Click here to view the entire service
Philippians 4:6-7, Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Someone has called our nation the United States of Anxiety. Forty million people have some form of anxiety disorder. Americans spend 42 to 47 billion dollars on anxiety treatments and medications. You may be worried about personal things, like the results of the CAT scan or that biopsy. There’s a ton of stuff to worry about in this uncertain world. One thing’s for sure, worrying never changes anything except the worrier. Worry is like a rocking chair – lots of movement but no forward progress. For God’s people, worry only dishonors and even denies our heavenly Father as if He doesn’t care or isn’t in control. The root of worry is unbelief in God. Instead of resting in God’s good and sovereign providence, worry says, “Move aside, God. It doesn’t seem you are trustworthy to handle this problem, so I’ve got to take over.”
On a larger scale, I can see why anxiety levels are rising as the godless masses degenerate into violently protesting mobs. J. I. Packer in Knowing God said, “The world becomes a strange, mad, painful place, and life in it a disappointing and unpleasant business, for those who do not know about God.” Then we have the daily fear-mongering on the news. Depending on your news service, you might think America is about to collapse. There’s climate anxiety known as “eco-anxiety,” which overwhelms folks with distressed feelings of worry, fear, and stress related to the environmental crisis. That young Swedish girl Greta Thunberg demands we take immediate action to save the planet, and if we don’t, we’re all going to die. Even President Biden warned us of the existential threat of climate change and insisted it must address now before it’s too late. A more important warning is this: how about you must be saved from the curse of your sin now, before it’s too late. Sin and future judgment is a far greater existential threat for those who don’t know Christ as Savior. God does talk about global warming in 2 Peter 3:7 when the entire world goes up in flames!
Of course, God knows we all struggle with worry in some form and has given us plenty of instruction on what to do with our anxiety. Philippians 4:6-7 is one of many passages that teach us what to do with our anxiety. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, who trained and practiced as a physician before God called him to preach, said this about verses 6-7, “This is undoubtedly one of the noblest, greatest, and most comforting statements…to be found anywhere in any existing literature.” We’ll wrap our thoughts around three certainties from this passage today and next week.
GOD PROHIBITS ANXIETY FOR HIS CHILDREN.
Paul begins with an absolute negation, “In nothing be anxious.” In not even one thing be anxious. McGee says, “Nothing is the most exclusive word in the English language. It leaves out everything.” This is a great place to start. What are God’s people permitted to worry about? Not one thing! That doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of things we could worry about. We aren’t Christian Scientists who believe all pain and sickness is in our minds. Like that the one fellow who fell down the stairs and broke his leg and kept crying out, “It doesn’t hurt, it’s just in my mind.” But his dog, who knew better, went running away barking, “Error, error!”
So God says “in nothing, in not one thing” be worried or anxious. The word “anxious” means divided, torn apart, ripped to shreds, all tangled up. The English word “worry” comes from the word “wyrgan,” to strangle or choke. It came to refer to mental distress, agitation, extreme uneasiness of mind or brooding fear about some contingency, some uncertainty. It’s used in Mark 4:19 as something that chokes the word out of our lives.
Mark 4:19, but the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
Notice Jesus says, “the worries of the world.” The world has plenty of things to worry about. They don’t have a loving heavenly Father caring for them. But God prohibits His children from worrying about anything. Mark says it chokes out God’s Word, which means it is extremely dangerous to your spiritual life.
Jesus warns us not to let all the chaos and godlessness of the last days fill us with worry.
Luke 21:34, Be on guard, so that your hearts will not be weighted down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of life, and that day will not come on you suddenly like a trap;
Worry reminds me of that kudzu weed which was imported into our southern states to stop erosion. This invasive green vine grows vigorously and will rapidly climb over other plants and trees, smothering and killing them by blocking most of the sunlight. It’s called the vine that ate the South. Like kudzu, worry wraps it’s tentacles around your heart and attacks your faith in God. Worrying is taking into your own hands what you have no control over. R. C. Sproul says, “Anxiety robs us of our joy. It’s hard to be joyful when your heart is full of fear and anxiety.” Jesus rebuked Martha in Luke 10:41, “But the Lord answered and said to her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things.’” It is the same word – anxious, distracted, torn apart.
A worrier has his or her focus on self. What will happen to me? What will people think of me? Will I do a good enough job? Will it hurt? Will I lose it? What will happen to my family? It is true that we believers aren’t exempt from the tragedies of life. Christians do lose their jobs, get cancer, have miscarriages. Their children too are killed in accidents. They are betrayed by friends and tornadoes hit God’s people’s houses just like the rest. Remember Job? He lost it all. We know there was a pernicious being behind the scenes, but Job lost all his children and all his herds and servants. He is the ultimate model of how to handle the trials. First he worshipped God and declared in faith, “The Lord gives, the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:20). How did Job respond when Satan went after his body and his wife said, “Why don’t you curse God and die”? He said to his wife, “Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?” Job 2:10 tells us, “In all this Job did not sin with his lips!”
Sometimes we bring worry on ourselves by our sins. Along with feeling guilty before God, we worry that we might get caught or other people will find out. David lost his confidence and joy in God because of his sin. Psalms 38:18, “For I confess my iniquity; I am full of anxiety because of my sin.”
JESUS’ WORDS ON WORRYING.
In Matthew 6:25-34, Jesus sandwiched a whole message on worry into the greatest sermon ever preached, the Sermon on the Mount. He prohibits worry five or six times, but we’ll look briefly at three of them and focus on what worry exposes about our hearts, which is always a failure of trust.
Stop worrying about your physical life.
Matthew 6:25, “For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
Jesus doesn’t mean you shouldn’t plan ahead and provide for your own. He’s not encouraging you to be a sluggard. You need to work and make provisions and be responsible, not sit around watching the “View” and getting checks from the government. You need food and clothing, so get a job. Paul said if anyone doesn’t provide for his own he is worse than an infidel (1 Timothy 5:8). Sometimes the answer to worry is to go out and do something. Martin Luther struggled with feelings of anxiety and depression, what he called anfechtung. He fought them with prayer, singing, and working. When he felt depressed, he went out and plowed the field.
Stop worrying about stuff you can’t change.
Matthew 6:27, And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life?
Worry is completely useless and irrational. It won’t lengthen your life; but it may shorten it. If you’re worrying about something you can change, then go ahead and change it. If you’re worried about a homework assignment or preparing a sermon, quit worrying and get busy working on it. God never said He’d give you the right answers if you don’t study. How about the stuff you can’t change? You have to give those over to God. “Cast you cares on Him, for He cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7). Psalm 31:15 says, “Your times are in His hands.”
Stop worrying about tomorrow.
Matthew 6:34, So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
I love this one. God designed us to live one day at a time. Some people try living three days at a time – yesterday, today, and tomorrow. We bring the bad memories, attitudes, regrets of yesterday, the “if onlys” and concerns and fears of tomorrow, and the “what ifs” and stuff both into today. We’re afraid of what might happen in the future, and yet we have no control over the future. Worry will do nothing to change tomorrow and will probably distract you from doing what God wants you to do today. Tomorrow isn’t yours – it belongs to God. You only get to live one day at a time. God promises all the grace you will need for today. So focus on fulfilling your responsibilities today, and when tomorrow comes, you’ll be ready to deal with tomorrow’s troubles.
PETER’S WORDS ON WORRYING.
1 Peter 5:5b-7, GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE. 6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, 7 casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.
Notice how Peter hooks grace and humility up to handling anxiety in verse 5b. God doesn’t pour grace into rebellious hearts. Humble people are empty of self and needy of grace. Think about those aerial refueling maneuvers. When a pilot while flying through the sky realizes his fuel gauge is approaching empty, he submits to the tanker above, lines up with the fuel line, and the needed fuel pours into his plane. That’s exactly what the humble person does. He brings himself under God’s authority and God pours in the needed grace to handle whatever he is facing. God promises, My grace is sufficient for you, My power is made perfect in your weakness (2 Cor. 12:9).
Everything in your life is part of God’s plan – vs. 6.
Now we’re ready for verses 6-7. There are two simple but powerful conditions here to experience God’s grace pouring into and through your life. Verse six says accept everything in your life right now as part of God’s plan for you, because it is.
What is “the mighty hand of God?” This is your Father’s sovereign, powerful, protecting, providing, personal, and present hand in your life. God is mighty and over everything. God’s mighty hand is his constant and personal providence over your life. Humbling yourself under His mighty hand means you recognize there’s nothing in your life right now that God’s mighty hand hasn’t brought about. These include all the people and circumstances in your life right now. Isn’t that so assuring and comforting? Believe this! God is not only in control of the whole universe, but He is over your personal, individual life and all those people and things that are feeding your worry right now.
He will lift you up! He will. You may feel you are really sinking right now. And it may get worse. But here’s God’s absolute and authoritative promise – He will lift you up if you belong to Him. And He will lift you up at the proper time. He may have some things to teach you, but He will lift you up.
Trust God to take care of you – vs. 7.
Trust God to take care of you because He will, regardless of what happens. As you submit to God’s mighty hand, it’s time to do some casting, some hurling. The same word is used of the people throwing their garments on the donkey on which Jesus rode into Jerusalem. Bundle all your cares into one big care package and cast them into your heavenly Father’s arms. “Father, I’ve been carrying all this junk around and its done nothing but wear me down. Here it is, I’m putting it in your hands.” Send them UPS, Unlimited Prayer Service.
Psalms 55:22, Cast your burden upon the LORD and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken.
What does He promise you in verse 7? He promises that He cares for you. You are a constant, every-moment care and concern to your Father. He is sovereign, powerful, wise, loving, and cares more about you than you can imagine. Just as a father and mother don’t want to see their child all frazzled and fearful and weighed down with fears and worries and anxieties, God cares for you! What does all your worrying say about our God? Worry says God doesn’t know, God doesn’t care, God isn’t able, and God isn’t in control of the circumstances in our lives. Those are Satan’s lies. But what is the truth? God does know. God does care. God is able to do way more than you can ask or think. God is in control of every detail!
GOD HAS A PRESCRIPTION FOR ANXIETY FOR HIS CHILDREN.
Philippians 4:6, Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
Let’s go back to Philippians 4:6. We get it – worry is sin. But how do I turn off the worry spigot? I’m feeling worse than when I came in here this morning. What does God say? Stop being anxious for even one thing, BUT! That’s a stark contrast. In everything, pray! Worry about absolutely nothing, pray about absolutely everything. The cure for worry is prayer. It’s not just prayer. There’s nothing superstitious or mystical here. But you do pray. Hendriksen says, “The proper antidote for anxiety is the outpouring of the heart to God.” And you pray to God through His Son Jesus Christ. God doesn’t hear just any prayer. Remember 9/11? Everyone was praying. I mean the prayer word was on every news channel. Everyone was praying. But the only way our prayers reach the ears of God is through faith in His Son. Our sins have separated us from God, like an impenetrable wall. The sin issue must be dealt with, and it can only be dealt with through Jesus Christ who came to remove that sin barrier between God and every one of His people who trust in Him.
Worry about nothing; pray about everything. Here’s where a high view of God counts so much. Paul uses several words for prayer. First, before bringing your specific issue, that thing that is causing you so much worry, so much distress, come before God in prayerful worship. Pour out your heart in adoration. Stop and realize what an awesome and glorious God you have. Nehemiah began his prayer of concern in Nehemiah1:5 like this, “I beseech you, O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who preserves the covenant and lovingkindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments.” That’s adoration. That’s worship first. Daniel does the same thing in Daniel 9:4, “Alas, O Lord, the great and awesome God,” and then he confesses the sins of his people. So, in everything get your heart full of God, the infinite, eternal, unchanging, loving Father who is in heaven. Get your eyes off you, off your circumstances, off stuff you can’t do anything about, off all that rocking and getting nowhere, and get your eyes on God Almighty, the great and awesome God!
When Jehoshaphat faced the overwhelming enemy of the Ammonites and Moabites, he cried out in 2 Chronicles 20:12, “We don’t know what to do, but our eyes are on you!” They went out to face the enemy singing and returned victoriously full of joy.
Now, supplication means bringing those specific things that are weighing you down, keeping you awake, causing you anxiety and sense of doom and even fear…things that cause your imagination to get out of control. Supplication is telling God all about it in the details – making requests about what you’d like to see God do and asking for His wisdom to handle it in ways that please Him. Calvin says supplication means to “disburden in the bosom of God everything that harasses us…. Whenever we are assailed by any temptation, let us betake ourselves forthwith (forthwith means right away) to prayer as to a sacred asylum.” Let your requests be made known to God – the little and the big. A lady asked her pastor if God was really concerned about the little things in her life. He replied, “My dear lady, do you really think there are any big things to God in your life?”
But there’s another element in God’s prescription for anxiety in verse 6 – “with thanksgiving.” Remember that one leper in ten who came back to thank Jesus for his healing? Thanksgiving cleanses our souls of any hard thoughts about God. You ponder, “I have this thorny issue I want to bring to God, but what can I thank Him for?” Thank Him for saving you, for sending His Son for you, for giving you His Spirit. And then you can thank Him for your next breath and the next beat of your heart. You can thank him for the millions of rod and cone cells in your eye enabling you to see and for your lungs faithfully processing all that oxygen. Psalm 100:4 says, “Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him, bless His name.” If our hearts were full of thanksgiving as the Psalms are full of thanksgiving, most of our worries and anxieties would evaporate.
You can’t have too high a view of God. Who’s on the throne in Revelation 4? Not you. Not chance. Not circumstances. Not the people who worry you. Not the environmentalists or the Marxists. Our mighty heavenly Father is on the throne and knows you, cares for you, has all the grace you’ll ever need for every day of your life, and controls everything that comes into your life. Sometimes God will use a song to lift your heart. J. C. Penny lived from 1875 to 1971. He started his stores in Wyoming in 1907. By 1929 he had 1400 stores. His first wife died in 1910, his second in 1923. In the crash of 1929 he lost $40 million, was penniless by 1932, and ended in a sanatorium. God had become distant, silent, unresponsive. He was fighting the biggest battle in his life – to regain his trust in the goodness of God. One morning while fighting depression he heard some employees singing a hymn in the kitchen, “Be not dismayed, what’er betide, God will take care of you.” Hope in God was reborn in Mr. Penney’s heart. That may have been when he was actually saved. At 56 he was ready to start from scratch again. (Tempered Steele by Steve Farrar, pp. 82-83).
Hymn writer Lina Sandell watched her father die by drowning. A couple years later in 1865, she wrote these words. This is just the first verse of the hymn.
Day by day and with each passing moment,
Strength I find to meet my trials here;
Trusting in my Father’s wise bestowment,
I’ve no cause for worry or for fear.
He whose heart is kind beyond all measure
Gives unto each day what He deems best–
Lovingly, its part of pain and pleasure,
Mingling toil with peace and rest.
What is prayer and supplication with thanksgiving based on? Your trust in God. Many times God tells us to trust Him moment by moment. Let’s listen to the Psalmists as they express this vital role of trust in the believer’s life. Here’s a seven-pack of trust verses.
Psalms 9:10, And those who know Your name will put their trust in You, For You, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek You.
Psalms 25:2, O my God, in You I trust, Do not let me be ashamed; Do not let my enemies exult over me.
Psalms 31:14, But as for me, I trust in You, O LORD, I say, “You are my God.”
Psalms 37:5, Commit your way to the LORD, Trust also in Him, and He will do it.
Psalms 56:3-4, When I am afraid, I will put my trust in You. In God, whose word I praise, In God I have put my trust; I shall not be afraid. What can mere man do to me?
Psalms 62:8, Trust in Him at all times, O people; Pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us. Selah.
Psalms 143:8, Let me hear Your lovingkindness in the morning; For I trust in You; Teach me the way in which I should walk; For to You I lift up my soul.
SO WHAT?
Folks, don’t worry about one single thing but pray about every single thing. That’s what God says. This is the path out of the quagmire of worry and anxiety. Where does it lead? It leads into the beautiful peace of God that passes our comprehension, which we’ll look at next week. But if you aren’t a Christian, you have everything to worry about. First settle your relationship with God. Trust in Jesus Christ to remove that wall of sin that right now is separating you from God Almighty. Then come before your Savior knowing His hand is on you and He cares for you.