Untitled Sermon (60)

Good morning! My name is George Box I am the new pastor here at Fellowship Baptist Church and I just want to welcome you to this morning’s episode of Coffee and the Word. I titled this episode: “What in the World Are You Worried About?” So let me just come out and ask you what are you worried about today? Don’t try and tell me that you are not worried about anything; you cannot convince me that you are not a worrier. Besides that is my line. I will be the first to say that I don’t worry; I just consider things. But changing the language doesn’t change the fact that we all worry at times about things that are not in our control. Let’s face it we don’t know what is going to happen tomorrow and that is by God’s plan. If we know what is going to happen we plan for it and don’t really have to rely on God in faith. But the truth I we often worry about what we don’t know. I am not an expert on anxiety but I do know that there is hope and relief for the children of God in these days of unknown trials. These fears or anxieties are often driven inward which weakens us, panics us and very often sickens us.

What are you going to do about it? Some say a way to relieve anxiety or worry is to limit the time of worry to just a short period of time in any given day. Set aside 30 minutes a day to do all of your worrying. How well do you think that is really going to work? Limiting your worry to a specific time is like herding cats. Worry, thoughts, anxiety just comes up at any time and usually at the most inopportune time, often prompted by some event or something said during the day. So again I ask; what are you going to do about the worry?

First let me tell you the bad news. If you are not a follower of Christ I have no suggestions. Your anxiety is your own and you have no help dealing with it. That is the bad news. But for the follower of Christ I have some very good news. Paul wrote about worry or anxiety and how to deal with it as a believer when he wrote his letter to the Philippians. That information is found in Philippians 4:6-8. Let me read verses 6-7 for you. 6Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. These are marvelous words but make sure you understand that Paul is not saying through the Word of God that we are to be like that song a few years back; “Don’t Worry, Be Happy”. He gives us something to specifically do. Pray in everything. The first word he uses for pray is a general term but the other two words; supplication and requests are terms for specific prayers. Let’s face it, you worry about specific things so you need to pray for specific things. I’m not going to try to name every possible stressor but are you worried about that unexpected bill? Pray specifically for the Lord’s provision. Worried about that diagnosis? Pray specifically for wisdom for the way forward. Just for the record, you cannot be too specific for God. He wants to hear you supplications and requests.

Remarkably, we are promised that when we pray, the Lord will give us peace instead of anxiety. Did you catch that in verse 7? It is a kind of peace that defies the circumstances that we face. God’s peace is not the absence of conflict but a settled security grounded in our relationship with Him. Paul writes that the resultant peace will safeguard our hearts and minds. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones described it this way: “What will happen is that this peace of God will walk round the ramparts and towers of our life. We are inside, and the activities of the heart and mind are producing those stresses and anxieties and strains from the outside. But the peace of God will keep them all out and we ourselves inside will be at perfect peace.” We have to understand this: God does not necessarily take away the stressors (He can but He is not obligated to do so) but He does give peace in the midst of those stressors.

Let me ask you this: Are the things we worry about strongest on the outside or on the inside? In other words don’t they do the most damage in our minds, in our moment by moment thoughts? Paul gives us the remedy for that as well in verse 8: 8Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things arejust, whatever things are pure, whatever things arelovely, whatever things are of good report, if there isany virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. In one of my psychology courses I had to take in college the professor, who was not a believer, said something that made a lot of sense to me (even a blind hog finds an acorn once in a while). He said “There are only three things in your life that you can control; what you think, what you feel and what you do”. That is an example of the wisdom of God being in the world and the world not recognizing it. What we think about is eventually what we do. There is no anxiety in truth, nobility, justness, purity, beauty, goodness, anything virtuous, or praiseworthy. If you dwell on those things after being specific about your needs to God who provides every good thing then anxiety finds little room to vex you. Simply enough we as believers need to think about what we think about. Worried about finances? The truth is that “my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (4:19). Worried that you won’t have the strength to carry on? The truth is that “I can do all things through Him that strengthens me” (4:13). If you are feeling lonely, isolated, or neglected, the truth is that “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Heb. 13:5). Instead of worrying, spend some time exploring the depths of this new way of thinking.

This relief or antidote for anxiety is contingent on your vertical relationship with God through Christ Jesus. Always remember when you feel the anxiety of the world pressing in on you to look up to the One who promises to give you peace when you are specific in crying out to Him and dwelling on what is true, noble, just, pure, lovely, good, virtuous, and praiseworthy.

Let’s pray.