SPEAKER_01: This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
SPEAKER_00: I'm glad to have you with us this morning.
SPEAKER_00: If you are visiting with us or have been away from home for a while, or maybe you've been hiding under a rock somewhere, we're glad to have you with us.
SPEAKER_00: But you will have slightly more work today in fitting everything together than those who have been with us the last couple of Sundays, unless you've listened to the sermon audio from the last two Sundays.
SPEAKER_00: I say that because final week in an extended look at Jesus' teaching on worry and anxiety from the Sermon on the Mount.
SPEAKER_00: And today, Lord willing, we're going to bring all of that together with parts from the last couple of weeks.
SPEAKER_00: Only today we're not going to be in the Sermon on the Mount.
SPEAKER_00: This needs to be the last sermon on anxiety and worry for several reasons, but that presented a significant problem for me.
SPEAKER_00: I still have many passages that I want to touch on that instruct us in dealing with our worry, with our anxiety and our struggles in those areas.
SPEAKER_00: Sadly, some of them will have to wait.
SPEAKER_00: But this morning I want us to think primarily about three different areas of Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: And it might feel a little bit disjointed here and there, but bear with me.
SPEAKER_00: And I think that we'll be able to bring it all together for our growth and maturity.
SPEAKER_00: To begin, I would like you to stretch your imagination.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine life, your life, with absolutely no anxiety.
SPEAKER_00: Stretch your imagination.
SPEAKER_00: I know it's kind of hard to picture this, but picture your life with no worry at all.
SPEAKER_00: No worry about the weather.
SPEAKER_00: No anxiety about decisions in your life.
SPEAKER_00: No stress and worry about your future.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine your life with no anxiety at all about politics.
SPEAKER_00: Family members going wayward.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine never worrying about your health.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine the acid of anxiety that we talked about last week never seeping into your soul to burn away at you from the inside.
SPEAKER_00: Worry and anxiety are so ingrained in us that we can't imagine life without them.
SPEAKER_00: We go through life as though worry is normal.
SPEAKER_00: It's just part of life.
SPEAKER_00: As though it's acceptable.
SPEAKER_00: That it's normal and acceptable?
SPEAKER_00: If we went about our days entertaining lust as we do worry, I think many of us would be concerned.
SPEAKER_00: But what about coveting?
SPEAKER_00: Let's say that coveting had the same place in our hearts and minds that worry and anxiety takes.
SPEAKER_00: We would not accept that as normal, would we?
SPEAKER_00: Let's take it a step further.
SPEAKER_00: What about adultery?
SPEAKER_00: Let's imagine that we allowed emotional adultery to consume our hearts and minds to the same extent that we give worry and anxiety.
SPEAKER_00: Would we be okay with that?
SPEAKER_00: Would you be okay with that in your own mind?
SPEAKER_00: Your answer is no, then you have to ask yourself the question, then why am I okay with worry?
SPEAKER_00: See, we have normalized the sin of worry in our own hearts and minds when it fails to bring shame and guilt in us that leads us to repentance.
SPEAKER_00: We allow a lack of faith and trust in God to feed worry and anxiety, and that continues unrestrained day after day.
SPEAKER_00: We cannot expect our faith to grow if we give worry and anxiety free reign in our souls.
SPEAKER_00: At least until we begin to see it as sinful acid destroying our souls that moves us to confession and repentance.
SPEAKER_00: You just can't do what we've been talking about for three weeks now.
SPEAKER_00: Don't give up.
SPEAKER_00: Keep pursuing trust.
SPEAKER_00: There is hope.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, we ought to feel shame at the realization of how much we entertain the sin of worry.
SPEAKER_00: Frankly, it reveals a deplorable amount of trust in our caring and loving Father.
SPEAKER_00: So, yes, we we ought to feel the guilt of conviction at the realization that a holy God tells us to stop being anxious and yet we continue on being anxious.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the grace of our God: He does not allow us to remain wallowing in our shame and guilt.
SPEAKER_00: The shame and the guilt of understanding God's view of anxiety and worry ought to lead us to repentance, to the gracious forgiveness of Christ, who does not leave us in the mud pit of sin.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, he provides a way out of that, out of our sin, to a place of trust.
SPEAKER_00: He forgives.
SPEAKER_00: And he gives a path that moves us from intense worry and anxiety to transformation where we trust him.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the key, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that what Solomon said in Proverbs 3, 5, and 6?
SPEAKER_00: Trust in the Lord with all your heart, do not lean on your own understanding.
SPEAKER_00: But we've allowed worry to be an integral part of who we are.
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's said that to err is human.
SPEAKER_00: Might we be able to say to worry is human?
SPEAKER_00: But it was not always so.
SPEAKER_00: It was not so in the Garden of Eden when God first put man and woman there to tend it and to keep it.
SPEAKER_00: They were not made to worry.
SPEAKER_00: You were not made to worry.
SPEAKER_00: God created us as his images, and we're not designed to be overtaken and consumed with anxiety.
SPEAKER_00: Henry Ford made his cars to drive on land.
SPEAKER_00: Worry is like using those cars to drive on the ocean.
SPEAKER_00: You will sink and destroy the car in the process.
SPEAKER_00: But be encouraged that God does not leave us hopeless or helpless.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't say to us from heaven, stop worrying and then step back to see if we can achieve that on our own.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't do that.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't look down at us to see if we're strong enough or smart enough or disciplined enough to obey.
SPEAKER_00: No, not at all.
SPEAKER_00: The scripture is true when it says he has given us everything we need for life and godliness, including everything we need to trust him rather than lean on our own understanding.
SPEAKER_00: God does not command what he does not enable.
SPEAKER_00: God does not command his children to do what he does not enable them to do.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, he has already provided everything that you and I need to counteract the acid of worry in our souls.
SPEAKER_00: What does that look like, though?
SPEAKER_00: How are we transformed from worry to trusting rather than being anxious all the time?
SPEAKER_00: Let's try to work our way through that this morning.
SPEAKER_00: First, let's make sure that we understand the theology of worry.
SPEAKER_00: Change the sermon title this morning to just that a theology of worry, a path from anxiety and worry to transformational trust.
SPEAKER_00: Theology is the study of God.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, a theology of worry is the study of the relationship between worry and anxiety and God, between reliance on self versus reliance on God, between our own perceptions and what really is true.
SPEAKER_00: Now there's only one place to begin when thinking about a theology of worry at the beginning.
SPEAKER_00: So let's think about the beginning.
SPEAKER_00: There was no worry, there was no anxiety when God placed man and woman in the Garden of Eden.
SPEAKER_00: It was perfect.
SPEAKER_00: Full provision, everything they needed, and perfect trust.
SPEAKER_00: Worry, then, entered this world when Adam and Eve rebelled against God.
SPEAKER_00: Rebellion gave birth to worry.
SPEAKER_00: And it's as a result of that fall into sin that we worry.
SPEAKER_00: Worry is driven by sin.
SPEAKER_00: Anxiety is an extension, really, of Satan's provoking Eve with the question Did God actually say that?
SPEAKER_00: See, with that one question, Satan instilled doubt and questioning and worry into Eve's soul.
SPEAKER_00: It was no longer sufficient to trust God's word.
SPEAKER_00: No longer was it sufficient to believe that God had given them everything they needed in that garden.
SPEAKER_00: Satan had blown open the doors of doubt and trustworthiness of God.
SPEAKER_00: He entered into that situation saying, You cannot trust God, and Eve took it all.
SPEAKER_00: She began to look at her situation, not through God's word, but through her own perceptions.
SPEAKER_00: God's word said what?
SPEAKER_00: God's truth declared blessing for obedience and death if they ate the forbidden fruit.
SPEAKER_00: Instead of looking at life through that set of circumstances, Eve looked through her own eyes, her own perceptions, her own desires.
SPEAKER_00: And Genesis 3 tells us that she began to perceive things through her own desire, through coveting, and through her lust.
SPEAKER_00: Truth was exchanged for acid in her soul.
SPEAKER_00: Her own perceptions took precedence over the clear words of God.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what happens in us.
SPEAKER_00: Worry believes personal perceptions over the clarity of God's word.
SPEAKER_00: Our worry, our anxiety is driven by indwelling sin.
SPEAKER_00: And the sooner we recognize that, the sooner we acknowledge that, we will begin to counteract the acid that's eating away at us.
SPEAKER_00: Don't resist that recognition.
SPEAKER_00: Acknowledge in your own soul that you allow sin of worry and anxiety to eat at you.
SPEAKER_00: Acknowledge it and take responsibility for giving sin freedom to eat at you.
SPEAKER_00: And then confess it to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Because with confession comes forgiveness and mercy to trust him instead of yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Understand and confess that.
SPEAKER_00: A second element of the theology of worry is that worry ignores what is actually objectively true.
SPEAKER_00: Satan questioned God, didn't he?
SPEAKER_00: He questioned the truthfulness of God's word.
SPEAKER_00: Did God actually say that?
SPEAKER_00: He questioned the authority of God's word.
SPEAKER_00: He questioned the clarity of God's word.
SPEAKER_00: He questioned the application of God's word, and he will do that in your life.
SPEAKER_00: If he can get you to question God's revealed word and the clarity of it and the authority of it and the absoluteness of it, then he has you in his grasp.
SPEAKER_00: But what was true in that moment for Eve?
SPEAKER_00: What was true?
SPEAKER_00: It was true that God had spoken.
SPEAKER_00: It was true that God had commanded.
SPEAKER_00: It was true that God was sovereign.
SPEAKER_00: Not Adam, not Eve, not even Satan.
SPEAKER_00: It was true that God did care for them.
SPEAKER_00: That God had provided everything for them.
SPEAKER_00: It was true that God was protecting them.
SPEAKER_00: It was true that God loved them.
SPEAKER_00: It was true that God would do the best for them.
SPEAKER_00: It was true that God was faithful and just.
SPEAKER_00: It was true that Adam and Eve could trust their God.
SPEAKER_00: But doubt undermines trust, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Undercuts it.
SPEAKER_00: And so with just a little bit of doubt, Satan led Eve to mistrust God.
SPEAKER_00: No longer was God worthy of her adoration and trust.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, she was led to wonder and worry if what God said really was true.
SPEAKER_00: Don't miss that, my friends.
SPEAKER_00: Because it is driven by sin, worry will lead you to wonder if what God says really is true.
SPEAKER_00: And if you wonder, if you wonder, if you question if God's word really is true, if you if you question the authoritative truthfulness of God's word, then it's only a small, small step to ignoring or rejecting the truthfulness and the faithfulness of God.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, if you find yourself muttering, I know the Bible says this, but I know God says this, but if you find yourself saying that, then you have already taken a step to ignoring or even rejecting the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Worry grows incessantly when we ignore what God says is true.
SPEAKER_00: There's a third element of theology of worry, and that's that worry pushes emotions to the forefront where they can become uncontrollable, even surpassing the role of the mind that God intended the mind to have in your life.
SPEAKER_00: What does Jesus do in the Sermon on the Mount?
SPEAKER_00: We've seen this as we've been walking through Matthew 5 and 6.
SPEAKER_00: In the last couple of weeks, we've noted that Jesus spoke about our worry and anxiety.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Do not be anxious, right?
SPEAKER_00: Then what did he do?
SPEAKER_00: He said, Don't be anxious.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Life is more than what you eat, what you drink, what you're going to wear.
SPEAKER_00: Then he said, think.
SPEAKER_00: Use your mind.
SPEAKER_00: Consider the birds.
SPEAKER_00: Then he said, think about the wildflowers, the lilies of the field.
SPEAKER_00: Again and again, God said, after acknowledging our worry and our anxiety, he said, look at what is true.
SPEAKER_00: He involved the mind over the emotions.
SPEAKER_00: But what happened to Eve in the garden?
SPEAKER_00: Instead of reverting to what she knew to be true, she gave in to what she felt was right.
SPEAKER_00: Desire, coveting, and lust.
SPEAKER_00: What she felt overruled what she knew to be true.
SPEAKER_00: Consider Israel wandering in the desert for 40 years.
SPEAKER_00: What did they do when there was no water?
SPEAKER_00: They allowed their emotions of desire and coveting to overcome trust in God's provision.
SPEAKER_00: Or Israel's kings, when they made alliances, sinful alliances with foreign kings instead of trusting God.
SPEAKER_00: They allowed the fear of being conquered, of being overtaken, of losing their positions to rule in their lives.
SPEAKER_00: Worry does that.
SPEAKER_00: A fourth element in our theology of worry is that under the guise of obedience, worry takes the righteous activities of life, those things where we're working for provision of our families, where we're gathering counsel for wise decisions.
SPEAKER_00: And it turns those upside down into places where we are wrestling control of life away from God.
SPEAKER_00: And that's just idolatry, friends.
SPEAKER_00: It's the idolatry of self.
SPEAKER_00: Now, God never says, don't plan.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus tells us that there's wisdom in planning.
SPEAKER_00: Proverbs explains the wisdom of going out and seeking advice and counsel.
SPEAKER_00: God ordained work as a means of meeting, of supplying our needs.
SPEAKER_00: And those are all righteous actions in their right place.
SPEAKER_00: But when we ignore what is true and we allow emotion to take more of a center stage, worry gains control.
SPEAKER_00: And before we know it, we have turned righteous actions into sinful means of anxiety.
SPEAKER_00: So worry takes the gracious design of God and turns it into a sinful lack of trust.
SPEAKER_00: Look at an example with me in Luke chapter 10.
SPEAKER_00: Luke chapter 10, beginning in verse 38 through the end of the chapter, probably one that you're familiar with.
SPEAKER_00: There's a woman named Martha.
SPEAKER_00: She has a sister Mary, and they have a brother named Lazarus.
SPEAKER_00: We don't see Lazarus in this passage, but it's likely that he was present as well.
SPEAKER_00: Here we just have an account about specifically Martha and Mary.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what it says in Luke 10, 38.
SPEAKER_00: Now, as they went their way, Jesus entered a village, and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house.
SPEAKER_00: She had a sister named Mary who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching.
SPEAKER_00: But Martha was distracted with much serving.
SPEAKER_00: And she went up to him and said, Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me all alone?
SPEAKER_00: Tell her to help me.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord answered her, Martha, Martha, you're anxious and troubled about many things.
SPEAKER_00: But one thing is necessary.
SPEAKER_00: Mary has chosen the good portion which will not be taken away from her.
SPEAKER_00: Now Martha regularly gets a bad rap, right?
SPEAKER_00: And there may be some basis for that.
SPEAKER_00: But let's not miss the fact that Martha and Mary were both engaged in righteous pursuits.
SPEAKER_00: Mary was listening to the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: She was at the feet of Jesus, taking in every word that came from the word.
SPEAKER_00: Martha was serving Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So let's be gracious and realize that Martha is doing a good thing here.
SPEAKER_00: Serving Jesus is proper, it's appropriate, it's a righteous action in and of itself.
SPEAKER_00: And let's also be gracious and recognize that Martha is adjusting to the presence of 13 men in her home.
SPEAKER_00: Ladies, you can understand what that's like.
SPEAKER_00: You can imagine the thoughts in Martha's mind.
SPEAKER_00: Did I remember to put out the water so they could wash their feet?
SPEAKER_00: Did I sweep the floors?
SPEAKER_00: Do we have enough for everybody to drink?
SPEAKER_00: Do we have enough food in the house for them?
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna have to make supper quickly.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know that I'll have time to do this myself.
SPEAKER_00: I'm so glad I get to see the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I can't let him down.
SPEAKER_00: What will the disciples think if I can't feed them?
SPEAKER_00: You can imagine what's going through Martha's mind, but she's engaged, at least in and of itself, in a righteous act.
SPEAKER_00: What a privilege.
SPEAKER_00: What a privilege it was to serve the King of Kings.
SPEAKER_00: Mary chose to listen rather than serve.
SPEAKER_00: Martha chose to serve rather than listen.
SPEAKER_00: Both are good, both are righteous.
SPEAKER_00: But do you see what happened in Martha?
SPEAKER_00: She allowed what was good to become a means of sin.
SPEAKER_00: As a result, she's anxious and troubled about many things.
SPEAKER_00: Look at what we see in her life.
SPEAKER_00: Just quickly.
SPEAKER_00: She has unmet expectations, doesn't she?
SPEAKER_00: She's irritated that her sister, the one who ought to be helping her, has abandoned her.
SPEAKER_00: Her expectation was that Mary was going to help.
SPEAKER_00: Now, Mary's not here.
SPEAKER_00: What does that do?
SPEAKER_00: How do I react to that?
SPEAKER_00: She has inaccurate perceptions.
SPEAKER_00: She perceived that serving was better than listening.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, Jesus ought to tell her sister to come and help.
SPEAKER_00: And in that, she perceived that Jesus didn't care.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, don't you care?
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine saying that to Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Don't you care?
SPEAKER_00: But in that, in that inaccurate perception, what is she doing?
SPEAKER_00: She's seeking to control the situation, isn't she?
SPEAKER_00: She's trying to exert control over Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, tell my sister.
SPEAKER_00: She's not going to listen to me.
SPEAKER_00: Hopefully, she'll listen to you.
SPEAKER_00: But that all has its basis in some wrong theology.
SPEAKER_00: She believed that Jesus didn't care.
SPEAKER_00: So she put herself above Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, you ought to care.
SPEAKER_00: So she's acting then on false assumptions, isn't she?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus did care, but she doesn't think he does.
SPEAKER_00: And because she has wrong assumptions, wrong perceptions, she acts sinfully in giving a command to the God of creation.
SPEAKER_00: She's self-focused.
SPEAKER_00: She was distracted by her circumstances, by this need to serve so many people.
SPEAKER_00: All of those are elements of anxiety and worry.
SPEAKER_00: We see several of them in Eve, in the book of Genesis.
SPEAKER_00: And since Eve and Martha and millions of other people, these have been driving our lack of trust ever since.
SPEAKER_00: Now maybe you're like Martha.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you are driven to serve.
SPEAKER_00: You're motivated to do.
SPEAKER_00: If someone asks you to help or to do something, to participate in something, you are more likely to say yes than no, even if it costs you to do it.
SPEAKER_00: Bless you.
SPEAKER_00: You are needed in the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: If you are a Martha, we need you.
SPEAKER_00: Much that gets done is done because of you.
SPEAKER_00: Bless you.
SPEAKER_00: We need your heart of service.
SPEAKER_00: Develop that heart of service and pursuit of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And keep on working to bring the Marys with you because they need to serve too.
SPEAKER_00: The Marys need encouragement and help and guidance to serve.
SPEAKER_00: But my friends, there is a danger waiting to invade your servant's heart.
SPEAKER_00: And that is choosing the good over the best.
SPEAKER_00: See, what we see in Martha may be true in you as well.
SPEAKER_00: When you choose the good over the best, both are fine, both are righteous, right?
SPEAKER_00: When you choose the good over the best, you may be laying the groundwork for your emotions to rush to the forefront.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, if if God, if you choose the good, if you are Martha and you choose the good, and God providentially brings into view the best, while you are pursuing the good, you have a choice then to make.
SPEAKER_00: Leave that behind and pursue the best.
SPEAKER_00: That is, Martha could have said, I don't need to worry about the food right now.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to pursue the best.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to go sit at the feet of Jesus too.
SPEAKER_00: That's a choice that you have to make.
SPEAKER_00: There's not a sinful choice.
SPEAKER_00: Serving and listening are both righteous, aren't they?
SPEAKER_00: The second choice is to keep on pursuing the good, not leaving it behind and choosing the best, but pursuing the good, keep on serving, realizing that your choice of choosing the good may bring with it difficulties that don't exist with the choice of the best.
SPEAKER_00: So Martha is now realizing that her choice of the good is bringing with it the realization I'm serving alone.
SPEAKER_00: Is that bad?
SPEAKER_00: Is serving alone bad?
SPEAKER_00: Is that sinful?
SPEAKER_00: No, not in and of itself.
SPEAKER_00: It's just a difficulty that then has the opportunity to drive sinful reactions.
SPEAKER_00: That realization brings a third choice.
SPEAKER_00: If you choose the good instead of the best, which is okay, will you trust God through your circumstances, through your situation, or will you allow your emotions to get the best of you, to rule in your heart and to overrule your mind, realizing I can't give in to this stress, I can't give in to this worry, I can't give in to this anxiety because I'm serving Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That's good.
SPEAKER_00: Martha looked at her circumstances, and what did she see?
SPEAKER_00: I'm alone.
SPEAKER_00: I have to fix this meal all by myself.
SPEAKER_00: See, her view of her good service brought anxiety and trouble.
SPEAKER_00: Rather than see things through God's eyes, that is seeing the grace of being with Jesus, she allowed her own desires and perceptions and feelings to interpret her life.
SPEAKER_00: You feed worry in your life when your emotions overcome truth.
SPEAKER_00: You feed worry when emotions are overcome with truth.
SPEAKER_00: Martha was fed up with Mary deserting her.
SPEAKER_00: And that feeling ate away at her unrestrained until she was willing to command Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: The truth was that Mary chose the best thing.
SPEAKER_00: Martha's anxiety and worry kept her from seeing that not only was it good for Mary to not help her, but that Mary had chosen something better than Martha.
SPEAKER_00: He realized that Jesus never spoke against Martha's serving.
SPEAKER_00: He never once told her to stop.
SPEAKER_00: He never said, Martha, Martha, stop what you're doing and come sit over here.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't tell her that it was a bad thing.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't even tell her it wasn't needed.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, he sought to lead her to truth.
SPEAKER_00: What is the truth?
SPEAKER_00: Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
SPEAKER_00: There were two options in Martha's home that day, and only two.
SPEAKER_00: Make bread for supper or listen to the bread of life.
SPEAKER_00: When Martha chose to serve and did so alone, it led, Jesus said to her being anxious and troubled by many things when only one thing was absolutely necessary.
SPEAKER_00: What one thing was absolutely necessary?
SPEAKER_00: Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: If Martha would seek Jesus first, then God would take care of the rest of the needs in due time.
SPEAKER_00: See, the emotional acid of anxiety and worry ate away at Martha.
SPEAKER_00: Her emotions overruled the truth, and when her emotions overruled the truth, she acted in controlling ways, seeking even to control the one who knew her better than she knew herself.
SPEAKER_00: Martha's heart was ruled by worry.
SPEAKER_00: That happens when we pursue life according to our own thinking, our own feelings, our own perceptions and fears, instead of trusting our Father and pursuing Jesus' kingdom and righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: So I realized last night, oh, I've given Eve and Martha two negative examples for women.
SPEAKER_00: Let me give you some positive examples.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, Moses' mother.
SPEAKER_00: Moses' mother.
SPEAKER_00: The law at the time was from Pharaoh's own lips: any Hebrew boy born needs to be tossed into the Nile so that he'll die.
SPEAKER_00: What do you do with that?
SPEAKER_00: That's certainly a situation that could bring about worry and anxiety, couldn't it?
SPEAKER_00: But Moses' mother said, No, I'm going to trust the truth of God.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm going to obey that.
SPEAKER_00: Another example is Mary, the mother of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: When the angel came to her and said, Mary, you will conceive by the power of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Huh?
SPEAKER_00: What?
SPEAKER_00: That meant a complete change of direction in her life.
SPEAKER_00: That could have brought worry and anxiety.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, what did she say?
SPEAKER_00: Blessed be God, my Savior.
SPEAKER_00: He who is mighty has done great things for me.
SPEAKER_00: But to varying extents, we are all Martha.
SPEAKER_00: We might have days where we choose what is best, like Mary.
SPEAKER_00: Those days that are best where we choose the best might be very, very low on the worry and anxiety scale.
SPEAKER_00: But because worry and anxiety are rooted in indwelling sin, we will be tempted to feed that dragon.
SPEAKER_00: Some of us have greater weaknesses in this than others, but to some extent, we're all going to face it.
SPEAKER_00: But God did not intend for you to worry.
SPEAKER_00: We were not created to live with anxiety.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, do not be anxious.
SPEAKER_00: So if God has provided everything that we need to counteract sinful worry, we must not stand or sit and say, sorry God, I can't do that.
SPEAKER_00: If we proceed as if we can't overcome worry in the power of the Holy Spirit, that is the height of self-focused unbelief.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, let's all say with Charles Spurgeon, My soul, be still.
SPEAKER_00: God is at the helm, and He is well able to pilot the vessel.
SPEAKER_00: Keep your hand off of the helm.
SPEAKER_00: Down with you, unbelief.
SPEAKER_00: What have you to do while God Himself provides for His people?
SPEAKER_00: Will we confess our sin of worry and anxiety and move to greater faith and trust?
SPEAKER_00: What is that path to trust?
SPEAKER_00: What is that road that we're to follow?
SPEAKER_00: How do we get from leaning on our own understanding to trusting God?
SPEAKER_00: Well, it's a path of transformation, it's a path to understanding who God is, of what God has said, and trusting in Him with all of our heart.
SPEAKER_00: But how does that happen?
SPEAKER_00: I don't have very much time to tell you, but we'll try to do it quickly.
SPEAKER_00: Would you turn with me to Proverbs 22 in your Bible?
SPEAKER_00: There are many, many passages that we could look at.
SPEAKER_00: This is the one that the Lord really struck me with.
SPEAKER_00: And I would love to just spend the next hour walking with you over this.
SPEAKER_00: Don't worry, I'm not gonna starve you.
SPEAKER_00: I just said I would love to, right?
SPEAKER_00: Proverbs 22, 17.
SPEAKER_00: Incline your ear and hear the words of the wise.
SPEAKER_00: Apply your heart to my knowledge, for it will be pleasant if you keep them within you, if all of them are ready on your lips, so that your trust may be in your own understanding?
SPEAKER_00: No, in Yahweh in the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I have made them known to you today, even to you.
SPEAKER_00: Have I not written for you thirty sayings of counsel and knowledge to make you know what is right and true, that you may give a true answer to those who sent you?
SPEAKER_00: What is the path to transformation, a life-transforming trust?
SPEAKER_00: How do we root out worry and anxiety in our lives?
SPEAKER_00: Very simply, we are transformed into trusting people through pursuing Jesus and his word.
SPEAKER_00: Someone once referred to this as spiritual indirection.
SPEAKER_00: We don't become trusting children of a faithful father by working hard to worry less.
SPEAKER_00: Working hard to worry less doesn't work.
SPEAKER_00: We grow in trust by submitting our minds to the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Because it's the word of God, God says, that renews our minds.
SPEAKER_00: It reprograms our minds so that pursuing Christ's kingdom and his righteousness gradually replaces the pursuit of my own kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: And the byproduct of that is that worry fades and trust grows.
SPEAKER_00: Notice what these divinely given wise words say.
SPEAKER_00: Listen.
SPEAKER_00: Incline your ear.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to what I'm saying and really hear.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: So that you may know.
SPEAKER_00: Know what?
SPEAKER_00: The wise words.
SPEAKER_00: And Proverbs, that's that's a way of saying what is right and what is true, the revelation of God, the wisdom that that comes from God, that is God.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to God's word.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to what he has to say.
SPEAKER_00: Then he says something else.
SPEAKER_00: Apply your heart to my knowledge.
SPEAKER_00: What does that look like?
SPEAKER_00: He says, well, it looks like keeping them within you so that when the opportunity comes, you can spill it out.
SPEAKER_00: You can give a true, wise answer.
SPEAKER_00: That was said of boy, his name just slips in my mind now.
SPEAKER_00: Pilgrim's Progress.
SPEAKER_00: John Bunyan.
SPEAKER_00: Charles Spurgeon once said of John Bunyan that if you prick him, he will be bleed bibline.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever that is.
SPEAKER_00: John Bunyan was so full of God's word that he could sit in a prison apart from his own family for preaching the gospel because he loved the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: That wasn't in my notes.
SPEAKER_00: Went astray there.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, apply it to your heart.
SPEAKER_00: And then notice what it says here.
SPEAKER_00: Trust will result when your mind is committed to know God and his word, and when that knowledge is applied to your heart.
SPEAKER_00: Incline your ear, apply your heart, verse 19, so that your trust may be in Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: And when your trust is in Yahweh, when your mind has been impacted, so that your heart is changed, your mind and your heart result in the will, the decision-making processes of life being impacted.
SPEAKER_00: Now you might argue with me saying, Pastor, I read my Bible all the time, but my worry isn't going away.
SPEAKER_00: Take care, beloved, to not let your experience be your guide.
SPEAKER_00: Because when you let your experience be your guide, you're looking at life, you're interpreting it through your own perceptions, not the truth of God.
SPEAKER_00: And don't forget that it's not merely about knowing the information in your Bible.
SPEAKER_00: There will be folks in hell who will beat you at Bible trivia.
SPEAKER_00: You must pursue the king and his kingdom and his righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: That means when God gives a command, we seek to obey.
SPEAKER_00: That means when the scriptures point out our sin, we are ashamed that we have broken God's commandments.
SPEAKER_00: It causes us to grieve, and then we submit to its truth and confess that sin.
SPEAKER_00: And when we confess that sin, he who is faithful will do what?
SPEAKER_00: Forgive us.
SPEAKER_00: Then we seek his righteousness again, his ways through his word as his spirit begins to transform us.
SPEAKER_00: Arrogantly putting our own thoughts and ideas above Scripture doesn't bring transformation.
SPEAKER_00: Refusing to take responsibility for your own sin doesn't bring about transformation.
SPEAKER_00: You may be learning more and more about the Bible while hardening your own heart.
SPEAKER_00: No, the truth of God's word is that God's word must take root in your mind in such a way that your mind directs your heart to believe it.
SPEAKER_00: And when your heart begins to obey your mind, that truth begins to change your life.
SPEAKER_00: As his word changes your heart, it brings peace because you seek his kingdom, not your own.
SPEAKER_00: It's not about building up your own walls and filling it with all your precious treasures.
SPEAKER_00: Your heart is in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: As your heart is molded through the direction of your word-renewed mind, your heart begins to affect your will so that your life is transformed to be more and more like Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Other passages of Scripture say the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: I would love to just spend time going through them.
SPEAKER_00: Philippians 4, verses 7, 8, and 9.
SPEAKER_00: And not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, let your requests be made known to God.
SPEAKER_00: And he begins to talk about what we're supposed to do.
SPEAKER_00: Think on these things, he said.
SPEAKER_00: What things?
SPEAKER_00: What's the very first thing?
SPEAKER_00: What is true?
SPEAKER_00: The only thing that is guaranteed to be true is the revealed word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah 48, verses 17 and 18 are another one.
SPEAKER_00: God says, taking in his commands, taking in the truth of his word brings peace.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the path.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the path to transforming your worrying soul into one that trusts your father and pursues his kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: As your mind receives revealed truth, your understanding mind must instruct your heart.
SPEAKER_00: It must say, Heart, believe that this is true.
SPEAKER_00: And as it is molded to the truth of Scripture, the heart and its affections will then be moved to trust in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And an increasingly faith-filled and trusting life is then lived out in pursuit of Christ's kingdom and his righteousness as your mind directs your heart and affections to trust in the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Skip any part of that and it all breaks down.
SPEAKER_00: Focus on knowledge alone, and it turns you into a Pharisee.
SPEAKER_00: But go slim on knowing God's word, and you begin to elevate the heart and its affection to places that God never intended.
SPEAKER_00: Leave out obedience through the will not being directed properly, and we're in danger of deluding ourselves into believing that we're all okay when the reality might be that we're walking on the lip of hell.
SPEAKER_00: Pursue Jesus, the word of God, by means of immersing yourself in the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Lead your heart, direct your heart, say, heart, commit to this, that this is true, that this is right, that I believe it, even if it doesn't make sense to me in my world.
SPEAKER_00: Seek His renewing work in your heart and your mind, and then submit to the Spirit of God, who will use the Word of God to bring about greater faith and trust in a faithful Father.
SPEAKER_00: It really is that simple.
SPEAKER_00: But it's not immediate.
SPEAKER_00: But God is faithful.
SPEAKER_00: It's a gradual transformation of all of life to knowing God through his word, in his word, so that his power begins to cut away at us from the inside out, excising all of that asset, eating away, so that all that's left is a childlike trust in what the Father says is true.
SPEAKER_00: That be us.
SPEAKER_00: Enable us to do that wholeheartedly without anxiety and worry, but out of love and devotion to who you are.
SPEAKER_00: We desire to praise you and to glorify you above all things.
SPEAKER_00: That in the end the name of Jesus might be praised above all things.
SPEAKER_01: That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_01: Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.