Worry And Anxiety - Part 1

Today, on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ.

What we're talking about here is not just God and wealth. He's talking about your worldview. See, what do you view the world to be like? What are your values? If you see the world around you as all there is, you see, and your values are in accordance with that, then you're a prisoner of the circumstances of life.

And he said, that's going to be your problem. But even more so, you're going to find yourself loyal to that worldview and disloyal to God. And most of us don't even want to believe that verse. Most of us want to think, no, no, look, I can serve God and wealth, just make me wealthy. And I'll show God I can do both.

But he says, no, you can't. Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church located in Metairie, Louisiana.

Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again, he shows us how God's word meets our world. Just when COVID started to be on the decline, waning a little bit, Russia invaded the Ukraine. And so now you have something else to worry about and be upset about. By the way, just to help you think along those lines, the inflation rate in the United States right now is the highest it's been since 1980. So if money is what you like to worry about, then you can worry about money a little bit. We live in a world that seems to be full of worry and anxiety. I mean, you hear the newscasters talking about the mental health of Americans and how bad it's been since the beginning of COVID. What is that about? That's our anxiety and our worry.

Someone wrote this. They said that anxiety is a thin stream of fear trickling through the mind. If encouraged, it cuts a channel into which all other thoughts are drained. Do you ever notice that when you start really worrying and staying in a lot of anxiety in your life, you can't think of anything else?

In fact, if you wake up at two or three o'clock in the morning, it's what you're thinking about. The same thing. We've even added to our vocabulary about anxiety and worry in our country. When I was a kid, I heard my mom and dad talk about someone's having a nervous breakdown.

You don't hear that much anymore, but now we use different terms. We talk about being stressed out or having a panic attack. The idea of how much anxiety and worry we have.

Minrith Meyer, the two Christian psychiatrists out of Dallas that had the largest Christian counseling clinic in the world for many years, wrote a book on anxiety, and they said in their book that anxiety is easily the most common mental disorder they have ever treated in all their clinics. We're anxiety worry-filled people, and we worry about almost everything. We worry about money, how to get it, how to keep it. Will it last? We worry about our job. Will I get a job?

Can I keep my job? That type of thing. We worry about our health. I mean, some of us worry so much about our health it consumes us. Everything is about our health, and as you get older, some of us worry about potential health issues. What if I get cancer? Well, do you have cancer? No, but what if I get it? What if I get Alzheimer's?

What if I get it? And we worry about stuff like this. We worry about our children, obviously. We worry about their safety. We worry about their peer groups. We worry about how they're going to turn out. We worry about our marriages. I've actually had people that I did premarital counseling with that were worried of whether their marriage would last. Now, we haven't even started yet, you know, but they're worried.

What if it doesn't last? We worry about ourselves and our own life. A lot of us worry about that all the time. What am I here for?

Have I made a difference in anybody's life? Is there a reason that I'm here? And we worry about it. Now, the problem with that is, as Christians, the context of our faith is exactly the opposite of everything I've said so far. Jesus Christ commanded us, do not worry.

Period. Paul and Peter both wrote, be anxious about nothing. No wiggle room at all. So here's the Lord and the two apostles and they're telling us there should be no anxiety, no worry in our lives at all. So obviously, in this series, I think maybe God wants to do some open heart surgery again on us about this whole idea of anxiety and worry. First of all, let me just say, what is worry? Worry is to be uneasy in the mind, to feel anxious about something or to fret.

Interestingly, it comes from an old English word, which means to strangle. That's the word worry, to strangle. And that's kind of what worry does. It sort of just strangles our thought life, strangles our mind.

It's painful thinking. Worry has an enormous effect on us. Dr. Charles Mayo said this. Worry affects our circulation, our heart, our glands and our whole nervous system. It has a profound effect on our general health. So if you worry about your health, you make your health much worse. So it might be a self-fulfilling worry for you. The other thing is our worry is not really about truth. You and I don't really worry about things that are real. Do you know that? It's amazing. There's a bunch of these studies.

The last one I've just seen is this one. Forty percent of the things we worry about never happen. That's 40 percent. Thirty percent of the things we worry about are in the past and can never be changed. So 70 percent of what we worry about is in the past or never happen. Twelve percent of the things we worry about is criticism by others against us, which are mostly not true. Ten percent of the things we worry about are health, which gets worse and creates more stress for our health when we worry about it. And eight percent of what we worry about are about real problems that we'll have to face. Eight percent. Ninety two percent of what we worry about isn't true.

Eight percent is. But when we worry, it doesn't seem to mind. The question comes down to why do we do this? Why are we still vulnerable as Christians to be full of worry and anxiety? This is my opinion, but I believe it's because of how we see life. I believe it's our view, our world view of what life is, what our values are. I believe that what ends up happening is we believe that our values and what we would call the real world out there. I believe that those things become the basis of our life and that our happiness is based so often on one of the circumstances in which we live. So if you give us great circumstances, you see, and everything is good with you, with your spouse, with your kids, with your neighbors, with your friends. Stock market's doing great for you.

The boss is giving you a raise. You don't worry much. The only problem with that is that life is ever changing. And sooner or later, life's going to set you back in some way or another. In fact, in all these particular areas, life is so uncertain. And so immediately when your circumstances change, you and I begin to start worrying again. But I mean, if you think of the uncertainty of life, hurricanes happen. Now we're worried that they may happen more often than they did. Well, it doesn't matter how often they happen.

If you get hit by one, as we all know, you have plenty in your mind to worry about. Hurricanes happen. Pandemics, we know, happen. Wars happen. Violent crime. Watch the news. Every day happens.

Economic upheaval. Throughout the history of man, it happens. A terrible diagnosis is given to someone every day. Every day you're getting a terrible diagnosis.

Your kids make very poor decisions and have to face the consequences on a regular basis. Marriages do collapse and fall apart. And this will shock some of you. But there are actually people out there that don't like you. You see, that's true. That's just true. That's life. And Jesus wants to speak about that.

He's insinuates it's our view of life that causes us to worry, not circumstances. Go with me to Matthew Chapter six and verse twenty four. Matthew Chapter six and verse twenty four, the middle of the Sermon on the Mount. And I'll be honest, I've just taught on this.

I probably have taught the Sermon on the Mount 10 times in my ministry. And I never saw a connection. It was here.

I never saw it. That may speak of the depth of scripture or the lack of depth in me. I'm not sure which one it speaks to, but it speaks.

I found that this past week. In verse twenty four, Jesus says something. He says no one can serve two masters who either hate one and love the other or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. And then he says you cannot serve God and wealth.

That seems like what's he what's he talking about? He what he's really talking about here is not just God and wealth. He's talking about your world view. See, what do you view the world to be like?

What are your values? See, that's what Jesus is saying. So if you see the if you see the world around you is all there is. You see, and your values are in accordance with that, then you're a prisoner of the circumstances of life.

And he said that that's going to be your problem. But even more so, you're going to find yourself loyal to that world view and disloyal to God. And most of us don't even want to believe that verse. Most of us want to think, no, no, look, I can serve God and wealth. Just make me wealthy and I'll show God I can do both.

But he says, no, you can't. That's what Jesus says. And notice then the next words in verse twenty five for this reason. See, he ties what he's going to say about worry to that verse. For this reason, you have the wrong world view.

You see, you see it differently. He said for this reason in twenty five, do not be worried. That's a commandment. He said about your life, I command you not to be worried about your life because your problem is in verse twenty four, verse twenty eight.

And why are you worried about clothing? Verse thirty one. Do not worry then and say, what shall we eat? What shall we drink?

Verse thirty four. So do not worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow will take care of itself.

Wow. He goes into this whole idea that because our basic value system is wrong, we worry. What does that ultimately mean? Our life is not out there. Our life's not of our flesh. Our life's in God.

Our life's in Christ. That's my life. That's the single most important thing in my life. That becomes the standard by which I assess everything in my life.

Everything. And because I don't do that, I worry. You see, I end up worrying.

In other words, what he's saying in a different way is this. If the basis of my life is this. God is sovereign. I'd never worry. You see, our issue is you'd say if I ask how many people believe God is sovereign, most of you, if not all of you, put your hand up. But I don't know if you really believe that because here be a test. If you believe God is sovereign and as I go on this morning, I hope you'll see this. You wouldn't worry.

And you wouldn't have any anxiety if that's what you believed. You see, it's like, wait, wait, how did we do this? Because my life's in God. Now, when I say God is sovereign.

Let me give you some ideas that I ran into this week. I want you to see just how sovereign the word of God says God is. First, God is sovereign over the entire creation of the universe. Psalm 103 19. The Lord has established this throne in heaven. His kingdom extends to everything.

Everything. He's sovereign over the entire over our physical world. Psalm 135. He does whatever he pleases in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all the ocean depths.

Matthew five. But I say to you, love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be like your father in heaven, since he causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good. And he sends rain to the righteous and unrighteous. God is sovereign in the universe. God is sovereign on our planet. God is sovereign on the lives of men and women. Over the affairs of nations.

Job 12. He makes nations great. He destroys them. He extends the boundaries of nations and he disperses them. Psalm 22. For the Lord is king and he rules over the nations.

Psalm 66. He rules by his power. He watches the nations. Stubborn rebels should not exalt themselves. He not only rules over the nations, he rules over people and over you and me.

He's sovereign. Here's what the psalmist says in Psalm 139. You're talking to God. Your eyes saw me when I was an unborn fetus. All the days ordained for me were recorded in your scroll before one of them came into existence.

Think of that. When I was a fetus. God saw me and he already knew because he knows everything. He knew exactly every day I'd be on earth and when I would be not on earth anymore. He already knew it. How could he? Because he's sovereign.

He's sovereign over every aspect of that of your life. Paul writing to the Galatians. Now remember, Paul was Saul of Tarsus. He persecuted the church. Then he converted on the road to Damascus and becomes a great apostle. But watch what he writes to the Galatians. He says, I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my nation and extremely zealous for the traditions of my ancestors. But when the one who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace was pleased to reveal his son to me so that I could preach him among the Gentiles. So from God's point of view, Paul's point of view is I converted when? On the road to Damascus. But what about from God's point of view? I called him from the time he was born to be a preacher to the Gentiles.

What's that mean? It means God's sovereign. You see, God is completely sovereign in this.

The outward failures or successes of man. Psalm 75. He says, God speak and do not be proud and to the wicked. Do not be so confident of victory. Do not be certain you have won.

Do not speak with your head held so high, for victory does not come from the east or the west or from the wilderness. For God is the judge. He brings one down and exalts another.

Luke 152. He has brought down the mighty from their thrones. He has lifted up those in a lowly position. Even things that are accidental to us. Proverbs 1633. The dice are thrown in the lap, but every decision comes from the Lord.

Whoa. Matthew 10 30. Even all the hairs on your head are numbered.

I mean, I talk about that all the time because I find it funny because as you know, especially as you're aging, that's an ever moving number. You know, but in any time for any person, God would say, I'll tell you exactly. That's how sovereign he is. That's the point of the verse. How sovereign is he?

He's sovereign over everything. Everything in your life about protecting the righteous. Psalm four. I will lie down and sleep peaceably for you, Lord, because you make me safe and secure. Psalm 63. You are my deliverer under your wings. I rejoice. My soul pursues you.

Your right hand upholds me. Romans 8 28. And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to his purpose. That's a hard verse for us.

Everything works for the good for us. How could he do that? Sovereign. He's completely sovereign. Romans 8 38. I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things that are present, nor things that come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creative thing will ever separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Wow.

I've said this before. What an amazing verse. One of my favorite phrases is this. Nothing you do will ever cause God to love you more. Nothing. And nothing you do will ever cause him to love you less.

Nothing will ever separate you from his love. That's his sovereignty at work and supplying the needs of once of God's people. Deuteronomy 8 3. So he humbled you by making you hungry and feeding you with unfamiliar manna to make you understand that mankind cannot live by food alone, but everything that comes out of the Lord's mouth. That's what Jesus used in the temptation, if you remember, after he had fasted.

See, that's a real world perspective versus what we think when it comes to something like food. Philippians 4 19. And my God will supply all that you need according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus.

How can he do that? He's sovereign over everything. And then this incredible prayer. Philippians 4 6 and 7.

Do not be anxious about anything. Instead, let your requests be known to God in prayer and petition with thanksgiving and the peace of God that surpasses all understanding is going to guard your heart. That becomes an extremely important verse for us this morning. Go with me now to Philippians Philippians chapter four.

Now, let me say this. This verse is being written. Paul's in prison. And he thinks he's going to be executed. He doesn't get executed this time. He gets executed in his second imprisonment, but he thinks he's going to be. Now, he's been falsely charged. So let me just hypothetically put you in a situation. You've been falsely charged and convicted and you're put in prison.

Now, after you're put in prison, falsely charged. I want to ask you, how would you feel when you find out they're they're perhaps going to execute you? How would you feel? Would you feel any anxiety? Seriously, would you feel any anxiety at all?

I want to tell you what Paul felt. No anxiety. I don't mean a little.

I mean zero. He felt no anxiety. In fact, the theme of the Book of Philippians is not about how do you deal with terrible circumstances. The theme of the Book of Philippians is joy. Paul talks about all the joy that he has. So he writes this verse to them out of prison where he might be executed. His anxiety and worry level is zero.

None at all. In fact, early in the book, in the early chapter, Paul says that if you gave me a hypothetical situation, Paul, I'm just going to ask you. If you had a choice of whether living on or dying right now, what would you choose?

Paul said, oh, that's easy. I'd rather die right now. What? Is that your choice? I mean, all of us.

Right. All of us want to go to heaven. None of us want to go tonight. You see what I mean? That's the way this works for us. That's just the way we see this. Paul says, no, absent from the body, present with the Lord, no more sorrow and no more tears forever with my Lord.

If I had a choice, that's what I'd take, he said. But if for your sake, God wants me here, I'd be glad to stay here and be your teacher. See, that's the sovereignty of God in Paul's life.

That's how he sees it. So he says to them down here in verse six of Chapter four, be anxious for nothing. Again, a commandment, but in everything by prayer. That's in treating the Lord with petitions and then a key word and supplication. The word supplication means an emotional response.

In other words, pour out your heart to God. Let him know how you feel. If the situation you're in warrants tears, cry. You see what I mean?

If you're really afraid, tell him. He said, you can do that. You can pray your humanity to me. I'll let you pray your humanity to me.

Just pour it out to me. So prayer and then supplication. And then the thing that changes this all with thanksgiving. Now, that is completely backwards to your thinking and mine often. Because I know that because you tell me, you know when I hear your thanksgiving?

When you get what you want. Isn't God? Isn't Jesus good? I prayed for that job, but isn't he good?

He is good. But it doesn't take much faith to say that. God says, no, you thank me up front before you get it or not get it. You thank me before you get it. Why would I thank him now? Because you believe that I'm sovereign and I love you and I'm right here and you believe that. So why not thank God in the beginning?

He's sovereign over everything. So why not thank him when I'm praying? You've been listening to Pastor Bill Gebhardt on the Radio Ministry of Fellowship in the Word. If you ever miss one of our broadcasts or maybe you would just like to listen to the message one more time, remember that you can go to a great website called oneplace.com. That's oneplace.com and you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online.

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