Hello and welcome
to this message from Skip Heitzig
of Calvary Church. If this message impacts you,
we want to know about it. Email us at
mystory@calvaryabq.org. And if you'd like to support
this ministry financially, you can give online securely
at calvaryabq.org/give. Fear, stress, worry, and anxiety
ravage our modern culture. As we continue the
series Technicolor Joy, we learn that though
these things consume us, it is possible to find
rest for our souls. Philippians 4, 6, and
7 are among the verses most treasured by Christians
because of their power to help overcome anxiety. Now we invite you
to open your Bible as Skip begins the message,
overcoming an anxious mind. Would you please
turn in your Bible to the book of
Philippians chapter 4-- Philippians chapter 4. We're going to look at verse
6 and 7 in just a moment. I want to talk to you today
about one of our greatest struggles, and that is anxiety. Anxiety is a thief. It steals your thoughts. It steals your peace. It steals your confidence. It steals your joy. And in this theme of the book
that is overridden with joy that Paul expresses,
at some point we're going to have to deal
with the topic and the issue of worry and anxiety, which
Paul does in these two verses. Now, for many years
a woman couldn't sleep because she worried
that her home would be broken into by a burglar. It was just a thought
that plagued her thinking for a long time. Day after day, and
week after week, and month after month
for a number of years, she had this plaguing thought. Well, one evening,
she and her husband both heard a noise downstairs. Her husband got
up, went downstairs to find out what the noise was. And it was, can you guess? It was a burglar. The husband saw the
burglar and said to him, could you come upstairs
and meet my wife? She's been waiting
10 years to meet you. The point is simple-- a burglar can steal
from you once. The burglar of anxiety can
steal from you for decades. Now, it's sort of humorous
to me what we as Americans worry so much
about, what concerns us, what stresses us out. We put filters in our faucets. We put air ionizers in our home. We lather ourselves with
anti-bacterial soap. We get worried about avian flu. We get worried about
getting E. coli bacteria. At the same time,
20% of adults smoke. 20% of drivers don't
wear their seat belts. And it's estimated that 75% of
those who own mobile devices text while they drive. What that tells me is that we
worry about perceived dangers while we ignore real ones. Now, this is the holiday season. This is the Christmas season. And this is the time when all
of those anxieties and worries go away. This is the time when
we don't experience anxiousness and stress. Oh, this is the time of peace on
earth and goodwill toward men, right? Boy, wouldn't that be nice? But you know that
that is not the truth. What you know is what we found
out, that 64% of Americans say during this season
their anxiety level goes up and not down. And there's reasons for that. There are contributing factors. One of the things
that psychologists say is a reality is called seasonal
affective disorder, given the initials S-A-D, SAD. Seasonal affective disorder is
brought on by shortened days, less sunlight, more darkness. That does something to sort
of a generalized gloominess that we experience. Another factor is during
the holiday season, Americans travel. 72% of Americans will
travel from Thanksgiving through New Years. Right in between there, a
lot of people are mobile. Well, going to airports,
missing flights, weather, snowing people in, et
cetera, all of that raises-- not lowers-- the stress level. And what are we traveling to? Well, we want to gather
with family, which brings another level of stress-- getting together
with family members, some of which we
don't really want to get together with perhaps. There's always that
weird uncle that shows up or something like that. We worry over buying
the right gifts. Will I offend them? I bought them this size. I hope that fits. Was it enough money
that I spent, et cetera? Did I spend too much? All of those things contribute. So what we're
going to do is look at two of the most significant
verses in the New Testament that deal with
your mental health. They are familiar verses. I would daresay some of you have
even memorized these verses. You know them. We know them by heart. In Philippians chapter
4, verse 6 and 7, it's part of a lineup
of exhortations that we began to
explore last time. Just to refresh your memory,
if you look back at verse 1, he begins with the
style stand fast. He commands them, verse 1. That's verse 1. Verse 2, I implore the two
ladies that he mentions. Verse 3, I urge. Verse 4, rejoice
in the Lord always. I'll say it again, rejoice. And now with that same
sort of approach and style he writes the next two verses,
and that's all the verses we're going to look at today. Verse 6 says 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. I can't prove it, but
perhaps some of you read that and you go, oh. Well, that's nice. It's simplistic. It's naive. It's unsophisticated,
but that's nice. Well, I want you to know
it is not simplistic, though it is simple. And one of the things
I love about God is he's not complicated. Most truth, you will
discover, is simple truth-- not simplistic
truth, simple truth. It is simple, but
it is also needful. I say it's needful because some
of us are stuck in verse 6. We live in the world
of worry and anxiety, anxious thoughts, stress. We never get out of it. So it's simple truth. It's needful truth. But I also believe
it's radical truth. If you can somehow get out
of the first part of verse 6 into the second part of
verse 6 into verse 7, it could revolutionize
your life. It could give you a
whole new lease on life. So let me tell you the
story about George. George was a busy
executive in Pittsburgh. George worked about
75 hours a week. George had a heart attack. His doctor after
the heart attack said, George, I'm giving
you a year to live. You probably won't
last longer than a year if you keep this pace up
in your style of living. And so, all of that stress,
and all of that busy schedule, and all of that high blood
pressure in George's life finally caught up with him. So now he's listening
very carefully. He's listening
differently to his doctor than he was before,
after the heart attack. He goes home to recuperate. And so, while he's recuperating,
he goes to his back porch with a pad of paper. And he writes a letter to God
that said dear God, I hereby resign as general manager of
the universe, signed George. And he always tells his
friends, wonder of wonders, God accepted my resignation. I'm going to suggest that
before the end of this message, God might be tapping
you on the heart saying, I want your resignation. I want you to resign from
trying to control everything or trying to worry
about everything and be controlled and
consumed by anxious thoughts. So what I want to give you,
what I want to do today-- and I'm confining it
to these two verses. I want to unpack these verses. I want to drill down. I want to dismantle these
two verses into parts, look at each part, and put
it back together again, and see how it all fits. What I want to do is give
you a four-fold approach to understanding anxiety
and overcoming anxiety. So let's begin with the problem. The problem is shown in the
second word of the first verse we are considering. It's the word anxious. That's the problem. Anxiety is the problem. It's a problem all human
beings at some point have to deal with. But I want to tell you
about the word that is used. It's translated into
English, anxious, but the original word in
Greek is the word [GREEK].. And [GREEK] appears 19 times
in 17 New Testament verses. It is translated into three
English words primarily-- worry, anxious, care-- worry, anxious, care, [GREEK]. So when Jesus said do not
worry about your life, that's the word he chose. When Jesus speaks to Martha, who
was so distracted and busy when Jesus came over while Mary
was sitting at Jesus' feet, Jesus said to Martha,
Martha, Martha, you are worried and
troubled about many things. That's the word Jesus chose. And it's the same word
Paul used in 1 Corinthians 7 when he wrote
to them and said, I want you to be without care. That's the word [GREEK]-- concerned, worry, anxious, care. But given that, I
now want you to know where that word came from. The word [GREEK] comes from
two Greek words stuck together. And when I tell
you what they are, you are going to get a
full understanding of what worry in the Bible describes. Two words put together-- [GREEK],, which means to tear or
separate, to tear or to divide. And the second word, [GREEK],,
which means the mind. So you put those two
together, [GREEK] and [GREEK] and you have [GREEK],,
which means literally to divide the mind. It's an apt
description of anxiety. Anxiety is when
your mind is divided between legitimate thoughts
and destructive thoughts. Anxiety takes your mind in
two different directions. It tears your mind. James put it this way,
a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. Now, I believe that of
all the times in history, this is the time
when these verses are more appropriate than at any
other time in this culture. It speaks to this culture in
our country more than any other. Let me explain. We are told that
anxiety disorders are the most common mental
health problem in America. And they will say, they
estimate that 40 million-- 4-0 million Americans suffer
some form of anxiety disorder. That is 18% of all
American adults. In 2015, Boston
University reported that anxiety has now
surpassed depression and all other disorders
in our country. And then I found something
terribly interesting. They took 14 different
countries around the world and studied them. The World Mental
Health Survey stated Americans were the most anxious
people in the 14 countries that were studied with more
clinically significant levels of anxiety than people in
Nigeria, Lebanon, and Ukraine. If you know much
about those countries, you know those are
troubled spots. What that tells us then is
the United States of America is the undisputed champion
of anxiety and worry. We win the Olympics when it
comes to anxiety and worry. Recently, the New
York Times put out an article where they
stated in America we have developed an ethos
of relentless worrying and agitation. And did you know over the last
three decades anxiety disorders have jumped more than 1,200%? Amazing. One psychologist, Robert Leahy,
said the average high school kid today has the
same level of anxiety as an average psychiatric
patient in the early 1950s. That's our country. Now, I hope by now
you're wondering, well, what are we so worried about? In America, what are
we so anxious about? Well, I don't want to
get into all the factors, but let me just sum
it up by telling you what the Gallup
organization found out. The top things that concern
us the most-- number one, personal income. Will I have enough
money to survive whatever happens in the future? Second, Social
Security system, which sort of ties into the first-- will the Social Security system
be able to provide for me when I get older? You know that it's had a lot of
problems over the last couple of decades. Third, possible
terrorist attacks-- will I become the victim of
some hostile act of terrorism? Health care availability
in the future-- and, finally, race
relations, all of those are top concerns of Americans. On one hand, I want
to say I understand. From the perspective
of a believer looking at the unbelieving
world, I get it. I understand why their
anxiety is so high. I understand why they're
panicked, why they're anxious. If you don't live with
an anchor of faith, you're going to drift
in a sea of anxiety. And most people
in the world, they don't have anything to anchor. They have no real grand
scheme or purpose in life. So if you just think
that you're dangling in some inexplicable universe
with no rhyme, no reason, no design, no plan, no God-- so all we are are
fortuitous occurrences of accidental circumstance. We're here by chance. Well, that's a very lonely
place to be, isn't it? You're going to feel very
isolated, very lonely. And that's a scary place to be. If you don't know why you're
here or where you're going, that's scary. So one website-- and I
found several of these. I always like to
dig around and get some statistics and background,
but in studying for this this week, I found several
websites that said this. But one just
articulates it quickly. It said-- this is a
psychiatric website-- our goal then shouldn't be
to dismiss anxiety entirely but just to make it a healthy,
manageable part of our lives. I want you to hear what
they just said to you. The very best the
world can do for you is to just manage your anxiety. Now, are you good with that? Because the Bible offers you
a chance to eliminate it. Keep reading. So the problem is
anxiety, anxious. The prescription is this, verse
6, be anxious for nothing. Now stop right there
for just a moment. If you didn't pick up on
that, that's a commandment. It's put in the present
active imperative. In other words, here's
Paul writing his letter. He's writing from a Roman
prison to a church in Philippi. And he writes this in
a very strong manner. I command you. Stop worrying, which sounds
absurd if you're a worrier. It sounds unreasonable. It sounds naive. It sounds idealistic to tell
a worrier, hey, stop it. Quit your worrying. Because they're going to say,
what planet are you from? How unrealistic can you be? Now, to make matters
a bit worse if you're a worrier, in the
Greek language, this is stated in
a very emphatic way so that it could be
best translated stop worrying about even one thing. Now, before you get mad
at Paul for saying that, let me ask you a question. Did Jesus Christ say
something like that? Ah, he did, didn't he-- in fact,
almost exactly the same thing. But with Jesus, though
he said the same thing, he gives us reasons not to
allow anxiety to rule over us. Listen to his words. This is the Sermon on the
Mount, Matthew, chapter 6. He says do not worry about
your life-- same word. Do not worry about your life-- what you eat, what you
drink, about your body, what you will put on. It's not life more than food
and the body more than clothing. Look at the birds of the air. They neither read nor
gather into barns. But your Heavenly
Father feeds them. Are you not of more
value than they? Which of you by worrying can
add 1 cubit to his stature? Don't misunderstand
what Jesus is saying. He's not saying kick
back and be lazy. Go outside and open
up your little beak and expect a worm to plop in. Birds don't do that, by the way,
because it doesn't rain worms, last I checked. They've got to go be very busy
and diligent about finding them. So he's not saying be lazy. When he says don't
worry, he's saying don't have an anxious
over-concern about life that divides your mind. That's what he's saying. By the way, he uses
the example of birds. Let me ask you something. Have you ever seen
a worried bird? Think back now. Go back to all the times
you've looked at birds. Have you ever seen one? We have a blue jay
in our backyard. We've just spotted it. I've spotted it the last week. It's beautiful. It hangs out between
these two little areas. I was looking at
him the other day because Jesus said
go look at the birds. Behold the birds of the earth. So I did. And it wasn't like-- it didn't have its
little head and its beak and its claws going, oh, man. How are we going to pay
for the rent on this nest? There was no stress at all. It looked carefree. So Jesus says, behold the birds. Now, in Jesus' words
that I just read to you, he gives us three reasons
we should not worry-- first, because it's
unhealthy; second, because it's
unbecoming; and third, because it's unproductive. Let me explain those. First of all, it's unhealthy. He said is not life
more than food? You know that worry, and stress,
and anxiety can actually harm your life, your physical life? It can hurt you. It can ruin your
body and your mind. A few biblical examples-- King Darius signed a decree. And he was so stressed
over what he signed that it says his sleep went from him. Neither did he eat. That's Daniel, chapter 6. Now, if you keep that up-- not sleeping and not eating-- you'll die. So it's not healthy. King David in Psalm 6, it says
that he turned to God and said, I am weary with my groaning. All night I make my bed swim. I drench my couch with tears. That's depression and anxiety. And then there's Moses,
Numbers chapter 11-- so stressed out about Israel
that he complained. Now listen to Moses' prayer. My burden is too heavy for me. Please kill me here and now. That's anxiety when
you're praying like that. So it's unhealthy. Harvard Medical
School says those who are gripped by
anxiety have a greater risk for developing a number
of chronic medical conditions. It will affect your GI
system, respiratory system, and has been linked
to heart disease. So it's unhealthy. Second reason Jesus
gives, it's unbecoming. It's unbecoming
of a child of God. It is not fitting
for a child of God. For a child of God to be always
anxious and always worried is in effect saying, I
don't trust you, God. You said some pretty
cool things that make me feel good for a
little while when I read them. But then I go out and
live my real life, and I don't expect that you're
really going to make good on any of these things. So to be consumed with worry and
anxiety betrays a lack of trust in God caring for you. So Jesus says, and here's
why it's unbecoming. Look at the birds of the air. They don't reap. They don't sow,
gather into barns, but your Heavenly
Father feeds them. Mark the language. He didn't say their Heavenly
Father feeds them, because he's not their Heavenly Father. They don't have a personal
relationship with God, but he's your Heavenly Father. You have a personal
relationship with the Father. Your Father feeds
birds with birdbrains. If your Father feeds
birds, then your Father is going to feed his children
and take care of his children. There's a relationship there. When my son was
growing up, I never remembered him as
a little boy being stressed about where the next
meal was going to come from. My grandkids don't
worry about where the-- am I going to eat today, daddy? They're just like whatever. They always eat, right? The parent delights in
caring for children. So it's unhealthy. It's unbecoming
of a child of God. The third reason Jesus would
give, it's unproductive. For he says, which
of you by worrying can add one cubit
to his stature? What good has worry
ever done for you? All of that anxiety,
how is that working out? Is it productive? It's not productive at all. Worry is like a rocking chair. It makes a lot of movement,
but you don't go anywhere. So I found this article in
the Huffington Post this week. A study they cited
by Dr. Joseph Goewey, who did a study on
this and research. And he said 85% of the things
we worry about never happen. He said of the 15% that did
happen, 79% of the people found they could handle
the difficulty better than they thought they could
and/or the difficulty taught them lessons worth learning. So he concluded 97% of
what you worry about is just a fearful mind
punishing you with exaggerations and misconceptions. So Paul says be
anxious for nothing. We've seen the problem
and the prescription. Let me move you to the third,
and that is the prayer. Now, we get the solution. 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. Forgive me, but I'm
drilling down I said, right? So look at the word
but in verse 6. So be anxious for nothing but--
that's a word of contrast, so he's pivoting. He's saying don't do
this but do that, right? Now, in that contrast, we find
the solution to the problem. If the problem is anxiety, then
the solution is replacement. It's like God's
replacement therapy. Don't do this but do that. The cure for worry is
to redirect your energy and replace your anxiety. The Bible gives this a name. It's called casting. You're familiar with the verse
1 Peter, chapter 5, verse 7-- casting all your cares. Same word, by the way, [GREEK]-- same word, the thoughts
that divide the mind. Casting all your care upon
him because he cares for you. So don't carry your cares. Cast your cares. A lot of us, we have
backpacks or briefcases. Or some of us have
duffel bags, depending on how much work you go
and take to and from work. So I'll carry books,
papers, computer. It's like a backpack. Now, when I come home
and that's on my back-- I take it in from the car. It's on my back. It's like I'm like
this with my backpack. I don't wear that
thing all night. I don't sit down at the supper
table with the backpack hunched over eating my meal. I cast it as quickly
as I enter the door. I get rid of it-- so casting all your
cares upon him. So the thought here is
to redirect your energy and replace your anxiety. With what? With prayer. In everything by prayer,
supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be
made known to God. Why is it that the very
first thing we should do ends up being the very last
thing we even try, prayer? It's like we just
let this thing go. And we wrestle with it, and
it gets worse and worse. And then, finally, we go, man. There's nothing
left to do but pray. Yeah, we should have thought
that two days ago when this whole thing first started. We should have immediately
let that go and cast that, and then kept doing that
as a process along the way. Jesus said to his
disciples men are always to pray and not to faint. Now look back at
the verse, and you will notice he didn't just
say, hey, pray about it. Notice what Paul does. There's four words. There's prayer, supplication
with thanksgiving. Let your requests-- there's four
different things he notices, and I want to just
break that apart. First of all, prayer-- prayer. This word prayer is the general
word the New Testament uses for prayer, [NON-ENGLISH],, but
it is often translated worship or devotion. So think of it this way. When you're tempted
to worry, worship. When you're burdened, bow. Because when you do that,
you are focusing now on God's greatness. Your thought gets off of
the concern, the care, you. And it gets on to God
and his greatness. See, often we rush
to the throne room. And we just start casting. Now, there's a time to
cast the care upon God, and tell him, and
cry out to him. There's a time for
that, but not at first. When you enter his throne room-- if you were to go to
the Queen of England, you couldn't just go
to the Queen of England and just spew all
your personal garbage. In fact, when you go to
the Queen of England, you can't even get
to see her unless you go through a protocol training
of how to stand, what to do, what gestures to make,
what side of yourself she is allowed to look at. All of that is protocol to
respect this earthly ruler's authority. So you're coming to talk
to the God of the universe, your Heavenly Father,
but you're going to cast your cares upon him. But not right away, because
Jesus taught us to pray. He didn't say and
when you pray say, give us this day our
daily bread, right? He didn't say that's
how you start. He said this is how you start. Our Father, who art in
heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come,
your will be done, on earth as it is in
heaven-- all that's worship. All that is honoring him. And then give us this
day, our daily bread, the casting of the care--
so prayer, worship. And here's why it's important. Worship and worry cannot
coexist in the same heart. They are mutually exclusive. If you start
worshipping, you're going to find your
worries diminishing. And if you start
worrying, you're going to find your
worshipping diminish. So that's first
prayer, by prayer-- [NON-ENGLISH],,
worship, devotion. The second word, notice
that, supplication. Now, this is familiar territory. It means strong crying, begging. Oh God! It's more emotional. See, and I like that, because
there's room for that. I love one woman,
one young mother, she would always have
devotions in the morning. And she told her
three-year-old, honey, I just needed a little bit
of time alone with God. This is mommy's time. I'm having my devotion. So a phone call came in. The three-year-old picked it
up and said, mommy's busy. She's having her emotions. She meant devotions, but I
like her choice of words. There's a time to engage your
emotion, your heartfelt cries. That's the idea supplication. And so, Jesus I
think intimated this when he spoke of
a friend who came to see a friend at
midnight and said lend me three loaves of bread. Jesus said his
friend will not rise to give to him because he
is his friend but because of his persistence. The idea is supplication-- so prayer, supplication. But don't stop there. Notice what else it
says, with thanksgiving-- with thanksgiving. Don't forget to thank God. Now, I know you might
be going thank God? When I'm so stressed out and
filled with anxiety and worry? What am I going
to thank God for? Well, first of all,
thank God that he cares enough to give
you promises like this to get you out of it. So you bring thanksgiving
as part of the equation. It's easy to thank God
for obvious blessings. God blesses you. Thank you, Lord! You get a promotion. Thank you, Lord! You get a big bonus
this time of year. It's Christmas time. Oh, God, I love you. I trust you. Thank you-- OK cool, easy. Now try that when the
cupboards are bare. It's not so easy. But it says in everything
by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. And here's why you
should thank God. Those trials are tools
God is using to mature you and I. So think and thank. Think about what God has
done for you in the past, and now thank him for his
promise for the future and his provision. In the New Testament, there were
10 lepers that Jesus healed. We know the story. But think about that-- incurable
diseases, no hope ever. People with leprosy
in those days died of leprosy, a
very slow, painful-- excruciatingly painful death. 10 men had leprosy. Jesus healed 10 of them-- healed, cured, completely whole. How many came back to thank him? One. One. Uno. One. 10%. I wonder if that
ratio has changed any since 2000 years ago? Probably it's about the
same, probably about 10% of people who are blessed
and given things by God tell him thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And I wonder if that
leper didn't even include, Jesus, I want to thank
you for healing me of this incurable disease. But I also want to thank you
for the lessons I learned during the years that I
had that disease, which makes the healing even
more appreciated-- so prayer, supplication
with thanksgiving. And then notice this, let your
requests be made known to God. Did you hear the word requests? Paul doesn't say let your
demands be made known to God. Let your ultimatum
be known to God. Let your temper tantrum
be known to God. Let your "I claim it by
faith" be known to God. No, you just come with an ask. You come with a request. You lay down the request,
because God might say yes. He might say no. He might say maybe. He might say wait. Either way, I'm
requesting and I'm asking. But it says let your requests
be made known to God. So you articulate what it is
exactly you want from him. None of this, oh,
God, bless my life. Well, how? What specifically are
you asking God to do? Let your requests be
made known to God. Which brings up a question,
why do I need to inform God? You don't. You can't. You're not informing
God of anything. God doesn't sit up there
when you articulate a request and go, oh. Huh? I didn't know that till now. Because he knows what
you need, the Bible says, before you ask it. So why do you inform him? You don't inform
God when you pray. You are conformed to
God when you pray. See, it's a huge difference. You're being changed
and conformed. You are in a sense
voicing your weakness and voicing your dependence. And every parent loves
when a child says, daddy, I can't do this. Would you help me? Absolutely. You're voicing your weakness. You're voicing your dependence. I want to help you do that. One of the great
plays of all time was a play that
became a movie, but it was a play called The
Barretts of Wimpole Street. Now, I said it became a
movie like in the 1930s I think or '40s. I forget which. But it's about an
aspiring poet named Elizabeth Barrett, who meets
the esteemed known poet, Robert Browning. And a relationship
develops between them. But here's the
line in this play. Elizabeth says, oh,
Robert, how can you love me when you are so
strong and I am so weak? And Robert says,
Elizabeth, my strength needs your weakness as
much as your weakness needs my strength. I love that compatibility
of strength and weakness. So you're weak. He is strong. When you let your requests
be made known to God, you are articulating
I'm weak, you're strong. And God says I'm
strong, you're weak. It's a perfect match,
the perfect get-together. So to sum it all up so far,
be anxious for nothing, be prayerful in everything,
be thankful for anything. And let's close
with the promise. We've seen the problem, and the
prescription, and the prayer. Here's the promise, verse
7, and the peace of God. I'm already just
relaxing with that verse. The peace of God, which
surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and
minds through Christ Jesus. Did you notice the
phrase the peace of God? Not every believer has that. Every believer when they
come to faith in Christ has peace with God, not
necessarily the peace of God yet. You see, peace with God
is when you surrender. You put up the white flag. And you say I'm done
fighting you, God. I give my life to you, Jesus. And now you have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ, it says. So the war is over. You and God have become one. You've surrendered
your life to Christ. At that moment in
time, you may not be feeling the
experience of peace. That is what this verse
calls the peace of God. So the first is a
fact, peace with God. The second is a feeling,
the peace of God. So to sum it up, I would
look at it this way. Jesus as Savior brings peace
with God, but Jesus as Lord brings the peace of God. Make sense? It's like that tranquil
feeling of confidence. It's like, ah. It's going to be OK. God is in control. He is still the master
of the universe. So the peace of God, which
look at the description. It surpasses all understanding. It transcends human
intellect, human analysis. You can try to explain it,
but you can't adequately explain it. It's a piece of God that
transcends your ability to explain. One of my favorite
verses is Isaiah 26. I often say it to myself
in times of stress. It says you will keep him
in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you
because he trusts in you. So the peace of God
surpasses all understanding. It will-- now picture this-- guard your hearts minds-- [GREEK],, your mind
that gets divided. It will guard your heart and
mind through Jesus Christ. So picture a guard, a sentry. He's got a spear, got a shield,
got the stern look on his face. He's standing at the gate. He is the garrison
that is posted when the thoughts come into
your mind that could divide it. He says, what? You're not going anywhere. You're not getting in there. I am the peace of God. I'm standing at
this gate and not letting you in to disrupt
this person who lives in this. The peace of God, which
passes understanding, will stand garrison
or play umpire-- however you want
to translate it-- your hearts and minds
through Jesus Christ. If there was one person
in all of scripture that lived these two
verses that we've been considering this morning,
I would say it would be Daniel. Daniel was a prophet
in the Old Testament. Daniel lived in Babylon,
a foreign country, a hostile government that made
it against the law for him or anyone else to pray to
the one true God of heaven. For 30 days, King
Darius signed a decree that nobody could
worship, or pray, or make a request of any God
besides the Babylonian system. So it says this, Daniel
chapter 6, verse 10. So Daniel went home-- now listen to the language--
and prayed and gave thanks before his God. Next verse, verse 11-- the men found Daniel praying and
making supplication to his God. Did you hear all
three of those words-- prayer, supplication,
thanksgiving, the same exact words that
are in our text-- prayer, supplication, thanksgiving. And what was the result? Peace. Daniel experienced peace. You say, wait a minute. Daniel got thrown
into a lion's den. Exactly, and he didn't
seem to stress, right? In fact, he got a
good night's sleep. The guy who didn't
get sleep is the guy who's living in the palace,
the king who signed the decree. He can't sleep. He can't eat. He's stressed out. Daniel's going to
sleep with the lions. He wakes up the next day. [SIGHING] Hi, king. God bless you. Live forever. Here I am. Now, I'll say I don't
want this to sound like it's going
to just be a snap and very, very easy
when you leave here. It is a process. But it can be done. It can be done at a funeral. It can be done in a hospital. It can be done at an accident. It can be done when there is
a relational disagreement. Because here's what I want
you to see in putting it all back together. We enter the passage in anxiety. We exit the passage in peace. And between anxiety
and peace is what? Prayer. Anxiety, prayer, supplication,
thanksgiving, requests, and peace, that's the process. You begin here, you end
here, and here's the process. You go through. So it reminds me of a guy
who was always a worry wart. Everybody knew. They'd see him. He always kind of
had that down look, carried the world
on his shoulders, very negative about
everything, worried about absolutely everything. He came to work one day singing,
and whistling, and smiling. And everybody wondered,
what happened to this guy? And he said, you know,
guys, I'm a worry wart. You've known that
about me, right? So I gave it some thought. And I thought it's just
not worth it anymore. I need to hire somebody
to worry for me. So this weekend, I found
just the perfect person. He seems very qualified. And I'm hiring him to
do all of my worrying. And he said, and I'm
paying him $200,000, which might sound like a steep price. But $200,000 a year is worth it,
if he can take all my worries. And they looked at him and
said, are you an idiot? I mean, you don't even
make a third of that. How are you going to pay him? He goes I don't know. That's his worry. But I like the thought that
your concern is his concern. It's his worry, and
he's not worried. It's his concern. So hands up, worries
down, or in the words of the hymnist, what a
friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear. What a privilege to carry
everything to God in prayer. Oh, what peace we often
forfeit, oh what needless pain we bear all because we
do not carry everything to God in prayer. Father, as we close,
that's what we do. In this moment of prayer,
our mind can lay hold of and grab onto a number of things
that have been concerns for us, and steal our peace,
and divide our mind. Our mind gets tormented. Our heart becomes
unsettled and uneasy. It is such a human condition. It's so easy to happen. But we pray, Father, that in
learning these great principles we could redirect our energy,
replace our anxiety with prayer and supplication, thanksgiving,
articulating the request, and in that moment-- at
that time of exchange-- experiencing an
inexplicable peace, which is part and parcel of
experiencing the joy that Paul wrote so often about
in this letter. May we-- especially during this
time where we celebrate advent, the coming of Jesus into the
world, the first advent-- I pray that peace would
mark us, joy would mark us, that we would not allow
those things into our lives, into our minds. And when they come in that
this process would be enacted. It might have to be done a lot
until we get the hang of it. But, Father, we pray for
your peace to stand garrison, to guard our minds, our
hearts through Jesus Christ. It's in his name we pray. Amen. Amen. We don't have to worry
because God promises to guard our hearts and minds. Did this message encourage you
to let him shoulder your worry? We'd love to hear about it. Email us at
mystory@CalvaryABQ.org. And just a reminder, you can
give financially to this work at calvaryabq.org/give. Thank you for joining us
for this teaching from Skip Heitzig of Calvary church.
