Stress-Powered Prayer - Philippians 4:5b-6a Series

Philippians 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Introduction: The Problem of Anxiety

30 million Americans are on anxiety medication. That means if you take every man, woman, and child in the entire nation, 1 out of every 10 will be on anxiety meds. And for middle-aged women in America it’s 1 out of 4. Use of anti-anxiety drugs from 1996-2013 went up 67%. And it’s killing people. The number of deaths from overdoes of anti-anxiety meds has gone up in that period more than 400%. I don’t know if any nation of people has ever been more hooked on drugs than Americans are on anti-anxiety medications.

Now, I’m no expert, but it seems to me that if those drugs worked, you would expect ours to be the most calm, peaceful, relaxed culture there’s ever been. With that many people taking anxiety drugs, anxiety should pretty much eradicated from our culture, right? Based on your experience, would you say that’s the case? I work on I-25 during rush hour and I can testify that our culture has not successfully eradicated stress. People are freaking out left and right.

We don’t have time to go through all the numbers, but you’d be amazed at the percentage of people who are in hospitals or in the grave because of stress. Weight gain, weight loss, heart disease, cardio-vascular diseases, nerve problems, muscle problems, mental problems, immune system problems – high levels of anxiety wreak havoc on the human body. And not just your body, but your soul. Jesus taught that anxiety can send you to hell.

Matthew 13:22 the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the anxieties of this life choke [the Word], making it unfruitful.

Worrying about the troubles of life can make a person one of the unfruitful soils that describes a person who isn’t saved in the end.

Context: Anxiety Threatens Church Harmony

So anxiety is hard on your body and hard on your soul, but the reason it comes up here in Philippians 4 is the fact that it’s also very hard on the body of Christ. When Christians have anxiety, it wreaks havoc in the church, because it destroys harmony. Just like people become irritable when they lack joy – they become even more irritable when they are stressed out. Any argument there? Anxiety ruins relationships because nothing will make you more self-centered than anxiety, and nothing destroys relationships faster than selfishness. Anxiety takes all your negative emotions and makes them worse. Little offences become big offences. Little things people do to hurt you become huge assaults. Minor disagreements become major conflicts.

Stressed out, anxious, worriers are next to impossible to get along with, and they constantly disrupt the unity of the church and the family. So you can see why Paul would talk about it here in this section where he’s teaching us the three virtues we need in order to enable ourselves to have unity in the church. The first had to do with your attitude toward God – rejoice in the Lord (v.4). The second was about your attitude toward people – be reasonable (v.5). Now in v.6 he moves on to a third one, and this one is about your attitude toward circumstances.

Philippians 4:6 Do not be anxious about anything

Regarding God – joy. Regarding people – reasonableness. Regarding circumstances – inner peace. Don’t be stressed out about anything.

The Command: Don’t Be Anxious

Absolute Prohibition?

Now, how many of you hear that and all it does is increase your anxiety? Not only are you stressed out about all the problems in your life, but now you’ve got the added stress of knowing that being stressed out is sin. Is this saying that every instance of anxiety is sin? If a semi loses control and is coming straight at you on the ice and 80 mph, is it wrong if you feel a little stressed about that? You’re on a hike and a bear is attacking your kids, is it sin to be a little agitated in that moment? What about when your spouse hands you divorce papers? Are you supposed to feel nothing? How about when you see your neighbor mowing his lawn and realize he’s on his way to eternity in hell? Those are big things – what about little things? If you’re in the backyard and suddenly realize you forgot about the food in the oven , and you say, “Oh no!” and you go sprinting into the house to see if you can prevent dinner from being ruined. Those are all examples of anxiety – are they all sin? Are there ever any instances in which anxiety is ok?