Ridiculous Joy (Part 12): In Thinking

Well, hey there.

It is so good to worship God together here at Orchard Hill.

That is why we are gathered.

And my name is Josiah.

I serve as our Strip District campus leader.

So if we haven't yet met, it's great to worship God this morning.

I used to serve on staff here at Orchard Hill, Wexford, with young adults and adult ministries, and in January I made the transition down to our strip district community.

Shout out to my people in the city as well as to all my friends up in Butler County.

It's great to be together.

I want to share with you some exciting news.

I've got a picture.

This is my baby daughter.

Yes.

Thank you so much.

I'm having fun.

I'm not sleeping a time, but I am having a blast.

Her name is Shenley Lewenberger.

She was born last Friday.

And we gave her that name.

Some of you remember our story.

We had a son two and a half years ago, and there's a tree in his memory that some friends friends of ours planted in Shenley Park.

And so we gave her that name as a way to remember him and just honor his life and the hope we have in Christ and just connect him with his sister.

And so we are just so grateful.

I want to say thank you.

You all have been there for us, the Orchard Hill community.

We're really a family, and so I'm so grateful for the way God has used you in our lives.

All right, well, it is really a privilege to be able to share God's word, and I'm looking forward to digging into today's passage.

Why don't we pray together?

Father, thank you for this opportunity we have to be in community, to be in a place where we can set our attention toward you.

And God, anytime we gather, we do so with a sense of expectation.

God, you know our hearts.

You know where we are in our journey of faith.

God, you know the challenges that we're walking through, maybe even things that we've never expressed to another person.

But God, we invite you into this place.

We invite your spirit to speak to us, God, maybe in a way that would even be surprising to us, a way that would be encouraging or challenging.

Would you connect our own hearts and minds to your word this morning?

We pray this together in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Well, I want to share with you this week I was reading in my news and an article caught my attention for reasons that you will see are quite obvious.

It was titled, This is How to Get Back to Sleep at 3 a.m., according to a neuropsychologist.

And the article wrote, When you are sleep deprived, there's nothing more frustrating than waking up before your alarm clock goes off.

But you are not alone.

Up to 30% of Americans suffer from chronic insomnia, typically caused by overactive stress hormones.

And the article goes on to say, when you're awake at 3 a.m., the best thing you can do to fall back asleep is to focus on your breath.

This neuropsychologist recommends a simple approach.

Breathe in through your nose, breathe out through your mouth.

And when your mind wanders from your breath, gently bring your focus back.

And I'll tell you, I had about five times a night over the past eight days where I had an opportunity to give this strategy a try.

And I'll tell you, it actually worked.

And so if you get nothing else out of today's message, I hope that you'll implement this approach to falling back asleep in the middle of the night.

But let me be honest, this is not my first rodeo with lying there awake at 3 a.m.

And most of the time, it's because of overactive stress hormones rather than those cries of a newborn ready for a midnight snack.

I'm sure many of you know the feeling I'm talking about.

Maybe it's a project at work that is weighing heavy on your mind.

Maybe it's a situation with a friend or a family member where you've been hoping, where you've been waiting for resolution, but it's slower to come than you desire.

You know, those kinds of feelings they can not only keep us up at night, but they can be a distraction to us as we go about our daily lives.

They can rob us of joy.

But I think there's real hope for each and every one of us in today's passage who will look to Jesus because the Apostle Paul communicates in this weekend's passage the truth to us that it doesn't have to be this way.

You and I have other options available to us than to simply spin our wheels, wearing ourselves out and worry.

Because what Paul tells these friends in the church and Philippi is that even in the midst of their concerns, there is a hope to be found in Jesus Christ, the one who is able to bring life from death.

Because he's involved in our lives and God cares about us deeply, and he desires that rather than carrying our burdens ourselves, we would turn to him and find peace.

You know, probably a good next step in this conversation is to talk about where this challenge of anxiety that's common to so many of us, where it comes from.

You know, in verse 6 of chapter 4, Paul speaks those words.

Do not be anxious about anything.

And the word translated from the Greek into anxious is marimneo.

And this word describes the way that we can experience a feeling that is appropriate, like concern over a threat to something we value, but take it too far to the extent that our feelings are inappropriate or even become harmful.

And you know, I heard a great teaching on anxiety from one of my seminary professors, a man named Dr.

Rodney Cooper, who's a trained psychologist, in addition to being a minister and a seminary professor.

And what he shared is that fear is a response to immediate danger.

But anxiety is different from fear in the sense that it's more of a general low-grade emotional reaction to the possibility of danger rather than an actual threat.

And so anxiety is future-oriented and it functions as sort of an internal alarm system of sorts going off inside of us, alerting us to a threat.

And like I said, it can be helpful at low levels.

You know, it's a good thing to feel a little bit nervous when you are driving through downtown Pittsburgh and you know you've got a quarter mile to switch over three lanes of traffic and then get all the way back over so you can be sure you end up in the right tunnel.

It's a good thing to be a little bit nervous heading into that kind of situation.

And you know, anxiety can actually be a help to us to help us raise our game during important events.

You know, I've spent a lot of time in my life working with athletes, coaching runners.

And when an athlete will come to me and say, Hey, I'm really feeling nervous before race, I will point them back to a little sport psychology tip I picked up on.

So when they say, Hey, I'm really feeling nervous, I'll say, That's great.

I'm so glad because being nervous just shows that you care.

And so what you can do is focus your mind on what you need to do in this process of preparation and find ways to keep yourself occupied so that those feelings of anxiety don't turn negative.

Because once that gun goes off, all of those feelings, those emotions, they're gonna be to your benefit.

They're gonna help you up your game.

And so anxiety can be a help to us in the right measure.

But where our problem lies is that oftentimes our anxiety alarm system can blast at full volume when it would be better off at setting one on ten levels.

We can have a difficult time turning that system off.

It can be on at the wrong times, and so chronic anxiety can leave us exhausted as we continue to wear ourselves out.

It can leave us feeling desperate.

We want to change our circumstances, find resolution to those scenarios, to get away from whatever we perceive our threats to be.

And what we need to recognize is this isn't the way that God has designed us to operate.

You see, anxiety, when taken to an inappropriate extent in our lives, it's it's an example of how sin affects us completely, physically, spiritually, and emotionally, the brokenness of this world.

This isn't the way God has intended for us to walk through life.

But like I said, there is good news for us in today's teaching.

Because God is in the business of bringing redemption to the broken things of this world.

And for any one of us who will turn to Jesus and look to him in faith, there are resources of his grace available to us to help us navigate life in this broken world as we await God's the day when God will bring restoration in full.

We can find hope in him inside of us through the power of the Holy Spirit as we navigate life in this world through our hope in Jesus.

So let's dig into this passage.

Let's start in verse six, here in Philippians chapter four.

Paul writes these words Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

I want to ask you, have you ever found yourself in a time where you caught yourself thinking that anxiety was inevitable and the situation you're going through, you don't have any other option but to be worried.

It only makes sense.

Have you ever found yourself in that place?

You know, right here in verse 6 of this chapter, Paul challenges that mindset.

He tells us that you and I, we don't need to accept anxiety as our status quo.

And as much as we feel like we don't have any other options when the heat is getting turned up, when we're under stress, he tells us this isn't the way things have to be.

You see, when we locate our lives and our feelings, our own circumstances in part of the greater story of Scripture, we are reminded that the God who created the universe, the God who also created you and I, he didn't just create us and walk away.

God knows us, he cares about us deeply, he wants to be involved in our lives.

It's amazing.

The God who is infinite and eternal is also personal, and he desires closeness with each and every one of us.

And so the Bible teaches that we hold a special place in all of creation, among all that God has made.

Our creator and our sustainer is also our heavenly Father.

He knows us intimately and he loves us.

And David, he captures this beautifully in Psalm 139.

Listen to these words.

David writes, You have searched me, Lord, and you know me.

You know when I sit and when I rise.

You perceive my thoughts from afar.

That's how much God knows us.

David writes later in this Psalm, You created my inmost being.

You knit me together in my mother's womb.

So God knows the insides of us, and he writes, I praise you because I'm fearfully and wonderfully made.

Your works are wonderful.

I know that full well.

My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in a secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.

So physically, emotionally, spiritually, God knows us, our creator who made us.

Each and every part of who we are, and he loves us deeply.

And what we see in this passage is that none of who we are is a mystery to God.

None of us who we are in any part are a mistake.

God didn't create any single one of us and say, Man, I wish I could get a do-over with that guy.

God looks to us and he cares.

He loves us deeply.

He's made us with great intention in mind, body, and spirit.

And so the Bible teaches that because God knows us personally, he loves us deeply, we can trust in him to provide out of his care for us as his own children.

Jesus, he explains it this way in Luke chapter 7 which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone.

Luke 7 · chapter mention

Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake.

If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him?

You know, I want to tell you, over this past eight days, nine days since I've had a daughter, some dots are connecting from me emotionally where previously that wasn't there, in the sense that I'm coming to see the depth of a parent and their love for a child in a whole new way.

You know, I'm doing things that previously I never even imagined.

I'm changing diapers left and right.

I've learned how to swaddle and I am loving it.

I'm having the time of my life.

I can just spend time scrolling through pictures that were all taken in the past week and just look in awe with love for my daughter.

I'm so grateful for that gift in my life.

And for the first time, like I said, I'm connecting some dots emotionally because when we look to scripture, when we read the Psalms, we see that God Himself has emotions.

And the love of our Heavenly Father for you and I is just like that.

God looks at us and he sees us and feels that level of affection for you and I as his own loved children.

And so, how can we know that God won't let us down when we turn to him with our needs in this life?

How can we know that?

Because God is our parent who loves us deeply.

He desires that we turn to him with our concerns, our anxieties, and trust him to meet our needs.

And we can count on that.

We can absolutely count on that.

And so the first key principle we see in this passage as it relates to dealing with anxiety in our lives is this that turning to God with our anxieties is a much better way to manage our concerns than living as if our lives depend on ourselves.

It's very simple, but incredibly profound.

Turning to God with our anxieties is a much better way to manage our concerns than living as if our lives depend on ourselves.

Shouldering our own burdens isn't our best play.

And God doesn't give us any sort of bonus points when we walk through challenging times in our lives and look to him and say, Hey, God, I got this one.

We don't score any points.

That's not Christian maturity.

Christian maturity is leaning on the resources of God's grace according to how he's provided for us in Jesus Christ.

It's about setting aside our pride because that's what it is when we rely on ourselves, saying, I got this.

That's our human pride, saying, Man, I think I can handle my life pretty well on my own.

I don't need God.

I got this.

And Jesus tells us that we have a heavenly Father who loves us, and he is a better place to turn and carrying the burdens of our lives.

And in the next part of this passage, Paul tells us exactly how we can do this.

In the latter part there of verse 6, do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

And so what we see is God desires more than to just pull the strings as it relates to the events in our lives unfolding.

God wants us to live in active relationship with Him.

And just like in our human relationships, it's those people with whom we're real about the things we're experiencing that we have the most depth of relationship.

Think about that in your own life.

Who are the people you're closest to?

It's probably not that neighbor that you pass on a walk once a week and just say, Hey, how's it going?

Things at the office good, the old ball and chain, all right.

Take care.

Have a great day.

That's probably not the person you're closest to.

It's probably the people who you not only share your successes, the things that are going well in your life, but the people who you're honest with about your frustrations, about your difficulties, about your failures, because each and every one of us have those things as part of our story as well.

Those are the people we're closest with, and that's the type of relationship that Jesus desires to have with each and every one of us.

And so Paul tells us in this passage we can turn to God and prayer with the things that are weighing on our hearts and minds and trust our burdens to him.

And what's the effect of that?

Paul he tells us there in verse 7 that the peace of God, when we turn to him in prayer, when the we turn to Jesus Christ with the burdens on our hearts, the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus.

When we turn to God in light of the relationship we have with him through Jesus Christ, he'll quiet our anxieties in a way that goes even above what we understand.

And the operative phrase there in that verse that really makes all the difference is those last three words, in Christ Jesus.

You see, throughout this entire book, this whole series, ridiculous joy that we've been in, this gospel hope of anyone who will simply confess their need and look in faith to what Jesus Christ has accomplished on our behalf.

It's been the golden thread all throughout this series.

And what Paul tells us is that through Jesus Christ, in today's passage, he tells us that through Jesus Christ, we not only have a hope for eternity, we have a hope in the here and now, and whatever anxieties and worries may be burdening our heart, because the God who brings life from death cares about what we're experiencing.

In the here and now, he wants to be involved.

He desires that we would turn to him with those things that are weighing us down and hand them to him, the one who is powerful to carry them all.

Think about it.

If Jesus Christ went so far as to lay his life down on the cross to meet our ultimate need, a savior from our sin, if Jesus Christ went that far to meet our greatest need, it only makes sense that he would meet our needs in this life.

So Paul tells us when we turn to God with our anxieties in prayer, we can count on him to hear us and respond.

We can count on him to hear us and respond.

And sometimes God's response is to change our circumstances when we do that.

Sometimes God's response is to change our circumstances.

And isn't it really nice when that happens?

Isn't it really nice?

Other times, and always we we see in this passage it's God's response.

It's always God's response to change us, to meet us inside with a peace that passes understanding.

And I remember a time when I got to experience that in an incredibly profound way.

It was early in my career.

I was coaching in college athletics, and I had just finished my graduate assistantship, and I was looking for my first coaching job, and there was a gap of several weeks where I was kind of in this period of limbo.

I was applying to jobs left and right, here, far, all the way in Timbuktu, Timbuktu.

Wherever they wanted to hire somebody to coach track, I was like, man, I'll go.

I filled out all these applications.

I wasn't getting any bites.

I was spending time praying very polite prayers to God that He would make a way.

And things weren't coming.

And I'll tell you, I found myself getting increasingly more and more exhausted and feeling desperate and worn out and anxious.

And one day I was finally at my breaking point.

And I saw so I got down on my knees in our apartment while my wife was at work and I just prayed, God, I am at the end of myself.

I can't handle this.

Would you direct our path?

Would you give me the grace I need to walk out each day because I'm wearing myself out?

And I'll tell you what, he met me in that moment and he gave me a peace in my heart that passed all of my own understanding or even expectations of the grace he could give me.

I chilled out.

And isn't it funny?

Sometimes when we finally release things to God and trust him, he changes our circumstances.

And I'll tell you what, in that circumstance, in that moment, that's not what happened.

It took some more time.

And that ended up being a good thing because in that time I came to understand a different way what it was that I really felt God calling me towards.

And so I'm glad that God took his time frame rather than meeting mine, but I'm also grateful that he met me with grace.

And I wonder what it is in your own life.

Surely there is someone here who's hearing today's teaching, who's in that situation yourself right now where you're saying, God, I have been praying polite prayers to you.

I've been playing praying polite prayers to you, that you'd be my provider, but I haven't quite been real with you about how much this is weighing on me, how much this is wearing me out.

And I want to give you an opportunity right now to just pray in the quiet of your own heart.

Let's hand those burdens to God.

Why wait to experience the peace that passes understanding?

We have a heavenly Father who loves us, who cares deeply.

And so, God, we thank you that you hear our prayers.

We thank you that through Jesus Christ, any one of us who will simply turn to you with our needs, God, we can experience your peace and your presence in our lives.

God, you know what is weighing on us.

You know what's on our hearts, God.

We pray that you would meet us with the grace we need.

Would you quiet our spirits?

God, you are good.

God, you are our provider.

We thank you for the depth of your love for us, and we pray that you would meet us according to your own perfect goodness and wisdom.

And we ask this together in Jesus' name.

And we can thank God.

He hears our prayers.

He hears our prayers and he responds.

So let's never take that opportunity to pray that we have for granted.

Let's never take it for granted.

You know, there's one more principle in this weekend's passage that we would do well to give some attention, and that is that we can set our perspective on the gospel each day as a way of present preventing ourselves, as a way of preventing ourselves from going too far down that rabbit hole of anxiety in the first place.

And here it is again on the screen the second key principle you and I can keep our anxieties in check by continually setting our minds on the truths of the gospel.

And this is really drawn out for us in verse.

Verses eight and nine of today's passage, Paul writes, Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things.

Whatever you've heard or received or learned or seen in me, put it into practice, and the God of peace will be with you.

And so what Paul desires for us to know in this passage is that our mindset is critically important as it relates to dealing with anxiety in our lives.

And you know, I shared earlier about my seminary professor, and one other thing that he taught that I believe is incredibly important for you and I to know is that for most of us, anxiety in our lives is often driven by our mindset.

He said, our worries are often driven by our assumptions about what life should be like.

Our perception of who we should be or how our lives should go.

Can you see that in some of the anxious thoughts that you deal with?

Here's how my career trajectory should be progressing.

Here's how my kids' lives should be unfolding.

Here's how my parents' health should go at this stage of their life.

It's our mindset that often causes our worry.

And so Paul tells us in verse 8 here that we do well to continually cross-check our mindset to see if it is in line with what is true according to the gospel.

He writes, think about these things.

Think about these things.

Whatever is true.

Because you know, oftentimes our worries are not valid.

If you're a college student, have you ever caught yourself thinking, man, if I don't get an A or a B on this test, I might as well start looking for lots to park my van down by the river.

That's not true.

Think about what is true.

Our future is God's job.

Our lives are in his hands.

He has our future under control.

That's the truth.

Paul says, think about what's true.

He says, think about whatever is noble, what's worthy of respect.

You know, in times of anxiety, our minds can be plagued by false ideas.

We can think if this hasn't happened in my life by this point, or if it doesn't happen, then there must be something wrong with me.

We can catch ourselves thinking, if if this is a part of my story in the past, how can I ever have a good future?

What Paul wants us to know is those are lies from the enemy.

Shut them out.

Don't give them an inch.

Think about what is noble.

You see what Paul's talking about here.

You and I do well to continually confront our anxieties with the truths of the gospel by thinking about what is true, what is noble, what's right and pure and lovely.

So that's the second key principle in this weekend's teaching.

You and I can keep our anxieties in check by continually setting our minds on the truths of the gospel, because the gospel changes everything.

It's the power of God for salvation in eternity and in our daily lives.

Our lives are no longer about us.

Thank God for that.

And continually confronting our anxieties with the truths of the gospel.

This is something that we can learn to do for ourselves.

But let me tell you, this takes practice.

This takes daily reminders of the truth.

And I want to recommend a resource to you.

If this is something you'd like to dig into further, I read a great book about this.

A man named Jeff Vandersto wrote a book called Gospel Fluency.

Gospel Fluency by Jeff Vanderstout.

This could be a great resource for you in learning how to speak the truth of the gospel into your own life.

If you forget that, if you want a reminder, you can give me a call at the Orchard Hill Church office or send me an email.

And you know, something else that today's passage really brings to mind is that for each and every one of us, we can find hope in this teaching.

This is truth for each and every one of us.

But the reality is there are some of us who deal with anxiety on a level that is particularly intense and complex.

And again, God has made us physically, emotionally, spiritually.

He's made us in all of these ways.

And at some time, some of us, we need to lean into resources of God's grace that He has given through gifting people, medical professionals and counselors with wisdom, with education and ability to care for us.

And so if you're someone who's really struggling, I want to encourage you, reach out to our counseling center at Orchard Hill Church.

We have people who God has gifted and equipped who'd love to care for you in this way.

If you'd like to speak about your own challenges, dealing with anxiety in your own life, we'd love to be able to care for you here at Orchard Hill Church.

So reach out to us at the counseling center.

And the reality is for each and every one of us, we are not meant to deal with our struggles in this world alone.

We don't need to take them on by ourselves.

And so perhaps even more important than confronting ourselves daily with the truths of the gospel is being involved in authentic relationships, that kind of community I talked about earlier, genuine friendships where we can be there for one another to remind ourselves of the truth of the gospel when we can't do it for ourselves.

Because when we're walking through times, through seasons of anxiety, each and every one of us, our vision can get blurry.

And we need people around us who can point us back to the truth of who Jesus is and the difference that he makes in our lives.

In those times we can't see the truth for ourselves.

And so I want to close with this a word of challenge to you that each and every one of us, we have an opportunity.

We have an opportunity in our families, in our friends, our friendships, in our life groups, in our church community, our areas of involvement to build real, genuine friendships where we can be honest about the things that are going on in our lives, going on inside of us, and also point one another and others towards God's grace in Jesus.

That's an opportunity each and every one of us have, whatever our age, whatever our gender, whatever our experience in following Christ, we can be spiritual leaders.

We can be culture shapers in our own spheres of influence, our areas of involvement, each and every one of us, by being people who say, I'm gonna take the risk of being real and I'm gonna make a big deal of the gospel.

That is something each and every one of us can do.

I want to challenge you to make that a part of your own life, to make that impact and leading others to find freedom and hope through creating community that points others to the big deal, the hope of Jesus Christ, that he has done something ultimate to bring us restoration and that he cares about us and everything we experience in this life.

And so we can walk through our circumstances with hope, even as we look forward to the day when he will make all things new in our world and inside of us.

All right.

Let's pray together.

Father, we thank you for the hope of the gospel that through your son Jesus Christ, you have made a way for us to know you, to experience life in relationship with you, our heavenly Father who made us, who loves us deeply.

And God, you know the things that weigh on our hearts, and we're so grateful that you care.

God, you care about them.

You care about us.

And so we pray that you would remind us of the truths of the gospel and that we would do that for one another.

God, would you give us grace to be able to set aside our pride?

Instead of saying, I got this, to be people who hand our burdens to you.

Because when we do that, we will experience your peace that passes understanding, and we will give you all the praise for that.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.