Philippians 4:6-7

Lord, as we come before you, and really come before the scriptures and come before you,

Lord, I just pray that we will be people that aren't just hearers of the word, but be doers

of the word.

Help us all to come under the authority of your scriptures.

Lord, we thank you that you are not a dead God, you are an alive God.

And when we crack this book, your scriptures, we come face to face with you.

Lord, I pray that you will be at work with the Holy Spirit in our lives this morning.

And if anybody's suffering any attacks from the enemy, Lord, we just ask that you will

stay the enemy's hand this morning.

We pray all these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.

So, Christine and I, we have begun this process of church planting.

It's been talked about at Messiah for a few months now about what it would look like to

discern a couple more congregations that would be associated with church and Messiah, East

End and West End.

So, we began this process.

It's kind of in the infancy stages, and it's a long process.

There's a lot of stuff that we need to do and go through.

There are a lot of questionnaires, homework to do, interviews.

Like, they put us through the rigor.

And I think a big part of that is because oftentimes, like businesses, not to equate church and business,

maybe it's not the greatest example, but startups fail.

And I think it's for a lack of training and just the reality of it.

All that to say is this whole process is making me anxious.

It is causing me to have anxiety.

And it's really bringing up a bunch of junk in my life.

I am not at peace very much of the time.

Christine is more kind of resolute, and she's a bit more excited.

But I'm just like, well, what about this?

And what about that?

And it's like the weight of the world sometimes is on my shoulders.

Not all the time.

Like, I am excited, believe me.

But I find that my anxiety has crept up and up and up and up, and my peace has went down and down and down and down.

And I think a big part of this is because I am ceding control of my life to others that I'm not quite in control of my life.

And that there are also unknowns.

We're not sure where this thing's going to be.

I mean, we're like a month or two into potentially a year and a half type of process.

So I don't know what's going to go down.

And a lot of those unknowns are causing me to fret.

And the times, it's interesting, if you've had situations where you've felt anxious,

you get a bit of a reprieve, you get a bit of a break, and you feel like a bit of peace comes in.

But that peace, it seems, at least for me, it's marbled with a bit of anxiety.

And I'm not sure how it works for you guys.

But for me, if there's peace marbled with anxiety, it's not really peace, is it?

You have something going on in the back of your head.

You can't really be at rest.

And all of a sudden, anxiety, again, starts to dominate.

Whatever the situation is, whatever the person is, whatever the issue is,

anxiety seems to follow to some degree or another.

It seems almost unavoidable.

So this summer, we're going through these one-verse sermons.

Well, really, it's kind of this two verses today.

But it's really just one thought, one kind of big, heavy, like, oomph of truth.

And today is Philippians 4, verses 6 and 7.

Philippians 4:6

And I've read it before, but I'm going to read it again.

It says this,

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, or prayer and petition,

with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

I grew up, I still remember getting Nintendo for the first time.

And not long after, I got Nintendo.

And I'm talking, like, regular Nintendo, not Super Nintendo, not Nintendo 64,

not PlayStation 4 for you folks that might have that.

I'm talking original Nintendo, gray box with gray controller.

And I remember not long after getting that, I got a Game Genie.

I don't know if anybody here could possibly remember, if they're like a late 80s, early 90s person,

they remember what a Game Genie is.

A Game Genie was something that you'd put into your Nintendo,

and it would give you almost all the cheat codes for almost all the games.

So, for instance, I was not very good at Super Mario Bros. 3.

Could only get a few levels in, and then I'd die.

And I don't remember if there were continues or not.

But either way, I could never beat that game.

I put that Game Genie in.

I hit some codes, whatever.

I flew through Super Mario Bros. 3, one shot, like, in an hour.

I beat that game so easily.

This verse, to me, is like a Game Genie.

What do I mean by this?

With all of the difficulties and anxieties of life,

you're telling me all I need to do is pray,

and I will have peace that passes all understanding.

It seems like snake oil to me.

I'm saying this as somebody who's trained to become a pastor,

that the Bible is pretty central in my life.

And I'm just like, on face value, this is snake oil.

This is like a life hack.

This is a trick.

And I say that because life is full of all sorts of things

that cause tons of anxiety.

And not just, oh, man, you know, like,

I'm kind of worried about what we're going to have for dinner tonight.

No, no, I'm talking deep-down anxieties,

like pain anxieties, confusion, frustration, anger.

And on face value, just say, just pray.

It'll be okay, right?

Like, no, it won't be okay on face value.

This verse is not telling us to be anxious,

not to be anxious,

but if you become anxious here and there, that's okay.

Or it doesn't say, you know, life is kind of,

it's full of anxieties,

but, you know, try your best to avoid them.

Or, listen, it's okay, you're only human.

That's not what it's saying.

It's saying be anxious about nothing.

Now, there's some verses in the Bible

that are not to be taken literally.

What do I have here?

Isaiah 64 says that we are clay and God is the potter.

FYI, you don't take that seriously.

We're not clay, right?

We're not literally, we take it seriously,

but we're not, we don't take it literally.

We're not clay.

In Mark chapter eight, Jesus says,

if you, if your hand or your foot or your eye

causes you to sin, lop it off or gouge it out.

Jesus isn't just FYI saying,

if you sin, you have to lop off a part of your body.

It's hyperbolic.

It's hyperbole.

It's to get the point across.

This is a literal verse.

It is to be taken literally.

Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew six,

if you have a pen and paper, write it down 24 to 34.

I'm not going to read it, but Jesus here,

these are the same words that Jesus says.

He says, don't be anxious about where you will go

or what you will eat or what you will wear.

The cares of this life.

If God will feed the birds, won't he feed you?

If he clothes the grass who's here today and gone tomorrow,

won't he clothe you?

Don't be anxious about anything.

It's this, this verse is to be taken literally.

Don't be anxious about anything.

So if then we aren't to be anxious,

what are we to be like?

How do we deal with this anxiety?

Because the world is full of different things that cause anxiety.

Are we to be detached people?

Are we to find our inner self?

Are we to become one with the universe

or have this zen-like state where we are at peace no matter what?

There's an episode of Seinfeld where Kramer,

he started saying serenity now.

I don't know if you guys remember this episode,

but Kramer, he just decided,

I'm not going to be anxious anymore.

So whenever something came,

he just said serenity now, like that.

And eventually at the end of the episode,

he's a basket case.

He just serenity now, serenity now.

Like he's freaking out.

I don't know if you guys ever seen that.

That's not what the scriptures are telling us to do.

The scriptures are telling us actually to pray.

That is what we are supposed to do when we are anxious.

We are to be people who pray.

And here there's two different ways of prayer.

In verse 6, it says,

in everything by prayer and petition or supplication.

The first one is prayer.

This is like everyday type of prayers.

You wake up in the morning,

you thank God for the day,

you thank God for your breakfast,

you pray for your family,

you pray for your work,

you pray before you get in the car to drive.

It's kind of these ongoing daily prayers.

And these petitions are very specific prayers.

It's like if you need a breakthrough in something,

or if somebody's sick and you're just praying

that they'll get better,

or maybe you have a loved one who doesn't know the Lord,

and you're just praying that they'll come to faith.

There is just something that you just need

a specific answer to prayer.

And it's like taking an ax

and just doing the same thing,

the same motion, the same prayer,

until that tree falls over.

That's the idea of a petition.

So it's these two things,

these ongoing and the specific type of prayer.

And this will help us to be anxious about nothing.

I'm going to go back to this idea.

Can we really be anxious about nothing?

I think it is important to talk about what anxiety is

just really briefly,

so that we will have a better idea

of how to pray in a specific manner.

And I'll be honest with you,

I feel anxious in talking about anxiety.

And I do because

some of you guys have gone through the ringer.

Like we've been here for only a year now,

and I've got to know some of you guys.

And the people that I don't,

I just assume you've gone through the ringer,

because life is tough.

And what I don't want to do

is stand up here

and say something really trite.

And say,

yeah, you just need to pray.

Like, prayer solves everything, you know?

I remember there used to be

little, at the camp I worked at

when I was younger,

a lot of kids had these little

bracelets,

and they had an acronym that said

P-U-S-H, push.

And it was pray until something happens.

And it seems trite.

That's what you'd put on a coffee mug.

And that, I think, would be a bit insensitive,

because there's a real pain

that has been experienced here.

Ongoing pain for years.

I'm not, by any means,

an expert on how the human brain functions,

or the, I couldn't provide you

with an exhaustive list

of the things that cause anxiety.

I'm sure you guys could come up

with a better list

than I would give.

But I just want to put this

forward to you guys to consider.

It might seem a bit shocking.

We'll continue on.

But I want to say to you

that I think the real reason

that we have anxiety

and a lack of peace

is because we have an innate,

an innate distrust of God.

That, when I'm preparing this,

I'm just like,

if I say that,

that's like kicking somebody

when they're down.

It's like, oh,

they're going through anxiety.

Yeah, you didn't trust God enough.

That's not what I'm saying,

by the way.

But I'm actually kind of saying it.

But just not in a

kick you when you're down type of way.

That we have anxiety

and a lack of peace

because we have

an innate distrust

in God.

And what do I mean by that?

I think a lot of us

aren't saying,

God, I don't trust you.

I think a lot of us

are trying to trust God.

But when situations arise

or when difficulty comes,

we don't trust God

to solve these issues

and to bring us forward

through it.

And we either don't believe

God truly is good

or that he doesn't really care

or that he isn't capable

of helping us.

We struggle as people

to trust people

that we can see.

God, we don't see.

And it's hard to trust God

when we don't see him.

We have trust issues.

I have trust issues.

Going back to verse 6

after the Apostle Paul

tells us to pray,

he says we aren't just to pray,

but we are to pray

with thanksgiving.

It says verse 6,

the second part of it,

but in everything

by prayer and supplication,

with thanksgiving,

let your requests

be made known to God.

Thanksgiving.

That's kind of a hard thing to do.

I can pray a lot,

but how can I be thankful to God?

And what does it mean

to be thankful to God?

And I think it means

recalling God's goodness

and his mercy in our lives.

Remembering that he is loving

and kind,

recalling his attributes.

And this is tough

when we are people

that distrust

and especially distrust God.

But that's what the scriptures

tell us.

Nevertheless,

this is what we are to do.

And I'm going to get back

to this in a minute,

but let's continue on

in our passage this morning.

So verse 7 says,

The peace of God

that passes all understanding

will guard our hearts

and our minds

in Christ Jesus.

Almost always,

peace comes

because of understanding.

My folks are here

and they'll get a kick

out of me using this.

And I prepared this

before I knew

they were going to come,

but when my brother

and I were younger,

we'd have a curfew

for midnight.

And we live in a small town

and we go to house parties

or field parties

and we wouldn't come home

at midnight.

We'd come home much later.

And I just,

you know,

I'm a grown man,

you know,

like as a 15-year-old

that eats all my parents' food

and doesn't pay any bills

and like just

is completely irresponsible.

But I'm a man,

you know.

And my parents

would always be up.

They would always be awake

when we come home.

And it would frustrate me.

And I remember them saying

something you'll understand

when you have kids,

that we can't rest

until you're home,

that we know

that your home's

safe and sound.

My parents' peace

and all parents' peace,

they couldn't have that peace

unless they understood

their children were safe.

Peace follows understanding.

And that's kind of

a funny example,

but how about people

that have gone through

a tragedy

and they don't really know why?

They've lost somebody.

They're in a situation

where maybe they get a disease

and they don't know what's up

or their business fails

or their marriage fails

or their children,

something happens with them

and they don't know why.

That can cause a lot of anxiety

and peace is robbed

and frustration and anger,

all of this stuff

kind of wells up.

And you can become jaded

or you can become

just so cynical with life

or you can curse God.

You don't know the reason why.

This scripture is telling us,

hey, there's going to be peace

that transcends understanding.

So a peace that exists

where understanding does not,

that does not compute

very well with me.

I like to know the reason why

and only then I can be at peace

with the situation.

If you're a student

and you bomb a test,

well, maybe you want to know

the reason why,

which answers you didn't have right

and then you can go back

and relearn.

The whole point is

peace comes with understanding.

The scripture here says

peace will come

and it will exist

where understanding does not.

A peace that surpasses

or transcends understanding.

And this peace is said

to guard our hearts

and our minds.

So this peace

isn't this passive peace,

isn't the serenity now

Kramer type of peace.

It's not a peace

that is delusional

about the ups and downs of life.

It's a peace that is active.

And Paul talks about this peace

and almost personifies it,

making it like a guard

or a sentry

that is watching over a city

or that is in an outpost

looking for the enemy advance.

And when that enemy comes,

the alarm is sounded

and that advance,

that enemy advance

is pushed back.

This is what this peace

is supposed to look like.

This is what Paul is saying

saying to us this morning

about what this peace will do.

It will guard our hearts

and our minds.

And this whole peace,

it says,

it finishes off in verse 7,

that it's in Christ Jesus.

So it's not just that

this is the peace of God,

but it's actually the peace

from God

that he gives it to us.

The key to all of this

is what Paul says

in verse 6,

to be thankful.

And he really,

he hammers this idea home

a couple verses ahead

in verse 4,

where he says,

rejoice again,

I say rejoice.

How can we rejoice

when we've gone through tragedy?

How can we rejoice

if we've gone through divorce?

How can we rejoice

if we have suffered?

Or people overlook us?

Or we are desperately lonely?

How can we rejoice?

In all of these things,

we are dealing

with a small sliver

of reality.

And I'm just going to

pause really quickly

because I don't want to say

something trite again.

What we see in this life

is our small sliver

of reality.

But it is our sliver

of reality.

It matters to us.

And for all that we know,

this is reality.

But it's just a sliver of it.

My sliver of reality,

apart from the whole

church planning stuff,

it's my wife and my daughter.

That is my reality.

There's not much

that really exists

outside of that.

That is my reality.

And you guys have

your own sliver of reality

and you hold it dear.

But we are finite people.

And God is infinite.

So he sees the beginning

from the end.

Our sliver of reality

fits in that,

but it is not

the beginning and the end.

So it's not to downplay

any of the things

that we've gone through

at all

or that we are going through,

but it's to recognize

that God is actually

bigger than everything.

So I'm not trying to be,

again,

trite or quaint,

but God is actually

in control.

the scriptures,

when Paul says

for us to rejoice,

and when he says rejoice,

I mean,

this is a theme

throughout Paul's letters.

They're not just saying,

hey guys,

sing a tune,

be happy.

But this rejoicing

is a call for the church,

for us,

to put our faith

and trust

and hope in God,

whether we feel like it

or not,

whether it comes across

easy or not,

that when the scriptures

talk about God

being always good

and always merciful

and always just,

that we need to

believe that.

And the reality,

I mean,

that is the reality.

Jesus,

God the Father,

gave us his son,

his very son,

to pay the penalties

for our death.

the most prized thing

in the universe,

the most prized person

of the universe

was given to us.

Everything below that,

everything that we need

is below that.

And if he gave us his son,

how won't he give us

everything else

that we need?

When he'll give it?

Not sure.

There's no promise here

of when that peace will come.

And most certainly,

there's no promise here

of the calamity

or the tragedy

or whatever it may be

that has caused us

to have anxiety.

There's no promise

that that'll disappear.

But if he has given us

his son,

then what else

will he hold back?

And that's what it says

in Romans 8.31.

I encourage you guys

just to,

when you are feeling low,

just feast on Romans

8.31 and 32.

Feast on it.

Read it and read it

and read it again.

In the end,

as believers,

we can go through

all sorts of stuff.

But with God,

when we're putting our hope

and trust in him,

we are praying

and being thankful

when we pray,

recognizing who God is

and what he has done,

we will realize

that whatever goes on

in the temporal,

in the here and now,

will be trumped

by the eternal.

That whatever tears we cry,

whatever anxiety we have,

whatever pain we suffer

in the now,

will not exist

in the eternal.

That Jesus has paid

the penalty for that.

It doesn't mean,

like I mentioned,

that we will be

free from those things,

but that we will have

literally,

truly,

a peace

that passes

all understanding.

Psalm 73.

If you guys want to turn

to Psalm 73.

This is a psalm

by Asaph.

This is one of the psalms

that aren't by King David,

but this is a psalm

by a man named Asaph,

and he is pouring out

his everything to God.

He is rattled.

This is a prayer,

there's anxiety in it.

If you read verses 1 to 22,

there is a lot of anxiety

in this,

and yet he says this,

starting in verse 23.

Nevertheless,

I am continually with you.

You hold my right hand.

You guide me

with your counsel,

and afterward

you will receive me

to glory.

Whom have I

in heaven but you?

There is nothing

on earth

that I desire

besides you.

My flesh

and my heart

may fail,

but God

is the strength

of my heart

and my portion

forever.

That's not saying

I am rescued from it.

It says everything

can crumble,

but God,

you are the portion

of my life.

And if you've gone

through stuff

and you know

that God has,

he is there for you

and he has carried

you through it,

this is your prayer.

These are your words.

And if you haven't

gone through that,

these can be your words.

That your heart

and your flesh,

they may fail,

but God

is your portion

and your strength

forever.

What a wonderful

truth.

How is all

of this stuff

achieved?

How is this

possible?

Jesus,

the night

he was betrayed,

he went to the

garden of Gethsemane

and he was anxious.

He had anxiety.

He was pouring

out his soul

to the father

and he said,

God,

the son of God

had anxiety

and said to the father,

if it is possible,

let this cup

pass from me.

Meaning,

if I can find

another way,

if you can find

another way

that I don't have

to go to the cross

of Calvary

to go through

all of that,

then let it be so.

But he said,

not my will,

but yours be done.

So in the garden,

Jesus suffers

unbelievable anxiety.

He sweats

drops

as if they were

blood.

He is going

through so much

anxiety.

Why?

So he could

bring us peace.

So it's not just

peace of God

or peace from God,

but it's actually

peace with God.

That we were

sinners,

we were at odds

with the God

of the universe

because of our sin,

but he sent his son

to suffer our anxiety

so that we could

have his peace.

That is the gospel.

We could have peace

that surpasses

all understanding

because our faith

and our hope

is in our Lord

and not in ourselves

or in our situation.

And what great hope

that is.

If you are here

this morning

and you don't know

what this hope is,

you're not somebody

who considers themselves

a Christian,

or maybe you are

a Christian,

and you have let

anxiety creep in,

and you're in this spiral

going down and down

and down,

and you're anxious

about being anxious,

and you're sick and tired

about being sick and tired,

there is great hope for you.

We pray,

we bring it to God,

and we thank him

for who he is,

and he will give us

incredible,

incredible peace

that nothing in this world

can give.

Lord,

as we come

to the latter part

of our service

and as we close

your scriptures,

Lord,

help us to be people

that take you

at your word.

Let us be people

that trust in you

even though

our heart

and our flesh

fail us.

Even when we are

just frustrated

and we are full

of anxiety,

give us that peace.

Help us to pray.

Teach us to pray.

Help us to know

that you are

starting,

you've started

to work in us

and that this is

a journey we're on

where you are teaching

us to come under

your lordship

in greater degrees.

Come into a trust

in you in greater degrees,

Lord.

And give us hope

that that's not

a difficult thing,

but that your son

says that his yoke

is easy

and that his burden

is light.

that that is

something for us.

That is great hope.

So Lord,

we just pray

that you will

help us

to be

those people

that pray

and to trust in you.

We pray all these

things in Jesus' name.