Overwhelming Worry
Jeffery Anselmi / General
Core 52 / Anxiety; Stress / Philippians 4:6
We all face life; the question is, how will we face it? We will be overwhelmed by anxiety or is there a better way?
INTRODUCTION
- Decades ago, in the waiting room of a Minneapolis hospital, three expectant fathers nervously paced while they anxiously awaited news from beyond the swinging double doors.
- The nurse came in and announced to the first father that he was now the proud daddy of two beautiful twins.
- “That’s quite a coincidence,” he responded, “I play for the Minnesota Twins!”
- A few minutes later, another nurse came in and announced to the second man, “Your wife has just given birth to triplets.”
- “That’s amazing,” he exclaimed, “I work for the 3M Company!”
- At this point, the third man passed out and fell out of his chair.
- The nurse quickly attended to the man. As he came to, she asked, “Are you feeling ill?” He said, “No, but I work for 7-up.”
- (Dan Raymond Core 52 message)
- The message today may be difficult for most of us to relate to because I know none of us deal with worry, stress, and anxiety in our lives.
- Maybe you heard some preacher tell you that if you come to Jesus, you will not experience stress, anxiety, and worry in your life because God will not let anything bad happen to you IF you love Jesus enough.
- Because of the world we live in until we get to Heaven, life can and will throw a lot at us.
- In reality, overwhelming worry is an issue we all face or will face in life.
- We live in a day when worry is assumed to be a normal part of life.
- Anxiety is expected. We all worry sometimes, but what is alarming is how often worry cripples our ability to live life.
- 43% of adults suffer adverse health problems because of worry, and these numbers are mushrooming among Generation Z or the Generation, those aged about 8 to 23.
- Did you know that half of all people in the hospital at any given time can be diagnosed as chronic worriers?
- 75% of all visits to primary care doctors are stress-related.
- 275 million workdays are lost every year to worry related absenteeism.
- Thirty-one million Americans suffer from insomnia, and anxiety plays a significant role in that.
- The bottom line is worry is killing us. (Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA), Forbes Health, and other mental health research organizations)
- One thing I want to acknowledge before we dive too deep.
- Life can be so beautiful; when it is, all is good, and it is easy to love God.
- However, the other side of the coin is that life can be tragic.
- So many things can go wrong in life, and sometimes, the pain and questions of life can potentially destroy us.
- This morning, I desire not to give you a Sunday School answer for your worries, anxiety, and stress in life.
- My goal this morning is not to guilt you if you are struggling with your faith or racked with overwhelming worry but rather to help you deal with life in a better, more healthy way.
- When life is difficult, when tragedy strikes, it is the most difficult time to love and trust God.
- One thing to take note of is that we cannot love God only when things go our way; we must also love and trust Him when they do not.
- Imagine marrying someone who only loves you when things are going well.
- We all face life; the question is, how will we face it?
- We will be overwhelmed by anxiety, or is there a better way?
- Let’s look at that better way.
Philippians 4:6 (NET 2nd ed.)
6 Do not be anxious about anything. Instead, in every situation, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, tell your requests to God.
SERMON
I. How we are called to respond to the stresses of life.
- Don’t you love the simplicity of scripture?
- How do I respond to stress, anxiety, and worry?
- Charlie Brown explained, "I've developed a new philosophy: I dread only one day at a time." Reader's Digest, November 2014, p.28
- Don’t be anxious about anything!
- Wow, that was easy.
- What a short sermon!
- The verb rendered “be anxious” is translated as “deep concern” in Philippians 2:20
Philippians 2:20 (NET 2nd ed.)
20 For there is no one here like him who will readily demonstrate his deep concern for you.
- In this verse the verb is used in a positive manner, to care deeply for someone, in our passage it is used in a negative connotation.
- In our passage, the deeper issue is the thought implies a lack of faith in trust in God’s ability to care for you.
- Don’t worry about anything is often expressed, for example, “Do not eat up your own heart,” “Don’t let your thoughts kill you,” or “Don’t let your thoughts take away your strength.
- Worrying is an unhealthy way to deal with life.
- Worry can be defined as “to choke” or strangle.
Matthew 13:22 NET 2nd ed.
22 The seed sown among thorns is the person who hears the word, but worldly cares and the seductiveness of wealth choke the word, so it produces nothing.
- In the Parable of the Sower, Jesus explains the parable to His disciples and says that worry will choke out the Word.
- Think about that: when we spend our time worrying and anxious, we do not spend time in the Word.
- Do you also have joy when you allow yourself to be burdened with worry?
- NO!
- There is a reason for that.
- In This Is Your Brain on Joy, Dr. Earl Henslin describes how joy and anxiety travel the same pathway in our brains.
- There's not enough room for both to simultaneously occupy the path so we can choose which one gets access.
- If we open the gate for joy, worry has no room to come along.
- Christian HealthCare Newsletter, November 2018, p.1
- One might say, why would I want to spend time in the Word when my life is falling apart?
- Well, one reason is that God will have an answer for how to deal with your situation.
- Naturally, we want God NOT to allow what is causing our anxiety to happen.
- That is not how it works in the real world.
- God does not swoop down in a superhero cap to stop the issue.
- He gives us a way to deal with it and help others deal with it.
- To want a God who does not allow anything to happen to us, as nice as that would be, is somewhat of an immature view of God.
- Jesus died on the cross.
- Paul was persecuted.
- Stephen died for his faith, as did Paul, James, Peter, and the rest of the Apostles except John; however, even John suffered persecution.
- Worry is the opposite of trust.
John 14:1 (NET 2nd ed.)
1 “Do not let your hearts be distressed. You believe in God; believe also in me.
- Stress, worry, and anxiety are an enemy to both our emotional and physical health.
- “When the excessive fuel in the blood isn't used for physical activities, the chronic anxiety and outpouring of stress hormones can have serious physical consequences, including Suppression of the immune system. Digestive disorders. Muscle tension.” WebMD
- Worry triggers stress hormones…affecting the heart, kidneys, stroke, blood vessels, muscles and other systems…tension, migraines, headaches, intestines…and the list goes on!
- Worry is also an enemy of our spiritual health and our mental health.
- From our Core 52 reading:
- “Worry is a battle of the mind.
- What we focus on will determine the direction our thoughts go.
- Neuro-scientific research has given us the fascinating insight that protein branches hold our thoughts.
- In a real sense, thought creates real estate in our brains.
- The more we dwell on a thought, the larger the constellation of proteins becomes.
- We give our space and place to the thought we allow to dominate our brains.” Core 52, Page 330
- The healthy way to deal with overwhelming worry is to turn to God, not away from Him.
Matthew 6:33–34 NET 2nd ed.
33 But above all pursue his kingdom and righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
34 So then, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Today has enough trouble of its own.
- Ultimately, we must respond to life by trusting God and seeking God.
- Let’s look at our passage again.
Philippians 4:6 (NET 2nd ed.)
6 Do not be anxious about anything. Instead, in every situation, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, tell your requests to God.
II. The tool we can use for defeating anxiety.
- When worry begins to rear its ugly head in our lives, there are some things we can do to prevent it from consuming us.
- The point of verse 6 is that there is an antidote to help us not to be consumed by worry.
- THE CURE for worry and anxiety is not inaction, nor is it apathy.
- Notice, we are told, BUT IN EVERY SITUATION…
- EVERY SITUATION!
- Worry overtakes us when we decide to take on life on our own or if we decide to lean on others or other things.
- We are to take everything up to God in prayer, trusting He will take care of it.
- Prayer.
- Prayer and petitions are two forms of prayer.
- The point of the word prayer is for one to seek good, to seek what is good.
- A petition is a prayer to avoid evil.
- Prayer and recognizing God’s love and goodness are powerful, and together they are most effective.
- Many struggle with prayer because they have yet to develop a deep enough relationship with God to trust Him.
- It goes back to if I do not get it my way, God can take the highway.
- Those in a deep relationship with Christ KNOW that prayer is not a waste of time but an effective weapon for the battles of life.
- We also are given the attitude in which we are to pray.
- We are to pray with thanksgiving!
- All prayers are to be made with a spirit of gratitude, acknowledging past favors and present blessings and firmly grounded assurance for the future.
- We do not have to be thankful for every situation, but we are to pray to God with an attitude of thanksgiving!
- Thanksgiving is an attitude that can spring forth from recognizing God’s blessings and control of circumstances.
- Worry tends to cause us to forget God and rely on human resources.
- In verse 8, we also see another weapon.
Philippians 4:8 (NET 2nd ed.)
8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is worthy of respect, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if something is excellent or praiseworthy, think about these things.
- In difficult times, we tend to focus all our energy on the issue instead of on better things.
- Where we focus is where we end up going when life gets tough.
- Let’s turn one more time to our passage.
Philippians 4:6 (NET 2nd ed.)
6 Do not be anxious about anything. Instead, in every situation, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, tell your requests to God.
III. Our depository for our anxieties.
- Here is the key: we have a depository for worry and anxiety, and that depository is God!
- The word picture the end of the verse paints for us is one speaking face to face with God.
- The word request denotes prayers for a definite, specific object, thing, or need.
- Telling God your requests implies that we speak our requests to God as if He did not already know our needs.
- Be specific because, when all is said and done, being specific helps us know and be thankful when a prayer is answered.
- When we use God as our depository for our anxieties, listen to what we can have.
Philippians 4:7 (NET 2nd ed.)
7 And the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
- We can do this because God cares.
1 Peter 5:6–7 (NET 2nd ed.)
6 And God will exalt you in due time, if you humble yourselves under his mighty hand
7 by casting all your cares on him because he cares for you.
CONCLUSION
- Today's message can be one of the most challenging things we are called to do as Christians.
- The reason why is in this fallen world we live in, things happen/
- We lose loved ones, health, wealth, and sometimes relationships.
- I know everyone here today can cite instances where something terrible happened, we prayed, and the bad thing happened.
- We thought that if we prayed, the situation would be fixed, and things would go the way we wanted them to.
- Once again, we were able to exercise control over our lives by trying to control God,
- Here's the thing: What we wanted was probably noble and good, yet it did not go the way we wanted it to.
- Maybe the issue is we were praying for the wrong thing.
- There is nothing wrong with praying for a miracle when something is inevitable because God can orchestrate it.
- In football, we call those Hail Mary plays.
- Maybe we should pray for God to help guide us through the mess and to help us be a blessing to others who are in the mess with us.
- Let me give you a personal example.
- When my mother was sick, I knew something was very wrong with her.
- Because of COVID, the hospital sent her home.
- Then she kept getting worse, so she was taken to a better hospital, where they diagnosed her with kidney cancer.
- The doctors assured us it was treatable, and I could tell from my conversations with them that they were fully confident about this.
- So, I prayed for my mother to be healed.
- The last time I saw her, we watched the Chiefs football game in the hospital, she was doing much better, until a few days later.
- Because of her weakened condition, she suffered multiple strokes.
- I wanted my mother to be healed, but it was not going to happen outside of a miracle.
- Honestly, I prayed for that miracle, but I also prayed that if that were not in the cards, God would let her go quickly so she was not laid up in a vegetative state for weeks or possibly longer.
- My mother always told me she did not want to exist like that.
- I also prayed I could be a blessing to my father and family when she passed.
- Fortunately, she passed quickly.
- I miss my mother, and I knew it was time for her to move from this life.
- When my mother passed, I had peace; as much as I was sad she passed, I had peace that she did not suffer long.
- The point is, I was disappointed she passed, but I know my prayers were focused in the right place.
- How do you deal with worry?
- There is a better way.
