Play

“Do Not Be Anxious”

Craig Adams
07/28/24 - Sun PM

The following transcription is computer-generated and may not accurately reflect the contents of the audio. Please verify the content before quoting.

(Transcribed by Congregate. Always check document for possible errors and inaccuracies in automated transcriptions.)

I'll be reading from Luke the 212th chapter starting in verse 228 and then dropping down to verse 22 Luke 12 verse 11.

And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say, picking up in verse 22 and he said to his disciples.

Therefore, I tell you do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat nor about your body.

What you will put on for life is more than food in the body, more than clothing.

Consider the Ravens they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn and yet God feeds them of how much more value are you than birds.

And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to the span to his span of life.

If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest?

Consider the lilies how they grow.

They neither toil nor spin.

And I tell you even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

But if God so close the grass which is live in the field today and tomorrow is thrown in the oven.

How much more will he clothe you o you of little faith and do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink.

Nor be worried for all the nations of the world seek seek after these things and your father knows that you need them instead seek his kingdom and these things will be added to you.

I want to uh get myself in speaker notes.

I hope yes.

Thank you for the opportunity to stand before you.

We'll continue the light thing.

Uh I was a little scared this morning, uh when uh Alan uh started his sermon, but I hope this will dovetail nicely and build upon the groundwork he laid this morning.

What if you can add an hour to your life?

Maybe make some wiser choices and some of your relationships with the time that you have left?

I can't help but be engineer here and ask about what if, what if you could delete an hour of your life where maybe there were some unwise choices?

Or what if you had a Mulligan like in golf where you could go back and modify an hour uh in your walk?

Would you use that added time to correct a flicker in your life?

How do you answer when you're brought before the authorities?

We might not think that that means too much to us applies today.

But if you're in the workforce, uh diversity, equity and inclusion as a reality and you have that training.

Um And so how do you respond before the authorities?

And you know, there'd be different authorities um especially when the authorities do not appreciate life.

Philippians chapter four verse five says the Lord is at hand, Lucas, what a great opening song.

The battle belongs to the Lord.

Thank you for that.

It goes on to say, do not be anxious about anything but in every side by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

So today, we ask ourselves, are we hiding our life with anxiety?

Well, uh suggest that we need to remember are training to the Children singing that familiar song.

And so we can be led by the heart of a child.

Uh As we consider uh the scripture this evening, we want to take a look at what anxiousness looks like uh so that we can spot it in our lives.

Uh We offer a definition and I believe in this case, Philippians four offers some very practical how to spiritual instruction on building a non anxious life.

We'll explain why I phrase it that way in a moment.

And we'll conclude with some steps that we can take in the coming week.

Anxiety disconnects our relationships and to aid our study.

I'm going to rely on some uh work from Dr John Delony on the state of mental health.

From a 2022 survey, 82% say they those they spend time with do not know them deeply.

I suggest that we think about Genesis 123.

Then the Lord God said it is not good that a man should be alone.

Uh Loneliness is something uh that God uh made provision for in the creation.

Romans eight, talking about the creation itself being set free from its bondage to corruption and to obtain the freedom of the glory of the Children of God.

Notice the contrast there between the creation and the bondage to sin and the freedom uh for the Children of God continuing in verse 22.

For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together.

Seems to me that loneliness and anxiety and groaning uh can go together or often accompany each other.

But this is talking about groaning in the pains of childbirth um as a result of the sin in the garden and not only the creation, but we ourselves notice the shift who have the first fruits of the spirit grown inwardly as we wait eagerly for the adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

We are mostly a group this evening that are eagerly awaiting uh to be finally adopted as sons in eternity.

We're adopted in a sense that we've put on Christ.

I believe this is a little different sense of the usage and where we'll have redemption of our bodies, 68% say they have three or fewer close friends.

I can't help but think of one of the elders at West Knoxville I co op in the summer of 87 in between undergraduate school and graduate school.

He was helping me move from Knoxville uh back to some furniture, back to my parents' place south of Knoxville, uh an hour or two.

And then also helping me uh move things back up uh to the campus uh for the new semester at start grad school.

And he said, you know, he said, if you're fortunate at any point in your life, you have at least one, you know, close friend.

Um And of course, God makes provision for that in marriage ideally, you know, your spouse uh uh is, is that so, but, you know, uh guys need each other.

And uh so hopefully you have at least one, but I wouldn't discourage you from, from trying to have more.

There's just some time and space boundaries there.

Romans eight also talks about Children.

And so we've talked about the contrast between the creation and the Children of God.

And so there's the suggestion, there are different levels of connection with our Lord, our father, um God desires connection with all his creation, but he gives his creation choice.

And so he is as connected to them as they are uh in their choice uh to obey or not obey yet.

He loves all mankind.

And demonstrates mercy for people to make that choice.

Of course, physical death is reality when we no longer have the opportunity to make that choice for.

We know that the whole creation has been groaning together, the pains of childbirth until now.

And not only the creation but we ourselves who have the f first fruits of the spirit.

We've grown inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption of sons, the redemption of our bodies.

We all have different things going on in our lives.

Our prayer list suggests that each week and I don't know if you've ever done this.

Have you ever thought about uh some of our brothers and sisters who have gone on to the reward?

And you're trying to think now when, when did that brother or sister leave this life?

And so those are useful for, you know, retrospective uh uh trying to remember when someone went through some illness or lost a loved one.

and that changes over time.

So our connection with each other helps us through those times.

54% say they do not have a close friend, they feel comfortable calling for in an emergency.

Um John Deloney describes this as our equivalent to a financial emergency fund.

You know, something catastrophic happens, you know, transmission in the, in the vehicle goes out and you have to go replace it.

Well, our relationships are that emergency fund when we have things going on in life that we can call on someone uh no matter the hour of the night, Luke 10, I apologize for the lengthy reading.

If you want to turn there, it's not going to be on the screen.

You can follow along.

We'll build off of this behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test saying, teacher, what shall I do to inherit?

Eternal life?

He said to him what is written in the law?

How do you read it?

And he answered, you shall love the Lord, your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself.

And he said to him, you've answered correctly, do this and you will live.

But he desiring to justify himself.

Said to Jesus, who's my neighbor, Jesus replied that a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and he fell among robbers who stripped him, beat him and departed, leaving him half dead.

Now by chance, a priest was going down the road and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.

So likewise a Levite when he came to the place and saw him pass by on the other side.

But a Samaritan as he journeyed came to where he was and when he saw him, he had compassion, he went to him and bound him up, bound his wounds up, pour pouring on oil and wine.

Then he set him on his own animal.

And brought him to the inn and took care of him.

And the next day he took out two deer and gave them to the innkeeper saying, take care of him and whatever more you spend, I will repay when I come back.

Which of these three do you think prove to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?

Now, I want you to mentally underline who fell amongst the robbers strike through robbers and just think about our walk through life and we could fill in that blank with lost a job, uh lost a loved one on and on down the list.

And he said, the one who showed him mercy.

And Jesus said to him, you go and do likewise.

40% of married couples say they struggle with emotional intimacy.

We return to Genesis chapter two and God observing that man should not be alone.

So he made a helper fit for him.

And that basic construction uh leads us to households with sons and daughters who do sons and daughters lean upon parents.

And then uh they in turn began their households and you have grandparents and we have brothers and sisters in Christ.

Uh and uh the body of Christ, uh not just our physical uh family.

And of course, God gives instruction about the challenges of marriage and says, if you're not married, that's OK. Uh There's, there's a lot of work uh to, to marriage and uh Paul speaks about that.

He talks about the situations of those who have spouses past and gives instruction about that.

But he makes provision so that we can be connected and have our needs met.

Let's talk about um the definition of anxiety.

I'm just gonna share some points that uh stood out to me and looking at uh this work uh building a non anxious life uh by John Deloney.

His focus is really on helping people.

And he starts by talking about diagnostic manuals.

He doesn't say throw them out.

In fact, he says they have a place amongst professionals.

It gives them a way to talk about things that they have observed.

Uh statistically now I'm gonna caveat that and say, wow, I appreciate the fact that we have mental health professionals to go to.

I can't help but think of our spiritual training with Joe.

And so every bit of insight that man has is limited and think about where uh job is wanting to question God.

And then God begins to question him and says, well, where were you when I made this?

So I think we can avail ourselves of, of medical and mental health professionals.

And it's certainly better today than it's ever been, but we need to keep our spiritual grounding there.

And uh that's what I am saying.

Not, not what stated in his book.

He talks about the problem where um sharing diagnostic codes and details and stuff often leads the patients to internalizing that and they put a label on their self.

Um and I just observed too, you know, we can put labels on each other.

And so we need to, you know, be cautious about that.

And really, that's his bottom line.

He doesn't like labels.

Uh He wants to help anxious people be not anxious uh and to have some grounding.

And so he suggests this definition, he says that anxiety is a series of alarms to our body.

If we had a fire in the building, we would hear a loud audible alarm.

And so when we're feeling alone, it's, I think it's wise to say, hey, some something's up.

Um We learned to do that physically, my throat's scratchy, wonder if I'm getting a cold or it's just my sinuses.

I feel a little feverish.

So we need to pay attention to these alarms uh to uh our, our soul, uh our heart.

Uh sometimes it's because we're in an unsafe situation.

That could be a multitude of things.

It could be health concerns.

Uh I have some health condition that, that uh struggling with.

Um it can be the decisions by someone else that have a negative impact on you.

And, you know, we might want to, you know, go to uh a drunk driver example where we'd say, well, he was drunk and he was violating the law. Yes.

Uh that person's decision sometimes affects others lives in a very serious way.

But sometimes it can be as engineers in the workplace, there's design option A and design option B you happen to be on the option B team, but the customer programmatic decision is or choose an A and so, you know, there's some things like that that sometimes don't go our way.

Uh Those of you that played sports, um somebody wins and somebody loses, you know, so it's how we face those things.

We will talk about what the truth says.

We don't need uh the works of a man to confirm truth and that's not my intent.

Uh uh And, and the lesson this evening as I read through this as is my custom, I'm saying what this thing that this author is saying here, where's that at in the scripture?

And so this is really a combination of my marked up notes uh in John de Loney's book as I uh have read through it.

Uh still, still digging in it uh but have made some passes through it.

So it seems reasonable after no small effort and thought that's on my part.

And I say that because um I've been with you all longer than I've been with any other group of Christians, one of the brother here, you know, just, just, you know, you get feedback out of the blue.

You're a deep thinker.

And my challenge is, is I'm wanting to express all that thought and trying to put 10 pounds in a 20 minute sermon or 30 minute sermon.

And then one of my other dear brethren said, you think a little bit differently than we do.

But so long as it's reason from the scripture, I think that's the beauty of the Lord's body.

Um Paul probably didn't teach exactly like Peter didn't teach exactly like John, et cetera, et cetera.

But the important thing is truth.

And so we want to hold up this notion of alarms against Philippians four.

I just want to suggest that the idea of being alone could be tied to when those that you would normally have connection with, have no opportunity to be connected with.

That's what Paul is telling us in this story.

He's off doing the work spreading the gospel, but the Philippians had no opportunity notice they were concerned for him, but they had no opportunity.

We're getting ready to have an opportunity.

Thanks to Alan, who'll be going to be with professor and the Saints in a different continent.

And Gary just came from that and that's what's exciting about this group is you read acts about them coming in and out and making reports of things.

And it's refreshing to see that happening uh here uh with the saints that we we worship with.

But Allen's also shared with us communications when he wasn't able to be there bodily, you know, for Professor when there were some trials and stuff going on.

Uh We read about sickness and events uh you know, in South America.

And so there's concern but no opportunity.

So that really means that there are some times in your life when you are gonna be alone, the idea of an unsafe situation, Paul was not in an unsafe situation.

And the wording of verse 11, not only suggests that it, it, it, I believe firmly leaves us with that uh inescapable conclusion, not that I am speaking from being in need, but I'll suggest that we're commanded to see to the needs of each other above the needs of ourselves.

And sometimes there's concern for one another's needs, but no opportunity.

And so I'm just suggesting that we can think of unsafe situations as when some among us have needs uh that aren't being met, which is why we need to be connected to each other.

What about the idea of health concerns?

Well, Paul talked about facing hunger and facing need.

I think that uh uh he's hinting at physical spiritual and emotional in this section of text and he goes on uh to talk um in verse 15 about when decisions of others negatively impacted him.

Um No church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving.

I don't think it's any coincidence that hunger and need were mentioned because those are obvious things.

You're we go on vacations and we don't have the comforts of our pantries at home and stuff.

So you have to go to restaurants or go somewhere and buy uh provisions and, and so Paul, you know, was pressed for those basic uh needs while he's trying to see the spiritual needs of the brethren.

And so, um we just talked in Corinthians, I think I was making the point uh that there's no hint that they were participating and sending help elsewhere.

So, uh you know, I don't know that that's the church.

I don't, I'm not making that conclusion that Paul has in mind, but certainly some did help like the Philippians.

Uh But then there were occasions when they had concern but no opportunity.

This is speaking to uh when others decisions have an effect on you make wise choices.

David Williams was uh telling me as I shared with him.

Uh Yes, I'm doing this lesson because anxiety is a thing for me.

And he said you just have to live each day.

Well, coincidentally that's de loney's uh focus and it kind of suggests six choices.

He calls it reality and it's relationship based.

He suggests uh that you take inventory of your relationships, uh spouse, Children, workplace, saints, elders.

Uh And so we see that in Paul, therefore, my brothers whom I love and long for does that suggest that Paul was connected to the Philippians?

I think it does.

Was he always able to be bodily present?

No, he, he was absent.

And so there's some realities that we have to deal with in our relationships, connection.

Did Paul connect?

Uh did the Philippians connect with Paul by sharing in his trouble.

A apparently they did and we've talked about the limits there.

And so we also talked about the idea of being neighbor and the story of the good Samaritan.

Uh Do we seek to show mercy or do we pass by and Deloney talks about we have to take care of ourselves first.

Um Do this mental exercise with me.

Uh Tim Smith, uh you know, gave me this years ago.

Uh I think he said it's in a book by Gail Sayers, Joy.

Jesus, others yourself.

Well, I was kind of surprised Deloney said before you can take care of others, you had to take care of yourself and I was sort of raised my eyebrow with that.

But here's what he suggests, you have to rest, you have to exercise your body and you have to have a proper diet else.

You're gonna be stressed out and have your own baggage that you're bringing when I'm trying to be connected with someone else.

Um Others, we seek opportunities to share in trouble.

We'll talk about that in the, in the close um freedom.

Let's go back to the reading in Luke chapter 12.

Thank you, Mike.

Um And he said to his disciples, therefore, I tell you do not be anxious about your life, what you eat, uh Nor about your body.

What you will put on for life is more than food and the body more than clothing.

Let's scoot down to verse uh 28.

But if God so close the grass which is alive in the film today and tomorrow thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you?

O you of little faith, anxiety affects our faith.

It makes us question.

And then we read on your father knows that you need these things instead seek His kingdom and these things will be added to you.

So Philippians suggests that our freedom is with the peace of God that surpasses all understanding.

And when we have the right focus, he will guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus.

So the foundation to all of our relationships is Jesus.

Um I can see some of you captain obvious statement there. Yes.

Um mindfulness on being a neighbor uh and showing mercy to ourselves or to creation or to the Children of God.

Our actions and our relationships proceed from our thoughts.

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable.

If there's any excellence, if there's anything worthy of praise, think about these things, I struggled with that passage for a lot of years.

It's like that's commendable.

What's lovely, what's pure and I could go define those terms.

But it wasn't until the light bulb went on.

I saw that in the dealings between this brother and this brother.

So think about the relationships that we get to see, I know we're not supposed to do our works so that they're saying, but our works do bear fruit.

And so when you see those, think about it and then take a moment and say brother.

So and so your example really encouraged me.

Thank you for setting that example.

So we have to spend some time uh to be mindful.

He actually goes into some wonderful examples.

Um, husbands know that with wives have rules.

It's the same way the other way around.

It just depends on if you're doing yard stuff or, you know, in the kitchen stuff about whose domain you're in.

And he gives some examples about how, why, why do you leave your club?

He, he apparently would leave his clothes laying on the floor and that's, you know, painful to me.

Uh because that's something that I have to profess guiltiness to uh or not in the floor.

I'll, I'll put him in a chair because I wanna run out to dinner with the wife and I won't come back later and put those work clothes on and go do some stuff in the yard.

Um And he talks about instead of provoking each other, triggering each other.

This is a marriage example.

But he goes into examples about, you know, friendship, relationships.

So just, just plug in a different relationship and you probably have some stories you can share yourself and, and he's like, instead of saying, oh, what, why is it such a big deal that I need to pick up my clothes and put them away.

He's like just bite your tongue and say sorry about that.

I'll do better.

Next time I go put the clothes away.

So mindfulness has us thinking about our connection with each other house and healing.

I know how to be brought low and I know how to abound.

This suggests that ultimately, uh we may suffer things in this.

We're going to suffer um because it's for our testing and we're finding but a spiritual healthy outlook will have the grounding that is suggested in Philippians.

Paul says, I know how to live down here.

I know how to live up here and I know how to get back to a baseline.

We'll build on that in just a second belief.

I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Um In verse nine, he says, what have you learned and received and heard and seen practice these things.

I appreciate your praise, patience, brother as usual, even though I rehearsed this faster.

Uh My preaching words are outweighing my uh speaker notes.

We want to suggest that Philippians four has this core instruction on contentment, not too low.

If I'm low, I need to practice getting to contentment.

If things are going great and I'm abounding, I need to get to contentment down here.

I might become jealous or, you know, uh bitter or angry or start to disconnect, become anxious up here, I might be conceited, you know, uh might overlook the needs of someone.

I need to get to a baseline of contentment.

How do we do that?

We rejoice and we rejoice again and we try to be reasonable in our relationships and do not be anxious and finally pray, making supplication with thanksgiving, whatever you feel is lacking, whatever you want to ask for, express it with gratitude, find something that you're thankful for or several things.

Next steps, we want to love and long for deep connections.

One way to do that is to share in someone else's troubles, the way the Philippians did with Paul and when you're doing that, it'd be good to let Jesus guard your hearts and minds through mindfulness and at the core of that practice these things. Yeah.

The other way is we can open ourselves up and say I've got this disease that has these effects or I'm struggling with this sin and I need an accountability partner or I've made this mistake and I need the prayers of uh those around me or in some cases, the saints, same thing.

Let Jesus guard your hearts and minds, think and practice contentment.

If we don't do those things, we're putting a basket over our life do not be anxious, but Martha was distracted.

So you recall there was a really good sermon about distractions of you sermons.

Fact, I don't know if it was weeks or months.

Time is aless when Alan's in the pulpit.

So also remember some recent lessons about love.

Um She was distracted with much serving and she went to him and said, Lord, do you not care that my sisters left me to serve alone?

Tell her then to help me.

But the Lord answered Martha, Martha, you are anxious and trouble about many things.

But one thing is necessary, Mary has chosen the good portion which will not be taken away from her.

Our takeaway there.

Let's go uh to uh this passage and as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way, they are choked by the cares, riches and pleasures of life, their fruit does not mature.

As for that in the good soil, there are those who hearing the word hold it fast in an honest and good heart and bear fruit with patience.

Want us to see the connection between anxiety and the distractions of life.

John Delaney's book title, which is his purpose.

Then say you want to live an anxious free life.

I think we can all if we're being honest with each other, say, yeah, I've wrestled with anxiety.

Maybe some of us wrestle with it more than others, but it's to have a strategy for dealing with anxiety so that you can lead a non anxious life.

So as little flicker as possible as Alan suggested to us in the sermon this morning, I'm making the connection, that anxiety causes a flicker when we're not burning as brightly as we could.

And of course, we want to choose the one thing that is necessary, the good portion and that will not be taken away.

Notice anxiety and the distractions where we're choked by life, the cares of life, the riches of life, the pleasures of life.

I think that's maybe a challenge for us with how blessed we are.

I know Kevin said this morning, we have examples of this group doing good things to share their riches.

But I can't help but suspect that maybe sometimes we're anxious about uh those things.

The good soil are those who here hold it fast and uh bear fruit.

And so we want to extend an invitation tonight about making wise choices.

It could be that you're amongst us and coming from a place uh from the perspective of the creation, God made us.

But if you haven't made some basic choices as the text, we just read, suggest hear it, hold it and bear fruit with patience because it's a long race, even if your days are shorter than uh what normal life would be.

I won't say this.

I thought about just leaving those and I think they're true because they're from the scripture.

But we know from other scripture that what proceeds from hearing is belief and that leads us to repentance to say I'm tired of being in the dark.

I want to get oriented to the light.

And I understand that doing that means I have to bear fruit, which involves confession and our old self dying in baptism.

So I added some things.

I haven't put the passages up there.

If you're not certain about what those are, we're happy to study with you, any number of the elders, um whoever, whoever you would want to uh study with.

But I suspect if you're hearing this and you are ready that you could fill in those scriptures yourself, you should be able to.

So we will uh offer the invitation to those that may need to respond.

Thank you for your time.