The NXR Podcast - December 18, 2023


SUNDAY SERMON - How To Beat Anxiety


Episode Stats


Length

54 minutes

Words per minute

147.31

Word count

8,041

Sentence count

359

Harmful content

Toxicity

2

sentences flagged

Hate speech

5

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In this episode, Pastor Ken Seibert talks about anxiety and how to deal with it in the midst of economic and political turmoil. God bless you as you listen to this message. - Welcome to Church ALIVE!

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 In less than a year, our podcast has gone from an average of 10,000 downloads a month
00:00:04.300 to 50,000 downloads. What made the difference? You leaving us a five-star review. The more
00:00:10.260 positive reviews, the more the algorithm picks us up, and more people are confronted by the law
00:00:16.360 and gospel of Jesus Christ. Help us press forward the crown rights of King Jesus by leaving us a
00:00:23.480 five-star review on your favorite podcast platform. Thanks. One final time, our primary
00:00:29.940 text for this morning, I'll use a plethora of biblical texts, but our primary text will be
00:00:35.140 Isaiah chapter 9, verse 6. The Bible says this, For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is
00:00:42.800 given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be Wonderful,
00:00:47.960 Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. This is the word of the Lord.
00:00:56.060 All right, please be seated. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. I pray that you bless
00:01:02.200 it to your people, all for your glory and for our good. In Jesus' name, amen. All right,
00:01:08.720 the Prince of Peace. That's where I want to focus our attention. That last title,
00:01:13.640 name for Jesus Christ. He is the Prince of Peace. In your notes, I've written the following. We
00:01:19.120 don't merely need the peace of God. We need the God of peace. The key to overcoming anxiety
00:01:26.720 is believing that the Lord is at hand. Fear doesn't demand or desire a principle,
00:01:34.560 but it wants a person. It doesn't just want a principle or a formula, but a person.
00:01:41.160 I've been thinking about anxiety by the grace of God, not really in relation to my own personal life,
00:01:48.600 but pastorally in relation to the lives of many of you.
00:01:53.240 As I've done some pastoral counseling over the course of this last year, and really the previous year as well, 2022,
00:02:00.400 it seems as though anxiety has been a major theme.
00:02:03.540 Now, the reality is that anxiety is pretty much always a major theme.
00:02:07.960 I think of Peter's epistle, that he speaks of sin which is common to man.
00:02:13.260 Anxiety would be one of those sins that is common to man.
00:02:16.860 It's not novel, it's not unusual, it's not like you're going to go through the course of life
00:02:22.140 and meet a million people over decades and only find one that gets anxious.
00:02:28.840 And everybody else is like, anxiety, what's that? I've never experienced it in my life.
00:02:32.860 Again, the point is, anxiety is exceedingly common.
00:02:36.380 But I think it's been especially common these last couple of years. There has been economic upheaval. There has been a lot of sickness, in part because we, well, we put sickness on layaway and our arrogance, thinking that we could play God as a society, as mere humanity.
00:02:56.200 And it turns out that eventually you have to pay the piper. You can't just hide and wash your hands furiously, you know, for years and years and think that all of a sudden that we're not going to ever get sick anymore.
00:03:10.920 And so whether it's sickness or whether it's unemployment or struggles just with inflation and the fact that life simply costs more, right now consumer debt is at an all-time high.
00:03:23.920 I am hopeful practically just at a practical standpoint for the next year not because I think
00:03:30.900 we're going to get the right guy in office and not because I think that if we got the right guy
00:03:36.600 in office that he would make changes that would actually materialize in financial benefits
00:03:41.400 immediately next year the reason why I'm hopeful next year is because of sin sin which is common
00:03:49.200 to man. Once you live a certain amount of time, you just, you just realize that total depravity
00:03:55.840 is a fact and that people are really bad. And so every four years, I think that there's economic
00:04:02.120 hope, not because of righteousness, but despite any righteousness that there may be, there is hope
00:04:08.140 because of exceeding wickedness. What I'm saying is that in the same way that gas prices conveniently
00:04:14.260 dropped in 2022, right before a midterm election. It wasn't because righteous decisions were
00:04:19.840 actually being made in office in order to fix the economy. It was because we were draining
00:04:24.680 our emergency fuel, putting us in a terrible position, but so that we could temporarily
00:04:31.960 have the optic of a better economy because there was an election. So every four years,
00:04:37.320 I would say you know this is my you know I'm not I'm not a finance guru so take it with a grain of
00:04:44.700 salt I'm a pastor right so I got to keep my day job and remember what I'm actually good at but
00:04:49.080 but I think there's some theological underpinnings here my advice would be every four years you'll
00:04:54.540 probably have some economic opportunity why because people are bad that's that's the theology
00:05:00.220 total depravity in our American system equals an economic opportunity about every four years
00:05:07.280 So be looking for that, you know, keep your powder dry.
00:05:10.180 And if you can, have some liquidity.
00:05:13.320 We do want to build wealth as Christians because we want to crush the enemies of God.
00:05:19.260 And we want to actually crush that, not just in a spiritual 17th dimension kind of way.
00:05:25.800 When I say crush the enemies of God, especially since I added the adjective actually,
00:05:30.800 I should probably give a little bit more clarity there for the sake of,
00:05:34.840 Well, I'm probably already on an FBI watch list, but, you know, but at least so that they don't come and, you know, break down the building while we're inside.
00:05:43.700 I don't mean in a physical capacity.
00:05:46.080 I'm not talking about physically crushing, but I am talking about in this earthly domain. 0.95
00:05:52.520 I want our children to be financially better off than their atheistic counterparts.
00:06:00.000 i i want to see christian institutions built established increased and thriving i want to
00:06:09.740 see leftist neo-marxist god-hating institutions crumble and to explain that a little bit since
00:06:18.820 there is no such thing as a leftist institution because they don't build because they are
00:06:24.580 parasitic by nature. When I say I want to see those institutions crushed, what I'm saying is
00:06:30.140 I want to see conservative institutions, once upon a time, now hijacked and taken over by leftist
00:06:36.480 institutions. I want to see those either recaptured or crushed. Atheism will be crushed,
00:06:42.500 I believe, in the West, by the grace of God. But it'll take time. It'll take time. We didn't get
00:06:49.900 here overnight. We're not going to get out of the position that we're in overnight as well.
00:06:54.020 So all that being said, the point is 2022, 2023, the last couple of years, I think were high anxiety inducing years, if I could put it like that, because we have been paying the piper.
00:07:09.720 We have been experiencing consequences for longstanding sin.
00:07:15.440 And those consequences, for the record, unfortunately, I'm not trying to give you more anxiety, but hopefully the sermon will help if I do.
00:07:22.800 So maybe, you know, at the outset, we can get a little bit more scared and then and then we can get a little bit more peace by the time that we're done.
00:07:30.020 But I don't think, you know, for anybody who thinks, you know, we've hit rock bottom.
00:07:34.240 I have bad news for you.
00:07:37.120 That's cute.
00:07:38.000 I, you know, I envy you.
00:07:39.980 That's a really sweet disposition.
00:07:42.700 I remember when I was seven, you know, so.
00:07:45.180 But no, we have not hit rock bottom.
00:07:47.500 Not even close.
00:07:48.700 That's a joke.
00:07:50.080 You don't get to mock the living God for 130 years and think that this is rock bottom, high gas prices.
00:08:02.360 God will not be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.
00:08:04.960 We haven't even begun to reap what we have sown in the West, not for the last three years since COVID.
00:08:13.580 But easily, depending how you're counting, you'd easily say that we've done this for the last 65 years.
00:08:19.560 All right. So that would be back to the sexual revolution, the 1960s. You could argue even sooner or longer, 130 years. You can argue all the way back to the Enlightenment and say that we have been cruising for a bruising for a very long time.
00:08:36.040 And so far, what we have received is light and temporary consequences.
00:08:42.080 I believe that the full consequences, if there's always the contingency, because God is merciful,
00:08:47.880 if we don't repent, the consequences that we will experience in the future will be far more severe than what we have experienced thus far.
00:08:57.300 So, all that being said, anxiety seems to be at an all-time high.
00:09:02.740 These last two years, just getting a sample, just a little bit of, you know, it's kind of like your, you know, your 700 day free trial of communism, you know, you know, and I plan not to renew the subscription, you know, but unfortunately, there are Democrats in the world and they think communism is great.
00:09:22.240 and um and you know republicans tend to just enshrine uh the democrats you know victory from
00:09:31.780 15 minutes ago and that's what it means to be conservative uh so we're in trouble
00:09:36.540 and there's going to be anxiety for christians and we need to know how to deal with it from the
00:09:43.140 word of god we're not supposed to just survive but we should be those who are at peace um there's
00:09:51.160 been so many times over the course of my life where the peace comes once the problem has been
00:09:55.920 solved. That's not good enough for the people of God. It's not sufficient for us to come to a place
00:10:04.620 of peace once God has answered our prayers in the way that we think he should. We want to be at peace
00:10:12.220 in the middle of tribulation, in the middle of challenge, difficulty, trials, not only once
00:10:20.380 they've subsided but during the challenges we want to be at peace not because we already have
00:10:28.920 received the answer that we're asking for but because we've received the ultimate answer who
00:10:34.860 is Christ himself he is the prince of peace it's his name it's who he is it's his character it's
00:10:43.860 his nature. We don't merely need God to give us peace. We need God to give us himself. He is our
00:10:52.420 peace. There is no peace apart from him. And there is no way to not have peace except for
00:11:01.080 distancing ourselves from him. If you are with Christ, if you have intimacy with Christ, if you
00:11:08.700 are aware and practicing awareness of his presence and immersing yourself in his word and meditating
00:11:16.180 on his law day and night, you will have peace. And there are so many scriptures that are not just
00:11:25.020 descriptions, but actual imperatives, moral imperatives, commands not to fear. We are commanded
00:11:34.040 in scripture again and again and again not to fear and yet when it comes to anxiety
00:11:40.980 this is one of those areas a realm that we exhibit so much compassion so much mercy
00:11:53.040 toward our anxiety we are merciful in the way that we deal with our lack of faith because so
00:12:04.020 much of our anxiety that is precisely where it comes from or where it stems from so much of our
00:12:12.600 worry and our fear and our anxiety is simply a lack of trusting in Christ his nature his person
00:12:21.480 who he is and his promises that which he has promised to do on our behalf so much of our
00:12:28.500 anxiety, that ultimately it originates from a lack of belief, a lack of trust. And on that basis,
00:12:38.520 insofar as anxiety represents a lack of trust in God, in that regard, we can rightly and biblically
00:12:46.300 label anxiety as a sin. There's commandment after commandment after commandment, many coming from
00:12:53.960 Christ himself. Do not be afraid. Do not be afraid. Do not be afraid. But we also have apostolic
00:13:05.700 commandments. One example that many of you are probably familiar with would be Philippians
00:13:10.900 chapter 4 verses 4 through 7. It starts off with a command stated in the positive sense,
00:13:17.720 rejoice in the Lord always. It's not just poetry or prose. It's not just
00:13:27.580 beautiful language or suggestion or description of what would really be nice if we could somehow
00:13:35.280 pull it off. No, this is a commandment. That is to say that to not be rejoicing in the Lord
00:13:43.360 at any time because the commandment is to rejoice in the Lord always that means to not be rejoicing
00:13:49.520 in the Lord at any time is sin rejoice in the Lord always again in case you missed it I will say
00:13:58.560 rejoice let your reasonableness be known to everyone and here's the key the Lord is at hand
00:14:07.640 I'm going to come back there here in just a moment. Verse 6 now, Philippians 4. Do not be anxious about anything. Well, wait a second. Hold up. Hold up. Joel, I'm not anxious about, you know, the bad things to be anxious about, the things that would require such little faith in order to get ruffled up, in order to be in a dither. That's what my mother would say. A dither, right? That's a belonging to a particular generation. I love that term, though.
00:14:34.960 I'm not in a dither about, you know, frivolous things, petty things, small things. I'm just
00:14:43.180 anxious about these things. Great. Fantastic. Well, let me read the command again. Do not be
00:14:49.320 anxious about anything. Anything. It is universal. It's all encompassing. There is nothing that you
00:14:59.160 are permitted to be anxious about according to this biblical command but rather so instead of
00:15:06.420 being anxious about anything or in many of our cases sadly to our shame we are anxious about
00:15:12.120 everything it's like piglet you know with a winnie the pooh it's just a small gust of wind and you're
00:15:19.080 you're shivering and shuddering and yeah like you're just anxious anxious anxious but do not
00:15:25.040 be anxious about anything. There's no good kind. There's no permissible version, but in everything
00:15:31.540 to the contrary, in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests
00:15:37.460 be made known to God and the peace of God. So it is God's peace, which he gives, but how does he
00:15:45.120 give it? He gives himself is what I'm going to argue this morning. And the peace of God, which
00:15:50.120 surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. We need
00:15:57.180 to guard our hearts and minds from the sin of anxiety, and they will be guarded properly and
00:16:04.560 thoroughly in Christ Jesus, who is the God of peace. He is the Prince of peace. So we need the
00:16:11.600 peace of God to guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus from anxiety and incessant sinful
00:16:18.220 worry. We need the peace of God as our hedge of protection, as our shield, our buttress against
00:16:25.240 the sin of anxiety. And how does God give his peace? He gives his son. How does he give his
00:16:33.480 peace? He gives his son. He is the prince of peace. It is not merely the peace of the prince,
00:16:41.760 but it is the prince who is all peace he embodies peace he is peace personified
00:16:52.000 that if you want peace and freedom from anxiety you must have Christ you must have Christ you
00:17:02.080 must possess Christ and be possessed by Christ for he is the prince of peace who guards our hearts
00:17:10.100 and minds from anxiety. Now, there is a bit of a formula, or at least a formulaic expression that
00:17:19.880 we could extract from this particular text in Philippians chapter 4. Do not be anxious about
00:17:26.220 anything, but instead, to the contrary, in everything by prayer and supplication with
00:17:32.660 thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God. So you could say that one of the methods
00:17:42.560 of combating anxiety is prayer and thanksgiving. Prayer and thanksgiving. And if we were to define
00:17:51.480 those in very simple terms, prayer would be future-oriented. Prayer, in this particular case,
00:17:58.540 It's supplications. That's requests. It's going to the Lord with certain requests, making those
00:18:05.640 requests known to him for things that you need or will need in the future. It's for God. It's a
00:18:12.660 request for God to take future action on your behalf. So the prayer portion of this formula
00:18:21.240 and combating anxiety would be to ask God, petition God with supplications, with requests
00:18:28.700 for him to meet in the future at some point, preferably, you know, in the next 15 seconds,
00:18:35.360 but, you know, relatively soon, but still technically in a future sense that God would
00:18:40.000 grant your request, that God would give to you what it is that you are asking. So in the prayer
00:18:45.440 portion. It's future oriented. God, I have this present need. Would you meet this need in the
00:18:52.120 future? But it's not only prayer and supplication, but we are to offer prayers, a petition, and make
00:19:00.140 supplications with thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is ordinarily past oriented. So when you think of
00:19:08.620 thanksgiving we are ordinarily thanking God for those things which he has already supplied the
00:19:16.360 things that he has already provided and the two of these do work hand in glove because part of the
00:19:24.960 source of building our faith and our eager humble not presumptuous not arrogant but a humble and
00:19:31.920 eager expectation for God to meet present needs in the future is by reflecting on the ways in
00:19:38.180 which he has met our needs in the past and if we're going to reflect and remember all the ways
00:19:44.500 which God has provided and answered our prayers in the past well we might as well thank him while
00:19:50.240 we're at it that we would think he came through in this instance and this one and this one and
00:19:55.860 this one and this one and that we would be remembering the past faithfulness of God in a
00:20:01.740 spirit of thanksgiving with the spirit of gratitude so thanksgiving and gratitude for the past
00:20:08.440 and then faith and trust in our petitions and requests our prayers and supplications for the
00:20:16.880 future thankfulness for past grace and then prayers for future present and future grace
00:20:24.760 and in doing this this is one of the ways that we combat against worry and sinful anxiety however
00:20:34.840 at a personal level this is one of the problems that i often run into when i'm employing this
00:20:41.900 particular formula as a bulwark against anxiety when i'm praying praying quickly begins to turn
00:20:50.860 to problem solving. And praying and problem solving are not synonymous. And then when it
00:21:00.900 comes to thanksgiving and seeking to remind myself of God's past faithfulness, there's usually a
00:21:09.580 temptation in my mind to think that he's been faithful thus far, but that he will be faithful
00:21:15.300 no longer. And that in fact, his faithfulness has been to set me up so that the disappointment I'm
00:21:22.800 now experiencing would hurt exponentially more. God has only been faithful. He's only provided for
00:21:29.980 me so far in life so that, you know, if I was just to die off when I was 14, it just wouldn't
00:21:37.260 have been tragic enough. But now as a husband and father at the ripe age of 37, this is what God's
00:21:43.640 been working towards for the last 37 years he's just been building this crescendo so that he can
00:21:49.320 crush me optimally now that's a terrible view of God but there are times in our thanksgiving where
00:21:58.180 it doesn't bolster our faith in God's future faithfulness but it actually just confirms a
00:22:04.580 demonic view and it is demonic of of God actually that he's been orchestrating all things this
00:22:11.780 whole time against us in order to cultivate our greatest degree of disappointment. That God
00:22:19.660 ultimately, his disposition towards us is a position of holding out on us. And any time that
00:22:25.580 he hasn't held out on us, it was only to position us in a more hopeful posture so that when he held
00:22:34.720 out on us eventually in the future it would crush us more severely
00:22:38.080 that's a demonic way of thinking that's not the character the nature of God but it's something
00:22:45.740 that we are tempted to believe in moments of anxiety and worry we doubt the future faithfulness
00:22:52.880 of God and we seek to explain away the past faithfulness of God as him just positioning
00:22:59.200 us to disappoint us in a greater capacity later on. So one of the ways that we hedge against
00:23:07.040 anxiety is prayer and thanksgiving. Prayer and thanksgiving. But our thanksgiving is only helpful
00:23:14.080 as we seek to remember past faithfulness, so long as we also remember the character and nature of
00:23:20.020 God, that he is immutable. Behold, I am the Lord, I changeth not, so that you, the sons of Jacob,
00:23:26.080 or not consume that he's the same yesterday today and forever that he changes not our thankfulness
00:23:34.580 towards God's past faithfulness is only helpful insofar as we believe that he is a steadfast
00:23:40.500 covenant keeping God and that his faithfulness in the past is an indicator of his continued
00:23:46.780 commitment and faithfulness towards us in the future that we could say as David says surely
00:23:53.000 goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life that david eventually arrived at a
00:23:59.620 certain point where he recognized that the covenant steadfast faithfulness of god this has said that
00:24:07.240 this blessedness of god his goodness his faithfulness had been so substantial that there
00:24:13.920 could be no conclusion there could be no way of interpreting god's past faithfulness because it
00:24:20.580 was so substantial there's no way of understanding it or interpreting it but that god must have an
00:24:27.100 eternal commitment to me as his child that's the point that david eventually reached he reached
00:24:34.100 a point of recognizing that god's faithfulness in the past was a guarantee of his faithfulness
00:24:41.060 that would continue into eternity and this is one of the things that we find again in apostolic
00:24:47.860 writings in the New Testament as it pertains to God's faithfulness to himself not only to us but
00:24:53.840 to himself do you remember the text that says that when we are faithless he remains faithful
00:25:02.840 for he cannot deny us no for he cannot deny himself and elsewhere the scripture continues
00:25:11.580 and talks about, in terms of himself, that the third member of the Trinity, namely the Holy
00:25:17.560 Spirit of God, dwells within us. 1 Corinthians chapter 6 says, do you not know that you were
00:25:23.460 bought with a price? Therefore, honor God with your body, that your body is a temple of the Holy
00:25:31.660 Spirit whom you have received from God. You are not your own. That if you are in Christ, if you're
00:25:39.220 new creation if you've been born again by grace alone to faith alone in Christ alone then the
00:25:44.560 Holy Spirit dwells within you and again furthermore in scripture the Holy Spirit dwells within us as
00:25:50.960 a deposit as a guarantee of that which is to come and one of the ministries of the Holy Spirit
00:25:58.080 is to assure us of our adoption that God indeed is our covenant steadfast faithful father that he
00:26:08.540 loves us and that he'll never leave us or forsake us that christ has not abandoned us or left us as
00:26:15.420 orphans but he promises all his disciples including you and i as future disciples that he will be with
00:26:22.100 us even to the end of the age and he is that the spirit of the resurrected christ although the god
00:26:28.620 man in a literal sense is seated at the right hand of the father almighty the spirit though the spirit
00:26:35.660 of the resurrected Christ is in us through the indwelling ministry of the Holy Spirit. So if you
00:26:43.000 are in Christ, if you're a Christian, you have the Holy Spirit dwelling within you and the Holy
00:26:47.080 Spirit, one of his chief ministries is to exude the spirit of the resurrected Christ, which means
00:26:53.520 to make that abundantly simple, it means that it is technically a biblically, theologically
00:26:59.640 accurate statement to say Jesus is in my heart. That's basically the gist of it. The five-year-old
00:27:06.620 said Jesus is in my heart. Well, if the five-year-old is regenerate, then, you know, make him a theologian
00:27:12.120 because they nailed it. He is, yeah, Jesus is in your heart. The spirit of the risen Christ is
00:27:18.060 present within you by virtue of the ministry of the indwelling Holy Spirit. So God has given you,
00:27:25.020 the point is himself the prince of peace his holy spirit of which one of the fruit of the spirit is
00:27:34.080 peace peace and god has given you himself and he has promised to remain faithful not only to you
00:27:41.800 but he cannot deny himself and he has given you himself in the indwelling ministry of the third
00:27:50.340 person of the trinity the holy spirit who gives peace and exudes the the spirit of the risen
00:27:57.260 christ who is the prince of peace therefore we can trust that god will never leave us or forsake us
00:28:04.220 his past kindness has not been positioning us for future greater disappointment his past kindness
00:28:11.900 should be interpreted as david interpreted it god has been kind and faithful thus far therefore
00:28:19.540 surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. Not only has God been faithful
00:28:28.260 to me thus far, but he has been so faithful that the only way that I could possibly interpret this
00:28:35.100 is his steadfast eternal commitment to me and himself forever. That if God was going to leave
00:28:44.420 me, there were optimal moments already where he could have done so. If God was setting me up for
00:28:52.140 this great moment of rejection and humiliation, he could have already done so. That God is with
00:28:59.340 me today because he will be with me tomorrow. That he'll never leave me or forsake me. That he is with
00:29:07.100 me always, even to the end of the age. And so we must remind ourselves in our prayers and
00:29:18.360 supplication, in our thanksgiving, that God's past faithfulness is indicative of his future
00:29:26.140 commitment to remain faithful. Now, one thing about prayer, I'll say this briefly. One practical
00:29:35.340 tip for prayer, especially in moments of anxiety, prayers of petition and request, making those
00:29:41.580 requests known to God. There is an exceeding advantage in making short prayers. I would
00:29:53.240 encourage you to have more prayers and shorter prayers rather than few prayers, but long prayers.
00:30:04.080 i think that that's just one example of how many christians have gotten prayer wrong i have found
00:30:13.020 that one of the most helpful things that i can do even in leading my family not just privately
00:30:18.140 and personally as an individual christian but as a head of a household with wife and children
00:30:24.240 one of the most helpful things that i can do is just to be praying constantly short prayers
00:30:31.860 but the same prayers again and again and again so my family has been sick the last couple weeks
00:30:38.120 and by god's grace we're healed we're better but for two weeks um easily there were out loud
00:30:45.840 so it's out loud it's not just you know in my head not just at the level of thought but but
00:30:50.960 actually voicing petitions to god and easily 10 to 20 a day and and that's not to say you know like
00:30:59.180 you know like I'm not trying to brag these are very short prayers these are easy petitions
00:31:06.460 to offer but that's that's biblical think of it like this so Sermon on the Mount Matthew 5 6 and
00:31:15.920 7 you know let your words don't be like the Pharisees the Sadducees these religious rulers
00:31:21.720 the scribes thinking that their prayers will be heard because of their many words but rather when
00:31:27.680 you pray, close yourself in your closet in a secret place. So you're not praying for the glory
00:31:35.020 of men, for men to praise you, but rather you're praying to your father who is in secret. So that's
00:31:40.740 one element of prayer, that you're not doing it for the praise of men, but rather you're actually
00:31:45.500 praying to God. And then secondly, he says, and let your words be few. Your father, he already
00:31:52.140 knows what you need before you even go to him. So that gives us the short element of prayer,
00:31:58.380 short prayers. But now what about the repetitive element of prayer? Well, that would also be
00:32:06.780 another teaching of Christ where we have the parable of the persistent widow. And in this
00:32:12.460 parable, she goes to an unrighteous judge and she goes to this man over and over and over and over
00:32:21.000 again to where eventually the judge he himself admits he says although I am an unjust and
00:32:27.940 unrighteous judge since this woman because she is so persistent and keeps bugging me I will grant
00:32:35.180 to her her request simply so she'll leave me alone and it's an argument from the lesser to the greater
00:32:42.280 that Jesus is making he's saying even if God even if your demonic view at times because of temptation
00:32:49.820 because of lack of belief. Your demonic view of God, even if that was accurate, and it's not,
00:32:55.500 but even if your view of God was accurate, that he's out to get me, he doesn't really love me,
00:33:00.760 right? He adopted all these other people into his family, but I'm just, you know, I'm just the
00:33:05.120 redheaded spiritual stepchild, you know, of God, and I'm not, I don't have full membership in his
00:33:11.980 covenant community, right? Everybody sits at the table, and then I sit kind of over here in the
00:33:16.180 corner. I'm a halfway house Christian that's kind of accepted, but not really. Even if that were
00:33:22.520 your view of God, which would be wrong and demonic, that is not who he is. But even if that were your
00:33:29.520 view of God, Jesus, the parable that he's telling is saying, even based off of that view, you still
00:33:35.580 stand a great likelihood of your requests and petitions being answered if you just rack up some
00:33:43.040 reps. Just put in prayer after prayer, after prayer, after prayer. Because even an unrighteous
00:33:51.020 judge who is not who God is, but even if he were, if God were an unrighteous judge, just to get you
00:33:58.120 to be quiet, he would answer your prayers. Just to get you to be quiet. So two elements of praying.
00:34:04.980 one short two many so rather than few long prayers many short prayers and here's one of the things
00:34:17.640 practically speaking that many short prayers help with when your prayers are many and short
00:34:23.260 it helps to ensure that you're actually praying and not merely problem solving
00:34:29.300 very quickly prayer can subtly transition to thinking prayer can become thought
00:34:38.880 in an instant and it's no longer prayer so that's another practical tip that i would offer when you
00:34:46.700 pray i encourage you to pray out loud and that's not because you technically in a technical sense
00:34:53.100 can't pray under your breath, that you can't pray with your mind, because you can. But I've found
00:34:59.500 that in terms of just my own finitude, my own propensity towards giving into temptation,
00:35:05.360 if I don't speak the prayer out loud, if I just think in conversation in the realm of thought
00:35:12.400 to God, it usually quickly transitions from talking to God in my thoughts to just thinking,
00:35:19.620 that I began just thinking.
00:35:22.120 And I'm no longer actually making my petitions to God,
00:35:25.420 requesting what I need,
00:35:26.940 but I'm actually taking it into my own hands
00:35:29.820 and trying to solve my own problems.
00:35:32.420 All underneath the banner of prayer,
00:35:34.420 I'm calling it prayer,
00:35:36.500 but you finish this three-hour glorious,
00:35:40.000 pious, quiet time,
00:35:42.580 you feel really good about it,
00:35:43.820 but if you were to boil it down,
00:35:45.520 two hours and 55 minutes of it
00:35:47.400 was actually you just strategically thinking,
00:35:49.620 how you're going to fix your financial problem.
00:35:53.420 You know, and you're calling it time with God.
00:35:56.380 But again, you're problem solving, not praying.
00:36:00.640 So all that being said, short, out loud, many.
00:36:05.380 Short, out loud, many when it comes to our petitions.
00:36:09.400 And then when it comes to Thanksgiving,
00:36:11.460 we're making requests for future grace
00:36:13.820 while remembering past grace.
00:36:16.740 and remembering the past graces of God,
00:36:20.140 his provision and protection,
00:36:22.100 the things that he has supplied
00:36:23.400 that we needed in the past
00:36:24.720 and trusting that this is his character,
00:36:27.740 that it's not a setup
00:36:28.780 for future disappointment and rejection,
00:36:31.140 but rather God is the same yesterday,
00:36:34.200 today and forever.
00:36:35.120 He changes not.
00:36:36.400 His past faithfulness
00:36:38.160 is indicative of future faithfulness.
00:36:41.660 All right.
00:36:43.320 Last thing that we need to get to.
00:36:44.900 Matthew 6 25 through 34 we've already gotten there a little bit but I've written in your notes this
00:36:52.260 a series of questions so we don't just need a principle and we don't just need a formula
00:36:57.340 what we need is Christ we don't just need the peace of Christ but we need Christ who is our
00:37:02.980 peace we don't just need the peace of God but we need the God of peace we need the prince
00:37:08.420 of peace in order to combat the anxiety of our hearts but here's the question what happens
00:37:14.880 when we get him so if we need God not just peace coming from God but we need the presence of God
00:37:22.420 God himself who is our peace how does that fix anxiety what will this person namely God actually
00:37:31.280 do when he's with us will he give us the money that we need will he thwart the plans of the
00:37:37.840 person who's trying to harm us? Will he spare our children from all accidents and disease?
00:37:44.140 We know that at least occasionally the answer to these questions is no. So then what difference
00:37:51.480 does God's presence actually make when he offers no promises to wield his power in the ways which
00:37:59.040 we would like? Those are the final questions that I'll attempt to answer. From Matthew chapter 6
00:38:06.900 verses 25 through 34, which says this. Therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life,
00:38:12.420 what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not
00:38:18.200 life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air. They
00:38:22.840 neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns. And yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not
00:38:29.380 more valuable than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life
00:38:36.460 Or as Charles Spurgeon would say, anxiety does not rid tomorrow of its problems, but merely today of its peace.
00:38:48.200 Are you not more valuable than the birds?
00:38:50.580 Which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to a span of life?
00:38:54.980 And why are you anxious about clothing?
00:38:57.520 Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow.
00:39:00.780 They neither toil nor spin.
00:39:03.340 Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
00:39:08.820 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven,
00:39:15.080 will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
00:39:19.500 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or what shall we wear? 0.77
00:39:25.520 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
00:39:30.620 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
00:39:38.180 Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself.
00:39:43.860 Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
00:39:47.440 So when it comes to anxiety, we don't need merely the peace of God.
00:39:51.520 We need the God of peace, the prince of peace.
00:39:54.040 We need Christ himself.
00:39:55.460 And if we get him, what will he give us?
00:39:58.520 Well, according to this text, what he'll give us is precisely what we need when we need it.
00:40:06.400 Precisely what we need exactly when we need it.
00:40:10.720 We will always be anxious.
00:40:12.800 Get this into your marrow, your bones.
00:40:16.340 We will always be anxious when we forecast the future because we are making our predictions based on the grace which we have been given today.
00:40:25.700 what we don't factor into our predictions the equation for the future is that we will receive
00:40:32.460 fresh grace tomorrow in other words the opposite of anxiety is not actually peace but hope anxiety
00:40:41.800 predicts that fresh grace will not come but hope predicts that it will the antidote to anxiety
00:40:51.300 is hope and peace is a byproduct of that hope that what we're ultimately doing when we're
00:41:00.480 combating anxiety is we are betting against our own future detriment we're saying i know how this
00:41:09.300 could work out bad but i believe that it'll be for my good and we're basing this not just off
00:41:17.600 of hopeful wishing what we want to be true. We're basing this off of the character and nature of
00:41:25.200 God and what he promised would be true. Romans chapter 8 says that God works all things for the
00:41:32.600 good of those who love him and are called according to his purposes. There is not one thing in your
00:41:40.280 life that is not ultimately being orchestrated, not merely salvaged. And there is a difference.
00:41:47.600 God is not merely looking. Life is not the ultimate authority. So many Christians think this. I'm just
00:41:54.360 going to call it what it is. Christians think that life is the authority and that God is the greatest 0.98
00:41:59.760 being under the authority of life that can work life in positive ways. But the ultimate authority 0.84
00:42:06.280 is not God, but rather life. That's what many evangelical Christians believe. So they think
00:42:11.980 life gives you lemons, but God can make lemonade. No, if you have lemons in life, it's because
00:42:21.320 God gave you lemons and he gave you lemons because lemons are going to be made eventually
00:42:27.600 somehow in some way into lemonade because God wanted lemonade because it's delicious.
00:42:34.660 That's the theology. Life doesn't give you anything. Life is not a deity.
00:42:41.980 Life is not a person. Life is not sovereign. Life is not authoritative. Life is not God.
00:42:50.300 God is God. And he doesn't merely salvage what life gives us. When Romans 8 says that he works
00:42:57.960 all things for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose,
00:43:01.700 the word works there actually means ordains. He orchestrates. He designs. He intends. He plans
00:43:11.320 all things for our good so he's not just taking bad things and and putting a a positive spin on
00:43:20.500 it no he he's sending us things both good and bad but all for good and holy purposes
00:43:28.560 so Matthew 6 what what it tells us to answer that proverbial question of okay we need the
00:43:35.400 God of peace. Fine. Sure. But once we get him, once he's here, what will he do? What will he do?
00:43:41.760 And the answer is what he'll do is what he's always done and what he'll always do, which is
00:43:47.540 give you precisely what you need exactly when you need it for your ultimate and eternal good.
00:43:55.180 Period. That's all he does. That's all he does. He is not cruel and he is not
00:44:05.080 stingy and he is not against you. He is for you. If he freely gave you his own son, the only commodity
00:44:16.700 that would ever cost him anything, how much more than will he not freely give you all things? If
00:44:23.400 God was going to withhold one thing from you, it would have been Jesus. And yet he freely gave
00:44:33.400 his son to bleed out and die as a lamb that was slaughtered so that you might inherit eternal
00:44:42.480 bliss and glory and reconciliation with God as your father. If there was anything to hold back, 0.84
00:44:51.020 Jesus would have been it. If there was any time to say no to spoiled children,
00:44:57.000 2,000 years ago in Bethlehem would have been the time, but he didn't.
00:45:05.280 He gave to you the prince of peace. Everything else that you need in life is easy for God.
00:45:15.100 It cost him nothing. It is not a stress or an inconvenience.
00:45:22.780 it's not an expense it's nothing the only thing that was ever ever costly was for jesus the son
00:45:34.720 of god to bleed out and die and he did not withhold christ so he cannot be withholding
00:45:44.140 anything else if there's anything that he appears seemingly is holding back it can only be
00:45:52.280 because that thing that you think would be for your good
00:45:56.880 would actually do you harm.
00:45:59.880 And this other thing, which you would prefer not to have,
00:46:03.820 is actually exactly what you need.
00:46:08.260 God gives you what you need.
00:46:10.600 He gives it when you need it.
00:46:12.760 And the last element that I'll bake into this equation here is this.
00:46:17.200 He also gives you what you need when you need it,
00:46:19.660 and he gives it the right manner, method.
00:46:23.560 He gives us what we need, how we need it.
00:46:27.960 As an example, to flesh out that idea.
00:46:32.160 If you want to be sanctified, work for commission.
00:46:37.120 Those of you weenies getting paid every two weeks,
00:46:41.220 you don't know Jesus.
00:46:42.940 You want to know Jesus, work for commission.
00:46:47.280 That's what you got to do.
00:46:48.580 you know, or own your own business. It's the same thing. You own your own business. It's like,
00:46:52.700 that guy's going to work and that guy is going to work. And he's going to be working in his
00:46:56.640 business. He's also going to be working on his knees, right? That guy, this whole sermon has
00:47:00.820 just been redundant for him. He didn't need this sermon. He's like, Oh, lots of you, 20 prayers in
00:47:05.480 a day. That's cute. Pastor, you know, my family, like we're praying 200 times a day. God, please
00:47:11.380 money, please, please, please let someone buy something. Let them buy something. Please God.
00:47:17.720 that's, you know, that's a guy who owns his own business. That's a commission guy. You know,
00:47:21.340 that's somebody in sales. You get it. Everybody else, you guys, you know, you'll get sanctified
00:47:26.420 in heaven. But in the meantime, you, you are inferior. Um, you just need to know that, right? 0.97
00:47:31.360 So if you're looking for someone to mentor you, go find that guy who works for commissions, a brother,
00:47:36.500 I'm going to follow you as you follow Christ. Um, but I, but I'm not going to follow you in
00:47:40.980 your career choice, but spiritually speaking, I'll follow you in that regard. Um, here's the
00:47:47.600 point in terms of God giving you what you need when you need it but also the how factor
00:47:51.600 maybe God is going to give you a hundred and fifty thousand dollars this is not a prosperity
00:47:59.960 gospel thing hear me out hear me out maybe he's going to give you a hundred fifty thousand dollars
00:48:05.400 in a two-year period and maybe that's exactly what your family needs and maybe he's going to
00:48:11.780 give it to you after one year and 355 days. Maybe that's how he's going to give you what you need.
00:48:23.640 Instead of giving you $6,000 every month, he's going to give it all in one lump sum
00:48:32.240 as you've been biting your nails for one year, 365 days. Why? Why would he do that?
00:48:41.400 Because he's going to give you both provision and perseverance and character and form you into the likeness of his son, Jesus Christ.
00:48:53.300 Because he's actually committed to giving you two things, temporal needs being met, but also eternal sanctification being provided as well.
00:49:05.420 He's doing it differently than the way you would do it.
00:49:08.160 Do you know why, though?
00:49:08.900 Here's the key.
00:49:09.360 This is this is the craziest part about it.
00:49:11.400 God is answering your prayers differently than you would answer them.
00:49:14.780 You know why?
00:49:15.580 Because he's better than you.
00:49:17.540 And I don't just mean better like infinitely more wise or more powerful than you.
00:49:22.840 No, I mean he's kinder than you.
00:49:26.860 He's more loving than you.
00:49:29.880 He cares about you more than you care about you.
00:49:35.380 You think you love your kids?
00:49:38.140 No, not compared to him.
00:49:41.400 He's good. He's good. He's kind. He's generous. And he's doing a million things simultaneously,
00:49:55.880 ordaining and working and orchestrating all for your, not just two year long financial good,
00:50:02.100 but eternity good. God is thinking about your happiness 10,000 eons from now and doing things
00:50:11.240 today with that end in mind. That's how kind he is. That's how good he is. So what's the hedge
00:50:21.560 against anxiety? It's not merely the peace of God. It is the God of peace. It is the prince of peace.
00:50:27.960 It's Jesus Christ. It's his presence. But what does Jesus give us that thwarts and staves off
00:50:35.700 anxiety well he gives us not actually peace not not initially he gives us hope and peace becomes
00:50:44.380 the byproduct of that hope and what is the hope the hope is that by having him we therefore will
00:50:52.280 also have everything else that we need when we need it and how we need it because that's exactly
00:50:59.640 what he promised us. If we have him, we have the guarantee of the fulfillment of his promises.
00:51:07.100 And his promises are to give us what we need, when we need it, how we need it. So that our
00:51:13.580 material and temporal physical needs are met for us, our wife, our children, and our spiritual
00:51:20.840 needs for the utmost joy and peace and gladness. 10,000 eons from now, those needs are being met
00:51:29.540 as well because he's better than you he's kinder than you he's good
00:51:36.880 let's pray father thank you for the peace that you provide by giving us yourself
00:51:47.540 that you overcome our anxiety by providing for us not merely a principle but a person
00:51:57.460 more particularly you have provided for us 2 000 years ago the second eternal person of the godhead
00:52:06.860 jesus christ wrapped in flesh the word become flesh to dwell with us emmanuel god with us
00:52:17.940 we have been given not merely peace but we have been given the prince of peace
00:52:24.180 and he is present with us and he promises to provide what we need when we need it and how
00:52:33.700 we need it so that our temporal and earthly needs are met but also our greatest need is met
00:52:40.720 our spiritual and eternal need to be formed more into the image of your son
00:52:47.100 and so all we need at this point is to believe it and as a centurion soldier once said lord i believe
00:52:57.860 help my unbelief
00:53:00.060 part of me believes and trust your word and your promises but there is a part of my heart
00:53:06.980 that is unbelieving that is steeped in unbelief and it continually is producing worry and anxiety
00:53:15.000 and fear help me God so Lord the first thing that we do in eliciting your help is we name
00:53:25.200 our sin for what it is that every arena of our heart that does not trust you is in fact sin
00:53:34.340 and Lord we promise by the power that your spirit provides and by your grace and your strength
00:53:42.600 to not deal mercifully with our sin.
00:53:47.320 But instead, Lord, we pray that you would give us the strength
00:53:51.060 to deal with our sin of distrust and unbelief ruthlessly.
00:53:57.240 That we would mortify our sin, wage war against our sin.
00:54:02.320 That we would take no prisoners when it comes to our sin,
00:54:06.420 but rather we would round it up, subdue it, and put it to death by grace.
00:54:11.360 that unbelief would be ruthlessly hunted down
00:54:15.760 in the realm of each of our hearts 1.00
00:54:17.880 and put to death by the sword of the Spirit
00:54:21.120 and your promises in your word
00:54:23.600 that hope would rise
00:54:25.680 and as a byproduct of hope,
00:54:28.040 we would be people at peace.
00:54:31.200 We pray this for Christ's sake.
00:54:33.740 In his name, amen.