Sermon Title: How to live free from Anxiety
Place: Oakdale Wesleyan Church
Date: February 27, 2005
Series: How to Live the Uncomplicated Life
Introduction
In recent years our society has been plagued by a new epidemic. The cure for this epidemic has become a billion dollar industry as one pharmaceutical company after another attempts to find the magic cure. What is this new epidemic? Stress and Anxiety disorders. This past Thursday as Dr. John, Bob Parisaue and myself were talking John made mention that even with all the advancements we have, stress is at an all time high.
Let me quickly share some research I discovered about stress and axiety this week from a research project that was recently completed for a governmental study ….
• Anxiety Disorders are the most common mental illness in the U.S. with 19.1 million (13.3%) of the adult U.S. population (ages 18-54) being affected.
• According to "The Economic Burden of Anxiety Disorders," a study commissioned by the ADAA and based on data gathered by the association and published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, anxiety disorders cost the U.S. more than $42 billion a year, almost one third of the $148 billion total mental health bill for the U.S.
• More than $22.84 billion of those costs are associated with the repeated use of healthcare services, as those with anxiety disorders seek relief for symptoms that mimic physical illnesses.
• People with an anxiety disorder are three-to-five times more likely to go to the doctor and six times more likely to be hospitalized for psychiatric disorders than non-sufferers.
Survey of Panic Disorders
• One and a half percent of the US population are afflicted with a panic disorder: 4,045,627. Over four MILLION people.
• 10% of the population will at one time in their lives have a panic attack. This is occasionally, and not to the point of disability.
• It is most common for a panic disorder to emerge in the early 20’s, but children are not immune. Panic Attacks are rare in people over the age of 65.
• The average person goes to the doctor 5 times a year. A person with Panic Disorder goes, on average, 37 times. 15% of the 37 visits were emergency situations; either Emergency Room treatment, emergency family doctor visits, or urgent care facilities.
• Half of all Panic Disorder patients either have had, or will develop clinical depression
Stats on Work Place Stress
In the U.S., experts at the Centers for Disease Control and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health are dedicated to studying stress. They’ve found:
• Stress is linked to physical and mental health, as well as decreased willingness to take on new and creative endeavors.
• Job burnout experienced by 25% to 40% of U.S. workers is blamed on stress.
• More than ever before, employee stress is being recognized as a major drain on corporate productivity and competitiveness.
• Depression, only one type of stress reaction, is predicted to be the leading occupational disease of the 21st century, responsible for more days lost than any other single factor.
• $300 billion, or $7,500 per employee, is spent annually in the U.S. on stress-related compensation claims, reduced productivity, absenteeism, health insurance costs, direct medical expenses, and employee turnover.
Numerous common health problems linked to stress:
• The leading six causes of death in the U.S.: heart disease, cancer, lung ailments, accidents, cirrhosis of the liver, and suicide are often stress related
• Immune response and deficiency is brought on by stress
• Stress can cause memory loss
• It can also cause obesity
So as you can see, America is loosing billions on stress and anxiety disorders and companies are lining up to find the magic fix. Now here is the funny part of all this. While we are trying to medicate our cares away, God, several thousand years ago, already gave us a prescription for reducing stress and anxiety in our lives. God has already given us a remedy to living an uncomplicated life. I don’t claim to be a psychiatrist and psychologist or medical doctor and if you have some severe emotional or mental struggles you should seek proper care. If you want to start in the church you can make an appointment to visit Dr. John who can get you pointed in the right direction for proper help and care.
What I do claim to be is a student of God’s word. And I do believe that what is in this book can and does in fact cure us if we are willing to follow its advice. So while the world is going crazy trying to find a cure to stress and anxiety, I believe God has already given us the cure and that cure I would like to share with you this morning, and I won’t even charge you for it. I believe if we can learn to truly take these concepts to heart, it might very well lead us to living the Uncomplicated, anxiety free, stress free life…
OPEN IN PRAYER
What we are going to examine this morning is what Richard Foster in his book “Celebration of discipline” calls “the inward reality of simplicity. So are you ready? Let examine this inward reality of simplicity…
I would like us to read together this passage that we will study this morning. It is from Matthew 6:25-33 and I have placed it on the overhead so we can all read it together in the same version:
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you shall put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add one cubit to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O men of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek all these things; and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well.”
The wise scholar and teacher Soren Kierkegaard taught that riches and wealth do not necessarily bring us peace and freedom from anxiety. In fact he states it brings much the opposite. “…riches and abundance come hypocritically clad in sheep’s clothing pretending to be security against anxieties and they become then the object of anxiety. . . they secure a man against anxieties just about as well as the wolf which is put to tending the sheep secures them …against the wolf.”
What we learn from this passage is that if we are to have freedom from anxiety we must acquire three inner attitudes when it comes to all that we have. This is the “magic pill” if you will to cure us from anxiety.
1. If what we have we receive as a gift from God
We discover the first attitude as we consider the birds of the air and the lilies of the field. Jesus states in this passage that they are tended and cared for my whom? God! God gives the birds food to eat and clothes the lilies of the field in greater splendor then King Solomon in all his wealth. Jesus then goes on to tell us that if this is how God cares for birds and flowers, we are much more valuable then they and God will certainly take care of our needs as well.
The first attitude that we must relentlessly give ourselves to is the idea that everything we have is a gift from God. Somehow we get the mistaken idea that we worked for all that we have. We have the erroneous concept that we produced our own wealth. I am a self, made man. Everything I have I produced with these two hands. May-be so, but who gave you the hands?
This last week Michelle and I enjoyed the Mid-Year Pastor and Wives retreat which was held at the Kahler Hotel in downtown Rochester. In fact the hotel is surrounded on three sides by the Mayo Clinic so it is literally right in the middle of the clinic. We were having a great retreat but as you sat in the lobby, or moved about in the hotel about 80% of everyone you saw was there because of medical problems. Wheelchairs were everywhere, people on oxygen walked the halls, and bandages were common sites. While it seemed like there were more elderly then younger folks there, all age groups were well represented in this attempt of curing various illnesses and diseases. I overheard one mom talking about her young daughter and confirming to the person on the other end that it was now confirmed that she had some type of cancer.
As I sat and watched all this, I had to ask the question, why not me? I have good health; very rarely do I get sick (although this year has been an exception) and hardly ever have to go to the doctor. Why do these folks have to suffer? What cosmic choice was made that I should have great health and these people don’t? You start to let that rattle around in your head a bit and sooner or later you come to the conclusion that it is only by God’s grace that I have the health that I have. The very ability that I have to be a healthy, wealth producing person rather then a wealth consuming person, is a gift from God.
When you draw that conclusion about your ability to produce wealth you then begin to realize that everything you have is a gift from God. From your home to your car, from your food to your clothes, from your wife to your kids: everything you have is a gift from God. In fact the very ability that you have to produce wealth or even offspring in the form of children, is a gift given by God and so those things are truly gifts from God.
2. If what we have is to be cared for by God
It then only makes sense that if God gave these things to you as a gift, He will also take care of them. One of the things I have noticed sense being a dad is that my kids don’t take near as good of care of things as I do and I am sure my dad thought the same thing about me. You purchase a nice gift for your child at Christmas or for their birthday and you know how much it cost. You know how many hours you had to work to acquire that gift. I may be weird but sometimes I figure out in my head how many hours I had to spend at a job working in order to purchase something. Sense being salaried and a Pastor it harder to do now, but when I was working for Stanly Steamer getting paid by the hour and as I was driving in the truck from one job to another thinking about the date I would be on with Michelle that weekend I would start to think that this dinner was going to cost say $40 to $50 by the time we ate, got our drinks, then may-be went to the movies or something. That meant that I would work almost an entire day just to take Michelle out on a date that would last only about 3 hours that weekend, wow, love has a funny affect on personal economy (but she was worth it). So it only goes to reason that if I give a gift to my kids I know the cost involved so you betcha I want them to take care of that toy, bike, or new piece of furniture.
If God gave us everything we have I can guarantee He knows the cost involved in giving us all good things, and God is certainly able to take care of the things He gave us. So the second attitude Jesus teaches us that will help us live free from anxiety is realizing that God is more than capable to care for what we have. To help it fit your outline better: The second attitude that leads us to stress free living is “If what we have is to be cared for by God.”
If you understand that God gave you the house you have. If you truly believe that in your heart and believed that when He gave it to you, then you must also believe that God will take care of that house. He will also provide you the ability and means to keep the house in good order, if you trust Him and honor him.
3. If what we have is available to others
So our first two attitudes leads us directly to our third attitude. If what we have is a gift from God, if what we have is to be cared for by God, then following God’s example in our own lives, what we have we should also be willing to share with others.
This whole series we are on, “Living the Uncomplicated Life” is about holiness and stewardship. We didn’t review this last week but I want to review it quickly this morning. What is holiness? Being like God in all we think, in all we do, and in all we are. So with our entire being it is loving God to the point of becoming like him to the best of our ability. If we are to be like God in all our being then it also means that we will love our neighbors as God does.
Let’s take this concept as an overlay or backdrop then for today’s subject. If we are to be like God and God freely gave us everything we have and He also will take care of everything we have, how does that tell us we should live or act? Well if you jump on the logic train that means that we should hold loosely to our possessions willing to share them and give them to others. In other words, what we have should be available to others. Hey, it really isn’t ours anyway, it is God’s so we should be generous to others. Or allow what we have to be available to others.
Conclusion
You know, everything I just shared this morning can be laid right across any aspect or part of our lives. It can apply to our families (children, grandchildren, spouses..) it can be applied to our possessions (cars, homes, toys) it can be applied to even our jobs.
You don’t have to take some magic pill to make all your worries go away. You don’t have to spend thousands in prescription medications (although the pharmaceutical companies would love for you to). What Jesus prescribed is to have an inner attitude about our possessions that…
1. If what we have we receive as a gift
2. If what we have is to be cared for by God
3. If what we have is available to others
… we will live free from anxiety.
Many of us are holding on to our possessions like the man who was holding on to a branch for dear life. The man was out rock climbing and almost to the top of the rock where he knew a road circle close to the cliff and where his car was parked. As he neared the top of the rock face about to climb over the top and pick up his equipment and head home the rock shelf he was standing on gave way and fell several hundred feet down and it crashed into the valley floor. As the rocks began to slid, the man grabbed whatever he could. In his grasp he was able to catch hold of a tree root which had jetted out between the rock face. The man was hanging on for dear life. As his hands began to slip he yelled out, help, is anyone up there. He yield several times but no one heard. His hand grew more tired and he knew he could not hold on much longer. Hoping that someone would come by, he yelled out even louder, help is anyone up there. Finally a voice was heard like that of God and the voice yes, I can help, but you’ve got to let go of the root. The man gave this some thought for just a moment and then yelled out again. Help, is anyone else up there?
It’s a funny story, but isn’t it just like us? We are drowning in a sea of anxiety and stress as we hang onto our possessions and we are calling out for help and God hears our cries for help and answers, but then often times, we just don’t like the answer and so we look for help in other ways.
Folks, God built the world, he is the one who placed everything in it, he even place you and me in the world as well, and he knows best how to use and enjoy everything he put here. While we have often made a mess of what God has given us, he knows that if we have a proper inner attitude an attitude the recognizes that all that we have is a gift from him, if we trust him to take care of what he has given us, and if we are willing to follow his example and hold our possessions loosely allowing others to enjoy them as well, these attitudes will then allow us to live free from anxiety.
While the pharmaceutical companies are trying to find much easier ways to relieve stress and anxiety through magic pills, let me tell you, God already knew the curer thousands of years before!
Are your ready to be free from anxiety and stress? Then hold on loosely to what you have!
