Freedom From Anxiety

Don't tell me you love Jesus and you're as worried as your non-Christian neighbor about how you're gonna make it. Dr. Tony Evans talks about why we still experience anxiety when God promises us peace. The reason why we stay worried as a lifestyle is that first things on first.

Priorities are out of order. Celebrating 40 years of faithfulness, this is the alternative with Dr. Tony Evans. Author, speaker, senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, Texas, and president of the Urban Alternative. Dr. Evans says the fact that we're worried can be a bigger problem than whatever we're worried about.

Let's join him as he explains. Today, I want to talk to you about another kind of freedom, one that we all need, I need it, you need it, and that's freedom from anxiety. Freedom from anxiety, or to use the more popular term, freedom from worry. Some of us worry to death, other people worry others to death. But we are all, all face this snake around our minds and our emotions that immobilize us called worry. And there's plenty to worry about. Some people are worried about the financial situation. That could be their job, their bills, paying the rent, things that have to do with material and financial responsibility. And you are worried, am I going to be able to send my kids to college?

Am I going to be able to meet my obligations? There's a financial worry. Others are worried about health issues. Health issues can produce worry. And now you not only have to worry about what's wrong, you now have to worry about the medicine you use to make it right.

Because they tell you that the medicine might make you sick in other ways while it fixes whatever you took it for to make better. So you got to worry about the sickness, then you got to worry about the stuff to fix the sickness. We worry about terrorism. You can worry about what people think.

You can be controlled by the impressions and impact of others. Worry can go on and on and on and on and on and become a vice grip around our mind. One man said, if I have to worry about one more thing, it's going to take me two weeks to get to it.

Because I have accumulated so much to worry about. Another gentleman just couldn't take it anymore and he said, I will pay, he said to a friend, I will pay you a thousand dollars if you will do my worrying for me. The man said, okay, I'll take that, I'll take that, I'll take your worry for you.

Where's the thousand dollars? The man said, well, that's the first thing you got to worry about. So in one form or another, we're all challenged with this thing called worry. In Matthew chapter 6, the scripture that was read in your hearing today, Jesus wants to tell you something. Can Jesus tell you something? Verse 25, the first line, for this reason I say to you, do not worry. Verse 31, do not worry.

Verse 34, so do not worry. Three times in this passage, Jesus wants to tell the family of old Cliff and those who gathered in our service today, stop it. Stop it.

Look at your neighbor and say, stop it. They can't get mad at you, you're just quoting Jesus. Jesus just said, stop it. Stop worrying.

Three times, he says, stop worrying. If Jesus commands you to stop something and you keep doing it, it's a sin. Therefore, it's a sin to worry. If whatever you are worried about today, you are sinning against the Savior every time you worry about it.

He says, don't do it. Stop it. That raises the first question and that is, what is worry? What is worry?

Some of us try to make it seem better. We say, I'm not worried. I'm just concerned. The Greek word used here for worry was a word that used for the unthreading of a garment, so that there was a detachment occurring because the threads of the garment were coming out.

So it meant to be detached or unraveled. You are worrying when your circumstances are unraveling you. To worry meant to be controlled by the circumstance so that they dictated to you your well-being. How is that different than concern? The fundamental difference from legitimate concern and illegitimate concern, or anxiety or worry, is the issue of what's in control. Concern, you're in control of it.

You turn it on, you shut it off. Worry, it's in control of you. Worry tells you whether you're gonna sleep tonight or not. Worry tells you whether you're gonna have a migraine headache or not. Worry dictates to you whether you're gonna stay mad and angry or not. The level of your worry reveals the size of your faith. If you're worried all the time, it's because you have faith little of the time. Your expectations are low because you really haven't studied what God has done in nature. And all of nature depends on God and the means He's provided to provide. You say, okay, okay, I got it. God has got it already built in.

The systems are already working. The birds can testify. The flowers can testify, okay? What do you want me to do, Pastor? What does God want me to do? Because I'm tired of worrying. I'm tired of Excedrin.

I'm tired of Excedrin PM so I can go to sleep. I'm tired of that. I'm tired of worrying.

Verse 31, Do not worry then saying, What will we eat or what will we drink or what will we wear for clothing? Okay. Don't let your mouth betray you.

You just catch that? Do not worry saying, I mean, you're talking. Don't let your mouth reveal your unbelief. Don't let your mouth say, what am I going to eat, drink, wear?

Why can't my mouth ask that question? But we've already seen part of the answer because God says, I've got the process built in. Don't speak worry into your life. See, once you start asking that question, you're speaking the problem back to you. You telling yourself, hey, there's something to worry about because how am I going to make it? How am I going to make it?

How am I going to make it? Don't speak worry into your life. See, you can talk yourself into worrying. You can be okay till you start talking to you. You worry about other people worrying and you worrying yourself. Okay, then what am I supposed to do?

What am I supposed to do? Watch this, ma'am. He says, for the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things, for your Heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.

Now watch this, we're going somewhere. If you are a worrier, you'll know better than a pagan. The word Gentile refers to unbelievers, pagans, the heathen. Don't talk about you love Jesus and you as worried as your coworker about being laid off. Don't tell me you love Jesus and you as worried as your non-Christian neighbor about how you're going to make it. You'll know better than the Gentiles. You'll know better than the atheists. You'll know better than the people who don't know God, don't believe in God, not looking for God. You are absolutely know better than them because you're talking like them. How am I going to make it?

What am I going to do? He says, all these things the Gentiles seek, but your Heavenly Father knows you have need of these things. Let me say something about these things.

What things? The necessities of life. He says, don't go around worrying about how the necessities of life are going to be covered. He's not saying be irresponsible. He's saying don't worry about how the necessities of life are going to be covered.

Here's our problem. We have confused the necessities of life with the extras of life. We have confused what God promises to meet and what we want Him to do. We have transferred needs into wants and then get mad at God because He's not meeting our needs that really are not the needs. They are the wants. So we become like the Gentiles and we seek it, which means we go break our necks. We work overtime.

We're doing 10 jobs. We can't come to church because we're too tired from working six days or we got to work seven days and we become like the heathen, breaking our necks for stuff God said I would take care of if you had them in the right priority. But you don't give me a chance to take care of them because you won't operate by my order. And so we're living from hand to mouth, week to week, trying to exist because we have inverted needs into wants. I need a new car.

No, if the one you have is working, you want a new car. And don't get me wrong, nothing wrong with wanting a new car or wanting a new house. But if there is food in your stomach, clothes on your back, and a roof over your head, the needs have been provided for. But if you skip God, God's way, and jump to a want and call it a need, then don't be surprised if you're blaming God that he's not meeting your needs because he's dealing with the necessities of life. Okay, watch this now.

We're going somewhere. Your heavenly father knows that you need these things. He's talking about needs. Now watch. Okay, what do you need to change? All right, now I'm going to tell you right now, you're not going to like what I'm getting ready to say.

All right? So go ahead and get mad in advance. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you. Key word, first. First. The reason why we stay worried as a lifestyle is that first things aren't first. Priorities are out of order. And when spiritual priorities are out of order, don't expect to see God come through.

You are worried because you're not confident, but you're not confident because first things aren't first. See, this is one of the great promises in the Bible. Seek first, not second, third, fourth, fifth, or sixth. If there's a first, there must be a second. His kingdom. Now, in a kingdom, you got a king. A kingdom. See, we're not used to kingdoms in America.

We're a democracy. Okay, we don't handle kingdoms too well. That's the only way God operates. He only operates in a dictatorial manner.

We don't like dictatorships and that's fine for earth. That doesn't work for heaven. God doesn't take majority rule in heaven.

He not asking for your vote. See, a lot of people want God to kill their worry when they won't treat them like a king. And a king means I'm in charge. See, our problem is we want Jesus. We don't want King Jesus.

We don't want King Jesus. We want a Jesus that makes us feel good. We want a Jesus that will bless us. We want a Jesus that will answer our prayers. That's the Jesus we want. We don't want a Jesus that's going to tell me what to do. That's not the Jesus I want. And so that's what you don't get. You don't get King Jesus. You don't get what the birds get because they get King Jesus. They get a king saying, Worm, I got a bird coming.

Pop your ugly head up. See, we don't want a king so you don't get a king in terms of addressing the needs in your life. And that's why the debts won't go away. That's why the problems won't go away.

That's why the transformations won't come culturally, societally, in the family, in the church, or even in our individual lives. He says, seek ye first. God hates being second. And He sure enough hates being last.

He doesn't want to be addressed after you done talked to all your friends and after you got what all your friends think and now you come to Him because none of your friends knew what they were talking about. That's not what He wants. Seek ye first. And that's what we don't want. We don't want to address what God requires on the front end. So we give God what's left over on the back end. They get mad at God because God's not answering our prayer. Seek ye first the kingdom of God.

Amazing. Everybody wants a financial blessing who are not willing to give and tithe to God first. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. That means His standard, His will, His way, His word. He says, you will be amazed what you see when I'm become first.

When you stop leaving me to what's left over. Dr. Evans will look at what God wants to start adding to our lives when he returns for part two of today's message. Stay with us. In the best of Tony Evans 2021, Dr. Evans shares his 20 most requested messages this year on CD and MP3. Each message is full of hope and life, something you won't find much of in the world right now.

And it's our way to say thank you for your gift to help keep the Urban Alternative on the air in the year ahead. Learn how to get yours today at TonyEvans.org. That's TonyEvans.org. Remember, you'll get a total of 20 of Tony's most popular messages of the year, focusing on being empowered by the Holy Spirit, how to know God cares about you personally, and today's message, freedom from anxiety. Get in touch with us today. Make your generous year-end contribution and let us send you the best of Tony Evans 2021. And as a special bonus, we'll also include one of three additional resources for you to choose from, any one of which can make a wonderful gift for a friend or family member. Get the details and make the arrangements at TonyEvans.org or call our resource center at 1-800-800-3222. Team members are standing by to help you day and night. Again, that's 1-800-800-3222.

Right now, Dr. Evans is back with more of today's message. You know, the Sabbath was established to give one day where you didn't try to earn money. That was the one day a week you couldn't try to earn money. It's called the Sabbath. In the New Testament, it says you can choose whatever day you want to be the Sabbath. It doesn't have to be Saturday. In the Old Testament, it was Saturday.

He says, but there must be in the rhythm of life. Even God didn't skip this. On the seventh day, he rested. Now, he didn't rest because he was tired. He rest because he wasn't gonna do nothing else.

He was finished. In other words, everything else that happened had to happen because of what he had already done the six days. But of course, what he did on the six days covered everything else for the all of humanity, for the rest of history. But he rested, and what did he do? He enjoyed what he did. It says, and it was good, and it was good, and it was good, and it was very good. In other words, God looked at what he did the six days and said, you are so bad.

He enjoyed the work of his hand. God says, six days, you can labor. You can work hard. You can go out there and do your thing for 60, but there has got to be this one day. Well, you're not trying to make anything happen.

You're not trying to cut any deals. You are just resting in what God has allowed you to do in those other six days, and you are trusting him to work it out, to multiply it. Because one of the things the Scripture says on one twenty to seven, he gives his beloved sleep. That you know, you did everything you could on the sixth day, everything that you were responsible unto God, and you did it first, for he knows that you have needed these things. And look at what he says in verse 33. He says, and all these things will be added to you.

Whoa, did you get that? Added to you. In other words, he'll make the connection. He'll add what you're trying to force. He'll add what you're trying to make happen. He'll bring it to you.

He'll connect it to you. Many of us are blocking God's hookup, blocking God's addition, and the extra stuff we're doing is creating subtraction. And then we got bad attitudes. We're mad at people all the time. We're frustrated.

We're cussing people out. We're doing all this because I just got too much on my mind. You know, we can't handle it, but we're doing everything we know to do. And we're doing all more of it, and more of it, and more of it, and more of it, and more of it. And God's not adding anything, because we're not doing it his way. We're doing it our way and asking him to bless it. In other words, as though we are the king of the kingdom, and we've set the standards. You're driving your car, and you see somebody on the side of the road hungry, hungry, pleased for some money for something to eat.

We've all seen that. Most of us are probably from time to time help somebody. But everybody with a sign up doesn't mean you ought to do something for them.

Because there's always a question that has to be answered. What are you hungry for? See, if I give you money without knowing what you hungry for, then that may be a bad investment. See, because if you're hungry for food, then it ought to be okay if I say, let's go to McDonald's. See, that ought to be good, because that's money, but it's money for food.

But if you only use the word hungry and you don't put nothing in it, you could be hungry for drugs. And I don't want to give you money if that's what you're hungry for, because you only told me you're hungry. You gave me a fact, but you didn't tell me the truth. You just said, I'm hungry, that's a fact. But I didn't get the truth. I didn't get what you were hungry for.

So until I get the rest of the story, I don't know whether to invest in that sign, because I need to know what we're going to do with what I consider valuable, that is my money. See, God sees signs every Sunday from Christians coming to the church talking about, I need thee, oh, I need thee. Every hour, I need thee. And we got the sign of the church, Jesus, I need thee. We waving our hair, I need you.

God's saying, for what? I want the rest of the story here. You just need me so you can use me up. You just need me so I can bless you, so you can skip me. You just need me so I can do more for you so you can do less for me. You just need me. What, for what?

What's the rest of the story? Are you talking to a king? Or are you talking to Santa Claus? God says in Jeremiah, scripture you should read when you're prone to worry, chapter 17, verses seven to eight. Jeremiah 17, seven to eight, God says, and I will remove your anxiety in a drought. You know what drought means, that means no rain. No rain, no agriculture.

No agriculture, no food, no food, you starve. So when it's not raining for a long period of time, you can get scared, you can panic when it hasn't rained for a long period of time, but God says, I'll remove your worry in a recession, in a depression. When you don't know where the stuff is coming from, I will calm your mind, or as it says in Isaiah, chapter 26, verses three and four, I will keep him with a steadfast mind whose mind is stayed upon me. So when your company sends you somewhere, they pay for it. Now if you go to that same place on your own, you pay for it, because you weren't sent.

In other words, your company takes responsibility for what it requires of you, if it's a good company. We want to do our own thing, but we want to know why the king won't pick up the tab, because God is saying that's not where I sent you. That's not what I want done. That's not how I want it done. That's not when I want it done. That's not my thing.

I'm not picking that up. Now you mad at me, talking about I don't believe you answer prayer. He says, so do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Ain't that the truth?

Come on, tell the truth and shame the devil. Okay, most of us are being crucified between two thieves, yesterday and tomorrow. The regrets of yesterday, the uncertainty of tomorrow, and we still got to deal with the trouble of today. He says, don't borrow from tomorrow. In other words, this might happen tomorrow, this might happen tomorrow, this might happen tomorrow, this might happen tomorrow. All these things might happen tomorrow.

How am I going to make it tomorrow? He says, when you borrow from, when you withdraw from the bank of tomorrow, you've increased the burden of today. So that means you reached into tomorrow, brought it back to today. So now you got to deal with what you already had on your plate today and what tomorrow just added to that plate.

And you got to pay interest on both. So you've added to yourself a burden you were never meant to have. Listen to me, listen to me. It's okay to plan for tomorrow. The Bible talks about planning. You can plan for tomorrow. What you can't do is get unraveled about tomorrow. You can't worry about tomorrow.

Why? Because the only thing God is promising you is enough for the day. Lamentations 3 23, his mercies are new every day. Give us this day, our daily bread. God is only guaranteeing you today. So when you start thinking about tomorrow, you've gone further than God has promised. He's only supporting you today. Well, what about tomorrow?

He'll meet you there. Today is the tomorrow that you worried about yesterday. Today is the tomorrow that you were worried about yesterday.

And now you're today. Today has enough trouble of its own. And you know, if you can't even deal with the stuff in your face today, you're not going to be able to handle that plus tomorrow stuff today. Don't worry. Tomorrow stuff will be there when you get there. Because when you get there, tomorrow will be today. Do not worry about tomorrow. All I'm trying to tell you, look at your name and say, stop it.

It's a sinuary. You've insulted your father when you worry. Because you've said to your father, the birds can trust you, the flowers can trust you, but I can't trust you.

You've insulted God. But if we had a testimony service here today, and if we could invite the children of Israel, the children of Israel would testify. We were in a wilderness and we didn't know where we were going to get water and where we were going to get food. But God had food in a rock and rained down corn flakes from above. If the widow of Zarephath was here this morning, she would testify.

I was down to my last meal and me and my son had only one meal left. But when I put God first with Elijah, God took that bread, he took that oil, he multiplied it and gave us enough to retire. If the disciples were here to testify this morning, they could tell you they were with 5,000 men, not counting women and children, and they didn't know how they were going to feed them. But a little boy with some sardines and crackers gave it to Jesus first, and Jesus multiplied it, fed 5,000 women and children, and had 12 baskets full left over. If Jesus were here, he could testify. From John 6, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me, he says, will not thirst, and I will give him living water, and I will feed him the bread of life. Somebody ought to bless his name up in here that God can be trusted even when you don't know how he's going to do it.

When you put him first. Dr. Tony Evans, with the most powerful antidote for anxiety, our trust in God. As I mentioned earlier, today's message is part of Tony's special year-end audio compilation, The Best of Tony Evans 2021. This giant collection of 20 powerful lessons is available for a limited time as our gift when you make a donation to help us keep Tony's teaching on this station. In addition to these most requested messages of the year, we'll also include Tony's Kingdom Men Rising devotional, or one of his new books for children made by God, or his latest work for adults, Kingdom Race Theology. The choice is yours, and you can find out more about each of these resources when you visit TonyEvans.org. While you're there, be sure to take some time to browse through our huge collection of CDs, DVDs, books, Bible studies, and more. We can be your one-stop shop for holiday gift giving. Again, that's TonyEvans.org. Or call our resource center at 1-800-800-3222.

Team members are standing by to help with your request day or night. That's 1-800-800-3222. Too many Christians build their lives around what people say about the Bible instead of what the Bible says about people. Next time, Dr. Evans will explain why that's such a dangerous temptation as he talks about the real authority for Kingdom Christians. I hope you'll be back with us. The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans is brought to you by The Urban Alternative and is celebrating 40 years of faithfulness thanks to the generous contributions of listeners like you. ...