The NXR Podcast - December 18, 2023


SUNDAY SERMON - How To Beat Anxiety

Topics
overcoming anxiety economic opportunities and depravity anxiety and wealth building peace in tribulation anxiety and biblical commands peace and pray praying short many anxiety and God's presence peace and hope
Hosted by
Joel Webbon Harrison Smith Antonio Griffith Dale Partridge Wewsley Todd Calvin Robinson
Mentioned
Jesus Christ Charles Spurgeon Gentiles Solomon Behold Sermon Peter David
CONFERENCE - Children As Artillery - Pastor C.R. Wiley CONFERENCE - The Reality Christian Men Face

Episode Stats


Length

54 minutes

Words per minute

147.31

Word count

8,041

Sentence count

392

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 .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00 In less than a year, our podcast has gone from an average of 10,000 downloads a month
00:00:04 to 50,000 downloads. What made the difference? You leaving us a five-star review. The more
00:00:10 positive reviews, the more the algorithm picks us up, and more people are confronted by the law
00:00:16 and gospel of Jesus Christ. Help us press forward the crown rights of King Jesus by leaving us a
00:00:23 five-star review on your favorite podcast platform. Thanks. One final time, our primary
00:00:29 text for this morning, I'll use a plethora of biblical texts, but our primary text will be
00:00:35 Isaiah chapter 9, verse 6. The Bible says this, For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is
00:00:42 given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be Wonderful,
00:00:47 Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. This is the word of the Lord.
00:00:56 All right, please be seated. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. I pray that you bless
00:01:02 it to your people, all for your glory and for our good. In Jesus' name, amen. All right,
00:01:08 the Prince of Peace. That's where I want to focus our attention. That last title,
00:01:13 name for Jesus Christ. He is the Prince of Peace. In your notes, I've written the following. We
00:01:19 don't merely need the peace of God. We need the God of peace. The key to overcoming anxiety
00:01:26 is believing that the Lord is at hand. Fear doesn't demand or desire a principle,
00:01:34 but it wants a person. It doesn't just want a principle or a formula, but a person.
00:01:41 I've been thinking about anxiety by the grace of God, not really in relation to my own personal life,
00:01:48 but pastorally in relation to the lives of many of you.
00:01:53 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 it seems as though anxiety has been a major theme.
00:02:03 Now, the reality is that anxiety is pretty much always a major theme.
00:02:07 I think of Peter's epistle, that he speaks of sin which is common to man.
00:02:13 Anxiety would be one of those sins that is common to man.
00:02:16 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 and meet a million people over decades and only find one that gets anxious.
00:02:28 And everybody else is like, anxiety, what's that? I've never experienced it in my life.
00:02:32 Again, the point is, anxiety is exceedingly common.
00:02:36 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 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 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 I am hopeful practically just at a practical standpoint for the next year not because I think
00:03:30 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 in office that he would make changes that would actually materialize in financial benefits
00:03:41 immediately next year the reason why I'm hopeful next year is because of sin sin which is common
00:03:49 to man. Once you live a certain amount of time, you just, you just realize that total depravity
00:03:55 is a fact and that people are really bad. And so every four years, I think that there's economic
00:04:02 hope, not because of righteousness, but despite any righteousness that there may be, there is hope
00:04:08 because of exceeding wickedness. What I'm saying is that in the same way that gas prices conveniently
00:04:14 dropped in 2022, right before a midterm election. It wasn't because righteous decisions were
00:04:19 actually being made in office in order to fix the economy. It was because we were draining
00:04:24 our emergency fuel, putting us in a terrible position, but so that we could temporarily
00:04:31 have the optic of a better economy because there was an election. So every four years,
00:04:37 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 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 but I think there's some theological underpinnings here my advice would be every four years you'll
00:04:54 probably have some economic opportunity why because people are bad that's that's the theology
00:05:00 total depravity in our American system equals an economic opportunity about every four years
00:05:07 So be looking for that, you know, keep your powder dry.
00:05:10 And if you can, have some liquidity.
00:05:13 We do want to build wealth as Christians because we want to crush the enemies of God.
00:05:19 And we want to actually crush that, not just in a spiritual 17th dimension kind of way.
00:05:25 When I say crush the enemies of God, especially since I added the adjective actually,
00:05:30 I should probably give a little bit more clarity there for the sake of,
00:05:34 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 I don't mean in a physical capacity.
00:05:46 I'm not talking about physically crushing, but I am talking about in this earthly domain. 0.95
00:05:52 I want our children to be financially better off than their atheistic counterparts.
00:06:00 i i want to see christian institutions built established increased and thriving i want to
00:06:09 see leftist neo-marxist god-hating institutions crumble and to explain that a little bit since
00:06:18 there is no such thing as a leftist institution because they don't build because they are
00:06:24 parasitic by nature. When I say I want to see those institutions crushed, what I'm saying is
00:06:30 I want to see conservative institutions, once upon a time, now hijacked and taken over by leftist
00:06:36 institutions. I want to see those either recaptured or crushed. Atheism will be crushed,
00:06:42 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 here overnight. We're not going to get out of the position that we're in overnight as well.
00:06:54 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 We have been experiencing consequences for longstanding sin.
00:07:15 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 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 But I don't think, you know, for anybody who thinks, you know, we've hit rock bottom.
00:07:34 I have bad news for you.
00:07:37 That's cute.
00:07:38 I, you know, I envy you.
00:07:39 That's a really sweet disposition.
00:07:42 I remember when I was seven, you know, so.
00:07:45 But no, we have not hit rock bottom.
00:07:47 Not even close.
00:07:48 That's a joke.
00:07:50 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 God will not be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.
00:08:04 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 But easily, depending how you're counting, you'd easily say that we've done this for the last 65 years.
00:08:19 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 And so far, what we have received is light and temporary consequences.
00:08:42 I believe that the full consequences, if there's always the contingency, because God is merciful,
00:08:47 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 So, all that being said, anxiety seems to be at an all-time high.
00:09:02 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 and um and you know republicans tend to just enshrine uh the democrats you know victory from
00:09:31 15 minutes ago and that's what it means to be conservative uh so we're in trouble
00:09:36 and there's going to be anxiety for christians and we need to know how to deal with it from the
00:09:43 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 been so many times over the course of my life where the peace comes once the problem has been
00:09:55 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 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 in the middle of tribulation, in the middle of challenge, difficulty, trials, not only once
00:10:20 they've subsided but during the challenges we want to be at peace not because we already have
00:10:28 received the answer that we're asking for but because we've received the ultimate answer who
00:10:34 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 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 peace. There is no peace apart from him. And there is no way to not have peace except for
00:11:01 distancing ourselves from him. If you are with Christ, if you have intimacy with Christ, if you
00:11:08 are aware and practicing awareness of his presence and immersing yourself in his word and meditating
00:11:16 on his law day and night, you will have peace. And there are so many scriptures that are not just
00:11:25 descriptions, but actual imperatives, moral imperatives, commands not to fear. We are commanded
00:11:34 in scripture again and again and again not to fear and yet when it comes to anxiety
00:11:40 this is one of those areas a realm that we exhibit so much compassion so much mercy
00:11:53 toward our anxiety we are merciful in the way that we deal with our lack of faith because so
00:12:04 much of our anxiety that is precisely where it comes from or where it stems from so much of our
00:12:12 worry and our fear and our anxiety is simply a lack of trusting in Christ his nature his person
00:12:21 who he is and his promises that which he has promised to do on our behalf so much of our
00:12:28 anxiety, that ultimately it originates from a lack of belief, a lack of trust. And on that basis,
00:12:38 insofar as anxiety represents a lack of trust in God, in that regard, we can rightly and biblically
00:12:46 label anxiety as a sin. There's commandment after commandment after commandment, many coming from
00:12:53 Christ himself. Do not be afraid. Do not be afraid. Do not be afraid. But we also have apostolic
00:13:05 commandments. One example that many of you are probably familiar with would be Philippians
00:13:10 chapter 4 verses 4 through 7. It starts off with a command stated in the positive sense,
00:13:17 rejoice in the Lord always. It's not just poetry or prose. It's not just
00:13:27 beautiful language or suggestion or description of what would really be nice if we could somehow
00:13:35 pull it off. No, this is a commandment. That is to say that to not be rejoicing in the Lord
00:13:43 at any time because the commandment is to rejoice in the Lord always that means to not be rejoicing
00:13:49 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 rejoice let your reasonableness be known to everyone and here's the key the Lord is at hand
00:14:07 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 I'm not in a dither about, you know, frivolous things, petty things, small things. I'm just
00:14:43 anxious about these things. Great. Fantastic. Well, let me read the command again. Do not be
00:14:49 anxious about anything. Anything. It is universal. It's all encompassing. There is nothing that you
00:14:59 are permitted to be anxious about according to this biblical command but rather so instead of
00:15:06 being anxious about anything or in many of our cases sadly to our shame we are anxious about
00:15:12 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 you're shivering and shuddering and yeah like you're just anxious anxious anxious but do not
00:15:25 be anxious about anything. There's no good kind. There's no permissible version, but in everything
00:15:31 to the contrary, in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests
00:15:37 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 give it? He gives himself is what I'm going to argue this morning. And the peace of God, which
00:15:50 surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. We need
00:15:57 to guard our hearts and minds from the sin of anxiety, and they will be guarded properly and
00:16:04 thoroughly in Christ Jesus, who is the God of peace. He is the Prince of peace. So we need the
00:16:11 peace of God to guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus from anxiety and incessant sinful
00:16:18 worry. We need the peace of God as our hedge of protection, as our shield, our buttress against
00:16:25 the sin of anxiety. And how does God give his peace? He gives his son. How does he give his
00:16:33 peace? He gives his son. He is the prince of peace. It is not merely the peace of the prince,
00:16:41 but it is the prince who is all peace he embodies peace he is peace personified
00:16:52 that if you want peace and freedom from anxiety you must have Christ you must have Christ you
00:17:02 must possess Christ and be possessed by Christ for he is the prince of peace who guards our hearts
00:17:10 and minds from anxiety. Now, there is a bit of a formula, or at least a formulaic expression that
00:17:19 we could extract from this particular text in Philippians chapter 4. Do not be anxious about
00:17:26 anything, but instead, to the contrary, in everything by prayer and supplication with
00:17:32 thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God. So you could say that one of the methods
00:17:42 of combating anxiety is prayer and thanksgiving. Prayer and thanksgiving. And if we were to define
00:17:51 those in very simple terms, prayer would be future-oriented. Prayer, in this particular case,
00:17:58 It's supplications. That's requests. It's going to the Lord with certain requests, making those
00:18:05 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 request for God to take future action on your behalf. So the prayer portion of this formula
00:18:21 and combating anxiety would be to ask God, petition God with supplications, with requests
00:18:28 for him to meet in the future at some point, preferably, you know, in the next 15 seconds,
00:18:35 but, you know, relatively soon, but still technically in a future sense that God would
00:18:40 grant your request, that God would give to you what it is that you are asking. So in the prayer
00:18:45 portion. It's future oriented. God, I have this present need. Would you meet this need in the
00:18:52 future? But it's not only prayer and supplication, but we are to offer prayers, a petition, and make
00:19:00 supplications with thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is ordinarily past oriented. So when you think of
00:19:08 thanksgiving we are ordinarily thanking God for those things which he has already supplied the
00:19:16 things that he has already provided and the two of these do work hand in glove because part of the
00:19:24 source of building our faith and our eager humble not presumptuous not arrogant but a humble and
00:19:31 eager expectation for God to meet present needs in the future is by reflecting on the ways in
00:19:38 which he has met our needs in the past and if we're going to reflect and remember all the ways
00:19:44 which God has provided and answered our prayers in the past well we might as well thank him while
00:19:50 we're at it that we would think he came through in this instance and this one and this one and
00:19:55 this one and this one and that we would be remembering the past faithfulness of God in a
00:20:01 spirit of thanksgiving with the spirit of gratitude so thanksgiving and gratitude for the past
00:20:08 and then faith and trust in our petitions and requests our prayers and supplications for the
00:20:16 future thankfulness for past grace and then prayers for future present and future grace
00:20:24 and in doing this this is one of the ways that we combat against worry and sinful anxiety however
00:20:34 at a personal level this is one of the problems that i often run into when i'm employing this
00:20:41 particular formula as a bulwark against anxiety when i'm praying praying quickly begins to turn
00:20:50 to problem solving. And praying and problem solving are not synonymous. And then when it
00:21:00 comes to thanksgiving and seeking to remind myself of God's past faithfulness, there's usually a
00:21:09 temptation in my mind to think that he's been faithful thus far, but that he will be faithful
00:21:15 no longer. And that in fact, his faithfulness has been to set me up so that the disappointment I'm
00:21:22 now experiencing would hurt exponentially more. God has only been faithful. He's only provided for
00:21:29 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 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 been working towards for the last 37 years he's just been building this crescendo so that he can
00:21:49 crush me optimally now that's a terrible view of God but there are times in our thanksgiving where
00:21:58 it doesn't bolster our faith in God's future faithfulness but it actually just confirms a
00:22:04 demonic view and it is demonic of of God actually that he's been orchestrating all things this
00:22:11 whole time against us in order to cultivate our greatest degree of disappointment. That God
00:22:19 ultimately, his disposition towards us is a position of holding out on us. And any time that
00:22:25 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 out on us eventually in the future it would crush us more severely
00:22:38 that's a demonic way of thinking that's not the character the nature of God but it's something
00:22:45 that we are tempted to believe in moments of anxiety and worry we doubt the future faithfulness
00:22:52 of God and we seek to explain away the past faithfulness of God as him just positioning
00:22:59 us to disappoint us in a greater capacity later on. So one of the ways that we hedge against
00:23:07 anxiety is prayer and thanksgiving. Prayer and thanksgiving. But our thanksgiving is only helpful
00:23:14 as we seek to remember past faithfulness, so long as we also remember the character and nature of
00:23:20 God, that he is immutable. Behold, I am the Lord, I changeth not, so that you, the sons of Jacob,
00:23:26 or not consume that he's the same yesterday today and forever that he changes not our thankfulness
00:23:34 towards God's past faithfulness is only helpful insofar as we believe that he is a steadfast
00:23:40 covenant keeping God and that his faithfulness in the past is an indicator of his continued
00:23:46 commitment and faithfulness towards us in the future that we could say as David says surely
00:23:53 goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life that david eventually arrived at a
00:23:59 certain point where he recognized that the covenant steadfast faithfulness of god this has said that
00:24:07 this blessedness of god his goodness his faithfulness had been so substantial that there
00:24:13 could be no conclusion there could be no way of interpreting god's past faithfulness because it
00:24:20 was so substantial there's no way of understanding it or interpreting it but that god must have an
00:24:27 eternal commitment to me as his child that's the point that david eventually reached he reached
00:24:34 a point of recognizing that god's faithfulness in the past was a guarantee of his faithfulness
00:24:41 that would continue into eternity and this is one of the things that we find again in apostolic
00:24:47 writings in the New Testament as it pertains to God's faithfulness to himself not only to us but
00:24:53 to himself do you remember the text that says that when we are faithless he remains faithful
00:25:02 for he cannot deny us no for he cannot deny himself and elsewhere the scripture continues
00:25:11 and talks about, in terms of himself, that the third member of the Trinity, namely the Holy
00:25:17 Spirit of God, dwells within us. 1 Corinthians chapter 6 says, do you not know that you were
00:25:23 bought with a price? Therefore, honor God with your body, that your body is a temple of the Holy
00:25:31 Spirit whom you have received from God. You are not your own. That if you are in Christ, if you're
00:25:39 new creation if you've been born again by grace alone to faith alone in Christ alone then the
00:25:44 Holy Spirit dwells within you and again furthermore in scripture the Holy Spirit dwells within us as
00:25:50 a deposit as a guarantee of that which is to come and one of the ministries of the Holy Spirit
00:25:58 is to assure us of our adoption that God indeed is our covenant steadfast faithful father that he
00:26:08 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 orphans but he promises all his disciples including you and i as future disciples that he will be with
00:26:22 us even to the end of the age and he is that the spirit of the resurrected christ although the god
00:26:28 man in a literal sense is seated at the right hand of the father almighty the spirit though the spirit
00:26:35 of the resurrected Christ is in us through the indwelling ministry of the Holy Spirit. So if you
00:26:43 are in Christ, if you're a Christian, you have the Holy Spirit dwelling within you and the Holy
00:26:47 Spirit, one of his chief ministries is to exude the spirit of the resurrected Christ, which means
00:26:53 to make that abundantly simple, it means that it is technically a biblically, theologically
00:26:59 accurate statement to say Jesus is in my heart. That's basically the gist of it. The five-year-old
00:27:06 said Jesus is in my heart. Well, if the five-year-old is regenerate, then, you know, make him a theologian
00:27:12 because they nailed it. He is, yeah, Jesus is in your heart. The spirit of the risen Christ is
00:27:18 present within you by virtue of the ministry of the indwelling Holy Spirit. So God has given you,
00:27:25 the point is himself the prince of peace his holy spirit of which one of the fruit of the spirit is
00:27:34 peace peace and god has given you himself and he has promised to remain faithful not only to you
00:27:41 but he cannot deny himself and he has given you himself in the indwelling ministry of the third
00:27:50 person of the trinity the holy spirit who gives peace and exudes the the spirit of the risen
00:27:57 christ who is the prince of peace therefore we can trust that god will never leave us or forsake us
00:28:04 his past kindness has not been positioning us for future greater disappointment his past kindness
00:28:11 should be interpreted as david interpreted it god has been kind and faithful thus far therefore
00:28:19 surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. Not only has God been faithful
00:28:28 to me thus far, but he has been so faithful that the only way that I could possibly interpret this
00:28:35 is his steadfast eternal commitment to me and himself forever. That if God was going to leave
00:28:44 me, there were optimal moments already where he could have done so. If God was setting me up for
00:28:52 this great moment of rejection and humiliation, he could have already done so. That God is with
00:28:59 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 me always, even to the end of the age. And so we must remind ourselves in our prayers and
00:29:18 supplication, in our thanksgiving, that God's past faithfulness is indicative of his future
00:29:26 commitment to remain faithful. Now, one thing about prayer, I'll say this briefly. One practical
00:29:35 tip for prayer, especially in moments of anxiety, prayers of petition and request, making those
00:29:41 requests known to God. There is an exceeding advantage in making short prayers. I would
00:29:53 encourage you to have more prayers and shorter prayers rather than few prayers, but long prayers.
00:30:04 i think that that's just one example of how many christians have gotten prayer wrong i have found
00:30:13 that one of the most helpful things that i can do even in leading my family not just privately
00:30:18 and personally as an individual christian but as a head of a household with wife and children
00:30:24 one of the most helpful things that i can do is just to be praying constantly short prayers
00:30:31 but the same prayers again and again and again so my family has been sick the last couple weeks
00:30:38 and by god's grace we're healed we're better but for two weeks um easily there were out loud
00:30:45 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 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 you know like I'm not trying to brag these are very short prayers these are easy petitions
00:31:06 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 7 you know let your words don't be like the Pharisees the Sadducees these religious rulers
00:31:21 the scribes thinking that their prayers will be heard because of their many words but rather when
00:31:27 you pray, close yourself in your closet in a secret place. So you're not praying for the glory
00:31:35 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 one element of prayer, that you're not doing it for the praise of men, but rather you're actually
00:31:45 praying to God. And then secondly, he says, and let your words be few. Your father, he already
00:31:52 knows what you need before you even go to him. So that gives us the short element of prayer,
00:31:58 short prayers. But now what about the repetitive element of prayer? Well, that would also be
00:32:06 another teaching of Christ where we have the parable of the persistent widow. And in this
00:32:12 parable, she goes to an unrighteous judge and she goes to this man over and over and over and over
00:32:21 again to where eventually the judge he himself admits he says although I am an unjust and
00:32:27 unrighteous judge since this woman because she is so persistent and keeps bugging me I will grant
00:32:35 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 that Jesus is making he's saying even if God even if your demonic view at times because of temptation
00:32:49 because of lack of belief. Your demonic view of God, even if that was accurate, and it's not,
00:32:55 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 right? He adopted all these other people into his family, but I'm just, you know, I'm just the
00:33:05 redheaded spiritual stepchild, you know, of God, and I'm not, I don't have full membership in his
00:33:11 covenant community, right? Everybody sits at the table, and then I sit kind of over here in the
00:33:16 corner. I'm a halfway house Christian that's kind of accepted, but not really. Even if that were
00:33:22 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 view of God, Jesus, the parable that he's telling is saying, even based off of that view, you still
00:33:35 stand a great likelihood of your requests and petitions being answered if you just rack up some
00:33:43 reps. Just put in prayer after prayer, after prayer, after prayer. Because even an unrighteous
00:33:51 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 to be quiet, he would answer your prayers. Just to get you to be quiet. So two elements of praying.
00:34:04 one short two many so rather than few long prayers many short prayers and here's one of the things
00:34:17 practically speaking that many short prayers help with when your prayers are many and short
00:34:23 it helps to ensure that you're actually praying and not merely problem solving
00:34:29 very quickly prayer can subtly transition to thinking prayer can become thought
00:34:38 in an instant and it's no longer prayer so that's another practical tip that i would offer when you
00:34:46 pray i encourage you to pray out loud and that's not because you technically in a technical sense
00:34:53 can't pray under your breath, that you can't pray with your mind, because you can. But I've found
00:34:59 that in terms of just my own finitude, my own propensity towards giving into temptation,
00:35:05 if I don't speak the prayer out loud, if I just think in conversation in the realm of thought
00:35:12 to God, it usually quickly transitions from talking to God in my thoughts to just thinking,
00:35:19 that I began just thinking.
00:35:22 And I'm no longer actually making my petitions to God,
00:35:25 requesting what I need,
00:35:26 but I'm actually taking it into my own hands
00:35:29 and trying to solve my own problems.
00:35:32 All underneath the banner of prayer,
00:35:34 I'm calling it prayer,
00:35:36 but you finish this three-hour glorious,
00:35:40 pious, quiet time,
00:35:42 you feel really good about it,
00:35:43 but if you were to boil it down,
00:35:45 two hours and 55 minutes of it
00:35:47 was actually you just strategically thinking,
00:35:49 how you're going to fix your financial problem.
00:35:53 You know, and you're calling it time with God.
00:35:56 But again, you're problem solving, not praying.
00:36:00 So all that being said, short, out loud, many.
00:36:05 Short, out loud, many when it comes to our petitions.
00:36:09 And then when it comes to Thanksgiving,
00:36:11 we're making requests for future grace
00:36:13 while remembering past grace.
00:36:16 and remembering the past graces of God,
00:36:20 his provision and protection,
00:36:22 the things that he has supplied
00:36:23 that we needed in the past
00:36:24 and trusting that this is his character,
00:36:27 that it's not a setup
00:36:28 for future disappointment and rejection,
00:36:31 but rather God is the same yesterday,
00:36:34 today and forever.
00:36:35 He changes not.
00:36:36 His past faithfulness
00:36:38 is indicative of future faithfulness.
00:36:41 All right.
00:36:43 Last thing that we need to get to.
00:36:44 Matthew 6 25 through 34 we've already gotten there a little bit but I've written in your notes this
00:36:52 a series of questions so we don't just need a principle and we don't just need a formula
00:36:57 what we need is Christ we don't just need the peace of Christ but we need Christ who is our
00:37:02 peace we don't just need the peace of God but we need the God of peace we need the prince
00:37:08 of peace in order to combat the anxiety of our hearts but here's the question what happens
00:37:14 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 God himself who is our peace how does that fix anxiety what will this person namely God actually
00:37:31 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 person who's trying to harm us? Will he spare our children from all accidents and disease?
00:37:44 We know that at least occasionally the answer to these questions is no. So then what difference
00:37:51 does God's presence actually make when he offers no promises to wield his power in the ways which
00:37:59 we would like? Those are the final questions that I'll attempt to answer. From Matthew chapter 6
00:38:06 verses 25 through 34, which says this. Therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life,
00:38:12 what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not
00:38:18 life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air. They
00:38:22 neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns. And yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not
00:38:29 more valuable than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life
00:38:36 Or as Charles Spurgeon would say, anxiety does not rid tomorrow of its problems, but merely today of its peace.
00:38:48 Are you not more valuable than the birds?
00:38:50 Which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to a span of life?
00:38:54 And why are you anxious about clothing?
00:38:57 Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow.
00:39:00 They neither toil nor spin.
00:39:03 Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
00:39:08 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven,
00:39:15 will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
00:39:19 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 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
00:39:30 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
00:39:38 Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself.
00:39:43 Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
00:39:47 So when it comes to anxiety, we don't need merely the peace of God.
00:39:51 We need the God of peace, the prince of peace.
00:39:54 We need Christ himself.
00:39:55 And if we get him, what will he give us?
00:39:58 Well, according to this text, what he'll give us is precisely what we need when we need it.
00:40:06 Precisely what we need exactly when we need it.
00:40:10 We will always be anxious.
00:40:12 Get this into your marrow, your bones.
00:40:16 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 what we don't factor into our predictions the equation for the future is that we will receive
00:40:32 fresh grace tomorrow in other words the opposite of anxiety is not actually peace but hope anxiety
00:40:41 predicts that fresh grace will not come but hope predicts that it will the antidote to anxiety
00:40:51 is hope and peace is a byproduct of that hope that what we're ultimately doing when we're
00:41:00 combating anxiety is we are betting against our own future detriment we're saying i know how this
00:41:09 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 of hopeful wishing what we want to be true. We're basing this off of the character and nature of
00:41:25 God and what he promised would be true. Romans chapter 8 says that God works all things for the
00:41:32 good of those who love him and are called according to his purposes. There is not one thing in your
00:41:40 life that is not ultimately being orchestrated, not merely salvaged. And there is a difference.
00:41:47 God is not merely looking. Life is not the ultimate authority. So many Christians think this. I'm just
00:41:54 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 being under the authority of life that can work life in positive ways. But the ultimate authority 0.84
00:42:06 is not God, but rather life. That's what many evangelical Christians believe. So they think
00:42:11 life gives you lemons, but God can make lemonade. No, if you have lemons in life, it's because
00:42:21 God gave you lemons and he gave you lemons because lemons are going to be made eventually
00:42:27 somehow in some way into lemonade because God wanted lemonade because it's delicious.
00:42:34 That's the theology. Life doesn't give you anything. Life is not a deity.
00:42:41 Life is not a person. Life is not sovereign. Life is not authoritative. Life is not God.
00:42:50 God is God. And he doesn't merely salvage what life gives us. When Romans 8 says that he works
00:42:57 all things for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose,
00:43:01 the word works there actually means ordains. He orchestrates. He designs. He intends. He plans
00:43:11 all things for our good so he's not just taking bad things and and putting a a positive spin on
00:43:20 it no he he's sending us things both good and bad but all for good and holy purposes
00:43:28 so Matthew 6 what what it tells us to answer that proverbial question of okay we need the
00:43:35 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 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 give you precisely what you need exactly when you need it for your ultimate and eternal good.
00:43:55 Period. That's all he does. That's all he does. He is not cruel and he is not
00:44:05 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 that would ever cost him anything, how much more than will he not freely give you all things? If
00:44:23 God was going to withhold one thing from you, it would have been Jesus. And yet he freely gave
00:44:33 his son to bleed out and die as a lamb that was slaughtered so that you might inherit eternal
00:44:42 bliss and glory and reconciliation with God as your father. If there was anything to hold back, 0.84
00:44:51 Jesus would have been it. If there was any time to say no to spoiled children,
00:44:57 2,000 years ago in Bethlehem would have been the time, but he didn't.
00:45:05 He gave to you the prince of peace. Everything else that you need in life is easy for God.
00:45:15 It cost him nothing. It is not a stress or an inconvenience.
00:45:22 it's not an expense it's nothing the only thing that was ever ever costly was for jesus the son
00:45:34 of god to bleed out and die and he did not withhold christ so he cannot be withholding
00:45:44 anything else if there's anything that he appears seemingly is holding back it can only be
00:45:52 because that thing that you think would be for your good
00:45:56 would actually do you harm.
00:45:59 And this other thing, which you would prefer not to have,
00:46:03 is actually exactly what you need.
00:46:08 God gives you what you need.
00:46:10 He gives it when you need it.
00:46:12 And the last element that I'll bake into this equation here is this.
00:46:17 He also gives you what you need when you need it,
00:46:19 and he gives it the right manner, method.
00:46:23 He gives us what we need, how we need it.
00:46:27 As an example, to flesh out that idea.
00:46:32 If you want to be sanctified, work for commission.
00:46:37 Those of you weenies getting paid every two weeks,
00:46:41 you don't know Jesus.
00:46:42 You want to know Jesus, work for commission.
00:46:47 That's what you got to do.
00:46:48 you know, or own your own business. It's the same thing. You own your own business. It's like,
00:46:52 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 business. He's also going to be working on his knees, right? That guy, this whole sermon has
00:47:00 just been redundant for him. He didn't need this sermon. He's like, Oh, lots of you, 20 prayers in
00:47:05 a day. That's cute. Pastor, you know, my family, like we're praying 200 times a day. God, please
00:47:11 money, please, please, please let someone buy something. Let them buy something. Please God.
00:47:17 that's, you know, that's a guy who owns his own business. That's a commission guy. You know,
00:47:21 that's somebody in sales. You get it. Everybody else, you guys, you know, you'll get sanctified
00:47:26 in heaven. But in the meantime, you, you are inferior. Um, you just need to know that, right? 0.97
00:47:31 So if you're looking for someone to mentor you, go find that guy who works for commissions, a brother,
00:47:36 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 your career choice, but spiritually speaking, I'll follow you in that regard. Um, here's the
00:47:47 point in terms of God giving you what you need when you need it but also the how factor
00:47:51 maybe God is going to give you a hundred and fifty thousand dollars this is not a prosperity
00:47:59 gospel thing hear me out hear me out maybe he's going to give you a hundred fifty thousand dollars
00:48:05 in a two-year period and maybe that's exactly what your family needs and maybe he's going to
00:48:11 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 Instead of giving you $6,000 every month, he's going to give it all in one lump sum
00:48:32 as you've been biting your nails for one year, 365 days. Why? Why would he do that?
00:48:41 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 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 He's doing it differently than the way you would do it.
00:49:08 Do you know why, though?
00:49:08 Here's the key.
00:49:09 This is this is the craziest part about it.
00:49:11 God is answering your prayers differently than you would answer them.
00:49:14 You know why?
00:49:15 Because he's better than you.
00:49:17 And I don't just mean better like infinitely more wise or more powerful than you.
00:49:22 No, I mean he's kinder than you.
00:49:26 He's more loving than you.
00:49:29 He cares about you more than you care about you.
00:49:35 You think you love your kids?
00:49:38 No, not compared to him.
00:49:41 He's good. He's good. He's kind. He's generous. And he's doing a million things simultaneously,
00:49:55 ordaining and working and orchestrating all for your, not just two year long financial good,
00:50:02 but eternity good. God is thinking about your happiness 10,000 eons from now and doing things
00:50:11 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 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 It's Jesus Christ. It's his presence. But what does Jesus give us that thwarts and staves off
00:50:35 anxiety well he gives us not actually peace not not initially he gives us hope and peace becomes
00:50:44 the byproduct of that hope and what is the hope the hope is that by having him we therefore will
00:50:52 also have everything else that we need when we need it and how we need it because that's exactly
00:50:59 what he promised us. If we have him, we have the guarantee of the fulfillment of his promises.
00:51:07 And his promises are to give us what we need, when we need it, how we need it. So that our
00:51:13 material and temporal physical needs are met for us, our wife, our children, and our spiritual
00:51:20 needs for the utmost joy and peace and gladness. 10,000 eons from now, those needs are being met
00:51:29 as well because he's better than you he's kinder than you he's good
00:51:36 let's pray father thank you for the peace that you provide by giving us yourself
00:51:47 that you overcome our anxiety by providing for us not merely a principle but a person
00:51:57 more particularly you have provided for us 2 000 years ago the second eternal person of the godhead
00:52:06 jesus christ wrapped in flesh the word become flesh to dwell with us emmanuel god with us
00:52:17 we have been given not merely peace but we have been given the prince of peace
00:52:24 and he is present with us and he promises to provide what we need when we need it and how
00:52:33 we need it so that our temporal and earthly needs are met but also our greatest need is met
00:52:40 our spiritual and eternal need to be formed more into the image of your son
00:52:47 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 help my unbelief
00:53:00 part of me believes and trust your word and your promises but there is a part of my heart
00:53:06 that is unbelieving that is steeped in unbelief and it continually is producing worry and anxiety
00:53:15 and fear help me God so Lord the first thing that we do in eliciting your help is we name
00:53:25 our sin for what it is that every arena of our heart that does not trust you is in fact sin
00:53:34 and Lord we promise by the power that your spirit provides and by your grace and your strength
00:53:42 to not deal mercifully with our sin.
00:53:47 But instead, Lord, we pray that you would give us the strength
00:53:51 to deal with our sin of distrust and unbelief ruthlessly.
00:53:57 That we would mortify our sin, wage war against our sin.
00:54:02 That we would take no prisoners when it comes to our sin,
00:54:06 but rather we would round it up, subdue it, and put it to death by grace.
00:54:11 that unbelief would be ruthlessly hunted down
00:54:15 in the realm of each of our hearts 1.00
00:54:17 and put to death by the sword of the Spirit
00:54:21 and your promises in your word
00:54:23 that hope would rise
00:54:25 and as a byproduct of hope,
00:54:28 we would be people at peace.
00:54:31 We pray this for Christ's sake.
00:54:33 In his name, amen.