#4 Thief - Worry. (Chapter 4)

Philippians 4:6-Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;

7-and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.  (NKJV)

Philippians 4:6-Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.

7-Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. (NLT)

The Apostle Paul points out the thieves, which would rob us of our joy, and then he shows the attitudes or mind-set we must have in order to slay these "thieves."

If you could sum up chapter 4 of Philippians, it would be that Paul talked about worry and what to do if we worry!

Remember….Never has worry prevented an accident or paid a debt or kept a loved one alive. 

A day of worry is more exhausting than a week of hard work.

“He worried himself sick” can certainly express the truth

Worry is like a rocking chair — it gives you something to do, but it won’t get you anywhere

We are living in a time that many refer to as an “Age of Anxiety”

No Job … We worry (How we going to support our family)

If We Have Job … We Worry (We will lose our job)

No Money … We Worry (How we are going to pay our bills)

If We Have Money … We Worry (We worry someway we will lose it)

If We Are Sick … We Worry (Are we going to get better)

If We Are Not Sick … We Worry (Are we going to get sick)

One worrier said to another, “I have so many troubles that if anything happened to me today it would take me two weeks before I could get around to worrying about it.”

He worried about the weather

He worried about his health

He worried about his business

He worried about his wealth.

She worried about the children

She worried about her clothes,

She worried about the neighbors

She worried about her woes.

They worried about their taxes,

They worried about their pets,

They worried about the future,

They worried about their debts.

They worried, still they worried;

They worried, but alas,

They worried about a lot of things,

That never came to pass.

If we prayed as much as we worry, we’d have a lot less to worry about.

We may worry about things but we have a lot to be thankful for to God.

If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75% of this world.

If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace, you are among the top 8% of the world’s wealthy.

If you woke up this morning with more health than illness, you are more blessed than the million who will not survive this week.

If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation, you are ahead of 500 million people in the world.

If you can attend church meetings without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death, you are more blessed than three billion in the world.

Substitute Praying for your Worrying.

"Do not under any circumstances worry about anything, but pray about everything, and the peace of God, which surpasses all human understanding, shall guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ." (Vs. 6-7).

The average Christian has that reversed.

He or she worries about everything and in very few things prays.

Years ago, in the pioneer days of aviation, a pilot was making a flight around the world.  After he had been gone for some two hours from his last landing field, he heard a noise in his plane, which he recognized as the gnawing of a rat.  He realized that while his plane had been on the ground a rat had gotten in.  For all he knew the rat could be gnawing through a vital cable or control of the plane.  It was a very serious situation.  He was both concerned and anxious.  At first he did not know what to do.  It was two hours back to the landing field from which he had taken off and more than two hours to the next field ahead.  Then he remembered that the rat is a rodent.  It is not made for the heights; it is made to live on the ground and under the ground.  Therefore the pilot began to climb.  

He went up a thousand feet, and then another thousand and another until he was more than twenty thousand feet up. The gnawing ceased.  The rat was dead.  He could not survive in the atmosphere of those heights.  More than two hours later the pilot brought the plane safely to the next landing field and found the dead rat.