A family had put their Grandma on her first plane flight, but she hadn’t been very confident about the experience of leaving the ground on this contraption. When they met her at the airport on her return, one of the family members kidded her by asking, “Well, did the plane hold you up okay?” She grudgingly replied, “Well, yes,” and then quickly added, “But I never did put my full weight down on it!”
Many Christians are like that Grandma. The truth is, they are being sustained completely by the sovereignty and grace of God, but they are afraid to put their full weight down on Him. As a result, they are plagued by anxiety and aren’t able to enjoy the flight. Let me invite you take your Bible if you have it with you and turn to Philippians chapter 4 as we look at verses 2-9 as we continue our Joy Ride series through the book of Philippians.
Philippians 4:2-9
2 I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord. 3 Yes, I ask you also, true companion, help these women, who have labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life. 4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. 5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6 do not be anxious about anything, 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 your minds in Christ Jesus. 8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 9 What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.
This message this morning is not completely original to me as this is a CLASSIC treatise on THE BIGGEST joy robber or all – anxiety. And so today will be a fun little outline: The Problem, The Prescription, & The Prognosis.
1. THE PROBLEM: OUT OF CONTROL ANXIETY – vs. 6
Someone graphically described anxiety as “a thin stream of fear trickling through the mind. If encouraged, it cuts a channel into which all other thoughts are drained.” That’s the danger of anxiety practically but spiritually it is so much bigger than that. Look at verse 6 again: Do not be anxious about anything…
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus made it clear that anxiety stems from a lack of faith and from a wrong focus on the things of this world instead of on the kingdom of God. Matthew 6 is the classic text on worry in the New Testament. Listen to it from the New Living Translation: “25 That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? 27 Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? 28 “And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, 29 yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. 30 And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith? 31 “So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ 32 These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. 33 Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. 34 “So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today."
I read this week that worry is merely unbelief parading in disguise! "32 These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers…" And do you know how we excuse this "dominating" – this habitual, dominating anxiety? By saying, “Well, it’s only human,” or, “Anybody would feel anxious in this situation.” But Jesus said, “That’s how UNBELIEVERS respond.”
See, when we excuse the habitual, dominating anxiety in our lives, we will never OVERCOME it because we are not confronting the root cause of it, namely, our sin of not believing God and of not seeking first His kingdom and righteousness. So not only does habitual anxiety reveal a sin issue of NOT trusting God or NOT seeking His kingdom first, it also has an incredibly negative impact on our ability to impact those around us with the gospel. Remember early on in the series we said that joy was incredibly evangelistic because in a cruel world, joy is a precious commodity…and if you possess it, others will want to know the source of it. Anxiety has the opposite effect. If a non-Christian sees you as a believer weighed down with anxiety, they aren’t going to be asking you how they can have what you have.
Some of you are already getting worried that you worry too much! You are getting anxious over your anxiety so let me clarify. We are talking about habitual, debilitating, fear-dominated living here. We are not talking about someone being in an accident and you caring deeply about the outcome. I’m not talking about the nervousness associated with the first day at a new school, or dropping your daughter off at college. We are talking about habitual, debilitating, fear-dominated living.
One of the absolutely most difficult things to do in the Christian life is to take honest inventory of what is going on in my heart. I am so subjective in evaluating myself and I love to evaluate myself based upon my intentions and others based upon their actions. Does anyone know what I am talking about? Thankfully, in this passage, Paul gives us some gauges to look at to read the level of habitual anxiety that is dominating my heart and mind.
Check the gauges:
• A lack of rejoicing – vs. 4
• A lack of gentleness (being unreasonable) – vs. 5
Let me phrase these two commands in the negative. Verse 4 – Don’t be moody and grumpy based upon the circumstance. Verse 5 – Don’t be abrasive and unreasonable to deal with.
If I consistently am characterized by a lack of joy or rejoicing and if I am consistently on edge and behaving unreasonably, there is more than a slight chance that anxiety has taken over my behavior. Before we leave this point, let me clarify that Paul is not encouraging a careless, carefree, irresponsible attitude toward people or problems. You’ve maybe seen a Christian swing from anxiety to either apathy or inaction, claiming that they’re obeying the command not to be anxious. But Christians should care deeply about people and their problems and should work hard to resolve problems. As members of the same body, we are to have mutual concern for one another. Paul mentions the concern that he bears daily for all the churches (2 Cor. 11:28).
He tells the Philippians that Timothy is genuinely concerned for their welfare (Phil. 2:20). In each of these verses, the word concern is the same as the Greek word for anxious, but clearly it is not sinful anxiety but proper concern. It is proper to be concerned about our future welfare to the extent that we take responsibility to plan and save for future needs (Prov. 6:6-11). But proper concern turns to sinful anxiety when we lack faith in God’s role as the Sovereign Lord and provider, and when we put self-comfort or self-reliance at the center of our thoughts, instead of God’s kingdom and sovereignty. So the first step in dealing with anxiety is to identify the problem and examine whether it is due to lack of faith or to a wrong focus on self.
2. THE PRESCRIPTION – vs. 6 & 8
Raise your hand if you have ever used the internet to medically diagnose yourself or someone else. You know there is nothing more that doctors hate than for us to do that. We have a headache and we walk into the doctor’s office with our heads shaved and order a cat scan based upon our research. We see someone clipping a hangnail and with three clicks of a mouse we inform them that a hangnail is the warning sign of a fatal heart attack based on our research. Can you imagine going to the doctor and describing an illness to the doctor in detail and how you have been feeling and even suggesting some possible causes only to have him say, “I think you’re right. Is there anything else you would like to talk about? No? Well then just see the billing office on your way out.” You would be furious! You don’t go to the doctor to get your problem only identified. You go to get it fixed. You go to have a prescription written or a course of action prescribed.
Once we come to the place where we are convicted that anxiety is dominating our lives, we don’t want to stay there, we want to know the prescription for what is troubling our hearts and minds. If you’re listening, smack your neighbor and say, “Wake up!”
One of the most important choices you will ever make in gaining emotional stability is the choice to operate out of what you know to be true instead of what you feel to be true. Let me repeat that. This is fundamental to emotional stability and cannot be overstated. This is the difference between the person who is in control of their emotions and the person who allows their emotions to control them. In other words you operate on Biblical principles instead of operating on how you feel at the time. Mature people live based on commitments and convictions…immature people live based on their emotions. So what choices do I need to make instead of letting my emotions take over my behavior? I am glad you asked. There are two listed:
a. Prayer and thanksgiving – vs. 6
“Do not be anxious about anything…but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” Prayer is the releasing of the problem from our hearts and minds into God’s hands. Prayer is letting God know what he already knows, that we need Him. But the type of prayer is specific. It is thanksgiving-filled prayer. When you’re anxious, presumably you’re in a situation that gives some cause for anxiety! At such times, thankfulness is not automatic or spontaneous. You have to choose it deliberately by faith. You have to make the choice because otherwise your emotions will take over and will take you places you don’t want to go that do not have happy endings.
Thanksgiving in a time of trials reflects three things:
(1) Remembrance of God’s supply in the past. You think back over His faithfulness to you up to this point and realize that His mercies have sustained you. He has been with you in every trial.
(2) Submission to God’s sovereignty in the present. To thank God in the midst of a crisis or trial is to say, “Lord, I don’t understand, but I submit to Your sovereign purpose in this situation. I trust that You know what You’re doing and will work it together for good.” We are not just to thank God when we feel like it, but also when we don’t feel like it (1 Thess. 5:18).
(3) Trust in God’s sufficiency for the future. A thankful heart rests upon the all-sufficient God, knowing that even though we don’t see how He is going to do it, He will meet our every need as we cast ourselves on Him.
So thanksgiving-filled prayer is one part of the prescription and the other part is found in verse 8. Look there again: “8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”
b. Meditation – vs. 8
“Think on these things!” Let’s just be honest. When we think of meditation we think of weird people who sit in weird positions and make weird noises, don’t we? The question is not whether or not you practice meditation. We all do because meditation is simply “focused thinking.” The difference between Biblical meditation and worry is simply the content of your thoughts. Worry thinks about everything that could go wrong while Biblical meditation thinks about what God has promised would turn for his glory. Listen closely. The greatest aid in meditation is memorization. I am ashamed to confess that I used to be very diligent about scripture memory and it is a spiritual discipline that I have neglected of late that I plan to put back into practice. Scripture memory is the key to renewing my mind which is the key to changing how we actually live according to Romans 12:2.
Meditating on God’s truth and promises is the most effective weapon in crowding out anxiety, but we cannot meditate on verses that we cannot recall. Let me tell another reason why meditation is so crucial. It’s because the spiritual strongholds we battle against are in our thought life. A believer cannot be demon possessed but they can be demon oppressed. Possession is to take up residence but that cannot happen because the Holy Spirit has already taken up residence in our hearts. But demon oppression is to be bothered or influenced by demonic activity…and the place that happens is in our thoughts…because if our thoughts can be influenced, then our emotions can be moved, and in turn our choices and actions can be manipulated. But don’t take my word for it. Listen to the Word of God.
2 Corinthians 10:3-5 (NIV)
For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
If you cannot control you thoughts, then you cannot control your emotions and they will control you, in that your emotions left unchecked will motivate your will, which determines your choices, which determines your destiny.
Now, if talking about demonic oppression makes you nervous then you really need to fasten your seatbelt because I want to address something that most churches and pulpits will not touch with a 10 foot pole but I feel it needs to be addressed if people are going to be made whole with the power of the gospel. It is an issue that speaks directly to the sufficiency of Christ and the sufficiency of Scripture. Here’s the question: Does meditation replace medication?
In other words, is the Word and the Savior sufficient enough in all cases? Over the last 10 years, prescriptions in general have gone up by 93%...with the majority written for either anxiety, or depression, or emotional instability in general. Since 1988, the increase has been over 400%. So it is certainly an issue that is prevalent in contemporary culture and it is quite frankly a question that many Christians wrestle with. I came across such a person in researching for this message when I pulled up a blog post written by Russell Moore from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Russell Moore Blog - Is It Right for a Christian to Take Anti-Depressants?
— Tuesday, February 28th, 2012 —
Dear Dr. Moore,
Not long ago, my doctor prescribed me as having a (relatively) mild form of depression. He put me on an anti-depressant. I hate the side effects, and I don’t like the way it makes me feel, but maybe I’ll get used to it. My biggest struggle is whether it is right to be on these at all. If I have the Holy Spirit, why do I need this drug? Is it ethical for a Christian to take drugs like this?
Dazed and Confused
Here’s his response. It’s a little lengthy but it is so good so stay tuned in:
Dear Dazed,
Most of the anti-depressants you see advertised on television don’t “fix” something, as much as they alleviate symptoms. They rework levels of serotonin or dopamine reception, for instance, so that a person doesn’t experience the same levels of sadness or dullness or hopelessness. Often, even when depression or anxiety is rooted in non-physiological reasons, the person is so far gone that medication is necessary to start working on the root issues. But, remember, for most people, there is no drug that will bring about a flourishing psyche. What the drug is meant to do is to “numb” the person to the pain of depression and anxiety. Numbing, as part of an overall plan, can be a good thing. When I have a toothache, I want my dentist to give me an anesthetic so that I don’t feel that throbbing anymore. Before my tooth can be fixed, someone must “shut down” the agony I’m in, temporarily. But a dentist who simply “treats” my infected tooth with an anesthetic isn’t helping me. Ultimately, the tooth must be fixed.
It could be that your depression and anxiety is caused by something physiological. If so, continue your medical treatment and have that looked at. But it could be that there’s a reason for the sadness or the anxiety. Maybe you’ve recently lost a spouse or a job or a friend. If so, grieve over that loss. Maybe you’re anxious about a guilty conscience or about an uncertain future. Don’t just medicalize that anxiety. Rehearse the gospel you’ve embraced, and pray, alone and with others, and seek the kind of counsel that can bring about the necessary life-change to cope with whatever seems so hopeless right now.
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It took a lot of courage for him to write that but he is dead on. Now don’t go out of here and say that the pastors at LHC said that taking medicine is wrong. Don’t email me either. What Dr. Moore is saying and I am agreeing with is that for non-physiological issues, medication can be used to help cope in the short term, but it does not fix issues that are rooted in the heart, it only numbs the pain caused by them. It may numb the pain, and that may be necessary for a particularly rough stretch, but medication cannot fix a heart issue that is spilling over into debilitating emotional conditions. The prescription for heart issues are prayer and meditation according to this passage and the healing of the heart that only Jesus Christ can bring in the power of the gospel.
Imagine if Jesus Christ were physically present at the altar today and you came to Him, not with a physiological issue but rather an issue of the heart and he said, “I’ve got nothing for you! That’s too big for me. That’s beyond my ability to bring hope and healing.” The prescription for problems of the heart are prayer and meditation and the power of the gospel. We have identified the problem and the prescription but let’s get to the exciting part. The prognosis:
3. THE PROGNOSIS: PEACE – vs. 7,9
A prognosis is a medical term that describes the likely outcome of an illness. If our heart illness is out of control anxiety and we take the prescription as directed then the prognosis is incredibly optimistic. Look at verses 7 and 9: “7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 9 What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.”
Here’s the heart of our problem – we want the prize without going through the process. We want to the peace of God to fill us and flush out all of the anxiety but in both verse 7 and verse 9 peace is the prognosis, not the prescription. Peace is what happens when you make the choice to pray and meditate instead of letting your emotions take over to the point where you cannot rejoice and you become unreasonable and abrasive to deal with. Listen to the words of a Bible teacher that I read this week who had great insight into verse 7:
Note that this peace stands guard like a sentry over our inner person, our hearts (the comprehensive term for our whole person) and minds (specifically, our thoughts which threaten to trouble us) in Christ Jesus. We are in intimate, permanent union with Him, and to get to us, anxiety must go through Christ Jesus! So what God promises isn’t just a quick fix, where prayer is a technique that will bring you calm until you get through the crisis. Paul is talking about an ongoing, deepening, intimate relationship with the God of peace, where you seek to please Him with all your thoughts, words, and deeds. In a time of trial, you draw near to the God of peace, you focus on His grace to you in Christ Jesus, you pour out your heart to Him, and the result is, His peace stands guard over your heart and mind.”
He nailed it. Peace is the result, not the prescription. We don’t sit and wait for peace to come. We make the choices that produce it. We focus on the Word of God and the God of the Word and not on the worries of our world and the result is peace. You choose to focus on the promises instead of the problems. If you do not make that choice, your emotions will choose for you and the result will be less than peaceful.
O what peace we often forfeit,
O what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer!
When I first started preaching I heard or read somewhere this advice. “Just remember that if you preach to two people there is a good chance at least one of them is hurting.” If you are that one, then 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17 is my prayer for you. “Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and our God and Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good hope by grace, comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work.”
