God's Answer to Fear, Anxiety & Worry, Part 2 | Put Your Worries to Bed

You're listening to A New Beginning with Greg Laurie, a podcast supported by Harvest Partners. For more ways to deepen and challenge your spiritual walk, enroll in Pastor Greg's free online courses.

Sign up at harvest.org. What do we do when worry hits? What do we do when we're suddenly filled with anxiety? What do we do when we're overcome with fear?

Answer. We need to give our worries to Jesus Christ. When those crises hit, we don't have to give up.

We can give over. Pastor Greg Laurie says, give our problems over to the Lord. He wants to take your cares. He wants to take your worries.

He wants to take your anxieties off of you. This is the day when the lost are found. This is the day for a new beginning. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound. Again you hear when the angels are singing. This is the day, the day when life begins. In the stillness of the night, we hear things.

The faucet dripping, a dog barking in the distance, a car going down the road. We also think about things. It's often when worry moves into our minds and sets up shop for the night.

What if, how come, if only, why didn't I? How can we get worried to pack it up and be on its way? Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie helps us put our worries to bed so we can get back to sleep. How many of you struggle with worry, fear, and anxiety? Raise your hand.

All right. Well, you're a stressed up bunch of people, aren't you? Well, I've told you this before, but you know, I heard about one guy who was known as a worry wart.

You know, I think sometimes we think worry is a virtue and it really isn't. But this guy was a worry wart, always worrying about everything, always stressed out. And one day his friend saw him and this guy was totally chill. He was calm. He didn't have a care in the world. And his friend said, man, what happened to you? He said, hey, I gave up worrying. He said, really? How did you do that? The guy says, I took an ad out and I hired someone to worry for me.

Really? How much are you paying? The guy says, $5,000 a week. Man, that's a lot of money. You don't make that kind of money.

How are you going to pay him? He said, that's for him to worry about. So many of us just worry all the time.

You know, when things are going well, we worry about how long it will be until they start going badly again. You're just constantly worried. You're worried about what other people think about you. That's a big thing for a lot of people. What do these other folks out there think about me?

You know, it's been said, you wouldn't worry so much about what people think of you if you realized how seldom they do. But there's a great theologian that had a very insightful thought about worry. The theologian known as Charlie Brown. And he said, quote, I developed a new philosophy I only dread one day at a time.

Pretty good. Jesus said, sufficient for the day is the evil thereof. In other words, you have enough problems to face today. Don't start worrying about tomorrow and the day after and a week after and a month after.

But I'll tell you what. Anxiety, fear, and worry are big issues in our nation today. Proverbs 12 25 says, anxiety in the heart of man causes depression.

Wow. How insightful is that statement? Now all of the medical experts are telling us effectively the same thing. Experts tell us the prevalence of anxiety across the country and around the world has reached a crisis level and it continues to grow, especially among young people. A recent Pew Research poll revealed that teens see depression and anxiety as their number one problem.

Isn't it interesting? They see depression and anxiety, number one, it ranks above bullying, drugs, alcohol, poverty, teen pregnancy, and gangs. Number one, anxiety and fear and depression. Maybe that's one of the reasons that the suicide rates have increased in the last two decades in 49 out of 50 states and 25 percent of those states have seen an increase of 30 percent in suicide rates. And so we're filled with anxiety and worry.

And it's something that we need to learn how to handle. There's a story told about a man who came face to face with the dangers of worry. One day death was marching toward a city and the man said, what are you doing? And death said, I'm going to take a hundred people today. The man said, that's horrible.

Horrible. So he ran ahead of death and warned everybody about the fact that death was coming. At the end of the day as the sun was setting death was leaving the city and then when man went back to death and he said, wait a second. You told me you were going to take a hundred people. A thousand people died today. Death said, I kept my word. I only took a hundred. Worry took the rest.

And that's what worry can do is it can just send you into a tizzy. And we live in a nation full of warriors. You could put on a lot of American tombstones today. Hurried, worried, buried.

We're the only nation in the world with a mountain called Mount Rushmore. We're always on the go. Always moving. Always stressed out. 43% of all adults suffer mental effects due to worry and stress. And here's an interesting step. 75% to 90% of all visits to primary care physicians are stress related complaints and disorders.

In other words, it's not real. Here's one thing I guarantee will get you stressed out is if you have an ache or a pain and you Google your ache or pain. And then you get advice online. Have you ever done that?

I can illustrate this personally. I was feeling pain in my chest and I think someone I knew had just had a heart attack. So it was sort of in my mind and I felt this kind of pain in my chest. Sort of a pressure on it. And I thought, wow what is this?

And so I Googled it. It's symptoms of a heart attack. Pressure on your chest.

I had that. And it said nausea. I was immediately nauseated.

And I'm the kind of guy who never goes to the doctor. So I called my doctor and I said, I think I need to get an EKG. I might be having the symptoms of a heart attack.

He said, come down here immediately. They hooked me up and did all the tests on me. And then he said, you are perfectly fine. Your heart's in great working order. And then I got the bill for it about a week later and I did have a heart attack.

No. So I'm trying to figure out what is all this pressure? Well I started playing racquetball again and I was going to chase the ball and I slammed up against the wall and just kind of bruised my massive chest. And that's what it was. But I thought it was something else. And I got myself all worked up about something that wasn't even happening to me at all. Dr. Walter Calvert reported a survey I'm worried that indicated only 8% of the things people worried about were legitimate matters of concern.

The other 92% were imaginary or they never happened. That's why it has been said, worry is advanced interest you pay on troubles that rarely come. So what do we do when worry hits? What do we do when we're suddenly filled with anxiety? What do we do when we're overcome with fear?

Answer. We need to give our worries to Jesus Christ. Or to put it another way we need to take out the trash. I took the trash out last night.

I don't know why I put this off. It's not a big deal. I even have these trash cans with wheels and a handle. But still I don't want to take the trash out. I hate to take the trash out. For some reason this has become the job of men universally. It's like you know I don't know where the guys are supposed to do it so I dutifully take out the trash.

It's really no big deal. But sometimes in life we start finding ourselves filled with anxiety and worry and stress and we need to take the trash out so to speak. We have a trash man that comes and picks up our trash once a week.

I'm really glad he does it. And even more you have a Savior. You have a God who cares about you. And the Bible says you can cast all of your care upon Him. I'm not saying Jesus is a trash man.

Here is what I am saying. He wants to take your cares. He wants to take your worries. He wants to take your anxieties off of you.

In fact Jesus said in Matthew 11 28, come unto Me all of you that are laboring and are carrying the weight of your burdens. Come to Me and I will give you rest. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. Hey everybody what are you doing this weekend? I'd like to hang out with you at Harvest at Home. What is Harvest at Home? It is a time of worship and Bible study exclusively designed for people that are viewing in from all over the place so you can be a part of our extended congregation at Harvest at Home.

Join us this weekend Saturday and Sunday for Harvest at Home at Harvest.org. Well today Pastor Greg is presenting a helpful message called God's answer to fear anxiety and worry part two. Let's dig into God's Word. First Peter chapter five starting in verse six.

By the way I'm reading from the New Living translation. So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God and at the right time He'll lift you up in honor. Underline this phrase casting all your cares upon Him for He cares for you.

Casting all your cares upon Him for He cares for you. Stay alert. Watch out for your great enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Stand firm against them.

Be strong in your faith and remember that your family of believers all over the world are going through the same kind of suffering you are. We'll stop there. So how do we deal with our stress our anxiety and our worry?

Point number one. Remember this. You are not alone in your suffering. You're not alone in your suffering.

Verse eight. Remember your family of believers all over the world. They're going through the same kind of suffering you are. I know you're going through something right now and you think I'm the only person that's ever gone through this.

Actually you aren't. Others have gone through it. Others are going through it. Others will go through it.

You're not alone in your suffering. Others have experienced something very similar if not the exact same thing. The Bible even tells us in first Corinthians 10 13 there is no temptation or testing that will come your way that is not common to others. And God will with that temptation or testing make a way of escape that you may be able to bear it.

Loose paraphrase. There's others that are going through the same thing and somehow it's comforting to know I'm not the only person going through this right. So if you're suffering with something and you find somebody else that has suffered with the same thing or maybe something even worse it's really helpful to talk about it. This is where community comes in. This is where the church family comes in. This is why you should not try to be a solo Christian. You need Jesus and you need your Christian friends.

Your Christian brothers and sisters. You should never isolate yourself and disconnect yourself from other believers. You need to talk with them. You need to pray with them. And as Colossians 6 2 says you need to share each other's burdens. So just say to someone man I'm going through something hard right now and and I want to share it with you. And then you talk about it and sometimes just talking about it alone helps a great deal. And then you find yourself praying about it as well. So this is what we're all called to do. Let's say you find out that you have cancer and that's a very frightening thing to hear from a doctor.

And then you say well I don't know what to do. And then you find out that there's someone in the church that is a cancer survivor. So they're going to tell you their story. How they've been able to cope with that. How the Lord has been strong for them during that time of difficulty. And that's very helpful to you. And then one day you become that survivor or you become that person and you can now as the Bible says comfort with the comfort that you've been comforted with. So you meet somebody else that thinks our world has just ended and you can say I've come through this and here's what I've learned and here's what the Lord has done for me. And let me share this now with you. So remember you're not alone in your suffering.

Point number two. You need to give your burdens to God. You need to give your burdens to God.

Verse seven. Cast all your care upon him for he cares for you. Here's the New Living Translation puts it.

Give all your worries and cares to God because he cares about you. And by the way the word used here for cast is not the normal word for throwing something. Rather it is a word that signifies a definite act of the will by which we choose to stop worrying about something and let God assume the responsibility for our welfare. So I'm saying I am going to deliberately not worry about this and I'm going to intentionally throw this on God.

I'm going to put it in his hands and I'm going to leave it in his hands. And the word that is used here for care as in he cares for you means he is mindful of you. He's thinking about you.

Now just let that sink in for a moment. God Almighty the creator of the universe right now is thinking about you. And he's so amazing he's also thinking about me. He's thinking about all of us right now. Remember in our last message on fear anxiety and worry I quoted from Luke 12 32 where Jesus said fear not little flock it is your father's good pleasure to give to you the kingdom. And we learned three things about God from that simple little verse that God is our shepherd. God is our father and God is our king. First of all he's our shepherd.

We're a sheep. He watches over his flock and it's interesting Jesus says fear not little flock for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. We're a little flock but we have a big God. And our big God is watching over his little flock but he's not just our shepherd he's also our father who cares. And notice Jesus said it is your father's good pleasure to give to you the kingdom. God loves to bless his children.

Let me put it another way God likes to spoil his children dare I use that phrase. He likes to indulge you give you things you don't deserve. The Bible says he's able to do exceedingly above and beyond that which we could ask or think. He loves to bless you. And thirdly he's your king which really speaks of the sovereignty of God. So he is looking over you. He's caring for you. He is your father. You know the other day one of my grandkids asked me papa are there more stars in the sky than sands on the shore? How would I know? I said you know I really don't know.

Scientists and astronomers tell us that there are billions of stars out there 100 billion galaxies in the universe so billions and billions of stars. And but here's what I do know. God says my thoughts toward you are greater than the sand of the sea. Hmm.

Wow. So go down to the beach and pick up a handful of sand and let it just pour through your hand for a moment. Look at all of that sand and think about this. God's thoughts for you about you are greater than all those grains of sand.

That's an incredible thing. He thinks about us. He cares about us. And finally he is our king. It's his pleasure to give us the kingdom. But when we say he's our king it speaks of the sovereignty of God.

And the sovereignty of God simply means that God's in control. God is in control of your life and nothing catches him by surprise. It may catch you it may catch you by surprise. But it doesn't catch him by surprise.

He knew it was coming. And if it's a concern to you it's also a concern to him. And here's another thing you need to remember. There are no accidents in the life of the Christian only providence.

Let me say that again. There are no accidents in the life of the Christian only providence. We as believers do not believe in fate. We believe in faith. And we believe that God is in control right.

This is very important stuff to remember. Because when it seems like your world's coming apart you're like God hello. Are you aware of this? God's seeing you. I'm totally aware of it. I knew it was coming and I've got this.

I'm in control of this. And he gives us this wonderful promise that we all know well. Romans 8 28 we know that all things are working together for good to those who love God and are the called according to his purpose. Notice that does not say some things. Notice it does not even say we know that the good things are working together for good.

It says all things. David speaking of this in Psalm 119 wrote everything serves your plan. So with this in mind we need to cast our cares on God. This is something we need to do daily.

And quite honestly it's something we need to sometimes do hourly. Because sometimes we give something to God and we take it right back don't we. Oh Lord I trust you in this. I know you're in control.

Hallelujah. Comes back again. And you brought it back again. You started worrying about it again. So maybe you have to do it over and over and over again.

That's all right. You just empty your trash you know. You don't empty your trash once a year.

At least I hope not. Uh you don't empty your trash once a month. You do it weekly. Sometimes even daily. Constantly cleaning.

Constantly emptying it. And sometimes we have to keep coming back to the Lord again and again. Some days we have to bring it to him more often than other days depending on what we are facing in the given moment. Pastor Greg Laurie with important insights today on how to reorient our thoughts to break free from the trap of fear, anxiety, and worry. Well it's a joy to have Shannon Bream in the studio with us today along with Pastor Greg and Kathy Laurie.

She's anchor of Fox News Sunday on Fox News and the author of a number of books including the new one The Love Stories of the Bible Speak. One of the love stories you discuss Shannon is found in the book of Ruth. The story of Ruth and Boaz and what a colorful story that is.

That must have been a lot of fun to explore. You know I love Ruth and Boaz. I think their story gives us that the idea of second chance love and of hope and that God is always weaving through our pain. You know she was a young widow who followed her mother-in-law to her mother-in-law's homeland so she was a foreigner there. She's a widow. She's got a mother-in-law she's trying to care for. They're thrust into poverty because that's just how it would work for women in those times who didn't have a male provider anywhere. So Ruth humbly decides to go out and just glean in the fields and catch whatever she can that the harvesters have left behind and Boaz sees her and he's attracted to her because of her heart and and her humility that she would go out stay with this mother-in-law she had no legal obligation to and just be in this poverty and this pain together and their story of how they came together I think is just such a beautiful thing of a second chance. I think we all have seen widowers and widows go through this or even somebody who's gone through a really painful breakup or divorce and then somewhere along the line God redeems that pain with another person who is a believer and they come into each other's lives and we see a second chance and we see healing so I find so much beauty in that story. I love that story in particular because when our son went to be with the Lord he left behind his widow and his child and another one soon to be and so I had this beautiful young woman in my life who I loved like a daughter and my prayer was on that day because there's so many fears that come into the mind of one when you think about a young widow facing life alone my prayer was Lord bring me Boaz, bring me a Boaz for Brittany and a father who will love our grandchildren and it was a very hopeful prayer and the example of Ruth and Naomi and the relationship that continued on was such an encouragement to me that I love your selection because there's something for everyone in one of these chapters whether it's grief or being a widow or a dysfunctional a dysfunctional relationship or just obeying God in hard places like Hosea I mean there is something here and I want to pitch this for all of you ladies out there that are looking for a Bible study a group discussion over a rich book do it with your small group this will hit every I guarantee all the women and men in these chapters are going to be easily relatable to somebody in your group and it'll be a rich discussion time I guarantee it thank you so that's Kathy Laurie talking to Shannon Breen who's written a brand new book that's titled the love stories of the Bible speak biblical lessons and romance friendship and faith and it's our gift to you for your gift of any size this month and continue to support our ministry of teaching God's word and proclaiming the gospel yeah and thank you so much for that gift it's needed and appreciated we won't be mentioning this book much longer so contact us today by calling 1-800-821-3300 that's a 24 7 phone number so you can call right now 1-800-821-3300 or write a new beginning box 4000 riverside california 92514 or go online to harvest.org are you receiving pastor Greg's daily devotions get these inspirational thoughts in your email box every day sign up free of charge at harvest.org well next time pastor Greg brings us more freeing perspective about fear anxiety and worry good encouragement for the stresses you're facing right now join us here on a new beginning with pastor and Bible teacher Greg Laurie thanks for listening to a new beginning with Greg Laurie a podcast made possible by harvest partners helping people everywhere know God sign up for daily devotions and learn how to become a harvest partner at at harvest.org