Put Away Your Anxious Heart

Life of the church

Good morning everyone. Thank you for joining us on this beautiful Sunday morning.

I have a few announcements I’d like to go over as we begin this morning, most of which are found in your bulletins.

The men’s group will meet tonight at 6:00 pm. They will also be having a cookout next Sunday. More details will come for that later, but all men are invited to attend.

We will also be having our monthly deacon meeting this coming Tuesday at 7:00. If you’re a deacon, please try to attend that.

Our Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions is now complete. Our goal for that was $2,500, which we exceeded. Thank you all for giving to such an important ministry.

I’ll remind you that if you’re a soon-to-be graduate or know someone who is, please fill out the questionnaire in your bulletin so we can recognize you as a church.

We’ll be having a very short business meeting after the service this morning to vote on a new roof for our church, so please remember that. I promise we won’t keep you long.

George, will you give us an update on the pastor search committee?

I had a prayer request this morning for the Whitten family of Fairfield. Their 10-year-old daughter was killed yesterday in a 4-wheeler accident. Please remember them.

Also, please keep Connie Lotts in your prayers. She’s dealing with some health issues. Please reach out to her as you’re led, and please lift up Connie and Barry and their family.

Sue, do you have anything?

Opening Prayer:

Let’s pray. We are gathered here today, Lord God, as your people, to pray and to sing and to worship.

We are burdened with many cares and worries, and yet, Father, we know You hold us in the palm of your hand.

We know that not even a sparrow falls without your knowing. And we know that your grace and forgiveness extends to each person.

We come from different walks of life; some have walked with you for many years, others are just starting their journey; some are strong, others weak; some are full of joy, others burdened by care.

You love each of us in equal measure. You pour your blessings on us in equal measure. Be with us now as this family worships you. In Jesus’s name, Amen.

Sermon

It used to be that the best way to understand what people in America were thinking and feeling was to take a poll. Nowadays, of course, an easier and more accurate way is to figure out what everyone is searching for on the internet. And the news isn’t so great.

Since 2004, Google searches for the word “anxiety” have increased 150 percent. One-third of Americans say they feel more anxious than they did a year ago. Two-thirds are anxious about at least one part of their lives.

This epidemic of worry doesn’t really seem to be linked to anything specific. Two years of the pandemic certainly hasn’t helped us, but it seems like Covid didn’t really cause worry in people as much as it made our worry more and worse.

We’re all anxious, and we all have good reason to be. It’s a tough time to be alive, it really is. And you could say that about any time.

Each of us is going through something no matter how much faith we have. It feels like there’s a rumble of panic running just beneath the surface of every single day.

A lot of times our anxiety feels like more than fear. More than worry. It’s something deeper, a constant gnawing at the heart. What do we do as Christians when our lives start feeling this way? How do we fix it?

The Psalms is famous for being the Bible’s songbook, and the heart of the Old Testament. Not just for the poetry or the language. For the honesty.

You will not find a more honest text in any religion about what it means to live in this world than the Psalms. And many of those Psalms deal with anxiety, like the one we’re going to study today.

Turn in your Bibles to Psalm 27:

The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

When evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh, my adversaries and foes, it is they who stumble and fall.

Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war arise against me, yet I will be confident.

One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple.

For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble; he will conceal me under the cover of his tent; he will lift me high upon a rock.

And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me, and I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy; I will sing and make melody to the LORD.

Hear, O LORD, when I cry aloud; be gracious to me and answer me!

You have said, “Seek my face.” My heart says to you, “Your face, LORD, do I seek.”

Hide not your face from me. Turn not your servant away in anger, O you who have been my help.

Cast me not off; forsake me not, O God of my salvation! For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the LORD will take me in.

Teach me your way, O LORD, and lead me on a level path because of my enemies.

Give me not up to the will of my adversaries; for false witnesses have risen against me, and they breathe out violence.

I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living!

Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD!

And this is God’s word.

There’s so much in this Psalm to touch on when it comes to dealing with this problem of anxiety, which is something we all battle to one degree or another, no matter how strong our faith might be.

The author is David, and of course David’s whole life was filled with one terrible time after another — much of it by his own making, but also a lot that wasn’t. David knew about worry, and he knew a lot about overcoming it with God’s help.

When we look at this Psalm, we see right away that even though it’s filled with all of these great promises, it’s also very real about the things we go through. And that realism is so important.

The Bible never pulls any punches on how tough life is. It doesn’t gloss over the fact that this world is a hard place and we’ll often get stomped on, which goes against a lot of what popular psychology teaches.

If you go to a psychologist because you’re really struggling with worry and anxiety, what’s that psychologist probably going to say? It’ll probably be something like, “Stop wasting your time and energy on worrying about things that probably won’t happen.”

And there’s a certain logic to that, isn’t there? Most of the things we worry about really don’t happen. But David takes the opposite approach. He writes in this Psalm about things that haven’t happened, but could.

For example, in verse 10, he says, “For my mother and father have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me in.”

There’s absolutely no evidence at all that David’s parents ever turned their backs on him in any way.

And verse 3 says, “Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear.” David doesn’t say that an entire army has encamped against him, he’s saying if one ever did.

David’s not doing what the psychologists say. He’s actually thinking about the worst things that can happen. And that’s so important, both to the Bible as a whole and to our own lives.

It’s important to the Bible because it shows that the Bible never makes light of the evil and terror in this world. Never ignores it, never brushes it off.

And it’s important to our own lives because what David is saying here is that with God, it is possible to face even the worst things, to feel even the worst worries and fears, and still remain calm and confident.

But how does he do that? What are the steps David says we need to take in order to face all the stresses of life? The key is right there in verse 4:

One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple.

Pay attention to the verbs in that verse. That’s David’s way of dealing with his anxious heart. That’s his way of dealing with all the dangers he faced in his life, and they were real dangers. David really did have enemies, and they really did want to kill him.

So what are the verbs in verse 4? Asked. Seek. Dwell. Gaze. Inquire. That’s it. That’s our plan of action in fighting our worries and our anxious heart. Let’s take them one at a time.

First, David says that he has asked this of the Lord. In all of his fears and worries, he never once allowed himself to drift away from God.

The more that fear and worry threatened his peace, the more David turned to God in prayer. And that’s a hard thing to do, isn’t it?

Because if you let anxiety creep into your thoughts, if you start dwelling on all those things you worry about, it hardens into walls around your heart. And those walls become like a prison cell, holding you in a place where there’s no light, no warmth.

And if you let yourself stay there long, what happens is that tiny little prison cell made of all your worries becomes your whole world. Nothing else exists outside of that, and nothing else can get in. Your entire life becomes the things you’re worrying about.

David made sure those walls didn’t get built. He took action to make sure that every fear and anxious thought was taken straight to God in prayer, and that is our greatest weapon against worry — talking to God.

At any moment in your day, no matter what you’re doing, you have access to the Lord God Almighty. That’s such an overpowering idea that most of the time we can’t handle its greatness.

Yahweh, the creator of all, the perfection of perfectness, the all-knowing, all-powerful, and ever-present Lord of all, is as close to you as a word.

Father, help me. Father, I’m worried. Father, I’m afraid.

There’s always a small part of us that thinks that can’t be true, isn’t there? That the God of all there was, is, and ever will be can stop all He’s doing to listen to our piddly little concerns.

That lie is maybe the greatest lie we’ll ever tell ourselves, and it’s one that David never fell for. David always went to God. And that is why in spite of all his sins and all his weaknesses, he was called a man after God’s own heart.

I saw something great the other day, and this sums up the notion of taking everything to God so perfectly. If you remember this and sink it into your heart, you’ll never again have a problem with wondering whether God listens to you or not.

It’s this: religion says, “I screwed up, my father’s going to kill me.” But the Gospel says, “I screwed up, I need my Dad.” Far too many Christians still treat our relationship with God as a religion instead of the gospel.

So that's our first verb — ask. Now, next. I want to put the verbs seeking and gazing together, because that’s how we’re supposed to think of them. Not separate, but like two sides of the same coin, because these two things together make up what it really means to be a Christian.

These are the two parts of our faith: gazing on the beauty of God, and seeking God’s will. And you have to have both.

If you just seek, if all you do is look to obey God’s will, then you’ll just fall into legalism. You start thinking that following God is only about following the rules — all of them, of course — and as soon as you break one, you’ll lose God’s love.

But if you go the opposite way and just gaze on the beauty of God, you end up just as lost. If all you concern yourself with is the experience of God, the feeling of God, then you end up with a shallow faith that won't help you at all when you really need it.

That’s the problem now with so many churches. They’re all about the experience of our faith. You go to one of their services and it’s all lights and fog machines and music, and music is great, but there’s no preaching.

There’s no meat. There’s no teaching about how to find God’s will and how to obey that will, and so at the first sign of trouble, their faith crumbles.

You see? You have to have both. You have to seek and gaze, and when you do both of those things, you can inquire. Look at verse 4 again. There’s one thing David seeks: to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord.

We seek God’s will by reading his word each day, and by praying. Those are what’s called the inner disciplines. That’s the seeking.

But there are outer disciplines as well, things like being simple in our lifestyles instead of being materialistic, and being forgiving instead of bitter. That’s the gazing. And where those two things meet, that’s where David says he can inquire in God’s temple.

Now what’s David mean when he says inquire in God’s temple? In David’s day, he could go and watch the temple rituals, the animals that were being sacrificed for the sins of the people.

Animals were constantly being slaughtered and sacrificed to God. That’s where David saw the beauty of the Lord.

You can ask how in the world David could see something beautiful in all that blood, but what was going on there?

Why were those animals being killed? Because of God’s holiness. Because of God’s justice. Because here is a God so holy and good that he can’t abide by humanity’s sin. He can’t overlook it.

But at the same time, David also saw a loving God there. Because here is a God who wants to deal with our sins so that we can have a relationship with him. A God of forgiveness.

But here’s the big point for us today as Christians. In John chapter 2, Jesus looks at the temple in Jerusalem and says, “Tear this temple down, and I will build it up again in three days.”

“And everyone looked at him and said, “That’s crazy. It took 40 years to build this, and you’re saying you can build it in three days?”

But we know what all of those people didn’t, don’t we? Jesus was talking about himself. He is the temple.

When we seek and gaze upon God today, it’s not through an animal being sacrificed. We see instead a human face, the face of Jesus, the most loving human being who ever lived, and we see him dying on the cross for us, and raised up again for us.

That’s what we look at. And we know what it means to gaze on the beauty of something, don’t we? We do that all the time with someone we’re in love with, or a dream, or a house. We imagine how great it would be to have that, or go there, to be some sort of person.

We fill our minds and heart with it. We dwell on it. And the sad thing is that we do that with everything but God, don’t we?

David says do that with God, because that’s the only real place for our gazing, and unless we do that, we’re going to live fearful lives.

So seek his truth. Gaze upon his beauty. David looked at the temple, all those animals screaming out, all that stench of blood, and he could find so much comfort that he could endure his family turning their backs on him or an entire army coming after him. How much more comfort can we receive by looking upon the beauty of Christ?

That’s why in the face of all of our worries, all of our anxieties, we say, “Today, Father, I will not seek out my fears. I will seek You. Today, Father, I will not gaze upon my troubles. I will gaze upon Your beauty.”

If the one thing that you really want in life is that, to seek God and gaze upon His beauty, then nothing in this world can touch you. You are safe from everything, because the very worst thing that could ever happen to you is that you cross the river between this world into the next and gaze upon the beauty of God in a way that you can’t possibly imagine.

So we have asking, right? And we have that wonderful practice of seeking His will and gazing upon His beauty. And now comes the most important verb in this entire Psalm. Dwell.

Let’s look at what David really gets in this Psalm versus what David really wants.

Verse 2 says that evildoers assail him. Verse 12 says that false witnesses have risen against him.

He’s looking at all these things that are wrong in his life right now, dangerous things.

And he’s saying that as bad as these things are, they’re not the worst things that could happen, right? Like his father and mother forsaking him, like an army encamping against him.

And even if those very worst things would happen, everything would be okay because he had God. Because David dwelled with God. And that’s everything.

That’s how David can say with such confidence in verse 5:

For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble; he will conceal me under the cover of his tent; he will lift me high upon a rock.

You see, David’s going through this terrible time in his life. He’s feeling all these dangers around him. He’s worried. He’s afraid.

But he turns all that anxiety over to God, and what does David really want? What does he ask for?

You know what he never asks for here? David never asks God to put an end to his troubles. David never asks God to make his enemies go away.

All he wants is one thing — that's how verse 4 starts — to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of his life.

David doesn’t ask for protection from his worries, he asks for God, and because God is the one thing he wants, God gives not only himself, but the very protection David needs.

What does it means to dwell in the house of the Lord? When we hear that phrase, we think of church. Or in David’s case, the temple.

But David isn’t talking about a physical place. He couldn’t dwell in the temple. Only the Levites could live there, and nobody could live in the Holy of Holies, that part of the temple where God dwelled.

What David is really talking about is God’s presence. The house of the Lord or the temple of God was where God’s presence dwelt, and that’s what David means — “I always want to be in your presence.”

But now wait, isn’t God everywhere? Yes. God is everywhere. And if God is everywhere, aren’t we always in his presence? Yes. But David is talking about something much deeper. He’s talking about something much more personal.

Let me give you an example. Remember how most of us communicated with each other about two years ago at the start of the pandemic?

Phone. Text. Email. Video calls. And while that was a lot better than not hearing from our friends or family at all, it still wasn’t the same, was it? There was still something missing, because we weren’t in each other’s presence.

That’s closer to what David says when he talks about dwelling with God, but we’re still not quite there.

What he really wants, what David is really asking, is to know God. You’re all in my presence right now, but the only way you can really know me is if you come talk to me. If you spend time with me.

David’s saying, “Lord, there are so many things happening in my life right now, and sometimes it all feels so overwhelming, but I know the secret to getting through that isn’t to have less troubles but more You.”

He says, “I don’t want to know you distantly, God. I want to know you personally. I don’t want to know You’re up there and down here and all around me, I want to know you’re right here in my heart.”

And that is the secret to a life that isn’t bound by worry or fear.

The things we’re afraid of, the things we worry about, are all centered around things that we fear we might lose. Right? Our health. Our family. Our jobs. Our money. Our relationships with others.

Look at verse 5 again. Does David actually think that if he’s in the tabernacle, the tent of God, that all those people who are after him will just leave him alone? No.

What he’s saying is, “The only time I’m safe, Lord, is when I’m with you. The only time I don’t fear anything at all, is when I don’t want anything or anyone but you.”

When God becomes our single biggest concern in life, when He becomes our One Thing that all the other things depend on, that’s when we dwell with God.

We have all these worries because we have all these good things in our lives, things that God has provided.

God has given us families, a church family. He’s given us friends and parents and spouses and children and grandchildren. Those are good things. A career is a good thing. A savings account is a good thing.

But when any of those good things that God has given us start inching their way upward in our lives to become our One Thing, that’s when it all starts falling apart.

Because all of those earthly blessings, even the best of them, are bound to fade. They won’t last because they’re all part of a broken world that won’t last, and that includes people, and jobs, and relationships, and money.

That’s why we struggle with worry. That’s why we’re scared. And that’s why it’s so hard to start changing, because the things we worry about are good things. They’re all important things. They’re things given to us by God. And that’s exactly why they can slip into that top spot in our lives.

Let’s take verse 10 as an example. If your mother and father forsake you, what happens? For a lot of people, something like that is never gotten over.

There’s nothing that can be done to get them to move past it and find healing. They never forget what’s been done to them, they always feel worthless, and they’ll never be happy.

And we can understand that, can’t we? It’s a terrible thing, and it happens more than anyone would like to admit.

But what happens when you allow that to completely dominate and define the rest of your life? You’re taking that good thing of a parent’s love and letting it become your One Thing.

You’re seeking that instead of God, gazing at its beauty instead of God’s, and as a result many people who have broken relationships with their parents never enjoy good and healthy relationships their entire lives. They’re too anxious and fearful.

Do you see what David is saying? He’s saying first that the whole world can forsake you, but God won’t. The world will turn you away, but God will say, “Come to me.”

On the one hand, anything but God and his will is vulnerable. But on the other, nothing, absolutely nothing, can take God away from you.

You’re secure. Doesn’t mean you won’t suffer, doesn’t mean you won’t worry or fear, but it means that the very best part of you, the part that lives forever, will never be touched by anyone else but Him.

But David is also saying that our worries tell us a lot about who we are, because we can always follow them to the things that we’re slaves to.

The path to happiness in this life is very simple — God first, everything else second. But it’s also so hard, because there are so many things — good things — that we’re constantly tempted to put in that spot where only He belongs.

So how do we fix that? How do we make sure that God is our One Thing? By seeking and gazing. Verses 8-10 are all about seeking God’s face, knowing him intimately and personally. “Show me your face” is the same thing as gazing upon God’s beauty.

Verses 11-14 are about wanting God to teach us His way. “Teach me your way” is the same thing as seeking him. We have to do those two things to make God our One Thing.

All of our worries, all of our fears, all of the anxiety that we feel, can be put down to one idea —we’re the ones who know how our lives are supposed to go, and God’s not getting it right.

Is that what you really think? It’s not what I think, but most of the time that’s exactly how I act.

In all of my own worrying this week, I realized that I couldn’t see God because of all the problems in my way. I was trying to look through them to see Him, and that’s why he felt so far away.

I wasn’t gazing. I wasn’t seeking. I was too busy worrying. And because of that, I wasn’t dwelling. But I started to do those things again, and something pretty wonderful happened.

All of a sudden, God got between me and my problems. I no longer had to look past them to see Him, I saw Him first, and through Him I could see my problems better.

And what I realized was that all those fears and worries seemed a lot smaller when He became bigger. I realized they seemed a little dimmer as He became brighter.

I don’t know what you’re going through right now. I don’t know the fears you have or the panic you feel.

But I know the God we serve, the God we believe in, and I’m going to stand right here and tell you it’s going to be all right. Everything will be all right.

So many times in my life, I’ve leaned on Psalm 27:14. It’s one of my favorite verses in the Bible. “Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord.”

Sometimes we’re not strong. Sometimes our courage fails us. But that’s because we’re trusting in ourselves. We’re trying to get those things on our own.

But the strength and courage that David talks about in verse 14 all comes from that word “wait,” and that’s a great word in the Hebrew.

It doesn’t mean just sitting around. It means to look for God moving. To hope in God’s plan. It means to expect God’s action.

We serve a great and mighty God, and he has numbered the hairs on your head. He knows your getting up and your lying down.

As you were being knit in your mother’s womb, He knew you. He’s going to keep you safe. He’s going to bless you. He's going to keep you from falling. You are his precious child.

And one day when you’ve done all He needs you to do, He’s going to call you home to a place where peace has driven out every fear, where joy has drowned the last bit of worry, and where His face shines right into yours.

Let’s pray:

Father, many are the cares we have in this world. There are so many burdens that press down on us each day, so much fear lurking just beneath the surface of our thoughts and feelings. Save us from those, Father. Let us seek your face. Let us gaze upon your beauty. Let us dwell with you always. By your Holy Spirit, give us the power to see our worries as shadows your love will chase away. Give us the strength to meet the challenges of our lives head-on. Give us the faith to see that you will see us through our difficult times. And give us the knowledge of your presence in all things each day. For we ask this in Jesus’s name, Amen.

Business Meeting

I’m about to call to order a special business meeting of the church. If you’re not a member of this church, what’s wrong with you? Just kidding. But if you’re not a member and you’d like to stay, you’re more than welcome and I promise it won’t take but a few minutes.

If you’d like to go, however, then that is entirely fine and I promise nobody will think one bad thing about you.

So, those who wish to stay, please be seated. I will call this business meeting of Stuarts Draft Baptist Church to order.

(DANNY)

During one of our many rain and wind storms this spring, we found that the roof — especially the part right over our heads — is in bad need of repair.

I believe the roof we have on right now is at least 20 years old. Danny Johnson has gotten quotes on replacing the roof, and has a projected cost of $15,600. Given this price, the church council has suggested that the new roof be paid for by money be taken from our church reserve fund.

Is there someone who will make such a motion? And is there a second?

Is there any discussion around the new roof or using the reserve fund to finance it?

Would all those in favor of taking $15,600 from the reserve fund for a new church roof please raise your hands?

And all opposed?

The motion carries.

Is there a motion to conclude this business meeting?

And a second?

Thank you. Will you please stand for our benediction.

Benediction

Now may the God of peace who raised Christ from the dead strengthen your inner being for every good work. And may the blessing of God Almighty rest upon you and dwell within you this day and evermore. Amen.