Freedom From - Anxiety

Freedom From Anxiety

Matthew 6:25-34

Many of you know that I spent a year of my life in the middle east with the Army, spending time between 2 different countries; Kuwait and Syria. When service members deploy to the middle east, everyone goes to Kuwait before they go anywhere else. This is because it is the central staging ground for all the US troops in that part of the world. You fly to kuwait and from there, you can go to any country around the surrounding areas. My unit had troops in Syria, Afghanistan, Jordan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia. It was wild. We left with around 1200 people and would start to build relationships with a few people from different groups and then they just peaced out to Egypt for 9 months and then magically reappeared at the end like nothing happened.

Life overseas was interesting. In Kuwait we slept in these massive foam insulated tents with steel support beams that slept about 35 guys. Our base was just put in the middle of absolutely nowhere. It was just sand, everywhere we looked. It literally looked like the planet Tatooine from Star Wars (photo/joke). Our days consisted of sitting around playing video games, working out, eating, napping, going to ranges, shooting for hours upon hours, thousands and thousands of rounds, perfecting our skills and mastering our craft. So when we had to go to work, we were ready.

From April until August, we were in Kuwait, there were no worries, we were pretty bored, but overall it was a great time. We went to Syria and our lives were pretty much the exact same besides the fact that the country was much more dangerous, we had a job to do, and we had people to protect.

Our lives were extremely detailed yet they were wildly simple. Every single day, we were told what time we needed to be up, where we needed to be and when, what the uniform was, what gear we needed, what our mission was, what the threat level is, the speed of our convoys, the amount of ammo we needed, what we needed to do in case of a medical evacuation, where we would break contact to if the situation escalates, where to go if our base gets rocketed, we literally had every single thing planned and prepared down to the smallest detail.

The ONLY thing we would stress about, it is kind of big but was if our lives were truly safe or in danger. But at the same time, all of us came to grips of the fact that something terrible could happen at any moment so when coming to that realization it relieved quite a bit of worry and anxiety. Otherwise, we would really only get anxious about finding out the date we would finally get to go home. It really for the most part was a relatively stress free environment.

We went to the Middle East in March and returned home around the beginning of February. Coming home was hard for me. I had to essentially re-learn how to live a normal life. For 11 months I lived in a tent in the desert with anywhere from 12-35 guys. Coming back to a 2 bedroom apartment with my mom and dad was not easy. On top of that, I had to re-learn how to socialize with non army people. If any of you are familiar with the lifestyle of those in the military. It is a rough, rough environment. I was so awkward trying to talk with Kate, I was like a mute weirdo who hadn’t spoken to a female in over a year.. I had to adjust my mind into knowing that I did not have to live with the mindset that there was a lingering threat at all times. And lastly, I had to try and live with freedom to do whatever I wanted. There weren’t 10ft tall cement walls and barbed wire around a 5x5 mile base in the middle of the desert. I could drive where I wanted, sleep as long as I wanted, eat when I wanted. I had so much freedom to do what I wanted, that it honestly sent me down a negative spiral into pretty heavy depression and anxiety, to the point where I had to seek professional help. In a way, I became a slave to my freedom.

I didn’t have someone telling me when I had to wake up, where I had to go, what I had to wear, etc…. It was all on me and it stressed me out and I allowed the complexity of the mundane to rule my life. It seems like it should be the opposite. I never thought that coming home would cause more trauma than being in a dangerous country and situation. My heart and mind were worried about things that simply did not matter. In the 11 months that I was gone, I relied on other people to give me direction. I came home with this anxiety that I was alone and tried solving it on my own by consuming temporarily satisfying things. In the midst of it I had a soul that needed restoring and a heart that was lacking worship.

(Need) I tell you all of this because I need you to know why you need to hear this message. People everywhere battle with anxiety.

Anxiety is defined as “lingering apprehension caused by unclear future events that seem challenging, daunting, or uncertain.” (regeneration ministries)

According to Forbes, 31.9% of adolescents aged 13-18 are affected by anxiety disorders and 50% of young adults report some kind of anxiety symptoms. This is absolutely heartbreaking to me.

I am not a doctor and cannot ignore the fact that some people have a clinical diagnosis of anxiety so I cannot shy away from the fact that this is a very large struggle for many, many people. From my perspective, this is only getting worse and worse.

My hope is that tonight after hearing this message and hearing what Jesus has to say, that one of you may be able to find freedom from anxiety.

(Subject/Big Idea) Anxiety (or worry) is a human emotion. A powerful response that pushes us toward our own dependence and our own lack of control over things in our lives. In the midst of anxiety, we fail to see the good that God has to offer and we often fail to worship him. My big idea that I need all of you to remember is this. Jesus offers us freedom from anxiety when we seek his kingdom first. (Text Set Up)

(Text Set Up) We will be looking at what Jesus has to say in the book of Matthew. If you will, turn with me to Matthew chapter 6, beginning in verse 25. This passage picks up in the midst of Jesus’ most famous teaching, the sermon on the mount, where he is beginning to talk about worry and anxiety. In my bible, the heading of this passage literally says, “THE CURE FOR ANXIETY”.

The Cure for Anxiety

25 “Therefore I tell you: Don’t worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Isn’t life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26 Consider the birds of the sky: They don’t sow or reap or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you worth more than they? 27 Can any of you add one moment to his life span by worrying? 28 And why do you worry about clothes? Observe how the wildflowers of the field grow: They don’t labor or spin thread. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was adorned like one of these. 30 If that’s how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, won’t he do much more for you—you of little faith? 31 So don’t worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you. 34 Therefore don’t worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

I have 2 points for us tonight. 1st - Consider His Kingdom! 2nd - Connect With the King.

1st - Consider His Kingdom (v25-30)

In verses 25-30, Jesus is talking about all of these things that all of us constantly worry about! What we will wear, what we will eat, what we will drink. He then begs the question “isn't life more than food and the body more than clothing” and he goes on to talk about the birds in the sky, how they do not fly around harvesting or planting food, yet they are always provided for. He talks about all of these other things like flowers and grass, how they are always beautiful and taken care of. In the NLT translation, it says “these things DOMINATE the thoughts of unbelievers”.

When I hear the word “dominate”, the first thing that comes to mind is something getting utterly destroyed and taken over, then I put that in the context of worry and stress in my life and frankly it freaks me out!

Living a life DOMINATED by anxiety and stress is terrifying. It is EXHAUSTING. Worrying is exhausting. Anxiety is DOMINATING. I walked around my life, in a state of exhaustion because I was trying to do everything on my own. My mind was consumed by what I needed to get done. Where I needed to be, who I needed to see, and it destroyed me!

Almost all of the worry and anxiety in life stems from us trying to organize everything the way that we want it to be. Our problem is that we are trying to build our own mini kingdoms all the while, forgetting about God and His kingdom. Worrying gets us nowhere.

When I came home from my deployment, I was an anxious mess. I covered it with posting a lot on social media to look great, spent a lot of time traveling or doing things I wasn’t able to, and nothing really seemed to help. I would try to read my bible but felt it more of a bandaid “feel good” quiet time that I never really allowed to be life giving. I came to a point where I had to get help. My parents came into my room one night and I lost it. All of this built up stress and anxiety that I had, just exploded. I broke down in tears and just yelled at them for not understanding what I had just gone through. I finally admitted that I needed help. I went from following someones every command in a different country, to being hit with “freedom” but all sorts of decisions, minor decisions to be made. When I was following my team leader's instructions, I felt at peace, when I tried to follow my own mind, I felt anxious. In the same way, when we follow God’s command, there is so much peace. The stress of our own desires seemingly is drowned out by the goodness of what God commands us to do.

I sought help from a counselor and it was wild. He told me the most obvious things in the world but for some reason it just clicked. He looked at me and said “Jake…. You’re 20 years old, you have a full time job, a phenomenal relationship, a wedding in 6 months, parents that love you, and a God that loves you and provides for you in every way shape and form…… breathe. and fall back on that.”. And for some reason, the obvious truth was one that I had never considered. I had been safe, taken care of, and loved. Not only by loved ones, but by God. I was so blinded by controlling everything, that I missed that point that God was in control and I was not.

I think that where there is anxiety, there is a lack of worship. When we as believers can come to a place of worship, there can be freedom found. But we first need to consider that there is something, someone, greater than we are. Someone who is mighty and powerful and willing to bear our burdens. You will never find freedom from anxiety if you fail to consider the kingdom of God. Let's think about his kingdom for a second. In a way, we are living in his kingdom. We are his creation. The birds in the sky, the trees, the clouds, the snow, all of it is his creation. It is all so complex but so simple. There is a difference between a life lived that is detailed yet simple…. Vs a life that is complex and confusing. Like I said, when I was deployed, everything was so detailed down to the smallest thing. But everything served a purpose and when followed correctly, everything flowed near flawlessly. But when you mix complexity with confusion on what to do, anxiety creeps in, stress creeps in, you worry and doubt about what is to come. But when you consider his kingdom, tranquility and calamity occur.

So, when you consider the kingdom, you must then CONNECT with the king.

My second point of the night is - Connect with The King.

Verse 33 and 34 say “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you. Therefore don't worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”.

Connect with the King. None of us can find freedom if we are not actively connecting with the king. We are trying to orient our schedules to best fit us, we are trying to get that specific job that will provide for us, we are constantly striving and striving and failing to connect with the King. He commands us to SEEK him above ALL ELSE.

I notice that I find myself the most anxious when I am failing to connect with Jesus. I worry about finances, I worry about work, I worry about relationships. Maybe for you, you worry about school, college, sports, your friends, your driver's license, your parents rules, what people think of you. Maybe you look in the mirror and cannot stand the way that your body looks so you walk around the day constantly in fear of how you look. You name it. Anxiety is real.

Let me ask you a question. What are you setting before yourself (connecting with) that you are allowing to consume your mind? When you wake up every morning and the first thing you do is roll over, silence or snooze your alarm, then you make yourself late, you get out of bed, scroll social media, check the news for a little bit and then get ready for the day rushed, out of control and stressed out. By doing that you are filling your mind with anxious thoughts from the moment you wake up. I am just as guilty of this as anyone else! Seeking God’s kingdom is a DAILY choice. Wake up and get into the word, not the world. Go to bed in prayer, not in a trap of lust and lies from the enemy.

There is freedom offered to us. But how? You might be asking how do I connect with the king?

We must fix our eyes, orient our lives, confess our worries and fears, and seek his righteousness, not our own solutions. It starts by intentionally spending time worshiping Jesus. Worship can be anything from reading your bible, praying, singing, dancing, giving thanks to God for what he has done and praising him for who he is.

He commands us to seek him but follows it up with a promise. “All these things will be provided for you”. This doesn’t mean that if you seek him, you will wake up a millionaire and get everything you ever wanted. What it means is that when you are actively seeking the Lord in any aspect of your life, you will be taken care of. He will free you from the grips of worry and fear. He will sustain you. If he can take care of flowers and grass, imagine how much more he loves you and will take care of you. Your burdens are not too heavy for him. Your anxiety is not too complex for him. Take a step back, breathe. Trust that he will be there for you.

I want to give you a few tangible things that you can do if you are one that battles with anxiety.

Pray - I said prayer earlier but really… pray. Earlier in Matthew 6, Jesus gives a whole section on how we are to pray. Go be in silence, be alone, and connect with God. Worship him in prayer, confess what you are dealing with, and ask for forgiveness.

Read the word. Study what God has to say. Read it, observe what is happening, figure out how to apply it to your life, and pray about it afterwards.

This one is not in the Bible but it is one that I learned through counseling. Breathe. Seriously. Take a step back, view everything from a broader lens, deep breathe in, deep breath out. Scientifically, taking a deep breath literally lowers your standing blood pressure, and is proven to reduce stress and anxiety. You can look it up if you dont believe me! It is a simple thing like that which can really help.

Take a walk, get outside, talk to someone!

To close, I want to leave you with a thought and some truth.

Philippians 4:6-7

“ 6 Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”

I will say it again, Jesus offers us freedom from anxiety when we seek his kingdom first. When we seek first his kingdom, our needs are taken care of, he watches over us, he removes the anxiety and the worry in our lives. He gives us peace.

Consider his Kingdom and Connect with the King. There is freedom in Jesus and I pray that all of you can find freedom through him.

Let's pray.

Lead into song, give application to go into small groups.