Be Anxious For Nothing!

In Philippians 4, born again believers are told to rejoice in the Lord always and be anxious for nothing. How is this possible? We don't need to guess. God tells us in the Bible how to do this.

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Podcast 28 Transcript

(This is a computer generated transcript of this podcast.  This is NOT a typed transcript and it has not been edited. Expect grammatical and syntactical errors.)

Hello and good day. I am B. R. Maul and you are listening to Living God's Way In An Ungodly World. It's good to have you here with me again today. Welcome. I hope all is going well in the sense of your walk with the Lord. The Lord does not promise us that as Christians, everything will be just fine. Everything will be well. There will be trials, there will be tribulations, and there will be issues in our life as Christians, and we are seeing more and more of this each and every day and every week that passes by as this world continues to grow farther and farther away from God the creator. And as I discussed in the previous week, because the world is growing to hate God all the more, they will also hate his children, those who are born again believers. 

But hang in there, brothers and sisters in Christ. Hang in there because remember, we have hope and not the kind of hope as in boy do. I hope I get to have some pizza on pizza night. I. Which I do hope for because I love my pizza. However, we have the Old Testament hope. The kind of hope in God's word. That is for sure. We know for certain that Christ died for us on the cross. We know for certain that his blood has washed away the sins of all who believe in him, and we know. Jesus is coming again a second time and this time to do what the Jews thought he was going to do the first time around and that is to rule.

And boy do I look forward to that. That's all I got to say about that is come Lord Jesus, come. I was reading some of my notes going through things. I tend to do that. I get notes all built up either around my computer, where I write things down that I want to look into later, or by where I sit down and often read God's word. I'll end up collecting a pile of notes, things that I want to look into later, and I ran into a clipping that I had saved earlier this year, way back in March. The reason I saved it is because it was about a couple in the local area, but there were two points in the article that I marked, and now that I have read again, I realize what was bothersome about what the wife in this article had said.

So I'm not going to read the whole article, but I wanted to read the two points that really stuck out. The reason this sticks out is not only is it local, and so for me, anytime I read something local, it's all the more of a reminder that it's just not around the world, but here in my own backyard. But also this is often beloved, what I have spoke about that is heavy on my heart, that the Lord has revealed in my walk with him that has gone wrong in the church today.

Now these two people, this couple attend a Catholic church and she says, our goal is to help get each other to heaven. She's referring to her and her husband, the relationship they have. Our goal is to help each other to heaven, she said. The article says she looks forward to having her husband as her partner in doing that and to quote, raising children to help them get to heaven as well.

So that was the first statement, and that one I think, sticks with me the most because it's so close to the truth and I see this child of God as. A victim to what has been taught over the last few centuries, in particular, as the seminaries have become more business, and I have seen this firsthand. I have attended a seminary.

The Lord has placed it upon me to be an under shepherd to feed his sheep as he does with all those he calls to be a pastor or preacher. I. Or minister, it's a wonderful thing and I am honored that the Lord has placed this burden upon my heart to feed his sheep, so that's what I'm doing. Please understand that is my goal here, is to make sure that we are listening to our Heavenly Father's words and not the words of those who are teaching for the wrong reason.

They are not teaching because God has called them to teach or to preach. Many are doing it for the business of it, and my proof in that is in America, many churches under the federal government, Have filed what they call a five oh one C three, which gives them tax exempt order. And with that, people who donate to an organization, which is a 501 C3 income tax time in America, they can go ahead and write the amount they donate to these places.

And often it's a church, but there's a lot of 501 C3 that are not church. And so people get money back. Or at least the government doesn't take that much more out of their pocket because of this. Statistically, those that are 501 c3 receive much more in donation than those who are not 501 C3.

Well, what has that got to do with anything you may be asking? I want to point out that a 501 C3 is a corporation. It is a business. And it needs to allocate its resources as a business. An example of that is a corporation must have a board of directors, those who oversee the company that have voting rights. And in the case of churches, that often falls into the category of eldership. Which I don't appreciate because in the Bible, elders are often referred to the ones that are called to teach what we call pastors today. So biblically elders have much more responsibility than just showing up to a few meetings that the church and walking around with status, they too have a responsibility to feed the sheep.

Does that make sense to you? So I listened to what this young gal had to say months ago, and it was publicized locally that our goal is to help get each other to heaven and to raise children to help them get to heaven as well. It's misleading. I am sure that she meant well, but the Catholic Church teaches this.

The Catholic church teaches you can't be sure if you're going to heaven. The other part of this article, which again, reading quickly and from a layman's point of view could seem harmless. But let me read it and I can point out to you how, again, this can be very misleading. And this is a quote, and this is the wife talking still.

If you don't believe in the Lord, it's hard to understand. Quote, what is the meaning to all this? The Lord is always here to hear this. You may feel alone, but you're never alone because he is with you. He being Jesus. Okay, now, I didn't read the whole article, so I understand that you don't see or could hear how again, that ended 'cause that was the very end of.

The article, how that could be misleading because for those who are outside the faith, which is many, they read that and they just think, oh, I'm never alone. Jesus is always here with me. He's always here to guide me. He's always here just waiting for me to ask him for something, and that's not biblical.

Now. God certainly is listening to everybody. Yes. But as we know from God's word and in Proverbs and, and several places that he doesn't answer everybody's prayer. When we read about wisdom in Proverbs, and wisdom in Proverbs is personified as a woman. Wisdom is speaking and saying, because you. Are not listening to me because I have extended my hand and you have not taken from me this wisdom because you are not seeking the wisdom.

When trouble comes, I will laugh, and the reason wisdom says that is because the world thinks that at any given time they'll just ask or tell Jesus what they want and that he's supposed to just jump up and give it to 'em like he's a genie. I. And that's not the case at all. The other thing that can be misleading is the notion that at any given time, someone can just get the salvation.

They can just take salvation whenever they feel like it. And that's so common, whether admitting directly or indirectly, there are many people who their idea of salvation is. Well, when I'm good and ready, I'll take it. Which good and ready is a horrible thing to wait for because we are born in the state of sin, not wanting to be a, a part of God by the very fact that we have a sinful nature with the sin that we have with us, we don't ever want to be with God.

So to say, when I'm good and ready, nobody is ever good. Ready to be saved. Just the opposite. It's only those who realize they are sinners. It's only the souls that realize I am broken and need a, a savior that can actually ask Christ into their heart. We can't just whenever we feel like it go, okay, Jesus, today.

Yep. Come on into my life now take things over. I'm ready. And there's no heart in it. That's all head knowledge. That would be me just flapping my mouth and that's it. He's not listening to that. Well, I certainly spent a little more time on that article than I wanted to, but the other thing I want to do for today is bring to your attention 'cause I like to share when the Lord speaks to me. About a week ago, it was last. Sunday, my wife and I, just the two of us sitting down with the Bible open and we were just looking at passages that had to do with anxiety, and one of the passages that I fell upon was in Philippians, and that's Philippians chapter four, and I'll be reading four through nine.

Philippians chapter four, verses four through nine. And so I read through this and we discussed it, but the interesting thing is just the beginning of this week, Monday and Tuesday were a couple of days that, well, myself, I was struggling with some issues now, nothing in particular, but it was triggered by things going on in the news and in our world today.

And so, like anyone else, my mind was focused. On these certain events, and I get frustrated. I can get very frustrated when I am reading articles or listening to politicians lie, because this unrighteousness, this wickedness, it's like a thorn in my side that at times I just can't sit still. Well, on my phone each day I get the verse of the day and I like to read that.

As it turns out, this verse came up, it was verse eight, the last part of this segment I'll be reading, but it hit home. And the reason it hit home is because talking to a brother of mine in the faith, he and I just, with things going on with local government and national government, and of course even this global government trying to get its hands on everything.

And there were things that, yes, it was frustrating and disturbing. So when I read this, I had to text it to him because it's the way the Lord will put stuff before us to try to guide us. And I think this so applies to the state of anxiety that I was working with, that the Lord had to send it to me a second time because the first time, sure, I read through it and things kind of connected, but it really didn't hit home to me.

And then the second part, it did hit home. So let me read it. Philippians 4:4. Rejoice in the Lord. Always. Again, I will say rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. Be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and Supplication with Thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Verse eight, and this is the one that came up on my application on the phone. Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, Whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything worthy, meditate on these things.

Verse nine, the things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me. These do and the god of peace will be with you. Now, let's go over that because this sure does take the idea of being anxious, puts it under the microscope and kind of blows it up for us, and so we can kind of take this anxiety stuff.

Apart. 'cause right away it starts out, rejoice in the Lord always. Isn't that something? And that's one of those things where a person can read and go, oh, okay, that's impossible. So, you know, why is he telling us to do that? But it's not impossible. Rejoice in the Lord always. And it's so important that he says, again, I will say rejoice.

Now. Rejoice here. It doesn't mean to be happy. Never are we called to always be happy. Jesus didn't walk around always being happy. If that's what our Savior wanted us to do, our Lord and God, he would've walked around being happy all the time. But that's not his expectation for us. But we can rejoice in the Lord always under all circumstances because rejoicing comes from having joy.

And joy is only obtained from God. Joy appears first and foremost in God's word. So there's no other place that we can obtain joy, this kind of rejoicing, this kind of peace, but through the help of our Heavenly Father. So rejoicing is a state, and when we put ourselves into that state of mind, I. We insist on still rejoicing through bad times.

That attitude can start to deflect so much other negativity that is around us that wants to pull us down. Verse five, let your gentleness be known to all men. What it's referring to here with gentleness is not quarreling over all the stuff that we want to quarrel or argue over as Christians over the little things that really don't matter.

It's got nothing to do with salvation. So let your gentleness be known to all men, believers and unbelievers alike. Verse six, be anxious for nothing. So verse four says, rejoice in the Lord. Always. Verse six, be anxious for nothing but in everything. How? By prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

Those are three parts that we must do in place of being anxious. We start being anxious. What we do then is in every circumstance, in everything, by prayer and supplication. Supplication is, uh, the needs that we bring before God, our wants, desires, needs. Prayer is acknowledging who he is. When Jesus taught us to pray, he starts out our father.

So we identify who he is, who art in heaven. So our Heavenly Father, hallowed be thy name, so holy is his name. We are to start out a prayer by acknowledging who our beloved father is, and then we bring our supplication, but we must also bring with Thanksgiving. And that Thanksgiving I have learned over the years is one of the most powerful parts of prayer because it's a reminder to me all the things that he has done for me.

All the blessings that God has bestowed upon this sinner for seven and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds. Through Christ Jesus. It's that peace that we only get from God. The world can look at a Christian who is going through a horrible time, but the very fact that they still take great comfort and they hope that the Christian has in his savior Jesus Christ, knowing that he or she is still going to heaven even if they've lost their health, if They've lost all their money. They've lost a child, they've lost a loved other loved one. Whatever is going on in their life, there's something different because the Christian knows and has that peace of God, which surpasses all understanding. We can't even explain it other than I have peace when things happen and I am turning to God.

The Rais in verse eight really stuck out to me this time, and it's one of the things I love about the word of God. I have read this passage many times, but this time when it came to my cell phone and I was reading it, I could hear the Holy Spirit almost. Listen, Bruce, listen. 'cause verse eight reads Finally, brethren, whatever things are true.

Whatever things are noble, just pure, lovely, are a good report. If there's any virtue, if there's anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things. And each time I was reading one of those characteristics, true, noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, the Holy Spirit was showing me that that's not.

What I was meditating on, I was meditating on the things around me that was a thorn in my side. Such a beautiful reminder that I need to stay focused on things that are heavenly and not of things on this earth. I want to be careful and make sure you understand that that doesn't mean we should not at all pay attention to what's going on around us.

We are told that although we are in this world, we are not of this world. A born again believer. So born of the spirit, as Jesus said in John three, our old self is crucified. Our old self is crucified. And so we turn to God, we open God's word, and as we read God's word day in and day out, he sanctifies us and that begins to change us.

That is why we are not of this world. That's beautiful and I want you to really meditate on that for a little bit. Think about that later when it's just you sit and really think about that. A born again Christian is not of this world. Our home is not here. We are mere sojourners. We're camping out here.

This is a pit stop. We are traveling home and on the way home we're spreading the good news, the gospel, and in hopes that others too will become born again and they do will come home. So I'm not encouraging you to not listen to what's going on in this world. I made that mistake. There were years of my life.

I wanted nothing to do with politics, wanted nothing to do what was going on, even local politics. Really, I wanted nothing to do with any of that. But shame on me and my other brothers and sisters throughout the world who we sat by as those who do not believe in God took God out of our schools, out of our courtrooms, out of our public square.

And so I can't allow that happen again. Me being selfish and trying just to think of me. Well, I'm part of the reason we're in this problem in the world that we live in today. However, this in Philippians reminds us to rejoice in the Lord always. So even as they take God out of our schools, out of our courtrooms, out of the public square, as these globalists are frantically trying to control this world. Now we know as Christians that in end times that is the attempt and they will get close. They'll get close. Sure they will. Things will become a lot worse than it is today. But we also know going by God's word, they will not succeed. Only one is to rule. All our wonderful savior, Jesus Christ, and when he comes back the second time, oh yeah, that's exactly what he's gonna do.

So with that, yes, we can rejoice in our Lord always, and we can be anxious for nothing, and instead in everything in prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving. Let our requests be known to our Heavenly Father and his wonderful peace, which surpasses all understanding, will guard our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

And that's important because that peace that we get guards our minds. So we don't have to be frantic, we don't have to buy into the world's solutions 'cause we don't have to. We'll hear those solutions and go, yeah, that's not gonna work. There's a lot of greed running that one. Oh, there's another lie.

There's more deception, and our minds will be guarded through Christ Jesus and that peace will be upon us. So as verse eight reminds us, finally, brethren, brethren, brothers and sisters in Christ. Whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things.

Beloved. Remember, Jesus loves you so much, and there is nothing more important than one’s salvation. So if you haven't come to Christ, then search your heart, then call him into your life. Give your life to Jesus. Pray to him. Ask him to come into your life. Confess that you are a sinner, and really that is the first thing that one must know, is that you are a sinner, that you are broken.

Otherwise, you don't feel you have the need for a savior. You have no need for salvation because you're a good enough person. God likes you just the way you are. You're not as evil as other people. But once you can get over that, and once you know indeed, yes, I, I can't do this on my own Lord, and I am broken.

That's where you need to be. And for those who are born again, already, being born again is only the beginning. It's not the end. So keep on reading God's word. Visit my website. You can go to www.brmaul.com. That is www.brmaul.com. Click on contact, use that, put in your question, put in your email and send it to me or comment, share with me what the Lord is doing in your life.

If you want me to share it with others in a broadcast, I'd be happy to do that as well. Otherwise, Just share it with me. That's encouragement and I do appreciate that. Pray for me and my family as we continue forward getting this message out to as many who will open it up and listen and pray. For those who do that, that their hearts are softened and that the message that God is speaking to them, that they act on it.

If you can support this ministry, I appreciate that as well. You can send your gift to the mailing address on my website. Just send it to B. R. Maul. The address is PO Box 126, Frazee Minnesota 56544. You can also click on Donate on my website, and there's a place that you could use PayPal. 

Thank you so much for joining me today. May the Lord make his face shine upon you and may his peace fill you, cover you. He loves you so much.

Until next time.

God bless.

Songs

“Heroes Inspire Hope” and “Mountainscape” by Humans Win

“An Untold Struggle” by Jon Presstone

“Our Rise 30 Seconds” by Moodmode