Placing Fear in the Proper Place

Music.

Today, we continue our Fear Not series as we look at Philippians chapter 4 and

Philippians 4 · chapter mention

learn how to place our unhealthy fears into the hands of God.

Grab your pen and Bible as we listen to week two of Fear Not.

And now here's today's message.

Can I just say it's good to be together with you this morning.

I'll be honest, Jen and I during the loop, I looked at her, I said, it is heavy in here.

There was a heaviness of spirit this morning as y'all gathered in here.

And as I look at your faces and I look at your eyes, I see a lot of emotion.

I see a lot of hurt.

I see a lot of pain. I see a lot of frustration and just a heaviness of spirit.

And as we began to worship, the presence of God began to fall and lift the spirit.

And you can see it on your countenance that the spirit was at move because when he falls, it affects us.

We're going to talk a little bit about his spirit. We're going to talk a little

bit about how God goes with us.

As we start, I just want to pray.

We're not here to hear from me. We're here to hear from the Lord and God's word this morning.

And we know that he is faithful and that as the word goes out and is proclaimed,

he will move. It never returns void.

The word of God always accomplishes its purpose.

So Heavenly Father, this morning, we ask that you would accomplish the purpose

that you have for us meeting together this morning.

This is not about us. We don't deserve a pat on the back for waking up on Sunday

and coming and dragging ourselves to church.

God, we run to your presence this morning and we ask that you continue to move

because if you don't go with us, we can't go. We don't want to go.

So please Holy Spirit, move and have your way.

Do what only you can do. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.

Last week, we started a new series called Fear Not, and we looked at fear,

and we saw that there are two kinds of fear.

There's healthy fear, and there's unhealthy fear, and we really focused in on

the fear of the Lord because it's the beginning of wisdom and knowledge,

and we want God's presence to go with us.

A lot of us, we struggle with fear. We struggle with anxiety. We struggle with worry.

In the world today, there is an epidemic of global proportion that affects so many of us.

And if it's not something that you struggle with, I promise there is someone

close by you or in your family or in your sphere of influence that struggles with overwhelming,

paralyzing even, fear and anxiety and worry and depression.

And so today we're going to talk about fear and anxiety. Studies show that about

40 million adults in the U.S.

Alone are affected by anxiety disorders every year.

That's 20% of our population here in the U.S.

Globally, it's estimated that around 264 million people suffer from different anxiety disorders.

Even more telling, recent studies show that one in six Americans are now taking

at least one form of medication to manage their mental health,

whether that's anxiety or depression or other emotional,

mental conditions.

You know what this reveals is that fear and anxiety are not isolated issues.

These are issues and battles that if you look around, if we were to take a silent

poll and raise our hands, there'd be a lot of us in here that are dealing with

overwhelming fear, overwhelming heaviness,

overwhelming anxiety in some sort, one form or the other.

And today we're going to unpack how God's word provides comfort.

Offers us wisdom, gives us hope, and releases us from our fears and anxieties.

You know, there are times when I study the word of God and when I preach that

there's a higher level of identification, if that makes sense. Yes.

Where what I study is something that greatly impacts my own life.

And what I read about in scripture just kind of is at home a little bit for me.

And that's because I've struggled with fear and anxiety for the better part of my life.

I'm not ashamed to tell you, I meet with a Christian counselor via Zoom who's

located in Atlanta. Every single week I meet with him.

And what does he challenge me with? What does he share with this right here?

He challenges me to apply the word of God to my life, because that's where ultimate

healing for fear comes from.

So this morning, I'm just, I want you to know, I'm with you.

I'm preaching to the choir, okay? If you have your Bibles with you,

we're going to be in Philippians 4 this morning.

And Paul addresses how we can begin to move in our own lives from this battle

of fear and anxiety and emotional challenges and how we can arrive at peace.

Because really when it comes down to it, isn't that what we're all after?

We all are wanting peace in our lives.

It's our greatest desire probably

in life. And so read with me in Philippians 4, verses 4 through 9.

Philippians 4:4–9

It says this, rejoice in the Lord always. And I love this. He knew it was so important.

He says, did you hear what I said? I'm going to say it again.

I will say it again. Rejoice. Let your graciousness be known to everyone. Why?

Because the Lord is near. He's with us. so we don't have to respond in anxiety

because the Lord is near.

Then he leads into, don't worry about anything. Wow, that's a pretty high,

pretty high expectation of us to not worry about anything.

But in everything, say everything, everything through prayer and petition,

key thought, with thanksgiving.

It's the secret sauce in our prayer life. With thanksgiving,

present your request to God.

And verse seven says, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding,

will guard your hearts, not just your hearts, but it says it will guard your minds in Christ Jesus.

Finally, brothers and sister, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just,

whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable,

if there's any moral excellence, if there's anything praiseworthy, dwell on these things.

And then he says, do what you have learned and received and heard from me,

excuse me, and seen in me.

And the God of peace, say it with me, will be with you.

He's saying, when we do these things in life, the God of peace isn't going to just be out there.

No, he will be with you.

Paul says, put these things into practice and the God of peace will be with you.

And if you're here and you're new, you might wonder, you know,

what kind of preacher is this?

This is all I like to do. I like to look at the Word of God and I like to give some takeaways.

The Word of God speaks plenty for itself. And so I just want to pull a few things from this passage.

As I was studying this week, as I was going about my week, the phrase that continually

stood out to me, the phrase that I dwelt on and really concentrated on all throughout

the week was that phrase.

And the God of peace will be with you.

He'll be with you. He'll be with you. He's with me. He's with me.

He's with me. In everything you're going, he's with me.

And I want you to walk away today with that in your mind, that he's with me.

I may have started a new job. He's with me.

I may be struggling with my kids. He's with me. I may be having health issues.

I may have gotten a bad diagnosis. He's with me.

He's with me. He's with me. Because how many of you know if God is with us,

then who could be against us?

And the very God of creation, the God that spoke everything into being is here with you.

And he says, I wanna do life with you, but I won't force myself on you.

Let me be here with you.

And here's today's big idea.

True peace cannot be found apart from God.

You know, the world is searching for peace.

And they'll look everywhere to find it, but they will never find peace apart from God.

And so today we're going to put fear in its proper place.

And the proper place for fear is in the hands of God.

You know, we've allowed so many of us, like myself, oftentimes we allow fear

and anxiety to become our knee jerk reaction.

When something happens or a trouble happens, it's so deeply ingrained in us

that that's our automatic go-to.

That it just, through the years, it's just kind of got ingrained in our minds.

And so we've gone to fear and anxiety instead of prayer.

We need to change that knee-jerk reaction to practicing the presence of Jesus

Christ in our lives, knowing that he's with us and he is empowering us and his

Holy Spirit is active and alive.

You may be asking, what is Paul? What does he have to offer about today?

Like he never lived today in 2024.

He never dealt with traffic. He never dealt with internet and social media and people gossiping.

Oh, he probably did online. Definitely not online.

He never knew what it was like to have kids that are fighting and bickering

and that act like they hate each other.

He never had a mortgage to worry about or healthcare deductibles or credit card accounts hacked.

And that's true that Paul did live in a different time, but I want to remind

you the trials that he faced.

Because if you hold them up in light of ours, ours are pretty minor compared.

This is what 2 Corinthians 11 says.

And if you have it, turn over there with me. And I really want you guys to get

in the habit of bringing your Bibles because you need to be familiar with the word of God.

And this is what 2 Corinthians 11 says in verse 24, it says,

five times I received the 40 lashes minus one from the Jews.

That's a very, very severe beating.

25 says, three times I was beaten with rods. Once I received a stoning.

The purpose of stoning is to kill people, if you didn't know that.

Three times I was shipwrecked. I've spent a night and a day in the open sea.

On frequent journeys, I face dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers,

dangers from my own people, dangers from Gentiles, dangers in the city,

dangers in the wilderness, dangers at sea, and dangers among false brothers.

Verse 27, toil and hardship, many sleepless nights. Anyone have a sleepless night lately?

Yeah. Hunger and thirst, often without food.

He says, I was cold. I was without clothing even, not to mention other things.

There is the daily pressure on me, my concern for all the churches.

Paul gives us a small glimpse of the trials that he went through in his life.

That's not even a full list.

He doesn't mention the times about being arrested for preaching the gospel or

the times he was thrown into prisons and chained up in dark,

damp, horrendous dungeons,

with no food, no coat, sitting in his own human filth.

So suffice it to say that when it comes to being able to speak after matters

of fear and worry and anxiety and contentment and all of the above,

Paul has more than enough experience to stand on.

And so here in Philippians 4, Paul gives us a list of prerequisites that we

need to put into our lives if we're going to receive the peace of God, which verse seven says.

Surpasses all understanding.

How many of you have experienced that peace that you don't understand?

The tragedies hit and you call on the name of the Lord,

you cast your cares on him and suddenly in the midst of being by the bedside

of someone who's dying or who has just passed, suddenly you are overwhelmed

with peace and you don't understand where it comes from.

I'll tell you where it comes from. It comes from the God of all peace and he grants it to us.

And so there's several things that we're going to do if we're going to have

the peace that surpasses all understanding.

And the first thing that he told us there is rejoice in the Lord always, always.

So important. I'm going to say it again, rejoice, because like we learned a

few weeks ago, joy does not come from our circumstances or our happenings.

Happiness comes from happenings, but joy, man, joy is a whole different breed and joy comes from God.

And some of us, we need to replace our fear and our worry with the joy of the Lord.

I want you to think about it just for a second. What are some areas in your

life where there's fear, where there's anxiety, where there's worry?

What's causing you right now to really lack in that joy area?

What have you allowed in your life to steal your joy.

We need to replace our fear and worry with the joy of our salvation.

You see, joy is an anchor in the storm of life.

And we focus on God's character and his love and his sovereignty and his forgiveness

and his goodness and his faithfulness and every other attribute about God.

I promise when you get done listing those attributes of God and praising him,

you cannot be focused on yourself any longer.

You cannot be focused on your anxiety or your fear or whatever worry you're struggling with.

Your worry is lifted off of yourself

and off of me, and it's cast on God because he is so much greater.

Rejoice, rejoice, rejoice.

Think of joy as a deep reservoir that sustains us.

And when life is difficult, you can draw from it. I want you to remember this.

Rejoicing is a choice of perspective.

When you're walking through life, you have a choice to make about your perspective.

Why is it that I can look at two separate people?

They could go through the same stuff, the same tragedy, the same situation.

It could be awful. And one is a wreck.

And one is like Paul and he's singing at midnight hymns of praise.

It's because one of us or one of them has had a change of perspective and their

focus is not on situation, but the God who's in charge of everything.

Rejoicing is choosing your perspective.

Number two, if you wanna be victorious in your life and you wanna conquer fear

and anxiety, you must trust in the presence of God in your life.

Remind yourself, and that's what David did. Though I walked through the valley

of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. Why?

Because my God is with me. And he knew that truth that if God is with me,

I will be able to walk through everything no matter what it is.

God is with you in your circumstance.

Own that. Tattoo it on your arm.

Do something, but don't walk out of this place not knowing that God's presence

isn't with you in every situation.

As I was studying the presence of God this week, it took me to Exodus 33.

And the Lord had spoken to Moses. Moses got his instructions for leading the Israelites.

Prior to this, Moses was given the

10 commandments. He comes down from the mountain and what does he find?

The people had started worshiping false gods.

And they took their earrings and their rings and they put it all in a smelting

pot and they made a golden calf.

And They began to worship a false God when God had led them day and night.

Remember, he led them with a pillar of fire at night and a cloud by day.

His presence was there.

And they forgot about him. And so Moses gets ticked and he throws the tablets

on the ground and he addresses things.

And then he has to go back up and get the Ten Commandments again.

And then, how many of you know, anger causes us extra work, right?

Has to come back down from the mountain and he begins to meet with God.

Exodus 33, 15 through 16, Moses pleads with God and he's asking for his presence

to accompany them on the journey.

And he says, if your presence does not go, Moses responded to him,

don't make us go up from here.

How will it be known that I and your people have found favor with you unless you go with us?

I and your people will be distinguished by this from all the other people on the face of the earth.

And Moses is begging God's presence to go with him.

God, if you don't go with me, I don't want to go.

If you're not with me, I'm not going to make it.

And probably the most comforting words that Moses maybe ever heard in his entire life came in verse 14.

God says, my presence will go with you and I will give you rest.

And so this morning, I want to remind you that when you beg God for his presence,

he's not going to cast you away.

He's going to give you his presence. God wants to be with you.

God wants to do life with you.

And when you're in the presence of God, isn't it interesting that he gives us rest?

Some of you all need to go home today, need to put on some worship music,

get in your bed, lock the door, tell your husband to take the kids or whatever.

And you need just to lay there and let the sweet presence of God fill that room so that you can rest.

And be recharged spiritually, and emotionally, and physically.

His presence came with rest. And yet, the ironic thing is,

2,500 years later, here we are, and we're going through our own deserts,

and we're on our own journey, and we're yet so full of fear,

and we're full of anxiety,

and we're full of worry, and I get full of doubt, and I can't help but wonder

what would happen if We became so desperate for God's presence in our lives

that if he didn't go with us, we wouldn't continue on.

I'm absolutely desperate for God's presence to go with me on this journey of life.

I'm absolutely desperate for God's presence to enter into my household and my

family, to go with my kids.

On Wednesday nights, we come here.

And I shared this a few weeks ago When we were going back to the basics,

we went back to the basics of scripture, but we also went back to the basics of prayer.

And I made a comment. It was a Jim Cimbala quote.

He said, you find out how popular the pastor is or how popular the church is

by who's there on Sunday. You find out how popular prayer is,

how popular Jesus is by those who are there Wednesday.

There's a group of people in here praying who are desperate. Desperate.

Desperate for God's presence to go with us.

We're not quite two years into our church plant here at Generations Church,

and I want God to go with us. Why are we doing this?

Why? Why are we making disciples? Why tonight at 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.?

I'll be at Perkins tonight.

We'll be doing the rooted group with 15 people. Why are we doing discipleship?

Because it's God's call on every one of our lives.

And if you're not actively being discipled or making a disciple,

then you're missing out on God's call for your lives.

Having the presence of God in our lives guarantees peace instead of fear,

joy instead of worry, and rest instead of panic.

Man, I want God's presence to be all over your life. I want you to have that peace instead of fear.

I want you to have joy instead of worry, and I want you to have rest instead of panic.

Number three in your notes, present your request to God.

One of the things that I love about God is that he's not surprised by what you

feel, what I feel, what you go through, what we go through.

Psalm 139 says, he knit you together in his mother's womb.

He wrote every one of your days in his book before one of them even happened.

God is familiar with you. Present your request to God.

Listen, I'm not downplaying this morning. I'm not downplaying fear.

I'm not downplaying or just writing off your anxiety-ridden heart or your propensity

to worry or your propensity to whatever you struggle with.

Those are very real. When you get a cancer diagnosis, that fear is real,

but it's what you do with it that matters.

Present your request to God. Philippians 4 and 6, we just read it.

He said, don't worry about anything, but in everything through prayer and petition with what?

Come on, church. Thanksgiving.

Present your request to God.

Paul says, don't worry about anything, but in everything with Thanksgiving, present it to the Lord.

We've got to begin to take our worries and replace it with prayer.

We've got to learn how to replace our worries with prayer.

Paul says, worry about nothing, pray about everything, and be thankful for anything.

Worry about nothing, pray about everything, and be thankful for anything.

When we pray, we petition God, believing that he is going to intercede in our situation.

And when we pray in this matter and we're thankful for him in every situation, it changes us.

It does something in us.

You may have a bill. You may have a health concern.

You may have, we all are going to have those things. But instead of fretting

and worrying about what's happening tomorrow, we're going to seek God's presence today.

Jesus said, hey, tomorrow's got enough to worry about.

Paul learned that you have to put your fears and anxieties and worries and troubles

and pains and everything into the hands of God. Don't hold on to them, guys.

Number four, expect peace. Verse seven says, And the peace of God,

which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and guard your minds in Christ Jesus.

When we do that, when we pray, when we give everything to God,

when we cast our cares on him, when we expect peace, our hearts and our minds

become fortified against fear.

And we trust God that he's going to give us the peace that will protect us from everything.

And God's peace is so supernatural that we can't even understand it.

Fear and anxiety don't have to dominate our lives.

The clear path to peace is by rejoicing and by trusting in God's presence,

by praying with thanksgiving, by focusing on our minds what is true and living out God's word.

And then finally today, number five in your notes, shift your focus.

It's time that we shift our focus off of our situations and unto God.

Philippians 4.8 says, Finally, brothers and sisters, here's his prescription.

Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure,

whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any moral excellence

and if there is anything praiseworthy,

dwell on these things.

Honestly, when I struggle with my anxiety, what is my focus on? It's on me.

We've got to take our focus and we've got to get it off of ourselves and onto God.

And when we shift our focus, it takes us from lies to truth.

We stop believing the lies of the enemy. We stop believing the lies that we

tell ourselves about ourselves.

If I say I'm going to be anxious if I go into that situation,

guess what I'm going to be when I go into that situation?

Anxious. Did you know I've got a lot of counseling years behind me and a master's

in biblical counseling.

Did you know that a lot of times we speak forth what we're going to be anxious

about or what we're going to be worried about? Shift your focus.

Speak life over your situations. Speak life over your future.

Speak life over every single thing.

Stop believing the lies and start believing the truth.

Shift your focus from lies into truth, and then shift from self-centeredness

to being Christ-centeredness.

Because when we are focused on Christ, there is no longer room for us and our

own fears and our own anxieties and our own worries.

Life is...

Is like this. It's a breath. Get your mind, get your eyes off of the moment,

and see the big picture that you are more than a conqueror in Jesus Christ, that the battle's won.

You don't have to live anymore in bondage or yoke down to the weight of fear.

He came to set you free from that.

We got to get our eyes off of ourselves and on Christ. And from the temporary to the eternal.

Shift your focus to the eternal.

And when we do these things, you and I will be able to experience a peace that

passes all understanding.

A peace that will stand strong when the wind and the waves of life hit you or

when tragedy and terror hit you,

when those unexpected things in life arise, you'll not be focused on the storm

because you'll have your eyes fixed on the author and perfecter of our faith, Jesus Christ.

It's time that we place our fears and anxieties and worries and we cast them

all to the one who laid down everything for you and I and purchased our freedom.

I want to do a little exercise with you. Don't worry, it's not physical.

You don't have to do any jumping jacks, push-ups or anything.

But I do want to ask you to close your eyes and do this. No one looking around.

I don't want you to be worried about what you think and people are going to

think what you look like or whatever.

I want you to hold out your hand in front of you, hand wide open.

And I want you to think of every single thing in your life that is weighing you down.

Every fear, whether it's fear or anxiety or sickness or finances,

maybe a relationship, maybe a family member or a child or a spouse.

I don't know what that relationship is.

But whatever you're struggling with today,

I want you to put it right there in your hand. You got it? It's all in your

hand. Come on, everyone do this.

Once it's in your hand, when your fears and your worries and your anxious thoughts

are in your hand, I want you to squeeze it as tight as you can.

Music.

Squeezing it.

This is what we do. We hold on to everything and no wonder we're focused on

our hand is aching and it's tight.

We just want release from our

cares and we want release from the pain and we're not sure how to get it.

And we search and we search and we search, but we can't find it.

Meanwhile, your heavenly father is saying, cast your care on me.

I'm here for you. I love you. My presence is with you. You weren't meant to carry this.

Give it to me. And this morning he's saying, child, I love you.

But you're holding on to your fears. You're holding on to your anxious heart.

You're holding on to your worries.

It's time to let go.

I promise you, if you give them to me, I will meet your needs.

And I'll also do this. I'll return the joy of your salvation to you.

Keep squeezing, keep squeezing.

I'll give you peace.

I'll give you everything. I'll take care of your needs. You won't have to worry about anything.

Would you give it to me this morning?

Here's what I want you to do. I want you to lift up your hand.

You're still squeezing that hand. Keep squeezing tight as you can.

I know there's no blood there. Maybe your arm's falling asleep.

Don't worry, you're not having a heart attack. You're fine.

On the count of three, we're just gonna open our hands and we're gonna give it.

Picture you giving your burdens and your fears, everything to the Lord.

He says, cast them on me because I love you. I care for you.

He wants to take these burdens.

I'm going to count down I'm going to count to three and we're going to give

them to the Lord one two three open your hand feel that release,

God we give you our burdens this morning we give you our fears we give you our

anxieties we give you all of the places in our lives where we fall short where

we feel like we don't measure up where we feel like we're not good enough take it,

and restore joy to each person that's in this sanctuary. Give them peace.

Life is hard, but it's temporary and your presence is here and you want us to do life with you.

Music.

You haven't ever experienced the presence of God in your life and maybe it's

because you've never asked him to come into your life.

If that's you, I just want to invite you this morning to invite Christ into

your heart, into your life.

And all you have to do is say, Father, thank you. I admit that I'm a sinner.

That you love me and that you sent Jesus to take my penalty and to restore me

back into relationship with you.

See, sin creates this distance between us,

that's bridged by the cross of Jesus Christ. And so we believe,

and then we confess that He is Lord, and we commit our hearts and lives to Him.

And if you just did that, He says, you're free.

You don't have to worry about where you're going when you die he says you'll

be with me if you made that decision that you turned from death into life this

morning I want to rejoice with you would you just slip your hand up real quick.

Music.

Thank you,

you've been listening to the Generations Church Podcast if you'd like more information

about Generations Church, feel free to get in touch with us at info at generationchurch.es

or head over to our website.

Music.