SPEAKER_00: Good morning, everyone.
SPEAKER_00: I hope this finds you well, and thank you for uh tuning in again uh this Sunday morning.
SPEAKER_00: It's bright and cold uh outside, and uh it's good to be at a meeting around God's Word, even though we are not uh in person, and we hope uh that we will be soon, uh maybe even the week after next.
SPEAKER_00: Uh we're certainly planning uh on being back as soon as we're able to be.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and that includes Christmas Day, actually.
SPEAKER_00: So if you're planning on being in the city, uh we uh we hope to have something in person uh on Christmas Day, and we'll give you more information about that uh in the uh in the coming weeks.
SPEAKER_00: This is our penultimate sermon uh in the Sermon on the Mount.
SPEAKER_00: Uh in fact, uh next week's text isn't really from the Sermon on the Mount, though it uh it kind of fits in with some of the things that that we've been thinking about.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to to jump on to Matthew chapter 10 and think a little bit about uh about uh fear of man, which of course uh dovetails nicely with our uh anxiety uh talks and thinking about being overly concerned about the opinion of others.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and so that's just a little trailer for uh for next week, and then we'll begin our our Advent series.
SPEAKER_00: Please keep the passage open that uh the Rosie read from uh from Matthew chapter seven, and let's pray together.
SPEAKER_00: Our father, I do ask you uh now for your help as we consider these things again, these things that uh it seem uh quite significant uh for for us.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you that your word speaks to them.
SPEAKER_00: Please help us uh by your spirit uh to to make progress and to experience and know uh the peace of the Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We pray these things in his name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: You might have had the interaction with somebody that goes a little bit like um you someone coming to you and saying, Well, I I don't believe in God.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're watching this this morning and thinking, Well, I don't I don't believe in God.
SPEAKER_00: I don't believe that there is a God.
SPEAKER_00: And perhaps you would ask that person, Well, could you describe to me for a moment uh the God that you don't believe in?
SPEAKER_00: Uh what's he what's he like?
SPEAKER_00: This God that you have that you have rejected.
SPEAKER_00: And very often uh what the person describes if they answer that question is they describe a God uh that we don't believe in either.
SPEAKER_00: They describe a God that's uh that isn't uh the God of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: It's a it's a good question to ask when somebody says, Well, I don't believe in God, because we all have uh misconceptions about who God is, we have misconceptions about about the character of God, and why that's important for us is because our misconceptions about the character of God impact our anxieties.
SPEAKER_00: That's the big idea as we begin.
SPEAKER_00: Our misconceptions about the character of God contribute to our anxieties all the way through the Sermon on the Mind over these last weeks.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus has been describing in both implicit and explicit terms what God is like.
SPEAKER_00: And that's such an important thing because we can think wrongly about God.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, our default position, probably as human beings, is to think wrongly about God.
SPEAKER_00: We can think that he's oppressive and dictatorial, or we can see him as passive and detached and cold and emotionally unavailable.
SPEAKER_00: Or we can think that God is simply a being who is concerned with your external goodness.
SPEAKER_00: As long as you're a moral person, as long as you do the right thing, then God will like you.
SPEAKER_00: I imagine that even as Christians, in fact, I know it's true because I feel it in my own life, that as Christians we think wrongly about God.
SPEAKER_00: I think that a lot of us probably uh believe something like that God doesn't like you very much.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, you know, he forgave you when you trusted in him all those years ago, perhaps when you were a teenager, but you haven't made very much progress.
SPEAKER_00: You haven't made much progress in holiness, or uh you know, becoming a better person, becoming more like Jesus, and and so it's just you think, well, God must regard me as a bit of a disappointment.
SPEAKER_00: Like the kid in the family who uh who doesn't really amount to much.
SPEAKER_00: Your brothers and sisters are excelling and you're just a disappointment.
SPEAKER_00: You think, well, maybe God's not angry at me because he forgave me and made me one of his children, but he's just kind of disappointed in me.
SPEAKER_00: He just doesn't like me very much.
SPEAKER_00: Are you tempted to think that way about God?
SPEAKER_00: I I know I am.
SPEAKER_00: That is a misconception.
SPEAKER_00: That is not the God of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: All of these notions, whether it's that he's oppressive or passive, or merely concerned about external righteousness, or just a bit disappointed in you.
SPEAKER_00: They are all wrong notions of who God is, and Jesus has been telling us that they've been wrong ever since he opened his sermon with the Beatitudes.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus has been telling us that God is a loving father, he's a loving father.
SPEAKER_00: Some earthly fathers are not like that, though many are, and we praise God for them.
SPEAKER_00: Some earthly fathers are not like that, though, and we can uh we can perhaps struggle to kind of uh think about God in those terms.
SPEAKER_00: But let God speak for himself through his word.
SPEAKER_00: What does it mean for God to be a father?
SPEAKER_00: It means that he is approachable approachable and available.
SPEAKER_00: It's how Jesus, Jesus, when he teaches his followers how to pray, he says, Come to God and say, Our Father.
SPEAKER_00: That is, you can come to him and address him in those sorts of terms, that you come to him and not simply say, Lord God, or you know, lots of people, and this is not wrong, but lots of people simply start all of their prayers, dear God.
SPEAKER_00: And that is true, he is God, and we must be reverent.
SPEAKER_00: But there is also a sense in which in our prayers we want to address him as our father.
SPEAKER_00: Father is a very formal word, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Uh you probably don't go home, and if your dad is in the house, go father.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, certainly Aileen Owen never addressed me as that.
SPEAKER_00: But when Jesus is doing that, he's he's not saying that you need to go in and be formal.
SPEAKER_00: It's not quite as informal as daddy, but it is warm and affectionate and describes a God who is available to you.
SPEAKER_00: Not only is he available, he's a God who provides for your daily needs.
SPEAKER_00: Give us this day our daily bread.
SPEAKER_00: He's that sort of father, he's a father who is not just only emotionally available, but provides for you.
SPEAKER_00: He takes care of you, he knows your needs.
SPEAKER_00: Not only that, he is even merciful to those who hate him.
SPEAKER_00: He is even merciful to those who do who regard him as an enemy.
SPEAKER_00: That is why we as followers of Jesus are to love our enemies, because God loved us when we were arrayed in enity and opposition to him.
SPEAKER_00: And if you and the point is, if he loved us when we were his enemies, if he loved us when we were rejecting him and opposing him, stubborn in our hearts, if he loved us then, how much more does he love us now that we are following him, trusting him, pursuing him.
SPEAKER_00: He loves us.
SPEAKER_00: He is in good and sovereign control of the world, of your life.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we looked at last night.
SPEAKER_00: He cares for the birds of the air, he clothes the flower of the field, he is in good, loving, sovereign control of those things.
SPEAKER_00: He loves us with an unrelenting, unmatchable, indescribable love.
SPEAKER_00: In the passage that Rosie read for us, Jesus talks about the good fatherly nature of God.
SPEAKER_00: And he uses it, uses an analogy, uses the analogy of uh of earthly fathers uh as a as a comparison, but also as a as is as a distinction.
SPEAKER_00: Cast your eye down with me to verse 9.
SPEAKER_00: He says, or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone, or if he asks for a fish, we'll give him a serpent.
SPEAKER_00: If you then who are evil, that is, you then who don't know God, uh know how to give goods get good gifts to your children, how much more will your father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him?
SPEAKER_00: What he's saying is that you don't have to be uh you don't have to be a Christian to be a good parent, uh but because there is something innate in most parents, certainly, that even if they don't love very many people, even if they're not particularly nice to be around, still take care of their children, still provide for their kids and are still loving towards them.
SPEAKER_00: He says, if that's true of those parents, how much more true is it of God?
SPEAKER_00: God, who is your father, who loves perfectly?
SPEAKER_00: God doesn't act maliciously, he doesn't dangle salvation in front of you like a carrot, only to have it whipped away if you're bad.
SPEAKER_00: Nor does he love in a transactional way of you do this for me and then I will love you in return.
SPEAKER_00: You do this for me, and then I will accept you in return.
SPEAKER_00: That is not the character of God.
SPEAKER_00: God loves recklessly, he loves you selfishly, he loves you from eternity, he remains loving now and provides for your needs.
SPEAKER_00: He even sometimes takes away things that are ultimately for your eternal good.
SPEAKER_00: Why do I jump ahead?
SPEAKER_00: Why do I mention these things right at the start?
SPEAKER_00: I do because when it comes to our anxieties, our anxieties are exacerbated by a wrong view of God.
SPEAKER_00: I think of two big characteristics about God: his power, that is, his sovereignty, his control of the universe, and his love.
SPEAKER_00: If you lose one of them, you will end up anxious.
SPEAKER_00: If you lose sight of God's sovereign control of the world and of your life, and only see him as good, then that might be nice and sentimental, but it doesn't help you, does it?
SPEAKER_00: Because you think, well, he's not in control, and what I need right now is some control of my life.
SPEAKER_00: I need someone or I need myself to be sovereign over this area or over my life because it's spinning out of control, or at least that's how it feels.
SPEAKER_00: Or, and I think this is perhaps more common, what we maybe see is that yes, God is powerful, God is in control, God in is sovereign.
SPEAKER_00: But we lose sight of his love and of his care.
SPEAKER_00: If you believe in a God who is in control but not loving, you can think that that's tyrannical.
SPEAKER_00: You can think that that doesn't have your bad that that God doesn't have your best interests at heart at heart.
SPEAKER_00: The contention of the Bible is that God is both He is sovereign and He is good, He is powerful and He is loving.
SPEAKER_00: That means that the control that He exercises over the world, the sovereignty that He exercises over your life is one that is motivated by love and by care and by goodness.
SPEAKER_00: When we have those two things in our mind, when we fight to maintain those two things in our heart, we can begin to do battle against our anxieties.
SPEAKER_00: Last week uh we began thinking about anxiety, and today I want to push the issue a little bit further to explore it some more based on the uh the uh feedback that I've received.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for those who have messaged me or got in touch.
SPEAKER_00: So I want to offer some clarifications, and then uh based on the first half of the passage, I want to uh offer some final practical, as practical as I can make it, encouragements to help the anxious person make progress as a disciple of Jesus, because the sense that I get from many of you this past week is that one, there are many of us who are anxious, but two, we want to follow Jesus in the midst of our anxieties, we want to make progress because it's a rotten way to feel, right?
SPEAKER_00: We don't want to be debilitated by it anymore.
SPEAKER_00: So uh, first first part, just some clarifications, just about exactly what we're talking about, and then some practical application from the first part of this passage.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, like I should have turned off mail.
SPEAKER_00: There you go.
SPEAKER_00: Uh next week, like I say, we'll be uh looking at this distinct idea or this related idea of fear of man.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and so all kind of fear of man issues are going to park until uh until next week, and I'm gonna explore that more more fully, okay.
SPEAKER_00: First thing that I want to do is I want to unpack anxiety further and specifically address the issue of chronic anxiety, because this is one of the things that came up uh with a number of people is the issue of anxiety that leads you to needing kind of medical or professional intervention.
SPEAKER_00: And is that what the Bible's talking about?
SPEAKER_00: How do we relate that to the wider conversation of uh of anxiety?
SPEAKER_00: And in order to do that, I'm gonna just lay out that I think there are four main uh manifestations of anxiety, four main ones, okay?
SPEAKER_00: And one of the things that we're reckoning with is are they all are they all sinful?
SPEAKER_00: Are any of them sinful?
SPEAKER_00: Is it sinful to feel anxious?
SPEAKER_00: And the answer is both yes and no.
SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna unpack them.
SPEAKER_00: What are those four main uh areas or four main buckets of anxiety?
SPEAKER_00: Well, the first is is is what you might call a kind of God-given natural uh fear and cautiousness around uh around the unknown or around uncertain or uh or scary uh events.
SPEAKER_00: That is a gift from God.
SPEAKER_00: That is the way God has made us.
SPEAKER_00: God has made human beings to be cautious about their environment.
SPEAKER_00: We have a very sensitive neurological reflex that that is designed to uh to look out for and detect danger, uh, particularly uh the danger of snakes and whether that kind of relates to kind of the uh some of the kind of archetypal language of the snake being the one in the garden.
SPEAKER_00: But we're particularly attuned uh by whatever neuroclimatical process to be uh heightened and aware of danger.
SPEAKER_00: And that that anxiety, those that that kind of anxious feeling, that's a good thing.
SPEAKER_00: You want to have that, that keeps you safe.
SPEAKER_00: And so you imagine for a second that you're out in the city at at night time and you're you're walking down a poorly lit street.
SPEAKER_00: How do you feel walking down that poorly lit street?
SPEAKER_00: Well, your your senses are are heightened, right?
SPEAKER_00: You uh you turn you turn the podcast off, you take your earbuds out and you put them in your pocket.
SPEAKER_00: The next thing you do is you reach into your pocket and you get your keys, don't you?
SPEAKER_00: And you think, well, uh, I've been told that if I if I put my keys uh between my uh between my knuckles, if anybody comes up behind me, I'll be able to, you know, I might be able to get one one blow in.
SPEAKER_00: But you do that because you're aware of your environment and you're taking precautions.
SPEAKER_00: It is uh it is not wise to uh to walk down a poorly lit alleyway.
SPEAKER_00: You totally blase uh and and not taking those things into account.
SPEAKER_00: Is that anxiety a sinful anxiety?
SPEAKER_00: No, of course it's not, it is a wise response to uncertain things.
SPEAKER_00: The second is this issue of chronic or clinical anxiety.
SPEAKER_00: For most people, the feeling that you get walking down a dark alley fades when you get home, it gives way to you feeling safe.
SPEAKER_00: The environment that you're in makes sense and you know it.
SPEAKER_00: But for some people, that feeling of on-edgeness, of anxiety, of worry, of fear, of feeling like something bad is just around the corner.
SPEAKER_00: Those emotions don't fade, they don't go away, they don't give way to peace, do they?
SPEAKER_00: For that person, we're getting into the realm of clinical anxiety.
SPEAKER_00: Now I want to be very precise.
SPEAKER_00: Clinical anxiety is when someone has anxious thoughts most days for a period of six months or more, right?
SPEAKER_00: So I don't want you to think, oh gosh, uh, I've been anxious a lot this, I've been anxious a lot this week, or I've been anxious a lot this month in this in this in this lockdown.
SPEAKER_00: I must have clinical anxiety.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no, it's it is it is more than that.
SPEAKER_00: If it's a case of I've been anxious a lot over these last five weeks that we've been locked down, what we want to do is we want to see that when things open back up, when we get into the new year, when Lord willing the vaccine is rolled out, do those anxieties subside?
SPEAKER_00: Because if those anxieties subside, then they were uh they were and Some sense is kind of natural circumstantial anxieties, and we can work with them.
SPEAKER_00: But if actually things begin to go back to normal and uh and we get the vaccine and everything opens up and it's still persisting on into the new year, then we want to have a conversation, right?
SPEAKER_00: It is anxious thoughts most days over an extended period of time, six months or more, according to the clinical literature.
SPEAKER_00: This is often accompanied with physiological effects like having trouble sleeping, social anxiety, panic attacks, those sorts of things.
SPEAKER_00: Let me be very clear.
SPEAKER_00: In those cases, that person should seek the help of a doctor, counsellor, or other medical professional.
SPEAKER_00: And we don't call that anxiety sinful on its face.
SPEAKER_00: With regards to clinical treatment and medication, I think the best principle is to say that those things are essential.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're on anxiety medication that is prescribed by a medical professional, you should take your medication.
SPEAKER_00: Those things are essential, but they are rarely sufficient.
SPEAKER_00: Essential, but rarely sufficient.
SPEAKER_00: As Christians, we believe that the only one who can give true, lasting, and enduring peace and provide immovable hope is the Lord Jesus, not a pill.
SPEAKER_00: But when a person is in the throes of a panic attack, when the person is in that vortex of chronic anxiety, it can be very hard to hear that.
SPEAKER_00: So let me offer you a couple of illustrations on how I think chronic anxiety, medication, and the gospel interact.
SPEAKER_00: First one is imagine a person is on the ground, they've just had a heart attack.
SPEAKER_00: They've had a heart attack, they're unconscious, and uh the paramedics are standing over them and they're and they're and they're giving them CPR in order to keep the blood pumping around their system and into their and into their brain.
SPEAKER_00: You wouldn't at that point uh kneel down beside the unconscious person uh and say, uh, look, we really need to talk about uh your lifestyle, we need to talk about the uh the kind of foods that you're eating.
SPEAKER_00: Uh you're clearly not getting enough exercise.
SPEAKER_00: Um, you just need to start making better choices.
SPEAKER_00: No, you wouldn't do that.
SPEAKER_00: You would allow the emergency treatment to take effect, you would allow the emergency medicine to work when the person is in recovery and in a position to listen.
SPEAKER_00: You would talk about wider issues.
SPEAKER_00: Counseling and medication are often medicine, not long-term treatment.
SPEAKER_00: They are emergency medicine because they don't ultimately deal with the underlying spiritual heart issue.
SPEAKER_00: Again, I will say, if you are in treatment, if you are taking medication, if you are seeing a counselor, persist in those things.
SPEAKER_00: Keep on doing them.
SPEAKER_00: What does that mean though, for our purposes?
SPEAKER_00: Does that mean, and this is where the first analogy breaks down, and why I need to offer a second one?
SPEAKER_00: Does this mean for our purposes that we say nothing?
SPEAKER_00: That we say nothing that to the person who's in emergency medicine, or the person who is uh who is uh for their own health and well-being uh in a facility to to help them to make progress?
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't mean we say we say nothing in terms of the in terms of the gospel?
SPEAKER_00: No, of course not.
SPEAKER_00: Of course that is not what I am saying.
SPEAKER_00: And so let me use my second analogy.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine for a second that the person with clinical anxiety is wearing a set of headphones, and those headphones are blasting noise or blasting voices into their head all the time, and they have no control over the volume.
SPEAKER_00: Clinical practices help the volume to be turned down.
SPEAKER_00: Medication helps the volume to be turned down.
SPEAKER_00: To what end?
SPEAKER_00: So that they can hear what you're saying.
SPEAKER_00: So you're there and you're saying it, and you're praying that God, by his Holy Spirit or by the medical intervention, would turn down the volume on the noise and on the lies that they're hearing, so that the life-giving, hope-infused, joy-birthing words of the gospel might be heard.
SPEAKER_00: And so you stay there and you speak and you read scripture and you pray with that person, and you pray that in essence that volume would be turned down, and that they would be able to receive the words of life.
SPEAKER_00: That the goodness of God, that the goodness of the gospel would be heard.
SPEAKER_00: So what am I saying?
SPEAKER_00: Take your meds, see your counselor, but keep both of those things in perspective.
SPEAKER_00: They are essential, but they are often not sufficient for dealing with the underlying spiritual issue.
SPEAKER_00: And so we need to be speaking, or have people in your life who are able to speak to you the words of life, so that when the volume gets turned down and you're able to hear it, or that God by his mercy apprehends you and allows you to hear it with new ears, as it were, that those those life-giving words are being spoken into your life.
SPEAKER_00: The third kind of anxiety bucket or anxiety category is the anxiety that comes for as a consequence of sinful behavior, right?
SPEAKER_00: You've done something wrong and you're anxious about being found out.
SPEAKER_00: You, the person who uh who has an affair is anxious when they are at home because they are worried about their spouse finding out, or the person who gambles away all of their money is anxious about how their bills are going to get paid.
SPEAKER_00: This anxiety is the result of sin.
SPEAKER_00: Sin still has consequences in the world, and sometimes that can be what is is going on.
SPEAKER_00: The fourth is the one that we've been addressing, I think, primarily in last week's sermon.
SPEAKER_00: This is the anxiety that many of us struggle with.
SPEAKER_00: But we struggle to trust in God's good control of our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Like we noted last week, uh, we trust him with big things, we trust him with the big things like salvation, uh, like eternity with him in heaven, but we struggle to trust him with the comparatively smaller things in our lives, in our world.
SPEAKER_00: This is the anxiety that is in particular view for Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It is this anxiety that is common to us all, and it is this anxiety that Jesus says it is possible to make progress in.
SPEAKER_00: We're all born doubting God, we're all born doubting his goodness, his control, his existence.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus wants us to help make progress in this.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus in this passage is encouraging those who follow him.
SPEAKER_00: This is the asidnoch thing.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is encouraging those who follow him to persevere, to persist, to press on in order to make progress in their faith.
SPEAKER_00: And the same encouragement comes to us.
SPEAKER_00: The Christian life is one of striving, is it not?
SPEAKER_00: The Christian life is often a fight, a battle for holiness, for joy.
SPEAKER_00: It would be a mistake when you read Matthew chapter six, our passage last week, where he says, you know, don't be anxious about anything.
SPEAKER_00: Uh it would be a mistake to think that Jesus is saying, you know, don't do anything.
SPEAKER_00: Don't plan, just be passive.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, that's why we need seven to give us a rounded verse, uh, a rounded view of things.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, you know, you don't be, you don't worry about today because because I'm near, because I'm close, because I know you and I love you, but you persist.
SPEAKER_00: You persist in trusting him, you persevere in clinging to his goodness.
SPEAKER_00: As anybody who is anxious will know, it's a battle, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: It is a it is a battle fighting for peace, fighting for joy in your heart.
SPEAKER_00: And so let's look at how Jesus encourages you to persist, to persevere, even though you feel anxious.
SPEAKER_00: Let's see how we can make progress.
SPEAKER_00: This is where I hope to be as practical as possible.
SPEAKER_00: Look at what Jesus says.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 7 Ask and it will be given you.
SPEAKER_00: Seek and you will find.
SPEAKER_00: For everyone who asks receives, the one who seeks finds, and the one who knocks, sorry, and to the one who knocks, it will be open.
SPEAKER_00: What's the first thing he says?
SPEAKER_00: He says, Ask.
SPEAKER_00: Ask.
SPEAKER_00: That is, articulate yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Speak.
SPEAKER_00: Ask.
SPEAKER_00: Articulate your thoughts, your feelings, your desires, your fears.
SPEAKER_00: Ask.
SPEAKER_00: Articulate to whom, though?
SPEAKER_00: Who do we ask?
SPEAKER_00: To whom do we articulate ourselves?
SPEAKER_00: Well, first and most obviously, it's to God.
SPEAKER_00: To that God who is our Father, as he goes on to say, that God who loves us, who loves to give bread and not stones, who loves to give uh serpents, or sorry, and loves to give fish and not serpents.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus has already assured us that our Father in heaven will hear us when we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Articulate to him your struggle.
SPEAKER_00: Even in small prayers, small arrow prayers, even help help me.
SPEAKER_00: Or if you don't know what to pray, to say that I don't know what to pray, but I know I need your help.
SPEAKER_00: Or to open up the Psalms, particularly some of the first the first 50 Psalms, Psalms of Lament, Psalms of crying out to God for help.
SPEAKER_00: And read one of them very slowly.
SPEAKER_00: Read Psalm forty-two.
SPEAKER_00: Those small arrow prayers reach divine and loving ears.
SPEAKER_00: What is something else that is good to pray for?
SPEAKER_00: To help you with your anxieties.
SPEAKER_00: I say that again.
SPEAKER_00: Ask God for things that he has promised to give.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because you can be assured that he will answer them.
SPEAKER_00: He says that God loves to be sued on his promises.
SPEAKER_00: That is, if God has promised something, ask him for it, because he loves to answer those sorts of prayers.
SPEAKER_00: And that can build confidence, right?
SPEAKER_00: If you're asking God for things that you're certain that you know that he wants to give you, uh things like what?
SPEAKER_00: Things like uh things like greater grace and faith, things like peace.
SPEAKER_00: Uh that's what Jesus says, My peace I give to you.
SPEAKER_00: Ask him for it.
SPEAKER_00: Hope, deeper love, strength, and faith.
SPEAKER_00: Ask him for those things that he has said in his word that he will give you in his own good timing and pleasure, because that act can help build the muscle of faith and trust in God's goodness.
SPEAKER_00: You think if if I can see ways in which he's answering the prayers that he has promised that he will answer, then I can trust him with the things that seem more uncertain.
SPEAKER_00: I can be less anxious because I'm building up this kind of this bank of answered prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Ask him.
SPEAKER_00: Another passage that speaks about anxiety is uh towards the end of the book of Philippians, and again, Paul, the writer uh in Philippians chapter four, encourages the anxious uh believer to pray, to ask or to articulate themselves to God, and in that passage he offers a little uh an important little caveat.
SPEAKER_00: He says to make our prayers to God with thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_00: If you are anxious, seek out ways today to be thankful.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because one of the things that anxiety does is it it clouds our vision and we lose sight of the things that God has given us that we that we do have, we lose sight of the ways that He is answering prayer in our life, and so one of the things that we can do is stop and ask ourselves what are some of the things that I could be thankful for today?
SPEAKER_00: What are some of the things that God has given me?
SPEAKER_00: And again, it builds trust.
SPEAKER_00: What can you be thankful for today?
SPEAKER_00: A relationship, a child, a loved one, a job, a success, a worker, a college, a friend who is good to you, the meal that you're gonna eat for lunch, the day that God has given you this crisp late autumn day that you get to walk in.
SPEAKER_00: What can you be thankful for today?
SPEAKER_00: Ultimately, ultimately, the mature and maturing Christian wants to get to a place where they're able to say that however you answer this prayer that I'm praying you, I'm thankful.
SPEAKER_00: I've just noticed the time.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to speed right up.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: The second place, or the second way to articulate yourself is uh sorry, to articulate is articulate to yourself.
SPEAKER_00: We spend so much time listening to ourselves, to listening to those headphones, right?
SPEAKER_00: To those voices, those lies in our in our head that are spoken to us about who we are and how we're not worthy of anybody's love, and how we're just failure and a disappointment, and how we'll never remind anything, and how we're a disappointment.
SPEAKER_00: We believe these lies.
SPEAKER_00: We need to spend time, spend less time listening to ourselves and more time talking to ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: People say things like, you just need to listen to your heart.
SPEAKER_00: That's terrible advice.
SPEAKER_00: Stop doing that.
SPEAKER_00: Your heart is deceitful above all things.
SPEAKER_00: That's what God's word says in the book of Proverbs.
SPEAKER_00: Your heart doesn't work right, it doesn't love right, it doesn't leave you rightly.
SPEAKER_00: Good things can uh can come out of that by God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: But but by and large, it's something that listening to your heart.
SPEAKER_00: No, sometimes, sometimes you need to speak to your heart.
SPEAKER_00: So Psalm 42 says, Why you cast down on my soul?
SPEAKER_00: What's he doing?
SPEAKER_00: He's addressing his soul, saying, Listen, soul, why you cast down, hope in God, stop listening to yourself and start talking to yourself, talking to yourself the truth of God's word.
SPEAKER_00: Articulate your fears ideally to someone, but if you cannot articulate your anxieties to anyone yet, write them down.
SPEAKER_00: I'm being quite serious.
SPEAKER_00: Write down your fears, write down your anxieties because one, the act of writing is articulated thoughts, you're organizing your thoughts because inside your brain, your brain is a box of Christmas tree lights.
SPEAKER_00: It's all messed up, it's all tangled, and so writing stuff down gets it all out.
SPEAKER_00: Write down your fears, and then you can see the uh the size of the dragon that it is that you have to slay.
SPEAKER_00: Articulate yourself to others, reach out if you feel anxious, reach out to your church family, reach out to somebody in your community group, reach out to your whole community group chat and say, I'm not doing well.
SPEAKER_00: Would somebody give me a call?
SPEAKER_00: Or would somebody send me a message?
SPEAKER_00: If you know, and this is to the carrot, if you know that somebody is uh is anxious, reach out to them because sometimes they feel so paralyzed that they can't reach out to anybody.
SPEAKER_00: But if you know that this is a particular besetting sin for somebody, reach out to them, offer them a place to talk, offer them a place that is safe, that was without fear of judgment, that is a listening ear, and whatever they tell you, don't be shocked.
SPEAKER_00: Because we are Christians and we understand the effects of the fall in the world.
SPEAKER_00: Seek, Jesus says, seek, that is move, don't be stagnant, keep moving forward, move where towards God.
SPEAKER_00: You'll see a pattern, towards God, towards yourself, as in towards self care and towards others.
SPEAKER_00: But move towards God, move towards the words of God, the words of life.
SPEAKER_00: Of course, uh, for some that are overwhelmed by anxiety, it can seem just uh totally overwhelming to pick up this book and to and to ever read it.
SPEAKER_00: But can you, I don't know, can you pick a verse and can you stick it up in your study?
SPEAKER_00: Can you stick it up on your laptop?
SPEAKER_00: Can you stick it up in your mirror?
SPEAKER_00: Something that assures you of the love of God.
SPEAKER_00: If you know somebody that's anxious, one of the things that you could do is say, can I can I read a Psalm for you, with you?
SPEAKER_00: Can I read a gospel story?
SPEAKER_00: Say, look, I'm gonna I'm gonna call you, I'm gonna call you every day at uh at this time once a week, and we're gonna read, I'm gonna read you over the phone or over WhatsApp Messenger a Psalm.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna start at the start of Mark's gospel, I'm gonna read you the gospel to remind you.
SPEAKER_00: Can you text them verses that are encouraging or email them or WhatsApp them?
SPEAKER_00: Help them to move towards God, move also towards self-care.
SPEAKER_00: If you are anxious, it is important that you have good self-care routines.
SPEAKER_00: Start small, start simple, start by getting up at the same time.
SPEAKER_00: It matters less what time you go to bed as long as you get up at the same time.
SPEAKER_00: That is an actual physiological uh recommendation from psychotherapists to help reset your circadian rhythms that has a positive effect on your mental health.
SPEAKER_00: If you're getting up time and if your bedtime are all over the shop, you need to get control of when you get up.
SPEAKER_00: Start small, start simple.
SPEAKER_00: You might look at simple tasks.
SPEAKER_00: You might say, I'm going to tidy my room for 10 minutes, I'm gonna make my bed, or I'm gonna do work for 10 minutes, 15 minutes, and then I'm gonna go for a walk, and then I'm gonna come back and I'm gonna do another 15 minutes, and then I might text somebody and reach out to someone.
SPEAKER_00: Small ways of making progress through your day, of seeking, of moving forward, and move towards others, have a panic plan.
SPEAKER_00: When you're starting to feel overwhelmed, go to somebody and say, When I'm feeling overwhelmed, can I can I can you be the one that I text?
SPEAKER_00: Can I give you a call?
SPEAKER_00: Have a song that you listen to, or a place that you go when you're feeling overwhelmed to friends of anxious people.
SPEAKER_00: Don't give false assurances, don't tell anxious people that the worst won't happen.
SPEAKER_00: For many anxious people, the world is black and white, and they fixate on the worst possible outcome.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, break down those fears by asking, what is the best possible outcome?
SPEAKER_00: If you're fixating on the black, well, what's the white in this situation?
SPEAKER_00: What's the best possible outcome?
SPEAKER_00: And then ask, given all of the evidence, what is the most likely outcome?
SPEAKER_00: Because often life doesn't work in either black or white, it works in gray.
SPEAKER_00: Also, false assurances exacerbate anxious behavior, particularly emotional dependence.
SPEAKER_00: Remind the anxious person of their ability to cope as expressed in previous examples from their life.
SPEAKER_00: You say, Do you remember when you felt like this before?
SPEAKER_00: And remember how you made progress in that?
SPEAKER_00: You remind them that they are able to make progress when they inevitably slip back, and that's okay.
SPEAKER_00: You don't come to them harshly and say, You've done this before, just do it again.
SPEAKER_00: And you say, Look, look at the progress that you're making, and you also remind them of the enduring faithfulness of God, that his love hasn't changed, that his love is displayed at the cross of the Lord Jesus, and we keep communicating that hope.
SPEAKER_00: Thirdly, and finally, Jesus says knock.
SPEAKER_00: That is persist.
SPEAKER_00: It has the idea, it's this continuous idea of uh of knock and keep on knocking.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus wants us to persist in these things.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: No, not because he's not because he's worried about us losing our salvation.
SPEAKER_00: That's not why he says persist.
SPEAKER_00: He says persist because when we do, even in the midst of our anxieties, we become that city on a hill, that Christian counterculture for the common good.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the good news and the bad news.
SPEAKER_00: We all have enemies, the Christian has enemies.
SPEAKER_00: The enemies of the Christian are the world, the flesh, and the devil, and all of them contribute to our anxieties.
SPEAKER_00: The good news is that none of those things can steal your salvation.
SPEAKER_00: You cannot lose your salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Our lives are hidden in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Look at John 6, 37.
SPEAKER_00: All that the Father has given me will come to me, and all those who come to me I will never drive away.
SPEAKER_00: Never drive away.
SPEAKER_00: The enemies that you face cannot steal your salvation, but you know what they can do?
SPEAKER_00: This is the bad news.
SPEAKER_00: They can steal your joy.
SPEAKER_00: And they use anxieties to steal your joy, to make you utterly ineffective for the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: Our anxieties steal our joy in the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus says, persist, fight, persevere, persevere in prayer, persevere in seeking out community, persevere and fall back.
SPEAKER_00: Get up again and persevere.
SPEAKER_00: It's okay to still feel overwhelmed.
SPEAKER_00: It's okay to feel uncertain about the future.
SPEAKER_00: It's okay to make plans for the future.
SPEAKER_00: It's okay to be concerned.
SPEAKER_00: It's when that concern becomes all-consuming that it leads to anxiety and to joylessness and hopelessness.
SPEAKER_00: But look at the promise of Jesus, and with this I finish.
SPEAKER_00: The one who asks receives, the one who seeks finds, the one who knocks, the doors open.
SPEAKER_00: The promise is that God in his own wise way, with his own perfect timing, will grant you peace, will grant you rest, restore your joy, and fuel your hope.
SPEAKER_00: This is the promise for all those who are trusting in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Will you follow him and trust that Father who is both sovereign and good?
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_00: Our Father, we pray that you would help us to make progress in these areas.
SPEAKER_00: That you would help us in the midst of our anxieties to glimpse your goodness and to know the peace that the Lord Jesus offers.
SPEAKER_00: I pray for those who are feeling anxious, even perhaps as they watch this.
SPEAKER_00: Would they know that they are not alone?
SPEAKER_00: Would they know that they are loved?
SPEAKER_00: Would you help them to lift their weary head, to look to you, their good heavenly father, to look around at the things that you have given them for which they can be thankful?
SPEAKER_00: Help us to be a church family that loves one another and bears these burdens for the glory of Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, everybody,