Godly Discipleship (Philippians 4:8-9)

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.

Philippians 4:8-9 Godly Discipleship

Chet Phillips

Transcript

Well good morning my name is Chad I'm one of the pastors here grab your Bible and go to Philippians chapter 4 we are working our way through the book of Philippians if you don't own a Bible or didn't bring one with you there should be one in the seat in front of you we're on page 571 in one of these blue bibles if you don't own a Bible take this one home with you that is our gift to you we want you to have a Bible uh we're going to pick up this morning reading what we read last week.

Because these ideas are tied together what we read last week talks about the peace of God and today it's going to end with the God of Peace and so he's pulling this big idea through this understanding of what peace looks like as we relate to God and as we're in God and this is what we read last week Philippians 4 starting in verse 4 rejoice in the lord always again I will say rejoice so he gives these two commands to Rejoice to feel and show Joy let your reasonableness must be known to everyone the.

Lord is at hand do not be anxious about anything 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 your minds in Christ Jesus so last week what we looked at is that we're called to rejoice and we're told to not be anxious and we're told to be reasonable and let that be known to everyone and so I just wanted to ask how how'd it go this week how was your.

First non-anxious week in a while when you felt anxious and you just thought no Paul told me not to so I'm going to stop now how was your constant joy and your rejoicing in everything how how excited was your spouse at your new found reasonableness we looked last week that these are things that we're called to do as if we have some agency in them they're not things that we're just at the whim of circumstance but they're things that we actually participate in that we are to be non-anxious we're to be joy-filled we're to be reasonable and these are things that we do that we participate in that you have some handle on the controls.

For now it doesn't mean that we never mourn it doesn't mean that we never have anxiety inducing circumstances but even in those situations what he's calling us to is to be people who know that we have a Lord that's what we looked at last week that the Lord is at hand so that even in our anxious moments we're handing those things off we're prayerfully giving them to the Lord that's his reasoning don't be anxious because the Lord is at hand he's near that we rejoice in the.

Lord and so we can't go into what he's about to say and forget Jesus he's continuing this idea but he anchored everything in we belong to Jesus we have a Lord this is specifically for Christians this isn't just good human advice it is if you don't know Jesus what we're going to talk about this morning will help you but it's Anchored In Christ and it is ultimately true in Christ for Christians and so let's look at what we are going to study this morning as he continues this idea.

So he says the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Jes in Christ Jesus and then in verse 8 and N in some ways he's answering how and what so if he just told us to be rejoicing in the Lord and to not be anxious you might want to ask well how do we do that and he's carrying this idea forward he's telling us a little bit of how we're going to do that.

But also if you just said okay I'll do that and began to approach in faith participating in what Jesus has done for you because it's not ultimately something we do but it's something we get in Jesus we participate in it and if you didn't hear the sermon last week I would encourage you to go listen to it and study back through it because it is helpful to try to understand what we're talking about today but something that Jesus has done that we participate in.

But it's also answering what so what do I do now if I'm not anxious what do I think about it's kind of what he's going to talk about all right I usually spend my time being anxious and Surly so now what do I do and well I'm glad you asked he's going to tell you finally Brothers whatever is true whatever is Honorable whatever is just whatever is pure whatever is lovely whatever is commendable if there is any Excellence if there is anything worthy of Praise think about these things what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me practice these things and the.

God of Peace will be with you so last week the peace of God which surpasses understanding will guard our hearts and minds and this week he ends with and the God of Peace will be with you that we'll be enjoying the peace of God which ultimately you want we want to be at peace we want to be guarded by his peace we want to be with the God of Peace and y'all beautifully wonderfully he's a God of Peace not of torment and destruction he's the.

God over all things but ultimately as you know him and follow him and he works things out he works them out towards peace which is wonderful but the two commands here are think about these things and practice these things those are the two commands think about these things and practice these things think about these things he hey and practice these things those are the two commands those are the two things that are actually we're told to do here everything else is just describing those ideas it's telling what these things are.

But we're to think and we to practice and y'all that's how life works you think and you do stuff and the way you think affects the way you do stuff is that new is that helpful to know uh like I coach flag football and sometimes I'm coaching excited little like six and seven year olds and sometimes I'm coaching a group of head cases that have just like spiraled in on collapsing in on themselves like a dying star like they just things start going poorly and there are times where things aren't going.

Well but they're thinking about other things or they're having fun or there times when things aren't going well and they had even noticed yet or there are times where things aren't going well but they're determined and you can see it in their body language because they're six and seven but there are other times where like the plays over and we're telling them to get off the field CU something bad happens and they're coming back like this we have one kid who really he will like crawl in on himself and he just standing there and I have to be like come on we need you it's early you can't be crying yet.

But the way he's thinking is affecting how he's going to practice what he's going to do how he's going to be on the field and that's true for you too and so this morning we're going to spend a good bit of time thinking about how we think and then we're going to talk about how that applies to how we practice but most of our time we'll be on thinking about how we think and ultimately if we could think better things would be better that's profound write that down all right.

So let's look at how we think finally Brothers Paul's going to tell us what to think about whatever is true whatever is Honorable whatever is just whatever is pure whatever is lovely whatever is commendable if there is any Excellence if there is anything worthy of Praise think about these things y he said whatever ever six times you know that's not impressive my teenager can do that too but he could have just said whatever is true honorable just pure he could have said it one time.

But he goes out of his way to shove whatever in front of each one of these things he says it six times and what he means is whatever whatever you can find that fits these categories anything he means for you to search he means for you to be uh paying attention looking for it whatever would fit in this category he means for it to be Broad and intentional find it and think about that look for it search for it also if you're like.

Well does this count does it fit one of the categories because he said whatever fits the category so meaning all truth is God's everything that is lovely is God God's everything that is pure is God's we're not to limit it to some sort of like our understanding of some sort of like he just means like Bible things now he means all of all things that fit these categories belong to him and those are the things to consider and to think about and to enjoy and to appreciate to hold in our mind.

Because the way we think affects us so let's look at this what he says he says whatever is true meaning that you should think about things that are real and right and honest that we should care about truth we should care about what's valid in situations we should search for truth we should uphold truth we should defend truth we should speak truth he says whatever is Honorable that's probably not one we think that much about we don't live in an honored culture maybe some of you are from more of a shame and honor culture and maybe you consider it more or you consider it a lot.

When your parents or grandparents are visiting but whatever is Honorable whatever upholds something good whatever lifts up whatever brings respect whatever is respectable I think sometimes we just think well you know just don't hurt anybody and as long as it doesn't hurt anybody it's okay but no some things are just dishonoring they're crude or vulgar they're not honorable and we're to think on what is honorable whatever is just whatever's right whatever's fair whatever's good whatever points to God and his righteousness whatever is pure clean holy unsullied whatever is has integrity and goodness about it and isn't marked and marred I love that lovely is in this text whatever is lovely this word is only used.

Once in the Greek uh New Testament in Philippians right here that's it it's used once in the uh Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament in Esther to describe the clothes she wears to go see the king it says she put on her this word love leas and it means whatever's fitting whatever has Beauty to It Whatever has wholeness and goodness to it whatever is delightful think about those things commendable those are the things that should be repeated and should be celebrated whatever is commendable whatever you should clap.

For whatever you should want to repeat and see more more of now what if that's all you thought about be pretty nice if you only thought about what was commendable only thought about what was lovely set your mind on what was pure and honest true just if that's all that would fit in your head if that's all that you would run through your mind and consider what if on the way to work you just thought about true commendable lovely things you're sitting in traffic people are honking and you're like that sounds like a Ford American engineering that's a good horn right there way to go Detroit or whatever like I mean you're just you're thinking.

About what's true and good and right like you you just this is what fits in your head wouldn't that be nice is that how we think no no no no no unfortunately it is not when it comes to what it's true so often we just repeat what we hear or repost what we've read Christians should care about whether or not what they're saying is true but so often we've participated in slander we we don't care at all to re research things that would take time we're supposed to be people who care about truth.

But we just repeat a thing so often we ourselves lie or skirt around the truth or avoid the truth or don't deal with the truth we can do this in a ton of ways you can do it in ways where you say things if you're a Christian like well I'm no good or I'm a failure all this is going to fall apart everything's going to go poorly if you belong to Jesus that's not true but you're repeating it so we we lie honorable and pure we'll consider those together how much of our joking TV watching upholds Purity and what is Honorable how much of the things that we participate in are crass or vulgar or.

Just repeated because they're impure and disgusting how much of what we think about is pure versus impure I mean this would exclude honorable and pure is going to take out pretty much all sexual references whatsoever because it's either dishonoring or it's impure or it's both if we wouldn't happily say it in front of the most honorable respectable people we shouldn't rehearse it in our heads you we have whole devotions to dishonorable things we have things like peopleofwalmart.com is just pictures of people at Walmart that we want to make fun of.

So much of what we've done throughout our lives is just dishonoring people and even if you're not saying it he's saying don't think about it don't rehearse that in your mind so much of our gossip if you got past slander you escaped that one because what you're repeating is true well welcome to dishonoring someone but it's real yeah but you know one of the beautiful things that the Proverbs say over and over again shut your mouth it's one of the most wise things you can do it's just keep something to yourself what's what's your point in repeating it are you talking to them about it to draw them towards.

Jesus to lead them into repentance to give Grace to help them to love them or are you just saying a thing y'all don't you know how much we love that someone goes hey have you heard you immediately lead in your heart starts beating faster I haven't heard it but I'm so excited and it's never like I heard their oldest son made the Honor rooll apparently he is a bright and talented lad you would be like why are you telling telling me that has I don't care.

But if they had told you something negative you wouldn't ask why have you told me that because that's you wanted to participate in the joyful Delight of dishonoring somebody whatever is just so often we focus on what is wrong what is evil what is broken so many of the shows that we watch so many of the podcasts that we listen to are just a deep dive into Brokenness a a vois approach to wickedness we run that around in our head lovely I'm willing to bet that the last time you use that word it was sarcastic lovely.

So often we focus on what is hateful what is rude what is ugly those are the stories that we circulate and those are the things that we focus on commendable think about the last time you left a restaurant had you spent your time focusing on what was commendable the last time you went through some sort of service or participated in anything was your job there thinking what can we what can we praise what's commendable here doesn't that just sound stupid when I said it you're like oh only idiots would do that yeah happy idiots.

But are we focusing on what there is to celebrate I love this he puts this whole list he says to stretch for it to reach for it to think about it and then he he kind of sums it up if there is any Excellence if there is anything Worthy of Praise y' aren't we so good at the opposite of that all this stuff can happen and you'll focus on the one thing that wasn't worthy of Praise or the one thing that was non- excellent and Paul says flip it you could go through the worst day was there anything excellent was there anything worthy of Praise think about it what are you rehearsing in your mind.

I will tell you most of the list and the things that we repeat to ourselves about our situations our jobs our spouses our children our houses are not the list of all the Excellence that we find all the things that are worthy of Praise if I asked you to I could give you a little notepad I could send you home I could send you home over this week and I could say I want you to write down everything that annoys you I want a list.

For your house I want a list for your children and their friends I want a list and their friends parents I want a list of the school I want a list of your spouse your roommates your boss your professors I want a list I want a list for your car I want a list for the type of shoes you wear like I want a list y'all all many of us would be doing is just writing down what we were already thinking about and we'd be.

So good at making these lists you can tell me real quick what you don't like about your house or your car or your body or the way you dress or the way you talk or the way your spouse Acts or the way your kids are because we're really good at focusing on whatever is not excellent and is not worthy of Praise but if I sent you home and said I want you to make me a list of everything you like about your house everything you like about your spouse everything you like about your roommate everything you like about your professor your school your kids you could make that list too this is what you got.

To understand you could make that list too and at the end of the week after you've rehearsed that over and over again guess who would like their house their school their car their children more did your house change oh just the way you think did so Paul says if you want to be at peace if you want to be Joy filled nonanxious people can I take tell you what to think about think about what's really really good think about anything you can find that's worthy of Praise anything you can find that is excellent repeat that rehearse that can I show you how we think about this I'm to we're going to put thinking up here.

So this is thinking we're going to take a moment to think about our thinking often the way we think about it is we don't consider our thoughts much at all actually we don't consider much at all how we're approaching in our thoughts things what we think about ours we have circumstances the things that happened to us or have been done to us or the kind of life we live and then those things affect our thoughts and then really it affects our quality of life.

But mostly we just kind of think circumstances thoughts quality of life it look like this yeah that's it quality of circumstances quality of life thinking that your circumstances affect what your life is like and that affects how you think that's really mostly what we think about and I said that backwards a second ago but I'm going to fix it in a second so I said it the fixed way but anyway if I said let's talk about how you think and you rehearsed.

For me all the negative things going on you wouldn't think that your thinking was the problem you would think that the problems were the problem and you would tell me that if you said I'm stressed out in traffic I'm stressed out at work I'm stressed out at home I'm stressed out at whatever and I said well you need to think better you'd be like no I need not traffic not work not home like you would want to work on the things that we making you no my thinking is is secondary to the circumstances.

But we know that's not actually true because you've ped it at a birthday party before your own birthday party you've cried at prom now you might say no no no no the circumstances were the problem but you know what I'm talking about you can be miserable in a mansion so it can't just be circumstances and quality of life and we know that we think in our situation that it's really just circumstances quality of life affects my thinking but we know that's not actually true.

Because Paul can sing in prison we know that too so we know you can be miserable in a mansion we know you that Paul can sing in prison and we would understand that there's a category for that but when it comes to us we think it's just circumstances quality of life affects our thinking but that's not what Paul says Paul says the Lord affects your thinking which affects your quality of life because Paul anchors everything in the Lord the reason we can think this way is.

Because the Lord is imminent he's near he's good the peace of God is prot protecting us through Jesus so it's the Lord than our thinking in the quality of life another way to put that would be the Lord changes reality which changes our thinking which changes quality of life now I'm going to explain this a little more I'm G press in on this but here's one of our biggest hurdles when it comes to think happy thoughts it sounds so stupid it's one of our biggest hurdles like.

If you're watching a TV show the character that is perennially Happy is the stupid character like one of my favorite movies is Oh Brother Where Art Thou and they find out that they're going to be arrested for a lot longer they're going to have to have a much longer prison sentence and one of them grabs the other guy and he says I'm going to be 84 years old and his buddy next to him goes well I'll only be 82 there's a there's this TV show The Middle my wife and I like watching and there's a the the middle daughter named Sue is just happy the whole time and everything terrible happens to her non-stop she's.

The most resilient character in the in the show and she's just non-stop happy but you're watching at her and going what a how could she be happy she should be miserable like us look at how awful her life is but she's just happy things are just good and so one of the things that we reject this is I'm just being real you want me to just sit around and think happy thoughts well I don't have happy thoughts to think because of the stuff going on in my life I'm just being real and I will I'll I'll give you that I'll give you that.

If you don't know Jesus if you don't know Jesus and you want to tell me your circumstances are so bad that you have to think this way I'll allow it I'll still tell you if you would think this way it would be better but I'll allow it but if you want to tell me that you're a Christian and you're just being real that's why you have to think this way I would say you don't understand reality or you don't know Jesus.

Because he has stepped in and changed reality for you that this type of thinking is worshipful thinking it's to the glory of God when you're like well I'm just being real I'm just facing up to all the stuff going on I just got to I got to set my mind to deal with all this struggle and this difficulty I just got to think about the fact that everything's bad and I just got to you know I got to get my brain wrapped around it and it's like no you actually don't you get to just think about the stuff that's good to the glory of Christ do you know why.

Because he takes the stuff that is bad that's what he does that's who he is that's why in this last passage we read it said the Lord is at hand do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication let your request be made known to God that he gets the bad stuff we get the good stuff to the glory of Christ because he's the one who redeems and works how wonderful is that how beautiful is it that.

Because of Jesus coming he takes all of our sin all of our Brokenness all of our doubt he dies on the cross and then he rises Victorious and we just get Victory not sin despair Brokenness and everything else and your Ultimate Reality if you belong to Jesus is that not your current circumstances your current circumstances do not Define reality for you Jesus does and so the idea that everything's going to be terrible and everything's going to fall apart and all of this is bad and everything's broken and everything's busted is not true.

If you belong to Jesus and at some point it becomes an assault on his character so thinking like this is worshipful Christian thinking and it makes things better so not only are we worshiping in our focusing on what is good and beautiful in the world because that's what we get and focusing on what is true and what is just and what is pure and what is lovely and honorable because that's what we're called into as people who belong to Jesus not only is it worshipful.

But it also makes life nicer in some ways Jesus has sent you out because of the work on the cross to pan for gold that's your job if if you and I went to pay for gold and we came this rocky area this little stream running through it we're going to get dirt and stuff we're going to pile it up and we're going to sift it in the Stream and you said these heels are full of gold because that's how you talk and I said looks mostly like it's dirt you might not say.

But you would think well of course and also shut up but it's going to be mostly dirt but we're looking for gold because that's what we're here for and then as we went if I kept coming over to you and going look at all these rocks I found you would be like throw them away do you think they have gold I'm like no they definitely don't have gold look at these they're rocks you would stop it leave me alone if I said mostly what I pick up is dirt you would say stop saying this to me you're the worst gold panning partner I've ever had.

If I piled all the Rocks up and if I said hey it's actually way easier to find rocks and it is gold have we thought about just being rock collectors if I said I found one piece of gold but it's not even that good of a piece and it's not nearly as big as all the Rocks I Found Jesus has set us out to search for anything excellent if there's anything worthy of praise that's what we're looking for everything else goes to him everything else that's anxiety inducing everything else that's broken everything else that's terrible everything else is sad everything else that's despair inducing everything else that's going to overwhelm us isn't ours it's his.

You get what's lovely you get what's true you get what's honorable y'all when Jesus says on Earth as it is in heaven that's what we're at work for because you know what's true and what's honorable and what's pure and what's lovely all that stuff gets to be ours for eternity because all of that stuff makes it into eternity and none of the other stuff does there are scars in eternity but they're not on us they're on Christ he gets everything broken he gets everything bad and we we get everything Joy filled and hopeful to the glory of Christ it's not silly it's worship it's not stupidity it's God-honoring and it's joyful and non- anxious which.

I'm gonna be honest with you right now you could use more of so think about these things today go pay pay for gold and every time you find anything say thank you Jesus that's what I get that's what my life gets to be about that's the goodness that I'll get to have for eternity I got just a glimpse of it now but you know we're painting for gold now the streets are paved in it that's that's how this works and it's to the glory of Christ and it's.

Because of the work of Christ and because of the hope of Christ and we get to set our minds on Christ and so the rest of our circumstances and stuff don't dictate the level of our joy and they don't dictate our anxiety because we have a king who rules and Reigns and saves and so we get to run around free y'all if my two boys were stressed out worn out if they could recite to you our financial and budget troubles if they could tell you all the.

If they if I had to if I was like all right boys come in here sit down me and your mom got to argue through something y'all need to listen and you know help us out join a team we would be taking the weight of what we're supposed to and shifting it over to them and it's not theirs to hold they actually get to be free it's to my glory and credit if my sons be bounce around happy and joyful we understand that on an Earthly level and y'all it's to God's glory and credit.

If we're joyful in the midst of circumstances in the midst of difficulty if we are able to set our eyes on him and know that he's this good because of the work that he does and because he's the one who carries everything that's difficult I think sometimes we think well I've got to be real serious and I got to take this seriously and I got to focus and I got to do all these things and he's expecting so much from me he's expecting worship from you you're free he's good and in the midst of your circumstances he's good and that's why he says this next.

So he presses them to think this way and then verse n what you have learned and received and heard heard and seen in me practice these things some of those you could find in the book of Acts a lot of them you'll find in the in Philippians he's saying do the things we talked about do the things you saw do the things I've told you what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me practice these things and the.

God of Peace will be with you Paul writes this from prison for proclaiming the Gospel he is not saying that all of your circumstances will be delightful and therefore you will be delighted he does not say hey it's all cupcakes and rainbows no he says Jesus is good Jesus is Lord we get to look for what is beautiful and lovely and true and good and then we get to go forward in this mission to proclaim the Gospel this big picture narrative of who.

Jesus is free and and full and hope filled because of Jesus so there will be suffering but not misery there will be difficulty but not Despair and some of us don't even have that much suffering but we've added and brought in a whole lot of Misery we don't even have that much difficulty but we have a whole lot of Despair and we're supposed to be flipped on that we're supposed to Face suffering and difficulty without misery and despair without anxiety and Brokenness without depression and downheartedness we're supposed to endure and long.

For what is good and hold fast to what is true and hold fast to what is right that's why the the the apostles in Acts chap 5 says this then they left the presence of the council rejoicing which we were commanded to do last week that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name they had just been beaten and they walked out going we get to bleed for Jesus I'm going to limp home for Jesus with genuine Joy because it's not about their circumstances there's a bigger story there's a bigger hope that in the midst of that they got to say you know what's wonderful you know what's worthy of Praise You Know.

What's excellent one day when we stand before the king we'll have held fast to Jesus in the midst of persecution isn't that wonderful isn't that beautiful and so some of you are facing very tough circumstances with your kids with your marriage with your home with your money some of you are facing VAR tough circumstances with your health some of us are needing to press further into the mission of God to see our neighbors and co-workers come to know Christ we're needing to step out in faith into some difficult territory and we get to do all of that saying everything that's good is a gift from the.

Lord that I'm going to receive and everything that's difficult and painful I'm going to look for what's good and I'm going to hand the rest to the Lord and I'm going to keep moving forward because Jesus redeems and Jesus is King and ultimately my story is one of Victory so if you can change how you think things will get better and for Christians it's how we ought to think as we worship our King and then we ought to go forward in all the things we're called to do.

But as people who who minds are set on what Jesus has done and the natural occurrences that happen in life that come down from them the gifts that come from all the work that he's done let's pray you are a God of Peace So for all those who come to you are welcomed into peace and so Lord where we're anxious where we're down where we're low where we're difficult to get along with frustrated and angry and fighting for our own way oh.

God may we see the Gospel may we see the hope that is in Christ and may we begin to change our thinking to be worshipful and focused on what is right and good to work towards Justice not just focus on Injustice to work towards what is true not just focus on what is not true that we might work towards honoring others in our thoughts and our words that we might work towards what is pure and good and wholesome Lord may we focus on what is lovely and commendable and by your grace may we.

See what is excellent and worthy of Praise in Jesus name Amen in all of this the hope is that the God of Peace will be with us that we will ultimately get to Delight in and enjoy him this isn't just about making our lives function a little bit better although it will but our hope is that we will Delight in and enjoy the Lord because he is good we get to celebrate baptism this morning which is a proclamation of what we've been talking about this hope that we have in Christ that he did the work that he has covered our sins baptism is not hey I'm about to get to work I'm about to clean.

Myself up I'm about to accomplish things you don't baptize yourself you don't get in here and wash yourself in front of everybody and we all go good you finally got your stuff together that's not how this works other people get in here who are Christians who are representing Christ representing the Church representing his people and you are baptized by them because baptism is a a picture of what Jesus has done that he has washed you that you have been buried and you were dead in your sins.

But that he was buried in your sins and that he rose so you get to rise and when you come up you're clean and you're made new and whole that's what we're celebrating that Jesus Christ is King that he still forgives Sinners that he still gives hope and that's our Eternal reality and so may we be joyfill people who celebrate well the goodness of Christ I'd like to ask Katie to come up now as we go into celebrating baptism.

Joy, Anxiety, and the Power of God

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.

Philippians 4:5-7 Joy, Anxiety, and the Power of God

Chet Phillips

Transcript

Good morning uh my name is Chad I'm one of the pastors here if you will grab a Bible and go to Philippians chapter 4 we're working our way through the book of Philippians and we've come to the place where Paul is wrapping it up and he's starting to kind of end and we're going to see as he's exhorting and calling the Church to action this morning as he writes this letter and I recently my wife and I were watching a TV show and there were these two kids trying to break into a safe um and they they break into it eventually.

And then they they pull out these documents and they're holding them and they're looking at each other and they're like do you think this means what I think it means and they kind of stare at it and there there's this like if this is real and everything is changed like this is wonderful and I feel a little bit like that when we come to this text this morning it's like if this is real then this is wonderful If this means what I think it means this is glorious.

And so we're going to look at this text this morning we're going to be in Philippians 4: 4-7 and I specifically think that there are some ways culturally and personally that we're going to want to reject this text and argue against it and so we're going to take just a moment to ask the Lord I'd like for you to take a moment to ask the Lord to just help you help you to trust him help you to believe and help you to not argue with this this whole morning.

But try to actually Step In by faith and so take just a moment ask the Lord for help and then I'll pray and then we'll we'll start reading the text Father we believe that the Gospel is good news and what we're looking at this morning is a downline good news application practically for us so we ask that by your spirit you would help us to believe and then you would help us to participate in how good this is in Jesus name amen.

So let's read these few verses together as we get started rejoice in the lord always again I will say rejoice let your reasonableness be known to everyone the Lord is at hand do not be anxious about anything 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 your minds in Christ Jesus in in these few verses Paul gives five um exhortations five commands five calls to action.

And so we're going to kind of walk through uh and just try to understand what he's calling us to before we really try to spend some time in seeing how we maybe want to argue against this and what it means for us actually to practically uh apply this so he begins his first command is rejoice in the lord always his second command is again I will say rejoice and I love that he said it twice because I think Paul knows how we hear commands like Rejoice we go a neat what a nice Christian concept moving right along you'd have just gone Stitch that on a pillow.

And then forgotten all about it and he says rejoice in the lord always and he goes no no no look at me for real for real for real Rejoice I I mean it and that's the first two commands are the same thing rejoice and rejoice means to feel or to show great joy and Delight y'all as far as biblical commands go this is a great one you want this one like we want to participate in feeling and showing great joy and delight and we're called to it and he specifically is saying no this is how you ought to be do this rejoice in the.

Lord always again I will say rejoice the third command is let your reasonableness be known to everyone all right so the word translated reasonableness doesn't have the best onew translation into English so some uh of your transl ation will say graciousness some of your translations will say gentleness reasonableness here he's getting at the idea of like if you're in an argument with somebody and you're hot and they say what do you what do you want from me what do you want me to do and you say what I want you to do is to move out of the country to the top of a mountain where you cry yourself to sleep every night.

And then die alone that's what I want and then they respond with something like be reasonable that's the reasonableness here it's like get ableness that's what my my mother-in-law says she says be getable that's what this is talking about be gracious be gentle be reasonable be able to get along with people and so the third command is get along with each other get along with others let that be something that marks your life the fourth one the Lord is at hand do not be be anxious about anything fourth exhortation fourth call to action do not be anxious about anything what are we allowed to be anxious about nothing and some of you are like oh.

Cool I'm anxious about nothing all the time no that's not a loophole it means do not be anxious do not be anxious be anxious do not be anxious about anything and then the fifth one which is paired with it 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 your minds in Christ Jesus so seven is a result it's a it's a state that happens it's a it's what we get pulled into as we walk through this it says in the peace of.

God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus I I want to point something out he says rejoice in the lord always let your reasonableness be known to everyone do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication let your request be made known to God Paul didn't leave any room it's not be anxious sometimes times and rejoice every once in a while and let some people who you like know you're reasonable it's it's he's all over the map saying this is the tone and tenor of the Christian life.

Now I don't think Paul means to say never be sad like we're not allowed to mourn we're actually in other places told to weep with those who weep to mourn with those who mourn like we're supposed to do that there's times for mourning I don't think Paul is saying that there's never never a time to be have some when you think about anxiety like your heart rate like I think he's like you know if there's like a bear sure feel some anxiety you know.

But this General posture of a Christian Life is joyous easy to get along with gracious non-anxious peaceful that's the the general pattern of Christian Life and y'all these are these are commands he's calling us to this which means he thinks we can do it but that's not how we think about some of this stuff that's not how we think about Joy that's not how we think about an anxiety like if you came to me for for counseling and you said I'm just.

So down I'm so depressed I'm so and it's not like a big thing I'm mourning I'm just down and I said oh well Rejoice always I'll say it twice Rejoice now hop on out of here and then I was like next you know and someone else comes in and they say I'm really anxious I just deal with anxiety and I said oh don't have you thought about stopping I'm going to get to go to lunch early today I'm putting out fires all over the place like you not think I was a good counselor that's not how we think about these things that's not how we think about joy we think about Joy the way we.

Think about the weather I can report on it but I have no control over it so I could ask you how's your joy been and you could tell me you can observe it and you can say oh it's been great or you can say no I hadn't had any lately but we're acting as if we're waiting on it to come like you're a farmer waiting for the rain for your crops we treat Joy the way we treat injoy I can notice it.

But I don't get to pick like I can't make myself like coconut so stop putting it in cakes like yeah it's like why did you do that I mean you get a just made the cake and thrown it away but you also could have not put coconut on it and then we could eat it you know I can't like you ever somebody makes something and it sounds gross and they feed it to you and you're just as surprised as anybody that you enjoy it you're eating it and you're like I mean I'm glad or they like you go to a place you you partake in like a concert or something and you're like I'm just.

As surprised as you are but I actually like this and we act like it's injy but what he's saying is that you have some agency here he's commanding it like it's something that you can do but that's not how we think about that it's not how we think about anxiety we think about anxiety like an ailment it's how we usually talk about it like I have a cousin with sickle cell and if he told you he had sickle cell you would say oh I'm sorry.

And then you'd ask questions like what do you do to try to like mitigate that and is there some medicine or is there like what's that look like you wouldn't say have you thought about stopping because that's not how it works that's how we talk about anxiety someone says they struggle with anxiety they have anxiety you say oh I'm sorry are there things that you do to mitigate that is there some sort of medicine you take we act as if it's some sort of an ailment not something that we have any agency over not something where Paul can just.

Look at you and say stop it that's not how we think about it but y'all what if we're wrong and Paul's right well that's wonderful because you actually want Paul to be right you want rejoicing something to be be to be something that you can just participate in you want being nonanxious to be something that you can just do we want Paul to be right and I know that right now there are people who were going no no but that's just like I'm that's not me temperamentally that's not me given my my makeup and my chemicals and my family history and my circumstances that's not me like I'm not I'm just this isn't me I've.

Met those people I know there are joyous people in the room right now who are just like get them I know I know you love this verse I know you quote it to your sad friends and you're like yes that's what I've been saying this whole time just you know be joyous like me PW smile and kick around I know there are peaceful people who are non anxious who are just like yeah stop it we're not supposed to be anxious you talk to your anxious friends you don't understand anxiety and you.

Look at him and you're going I don't know quit that's what I do I just don't and the B Bible backs me up to just don't and I know that for anxious people and for people who are temperamentally down and life is hard and you've just kind of always struggled with this I know this sounds unattainable or difficult or like that's not for me but don't you want it to be and what I would say is if you can actually participate in this it would be better.

For you there's more joy more peace because you've struggled so long on the other side of this and actually don't just SWAT this out of the way as if something doesn't apply to you because we don't do that with other texts we don't do that with other commands when Jesus says to love our enemies we don't go yeah the for the loving people but I have real enemies I hate these people so that one doesn't apply to me we don't we don't do that we go.

Okay no this is calling me into something that's going to be hard but good and y' I would say the same thing for someone who struggles with joy struggles with anxiety this is going to be hard in some ways but so good so don't reject it try to let's figure out how how how does he call us into this it gets to be more beautiful for it so how do we get to do this and I want to show you something wonderful that is in this text he says rejoice in the.

Lord always again I will say rejoice then he says let your reasonableness be known to everyone the Lord is at hand do not be anxious about anything but in everything with prayer and supplication and Thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus he's not banking on you he's not banking on your circumstances he's not banking on your temperament your family history your origin your genetic background it this isn't anchored in you at all it's not about you at all it's in Christ and you're invited in.

So let's take a second to talk about this Lord that he's talking about it's Jesus Christ who even though he was in the form of God did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped but humbled himself taking on the form of a servant that's what he told us in Philippians 2 that he became a man took on humanity and he came to serve and what he did when he got here is he started teaching and he started performing Miracles and he started Gathering people around him and he performed miracles to show who he was to show The Authority that he had to show that he had God's backing there's a time where.

He's going toe-to-toe with some religious leaders and there's a a person who's a a paralytic and he says to him your sins are forgiven and then they think the religious leaders think you're not allowed to say that but because he's God he reads their thoughts and answers them and says which is easier to say your sins are forgiven or to say rise and walk and then he says so that you know that the son of man has the authority on Earth to forgive give sins rise and walk and the point of his miracles was to show that he had authority to show who he was and ultimately he goes to the Cross to die to.

Pay for our sins we sang this a second ago we read it in Hebrews that he was sinless that he's tempted in every way but he's never sinned and so he goes and dies because he didn't owe death for his sin he was able to pay the death we owed for our sin and because he's God he had enough ability by his blood it's worth more he's able to pay for all that will come to him and then he rises from the grave and he proclaims that there's forgiveness and life in his name that anyone who would trust in him will be forgiven and given eternal life that is the.

Lord that he's talking about so if you're not a Christian we want you to know Jesus that all who calling his name no no one will be put to shame who trust in Jesus and if you are a Christian then look at this it's yours rejoice in the lord always a rejoicing is not found in us see what we want to say is well that you know you want to read this text and go well what was Paul dealing with is it easy.

For him to say rejoice I bet he was a real happy person y'all this this letter was written from prison he spent half of it talking about I don't know if they're going to kill me or not he even told them if they do be happy I'll be happy I'll go be with Jesus it's not anchored in his circumstances you can't go well easy for Paul to say I bet they beat him a lot and they're going to kill him so it's easy.

For him to say it's like that's not how that works he's calling us to Joy in the midst of terrible circumstances because it's not about our circumstances it's Anchored In Christ it's in the Lord okay let me here's a concept we we understand you can have the bad stuff that's going on in your life and then you can distract yourself and you know I'm distracting myself for a moment but then I'll have to return to the bad stuff like it's kind of a sad story it's not a real sad story.

But it's kind of sad last year during South Carolina's football season my wife and our Gamecock fans it was a very Gamecock football season they won some things they lost some things they should have won they won some games that they really really should have won but they barely won it so they tormented you the whole time normal Gamecock stuff and during the middle of the Season while my wife and I were sad we went and rewatched old football games that we knew the outcome.

For and we're excited about we watched them beat Tennessee in the middle of the week we just rewatched that game we we knew it wasn't this season but it made us happy inside and then when it was over we went back to being regular this season Gamecock fans who were sad we knew we had to return to reality but we at least got to watch us just Pummel Tennessee and that's going to stay on our DVR forever and whenever I'm sad I'll watch it.

But I know it's a distraction we understand that we understand that at some point I'm going to get back to reality but what Paul is saying is y'all he's been saying this the whole time look up because the circumstances you're talking about aren't your reality we have a lord who conquers we have a citizenship in heaven we have an upward call of a priz in Christ we have a king who returns and conquers all things do you think these circumstances are going to win they are not.

Because they cannot defeat Jesus do you think that your sin is going to win it cannot because it will not defeat Jesus do you think that this problem that you're facing is going to win it will not because you are in Jesus and so there's always joy in Christ there's always rejoicing in him because there's always forgiveness and there's always life there's never a time where you're like let me get ready to go hang out with Jesus what a bummer that's not how it works.

So there's joy always in the Lord that's what we get from Christ and it's ours if we're in Christ that's why he says rejoice in the lord always we get to go to him we get to have joy in him that's what he's calling us into we get to feel and show great joy and Delight because it's Anchored In Jesus not us and that's good news we'll talk more about how how do I do that we'll talk about that in a minute.

But look what he says about uh real quick on his reasonableness I don't think we argue with this one as much I think we understand that we're supposed to be like this maybe you're hard to get along with and you should repent the general tone of Christians is that we should be easy to get along with it should be said by people who don't know Jesus look I'm not a Christian I don't want to follow Jesus but if you're going to have a boss you want your boss to be a Christian they make the best bosses they should say things like.

Look I I'm not a Christian I don't understand all that stuff but when you're hiring people you want to hire Christians because they're going to work hard they're going to show up they're going to cover shifts they're going to have a good attitude they're going to be kind they're going to tell the truth you want Christians that should be how this works Christians should make the best doctors and the best t-ball coaches the best neighbors that should be this works it should be a they're easy to get along with and do you know why.

Because our hope isn't here and I'm not surprised by Sinners I understand Sinners but I'm also not so angry at them because I can be forgiven forgiving because I'm the most forgiven like we get to because of the Gospel be really easy to get along with now there's some things we have to hold firm to the Gospel but there's a whole lot of other stuff that we get to be really kind and really gracious and really uh reasonable with people.

So that ought to be how this works I said we won't spend as much time on that let's look at anxiety I love I love love the way that Paul writes this and I think that we skip it so often I think we just jump to do not be anxious about anything but that's not how the sentence Works he says the Lord is at hand do not be anxious about anything that sentence works like this your mom is trying to sleep shut up that's how that sentence Works your dad's on a zoom call go outside or your dad's on a zoom call have you lost your mind go outside that's how that sentence Works what.

Paul said is not don't be anxious like it just floats out here like just hey quit your anxiety what he says is the Lord is at hand he's near he's big he's imminent he's coming back what are you worried about he's right there what are you worried about he's right there what are you anxious over that's the way that sentence works I was talking to my son recently he's nine I've been trying to stretch him on the things that he has to do there's always that line of like keeping your kids safe and making your kids strong.

And so I've been trying to make him do some things that stretch him a little bit recently I sent him in I was pumping gas I sent him into the gas station to get some stuff and afterwards he said he said I kind of like going he said I kind of like like going off by myself like that because I can't get lost what that's what I said what are you talking about and he said well I'm the I'm the only one there I can't get lost and it took me a minute to realize what he meant was that his whole life he has gauged whether or not he's lost or not based off of.

The presence of his adult if I'm there he's not lost that's his whole life that's how he's gauged whether or not he's lost and if you'll watch kids that's how they do it like I could be lost but he wouldn't if he was with me that's the way he understood lostness you ever watch a kid look for their adult and it's real fun if you're the adult and you can see them you'll watch them be like and you're like right here you know.

But they're looking around that's all they're doing is if I can find my adult I'm okay if I can't I'm not and what Paul is saying is he's right there you're not lost you're not lost he's right here what are you worried about y the Assumption here is so beautiful so beautiful in the face of our anxiety so beautiful in the face of our worry so beautiful in the face of this weird sense of fearfulness and Dread it's so wonderful so wonderful.

Look at what he says the Lord is at hand do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving let your request be made known to God prayer is worshipfulness supplication is asking for help so prayer is the word prayer but it it includes this worshipfulness supplication is saying these are the my needs Thanksgiving we'll talk more about next week but it's being thankful that should take up some of our praying and he says let him know don't be anxious let him know.

If you started a new job and your equipment broke and you're stressing out because you're like this will be a new record for me I'll get fired on my first day so you're trying to fix it one of your co-workers comes by and goes hey what are you doing and you're like this isn't working they're like why aren't you getting your stuff done it's like this isn't working this is I I don't know it's not working and they went good luck and walked off what's the Assumption it's on you you better figure it out you better fix it.

But if they look at you and say have you called Rodney no who's Rodney my new best friend get Rodney in here what the heck has Rodney been doing all morning while I've been facing this problem what's the Assumption that's not on you and Paul right here says hey why are you anxious that's not on you you are gloriously and wonderfully small you're worried about things that aren't yours to worry about you're worried about things that aren't yours to carry you don't get you to the Finish Line you're not the one who's supposed to fix it it's not on you you're wonderfully small.

If I was about to go on a trip I've used this illustration before but it works so clearly in my mind if I was about to go on a trip and one of my sons looked at me and was freaking out and said we can't go and I said why he said we can't go cuz I don't know how to get there you ain't driving you're going to go where I take you Welly I strap you down in the car you can't even get out.

If you wanted to so sleep stare out the window play a game I don't care I'm the one in charge and that's some of what is assumed here he's right there tell him about it what are you anxious for you haven't gotten that big he's not counting on you in that way that's not your responsibility so take a deep breath and know that he's good I think Paul at some points in our anxiety would say things to us like you're like I'm just such he would say don't you know he's close you don't believe he's close I believe he's close oh you don't believe he's big I believe he's big oh you don't believe he.

Loves you I believe he loves you okay what are we anxious for like if you know he's close and you know he's big and you know he loves you this is such good news cuz one of those things has to be not true for you to have to carry this weight of anxiety CU Paul says he's right here don't be anxious now I think there's a tempation or a desire to respond when Paul just says rejoice and don't be anxious we want to say it's not that easy y'all it wasn't that easy.

But Jesus did the work it's very costly but Jesus Paid the cost and you say well it doesn't work like that yeah what if it does what if it works to where these things are ours in Christ because he's done them and given them to us what if we're the ones who are wrong in our thinking on it but because of Jesus we actually get to participate in this and it does work like this what if we can just be called in to Rejoice what.

If we can just be called into being non-anxious I want to show youall something about the the anxiety thing he says 'o not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving let your request be made known to God the downline assumption is that it's his to carry but the beautiful thing that's in here is if you're praying you're already undoing anxiety because you've begun to put it in the right context he's big I'm not so for those of you who struggle with anxiety and you think I was anxious all day yesterday I spent the whole day praying it's like no you were praying all day yesterday and reminding yourself that.

Your anxiety isn't yours to carry but it's his that he's good but I think there's a we look at this and we say it doesn't work like that but here's what I think this is I want us to see I'm going to give us some pictures because I've thought about this a lot this week trying to help wrap my head around what he's calling us into he doesn't say do these things and you'll have joy he says Rejoice participate in the joy he doesn't say.

If you do these things you'll be non- anxious he just says participate in the non- anxiety of belonging to the Lord he's here hand it over to him it's a call to participate so we're doing a thing but we're not really doing the thing what we're doing is is baked into the it happening so in just a moment we're going to have baptisms and they're going to do a thing they got to make it all the way up those two steps and over this wall it's tedious it's careful you got to hold you know hold some hands they got to get all the way under the water and all the way back out they've done.

An action but the action was not the thing the thing was done by Jesus they're just participating in what's already been done they're just getting to say I was washed clean by the blood of Christ he was buried I'm buried he's risen I'm risen but it's all because of Jesus I'm just participating in what he's accomplished it's like if you said I'm really hungry and your your parent said good I just cooked dinner and then you said great now what'll I have to do eat it.

But the eating it and the fixing the hunger the eating it and the enjoyment are taking place at the same time so you're doing a thing but the thing that really had to be done was already done that's the cooking like I've sat before my wife my wife my mom has made a meal my dad sat down her three sons sat down and we all just started eating my mom sat for a while and then said ain't nobody going to say thank you.

For the meal and we're all like thank you but we were just eating we were enjoying it but we weren't weren't being actually all that grateful we were participating in I've never once been anywhere where someone sat down started eating and then looked at the person who cooked and said you not going to thank me for eating this' are you crazy what are you talking about the cooking is the thing the eating is the participating Paul is saying participate in what.

Jesus has done participate in the fact that you have a lord who is good participate that Christians get to be joy-filled non-anxious get aable people because all the the real stuff has already been done and we just get invited in someone throws a party and they open the door and they say come on in you go I got to walk all the way over there yeah come on in it's going to be good now listen for the person struggles with anxiety and struggles with joy it's going to feel like this is that's too easy that's not how this works that's too easy it's not how it works and it just doesn't it just doesn't work.

Like that because I want to have joy and I I just it's just not how it works there's a story in second Kings chapter 5 where the commander of the Syrian Army comes and he has leprosy he finds out that there's a prophet in Israel as he comes to try to find Elisha the prophet in Israel and he first goes to the the castle he goes where the king is because he assumes that's where power would be but he's not there they find out he's got to go to some random place out in the middle of nowhere he shows up he's got gifts he's going to pay.

For this he's going to accomplish it he's got things that he's going to do he's going to try to see if this person can heal him and the prophet Elisha doesn't even come out to him the prophet Elisha just looks at the the his servant and says hey go out and just tell him here's what he needs to do I know who he is I know why he's here tell him he needs to go dip in the River Jordan seven times.

So he comes out he's like hey he doesn't want your gifts and also he's I don't I don't even know he gives an excuse he just says hey you need to go dip in the River Jordan seven times and you'll be cured of your leprosy and the commander of the Syrian Army is furious and he says let's go home because the Jordan River is not a good River he said he even says we got better rivers in Syria if that was the way this worked this is ridiculous and he goes to leave and one of his servants grabs him and says sir.

If he' to told you to do something difficult wouldn't you have done it like if it had been something that was able to be anchored in you or something you had to accomplish or something that you would do wouldn't you have done it and he says it's so easy why don't just try it so he does and he's healed and y'all we're Christians the difficult work has been done and we're invited to participate in what has been accomplished and it's really simple.

But we have to operate by faith so we don't sing to Rejoice we sing as we're rejoicing in what Jesus has already done we don't read our Bible so that we'll get to a place of Joy it's like it's participating already in the joy that we have and some of us are meant to go pray and then say Okay Lord by faith I'm going to set this down and I'm going to walk away and I'm going to try to quit thinking about it by faith and every time I think about it I'm going to try to hand it back to you by faith and I'm going to participate by faith.

If you trust if you're if you're leading an army and you pray before that the Lord will give you Victory the way that you trust the Lord and operate in Victory is you run down the hill and you fight that's how you operate in faith and so what is calling you into is not to wait for joy to show up to then Rejoice but to say I'm going to go ahead and start participating in the joy and not to wait till you feel non- anxious to say I'm going to be non- anxious and I'm going to participate in the PE in the peace that is offered and as much as I can try to press.

You into You' they've got to start working together you've got to eat to get the meal but you get to do it because it's already provided and it's not something you're doing it's something that's been done that you're invited to participate in and you get to the whole time say okay Jesus I'm trusting you okay Jesus I'm trusting that this is given to me okay Jesus I'm trusting that you accomplish this on the cross okay I'm trusting you that I'm not that big and I'm not that strong and I'm not that competent and you aren't counting on me to get all this stuff done.

But that you are good do you know that Christians because Jesus is so wonderful get to sleep all night long because he's so good it's one of the ways that you declare his glory is that people go how how do you have such peace and it surpasses knowledge but it's his and it's given to us he says a peace that surpasses knowledge it surpasses understanding that people look at and go how are you this calm and you go because I have a.

Lord who's that big and I'm not that important and if it all falls apart it's still on him and even if they cut my head off then I just get to be somewhere wonderful because I trust Jesus so right now I'm going to sing and I'm going to celebrate and I'm going to be easy to get along with and I'm going to be non-anxious because I trust my King has ultimately already done all the things that have to to happen and I'm going to do it to the glory of Christ as I participate in what he's accomplished by faith let's pray oh.

Lord there's so many hurdles in our soul to getting there and there are so many ways that we don't think that'll work and there are so many ways that this feels unattainable praise be to Jesus that you came to Ransom and to rescue and to cure and to heal and that there is joy in you that is unending and may we learn how to rejoice and not in a way that is saying okay I'm going to pause what's real and I'm going to think about.

Jesus to try to help calm myself down but then I got to look back at the problems but that we're going to say no I'm going to look to who's real and what's Eternal to reap Orient my mind so that I can understand the situation that I'm in that you're the one that gets us there and so Lord as we press into joy and as we press into peace as we seek to by faith say Okay Lord I'm going to be not anxious and I don't even know how that works may we pray may we hand things to you and may you by your grace and your goodness in the work of Christ give us.

Peace that surpasses knowledge surpasses understanding and guards our hearts and our minds because they are under assault and our society doesn't know how to help us here but you've already done all the work may we Feast on your goodness to the glory of Christ amen.

Worry and Anxiety

Worry and Anxiety

Chet Phillips

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Transcript

Well, good morning. My name's Jeff, one of the pastors here. Grab your Bibles, let's go to Philippians chapter 4. We'll be in Philippians chapter 4. That's on page 637, if you have a blue and white Bible. Today is our last week of our Killjoy series where we've been spending some time taking, taking some time to look at different things in our lives that just rob us of joy.

As Christians, those who follow Jesus, we've been given joy, been given life in Christ, and we have just some things that kind of play with us that we've gotten used to. And so today we're going to be talking about worry and anxiety, and we've kind of flipped this morning, so we're going to spend a little bit of time, but we're going to come out and spend a little time praying and singing, and so we wanted to have time for that, so I'm getting started this morning. And so we're going to get to Philippians in a second, but it's going to take us a second to get there, because I want to kind of lay the framework for us so that we can all kind of approach it the same way and know exactly what we're talking about when we're talking about worry and anxiety. We're going to use those terms interchangeably today as we walk through, and I realize that there's four of us.

We have things to actually be worried about, actually to be anxious over. So let's say, you know, it starts off, maybe you're in high school, and so you begin to, should I go out for a sport? If I go out for a sport, will I make the team? If I make the team, will I actually get to play? If I get to play, will I be any good? Will we win?

Should I ask somebody to a date? Should I go to that party? What should I wear? How's my hair? Do I smell okay? Like there's things to be concerned about.

Maybe it's not just kind of the social stuff, but you're like, should I, when I graduate, should I go to school? Should I get a job? If I go to school, where should I go? How many schools, how many colleges should I apply to? Because I really want to apply to enough so that I get into one, but not so many that I have to apply a lot. Like I don't want to have to write a bunch of essays.

So how much do I do that? Am I going to graduate? When do I graduate? What am I going to do? Let's say you go to college.

You do get into a school. Let's say maybe a couple of schools told you you could come. So now it's like, okay, I've got to figure out which one to go to. But you pick one, you go to college, then it's like, okay, well, am I going to make any friends here? How's that going to go? Should I go to that party?

Should I invite someone to the party? Should I go to the party and try to find someone there to invite to something else? Should I date? How's my hair? Do I smell okay? Like there's, you go back through some of this stuff.

What, I've got to pick a major, and I have an exam this weekend, or the end of this week, and it's in chemistry. Maybe I'll wait until after that exam to pick a major because it might pick for me. Like if I fail that, not chemistry. I'll pick something else. If you begin to try to think, what am I going to do when I graduate? Am I here to get a degree and find a job?

Am I here to find someone to marry? Am I going to get married? Do I smell okay? Like there's going to be, like you continually kind of have things to worry about. Let's say you do start dating.

Let's say you do graduate. When I graduate, are we going to get married? Am I going to start a job? Where? What kind of Job? Am I going to make enough money?

Do I go to graduate school? No, I'm tired of school. So I'm going to start a job. Find one. Finally find one. Let's say you do decide to get married.

Let's say you're in that spot. So you go to get married. Now you've got all some other stuff to be concerned about. How did I move in with one other person and suddenly our expenses tripled? How did that happen? How is that how math works?

Are we going to be able to pay our bills? Is my job going to be good enough? Am I going to do a good enough Job? Am I going to get promoted to it? Can I stay in this job for a long time? Is this a career?

Is this a job? Maybe if you've been married for a while and this is kind of you start thinking of, should we have children? Can we have children? Will we be able to get pregnant? If we get pregnant, will that work out? If it does work out and we have a baby, will that work out?

Will we be able to keep a baby alive? If we do keep it alive, what happens when it becomes a teenager? Let's say you have a girl. What if she wants to date in the future? What if she wants to date a boy? What do I do?

Should I buy a gun or a shovel or both? Which is scarier? A machete or a shotgun? You have things to be concerned about. Then your kids are going to go to school.

They get in high school and you start thinking, are they going to go to college? It starts over. Am I going to retire? Will my health last? Will this sickness go away? And for people who have anxiety and worry, it gets a compound on itself.

So for people who are anxious, who are worriers, you begin to worry about, will I worry? Will I get anxious? When you're anxious and you're worrying, you begin to worry, will this go away? You see, all of us have some anxiety. All of us have some level of worry. And none of us like it.

For people who struggle with anxiety and worry, this is an issue that you have. You don't think, yeah, no, this is good for me. I love my anxiety. I love my worry. I love my stress. I love that I grind my teeth when I go to sleep, if I can fall asleep.

I love that I wake up in the morning and think, will I get through the day without being anxious? That all of us who struggle with anxiety and worry, we really have one major overarching question, I believe, which is, what do I do with this? I know that it's an issue. I don't have legitimate things to be anxious over. But what do I do in my anxiety?

What do I do in my worry? So as we get into this today, I want us to know a few things. There are, worry and anxiety are both a mental state and a feeling. There's some form of physicality to worry and anxiety. Here's what I mean. You can't be worried mentally, so you're thinking about what could happen, what might happen, what if this happens, what if this is how this happens.

There's just a mental state, kind of riding in circles in your brain, thinking through all the things that could go on. But there's also a feeling to it. There's a pressure. There's some people describing like a balloon fills up inside of them or like they're being squeezed. Maybe your blood pressure rises, your heart starts beating faster, and they can go together, and one of them can cause the other. So you want to have something that you're thinking about that causes all of the feelings, all the physical feelings.

Some of us actually begin the physical feelings first before we even begin to think about what on earth is worrying us. It's almost like, for some of you, it's almost like you're a little animal in a cartoon, and the background music changes. So what was like happy little, I'm not, I'm a musician, but something like that. Suddenly the background music changes to like a, like violence coming in, there's some sort of theory, and you don't know what's about to happen, but you know it's not good. And so maybe that's what your anxiety feels like. You don't know what's going on, but suddenly it's like the background music changed, and your body is telling you something bad is about to happen, but you can't even think about what it is.

And so this anxiety, this tightness, this stress, this pressure, this balloon inflating inside of you makes you begin to run in your head. What could it be? What's going to happen? How is this going to happen? I want us to know a few things as we go together this passage. We have to see a few things clearly to understand what's going on.

One, worry and anxiety are not simply circumstantial. Not simply circumstantial, meaning that some of you are worried or are worried, how am I going to pay for this? You don't have money, so you're worried. How are we going to pay all our bills? How are we going to keep our house? How are we going to?

And then here's what happens, though. You can talk to anybody who has money. Getting money doesn't take away the worry. You just begin to worry about other things. How am I going to keep what I have? How am I going to get more?

You begin to be concerned over your possessions now. Worry is not simply circumstantial. It's not like you can move to a different circumstance and it goes away. It does have circumstances tied to it, certainly. And there are, for some of us, we are worried about, well, this is a specific thing I'm worried about. Of course you are.

But worry and anxiety are not merely circumstantial. So if you took away the circumstances, you'd be fine. Worry also tells us some truth. Our anxiety is telling us some truth. Number one, it's telling us that the world is not how it should be. Alan Tipping, a pastor at Midtown Fellowship, he laid this out.

He said, the worry tells us some truth. I thought it was helpful. So one, it tells you the world's broken. It's not as it should be. There are actual things to be worried about. Actual bad things that can happen.

There's brokenness and pain and sickness and death. They exist. There are real things to be worried about. Secondly, our worry tells us that there are actual things to care about. Real things that we should be worried over. Real things to love and to value.

That our worry tells us the truth. It tells us that our world isn't as it should be. And that there are actual things worth loving. Worth being concerned for. And thirdly, our worry tells us that we're not in control. So not only is the world broken, not only are there things actually that we should care about, but thirdly, we at times have no control over any of that.

No control over health. No control over wealth. No control over happiness. No control over relationships. We have no control over it. That our worry is telling us some truth.

It's not telling us the whole truth, but it is telling us some truth. So that for us, worry is not in and of itself. And I'm going to clarify this as we keep going. But worry and anxiety, this feeling, is not by itself wrong or bad. It means that you have no faith and don't love Jesus. That there is a level of physicality to it.

There's a level of blood pressure and heartbreak and real things to be concerned about. The Bible's question is, what do we do with our worry, with our anxiety? I want to read this from Luke 12. It's going to be on screen, so you don't have to flip there. I just want you to see this. This is Jesus talking.

And he's talking about the cross. I have a baptism to be baptized with. That's the cross. That's a baptism he's going to go through. He refers to it at some point as a baptism of fire. He's going to the cross.

I have a baptism to be baptized with. And how great is my distress until it is accomplished. So this is Jesus looking forward to the cross and saying, I'm distressed. That word also means hard pressed or squeezed. I'm bound. I feel it.

I feel like someone is putting pressure on me. I'm distressed until it's accomplished. Now, Jesus was not a worrier. He was not anxious. But he felt this distress for a legitimate reason, a legitimate purpose.

We see him in the garden of Gethsemane. In Gethsemane, before he goes to the cross, the night before he goes to the cross, he is sweating drops of blood. He feels in himself anxiety that he's on his knees praying and pouring himself out to God. So for the person in the room who struggles with anxiety, for the person who at times has panic attacks or anxiety attacks or maybe you're on some medication, what I want you to hear is anxiety by itself is not immediately simple or wrong. The Bible's question is, what are you going to do with it? And so that's what we're going to spend our time on today is actually beginning to ask the question, what do we do with our anxiety?

How do we respond? Because for us, it does rob us of joy. It does, it can derail us for you. A month. And you may be, you're saying, I have legitimate things to be worried about. Yes.

But what do we do in those legitimate moments? And what do we do in the illegitimate moments? What do we do with our anxiety? The other thing we've talked about as we've gone through this series and we won't have as much time to spend on it today is that we have three enemies. The flesh, that's us. The world.

All of everything outside of us in the devil. And as Christians, we should pray about all three. So Jesus says the normal prayer is, forgive me my sins, that's flesh. Leave me not into temptation. That's the world. And deliver us from evil or the evil one.

That's the devil. So that's a normal way for all of us to pray. And I would encourage every person who struggles with anxiety as a, this is a part of life for me. I would encourage you to pray those three ways about your anxiety. God, if this is me causing undue anxiety, I pray that you'd forgive me. I pray that you'd help me.

If there are ways that you can help me avoid situations and circumstances that make me anxious, temptation should be anxious. I pray that you'd help me there, keep me from it. And if the enemy is involved in my anxiety, he doesn't get to me. So if he's jacking up my heart rate or making me feel this extra pressure just in the name of Jesus, I get to be free from that. So if you've listened to the majority of this series, that makes sense to you.

If you're new today, probably doesn't. I'd love to talk to you afterwards. We're just not going to spend a lot of time on that today. This morning. So anxiety is both a mental state and a feeling.

I'm going to pray and then we're going to start reading Philippians 4. God, we thank you that your word helps us in our anxiety. We're as anxious as a society as we have, as medicated as we are, as worried as we are. I'm so thankful that your word talks about this. That you talk to real humans where they are. You need us where we are.

You begin to help us. Let's pray that through your word today we begin to learn how we ought to respond to our anxiety. And that we will grow in our love for you and our trust in you. In Jesus' name. Amen. Philippians 4, verse 4.

Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice. That means celebrate. Be happy. Have joy in it. Overwhelming joy.

So you say, have joy in the Lord. Rejoice. I'll say it again. Rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand.

It means Jesus is prominent. He's coming back. He's here. Verse 6. Do not be anxious about anything. Well, there you go.

You're welcome. Paul says, do not be anxious about anything. And if you just stop there, that wouldn't be helpful. Some of you who struggle with anxiety. When I say Philippians 4, you knew where we were going. You're like, yeah, here we go.

Okay, Philippians 4. Somebody, you've memorized this. Maybe some well-meaning person in your life used it as a Bible bullet to shoot you with. Shoot you with. Shoot you with. Shoot you with.

So you were trying to be anxious. You're welcome. Let me help you out here. First of all, Paul doesn't stop here. He's telling the truth. What he's saying is right.

Don't be anxious about anything. But he's going to tell us how. And he's going to give us some help. For the person in the room who has an anxious spouse or an anxious sibling or parent or roommate or friend. The Bible does say, do not be anxious. But it says a lot behind that that helps us out.

Don't just say this to people. Really anxious about my test. Well, don't be. Thank you so much. You fixed me. Some of you, maybe your spouse is anxious at what you do.

But you just tell them the reason why they shouldn't be. You give them a reason. You're like, no. You don't have to worry about that. You don't have to be anxious about that. Even the Bible says, don't be anxious.

And then you get frustrated with them. You have a very. For those people who do not struggle with worry and anxiety. There are a few things that can be as frustrating as being in a close relationship to a person who struggles with worry and anxiety. No amens. No anybody.

But just that's a real thing. Because if you don't think about it. If you don't struggle. If you've never experienced it. You've never had a panic attack. You've never.

Like any of those things. When somebody's freaking out. And it seems like for no reason whatsoever. It is very hard when you go. Okay. You logically understand.

Like nothing's going to get you. Yes. I'm still freaking out. Well, stop. That'd be like walking up some stairs behind a person on crutches. And yelling, go faster.

Repeatedly. If they could. They would. The only benefit of being the person with crutches is they can hit you with them. The person who's anxious cannot make you be anxious too. So.

Yes. What Paul says here is true. Don't be anxious about anything. But it doesn't stop there. So we're not going to eat it.

It's going to help us here. Alright. Do not be anxious about anything. But in everything. By prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. Let your requests be made known to God.

Okay. As I was studying this. I got more and more excited about what I think Paul's saying here. Don't be anxious about anything. Don't let anything cause you anxiety. Don't let anything stress you out or overwhelm you.

And then he says, but in everything. Pray. Don't be anxious about anything. Pray about everything. Here's what I think we need to see. Very clearly this morning.

Because anxiety is both a mental state and a physical feeling. Paul says the way to immediately counteract worry and anxiety. Is to begin praying. If you are praying. You are not worrying. And you're not being anxious.

That's really good news. And here's what I don't mean by that. And here's what I don't think he means by that. The feeling immediately goes away. So you're anxious.

You're stressed. Your heart's pounding out of your chest. Or you just have a lot of things to worry about. You're worried about your children. Maybe it's not a whole lot of anxiety. Maybe there's not a whole lot of physical feelings going on.

It's just a mental thing. What he says is no. Start praying. Start making your requests known to God. Start taking the things that you're running around in your head that you're concerned about. Start just praying about them.

It's kind of like this. If I have work to do and I don't do it, I'm lazy. The second I start working, I'm not lazy anymore. But my circumstances haven't changed. There's still all the work to be done. So what he's saying is circumstances aren't going to immediately change.

Maybe your feeling isn't going to immediately change. Your level of anxiety isn't going to change. But as soon as you start praying, it's no longer anxiety. It's no longer worry. Because we're in anxiety are godless. They are aimed nowhere or at yourself.

You begin to act like you're the person in charge of everything when you are worrying, when you're anxious. What Paul says is no. Start praying. And that immediately makes you not worry and anxiety, even though the circumstances are the same and the feeling is the same. I think that can be very free for those who struggle with worrying and anxiety to be able to know, if I'm praying, I'm doing what I'm supposed to. If I'm making my request known to God, I'm immediately doing what I'm called to do.

Here's the thing about worrying and anxiety. Worry and anxiety are a call to action with no action to take. Worry and anxiety make us want to change something. Change the situation. Change the circumstances. Fix something.

Make sure something doesn't happen in the future. And the reason we're in anxiety is because we can't do anything about it. We have zero control. Biblically, worry and anxiety are a call to action and there is an action to take. Prayer. You immediately get to pray.

And here's what I want you to know. Prayer works. You get to talk to the God who's absolutely faithful and in control of your circumstances. For those of you who feel like I'm a warrior and this won't go away, maybe you need to stop praying, Lord, take away my anxiety. And you need to just realize you've been called to pray about what it is you're anxious about. You get to spend some time praying about your children, praying about your parents, praying about your roommates, your school, your job.

You get to go before God and we get to make some requests. That's beautiful. And that's freeing. Because you say, well, I want my anxiety to go away. It might not. But it immediately is no longer anxiety when you're praying.

You can change the word. It's to be concerned. Because praying counteracts anxiety. Because anxiety is the name of nowhere. It's godless. And prayer is the name towards God.

And it's worshiping. So the way to not be anxious about anything is to pray about everything. So if you're a person who says, I'm really anxious, well, you don't have to be. Because you get to pray about everything. Not to say that it'll fix it. Not to say God will do what you ask him to.

Not to say that you feel different. But it's not anxiety if you're praying. So some of you have been praying and you feel like you're praying about something and you feel like, I'm still anxious. Not if you're praying. Not if you're praying. You may feel the same.

It's not anxiety. Okay. So you've been called to do something. Here's what I want you to see. So here's what I think for people who struggle with anxiety.

And especially when it's a legitimate, like I'm anxious over this relationship. I'm anxious over this child. I'm anxious over this thing that's going on in the life that's coming up. It causes anxiety. Maybe it causes you more than other people. So all of your other classmates are also taking exams.

But you're the one who can't sleep at night. I want to tell you a story that Jesus tells in Luke chapter 12. I think this is so helpful. He's talking about prayer. He's telling them to keep praying and not to give up. And here's what he says.

There's a widow who keeps going to a judge who doesn't love God. He doesn't fear people or God. And she keeps going to him day after day after day after day after day after day after day. And finally, he gives her justice. The judge does what he's supposed to because she kept bothering him. Now, why does she keep bothering him?

She had a legitimate thing to be concerned over. She had a legitimate thing that was weighing on her mind. So what did she do? She took it to the person who could do something about it. And Jesus says this is a model for prayer. When you have something legitimate weighing on your mind and concerning you and something that you're bothered by, that actually drives you to God.

So I actually don't think the Bible wants to eradicate all of our concern. For some of us who are anxious over things, I would just wish it would go away and I would stop thinking about this. But maybe God in your anxiety is calling you to prayer. Not to worry, but to him. That's beautiful. I hope we have a lot of people who can't sleep at night so that they get up and go get on their knees before Jesus.

That would be beautiful. I hope there's a lot of people that wake up with legitimate concerns for their children and their families and people in their community group and people in our city. So they spend time before Jesus and their anxiety still presses down on them and they run to the one who can help. That's beautiful. Because when we're praying, we're not anxious. We're putting it to work.

So Paul's going to give us... So that immediately counteracts the mental state. You may feel the same, but you're actually going to put your anxiety, you're going to put your worry to work. And then it's no longer anxiety, it's no longer worry. But Paul's also going to give us ways to pray that begin to help, I think, specifically counteract our needless worry or our worry that is too great.

So you have a legitimate thing to be worried about. So some of you, you've got an exam coming. And you should have some concern over it. Enough to study. Enough to care. To look at your syllabus.

To show up to the class on time. Some of your friends who never worry, miss the exam. And that might seem great that they don't worry, but they didn't look at their syllabus. They showed up two days late. They thought they were there on the exam day and they're handing out grace. There's some level of worry that's helpful.

Some of your friends are dumb. Okay. You have something to actually worry about. But then, you begin to add layers on top of that. What if I show up late? What if it still says this, but it's actually a different thing?

What if it changed today and I didn't see anything? What if I get there and it turns out all the stuff I studied isn't on the test? What if I show up to the wrong class? What if I end up taking that exam because I don't notice the wrong class? What if this is the one thing that I fail? What if it turns out that everything I studied, even though I have a decent grade point average Job, and this is what I can make if I fail, if I fail this class, and then I won't graduate, if I don't graduate, I'm going to end up not being able to get a job, I'm going to go live with my parents, and that would be terrible, so I'll run away.

Even though I'm an adult, I'm going to pack a bag and run away. Like, you add on layer after layer after layer after layer of what if, what if, what if, and you have a legitimate thing to be concerned about. Some of you use your children. Some of you use the health of someone you care about. You have a legitimate thing to be concerned about, and you begin adding layer after layer after layer. I think what Paul's going to say in the next section on how we pray helps free us up a little bit.

So he gives us three tools for prayer. Supplication, thanksgiving, and meditation. We're going to go through these, but supplication, thanksgiving, and meditation. So the first one, supplication. So he says this in verse 6.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, lay your request, be made known to God. Okay, so supplication means a humble request. What he's saying is, in the midst of your anxiety, realize that God is both big and good. You know how when you're little, maybe you learn how to pray, God is great, God is good. Great means big. Good means good.

So we also use great to mean good. That's confusing. It means God is big, God is good. That's what supplication is. It's actually, I believe he's big enough, and he cares about me. So when I was little, and I would misbehave with my mom, after a while, she stopped spanking us because it didn't work.

She wasn't good at it. My father was good at it. He had lots of practice, I guess. I don't know. He practiced when my older brother loved me. By the time he came to me, he was a master.

He was an art form. He was spanking. He was amazing. He knew what he was doing. He was a pro. And so my mom would look at us, and she would say, you can sit over there and wait until your dad gets home.

Because she knew when my dad showed up, he could handle it. And some of us, that's what supplication is. We need to look at our worries and say, sit over there and wait until God gets here. See, we're so focused on our worry, our anxiety, that it's as big as a mountain. But yeah, that's a miniscule compared to the God who holds the emotion in his hand.

Some of us need to look at our worry and say, sit over there. And then begin to turn and talk to God and ask him, because he's big and because he's good, to step down in the back. To humble ourselves. To know that we're not the ones who are going to fix this. We're not the ones who are in charge of this. We have no control over this.

Some of you think, if I have control over how my kids turn out, yeah, a little bit. But God has more. I have control over what happens at work. Yeah, a little bit. But God has more.

And so we get to begin to go to him and ask, be at work here. Help me here. I believe that you're big and I believe that you're good and I'm humbling myself to actually help. That's what supplication is. It's a humble request. And he says, make your request known to God.

You see, when he says supplication, thanksgiving, meditation, this is how the Psalms work. If you ever pray through the Psalms, you'll realize they pray some bad theology. I may mess with you a little bit. There are times where the psalmist says things like, God, kill my enemies. And Jesus says, love your enemies. But what he says, this is what I want.

You get to start making requests to God. He may not give them to you. But you get to talk to him. You get to be real. You don't have to clean it up for him. You get to go say, this is what's stressing me out.

This is what's bothering me. This is what's on my mind. And you get to just lay your requests out there. And he'll begin to draw you to himself. And he'll begin to change you. But you get to talk to him.

You get to be honest. You get to humble yourself and make requests. Two, thanksgiving. So he says, do not be anxious about anything, but it's everything by prayer and supplication. So that's humble request.

With thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. Here's what thanksgiving does. Thanksgiving is past-oriented or present-oriented. What you're doing in that moment is saying, here's what you've done before. Here's how you've been good before. Here's what's going on in my life right now that I can appreciate.

That I can be thankful for. So for those of you who struggle with worry and anxiety, you start off by praying. You start off by making humble requests. But then you can just start, you can pause that and start saying, God, thank you for how you answered in the past. Thank you for all the times that I've been anxious over something and you actually worked. I'm here.

For some of you who've struggled with anxiety for a long time, you've had years of anxious things and you're here. You made it. God has answered. He has worked. I know you've moved from anxiety to anxiety, but he's answered his words. You get to remember.

You get to recount what he's done. You get to say he answered here and he answered here and he answered here. Some of you that says, God, I thank you that I'm alive. I'm sucking oxygen today. I'm thankful for the cross. You died to rescue me.

I know you have my back. For those of you who are worried and anxious, have you tried praising him? Have you tried thanking him? Have you tried singing and remembering all that he's done, all that he is? Thanks again. So, supplication with thanksgiving.

So, you want to make humble requests, but you also want to be thankful. Seven. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Okay. Okay. Here's how I've heard this talk before, and I think that it is correct, but I think it works two ways.

I've heard it this way. Don't be anxious. Don't be anxious. Pray. And you'll feel great. Don't be anxious.

Pray. And then peace, magical super peace. Peace beyond all understanding. Right? It's this, don't be anxious. Pray.

And then suddenly, you will feel like you are in a cloud. Right? Right? You've heard that. I think that that is true. I think that that can happen.

That God can so wrap you up in a cloud that everything else melts away. But I also think that's not the only way this happens. Here's what it says. A peace, the peace of God. So an eternal, cosmic, massive and glorious peace.

It's God's peace, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. For some of you who struggle with worry and anxiety, I think what Paul is saying is get on your list. Begin to pray and trust that God's peace will guard your heart and your mind. That he will clamp down on you and he'll keep you. And that a year from now, two years from now, it will make no sense that you stayed. No sense that you were faithful.

No sense that you still loved him. It will surpass knowledge, but his peace will have clamped down on you. And kept you in the midst of something that should have torn you apart. It should have ruined your marriage. It should have ruined your family. It should have ruined you.

It should have had you walk away from the faith. And Jesus' peace will guard your heart and your mind. He will protect you in the midst of all the things that attack you. See, we think that, okay, there are many situations that keep going, but I'll feel fine. And I'm not sure that's the case. I think sometimes it means he'll grab ahold of you and you'll make it through.

For some of you, you have in your mind, in times of anxiety, you have all of this that's attacking you and say, Jesus doesn't love me. God isn't real. This isn't okay. I'm not going to make it. I don't know if I believe in the cross anymore. And at that same time, you're going, Jesus, help me.

Help me to believe. Help me to trust in you. If I'm going to have faith, it's going to be you doing it. And I believe that's that moment where the Holy Spirit, on some sort of subterranean level, has reached in and grabbed you and just said, I know you have no faith right now. And I know you have no way that you understand how this is going to work out. But you belong to me.

And I'm going to guard your heart and your mind. And there's going to be a peace that surpasses understanding so that you'll still be mine when this is over. Now, feel free to pray for the cloud. But ask him, let me feel good. But trust in those moments if you're a Christian, that he's going to give you a peace that you won't understand, that you won't be able to see, and he's going to hold you and guard your heart and your mind, and he's going to keep you for himself.

Because it's a God-level peace that's beyond all circumstances. The third tool he gives us. See that? Just verse 7, real quick. The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. He keeps you in Christ.

Beyond anybody's ability to understand, he keeps you. Okay. Hey. Third thing he uses is meditation. And I'm going to read this, and then we'll talk about the difference between maybe your picture of meditation and Christian meditation. So, finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

Let me read that again. Okay. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Okay, so we talk about meditation. If you're familiar with most forms of meditation, Eastern meditation, it is the clearing of your mind. You want it to empty your mind.

That is not Christian meditation. Christian meditation is you want to fill your mind with the things of God. So, you want to meditate on a passage of Scripture. You want to meditate on what's true and right. You want to sit and just think about the cross. You want to sit and study a section of Scripture and memorize it.

That's Christian meditation. David says, I hide your word in my heart. Meaning, I'm so engulfed in it. I've spent so much time in it that it's inside of me. So, what Paul says is, whatever. Whatever is good.

Whatever is lovely. Whatever is just. Whatever is commendable. If there is anything that is praiseworthy, think about these things. You know that song? I don't know how it is a Christmas song, but you're about to start hearing it on the radio.

The few of my favorite things. When the dog bites with these things. Think about my favorite things. I think it's a Christmas song because it says brown paper package. It's not up the street. I think that's the only thing I can think of.

It's from the sound of music. It's the only thing I can think of. But she says, basically, when I'm feeling bad, think about my stuff. So, Paul says, take a minute in the midst of your worry. And one aspect of this is just think about things that are good. Look, when you're worried and concerned and you're anxious, guess what?

Puppies still exist. They're out there. They're still fuzzy. Beautiful landscapes. The Grand Canyon. Like, you get to sit and think about things that are lovely and good.

Think about cinnamon. It smells great. It makes everything taste better. Think about biscuits. Think about cinnamon biscuits. You get to just think about some things that are good.

Some things that you love, that you appreciate. Anything lovely. Anything praiseworthy. Anything excellent. It also means that for Christians, it is a practice for us. It's something that we regularly do to find the things that stir our affections for Jesus and do those things.

Find the things that help us love Jesus. That's why Jesus says the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind, all your in-chain. Like, what we're called to do is to love him and focusing on what's pure and just and excellent and lovely includes Jesus. He is the truth. He is what is excellent. He is what is praiseworthy.

And we need to find the things that stir our affections. So for some of you, that's walking in the woods. As you walk in the woods, it's like you come alive to God and his creation and what he's done. You need to praise him. Like, one of the reasons we gather on Sundays to study his word and to sing is because it's reminding us of his good. It's stirring our affections for him.

I leave on Sundays. Sometimes we sing songs and I think that's true. You did die for me. You did rescue me. And it's like it imprints it into my mind. It pushes it down into my heart.

It takes things I know and it makes them real. We've got to find ways to stir our affections. Some of you that's being alone. Some of you that's hanging out with a bunch of church family and just talking about how God's good. That that reminds you of his goodness. It reminds you that you're not by yourself.

Some of you this is singing songs to, what's it, Caleb? On the radio. Find what it is. Some of you, if I asked you right now, what is it that stirs your affections for Jesus? You would have no answer. And if you were a Christian, my suggestion to you is start finding some things.

Serving. Giving away some of your money. That stirs my affections for Jesus. When I have to give up some of my money, it reminds me that Jesus is good and that he matters more than my money. It's painful in the beginning and then it reminds me of the gospel. Being outside.

Sitting in a pure stand. I think about Jesus. Like, find what it is. Reading scripture. Studying scripture. Memorizing scripture.

Focus on those. Meditate. Spend time on them. Okay. Here's the thing when it comes to meditation. Look down at, when it comes to action to all of these.

Prayers, supplication, Thanksgiving, and meditation. Verse 9. Well, you have learned and received and heard and seen in me. So he's saying, look, we actually, you were in life with me. You know what I'm talking about. But you've learned and received and heard and seen in me.

Practice these things and the God of peace will be with you. Okay. Practice these things. I love that he uses the word practice because it means two things. It means you're not going to be great at it and you get to continue to do this forever. It's a practice.

It's a normal part of life for you. So, any of y'all ever tried to learn a sport? Maybe you tried to play ping pong for the first time. Maybe that's low on your scale of sports, but I'm just trying to pick something here. Maybe the first time you ever played cornhole or pin jam or tried to do anything. Maybe some of y'all watched those videos online where people flipped a water bottle.

And you thought, that's easy. And then you tried. Okay. You weren't good at first. For those of you who struggle with anxiety and you think, I prayed, I'm not fixed. That's why it's a practice.

Keep doing it. Keep praying. Keep being thankful. Keep remembering what's good. And do it over and over and over again. You're not going to pray today and have your anxiety going.

You're going to pray today and tomorrow and the next day and all the days. Because it's a practice. It's what you continually have to do to remind yourself. You get to practice. This also means it takes time. The people who do anything well spend a lot of time on it.

There are very few people in the world who just are magically good at things. Most people who are here playing an instrument, you say. Did you practice? They'll look and you respond. Nope. I found the saxophone and I was good at it.

No. It's not what they say. It's not true. They'll say yes. Hours and hours. Hours and hours and hours.

Some of you should know the worry and anxiety. You need to start going to bed later. You need to start getting up earlier. You need to start finding some time. You need to work out something with your spouse. You need to watch kids.

Because you've got to close your computer. Get off of Facebook. Get off of Twitter. You need to have space and time to be unplugged without any kind of screen in your face slashing things at you. You need to take the time to meditate on God's word and his goodness. You need to take the time to pray.

Do you know how anxious our society is? I've tried to reasonably watch. I watched cartoons with my son. This is like one and a half or whatever. This is how cartoons are these days. It's like.

They're just. They're hyper. And then I tried to watch the old Mr. Rogers neighborhood. I almost died. I used to watch that growing up.

It was painful. He just like walks in. He's like. I'm going to take 25 seconds to take my shoes off. It's like. Who paid this cat for this?

Like. He's just stalling. This isn't television. We're so used to everything happening so quickly. We're so used to. If you're scrolling through Facebook.

Look. How many videos do you watch the first 10 seconds of? Like. You just can't. I'm not able to focus. I get on Twitter.

After I get off Twitter. I'm like. Everything is like 150 characters or something. I don't know. It's short. I just flip through.

I do that for 10 or 15 minutes. Afterwards. I'm just like. It's like. I just cranked my ADD up. Like.

We have. Yeah. When was the last time you sat? For 15 minutes. With nothing. Going on.

So we're sure you should have to propose. And it used to be when you waited for a bus. Or you waited in the doctor's office. And the best thing you could have is a magazine. Some of y'all. You're waiting.

Is now you watching Netflix on your phone? And then we wonder why we're hyper. And we have ADD. And we're anxious. We don't ever spend any time. Where it's quiet.

Where our brain gets to rest a little bit. Where we're doing something that's just creative. Or we're. Like. You've got to make time for. Practicing.

Supplication. Thanksgiving. And meditation. You have to have time. Anxiety and worry insert themselves into your life. Prayer and meditation do not.

You ever. You ever been riding to work. And suddenly just. You heard a pop. And now you had to meditate for an hour. No.

But you got a flat tire. You ever been to work. And it turns out someone was sick. So then you had two hours to break. No. But you had someone sick.

So you had to do twice as much work that day. Worry and anxiety are going to show up. Your child is going to run into your room. At two o'clock in the morning. And throw up on the floor. Prayer is not going to run into your room.

At two o'clock in the morning. And you're like. I'll spend some time. It's not going to happen. You have to make time for it. That's the one thing.

Like. In our anxiety. We've got to make some space. Which means you've got to say no to some things in your life. You've got to get your bummed down some. You've got to turn your computer off.

You've got to work out something with your spouse. Some sort of schedule. So that you can rest. So that you can sap it. So that you can have some time.

Because these work. And they'll go to work on us. But we've got to have time. Then you make some promise here at the end. Practice these things. And the God of peace will be with you.

That is the Christian promise. That is the promise we're given and kept in Jesus. Is that God is with us. He joined us. We don't have a God who's always stayed above the frame. We have a God that says I have a baptism to be baptized with.

And I'm distressed until it happens. We have a God that falls on his face before his father. And sweat pours off. And he prays. Lord help me. Take us away if you can.

And if not. Help me to be faithful. Your will be done. Romans 8. 32 says this. He who did not spare his own son.

But gave him up for us all. How will he not also with him. Graciously give us all things. You see. We have the Christian promise. Which is that God is with us.

That he joined us. That he went to the cross. That God gave up his own son. So that we can trust him infinitely. That in the midst of everything. We can lean into him.

And run into him. Because he loves us. If you're a Christian. The Holy Spirit dwells in you. God is actively with you. His peace is actively with you.

Jesus doesn't just say I'm going to send comfort. He says I'm going to send the comfort. I'm not just going to send you help. I'm going to send the helper. For those of us who are in Christ. The Holy Spirit dwells in us.

And works in us. And holds us. And guards us. And keeps us. And in the midst of anything you're going through. The God of peace will be with you.

That is the Christian promise. Confirmed and sealed. And forever ours on the cross. There's an indigent and fruit. There's a risen kingdom on the throne. And a helper and a comfort that dwells inside of us.

To keep us. And carry us on. That's what we have in Christ. So here's what we're going to do. Today's a little different. The band's going to come back up here.

We are going to spend the next bit of time that we have together practicing these practices. Because they're practices. So you have to do them. So rather than just talking about this. Talking about supplication and thanksgiving and meditation and living life. Go home and try to find a place to do that.

We figured you were already here. You'd already cleared your schedule. So let's begin to practice a little bit. Let's begin to go ahead and walk through some of what the opportunity we have is what Paul's called us into. So for the very first thing Paul says is to take your worry and take your anxiety.

Don't be anxious about them. But pray about anything. By supplication. So what we're going to do is we're going to take just a minute right where you are. And we're going to humbly ask God to work. You have things to be anxious over.

You have things to be worried about. We're not going to sit in our worry and our anxiety and have an ambulance. We're going to point it to Jesus in the midst of all the real concerns you have. You begin to just say, God, I need you. I need you to help me here. I need you to be at work here.

I need you to redeem here. I need you to step into this situation. I don't have any control of their health. I don't have any control of this relationship. I can't make them repent. I can't make them come back.

So right now where we are, I want you to just begin to take all the things you're concerned about. All the things you're worried about. Maybe short-term stuff that's happening this week. Stuff that's not going to happen. It's five years away. You can just ask God.

Move here. Work here. Let's do that now.

Whoops! We had some problems recording on Sunday. Unfortunately the best we've got is the recording from our iMac's internal microphone. Sorry for the sneezing!