Worry Less—Pray More

As I was prepping for this sermon I was just filled with so much joy,

because I believe this message is going to impact so many of you sitting here today.

I know that we are all are struggling our own stuff, and that through Gods word we can all be set free from these shackles the enemy has put on us. 

Those shackles go by many names, for there are many shackles.

But the shackles we’ll be discussing today go by the name Anxiety.

Who here has been or is currently in a battle with Anxiety?

Who’s struggled with anxious thoughts at night while trying to fall asleep?

Who’s been unable to think properly under the pressure of the SBA?

Come on I know each and every one of you have been impacted by the shackles of anxiety

And that’s why it is so important for us to understand what God tells us about anxiety, and how to deal with it and,

what it looks like to have true peace from the God of peace who is with you always and forever till the end of the ages.

A New Perspective

Students, God wants to give you a new perspective on Anxiety today.

He doesn’t want you walking out of here today unchanged

He wants you to leave transformed and freed from Anxiety.

In that vein, todays sermon is titled “Worry Less—Pray More”

PRAY HERE

Philippians 4:4-7

Our passage today comes from Philippians 4. The last chapter of Pauls’s letter to the Philippian Church. Earlier in the letter we find out that Paul is writing his letter from a prison in Rome as a prisoner for the gospel. 

At the beginning of his letter, he even shares that he is contemplating life and death. That in life, he would benefit the churches by continuing to teach them all he knows, and in death he would be rewarded with the presence of Christ Jesus.

I don’t know about you, but any man contemplating the pros and cons of his own death would probably be a pretty anxious man. Yet his letter doesn’t come off as anxious or desperate.

Instead, it is a letter of prayer and thanksgiving for all the Philippians have done for him throughout his ministry.

So what’s the secret?

How does he combat the anxiety he most definitely is feeling while imprisoned and unsure of his fate?

Well that’s exactly what Paul shares in our passage today, so if you would, please open your Bibles with me today as we dive into God’s word. 

Philippians 4:4–7 CSB

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your graciousness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

I’m going to read that again in case you missed it,

Philippians 4:6–7 CSB

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

This passage tells us that:

God brings peace through prayer and petition with thanksgiving.

When we bring our problems to God in prayer he will guard not just our hearts but our minds

Students, we need to Worry Less and Pray More. That’s what this passage is getting at. That’s the secret to dealing with Anxiety that Paul is telling us here.

That’s the new perspective God wants you to have about Anxiety

Worry Less—Pray More

But that’s not all he’s telling us in this passage, he also tells us WHEN, WHAT, and HOW to deal with Anxiety

WHEN, WHAT, & HOW

Pauls us WHEN to bring our requests to God,

WHEN: in EVERYTHING

Meaning not sometimes, but all the time

Not just somethings, but everything

God wants you to go to Him for everything you need.

He doesn’t want you to go to anything else but Him

Students I want you to hear this today,

It breaks God’s heart when He see’s us running to the things of this world instead of running to Him for our satisfaction.

The things of this world can’t satisfy the desires of our heart because God put them there.

Jesus says everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but everyone who drink from the water that I give him will never get thirsty again

Students, God wants you to go to Him for your satisfaction

He also tells us WHAT to do. He says,

WHAT: through PRAYER and PETITION

These two words stuck out to me in my study, I was curious what the difference was between prayer and petition. 

They seemed very similar to me, so I wanted to look into it a bit further. 

And it turns out the original Greek words for both could be translated simply as prayer.

But then why did Paul write both of them?

Why did the translators translate them differently from one another?

Well when we look further at the greek we see a nuanced difference between the two

Prayer

You see prayer here is the Greek word 

GREEK (BDAG):

proseuchē (petition addressed to deity, prayer)

Pretty simple right? Nothing out of note yet here

Petition

But the Greek word for petition here is 

GREEK (BDAG):

deēsis (to be under necessity of happening, it is necessary, one must, one has to, denoting compulsion of any kind) 

(Urgent request to meet a need, exclusively addressed to God, prayer)

So there in lies the difference.

Paul isn’t simply telling us to pray, although he is, he’s calling us to a deeper more desperate prayer life. 

One that has urgency and necessity for the will of God to be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Finally he tells us HOW to do it,

HOW: with THANKSGIVING

This is the attitude Paul is telling us to come to the Lord with during our prayers.

This is the kind of prayer we are called to have.

Prayer that gives thanks for everything we have and everything that has happened no matter our circumstances

We’re not really going to get into it today, but later in this chapter Paul says,

“I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I find myself.”

“With a little, with a lot, well fed, or hungry, in abundance or in need”

“In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret to being content—“

The secret is this, 

“I can do all things through Him who strengthens me”

That’s why we are thankful when we loss things that we care deeply for, 

people we care deeply for

It’s because Christ strengthens us to do the good work he’s called and instilled inside of us to do for His Kingdom and for His Glory

Not because of any strength of our own, but out of the abundance of strength that He who rose from the grave has given us when we put our trust in Him

When we put our faith in Him

When we remain steadfast in Him

So I tell you again,

Philippians 4:6–7 CSB

Don’t worry about anything, but IN everything, THROUGH prayer and petition WITH thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Worry Less—Pray More

Camp healings

Student with pigeon toe running into his parents arms for the first time

Girls entire half of her body was healed

McKenna’s foot being healed

Matthew 6:25-34

The birds of the sky and the wild flowers of the field.

Matthew 6:25–34 CSB

“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? 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? Can any of you add one moment to his life span by worrying? And why do you worry about clothes? Observe how the wildflowers of the field grow: They don’t labor or spin thread. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was adorned like one of these. 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? So don’t worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But 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.

Prayer for sisters healing

Now students, this isn’t to say that our prayers will always be answered how we want them to be answered.

You may even be asking yourself,

What happens when my prayer isn’t answered?

I want to tell you about a time when my prayer wasn’t answered.

At least it wasn’t answered in the way I wanted it to be.

Your Kingdom come, Your will be done Lord

You see, when Jesus tell us how we are to pray one of the first things He says in His prayer is,

“Your Kingdom come.

Your will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven”

Meaning when we pray we aren’t to pray for things that benefit us, or bring us success.

Instead, we’re supposed to be praying for things that benefit the Kingdom of God, and that honor and glorify Him.

My prayer was that God would heal my little sister.

In the simplest of terms, her brain began to bleed and because of her rare blood disorder, her body was unable to stop the bleeding, leading to her hospitalization.

But I had the power of God on my side, I had a roomful (literally we filled one of their conference rooms) of devout men and women of God praying for a miracle to take place.

After 3 long and hard fought days in the hospital my sister was declared brain dead.

My prayer was wasn’t answered. At least not in the way I wanted it to be answered,

But again I tell you when we pray we are to pray for His kingdom come, His will be done, not our own.

For reasons unknown to me, beyond all human understanding, it was more beneficial for the His kingdom, and it was His will that He take her up into heaven at that time and not heal her on earth.

And that’t a hard pill to swallow sometimes

All the time actually

Now I’m willing to bet a lot of you sitting in this room today have a similar story of loss.

Whether it be a grandparent, parent, sibling, cousin, friend, we all have experienced loss in this world.

If you haven’t,

and I hate to say this but I feel as though if I didn’t I would be doing a disservice to you by withholding the truth from you,

but if you haven’t experience loss yet students, you will.

We live in a broken and sinful world full of death.

Remain steadfast in trials

and thats when our faith comes into play.

When things get difficult, as life often does, will you put your faith in the Lord, remaining steadfast in His ways

Or will you be like the unwise man who built his house on the sand and had his entire foundation swept away with the first storm that came his way?

Hope for a future in Christ

I praise God though students, that this is not the end of the story,

That we are not a people without a hope for a future.

For we are a people with a hope that death is not the end,

that there is more to life than just the material things we see around us,

and that our God came down to take our sin upon Himself in order that we may be saved and experience Eternal Life in Him.

It is because of this hope that I know I will one day see my sister again in heaven.

It is because of this hope that we can stand firm in our faith,

remaining steadfast in His promise that He will transform

the body of our lowly condition into conformity with His glorious body.

Meaning that God will transform our brokenness into His perfection.

All this to say,

Worry Less—Pray More

Students, God wants to give you a new perspective on Anxiety today,

One where you worry less, and pray more.

One where you don’t worry, but IN everything, THROUGH prayer and petition, WITH thanksgiving you bring your requests to God, SO THAT He can bring you peace.

But students, none of this matters if we don’t actually apply these things to our daily life.

So how can we live out this new perspective?

Firstly we need to,

Spend time with God alone in prayer

If you aren’t praying then how you pray isn’t important

It’s much more important that you are praying than how you are praying

although I want you to be praying how God teaches us to pray

Bring your requests to God in your prayers

Be Thankful in prayer

Secondly we can start to,

Pray throughout your day

You could practice not ending your prayers

(Story of Jon no saying amen)

Pray over people throughout your day

and finally we must,

Don’t just pray, plead with God

Pray to God as though your request needs to be done

Pray for things that need to happen

Pray for things that grow His kingdom

Pray for His will to be done

INVITE students up to pray

INVITE leaders and parents to pray over students

PRAY over the students for their prayer life to increase