Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Earlier this year after talks with Jared and studying on the topic, I felt a strong conviction that the church should be full of biblical counselors.

I begin to believe that it would be a blessing to the local body as well as the greater body beyond our local assembly, if we could create a culture of “soul care” within our congregation.

After a few conversations with Jared, he pointed me toward an organization called CCEF.

He suggested that Jennifer and I go to their national conference they were having later in the year.

Ive always been dawned to counseling in some shape or form.

At any point in my life If you were to ask me what I wanted to do I would have said something in relation to counseling.

That is, with the exception of the younger years of my life when I wanted to be a crime fighter like Batman.

Moving on; I have, for some time now been drawn to counseling.

That being said, when it came to going to a few days of intensive training on the subject, I was all in.

That is until I discovered the theme of the conference.

The theme this year was Anxiety.

You see, over the years I often heard testimonies from people who constantly used this buzzword that I had no frame of reference for and no experience with.

Me, being the legalist I am, I had come to see the word Anxiety used as an excuse people evoked when they did not want to take responsibility for their actions.

You see I had internalized the principles of “knuckle up butter cup” which compels you to own up to your own actions, admitting you are at fault, the horrible things that happen in your life are a consequence of your own actions, but I had found myself hearing from even Christian men who basically blamed certain sinful behaviors and beliefs on anxiety.

Anxiety wasn't something I dealt with.

Anxiety was the problem or excuse of the weak.

So quite naturally I was turned off at the thought of sitting through lectures on the topic.

As time drew closer the thought came to me that because I viewed anxiety as an illegitimate excuse, my toolbox for helping or encouraging someone who claimed to struggle with anxiety was very limited.

I realize that slapping a person and telling them to man up doesn't suffice in every situation.

And all my brothers in the Lord said Amen.

Moving on, I decided that going and learning more about this topic would help me fix those people I were surrounded by who claimed to deal with this.

Fast forward to the first day of the conference.

I am driving to the conference, to a building I had never been to, in a city I had never been to, that happened to be a capital city, with capital city traffic, while relying on multiple mapping apps that have proven over and over to be un reliable, with my loving wife as a copilot.

Did I mention that my wife wasn't blessed with the spiritual gift of directional awareness.

My finding her way to home from work proves to me daily that we serve a miracle working God.

As you can imagine, my patience in the moment, which is already on a daily basis deficient, was in complete crisis mode.

When we finally make it to the building, after the seeming endless hunt for a parking space, the probably few minutes Jennifer took getting out the car was enough for me to want to go on a rampage of a biblical proportions.

Scene 2 has us meandering through the halls of this massive labyrinth of a facility along with a few thousand other strangers, trying to find a way to a meeting room in time to beat the crowd and get a half decent seat so we can actually hear and see what is happening.

Speaking of hearing and seeing, when we do finally find somewhere to sit it didn't take me long to realize that we were sitting in the hearing-impaired section.

Although I appreciated having a screen in front of me that featured live closed captioning, being in a place I have never been, around a room full of people I didn’t know, attending a conference I had no experience with, had me completely over the edge.

As you probably can guess, I was sinfully impatient with my wife; I was extremely judgmental of everything going on, I was uncomfortable and nervous, and I could not wait to get home.

I think it was a few minutes into the first session when I came to a realization: I was completely, hopelessly drowning in Anxiety.

I suffer with Anxiety and I have a suspicion that you or someone you know may also.

Objective

Every believer by God’s power, can triumph over Anxiety by following these three steps:

1. Identify the issues

We need to have some type of understanding of the issues in order to be able to recognize them in our lives.

Once you have Identified the issues in step one, you’ll naturally move to step 2 which is:

2. Expose and Uproot

Any time we discover behaviors and patterns in our life that do not match with the character of God, we need to eradicate it.

Weed need to snuff it out.

We need to kill it.

As we seek to expose and uproot ungodliness in our lives, we give thanks and praise to our God, who has not left us to drown in our anxiousness, but who has graced us with truth to combat the lies of our anxiety.

Given this truth, we want do what is set out in step 3 which is:

3. Cultivate seeds of truth

In this world that is full of patterns that produce fear and anxiety, we need to put on the mind of Christ; we need to see through the lens of the word of God; we need to, by His spirit walk in the grace that He provides in order that we might be able to discern the corresponding truth.

In other words we need to somehow move from the fields of fear over into the grass of grace.

By following this pattern I believe that every believer by God’s power, can triumph over Anxiety.

Step 1. Identify the issues: Define, types

Step 1 is to Identify the issues

Anxiety Defined

Anxiety is defined as a state of mind wherein one is concerned about something or someone.

Of course we know that concern isn't sinful.

I can be concerned about my kids school work.

I can be concerned about my general health and safety.

Being concerned is no concern of this message concerning Anxiety.

What I’m address is the abundance of concern that leads to uneasy feelings of uncertainty, It produces in us an agitation and dread, or fear.

In the Bible anxiety is frequently depicted as the all too common, human reaction to stressful circumstances which manifests itself in ungodly concern about provision, performance, or reputation.

Anxiety is psychologically experienced with associated symptoms of mild agitation, racing thoughts, impaired sleep, and difficulty in calming oneself.

There are parallel physiological experiences of sustained muscle tension and/or trembling, increased heart rate, and disturbed breathing—either as hyperventilation (i.e., breathing too fast) or as a tendency to hold one’s breath.

These characteristics produce a sense of heightened awareness or alertness that frequently disturbs concentration, memory, and a person’s ability to feel emotionally comfortable.

These psychological and physiological responses combine to make anxiety a psychophysiological disturbance.

That is a long complicated way of saying that anxiety attacks the whole person: mind, will and emotions.

Anxiety is destructive.

Types of Anxiety

Social Anxiety

The DSM describes Social Anxiety in these terms:

A persistent fear of one or more social or performance situations in which the person is exposed to unfamiliar people or to possible scrutiny by others.

The individual fears that he or she will act in a way that will be embarrassing and humiliating.

Exposure to the feared situation almost invariably provokes anxiety, which may take the form of a situationally bound or situationally predisposed Panic Attack.

The feared situations are avoided or else are endured with intense anxiety and distress.

The avoidance, anxious anticipation, or distress in the feared social or performance situation(s) interferes significantly with the person's normal routine, occupational (academic) functioning, or social activities or relationships, or there is marked distress about having the phobia.

Fear Of Missing Out

Fear of missing out, or FOMO, is described as "a pervasive apprehension that others might be having rewarding experiences from which one is absent".

This social anxiety is characterized by "a desire to stay continually connected with what others are doing".

FOMO is also defined as a fear of regret, which may lead to a compulsive concern that one might miss an opportunity for social interaction, a novel experience, a profitable investment, or other satisfying events.

In other words, FOMO perpetuates the fear of having made the wrong decision on how to spend time since one "can imagine how things could be different".

Ten minutes into the requested breakfast meeting, I regretted having said yes.

The young man who had asked for the get-together—he needed some pastoral coaching, evidently—was sitting across from me at the diner, and now, there at the restaurant, with my full attention pointed his way, he had the gall to check his smartphone what seemed like every sixteen seconds.

He checked it while I was ordering my meal, he checked it just after he ordered his meal, he checked it while I answered his questions, and he even checked it while he asked them.

Unless the guy was waiting on word of an organ transplant—which I quickly learned he wasn’t—his lack of focus was totally unacceptable.

My irritation quickly birthed a fury that made me cut the meeting short, and I bolted.

Decision Anxiety

For people who struggle with this, the weight of having to make a decision causes a type of paralysis.

It comes up in the major life decisions such as: Who should I marry?

What career or degree should I pursue?What job offer should I take.

Which house or car or motorcycle should I buy?

As parents we wrestle with questions like: Do I push my kids in this area or do I show grace or do I remove the safety cushion and let them learn a hard lesson.

As a women you might ask “What do I want to eat?”

As men we wrestle with do I ask her what she wants to eat knowing that she wont know, or do I make the decision knowing that she wont be satisfied.

All joking aside, for one who struggles with Decision Anxiety there is almost a constant stifling wrestle with the question of “How does the will of God relate to my decision making”?

Insecurity & Codependency

The anxious, fearful sense of needing someone’s affirmation.

You seek security in their presence or approval.

It is also manifested in the reverse.

That is to say one has a need of being needed.

You seek security in having the things.

You seek security in the position.

Step 2. Expose and Uproot: Unbelief and idolatry