Be Strong and Courageous  - I Will Not Be Anxious!: Overcoming the Fear of Abandonment, Part 1

We are living in a mental health crisis.

Anxiety and depression, panic attacks are at an all-time high across all people groups, but especially those that are younger. What's God's solution to real anxiety? That's today on Living on the Edge.

Stay with me. We're in the middle of our newest series, Be Strong and Courageous, and today, as Chip teased, he's tackling a universal struggle, worry, a feeling we're all confronted with daily. So what's at the root of this fear, and why is it so pervasive? Well, in this program, Chip will shed some light on this topic and share practical solutions rooted in the comforting truths of Psalm 23.

So go there in your Bible now as we begin Chip's talk, I Will Not Be Anxious, Overcoming the Fear of Abandonment. What do you find yourself worrying about the most? What is it that causes you to be anxious? Second question is, how does your worry or anxiety impact you mentally, emotionally, physically?

For some people, it's a really big deal. I mean, it's panic attacks, it's lack of sleep, it's big issues. And for most all of us, there's worry that we have and struggles that we have.

Sometimes it's milder. But I want to ask you, what is it that causes you to worry or be anxious? And then I'd like you to think about when you are anxious or when I am anxious, how does that undermine being bold and courageous? I mean, when we are so fixated on, you know, I can't do this or what about that? And so I made a little list of the kind of things that when they come on the screen of my mind, it causes me to be anxious. And then here's what I want you to know. We're going to have a declarative statement about worry so that we can be bold.

We're going to say out loud and begin to live out, I will not worry. At the heart of worry is I can't handle this or I don't have what I need or I'm not strong enough or I couldn't go on. We all have those. And there's some symptoms. So I made a list. I want you to be as honest as you can and just think about which ones of these trigger your worry. And I'll just give you, you know, like the psychologist word association. I'll just give a word and you kind of associate. Oh, yeah, that's one.

Or I just want to get your arms around. Where's the focus of your worry? Cancer, bankruptcy, divorce, illness, injury, family struggle, betrayal, rejection, depression, loneliness. I could go on, right?

Those are areas that pop up into your life and my life. And when I begin to worry, when I get anxious, when I begin to think I don't have what I need, when I begin to think this situation is overwhelming. I can't go through this. I'm not strong enough. I'm not smart enough. I'm not emotionally whole enough.

Those things begin to do something in your psyche and in your life where I would just guarantee you being the bold, courageous example of Christ in the midst of that situation evaporates. Now, don't get me wrong. We all struggle with worry and anxiety, but it is possible not to worry. You say, no, I don't think it is for me.

Here's the deal. God commands you and me not to worry. If he commands it, it means there's grace that we don't have to worry.

Philippians four, six and seven. Be anxious for nothing. It's a command. It's an imperative.

Literally, it's stop worrying about anything. But by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, there's this mind shift. Make your request known to God and the God of peace will guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus. And so if we're going to be bold, courageous Christians in the world that we're living in and it's getting harder and more difficult and there's going to be challenges and that list that I just read is going to be a part of many of our lives.

For some of us, we've already been through those to some degree. I want you to declare, Psalm 1, I will thrive. Psalm 15, I will not be shaken. And now Psalm 23, I will not worry. And we're going to learn because you have a shepherd, you have a protector, you have a provider, you have a lover of your soul whose name is Jesus.

And he's made some promises that are pictured here in this Old Testament passage that David writes, and we're going to walk through it. And would you please just in your mind's eye, pause and not allow your mind to go to, oh, yeah, the 23rd Psalm. That's what they read at funerals. I was just at a memorial yesterday and a close family member, one of my grown sons, father-in-laws, went through a really challenging time with a debilitating illness and had really walked with God and what a legacy. And as I was there, though, the moment of sobriety, I've done a lot of memorial services, I've done a lot of funerals, everything from little babies to very old people and everybody in between. And there is something about facing death.

There's something about the brevity of life that causes us to back away and begin to look at, so what am I anxious about? In fact, it asks what really, really matters. And so David in Psalm 23 is going to literally say, I have a Father, I have a God, I have a Savior that will give me all I need.

And I know it's very familiar. I'm going to read the passage, but I want you to listen to three specific I will statements. See, he declares, he even talks to himself.

Listen to this. He says, I will not be afraid. I will not want. I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. I mean, he's not adequate, but he's going to teach us that God is adequate. So listen carefully. The Lord, Yahweh, is my shepherd.

I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul.

He guides me or directs my paths in righteousness. Why? For his name's sake. And then he shifts gears now. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will, choice, fear no evil.

Why? For you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. And then he changes the metaphor from shepherd and protection to a banquet, in a banquet where he's overcome his enemies. He says, you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil.

My cup overflows. Surely goodness and love will follow me, literally pursue me, all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. One of the challenges with familiar passages is just sort of beautiful words.

It's beautiful poetry. We've heard it read at different places, and we've received this often in kind of an emotional time. I want to break this down in a way that you can understand that Jesus is your adequacy, that he'll take care of your physical needs, your emotional needs, and your spiritual needs. That this shadow of the valley of death, this isn't just someone dying. We're going to learn it's any period of crisis when there are shadows and there's the unknown and you're afraid and there's evil, that you can be bold and you can be courageous because he's with you. And then we're going to talk about even when there's evil and when you've come through things and you're in a spiritual battle, that there is a provision for you both now and forever that you can say because of who Jesus is, because of my relationship with him, because the spirit of God living in me, because the word that is true, I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

And instead of the future, oh, I wonder what's going to happen, literally it's a picture of God is running after you and running after me to be good, to be merciful, to do what we long for in our hearts and our lives. But we get paralyzed by anxiety. We get self-focused by anxiety. Psychologists say 90% of all the things we worry about never happen.

But boy, your body when you're worried, your blood pressure, it thinks it's real. And so let's walk through then the implications of this passage. He says, I shall not be in want.

Why? Because the shepherd provides all my needs. But if you don't understand the actual picture of the Lord Yahweh, all powerful, I am that I am word, and then this word for shepherd, which is one of the lowliest jobs that you can have coming together in this passage, you'll never really understand the hope that they're talking about. You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, and we'll continue our series Be Strong and Courageous in just a minute. But quickly, are you looking for a practical way to deepen your prayer time with God? Then stick around after the message as Chip talks about an easy tool we've developed to help you be more intentional in your daily time with Jesus.

You won't want to miss it. Well, with that, here again is Chip. A quick little background about sheep. They're slow, they're defenseless, they're stupid, they're easily frightened, they're not clean, and they can't find food or water on their own. Other than that, they're a great animal, and God calls us sheep over 200 times in the Bible.

In other words, they're very dependent. Now, by the way, they're very valuable. I mean, everything from their meat to their wool.

The culture is, if you had a lot of sheep, huge wealth. And so here's what I want you to get. We have this picture where God is saying, the Lord, and to an Old Testament saint, I mean, that's his holy name. This name is so holy. He's so high. He's so powerful. He's all-knowing. He's the great creator. He's the I am that I am.

You know, you just start to bow and just, oh, how could I ever come into his presence? And then right next to it is my shepherd, and this is someone that produces an image of, well, that's the lowliest person in the family. Remember David? He was the youngest son, and that's the person that when everyone else is doing something, you got the night watch. It was a dirty job. It was a job where you're, you know, I mean, protecting the sheep from bears and lions.

It was a dangerous job at times. And he's bringing this picture of God's power and greatness and his intimacy, because the one thing about sheep and things about shepherds is they build this incredible bond. And when he's giving us this picture, he's saying, you're never alone. Notice the needs that he's going to meet. His statement is, I shall not be in need, or I shall not be in want. And he says it's because the Lord will provide all of my needs.

The first one is physical. He makes me lie down in green pastures. In other words, there's provision for my food. He's going to cause me to be where there's quiet waters. If the water was real bubbly or moving fast, sheep are so frightened.

And so often a shepherd would build a little dam and back up the water and make a pool and make it real calm so the sheep could come and get what they need physically. And then he moves to the psychological. And he says, he leaves me beside quiet waters and he restores my soul.

When this is translated in the New Testament version of the Old Testament, it's called the LXX, the Greek translation of the Old Testament that was very popular in Jesus' day. The word is psyche, or soul. He says he restores the inner being.

He quiets what's going on inside. And then finally notice, he guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. So he meets our spiritual needs. The New Testament version of this is Philippians chapter 4. It says, I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. Jesus promised I'll meet your physical needs. Jesus promised I'll meet your emotional needs. Jesus promised I'll meet your spiritual needs. And so we can say, yes, we feel inadequate. Yes, we have needs.

Yes, we feel like I can't do that. And Jesus says, I am with you always. I am the Good Shepherd.

My sheep hear my voice. Remember that same chapter in John chapter 10? He says that I am not only the Good Shepherd, but I came that you might have life and you might have it abundantly. He's not saying there won't be difficulty and tragedy. He's not going to just take away cancer or car wrecks. He's not going to say there aren't difficulties in the world. What he's saying is we will all go through very challenging times at one point or another.

And he's saying, and you'll never go through them alone. I didn't grow up as a follower of Christ. I never really opened the Bible until I was 18. It was my first exposure. And as I began to learn and hear these kind of things, I was like, does God really provide?

I mean, will he really take care of me? And since that time, I've seen multiple supernatural provision. But early on, Teresa and I got married and I thought it was going to be a major college basketball coach. And after playing basketball throughout Southeast Asia and then in South America, it was like, no, I want you to coach a different team.

I want you to coach my people. So it was like, OK, Lord, I've already been to grad school and I got to start all over. And it's four years of graduate theological. But I had two little kids and I believed that my wife should be home with my kids. And so I had to figure out, OK, what kind of job can I have that I can make just enough money to pay my bills, go to school full time and so my wife can stay home? And I mean, it got tight and I need a thousand dollars just to pay the rent and just have enough food and take care of the basics. And so I find a job.

The only one I could do was straight commission. And if I made two or three sales in a month, I had enough money to go on. And then we're in this housing development where it's a bunch of students and it's pretty cheap and and we all don't have very much. And we were in a co-op and literally back then we all put five dollars in and then you would come back with like two or three big bags of fruits and vegetables. And so my wife would do vegetables and she got some flour and she made bread and they got to wear 15 days. No meat. We had peanut butter and honey sandwiches every day.

And I don't have any money. God, where are you? And then now we don't have food. And I'm thinking, Lord, you said you would supply all my needs. And I'll never forget, I came home. Teresa, when I got home, she said, Chip, did you call someone? I said, what do you mean? She said, I took the kids to school. I drove back and she said there were five bags of groceries on our porch. I said, you're kidding. She says, no, it's even weirder than that.

I said, well, what do you mean? She said there was a bag of whole wheat flour, which I've been using to make the bread. There was two jars of honey. It was filled with meat and chicken. It even had some cheese had a bag of chips.

We hadn't had chips or anything like that in about three or four months. And she said, all the things that we haven't had. Did you tell anybody? I said, I didn't tell anybody. I just thought it's not wrong to tell people, but I thought we were supposed to trust God. And part of seminary isn't just learning stuff.

It's do I really believe this or not? And so I don't know what you believe about angels, but I believe that some angels went out and did some shopping and dropped five bags of groceries that no one could have ever known what we needed and provided. And that may sound like a silly story to you, but you know what it was for me? It was driving a stake to say my God will meet my needs. And I would learn as the years would go on, as we would have the normal struggles that every marriage has, as we would work with kids, as I would learn to be a pastor in small and medium and large churches. I would learn that I didn't have to worry, not saying I never did, but I learned he would take care of my physical needs. I would learn that when I was struggling and I would write my journal and take a long walk and I didn't want to pray. I didn't want to praise.

I didn't want to do anything. But I would just go, God, you're my shepherd. You care. And I would just pour out my heart, sometimes sit on a curb late at night, and little by little he would restore my soul and he would realign my heart.

And then he would give me perspective. This is Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, and you've been listening to part one of Chip's message, I Will Not Be Anxious, Overcoming the Fear of Abandonment. From our series, Be Strong and Courageous.

Chip will be back shortly to share some helpful application for us to think about. The Greek philosopher Sophocles once wrote, To him who is in fear, everything rustles. That sadly describes our society to a T. Every decision and action is motivated by or rooted in fear. So as followers of Jesus, how do we break free from that toxic mindset? In this series, Chip studies eight powerful psalms that will help strengthen your faith and conquer your fears.

Learn how to focus on the love and goodness of God when you feel discouraged, anxious, or cynical. If you've missed any part of Chip's teaching, catch up at livingontheedge.org or through the Chip Ingram app. Well, Chip's here in studio with me now, and Chip, you've talked before about how you journal as part of your daily time with God.

Take a minute if you wouldn't explain why you find it useful and how our listeners can too. Dave, it's interesting that you would say that because I think this is something we need to clear up about journaling or not journaling. My wife uses her journal completely different than me. She's not a verbal processor. Her verbal processing is primarily she prays for very long periods of time. She can concentrate. She pours out her heart. I always know when she's had a good prayer time because there will be this pile of Kleenexes where she's been crying. And so her journal is primarily writing down specific prayer requests. It's very brief and it's very focused.

Mine is there's lots of words. This is what I'm thinking. This is what I'm feeling. Here's five concerns that have come to my mind that I'm distracted by, and I write each of those down and turn it to a prayer list. My point is this. Journals are a tool. It doesn't make you spiritual to write in a journal. They need to be a unique tool to help you connect with God. So it's used in a way by way of our personality and what God is doing in our life.

But what I do know, whether you write a little or a lot, whether it's more of just a prayer journal or whether it's a life journal, is there something to be said for using a tool that is tracking your journey with Christ? Left to ourselves, we will get very negative. We'll be like the Israelites and we'll forget all of God's miracles. And when we face hard things, we'll feel alone and not trust God. And over and over and over, Old Testament, what do they do? They go back to those memorial stones. God parted the Red Sea. God gave them manna.

The water came from the rock. And I believe that that is really the role of a journal. It's just whether it's a little or a lot, it's marking some things down so that in your darkest times you can come back and you can say, you know something, the God who was faithful during that time is with me now. And so if even for those who've never kept a journal, I would encourage you, give it a try.

And don't feel like you have to write every single day, but begin a rhythm or a track record. Maybe it's two or three times a week or you do it when you're compelled or it becomes your prayer journal. But we're just encouraging people. We want you to be connected to God. And you just can't say a little prayer and read a little something fast and expect to have a deep, powerful, abiding relationship with Jesus Christ. Our heart's desire is to help you to be connected deeply with the living God. And we believe this journal could be one small part of that journey for you. visit livingontheedge.org or call 888-333-6003.

App listeners tap special offers. Well, here again is Chip to talk a little more about what he taught today. Chip? Thanks so much, Dave. Let's just face it, it is easy to be anxious and it's easy to get used to living an anxious life. There's levels of anxiety in what's happened in our world over the last four or five years with all the division, with all the challenges, with all the uncertainty, with wars out there, economic issues. And you heard that declaration, I will not be anxious. But it's not pie in the sky.

It's not positive self-talk. I will not be anxious because the Lord is my shepherd. Think about that. Jesus, not some force, not some principles to live by, not religion, not church attendance. Jesus, fully God, fully man, resurrected from the dead, seated at this moment at the right hand of the Father, praying for you, caring for you, wants to help you lie down in the green pastures, wants to calm your heart by quiet streams, wants to lead you in paths that are righteous and good for you, and in the midst of your fears and struggles and the evil that you see that we'll talk about in our next broadcast, He wants to protect you. If you could but learn to believe and to put into practice Psalm 23, I want you to know together we can learn not to be anxious. Could I encourage you to open your Bible and read Psalm 23 slowly before you go to bed? Don't read it like a little plaque.

Substitute your name. The Lord is Chip's shepherd. Chip shall not be in want. The Lord makes Chip lie down.

Do that for a few days. See that as you experience God as your shepherd, if the anxiety goes down, as His provision and protection goes up. Powerful application, Chip. And as we close, if you're walking through a painful season of life right now, we want you to know we care about you. So call us at 888-333-6003. Our team is ready to pray for you. That's 888-333-6003. Or if it's easier, email us at chip at livingontheedge.org. That's chip at livingontheedge.org. Well, be sure to join us next time as Chip continues his series, Be Strong and Courageous. Until then, I'm Dave Druey saying thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge.