Anxiety, Part 2

Today on Summit Life with J.D.

Greer. The way that most of us want to deal with anxiety is we want to stockpile enough so that we feel invulnerable tomorrow. To get yourself in a situation where your job is locked up and you got plenty of insurance, you got plenty of money in the bank and you got all the right relationships that you need and you've mastered all the parenting techniques so that nothing can go wrong.

If that's yours, you will always still be anxious about things that are going to slip through the cracks and destroy you. Welcome to Summit Life with J.D. Greer, pastor of the Summit Church in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina.

I'm your host, Molly Vidovich, and we are so glad that you're back with us today. When it comes to money, parenting, marriage, career, and any of the other litany of things we worry about, God is not telling us to just sit back and do nothing. He is saying that we need to do what we can in obedience to God to the best of our ability and trust Him with the results.

Today, Pastor J.D. continues our study of difficult emotions with the conclusion of a message that we began yesterday on the emotion of anxiety. While anxiety thinks too little about God, it also minimizes how much God thinks of us.

Let that sink in for a moment. What a comforting truth that He cares for us so much. So grab your Bible, open up to Matthew chapter 6, and let's get started. Two verses that I hope are really familiar to you. I hope you have them memorized. They always come out in my preaching because I have them memorized.

Isaiah 49, 15, and 16 is the first word where Isaiah makes this point in a very creative way. Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child that she is born? Has that ever happened in the history of the human race? That a mother is nursing the child and just forgets about the child? I've told you before that when my wife had each of our kids, she had this weird kind of supernatural sixth sense, kind of connected to them. I'd wake up the next morning and be like, hey, the baby slept through the night, and she'd give me that look of death like our baby did not sleep through the night.

But she's just so in tune that she just kind of is connected and she knew what was going on. That's the way most of you mothers are. How could a mom ever forget her newborn baby that she's nursing?

By the way, I love that Isaiah put this next phrase in here. No, she may forget. Like for that one of you out there that really had a bad mom, right? And you're like, that was me. She forgot about me. He's like, okay, maybe it happened. Whatever. Maybe it happened.

I'll never forget you even if she did. Wow, look, you know why? I've engraved you on the palms of my hands. Isaiah didn't even realize how literally that was true.

Because God literally, when he looks at his hands now, when Jesus looked at his hands, we are engraved on his hands in the form of nail scars. He can't forget about us. Romans 8, 32 is the other verse I always go to and quote.

He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all when we were his enemies. Man, if he did that when you were his enemy, is he now going to withhold anything from you? Now he's going to graciously give you all things now that you are his child.

Y'all, what more would God have had to do to prove his commitment to you? Isn't it insulting for us to think that God died for us on the cross and now won't take care of day-to-day needs? Honestly, it reminds me of my kids sometimes on vacation. After spending the day at Disney World, we're 30 minutes behind when we would typically eat dinner. And my kids are like, Dad, are we not going to eat? I'm like, you think I brought you all the way down here to starve you? Is simply not being here proof enough of my commitment? Do you know how much it costs to get your feet to stand right there where they're standing? Do you think we stood for two hours in line in 115 degree heat so that for 90 seconds I could ride on Dumbo's ears? You think we did that for me? If I cared enough to bring you on vacation, I'm going to care enough about you to keep you fed.

Not that this has happened recently and I'm thinking of a fresh illustration or anything, but I'm just saying, all right? Surely if God, Jesus the same, cares enough to send his son to the cross to die in humiliation for you, surely you could trust him with your bills, your spouses, or the future of your families. It's like John Owen, the great Puritan, used to say, he used to say, what greater insult could you ever give to Jesus than to say after his death on the cross that God is probably not trustworthy and God probably doesn't really care about us?

You see, Jesus is sane and he says this tenderly, but anxiety for the Christian is totally irrational. It means you believe God can take you to heaven but can't handle you on earth. You believe that God is good for eternity but insufficient for time. You believe that God delivered you from damnation but won't do the details of your day-to-day lives. He's saying, honestly, you got to choose.

You got to choose. You either believe in the God of the gospel or you don't. That's why he brings up this comparison to the Gentiles in verse 32. It's like you're like the Gentiles.

The Gentiles were atheists or at best they believed that God was like this capricious Viking, a glorified thug that you got to constantly keep on your good side lest he smite you. He's like, it makes sense for them to worry because they're always worried that A, maybe there's no God and B, if there is a God, maybe he's mad at me right now. But you, you know that you got a heavenly daddy.

He's proven his commitment to you. He's proven his care of his creation in the creation through the wildflowers and the birds, and he's proven his commitment to you through his death on the cross. So it's just totally inconsistent for you to believe in the God that looks anything like the God of the gospel and be worried about your day-to-day life. He's like, don't act like an atheist. Don't act like a Gentile. Act instead like somebody who knows who God is.

It's impossible to really believe in the God of the gospel and be anxious, at least for spiritual reasons. Here's another place where the Apostle Paul makes the same point in a great way. This is another one of my favorite passages. Philippians 4, 6. You should memorize all these verses I'm giving you today.

Philippians 4, 6. Be anxious for, how much? All right, be anxious, not giving the big stuff you can be anxious about, like, you know, your retirement, your kids.

No, no. Be anxious for nothing. Nothing's a big old word. Whatever you're anxious about fits in that category, nothing. You're like, oh, what about nothing?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, but nothing, okay? Be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. That's key.

We'll come back to that. Let your requests be made known to God. And when you do that, the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Y'all, it helps me. It helps me to reflect on the fact that I am commanded not to be anxious. Literally, that's an imperative.

Be anxious for nothing. That's a command. It's not just here, by the way. At least four times in Matthew 6 that we're looking at, at least four times Jesus commands us. Don't worry. By the way, do you know what the most often repeated command in the Bible is?

Not, don't have sex before marriage. Not tithe. Fear not. 366 times. Y'all, that can't be coincidental.

That's one for every single day of the year, including leap year. Literally, God said that you will never live a day in any year on earth where there's not a brand new fear not command for you. You should not be afraid.

Here's the thing. The only way those commands make sense is if God in those commands is promising through that command that he will take care of the things that we're worried about. Otherwise, the command not to worry is like a cruel joke, right? I mean, imagine you and I were going out to lunch together, and as we're riding to the restaurant in the car, you're like, oh, I forgot my wallet. And I look at you and say, don't worry about it.

All right, what is that? Should we get to the restaurant? And the bill comes. And I look at you like, oh, you don't have money? Oh, that's awkward.

Look who's going to have to go back in the back and do dishes. And you look at me and you say, but you said not to worry about it. I'm like, oh, that? I didn't mean I was going to pay for it. I just wanted you to have a sense of peace and tranquility while we ate together. That's why I said those things.

That would be a cruel joke. The only way it makes sense for me to tell you not to worry about it is if I plan to take care of it. The only way it makes sense for God to command us, don't be anxious, is if he has promised to take care of the things that are making us anxious. So instead of being anxious, he says, and everything about prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. The key word there is with thanksgiving, because it's impossible to be anxious about something that you just thank God that he's taken care of. Right? Here's a problem I used to have in my prayer life.

I still have it. And I'll tell you a couple things I've done to help myself. It's like training wheels in prayer.

They might help you. I found that when I would have my time with God every day, I would tell him the things that I'm worried about, but I'd be just as worried about them when I got done as I was when I started. So basically my quiet time was like anxiety hour with Jesus. Right? Worrying in the direction of the ceiling.

That's what my time was. And then I realized that what Paul was talking about is something totally different. Because what I'm supposed to do is I'm supposed to put these burdens on Jesus and say, Jesus, I'm looking for you to guide me in what you want me to do, but I know that now that actual responsibility belongs to you, and I don't have to worry about it anymore because you got that burden, not me.

And here are the little training wheels that I've done that help me do this. One is exactly what Paul says right here with Thanksgiving. After I pray about what I'm worried about, I will literally verbally say, God, I thank you that you are dealing with this. I know he may not always answer it exactly the way that I think it should be answered, but I know he's promised to answer. Otherwise him commanding me to thank him for it would be a lie. So I'm like, thank you that you're answering this like a good father would answer it. The other thing that I do, and I have another set of training wheels because I'm really this bad at the Christian life, I say, God, I thank you for doing this, and I trust you with this. It helps me to hear myself say, I trust you with that. Because I know the point is not worrying in the direction of Jesus. The point is committing these anxieties to him and not being anxious for them because I have given them to him, and if I'm seeking his first, he's promised to take care of all these other things that I'm worried about.

Okay? Now, I read this article in a magazine. It was a secular magazine, and it was trying to give strategies for anxiety. And what it said was that you should have 15 minutes a day, every day, that you concentrate all your worry on that 15 minutes. So when you're going throughout the day and you're worried about something, just be like, you know what, I'm not going to worry about that now because 4.45 to 5, that's my worry. That's my worry 15 minutes. And put all your worry there and only worry there. Well, I read that and I thought, well, that's kind of, you know, sad.

But, you know, it's like, they actually are onto something. The worry doesn't help you out in all these other spheres, so at least concentrate in one place. For the Christian, that's your prayer time. That 15 minutes is where you worry, but you're worrying to Jesus, and then you're getting up from that 15 minutes, and you were saying, or however long it lasts, and you were saying, now I trust you with this, and I've got the peace of God that passes all understanding because all that makes me anxious is now sitting on you. And the only way that makes sense is if you know God cares about it and he promised to take it, so anxiety minimizes how much God thinks about you. There's one more great point that Jesus makes about worry in Matthew 6 about anxiety, and it's our last point here. Number three, Jesus said, anxiety is a false prophet. Anxiety is a false prophet because it offers false solutions, it makes false promises, and it offers false predictions.

Feeling anxiety, worrying about stuff, I don't know about y'all, worrying about stuff always makes me feel better when I'm worrying about it because I'm like, well, at least I'm devoting some energy to the problem. And somehow I think worrying about this is, you know, I'm doing something, and it's going to help the situation because I'm putting some energy into it. And Jesus said, well, that doesn't make any sense. All of you think that, we all think that, but he said that doesn't make any sense for a couple reasons, two problems. First one's verse 27. It says worrying doesn't actually change anything.

Now look at Jesus' question in verse 27. Can any of you add one moment to his lifespan by worrying? Does worrying change the issue at all? Will worry actually add to your life even a single second?

No. Ironically, if anything, worry will just shorten your life. Doctors point out that around 75% of all doctor visits are stress or anxiety related. Charles Mayo of the famed Mayo Clinic wrote, and I quote, worry affects the circulation, the heart, the glands, the whole nervous system.

He said, I personally have never known a man who died of overwork. I have known a lot of men personally who died of anxiety. I saw a bumper sticker recently that said, anxiety is my daily cardio. Okay, yes, it will get your heart going, but it's the wrong kind of getting your heart going. But see, you get your heart going because anxiety is a false prophet. It promises you that if you devote time to it, that that time and energy to devote to it will change things, but that's a lie.

And Jesus tells us it's a lie. Second, Jesus says, anxiety is a false prophet because the vast majority of the things you worry about never take place anyway. I mean, you worry about a thousand things that never take place. And I've heard it described before as paying interest on a bunch of debts you don't even know. Or it's like you hear the threatening music and the soundtrack of your life when there's actually no danger at all. My wife and I one time were watching this scary movie together, right? And I told her, I'm like, you know, in my life, if every time someone was about to go really bad, that ominous music would just play.

It would really help me in decision making. I'd be like, oh, you know, like, that person looks charming, but that's not going to turn out well. And I know that because, da-na, da-na, da-na.

That's taking place right there. And I was like, if I could just have ominous music over. And then I thought about it later, and I thought, actually, I have the opposite problem. I have the problem that that ominous sinister music plays when there's nothing to be afraid of.

And so just in the background of my life, it's like, da-na. And I'm like, something's going to go wrong. What is going to go wrong? And I'm just anxious because I think that there's going to be something that goes wrong, and I have no idea. Y'all, think about how many things you worry about and have worried about that never happened.

Look at how Jesus addressed this in verse 34. Therefore, don't worry about tomorrow because tomorrow's going to have trouble of its own. That's exactly what I was worried about about tomorrow. I was worried there was going to be trouble. I was worried there was going to be trouble. And you said, don't worry about tomorrow because there's going to be trouble. But that was the thing I was worried about. So how does that make sense?

What point is Jesus making? Right? Tomorrow's going to have trouble. But guess what's also going to be true tomorrow? The God that took care of you today is going to take care of you tomorrow. So God's going to be there also, right?

You see that? You worry about 999 things that'll never happen, and God's not going to deal with those because they didn't exist in the first place. But God is going to help you deal with the one or two that actually do.

The way God taught this to the children of Israel was through the story of the manna. They're in the wilderness, literally in the desert. So nothing but, you know, sand and cactuses or cacti, however you say that. Just, you know, ain't nothing to eat.

Right? So they're like, what are we going to eat? So God every morning provides this little Ritz crack, multivitamin Ritz cracker-looking thing. Best we can tell, it looked just like this right here.

Okay? And they had gluten-free options for those of you that are, you know, so everybody got some. It had everything they needed to stay alive, and it actually totally tasted pretty good. So every morning, here was the rule. Every morning they get up, and there'd be a manna all over the ground.

They go out, they collect it. But the rule was you could only get enough for that day, just that day. And if you did what we all do, well, I might need to get a little extra because you never know. Like tomorrow, tomorrow we might not have a rainy manna day.

And so I need to go ahead and take enough now because the best way to deal with the future is to stockpile today. If you did that, then that night, as you collected all this manna, it would breed worms and stink and cockroaches and rats, and it would just turn your tent into a, just, it would be awful. The one exception was the day before the Sabbath, and on that day and that day only, you were supposed to. You were commanded to get not just enough for that day, but enough for the Sabbath day, and God miraculously kept it so that it did not spoil.

What was God trying to teach the children of Israel through that whole, that whole situation? He was trying to teach them, don't worry about tomorrow. I'm the God who will be present tomorrow. I'll still be with you, so don't try to provide today what you're going to need tomorrow. I'll provide for you tomorrow. I'll send more, you know, what, by the way, manna means what is it?

They had no idea, what is that? And in Hebrew, that's manna. And God's like, I'll send more what is it, you know, for you tomorrow. So don't worry about it. Whatever it is you need, whatever, for whatever you need, I'll send what is it to take care of it. The way that most of us want to deal with anxiety is we want to stockpile enough so that we feel invulnerable tomorrow, right?

And Jesus said, well, first of all, that's foolish. For one, you can never prepare yourself fully for tomorrow. And so if that's your strategy for dealing with anxiety, to get yourself in a situation where your job is locked up and you've got plenty of insurance, you've got plenty of money in the bank, and you've got all the right relationships that you need, and you've mastered all the parenting techniques so that nothing can go wrong, if that's yours, you will always still be anxious about things that are going to slip through the cracks and destroy you. What if I get robbed? What if I lose my job? What if my 401k crashes? What if the whole economy crashes? What if the Russians attack us and take us over?

What if I'm falsely accused at work? What if I go to jail? What if my kids want nothing to do with me when I get older?

What if my wife or me gets diagnosed with cancer? What if I never get married? What if this time next year I'm still not married and I seem no closer and you're always going to be anxious?

You can never prepare fully for the future. He says it's foolish, but then he says it's also unnecessary because the God who is faithful to you today promises to be as present with you tomorrow as he was today, and he's going to be there to deal with anxieties you don't even know about yet. Jesus is like, look, you're worried about X, Y, and Z happening tomorrow, and X, Y, and Z aren't going to happen tomorrow.

Actually, D, E, and F are going to happen, and they're way worse than X, Y, and Z. But don't worry about it, because I'm an A through Z kind of God, and I've got what is-its for every single letter of the alphabet, right? So whatever letter of suffering or calamity is going to come your way tomorrow, I've got a what is-it in the bag, and I'll provide for it so that you have no needs at all.

Y'all, everybody look at me right now, every game, look at me, look at me. Tomorrow is going to have problems. In fact, everybody right now, turn to your neighbor at all, everybody turn to your neighbor and get sort of a sinister look on your face and go, go, just go. Something's going to go wrong next week. Something's going to go wrong with you next week. Something's going to go wrong with you next week. But y'all, listen, it's okay. It's okay that something's going to go wrong next week. Why?

Why? Because God will be there. There is a way to face the uncertainty of tomorrow, or the uncertainty of next week, or the uncertainty of next year without feeling anxiety today. Because he lives, I can face tomorrow. Because he lives, all fear is gone. Because I know, I know he holds the future.

My life is worth living just because he lives. Anxiety causes you to worry about a thousand bad things that won't actually happen and keeps you with, from leaning with joy and peace on the God who promises to give you strength for the one or two bad things that actually are going to happen to you. I love how Charles Spurgeon, who again dealt with all kinds of anxiety, I love how he said it, anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows. It just empties today of its strength, paying interest on a debt that doesn't actually exist and keeping yourself from the riches of the God who provides what is it every single morning for you to deal with whatever anxiety you have for today.

Whatever tomorrow holds, God will be there to give you daily strength. Y'all, anxiety is a false prophet. It's a very persuasive one, but it is a false prophet. It makes false promises, gives false solutions, makes false predictions. Y'all, in the Old Testament, they stoned false prophets.

You need to stone anxiety every time it shows up in your life, and you need to turn your attention instead to the one true prophet, the true prophet who never lies, never fails, and has always kept every single promise he has ever made. That is the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. He was not just a prophet that told the truth. He was a prophet that took everything we should have been afraid of to begin with and put it away through his blood on the cross and tells us now because he did that, we can surely trust him with everything else.

So what is the conclusion of the whole matter, right? Verse 33, just seek first the kingdom of God. Just do what God wants you to do. Surrender to God. I know you're not a perfect Christian.

He knows that. Just say, God, I'm gonna follow you and do to the best of my ability what you're telling me to do as a parent, what you're telling me to do as a single, what you're telling me to do as a person who has a job or with my money. I'm gonna do what you want me to do, and I'm gonna trust that all these other things that I'm worried about are gonna be provided for me as I need them. Therefore, Jesus said, don't worry about tomorrow because you know the God of yesterday, today, and forever. And the God that saved you yesterday and the God that delivered you today is certainly gonna be the God who will provide for you tomorrow. You know, the answer to worry is not a trouble-free life.

It's not an invulnerable future. The answer to anxiety is a relationship with a God who controls time, a God who promises that not a hair falls from your head without his knowledge and his permission. The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose, he'll never, no, never desert to his foes. What more can he say than to you, he has said, to you who to Jesus, for refuge have fled. Fear not, I am with thee. Oh, be not dismayed, for I am the God and I'll still give the aid. I'll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand up, held by my righteous, omnipotent hand. I'll walk with you through the fire when you pass through, and I'll be with you. You don't have to fear any of this stuff because you don't know what tomorrow holds.

Might be good, might be bad, but I never change. And the God that provided manna, the God that sent his son to die on the cross, the God that makes birds secure and flowers beautiful, is the God who's devoted to you. Remember, anxiety is an opportunity to trust God, to lean on him. The real question is, are you most devoted to him? You're listening to Summit Life with Pastor J.D.

Greer. If you happen to join us late, you can listen again online at jdgreer.com. So, J.D., most Christians believe that time in the Word is important. When it comes down to it, we sometimes go whole days or even weeks without really spending time with God in a meaningful way, especially if we're feeling depressed or angry or any other extreme emotions. You know, one of the strange things is that people, even in Christian circles, often look outside of the Bible and outside of the Christian community to deal with their emotions. Like, well, the Bible teaches me how to be a moral person.

It teaches me how to have hope, you know, in life after death. But when it comes down to dealing with anxiety, when it comes down to dealing with sadness or, you know, even some forms of depression, I don't really think the Bible is the place I ought to turn. I want to implore you, don't manage your emotions. Don't suppress them.

If they're like smoke from a fire, don't try to wave the smoke out of your house. Use it to diagnose what's really going on in your heart. And I think this series, I hope it will help you do that. And this tool that we're offering along with that, also called Smoke from a Fire, also called Smoke from a Fire, will help you by giving you some study helps and some diagnostic questions to really lay open your own heart and then see how the scripture is speaking to you. As always, you can get it today right now at J.D.

Greer dot com. We'd like to say thanks by sending you a new workbook with 10 devotionals and guided scripture reading that goes hand in hand with our new teaching series titled Smoke from a Fire. It provides insight and scripture that will meet difficult emotions like depression, anxiety and anger with a relationship with Jesus, prayer and praise. Ask for the workbook when you donate today or when you commit to being a monthly gospel partner.

The suggested giving level is $35 or more. Call 866-335-5220. That's 866-335-5220. Or you can give and request the new resource online at JD Greer dot com. I'm Molly Vidovitch inviting you to join us again next week when Pastor JD tackles the emotions of anger and envy. Have a great weekend worshiping with your local church, and we'll see you right here Monday for Summit Life with JD Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by JD Greer Ministries.