I'm tired of worrying...
Notes
Transcript
Big Idea: Giving thanks even when we’re overwhelmed with worry.
Big Idea: Giving thanks even when we’re overwhelmed with worry.
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.
Intro:
Intro:
Good morning. Welcome to TRC. Why don’t we take a moment to give each other a high-five. Tell someone they look “fabulous” today.
I’m excited this morning. After spending the entire summer in the book of Revelation, we are starting a brand-new sermon series titled “Give Thanks.” How many of us know Thanksgiving is right around the corner?
Okay, how many agree that’s there are times when it’s hard to be thankful in this world?
Well, the goal of this series is to address this tension in our lives. Not only is it good to talk about thankfulness during the Thanksgiving season, but the Bible also says…
give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
Rejoice always,
So, even when it’s not the Thanksgiving season, as Christians, we are commanded by God to be thankful all the time. That’s hard! Amen? Therefore, we are going to spend the next few weeks talking about how we can be thankful, even there’s no reason to be.
Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.
So, even when it’s not the Thanksgiving season, as Christians, we are commanded by God to be thankful all the time. That’s hard! Amen? Therefore, we are going to spend the next few weeks talking about how we can be thankful, even there’s no reason to be.
This morning, we are gonna start with this… How can we give thanks when we have a million things to worry about? The title of this message is, “I’m tired of worrying.”
If you have your Bible/app, open up to . Let’s read together.
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.
Exegesis:
Exegesis:
Philippians is a letter written from the apostle Paul to the church at Philippi - an awesome church that Paul had planted. It was letter filled with joy and thanksgiving. Which is strange because Paul wrote this letter from Rome - while he was in jail!
It one of Paul’s goals to one day bring the gospel to Rome. He felt like if the gospel came to the center of the empire, it would have the opportunity to be sent out into the world like never before. He was truly excited about the idea of making it to Rome!
Paul finally made it to Rome, but not as he intended it. He was a prisoner … awaiting trial.... for preaching the gospel. There was probably times when he didn’t know if he was going to live or die. This was a man who had plenty to worry about!
How many of us can relate?
Even when we are serving God with all our heart, it seems like nothing goes right. Nothing goes as planned. No matter how much we try to make things better, it seems like the worry list to just gets longer!
Maybe we’ve been praying
And while some of this is being a good ol-fashioned worry-wart, the greater reality is our anxiety is LEGIT. Studies show that there is more to worry about now, than even before! We live in a world of worry. So, while we may not be dealing with anxiety as we sit in a prison, most - if not all of us - are dealing with worry like never before. Overwhelming worry that drowns us in anxiety. Worry so powerful that it’s hard to feel anything else - let alone, be thankful!
So, if you answered “yes” to relating to Paul’s anxiety, I believe you!
But look at what Paul says as he writes from prison, wondering if he is going to live or die… he says, “do not be anxious about anything.” Let me translate that a little differently, Pauls says: Stop worrying!
Stop worrying!
Stop worrying!
Somebody say, “Whatchu talkin bout Willis?”
Paul’s telling us not to worry. How many of us have ever been going through a stressful time and had someone - even well intentioned - say to us, “Don’t worry about it.”
Now, how many of us wanted to slap that person? Don’t tell me not to worry about it. I can’t stop worrying about it! Worrying shows I care! God wants me to care about things. So, what does Paul mean by “stop worrying?” Should we stop worrying about the little things only? Because that would kinda make sense...
No. If we look at the original language we’d actually find two things:
First, the Greek is a command to stop worrying about the things we’ve already been worrying about.
Second, the word “anything” refers to EVERYTHING. Paul is talking about anything in our lives that qualifies.
What Paul is saying is “Any and everything you are worrying about, you need to stop it now.” Not just the small things. Not just some of the things. EVERY SINGLE THING!
And if you’re like me, you’re wondering, “How in the world is that possible?” Well, look at what he goes on to say...
do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
“do not be anxious about anything, BUT IN EVERYTHING, by prayer and supplication with thanksg let your requests be made known to God.
He says instead of worrying about everything, pray about everything:
Pray to God about what’s going on in your life.
Tell Him your supplications - the things your need.
Let Him know your requests.
And here’s the crazy part… did you notice it? He said, “Also… start being thankful.” Add thanksgiving to your prayers. Stop worrying and start giving thanks.
Wait, how can we be thankful when nothing has changed yet? None of the things I’m worrying about have gone away. There’s not reason for me to be thankful. I’m still drowning in worry!
Let’s breakdown what Paul’s telling us into a simple way. Paul is telling us to “pray” when we are “worried.” What is prayer? It’s talking to God. But more than that… when it comes to the Christian-faith, we know God HEARS us when we talk to Him!
God hears us.
God hears us.
King Solomon talked about this one time… He said...
Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land.
2 Ch 7
God promises if we pray to Him, if we seek Him to make our lives right, He will HEAR!
The apostle John wrote...
And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.
1 Jn 5:
Well, wait a minute. It says, “according to his will.” How do I know I’m praying according to His will? Because what if I’m not? That’s a good question. Because as much as we are praying for that Bugatti, it aint’ happening!
But, let’s look back at a verse we read earlier...
give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
But let’s add the verse before it...
pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
When we are praying, when we are asking for God to help us with our life, that’s according to God’s will!
So, when anxiety is crashing over us in huge waves, we pray. Craig Groeschel says, “Anxiety is a signal alerting you that it’s time to pray!”
And when we pray, we are doing so in God’s will. And if we are praying in God’s will, we KNOW HE HEARS US! And if we know God hears us, we can be THANKFUL! Even if nothing has changed yet!
But we aren’t thankful just because God hears us, but also because He is the one who can TRULY DO SOMETHING about it!
God can do something.
God can do something.
Jesus said...
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
“Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.
“You parents—if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not! So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him.
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent?
God’s like, “When you pray, not only do I hear you, but I will give you what you ask for [ Again, we’re talking about real needs, not silly things]. Because I am a good heavenly Father who loves you, I will DO SOMETHING for you that helps you!”
And we could talk about a million things God could do in order to take away our worry, but let’s just focus on something the text shares...
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.
Phil 4:6-7
When we are anxious, and then pray, God says He will give us supernatural peace - peace we can’t even understand, like it doesn’t make sense, but it’s REAL - and it will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
That word “guard” is a military term. It’s like God’s peace is standing at the gates of our hearts and minds protecting it from anxiety.
Where I grew up, people used to get in fights. It was the type of place where you didn’t need to be a trouble-maker, but you should probably know how to to fight.
Sometimes, there’d be times when someone who couldn’t fight would try to start trouble with someone who could ACTUALLY fight. And maybe the person who could fight would here about it and be like, “What?!?” [Say What?!?!]
Then, they’d say, “Man, I wish he would!” It was similar to the phrase, “Come at me, bro.” Like try it! You gonna lose!
That’s like God’s peace guarding our heart. It’ll stand there and stare down those worries and be like, “I wish you would. Come at me bro!”
God’s timing is not our timing. His ways are not our ways. He may not immediately change our circumstances that are causing us worry, but what He will DO is give us supernatural peace that will guard our hearts. It’ll be peace that is beyond our understanding. It’ll be peace that makes us think, “I should be worried! But I’m not! I have this crazy peace. I don’t understand it but it’s real.”
And then we thank Jesus.
Be thankful!
Be thankful!
So, let’s summarize the process here:
When we are drowning in worry, we need to stop worrying and pray instead. Remember, worry is our signal to pray.
And when we pray, do so with thanksgiving. Even though our circumstances may not immediately change (they may!), we know that God hears us and will do something. And we can be expectantly thankful because of that!
Yet, one thing we know God will do is send His supernatural peace to GUARD our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. When we put our faith in Jesus to help us, His peace will rush in and guard our lives from anxiety.
Paul was sitting in a Roman prison wondering what was going to happen to his life, but he wasn’t worried. He had supernatural peace. Peace that didn’t make logical sense, but peace that was so real that he shared the process with others. He declared, “If we belong to Jesus Christ, we can exchange our worries for thanksgiving.”
Response:
Response:
As I call the worship team up, let me ask you...
Are you tired of worrying? Would you rather be thankful? Living LIFE the way God intended you to live?
Start with this one thing…
Here’s one thing I love about God. He is okay with progression. Christian theology has this big fancy word: Sanctification. Sanctification describes progressively made into the likeness of Jesus. We aren’t instantaneous made perfect. So, you don’t have to worry about trying to. What we can do is focus on our next right step:
What does God want me to do next?
What does God want me to do right now?
As a church, let’s start with this...
Pick one thing you’re worried about.
Answer two questions:
Does God know about this?
Can God do something about this?
Exchange worry for thanksgiving (by faith).
Maybe something you’re worried about today is you don’t know if you’re right with God. You’re not sure that if you were to die today that you’d go to heaven. And you’re worried about that.
But here’s the good news. You can exchange that worry for thanksgiving today. The Bible says we’re all sinners. We all start off NOT right with God. But remember, God is a good God who loves us. That’s why He sent Jesus to save us. And when Jesus died on the cross, He did so to pay for our sins. And when He rose from the dead, it was proof that the debt was paid in full. Death couldn’t hold Him in the grave. And if we will put our faith in Him, He will forgive us our sins, make us new, and give us eternal life. We can exchange our worry for thanksgiving!
Communion:
And it’s good for all of us to remember that. What Jesus did for us exchanges our greatest worries so we can GIVE THANKS. And one way we do that is by Communion.
In a moment, I’m gonna invite you to come forward and grab the elements. And then when you get back to your seats, we will take them together.
As we sing this final song, if you’d like someone to pray with you, we’d love to do that. Grab me or anyone with a green lanyard. Maybe you’re ready to exchange worry for thanksgiving, but you’re not quite sure how to pray. That’s okay! We’d love to pray with you.
Or if you decided to follow Jesus, we’d love to celebrate with you and also help you with some next steps! Tell someone about that or let us know on a Connect card.
Let’s pray.