No Worries

Well, we are starting back into something for the month of August.

We're gonna wrap this up by the end of the month.

Um, it's something we started way back early in the year called Unbreakable Joy.

Uh, this is a study of the book of Philippians.

We did that, I think, February, all the way up until the summer, took a break for summer to do our Summer of Wisdom series, and now we are back in Philippians, and we're gonna finish that up this month.

We're in chapter four.

It only has four chapters.

If you're new to his hands, uh we teach in a lot of different ways, but our norm is to go straight through a section of scripture, either an entire book or maybe one specific part that we kind of hyper focus on, and we'll break that up from time to time with other types of series.

But we just have a conviction, I have a conviction for sure, that God's Word gives us everything that we need.

And if we open up his word and we study it and we read it and we think about it and we internalize it, it changes our lives because it is truth you can build your life on.

Now, the reason we've called this series Unbreakable Joy is because the book of Philippians is filled with iconic statements of joy and gratitude and contentment and peace.

It was written by a man we call the Apostle Paul.

He was one of the leaders of the early church.

He wrote it to a church that he helped start in a city called Philippi.

And if you read Philippians with no context, you would think that Paul must be living the good life, that life is cooperating with his plans, everything's going great because he's clearly in such an incredible mood as he writes it.

But that couldn't be further from reality.

Paul wrote this letter in prison, facing very possible, in fact, likely execution.

He would not stop spreading the news about Jesus.

And the thing about the news of Jesus, it was like this 2,000 years ago in Rome, it's still like this today.

When the real gospel, that's the word that we use to talk about the good news of Jesus, when the real gospel is taught, it changes people's lives, and it doesn't just change their lives, it changes whole communities, it changes whole countries.

And oftentimes people in power don't like change.

Rome didn't like how disruptive the gospel was.

That is why countries like China ban the preaching of the gospel.

Because they they know what it changes in a person's heart.

And so Rome opposed Paul because Paul was disrupting things, and now Paul's in prison, and he's facing very likely execution.

He will actually be executed not much longer after he wrote Philippians.

But you would never know that reading the book.

You would never know that reading the letter.

It is filled with so many statements of joy and gratitude and peace.

It's like Paul shows us that through Jesus there is a kind of joy that we can have that this world cannot give you.

There is a kind of joy that we have that is unbreakable, it is not circumstantial, and we can all have that.

If Paul could have it in prison, we can have it here.

So we want to find that joy, we want to live in that joy.

Now, uh, today in Philippians 4, we get to some of the most iconic statements we have in the entire letter of Philippians.

Even if you're not someone who's been in church for a long time, you may have heard some of these statements that we're gonna read over the course of the next few weeks because that's how well known they are.

I'm gonna jump right in with Philippians chapter 4, verses 1 through 6.

Philippians 4:1–6

And here's what it says.

Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stay true to the Lord.

I love you and I long to see you, dear friends, for you are my joy and the crown I receive for my work.

Now I appeal to uh Udia and Syntishe, and these are two ladies in the church.

He says, Please, uh, because you belong to the Lord, settle your disagreement.

And I ask you, my true partner, to help these two women, for they worked hard with me in telling others the good news.

They worked along with Clement and the rest of my co-workers whose names are written in the book of life.

So basically, there's some conflict going on between these two ladies, and Paul is writing saying, please solve it.

Last week we actually talked about conflict resolution.

We talked about what it looks like to actually forgive.

And if you weren't here, feel free to listen to that.

It's amazing how often we miss out on the ability to forgive because we refuse to confront someone that we maybe need to forgive.

Like sometimes we think of forgiveness as like, oh, I just have to never talk to that person, never have a conversation with them, never have any conflict, and I'll just forgive them in my mind, and that's possible, and pray for that and do that.

But very often we actually kind of need to have a conversation to move on.

We need to say to someone, hey, this really bothered me, this upset me, this hurt.

So the other person has a chance to say, you know what?

I'm sorry.

It's a lot easier to forgive someone who you're talking to than it is to forgive someone that you never have any conflict with.

So Paul is actually saying, hey guys, work it out.

But then he goes on.

In verse 4, he says, Always be full of joy in the Lord.

I say it again, rejoice.

Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do.

And remember, the Lord is coming soon.

And this is where we get to the iconic stuff.

Verse 6, you may have heard this before.

Don't worry about anything.

Instead, pray about everything.

Tell God what you need, thank him for all he's done, and then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand.

His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

Don't worry about anything.

I don't know about you.

There's a lot of good stuff to worry about.

Like, can you think for a second about all the things we actually have to worry about, all the options?

Like, if worry was a restaurant, the menu would be large.

There are so many legitimate things to worry about.

And Paul says, don't worry about anything.

It's like a kind of annoying advice when you think about it.

Like if you're worried about something and you tell a friend and they go, oh, don't worry, it's not very helpful.

It's like, oh, thank you for that.

I had not considered that option.

I'm good now.

Since you told me not to worry, I'm no longer worried.

That's not really how it goes.

It almost seems like this sort of throwaway advice or this kind of like annoying version of optimism.

I don't know if uh if you have someone in your life who is what you would consider annoyingly optimistic.

Maybe you are that person, and we need some of you.

So that's good, keep it up.

But, you know, it's just that type of advice that someone gives you when they haven't actually thought through how serious a situation can be, and they just say, oh, don't worry.

That's what it seems like at least.

Throw away advice, ridiculous optimism, but that's not what's going on.

No, this isn't just some type of, you know, head in the clouds, not grounded, not really looking at real life as it is, impossible to follow advice.

When Paul says, don't worry, I want us to understand that's a command.

Like, don't worry.

That's it, that's a command.

It's like, don't worship a false God, don't lie.

And he's actually reiterating what Jesus challenges us to do.

I'm sure the words of Jesus are playing in Paul's mind in Matthew chapter 6.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

Jesus says, This is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life.

Don't worry.

Whether you have enough food and drink or enough clothes to wear, isn't life more than food in your body more than clothing?

Look at the birds.

They don't plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly father feeds them.

And aren't you far more valuable to him than they are?

Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?

And why worry about your clothing?

Look at the lilies in the field and how they grow.

They don't work or make their clothing, yet Solomon, in all of his glory, was not dressed as beautifully as they are.

And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he'll certainly care for you.

Why do you have so little faith?

So don't worry about these things, saying, What will we eat?

What will we drink?

What will we wear?

These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers.

In other words, he says, these are the thoughts of faithless people.

But your Heavenly Father already knows your needs.

Seek the kingdom of God above all else and live righteously.

And he will give you everything you need.

So don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries.

Today's trouble is enough for today.

Jesus says, Don't worry.

Don't worry about anything.

Don't worry about your everyday needs.

And I think if we could actually see this for what it is, not again, not just some sort of silly, optimistic advice, like, no, don't worry.

Just live life, plug your ears, don't look at all the bad things, just, you know, smile and go through life like it's all sunshine and rainbows.

That's not what Jesus is saying.

That's not what Paul is saying.

What they are saying, though, is that it is possible to live a life that is not defined by worry, by anxiety, by fear.

That you can live a life with no worries.

Jesus would not tell us not to worry if he didn't think it was possible for us to live that way.

Paul would not tell us, don't worry about anything, if he didn't know that through the power of the Holy Spirit inside of us, that is possible.

We can live lives that are not lived out of fear and worry.

It is possible.

It is possible to be free of anxiety through faith in Jesus.

It is possible to be free from worry.

And my hope today is that when we walk out of this room, those of us who are really struggling with worry, we would either be able to say, you know what, I left it there.

I'm not carrying this with me any longer, or at the very least, you could say, you know what?

Worry, fear, anxiety, your days are numbered in my life because I know the truth about who God is and about what he offers me, and I'm not going to be bound by you much longer.

Because God does not want you afraid, he does not want you worried, he does not want you anxious.

He does not create anxious people.

The broken world we live in creates anxiety.

But we can live free of it.

Now, in order to do that, to actually do that, if we take this seriously and we don't just look at it like, yeah, wouldn't that be nice?

No, this is possible for us right now.

If we actually looked at that seriously, we've got to do a few things.

Number one, we have to understand what worry actually is.

Like it's a major force.

Whatever word you want to use, worry, anxiety, fear, it's a major tool of our enemy.

It is something that has been fashioned to work against us.

We have to take it as seriously as we take anything because it can derail our lives as much as anything can.

So we have to understand what worry is, and then we have to understand what the solution to worry is.

So let's go through this a little bit based on some of the things that Paul and Jesus have taught us.

Number one, you've got to understand that worry is pointless.

Worry is pointless, it doesn't accomplish anything.

Jesus says it this way, we read this a minute ago, Matthew 6, 27, can all your worries add a single moment to your life?

And we know that medically, worry and stress and anxiety can take time off your life.

Like it messes with us biologically.

No, your life isn't going to be longer or better because you worry more.

Quite the opposite.

Jesus says in verse 34, don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries.

Today's trouble is enough for today.

It's very possible that Jesus was taking a different spin on a very uh very old saying of the Jewish rabbis that goes this way Do not worry over tomorrow's evils, for you know not what today will bring forth.

Perhaps tomorrow you will not be alive, and you will have worried for a world which will not be yours.

That is very optimistic advice, right there.

But it's a powerful truth.

Worry is often rooted in our ability to overestimate how much control we have over life.

That's why in the book of James, chapter four, James says, Look here, you who say, today or tomorrow, we're going to a certain town, we'll stay there for a year, we'll do business, we'll make a profit.

How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow?

Your life is like the morning fog.

It's here a little while, then it's gone.

What you ought to say is if the Lord wants us to, we'll live and do this or that.

Otherwise, you're boasting about your own pretentious plans and all such boasting is evil.

If you've never heard the book of James or read it, it's uh James is a straight shooter.

It's very blunt.

Worry is so often rooted in our overestimation of control.

And control is always rooted in fear.

Like you control what you fear will go wrong.

If you don't have fear, you don't have to control things.

Those things are closely tied, and very often we're trying to control everything in life, and worry, anxiety, control, fear, they all get along really, really well.

The reality is we don't have as much control as we'd like to think.

I'm not saying we don't have responsibility, that we're not supposed to do our best and live life to the fullest and get after it and work hard and do wise things.

No, absolutely we do that, but we do all of that with an open hand.

We do all of that knowing that ultimately it's all up to God.

And we don't tighten our fists and try to control because we're afraid of losing what we have.

Or we're afraid, what if my plans don't work?

We don't do that.

If we do, it's to our detriment, and I've done that plenty.

Like, think about it this way have you ever spent time worried about something that never happened?

And you wasted so much energy, so much time, so much stress.

You maybe drove people around you crazy because you were worried about something that never happened.

When I was 16 years old, um, I got a car from my parents, and I was really grateful for that.

And I uh I will say this, and my mom and dad live in Missouri, and so I'm gonna look at the camera.

If you guys watch this, disclaimer, I love you, you're great, you didn't do anything wrong, you're great parents, you raised me well, you were this is just a story, and it's half intended for humor.

Okay, so you gotta give I love my parents and they they listen sometimes.

Um my parents got me a car.

What they didn't get me, and I don't blame them for this, it's just the reality, they didn't get me proper uh training on how to drive the car because they did it themselves, which consisted of my dad just driving alongside of me or riding alongside of me and just constantly saying, What are you doing?

What are you doing?

And I was like, I don't know what I'm doing.

That's why you're here.

That's the I I I'm learning.

That's all my dad would say.

What are you doing?

What are you doing?

I don't know what I'm doing.

And my mom just prayed out loud, like that's what she did.

But it was sort of like, oh my god, oh my oh my god, oh my god.

That was uh, I got, what are you doing?

Oh my god.

That that was my driver's ed.

I'm I'm I'm half-teasing.

They did better than that.

But I was not a good driver.

And by the way, can we just say this?

Those of you who are in the room, by the way, high school students, none of you are good drivers.

There's no such if a 16-year-old says I'm a good driver, no, you're not.

That's it's like when I first got married, I was not a good husband.

It's why my our older kids are always so messed up because we weren't good parents when we had them.

We didn't know what we were doing, right?

Just gotta be like, I wasn't, I was bad at that.

So I was a bad driver, and a few weeks in, like a few weeks into me having my license, I parked my car and I misjudged the space and I scraped the front bumper and I was freaked out because my dad, who I love, good man, not a chill dude, not the kind of guy who would look at that and go, it's just a scratch.

Not my dad's energy in high school, at least.

So I freaked out.

He was out of town, fortunately.

So I spent two days stressed out about it.

I'm I'm like trying to buff it out.

I went to the auto store and I'm getting stuff to try to you know rub the scratch down and wax and all kinds of things.

I'm looking up, like, how can I cover this scratch up?

But I did my best and it wasn't invisible, but it wasn't as bad as it had looked.

And he he came into town and he didn't notice it.

I'd spent days freaked out about this.

He didn't notice it.

And then the next day, I pulled out in front of an El Camino and almost tolled my car.

Um, but the good news is he never knew about the scratch.

He never saw it.

In fact, he may be learning about it for the first time today if he listens to the message.

It's just funny because I spent days terrified that my dad was gonna see a scratch on the front of my car.

It dominated my thoughts for days, and it never even happened.

He never even noticed it.

What happened was so much worse.

That's why it's pointless to worry.

Because either the thing that you're worried about isn't going to happen, or what ends up happening is going to be very different and maybe even a lot harder.

But all of that worry accomplished you nothing.

Like all the worry I had about the scratch did not prepare me for the conversation with my dad.

I'll never forget that phone call.

Call my mom, her first question was, Are you hurt?

Call my dad, his first question was, Was it your fault?

But he knew I was okay because I was calling him.

He figured that out.

That's the way worry works.

It's pointless, it's a waste of your time.

Worry is a waste of your energy, it's a waste of creativity.

God made us to be creative.

He made you capable of dreaming about how much better life can be.

He made you capable of dreaming about if you do this or that, think about the positive impact it will have on your life, but you can use all that creativity and waste it by just imagining all the terrible things that could happen.

It's a waste, and you have to see it like that.

Worry is a waste of your time.

It is pointless, it accomplishes nothing.

Jesus says as much.

Why worry?

What is the point in that?

It's not just wasteful, though.

It's not just pointless.

Worry is something we have to understand.

Worry is not circumstantial.

It's really important to understand that worry is not circumstantial.

If it was, then the better off life is going, the less worried you would be.

And no statistics actually bear that out.

In fact, in our nation, in our world, let's even go further, the the wealthiest countries deal with the highest rates of anxiety.

It's not the people who are struggling to eat every day and stay alive that are crippled by anxiety.

It's the people who have 401ks.

That it's it's an interesting thing.

Worry is not circumstantial.

Just think about for a moment the people that Jesus is talking to, the people that Paul is writing to, first century people living in Israel or in the surrounding parts of the Roman Empire.

Their lives are so different than ours.

First and foremost, like food.

I mean, Jesus says, don't worry about what you're gonna eat or drink.

Think about that.

He says, food, water, and clothing, that's what we shouldn't be worried about.

And that's because the people that he's talking to, that's what they're worried about.

That's what dominates their fears.

Am I gonna have food today?

These are people who ate maybe two meals a day, they maybe ate meat once a day if they were doing well.

They were hungry all the time, which is why that story of Jesus feeding the 5,000, that's why that meant so much to the people because they were hungry.

They weren't hangry.

They weren't like, well, we haven't had anything since breakfast, so we're in a bad mood.

Like they were actually hungry.

And even that story, you think if you know that story, right?

There's a little boy and he has some loaves of bread and a few fish.

And Jesus takes that and he multiplies it miraculously.

And maybe you've pictured that story and you've thought, like, these are huge fish.

Like he's got trout or something like that.

Or these are giant French rolls of bread or something like that.

No, no, no, no.

No, these would have been these really tiny barley loaves, like very small rolls of very coarse bread, and a few sardines.

That's why the boy had them with him.

He wasn't carrying a huge fish over his shoulder.

Like they were in his pocket.

In fact, sardines were the main export of the Sea of Galilee, where all the fishermen that Jesus worked with worked.

Like that's what those are the kind of fish they were often trying to catch, were really small fish.

These were hungry people, and Jesus looked at them and he said, Don't worry about food.

Like, imagine what he would say to us.

I mean, a lot of us, our biggest concern is, I hope I don't eat too many calories today.

Like I'm working really hard to eat less.

I'm stressed about how much food I've been eating.

And Jesus is telling people who are hungry, don't worry about food.

You look at the quality of their life.

The life expectancy in Jesus' day was 35 years.

35.

Life expectancy is different than life span, right?

Life span is how long we can live as a species.

That was the same.

But life expectancy that factors in everything from infant mortality rates to wars and famine and you name it.

And because that world was so plagued by all of that, the average person just didn't live that long.

It's one of the reasons that we're very confident that Jesus' dad on earth, Joseph, passed away at some point after Jesus turned 13.

Because we never see him again in the story after that point, and people just didn't live very long.

All it would have taken would have been for Joseph to get sick, and he would have passed away.

The average person could expect to live 35 years.

And in our world, we have medicine and we have incredible medical technology and we're well fed, and so our life expectancy is like double that, and then some.

And yet we have some of the highest rates of anxiety that we have ever seen.

Financially, these people were so poor.

They weren't just poor, they were burdened.

The average tax rate in their area was around 60%.

60% taxes.

That's why they hated the tax collectors so much.

Tax collectors were often very corrupt and they overtaxed them, but the average person living in in first century Israel could expect to pay upwards of 60% of what they earned in taxes.

If you know your history, we fought the Revolutionary War over, it wasn't just taxes.

It was, you know, the representation, no taxation without representation.

But do you know what our tax rate was when we fought the Revolutionary War?

One percent.

We were one to two percent, and we fought a war over that.

We were like, this is gonna stop.

We'll go to we'll die for lower taxes.

They were paying 60% taxes.

They didn't have freedom.

Rome occupied them, and Rome was brutal to the people that they occupied.

They took advantage of them.

They could force you to do things.

Life was hard.

And Jesus looks at those people and he says, Do not worry.

Imagine what he'd say to us.

Like if you could take a person that Jesus would have been talking to, that Paul would have been writing to, and just take them to your house for a day and open up your refrigerator, they would cry.

They wouldn't know how to process like a giant box filled with fresh food.

They couldn't handle it.

And they would look at us and go, wait, you're worried?

You're anxious?

Why?

Because it's not circumstantial.

Worry is not tied to how well things are going.

Sometimes it feels that way, but again, if it was, then very few Americans would be worried.

Very few Americans would deal with anxiety.

We have to understand that worry is a deeper problem.

It's not circumstantial, so the solution to your worry is not something changing in your circumstances.

It's not something that needs to change outside of you, it's something that needs to change inside of you.

I mean, Jesus said it best.

Matthew 16.

What do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?

Is anything worth more than your soul?

Worry attacks our soul.

It hits us in deep places.

So if you're if you're dealing with anxiety, if you're struggling with worry, the answer is not fixing something outside of you.

Maybe that'll help a little bit, maybe that'll calm you down for a moment, but truly you need something to change inside.

And that, by the way, is the reason some people can experience really terrible circumstances and have joy and peace and faith.

And other people can have something go wrong just a little bit, and it rocks their world.

Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we are made of stronger stuff.

This is a soul issue, so we have to handle it at a soul level.

Worry is pointless, it's not circumstantial, it's also foolish.

Like worry is foolish.

It leads us to do really stupid things.

Very few people would ever say about their best decisions.

Well, I was really worried, so I did this.

I was afraid, I was so afraid, so I did this, and it turned out to be the best decision I've ever made.

Doesn't go that way.

Like Genesis chapter 3.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

If you know the story in Genesis 3, this is the fall, this is where Adam and Eve they eat the forbidden fruit, then they realize that they're naked and they freak out, and they hear God coming.

And so they hide.

They decide, we'll hide from God.

My kids think they can hide from me at home, they can't.

And I'm just a dad with two eyes and a few ears.

They thought they could hide from God.

And God finds them, shocker.

And he asks them, like, why were you hiding?

In Genesis 3.10, Adam replies, Well, I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid.

I was afraid because I was naked.

I was afraid.

That is an excuse we make when we make terrible decisions.

Why did you do that?

I was afraid.

Oh, okay.

Well, that makes sense.

Why would you have ever done that in your life?

I was really worried that this would happen, so I did this stupid thing.

Worry is foolish.

And even the most godly, mature believers can be susceptible to it.

Take the story, for example, in the Old Testament of Elijah.

If you don't know about Elijah, amazing prophet, lived during a really interesting time.

There was a king named Ahab.

Ahab married a woman named Jezebel.

She was a foreigner, she was from Tyre and Sidon, and they worshipped false gods.

She brought that false worship into Israel, into that area, and she got everyone to start worshiping this false god Baal.

And this is like terrible, evil pagan stuff, like sacrifices, all kinds of crazy stuff, just horrible.

And she was so passionate about Baal worship, she wanted to stamp out the worship of the true God in Israel.

So she had tons of the prophets murdered.

And basically, it was like illegal to be a prophet, to be someone who actually spoke on behalf of God.

She wanted you out, and Elijah was one of the last remaining.

There weren't that many left.

And so everything kind of comes to a head in this amazing moment on the top of this mountain.

And it's Elijah versus all these prophets of Baal, and they set this whole thing up.

It was like a challenge.

In our world today, this would be like a reality TV show.

They would have had cameras, this would have been like the voice or something like that.

It's like just a religious version, it's like a set a sacrifice challenge.

And everyone gathers, like all the people are there, and the prophets of Baal have their altar, and they're gonna try to sacrifice an animal on that altar, and they're basically saying, Hey, pray to your God and have your God create the fire.

Elijah challenges them to that.

He's that confident in God, and then he's gonna do it.

And so the prophets of Baal, they spend all day, they're like chanting and yelling and making all this noise and trying to beckon their God to light this altar on fire, it doesn't happen.

And Elijah starts trash talking him.

Like he says things literally, like, Maybe your God's asleep, maybe he's using the bathroom.

Like he says that.

That's in the Bible.

You can read that.

And then it's his turn.

After they fail, it's his turn.

And in 1 Kings chapter 18, it says, Elijah called to the people, Come over here.

1 Kings 18 · chapter mention

And they all crowded around him as he repaired the altar of the Lord that had been torn down.

He took twelve stones, one to represent each of the tribes of Israel, and he used the stones to rebuild the altar in the name of the Lord.

And then he dug a trench around the altar, large enough to hold about three gallons.

He piled wood on the altar, cut the bull into pieces, and laid the pieces on the wood.

And then he said, Fill four large jars with water, and pour the water over the offering in the wood.

After they had done this, he said, Do the same thing again.

And when they were finished, he said, Now do it a third time.

So they did as he said.

And the water ran around the altar and even filled the trench.

At the usual time for offering, the evening sacrifice, Elijah the prophet walked up to the altar and prayed, O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, prove today that you are God in Israel, that I'm your servant.

Prove that I have done all this at your command.

O Lord, answer me.

Answer me, so these people will know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you have brought them back to yourself.

And immediately the fire of the Lord flashed down from heaven and burned up the young bull, the wood, the stones, and the dust.

It even licked up all the water in the trench.

And when all the people saw it, they fell face down on the ground and cried out, The Lord, He is God.

Yes, the Lord is God.

And then Elijah looked at all the prophets of Baal, and he went, Get them, and the people all grabbed the prophets and they killed all the prophets of Baal.

They're all dead.

You're like, eh, that took a turn.

A few years ago, for what it's worth, if you ever read some of those stories in the Old Testament and there's a lot of violence and bloodshed, and you're like, I don't know how to handle this.

We did a series a couple of years ago called So Much Blood.

And uh, feel free to go back and listen to that.

I think it'll answer some of those questions.

This is an amazing moment of victory, like, violence aside, it's an amazing moment of victory for Elijah.

He just like trash-talked the prophets of Baal, they failed miserably.

He sees God miraculously light this altar on fire, everyone bows down and worships God.

You would think that if if you're Elijah, obviously you give honor to God, like glory goes to God, but you probably, like you probably have a little bit of strut in your step.

You know, if you're Elijah after that, you've got a little swagger, you're probably walking around like just you know, loose.

Like, hey, what's going on?

Like you would be in a good mood.

But check out what happens next.

1 Kings 19.

When Ahab got home, he was there.

He got home, he was kind of spineless.

Jezebel really, really ran things.

He told Jezebel everything Elijah had done.

Like Ahab gets home and goes, hey honey, how was your day?

So all your prophets are dead.

Um, yeah, it was a rough day on the altar.

It says, including the way that he killed the prophets of Baal.

So Jezebel sent this message to Elijah, to Elijah, may the God strike me and even kill me, if by this time tomorrow I have not killed you just as you killed them.

And Elijah was afraid and fled for his life.

That's so odd.

Like Elijah, you you just saw God do something incredible and you had such confidence in God.

You knew that he would do it.

Like Elijah set that whole thing up, knowing God would come through, and now he gets threatened by Jezebel and he freaks out and runs away.

And if you read the story, he legitimately flees to the wilderness.

Like he is a man on the run.

He is terrified.

Why?

Sometimes worry and fear, they can kind of come out of nowhere.

Sometimes it's not just when we're at a low point that we deal with worry and anxiety.

Sometimes we're riding high and we are in the best place in life we've ever been.

I doubt Elijah had ever had a day better than that day.

And then immediately something happens and it throws him, and he is consumed by worry and fear, and he flees.

We look at that and go, Elijah, that's so silly because it is.

Worry is foolish.

Fear leads to foolishness, and that, by the way, is what worry is.

Think about it in medical terms.

In medical terms, you have you have acute issues like a broken arm, and then you have chronic issues like some underlying medical condition.

Panic is like acute fear.

It's fear in a moment, and we don't make good decisions when we're panicked.

We do dumb things.

Worry, anxiety, that's like chronic fear.

That's like this underlying fear that just stays with us every single day, and it leads us to do incredibly foolish things.

Worry is pointless, it is not circumstantial, it is foolish, it is dangerous.

I got one more.

Worry is actually godless.

It's kind of hard to hear it like that, but it's true.

Matthew 6, Jesus says, verse 32, these things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers.

But your heavenly Father already knows your needs.

Worry belongs in the heart of unbelievers.

That is what Jesus says.

But it doesn't belong in the heart of a believer.

Worry ultimately, if we're honest, it is a mistrust of God.

When we're worried, we are struggling, and we can give ourselves grace for this, by the way.

It's not about feeling guilty if you struggle with anxiety or worry, if you've ever dealt with that or are dealing with that.

But when you're worried, we have a fundamental mistrust of God.

It's just hard for us to trust that God's gonna make sure it works out.

And sometimes even our version of it working out is that everything goes really well, that the circumstances change, but that's not often how it goes.

Like actual faith is realizing no matter what happens, kind of like Paul in prison, if I live, good, if I die, even better.

That's what Paul said, Philippians 1.

He was torn, not really sure which is better.

I could live and stay here, I could go and be in heaven.

I mean, guys, what a tough decision.

That's what Paul said.

Because he had faith.

And real faith is going, I don't really care how it works out.

I know that God is good, and it will be for my good, whichever way it goes.

We're gonna see in the next couple weeks, Paul say, I've learned the secret of being content, whether I have a little or have a lot.

It doesn't matter what the circumstances are, we've established that.

But worry is godless.

Worry is a fundamental mistrust that God is in control and that he is, like he promises in the book of Romans, working out everything for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose.

Do you believe that?

Do you believe that God is for you?

Do you believe wow, porky pig?

Um, do you do you believe?

Do you believe that God is bigger than your problems, your struggles?

Do you believe that even if the worst happens, even if the worst thing you can imagine happens, do you believe that God is good?

And that everything will be okay.

You should, because that's true.

God is so good.

That's one of my favorite things about Matt.

I'm not trying to give him a complex, but if you've been at his hands for a long time, you know that almost every time Matt talks in between a song, he's gonna start by saying, God is good.

God is good.

He says it all the time.

You know why?

Because it's true.

He believes it.

He is good.

And if we live with faith, worry goes away, anxiety dissipates because all of that stuff melts in the face of God.

All of that stuff goes away and it just vanishes in the presence of the Lord.

And this is what takes us home.

Because if worry is ultimately godless, that means that the solution to worry is God.

Truly.

The solution to anxiety, and we live in a whole nation crippled by anxiety.

That's just not a hot take.

You can do any research, any study.

We are more worried today than we used to be.

And it's not going in the right direction.

It doesn't matter how many anxiety medications they come out with.

I'm not saying you shouldn't take that if you've been prescribed that, whatever, I'm not a doctor, but I am saying that over the last several decades, as more and more people are on anxiety medication, anxiety is not going down.

There's a deeper problem.

If anxiety, if worry, if fear is godless, the answer, and this is good news, is God.

That's the beautiful thing.

This is not ultimately our problem to solve.

Do you know in Scripture, when we are challenged to escape worry, to move from worry, to get rid of our worries, when we're challenged to be courageous and strong, you will never find, ever, a recommendation in Scripture for dealing with worry that does not directly involve the presence of God.

You will not find verses that say, hey, don't be worried.

I mean, think about how much better off you are than you used to be.

You won't see that in scripture.

You won't see some, hey, compare your circumstances to others, and you'll be less worried.

Hey, don't be afraid.

I mean, come on.

What's the worst that can happen?

You don't find that in Scripture.

You don't find Scripture telling you to just compare your blessings to your challenges and realize that things are going pretty well for you.

That's never the case.

Every time God's word challenges us, every time God's word challenges us to deal with fear or worry, it is by one thing and one thing only: the presence of God Himself.

So Philippians 4, 6 and 7.

Don't worry about anything.

Instead, what?

Pray about everything.

Go to God.

Tell God what you need and thank him for all he's done, and then you'll experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand.

His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

That word, by the way, for guard, the Greek word actually refers to like a whole post of soldiers guarding something.

So God's His peace will stand guard over your heart.

But the solution is to go to Him.

1 Peter 5 7 says, Give all your worries and cares to God.

For he cares about you.

Go to God.

Isaiah 41.10 says, Don't be afraid, for I am with you.

That's what God says.

Don't be afraid, don't be worried, don't be anxious.

I'm here.

My presence.

Don't be discouraged, he says.

I'm your God.

I will strengthen you.

I will help you.

I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.

2 Timothy 1.7, for God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.

This comes from God, not from us.

Joshua 1 9, this is my command.

Be strong and courageous.

Do not be afraid or discouraged.

Why?

For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

He is the solution.

Isaiah 26, 3, you will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you.

Psalm 23, 4 says, even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me.

Every single time God's word tells us to deal with fear or worry or anxiety, it gives us one solution.

One solution.

The presence of God.

That's it.

The presence of God.

Some of you maybe in the back don't know what just happened.

I hope that audio picks up in the podcast and you can hear that.

I really hope it does.

That was great.

Man.

It's one solution.

Just one, the presence of God.

Imagine you have this massive problem.

It's a struggle.

And everyone you talk to that you trust gives you the exact same answer.

Oh, here's what you need, here's what you need, here's what you need, here's what you need, one thing.

Would you do it?

If everyone tells you that there's only one solution?

Every time, you Old Testament, New Testament, the prophets, the apostles, doesn't matter who it is, every time they talk about worry or fear or God Himself, there's one solution.

It is the presence of God.

And guys, we live with access to the presence of God at all times.

Because if you've given your life to Jesus, his spirit lives inside of you.

You are never far from God.

You might feel far from God.

That doesn't matter.

You're not far from God.

You are in his presence, he is with you.

And so when you deal with fear or worry, draw close to God.

Go to him.

Hebrews chapter 4, verse 16 says, Let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God, and there we receive his mercy.

Hebrews 4:16

We'll find grace to help us when we need it most.

We go to him.

That's the solution.

If you're worried, if you're afraid, if you're dealing with anxiety, go to God.

Over and over and over and over again.

Fix your thoughts on God.

Think about God.

Pray to God.

Speak to God.

Listen to God.

Get on your knees and worship God.

Because when you spend time truly in the presence of God, you are not consumed by fear.

If you are, it's a holy fear that is the recognition of how big God is.

It's a whole different thing.

But all your problems, all the worries of this world, they're gone.

They don't matter.

We're going to wrap up by taking Lord's Supper, and this connects.

It's amazing how God always works it out to connect.

And if you missed this when you came in, if you're new, we have these little cups with bread and juice at the tables in the back.

It's easy to walk past them your first time here and not see them.

It's pretty dark back there, but you're free to grab one right now if you want to, or no, you can do that for next week.

We do it every week.

This little meal that we have always brings us back to this important moment in the life of Jesus.

It's his death on the cross and everything that surrounded that.

And as you can imagine, Jesus was not looking forward to dying on the cross.

He wasn't excited about it.

He was resolute, he didn't run away from it, he was brave, absolutely, but he prayed and asked, Lord, is there another way?

Father, if there's any other way, that would be great.

But right after he took this meal with his disciples, and he knew that his hour was about to come and that the soldiers were going to come and arrest him, I don't think we should miss the reality that Jesus went to the Father.

That when he had something legitimate to worry about, being beaten, executed, being killed, being tortured, all of that, when he had something that intense to worry about, we would look at most people and go, no, you should, you should be worried.

Like if someone was about to be crucified by the Romans, and they're like, it's probably not a big deal.

No, no, no, it's you know this is you should be worried.

Jesus went directly to the Father.

And he got on his knees and he prayed.

He said, Father, take this cup from me.

Yet not my will, but your will.

I mean, Jesus models for us exactly what we're talking about today: that when you deal with worry and fear and anxiety, there's one solution.

It is God Himself.

You go and you get yourself in the presence of God and you let God's peace take over.

You let God's strength fill you.

You let God's perspective change the way that you think.

You give it to God, you trust him.

He's faithful.

So, with that said, let's take this bread.

Let's do that.

Let's commit our hearts today to being in the presence of God and letting our worries and our fears vanish, diminish.

Lord, we thank you for this bread.

We thank you, Lord, for what this bread means, what it represents.

This is your body given as a sacrifice on our behalf.

And Lord, it's not lost on me that when you were at your hardest moment, when you were dealing with something that was truly terrifying, you made it a priority to go to your Father.

You made it a priority to be in the presence of God the Father.

Help us, Jesus, follow after you.

Help us be like you, help us live with that kind of wisdom to recognize that when we're struggling, when we're worried, when we're afraid, we go to you.

We love you.

Let's take the bread.

Now the juice.

Lord, we thank you for this cup.

This is your blood.

Spilled and poured out as an offering, purifies us from our sin, pays the price fully, completely.

Because of that, Jesus, we don't have to be afraid of being in the presence of God the Father.

We are adopted as his very own sons and daughters.

Thank you, Jesus, for that.

You made a way for us when we could not have.

But again, Lord, help us remember that when we're faced with pain, with challenges, with hurt, with heartache, whatever it might be.

Help us run to our Father.

Help us prioritize presence, the presence of God.

It's not so much about us getting away from our worries, it's about us getting in your presence and letting you deal with those things like only you can.

Help us trust you, help us lean into you, and we pray this in your name, Jesus.

Let's take the juice.