Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:04 Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. My name is Michael Fueling. I'm the lead pastor here at the Village Church. We are starting a four week series on healthy Souls, and then in June we're gonna start through the book of Leviticus. And I just wanna say again, I just really appreciated the applause that we got about the book of Leviticus that made me very happy. Um, uh, not too long ago, I sat down with our elders and I asked them, um, to identify areas where they really sensed that our church, village, church needed the word of God, uh, to speak into it where we needed encouragement or training, or maybe there are some areas of spiritual struggle and, uh, as they shepherd, as they're in their community groups, as they kind of just live in this world and are, um, trying to bring out glory, like what direction and encouragement from the word do we need?
Speaker 1 00:00:54 And multiple themes emerged, but our discussion revealed that we are daily facing a myriad of threats to our spiritual health. Like, does anybody else feel like being generally spiritually healthy is harder in this world than you want it to be? Yes. Thank you for that. I'm like, I wake up every day and it is, it is hard to remain just healthy and normal. And I'll be honest, a lot of days I don't feel that. And a lot of days my wife and kids will look at you and they'll say He's stress cleaning. Uh, he's not great today. You know, like, welcome to life. This is everybody. So as I listened to some of their thoughts, uh, I think this series became more and more clear. And so we did, as we plucked out for the biggest threats to our spiritual health, we're about to run into summer.
Speaker 1 00:01:42 And, uh, if you are a grandparent or a parent, like everyone's lives are about to change. Your schedules are gonna go nuts. And, but we have the opportunity to set Christ apart as Lord, even in the change of seasons and times and demands. And what we just wanna do is make sure that we walk into this new season and we are more committed than ever before to Jesus Christ, to worshiping him, loving him, and knowing him. So this whole series is really about going after some of the biggest threats to that and then, and then opening up God's word and saying, Lord, would you speak to us and train us from your word? So years ago I preached a series called Healthy Church, and, and here's one of the main points. A healthy church is not a destination, but a trajectory. And what we shared with you is beware of anybody who says, we are a healthy church.
Speaker 1 00:02:32 I'm like, I dunno, any church that has arrived to the destination, it's actually something you're just more generally pursuing as, as a trajectory of life. I wanna be trending healthy in the moment. Somebody says, I'm, I'm really healthy, my soul is healthy. I wanna just say, are you sure? Are you positive? Like always forever? Is this the destination like you arrived and now you are going to be spiritually healthy for the rest of your life? Is that, is that how this thing works? And so this side of, of heaven, the same could be said of the soul, a healthy soul. It, it's not a destination, but it is a general trajectory because there are gonna be seasons where you have like a really strong, vibrant relationship with God. And guess what? Those seasons are typically followed by difficulty, pain, loss, heartache, frustration, discouragement, depression. Uh, I I, I don't know what's going on in your life, but if you, if you have never had hardship, wait, it's coming.
Speaker 1 00:03:28 And it's really hard to be spiritually healthy when you are struggling with loss or anything. This is why one, one author, hundreds of years ago, he called this the dark night of the soul. It doesn't matter how good things are today, inevitably, every Christian is going to face that dark night of the soul where God feels so far where your spiritual vibrancy is threatened. And, and, and, and we need to know, okay, biblically, how do we, how do we handle these things? So this morning what we're gonna talk about is what I think is one of the greatest threats to generally spiritual health, but I would just say to Americans in general, and, and that would be what we could just call everyday anxiety. Now I'm calling this everyday anxiety, and I wanna tell you what I'm not talking about. I'm not talking about anxiety disorders, that's a whole separate level of discussions.
Speaker 1 00:04:19 I'm not gonna tackle that. Uh, what I wanna do is I wanna tackle, I think what most of ex of us experience on a daily, weekly, annually ba, annual basis. If you just watch the news, even if half of what is said is true, oh my goodness. Like how do we live in this world and not feel some level of anxiety all of the time? And, and the question is not like, do we have it? The question is, okay, when I look at Christ and I look at the word of God, what do I do with all of the emotions and all of the fear and all of the uncertainty that is around us all of the time? And, and Jesus had anxiety. I know that's kind of like a, like you think about the garden of Yosemite where he is filled with so much anxiety that he's sweating blood, right?
Speaker 1 00:04:56 And so we know this, that anxiety in and of itself, it's not something that is inherently sinful. It is a good thing that God made and put into our bodies as a warning sign that there is a real or a perceived threat. And so we know this, that like if you've experienced anxiety, you're, you're with Jesus in that one because he's experienced it. The question is, is when does it become sin? And how do we handle it biblically? So if I were to ask you what makes you anxious, most people sort of have a hard time identifying that. In fact, there's a handful of you have asked this question, a couple of you were pretty quick, but, um, let's bucket these. And, and here's a good way to answer the question. What keeps you up at night? Like what are the things at night that your brain ruminates on?
Speaker 1 00:05:45 Here are the top five anxieties that, um, people experience. Number one is health, two is finances, three is relationships, four is work in school, and five is uncertainty. So those are the buckets. Which bucket would you say you most identify with? I'll tell you mine. Mine is relationships. Uh, if there is a key relationship in my life that is not right, I will lose sleep every night my brain will ruminate. Or if I have a key relationship where somebody has been like really mean or cutting, like I'll lay in bed at night and I will rehash conversations that I want to have with them. Anybody else do that? Anyone? Some thank you for your honesty in the front row. Okay, anyone else? Like, and are you really proud? Like of the things that you ruminate in your head in those conversations, usually not. Usually those are better left.
Speaker 1 00:06:37 It's like the email. You're right. And you never send, like that's what most of those are like, but those things that keep me up. So what is your anxiety? What is your bucket? And as soon as you name the bucket, my, my hunch is that the Holy Spirit is gonna start even revealing things to you that you are carrying that he wants you to give to the father so that the father can carry the weight that you've been carrying alone. So lemme just, lemme just pray quickly. I want you to get that anxiety in your name. Father, may you bring to our minds the anxieties that you want to carry for us, and may you teach us and empower us to cast all of our anxieties unto you because you care for us and we ask this in Jesus name, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1 00:07:17 Amen. Amen. Amen. Be careful Now, the rest of this message, we'll see if the Holy Spirit brings something to your brain. Philippians chapter four, if you opening for bibles there, we're gonna start in verse five. And so what Paul's gonna do is he's gonna deal with a very emotional issue, anxiety, but he's gonna do it in classic Paul fashion. It's gonna be a very logical approach to anxiety. So if you've been with us for some time, we have been preaching through narrative or stories. And so the way the human brain listens to a story versus a logical presentation are two very different parts of your brain. Okay? So here's what you need to do. If you're gonna engage Paul and Philippians, you gotta put on your logic hat because this is gonna get really logical. And what I need you to do is I need you to track with the way he thinks because the way he thinks is the way Jesus thinks on this issue.
Speaker 1 00:08:05 And so we want to do is we wanna get behind this and we want to use our minds. Look at verse five. He says, let your reasonableness be known to everyone. Does this also include your children and your spouse? Yep. Yes. Okay, good. Say it again. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand. And I want you to just notice the word reasonableness. Reasonableness is an assumed quality of a Christ follower. This is assumed We are a clear headed people, we are a non-reactive people. Our morality is reasonable, our ideas are reasonable, our reactions are reasonable in conflict. We are reasonable in discussions. We are reasonable people. To be reasonable means to think and to act logically and rightly, the Christian, you and I let it be said of everyone in our proximity. They're a reasonable person. And if somebody recently has described you as unreasonable, take a step back and just ask yourself, am I being unreasonable?
Speaker 1 00:09:22 Or maybe they are. Second, notice that not everyone is experiencing the Philippian church's reasonableness because you don't have to command somebody to do something that they're already doing. Correct. And so some of us, like we go home or we need to go home and we need to apologize because if we're being honest, we haven't been reasonable. Now, do not kick your spouse. Do not nudge your children. I just saw that, just saw that right there. <laugh>, some of us need to go home and we need to say, I, I think I've been unreasonable. Wanna own that? And I'm sorry. Now that's my gift to you. I hope that works out. Third <laugh>, the Christian's reasonableness. It's rooted in the fact that Jesus Christ is coming back. We'll tell you a true story, you're gonna lose all respect for a seven or eight year old Michael.
Speaker 1 00:10:27 In this story. My best friend John had a next door neighbor. The next door neighbor. I don't know how old he was because when I was seven or eight, I really can't quantify older people's ages. He felt like 55, I don't know, single dude. And it was the summer. And John and I, we were curious, I'm what you would call an insanely curious kid. So we had this bright idea, just this just tells you how how different of a world it was. We're like, we know he leaves his door unlocked. So what if when he goes, we just kind of explore his house, <laugh>. Anybody else don't do that? Number one. So we're in the house and we're in the basement, and lo and behold, he comes home early.
Speaker 1 00:11:19 Holy moly, my heart is racing. We hear him come in, we hear him put his stuff or whatever, and and then we hear him start walking to the second story and John runs out and I'm like, oh, oh no. And I'm stuck in the basement in a man's house. I've actually never talked to the guy. I mean John did, but I didn't. He wasn't my next door neighbor. And I'm stuck in this house seven or eight years old, and I am panicking. I at the moment, I don't even know why or when I run out the back door, I run home and I sit there and I'm like, hyperventilating. And I watch that guy's car like a hawk. And the moment that car pulled out of the driveway, I ran to John's house and I was like, did your mom find out? Did he call?
Speaker 1 00:12:03 Are we in trouble? Did you get caught? And he's like, no, what about you? And I'm like, no, we're good. Thank God, to this day I have dreams where I am in that it was like one of the most traumatic experiences as a human being. And if I knew that guy was coming home sooner, I would've been on much better behavior. Do you know what I'm saying? Let me translate this. Christian Jesus could come back at any moment. Do you want him to catch you doing that? Okay, okay. Maybe that's not enough. When he comes back, he will judge every action and intention of the heart, public and secret. And, and, and here's the, here's the idea, okay? Be reasonable because he's coming back at any moment. And if that's not enough, when he does come back, he's gonna judge and he's gonna publish all the secret things. Anybody else get really nervous right now? All of them.
Speaker 1 00:13:06 There will be no secrets. And the blood of Christ thankfully will cover all of them if you have personally trusted in Jesus Christ. But, but, but his, his whole thing is, Hey buddy, before you do that, do you want the entire world to know about that? Do you want that to be published? Think twice. What is the reasonable thing to do before you go do that big dumb thing? Because they may not find out now, but everyone's gonna find out later, be reasonable. So this word reasonable, it's gonna become really pivotal as we discuss anxiety. So look at verse six. Well verse five starts off, let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand, do not be anxious about anything. So for Paul reasonableness and sinful anxiety, they're at odds with each other. In other words, what he wants to communicate is it's unreasonable and illogical to take sinful anxiety and let it take root in your brain and in your heart.
Speaker 1 00:14:09 Again, I wanna say this one more time. Anxiety is not inherently a sin. Anxiety becomes sin when we allow it to control our behavior. Do you see the difference? So like right now, I am actually very anxious there. There's a handful of things I'm anxious about, but every single time I stand in front of a group of people, my body says, real or perceived threat. Beware. And, and here's one of the ways. On a Sunday morning, you can know whether or not I am preaching. My body actually responds very tangibly. The blood rushes out of my hands and my feet, it goes to my head. And when people shake my hand, my hands are ice cold on the days I'm preaching. So like right now, I actually, I don't feel it in my heart. I kind of control the thoughts in my brain, but my body right now is telling me that you are a threat to me in some way, shape, or form.
Speaker 1 00:15:03 Now here's the deal that anxiety is real. And it happens every single time I preach. It happens every time I get in front of a group of people. It happens every time I pray at a dinner table. This goes back to a long term of anxiety of speaking in public that like made my life very challenging for a long time. Different story, different sermon. When does that become sin? I don't choose it. Like I'm not, I'm not right here sitting. I would like to have ice cold, feet in hands, right? Like if you've ever gotten in front of a group of people freaked out your heart races, like who chooses that? Nobody does. But your body has this sense. I i I am in danger and sometimes the body's wrong. Like right now I'm not in danger, in fact preaching a village church, I've been here for 20 years, my goodness.
Speaker 1 00:15:45 Like you're the safest group of people for me to open my mouth and open the word of God to you're, you're like hands down the most eager group of people to learn from God's word I've ever, ever sat stood in front of, sat in front of like when I make mistakes and say dumb things and I go, oh, whoops. Like, you are so kind and gracious. And it's not just me. All the guys who get up here, I tell them like, there's nobody's gonna root harder for you than village church. There's nobody, nobody wants to sit in a sermon and have the guy fail nobody. Like you're rooting. And when people get up front and they're maybe new and preaching here, I'm like, you need to just believe this. They want to hear you. They want to win and they want to know what God wants for them.
Speaker 1 00:16:20 So just assume that and you're gonna have a great time. I I am under no actual threat, but my body tells me differently. It would be sin if I took that anxiety and I decided I'm not gonna obey what God has called me to do there. There have been times that I've gotten up in front of a group of people and my anxiety was so overwhelming. The first five minutes it was just voice quivering. And I sounded like a, like, like an ibace, but I can't control that. I can only control what I do. Uh, one author wrote this and it is actually confusing who actually said it. It could be Chuck Swindall or another author, but they said this, when a, when a good thing which anxiety's a it's a fine thing, it's a good, it's a warning sign. When it becomes a controlling thing, it becomes a sinful thing.
Speaker 1 00:17:08 When anxiety moves from the backseat, okay, to the passenger seat getting too close to the driver's seat, that's when it becomes a sinful thing. And when anxiety moves to the driver's seat, we become unreasonable. We become illogical, we become impulsive, we become controlling, we become unpredictable. Anybody else have this experience? How many of you are your best selves when you're anxious and you give a control of your thoughts, minds and life? Anybody? Nobody? Uh uh cuz it's not reasonable. You become unreasonable when anxiety moves into this, this now to the antidote. And I'm gonna warn you because this is the part of Philippians four where I, I think it can be weaponized and simplified to the point where it can do damage. So what I wanna do is kind of just process through this and I want you to see the antidote. Verse six says this, but in everything he's gonna talk about the reasonable things to do now by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Let's identify a few things. First, what does anxiety go after? Two things. Your heart and your mind when it is unchecked and it controls those things, does it do good things for your heart or your mind? Everybody say no with me together. Ready? 1, 2, 3. No, we don't want it in the driver's seat. It's fine in the back seat telling us, oh, fyi, look that car's putting its brake on. Okay, cool. But I don't want it driving because it slams on the brakes all the time.
Speaker 1 00:19:00 Sinful anxiety makes the mind unreasonable and the heart chaotic. We want something better. We want peace. We want a reasonable mind. We want a calm heart. Second verse six and seven, where did Paul get the idea of taking every anxiety and making not a glass of wine, not medication, not a bunch of food, but prayer, the first line of reaction to anxiety. Where do you get this idea from? Well, his name's Jesus. Where did Jesus go every single morning to spend time with the Father? And, and you, do you get this picture like there's a part of me that's like Jesus didn't get anxious and it's like, no, I think he cried as a baby and I think he got anxious. And when Jesus is in the garden, I I have come back to this story over and over and over again. And, and here's what he does.
Speaker 1 00:20:01 He verbalizes the thing that is causing him so much physical emotional stress that is causing him to endure a very rare condition where your blood vessels burst and blood starts coming out of them. And, and let's be honest, if anxiety is fear of a real or perceived threat, is Jesus' physical and spiritual life under actual threat? He is about to take on his body's soul and emotions, the full weight of the wrath of God for all the sins of all of humanity. Like think about that, like whatever's happening in the spiritual realm. And it is so massive that what Jesus is gonna carry can cover all of your sins of all of the world, of everybody who ever lived. For anybody who trusts in Christ, it is big and thick enough that it pays for that price for everybody. Lee, all of your righteousness and goodness can't even pay for your own sin.
Speaker 1 00:20:51 And yet somehow Jesus has enough resident righteousness to cover the sins of anybody who comes to him all throughout history. That's amazing. So what he's about to endure is bigger than anything we can imagine. And he verbalizes it. If there's another way other than pouring out the wrath of God on my soul, if there's another way, can, can we take it? And of course the Lord's an he already knows the answer. Like have you ever prayed to God already knowing the answer? But just to verbalize it, just to give it to him, is the act of casting the thing back to God. And so he verbalizes it and he gives it to the Father. And what's interesting is, is that Jesus leaves that moment resolutes setting his face toward the cross empowered and ready to do the hard thing that God is asking him to do.
Speaker 1 00:21:39 And so we learn this. This is Paul's 1 0 1, he looks at Jesus. Now what kind of prayer in verses six and seven does Paul identify as most helpful to help us deal with anxiety? Here's the first word, it's supplication. And supplication is simply a Bible word for this is asking. So every time you ask God for something, you are supplicating. So does God mind when you ask him questions? Everybody the answer is no. And so God, would you replace my anxiety with peace? Here's the anxiety I feel in the face of this real or perceived threat. Would you make my mind reasonable and my heart calm? Petzel Vaio is a member of Village Church, a great friend, former elder. And and when I was the youth pastor here, uh, he would say this to me. He would say, Michael, the rule of the kingdom you do not have because you do not ask.
Speaker 1 00:22:37 And what I, what I loved is that he created a, an environment where I could ask him for anything I want. Now does that mean the elders said yes to everything? I had a lot of crazy ideas and they said no to a lot of things, but he created an environment because where did he learn this from? Well, he learned it from his heavenly Father who is not at all threatened when you keep asking him for stuff. God likes to be asked. And and if you had a child who had a real need, would you not want them to come to you and say, dad, mom, would you help me? I don't know what to do this. I can't carry this on my own. I need to verbalize this. And, and God is the exact same way. God wants you to come to him with your anxieties because you're not strong enough to carry him. This world is nuts. You don't have it. And that's why he wants to carry them for you. But for Paul, being a beggar isn't enough. If you want peace, there's, there's a second thing he says here, which is Thanksgiving.
Speaker 1 00:23:30 The most reasonable thing a Christian can do is thank God a lot. Why? I'm gonna give you, I had like a hundred reasons I got four. We're gonna summarize every anxiety God has allowed for every one of them, there are 10,000 unbelievable good gifts that God has given you. And we let the one perceived or real threat drown out the goodness and the kindness of God. Every breath is a gift. If you just pause for a moment and you shut the door to that real or perceived threat, just put into a box for a moment and you, you just start processing through all of the good kind gifts God has given you. It is unbelievable. And if you ever want help with that, like I would be happy to come alongside of you and just be like, how about this? How about that? How about this? And I'll walk through your closet, I'll walk through your pantry, I'll walk through your car, I'll look at everything you're finding and you will find a gajillion reasons why God has been so good to you. The most reasonable thing we can do in prayer is thank God. Here's the second reason. The Old Testament tells us that God hates in gratitude and complaining. And he killed a lot of people for this. And I don't want 'em to kill me <laugh>.
Speaker 1 00:24:53 So to not express gratitude, it's kind of just stupid. All right, number three, the most reasonable thing you can do in prayer is thank God. Because here's what, here's what gratitude does. Paul knows this, by the way, he's so smart. What gratitude does is it prevents you from adding anger to your anxiety. Just think about that, just let it sit. It's hard to be angry at God when you're thanking him for all the good things he's done for you. Now think about this. Have you ever felt anxious and angry? What does the anxious angry person require? An enemy. I don't want to be the enemy of the anxious, angry person, but I know exactly what it's like to be anxious and angry. And when I am those two things, I am not the best person and I am not healthy. And and here's what Paul understands.
Speaker 1 00:25:46 Like if you're gonna have anxiety, there's a part of you that might want to blame God. And he is like, don't get angry at God, thank him. It changes the entire course of how you interact with him. Because when there are things that are out of our control, when there are things that are threatening us, these anxieties, it is very easy for us to buy into the dumb cultural mantra that says, well God, if you loved me, my life would be easy and you would take this from me. Which is not the way God works, the or what the Bible teaches. And when that mantra gets a hold of our anxiety, we point and wag our fingers at God's face and then anger and anxiety come together and they make God our enemy. And maybe we're smart enough to know that God is not our enemy.
Speaker 1 00:26:27 So we turn on our kids or our parents or our spouse or our friends or something else like the two do, they don't go well together. And so for Paul, he's like, listen, you need to ask God for things, but let's make sure that you are grounding this in a spirit of gratitude. The most reasonable thing you can do in prayer is thank God. Well, here's the fourth reason, apparently for Paul, the Father will be more inclined to give you his peace if you're thankful as opposed to not thankful. So statistically, I'm sitting here and I'm like, ah, what are the best chances that this turmoil inside of me that God is gonna replace the turmoil and the chaos in my heart or the unreasonableness in my mind with his peace? Statistically for Paul, it, it seems that the best chances of you getting that piece is if you start thanking him a lot.
Speaker 1 00:27:26 If I am not daily expressing gratitude to God, I have officially become unreasonable and illogical. Take that one at the bank. So let's ask a question. If you're feeling anxious, does prayer help anxiety? Don't answer this out loud yet. It depends. And this is gonna get even a little bit more interesting there. There are three factors that seem to impact the results of your prayer to God, asking him to take away your anxiety. Number one, have I personally trusted in Jesus? It is striking to me how many people want the blessings of God without submitting their life to God. You don't get the blessings of God till you go through Jesus right off the bat. You pray you're asking God for stuff. It's like me going to somebody else's dad and asking them for his resources. I have no rights to those things. And so the first thing every human needs to do is if you want supernatural peace, here's what you do.
Speaker 1 00:28:31 You come to faith in Jesus Christ, you, you go to God and say, I am a sinner. I have sinn against you. I am sorry. I believe that Jesus Christ died for my sins and was raised again from the dead. God, save me. That's number one. Because the promise of God is that anybody who trusts in him is given the gift of the Holy Spirit. And if you want spirit peace, you need the Holy Spirit resident inside of you. So if you've never done that, that is step number one. Step number two is my prayer. Accompanied with extreme gratitude. We already know you're gonna ask him to take away the real or perceived threat. We know that, but is it accompanied? Right? So for many of us we're like, well, okay, I trusted in Christ, but I'd never thank him for anything. I'm sort of entitled and I just keep asking him for stuff.
Speaker 1 00:29:14 But never thanking him apparently to soften the heart of God. He is more inclined to take away the chaos of your mind and your heart if you're grateful. But there is a third factor, and this is the part that most Christians will not do. And this is the reason why God's supernatural peace El alludes the vast majority of believers in Jesus. Third question. Am I willing to do my part? I'm not talking about salvation. Salvation is all of God. Am I willing to do my part? Wait a minute, I thought my part was praying. Paul goes on and he brings us to verse eight. This is called the gateway verse. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever's just whatever's pure, whatever's lovely, whatever is commendable, if there's any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. This is called the gateway verse because every Christian has regulations for what they do or don't let into their mind. When you watch social media, there are things that you're like, oh, nope. And there are things you're like, yep, we all have a gateway. And what Paul is doing is he's raising the bar and he's saying, you gotta be really, really careful. You have to have a very biblical filter about the ideas, the images, the media that cross your gateway. There's a reason he's saying this because what happens is we want to consume into our brain the pleasures of the world.
Speaker 1 00:31:04 And then we don't want the consequences of those things. So here's what happens. We take things into our mind that are designed by the evil one to create unreasonable chaos. And then we bring them in over and over again. And what happens when you bring chaotic things into your brain? Your brain becomes unreasonable. And then we go to God and we say, make my brain reasonable, but I'm gonna keep bringing unreasonable things into my brain. And then we go to God and we're like, but take away the unreasonable thoughts and the chaos. But I'm gonna go back and I'm gonna keep all the unreasonable thoughts and chaos in my life. Do you get the problem?
Speaker 1 00:31:46 We want the, the pleasures of this world without the consequences. This is not how the spirit of God works, your salvation, it's free. But the Holy Spirit will give you over to your decisions. You know this, they sometimes you have a kid and they do something ridiculous and you're like, they're gonna have to re what they sow. You can't parachute in and save them from everything. You get to choose what gets in and what stays in. And the longer you let worldly thoughts in, the harder they are to get rid of. So here, here's where this verse in Philippians four gets weaponized. Just pray about it. Apparently, the longer these unreasonable thoughts have been in your brain, the longer and harder it is to get rid of them. But we know this experientially, right? You know this, that the longer you, you dwell on the things of the world, the harder it is to like clean up your brain and get everything acting reasonably. Let let me illustrate this.
Speaker 1 00:32:51 If your child came to you and asked for $2,000 to pay a loan as a loan to pay their bills, would you help? Let's say you had the money. They're struggling financially, they're working hard, they're sincere, they need the money. It's a real bill, they show it to you. But then you learned that they spent $3,000 a month on average on parties and lottery tickets and they have no intention of stopping. Would you still give them the $2,000? Some of you not judging, just discerning you're enablers and you'll do it over and over again. It's not what a good parent does. A good parent does not enter in in a naval sin. They say, well, when you're ready to make a commitment to stop buying lottery tickets and spending $3,000 a month on parties, I will come alongside of you and help you get ahead.
Speaker 1 00:33:51 Then they come back the next month, even more desperate. Now they need $4,000, but they're not willing to stop spending the $3,000 a month on parties and lottery tickets. And they come back to you that I need $4,000. And what's our response? Well, I'd love to help you get out of the hole, but until you make the decision to stop spending all your money on parties and laundry tickets, I'm not gonna help you. Let me make the point. God give me your supernatural peace. Okay? Will you guard your mind from the chaos of the world and not let it in? No.
Speaker 1 00:34:36 Then I'm not giving you my peace, but I deserve it. You, you don't deserve it. Your salvation is free peace. There are rules. You want the peace guard your mind. So here's the problem. I'll give you the peace, but you're gonna go back and you're gonna fill it up with unreasonable chaos. And, and, and this is where most Christians won't get the supernatural peace of God because we won't get the junk out of our lives. And this stuff is creating chaos. And, and it is creating unreasonable thoughts. And, and, and I don't, everybody's gonna be a little bit different. I'm gonna let the Holy Spirit convict you personally of what that junk is. But he, he's pretty clear. These are the things that you need to think about. Let's go to the next verse though. He's gonna bring this home. He says, what you have learned, I love this and received and heard and seen in me.
Speaker 1 00:35:35 So like right now, we're all culpable. We have, uh, learned it. We have received this. We have heard it, we have seen it, we've seen it in others. And then he says, practice these things and the peace of God will be with you. Isn't that interesting? We're tempted to say, just pray about it. The peace of God will be with you. And that is not Paul's formula. Paul actually steps back and says, if you want the supernatural piece of God, this, this is the benefit of stewarding your mind. Having a life of gratitude over a period of time, the peace of God, that that actually replaces the chaos, the unreasonableness of the mind, the chaos of the heart is the gift for those who do things just a little bit different. It's activated through, number one, the person who commits to a daily life of prayer.
Speaker 1 00:36:30 Number two, the person who commits to daily gratitude. But number three, to the person who commits to mental self-control. Now, will we screw up? Yep. Like I don't think God is looking at you saying you've gotta be perfect. You have to nail these things. But I'm telling you that the more disciplined you and I are spiritually, the greater the peace, the supernatural peace, the fruit of the Holy Spirit, peace will replace the unreasonableness of our brains and the chaos of our hearts. And this is what the Apostle Paul and Jesus want for every believer. But it's not easy.
Speaker 1 00:37:16 Do you want more money? You don't just get it and say, God, gimme more money. No, you're gonna have to work and then steward that money. Well, you want more knowledge of God. God gimme more knowledge of you. You have to study. You have to think and you have to process. You have to sit under teaching. If you want knowledge, what do you have to do? You have to work for it. You want a better marriage? God, make my marriage better. Fix her. Fix him. <laugh> takes actually both, couple, both, both parties working hard at the thing. There are all of these things in life that we already intuitively know. We don't get them until we discipline ourselves. And the supernatural piece of God that replaces anxiety is the same way Christians should be the most non-anxious people. Meaning, not that we don't feel it because we're gonna feel it all the time, but we don't let it control us because we're people of prayer. Cuz we're people of gratitude and we're people who filter what goes into our brains for the glory of God.
Speaker 1 00:38:24 I wanna share with you two. So what's number one? God's peace. It is far better than the world's counterfeit. It's interesting because every version of peace that the evil one has come up with and tried to distribute through false religion basically comes down to the same thing. It comes down to this like nirvana and Buddhism. This is a great example. Disconnect. Close your mind. Go brainless. It's not that the thing isn't a way, it, it's just like you, you just have to disconnect. Okay, well, it's still there, right? Or drugs. This is another one. You take a drug, the anxiety, the thing, the threat, it's still right in front of you. All you're doing is acting like you're living in illusion temporarily. Like it's not there. E everything. Every single thing that the devil has approached is always this. Just act like it's not there.
Speaker 1 00:39:20 Live in a illusion. Just shut it down. Just don't think about it. God's peace is very different. We don't close our eyes to the real or perceived threats. We, we don't act like they're not there. In fact, we feel them and we see them and we live in the midst of them. And they do create anxiety in us because they're scary. But we do not let them control us. We don't let them into the driver's seat. In fact, sometimes they get in the passenger seat, but we like to keep 'em in the back seat. And, and so we, we kind of step back. We just say, listen, the peace of God that he wants to offer you does not act like things aren't happening. But here's what it does. It gives you the courage to stand in front of the real or perceived threat and to live in a way that brings God glory. That is rare. So I I'm not gonna be the one to sit here and tell you, oh yeah, if you just pray, God's gonna get rid of your anxiety. I fully expect to the day I die in some version or another, I'm gonna live with anxiety in different ways.
Speaker 1 00:40:26 But it does not need to cripple me. It does not need to take control of my life. It wants to all the time, right? It wants to, there are sometimes I preach on really hard subjects and I'm anxious about it, and I just don't want to get up here and preach. It doesn't get to win. It doesn't get to rob you or me of what God has asked each of us to do. One of the things I love about God's peace is it faces reality. It doesn't live in a delusion. It doesn't act like it's not real. It's present. And this brings us to the second. So what your non-anxious presence will be the most compelling fruit of the spirit for evangelism. Uh, there have been a handful of authors, Christian and otherwise who've written on this cont concept of a non-anxious presence. And uh, mark Sayers has actually written an incredible book on this.
Speaker 1 00:41:15 But one of the things that I really appreciated about it is he said that every generation has this, we'll just call it this like sin struggle. It's this dominant thing that kind of creeps up in an entire generation. And, and one of the things he identifies and multiple other sociologists, Christian and otherwise have identified that anxiety is the sin of the American culture in this next generation. It is so everywhere. It's so normal, most people are just living with it as if it's just luck, it's gonna be here forever. And, and what he says is, is is that the Christians like greatest witness. The thing that will incline people to ask you, tell me about your God. It won't be how righteous you are. It won't be how perfect you are. It will be your ability to take real anxiety, put it into its place, to walk into the chaos of your friend and family's lives, and to be a non-anxious presence.
Speaker 1 00:42:13 Imagine this, imagine you're fighting with your spouse or your children or your parents. And I want you to imagine Jesus shows up. Is he flurried <laugh>? No, no, no, no. Please, no. Right? Is he, is he anxious? Is he, is he angry? Oh, everybody. Is he yelling at everybody? Like, I actually don't have that image of of him here. Here's what I imagine, I imagine a perfectly calm, under control. Jesus, who kind of just with a look of his eye can be like, really? Is that reasonable? Really? Sure. You sure wanna do that? And when and when you think about like, when people come into your chaos, what helps you more, more anxiety or calm, I have never felt anxious and then had somebody bring their anxiety to it and it made it better ever. And so one of the things that, that Mark Sayers and others are saying is that everywhere you go understand this, you're walking into anxiety that is now in the driver's seat of people's lives.
Speaker 1 00:43:23 And you and I have the ability to walk into this insanity and be a non-anxious presence. Does that mean we don't have anxiety? No. We just keep it in the back seat where it should be, but we don't let it drive our lives. And then people will look at your calm and that will be the thing. This is what they're, they're they're advocating in this next generation. You're calm, you're cool. Your reasonableness will be one of the most compelling attributes to make people look at you and say, how did you do that? You're facing heartache or physical ailments or illness. It's not that you're not scared, it's not that you don't have all this ruminations in the back of your brain. It's not that Sometimes you don't go to bed at night and your thoughts are cycling. What if, what if, what if, right?
Speaker 1 00:44:14 And you go to God because you're, you're used to saying, God, I just thank you for my life. I thank you for my family. I thank you for all the good things you've given me. I'm just, I come to you. I come to you every day and I'm like, God, help me take this thing and, and just put it in the backseat. Give me the courage and the power to not let it control me. I wanna honor you and glorify you. God, I'm walking into this chaos. I have all my own stuff. Would you allow me to walk in and bring the spirit of Christ and of peace into this moment? Because right now I don't feel it, but I want to be Christ in this moment. And one of the best, most beautiful things you can do is you enter into different rooms, is to bring a light heart and a spirit of peace.
Speaker 1 00:44:53 And I'm telling you this guys, it comes because you learn to pray a lot. And it comes because you learn to thank God a lot. But it also comes because we learn to not let unreasonableness into our brain. I I think this is one of the greatest recipes to release a group of believers filled with the spirit of peace and a reasonable mind into a chaotic, insane world. And into that, we get to bring the light of the gospel. Amen. Amen. Let's pray together. Father, thank you that you offer us first peace with you through faith in Christ. Lord, we, we just confessed that our sin has separated us from you, but you have given us full restoration forgiveness through faith in Jesus Christ. Thank you for that. I am just so thankful. But God, we also know that the daily experience with just reasonable mind and a calm heart, we want this, this is the fruit of the spirit.
Speaker 1 00:46:01 But God, it eludes us. Would you, would you by your Holy Spirit help each one of us? Lord, right now I know your Holy Spirit is active and you are working. So Lord, would you bring up, bring to our brains the things that we need to put in the back seat. Would you help us build now life rhythms that allow us to be men, women's students, and children filled with the Holy Spirit of peace? And Lord, as we enter into this very anxious world, I pray God that they would see Jesus so clearly through the fruit of the Holy Spirit of peace. We love you and we pray all of this in Jesus name. Amen will church. Amen. Amen.
