and saying hey Christ is for the whole world he ends up on death row life's not supposed to work that way but rejoicing is being able to go wait a minute when confronted with life not working how we were taught it's supposed to work that God is in the middle of something shifting the situation that's rejoicing the number three rejoicing is being aware of how precious life actually is in other words don't let anything take us out of the beautiful holy moment in front of us right now sometimes when we face hardships and and those hardships confront the things we used to think were important like if you bet I remember one time I choked just only happen to me once but but I choked at a Thai restaurant down the road here a piece of calamari went down my windpipe I could not get a breath and when I couldn't get a breath it confronted everything in me that I thought was important other than breath when you can't breathe the importance of breath becomes very important and it confronts the things that we thought were more important because we were taking breath for granted rejoicing is anytime we're in a moment where we can see God at work in me God at work in them God and work in the whole world and the whole thing's going somewhere beautiful because the one thing that the narrative of Scripture promises us is that God is at work in this world reconciling the whole broken thing to himself so when we no matter what our circumstances are can step back and go wait a minute God's up to something in me God's up to something in them God's up to something in the whole world and the whole thing is heading where God wants it to go when we become aware of that even when it's a trial or a hardship or a storm or whatever metaphor we want to use even in the middle that when we're aware that God is at work in it that is rejoicing so number one we want to rejoice and again I say rejoice number two let your gentleness be made known to all for the Lord is near this is the very next verse he says rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice let your gentleness be made known to all for the Lord is near there's two thoughts in there one that the Lord is in fact near once again rejoicing that God is at work in my circumstance that God is at work in me gods that work in them and and God's at work in the whole world and the whole thing is going somewhere beautiful for God is reconciling the whole world to himself in Christ Jesus and so you got that but you see you have this idea that the Lord is near and then you have the fruit of that which is as soon as I'm aware that the Lord is near it should manifest in gentleness and kindness a countenance of disposition of gentleness cut let your gentleness be made known to all I think we should probably stop right there and meditate on that for a second and ask the question does my awareness of the presence of God lead naturally to gentleness let's just wrestle with that for a second does my awareness of God like when I'm fully aware that God is near does it manifest naturally in gentleness and if it doesn't maybe the problem isn't God and maybe the problem isn't you maybe the problem is our imagination of what God is like because if we picture God as a mean caustic vicious vindictive person and we're aware of him then that will manifest in us here because we become what we worship so Paul's making a point that when you're aware of the presence of God all in and around you because God is near that should lead to rejoicing and it should manifest itself in gentleness that paul to manifest gentleness to people torturing him would have been a major act of faith so let's let's observe some things around this number one to earnestly seek and know that the lord is near the lord is calling us to be aware of him in the present not in mental assent to the past which is regret or in mental assent to the future which is worry essentially Jesus Peter Paul they all challenge us that the best life is don't put too much emphasis on the past that's regret and don't put too much emphasis on the future that's worry be aware of what God is up to right now and embrace that for God is near for and with us at all times and that should manifest itself in gentleness here's a psalm a poem that was written to sort of describe this for a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my god then dwell in the tents of wickedness now there was a psalmist is saying I love the presence of God so much I'd rather be there than have any of this other stuff but the question is is when we are there when we're aware of the presence of God because God is always with us the only thing that changes is our awareness of it when we're aware of the presence of God what does that manifest in us does it manifest gentleness now here's the question what then is anxiety anxiety is a failure to be here it's I'm here but I'm actually there and so when we're anxious being here but actually there we lose the opportunity and the privilege to rejoice what is rejoicing rejoicing is being aware that God is up to something in me God is up to something in them God's up to something in the whole world and the whole thing is going somewhere beautiful so what causes that I think four things I mean anxieties much more complex than four things but for one talk we need to talk about it in four things four things one unresolved conflict two unresolved guilt three unresolved questions and four unrealized control so I must say those four things again and we're going to talk about them one unresolved conflict two unresolved guilt three unresolved questions and four unrealized controls so let's talk through all four one unreal unreal unresolved con flicked conflict causes anxiety this is those moments where we've all faced this right where there's a courageous conversation that you know you have to have you know eventually you're not able to avoid it you're gonna have to have it and we put it off why do we put it off because our imagination of how bad that conversations going to go is almost always worse than the actual conversation and so we put it off and we wait and we wait and we wait and we put and we agonize over the thought of having that conversation and then what does that do it makes us have imaginary conversations about how it's going to go and we all love imaginary conversations because imaginary conversations is the one place in our life we can always win listen if you're losing imaginary conversations get your head checked it's your imagination you can actually win that conversation what happens is is in our imaginary conversation our worry gets worse what does that mean it means that if I'm here but I'm imagining a conversation there I can't possibly be present in what God is doing in my life right here I lose my awareness of what God's doing me them in the whole world because of that and so sometimes the cure for anxiety is actually being the brave one and go ahead and have that conversation that resolves the conflict number two unresolved guilt that this is where we have too much emphasis on the mistakes we've made in the past we have too much emphasis on something we did that we wish we had to do everyone here's the thing we don't get do-overs and so we can either obsess over that and worry about it or we can let it go and submit it to the risen Christ and so too much guilt causes us to be in the past too much unresolved conflict causes us to be in the future the third thing that causes anxieties unresolved questions so too much unknown causes anxiety that that's part of what we're facing right now that the issue is it's not so much will I get sick the issue is is how long is this type of life is going to last and since no one can answer that it causes extreme anxiety and so it causes anxiety about what's our future look like so the unresolved conflict causes anxiety about them in the future unresolved guilt causes anxiety about us in the past unresolved question causes anxiety about all of us and how our life's gonna look like and then the fourth thing is unrealized control this is where we get confronted with the illusion or the delusion that we can control anything the truth of it is is we can't control anything and sometimes it takes certain circumstances to remind us that life is fragile and we actually have very little control over anything except our response to it and so what causes anxiety is when we can't control what we're trying to control you see this a lot in relationships when a relationship goes a bit insecure and so it's we're using words like love but actually what we're trying to do is to control them and to the level we try to control them is the level we're not loving them and it's fruitless um I'm 44 years old and I have never once ever been able to shift someone who started with their conclusion or who was digging in on their position never we can't control them and so when we release the idea that we can control them it releases us from the anxiety of not being able to control them and when we realize we can't control it we then surrender them to God because when we surrender it to God it releases us from the anxiety of the control so four things unresolved conflict unresolved guilt unresolved questions and unrealized control here's Peters observation in first Peter 5:17 cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you so number one we want to rejoice and again I say rejoice number two we want our gentleness to be made known to all realizing the Lord is near number three we want to surrender the concern this is Philippians 4 verse 7 and the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and mind in Christ Jesus we want to surrender that once we come to the realization that I've done all I can do I cannot control them I cannot control the situation I don't want to live in unresolved conflict unresolved guilt unresolved questions or unrealized katar don't want to do that I'm going to surrender it to God but the promise is is that when we can do that there's a peace that surpasses all understanding to guard us the fourth thought is this so one rejoice to let your gentleness be made known to all realizing God it's near he's at work at me he's at work in you he's working the whole world and the whole thing's going somewhere beautiful we want to submit and surrender the concern the fourth is we only want to give helpful thoughts permission to land this is the very next verse Philippians 4:8 finally brothers whatever is true honorable just pure lovely commendable if there's any excellence anything worthy of praise think about these things is it so Paul who's in prison being tortured he says here's how he's dealing with his emotions he only lets thoughts in that are true honorable just pure lovely and I think there's a great observation here there's a lot of things that are true but they're not lovely there's a lot of things that are pure but maybe not excellent and praiseworthy and Paul's filter is a true honorable just pure lovely commendable worthy of praise that we could think about these things and as a psychologist there are certain things you can't help from flying into your mind but they fly around they think about lace I fly a lot and every plane has to go into a landing pattern a circle outside the airport until they're given permission to land and one of the things I think we could do to help us with these thoughts that cause anxiety is we can see that instead of fighting the thoughts because if you fight it you're just gonna empower it instead of fighting those thoughts if we can see them in a landing pattern so yep those thoughts exist I'm not gonna fight them but I'm not gonna give them permission to land in my mind I'm not gonna give them emotional space if we can do that then we can we can start to relieve the symptoms of anxiety now a couple questions I want us to to wrestle with because great sermons aren't meant to be agreed with nor disagreed with they're meant to be wrestled with in order to apply to our life so a couple of thoughts on that one you can't beat anxiety by fighting it you have to replace it so a couple questions where do we need to increase our awareness of what God is up to maybe we could stop back right now and go wait a minute where do I see God at work in me in them in the whole world where is the hand of God in all of this not number three where do we live with the perceived absence is there any place where we are living with a perceived absence of God and maybe we need to step back and go wait a minute where is God in this number number four where do we need to take a deep breath and realize the Lord is actually near and he never left God is always with you always for you always in front of us so what would happen if our consciousness wrapped around that at number five what is the name of the concern that we need to leave at the throne of the one whose justice and righteousness so right there right there wherever you're watching this well why don't you name the concern even if it's quiet inside name it because if you can mention it you can manage it so so if we if we can name the concern call it what it is ask is this unrealized conflict is this is this is this is this unresolved conflict unresolved guilt is this unresolved questions is it unreal Eska what where does it fit let's name it and surrender it to the throne of the one whose justice and righteousness let's say this way what thought do we need to deny permission to land don't fight it you only empower it but if you know you could put it in a landing pattern and leave it there only let things that are pure just lovely praiseworthy and true only let those things land so that the peace of God can rule our hearts in mind I hope Jesus got bigger the cross worked better the resurrection central hooks scriptures got bigger not smaller hope you were inspired today by the life of Paul and his advice on how do you handle worrisome situations grace and peace everybody I don't know where you're at with God this morning but if something from this message spoke to you I'd encourage you to do something about it right now we'd love to support you and so if you head over to highway comm today you you can click on the link on the homepage and it will give you more information about what it means to follow God and how you can do that Church we're going to come around a time of giving now so if you'd like to prepare that the ways to give up on the screen as I a twenty five one says Lord you are my god I will exalt you and praise your name for in perfect faithfulness you have done wonderful things things planned long ago this verse is a reminder that we serve a God who is good worthy faithful and sovereign our worship doesn't just stop with a world or a song it is something that extends to every area of our life including in our giving this morning as we give let us give with hearts that are full of worship that acknowledge who our God is our faithful father that declare our trust in who he is as one who is faithful and sovereign as we partner in his mission [Music] now some things to be aware of this week we are now hosting highway at home connects if you would like to get involved and catch up with your friends or even lead one of them please email us at info at highway comte you so good and coming up on June 20 a is superhero Sunday a special edition Drive Thru I cannot wait for it we cannot wait to see you and your family and your friends come along to this amazing day if you need more details check out the highway Church website remember on Wednesday night at 8 p.m. via zoo we have the highway catch up make sure you check out our social channels to get the details to get involved you do not want to miss our church but that's it for today we hope you've had a blessed Sunday we cannot wait to see you again soon [Music] [Music]

Channel: Highway Church

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Length: 47min 33sec (2853 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 20 2020