DEALING WITH A TROUBLED HEART
Notes
Transcript
In England, the word Let is used instead of rent. You see signs everywhere “Apt to Let” or “Flat to Let”. It would imply that you are purchasing permission to live or work in such and such a place. You are allowed to move in. That is very appropriate to what I want to contemplate with you.
Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
THE TROUBLED HEART
THE TROUBLED HEART
Current State of Affairs
Current State of Affairs
We live in troubled times. I say that for the benefit of those of you who are just now coming out of a Rip Van Winkle coma. For the rest of us it is an absurdly redundant statement.
So I’m not going to belabor the existential circumstances of 2020. But I want to think a little about the internal chaos that times like these can easily create. Troubled times easily morph into troubled hearts.
Psychology Today Sept 30:
Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019, research has noted a variety of mental health consequences that have been experienced in response. Some of these consequences have included: stress, depression, anxiety, feelings of panic, feelings of hopelessness, frustration, feelings of desperation, and struggles with suicidal ideation and behavior, insomnia, irritability, emotional exhaustion, grief, and traumatic stress symptoms.
In addition to these individual responses the article cites what it calls common or communal problems:
These reactions include intense and uncontrolled fear related to infection, pervasive anxiety, frustration, boredom, and disabling loneliness.
And that is just in an article about COVID. What about all the other stress/fear/anxiety inducing elements that we call 2020!!! Economic, political, racial, media hyped narratives that we deal with on a daily basis.
The word “troubled” = tarrasestho = to stir up, agitate…The Complete Biblical Greek-English Dictionary: “After eating the Passover with His disciples, Jesus told them, “Let not your heart be troubled” (John 14:1,27). In these two instances the verb refers to the inward anxiety and emotional shock they would experience that night and in the coming days.
“And now I have told you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe. I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me.
God Knows
God Knows
Jesus says nothing about ameliorating the things that are coming to cause them trouble. He doesn’t say there is a way around the problems. He is letting them know that very troubling times are coming.
“And now I have told you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe. I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me.
This is not good news. I am leaving. The Devil is coming. My goodness...
Jesus makes it clear that none of the things that are about to happen, His arrest, His crucifixion, the scattering of the disciples, is taking Him by surprise. He doesn’t give them a game plan. He doesn’t say “This is how you can overcome the devil.” He just says this is what’s happening.
The one thing we can be sure of at this point is that God knows. God knows what is coming and it’s part of His plan. All that is about to become deeply and profoundly troublesome for the disciples is part of God’s plan of redemption.
Regardless of who is doing what, what forces of evil may be rising in our moment in history, no matter how alarming, God is not alarmed. He is not reacting. He is acting. That much we know. We’re not sure about how any of this will play out, but God knows before it comes to pass and He has a plan and a purpose that nothing can derail.
Dangerous Response
Dangerous Response
The worst thing we can do is panic. The absolutely wrong response is to let any of this unsettle us. If Jesus expected the disciples to hold it together in the darkest days that were coming upon them, then He expects the same of us. Don’t fret!
PEACE
PEACE
Transcendent Peace
Transcendent Peace
How can He expect His disciples, and by extension, us in our own troubled times, not to be troubled and not to fear? He tells us how. The first thing He tells us is that He is leaving us His peace!
Peace is a literal thing, a condition. It isn’t simply theoretical or academic. It isn’t just a notion. It is an experience.
It is a calm assurance in troubled times. It is a confidence that overrules any situation.
I will both lie down in peace, and sleep;
For You alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.
Great peace have those who love Your law,
And nothing causes them to stumble.
These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
The peace of God in the midst of tribulation, trouble, peace that surpasses understanding, that doesn’t make sense is promised in Jesus Christ. In ME, Jesus said, you have peace.
It is a self-evident reality. You don’t have to ask if you have the peace of God. If you ain’t got it, you ain’t got it!!! It’s not some mysterious quality. It is something that God gives you, that Jesus has left for you and made available to you.
According to our text, it is not like the peace of the world. It doesn’t depend on circumstances.
You don’t get it through self-medication, or a doctor’s medication. It isn’t the result of psychotherapy. You don’t need a long vacation by the ocean to get it. You won’t find it by meditating on your naval, or emptying your mind with the ohmmmm of nothingness.
Peace and the Holy Spirit
Peace and the Holy Spirit
It is the work of the Holy Spirit in you. The presence of God that overshadows the presence of trouble.
The verse before our text:
But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.
Galatians 5:22 (NKJV)
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace...
This is a God given peace that He alone can bring.
And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling. But He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?”
Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace, be still!” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. But He said to them, “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?” And they feared exceedingly, and said to one another, “Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him!”
This is a real peace…sleeping in the storm kind of peace…MY peace I give to you…a who can this be kind of peace...
THE PIVOT POINT
THE PIVOT POINT
Let
Let
But there is a caveat here, a pivot point in the promise that you are going to have to address in yourself.\-
It is this word “let”. This little tiny three letter word is the power of peace! It rests with you.
LET NOT your heart be troubled. LET it NOT be AFRAID.
And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful.
LET! To allow. To permit.
Do not permit fear to dominate your heart. Allow the peace of God to rule.
The Power of Will
The Power of Will
This is talking about the power of the will. Your ability to decide what you are going to allow in your heart, your inner man.
I suppose you can spend hours listening to Rush Limbaugh or CNN or reading all the bad new on the internet.
Or you can spend your time in the Word of God, soaking up the reassurance of God and reveling in the nature of God revealed in the Bible.
Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me.
Believing God’s Word, loving God’s Word is all a choice of the will.
So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.
The author of Hebrews calls it an evil heart of unbelief. That implies a moral issue in our hearts! Let not your heart be troubled. Let not your heart fear! What are you giving your heart to? What are you permitting to live in you? To whom have you let the quarters of your heart?
The Fruit of Letting God
The Fruit of Letting God
There are countless scriptures that demonstrate this principle at work in us.
Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.
Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
We could look at many more issues in the kingdom and issues of faith that pivot on what we will and will not allow in our lives.
We all have free will. We all have choices to make. Fear is something you let into your heart…or you refuse to let into your heart.
You either let the peace of God fill up your heart or you let trouble fill your heart.
Matthew 6:
25 "Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life… 31 Therefore do not worry… 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things...
This is an imperative…do not, do not, do not. You might say, “You don’t know my troubles. You don’t know my fears.”
I don’t have to. God knows them and you know what He says: DO NOT!!! Do not let your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
Jesus gives you His peace. Rest in Him and do not let your heart be troubled!!