Philippians 4:6-7
The Cure to Anxiety
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6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), Php 4:6–7.
Transcript
Welcome to God's Word for you, a Ministry of Sharon RP Church in Southeast Iowa. We want to thank you for listening today, and we pray that you'll be blessed by both hearing God's word as well as having it applied to your life and your heart.
Please turn in your Bibles with me to Philippians chapter four. Philippians, chapter four and we’ll be reading verses four through seven this morning. But the sermon will be specifically focused on verses six and seven. Philippians chapter four can be found on page 1044 of your provided pew Bibles. Hear now the reading of God's word from the newer covenant.
“Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I say, rejoice! Let your gladness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever.
Well, we live in a pretty high-strung culture. We live in a culture where, I was just talking with someone this morning, “Coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee, caffeine, caffeine, caffeine, caffeine Go, go, go, go, go,” so much that we have a common phrase that you'll hear in pop culture, “Go take a Zantacs dude.” We live in a culture that's filled with cares and anxiety and going, going, going, but that's not the Christian life. The Christian life isn't meant to be filled with high anxiety and stress, “Go, go, go!” But the Christian life is to be one that's lived by prayer.
Your call this morning: It’s to live a prayer-filled life. Live a prayer-filled life. First along that path of living a prayer-filled life is you need to realize that anxiety is pointless. Realize the pointlessness of anxiety. Look with me at verse six. “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.” Now some of you might say, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, Pastor! You can't just say anxiety is pointless. We've all got it. What do you mean?” Well I'm not saying that on my own authority, this is what Jesus says.
Turn over in your Bibles with me, keep your finger in Philippians, we’ll come back there, turn over in your Bibles with me to Matthew. Matthew chapter six verses 24 through 35. Matthew chapter six you can find that on page 854. And Jesus specifically points to anxiety here, or worry, and He says, “No one can serve two masters; for either you will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and mammon.” Mammon is money, stuff, things. That's what most of us often have anxiety and worry over. “Therefore, I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink or about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, they do not toil, nor sow, nor reap, nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not more valuable than they? Which of you by worrying can added a single measure to his life? So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all of his glory was not arrayed as one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field which today is and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For all these things the gentiles seek after. And your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry on its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own troubles.”
We get so wrapped up in this life about worrying about our food, our paychecks, what we're gonna eat, what we're gonna wear; how we're going to get that car fixed; How are our kids going to go to school? What's gonna happen to the stock market? Oh no! Commodities are down! Oh, no, this; oh, no, that. All the while we forget that God cares about the sparrows in the field. This is the Sermon on the Mount. The people are sitting on the hills. And Jesus is sitting there going, “Look at the floor next to you. Look at the lilies of the field. They do not toil. They don't spin. And yet God arrayed them with such glory and beauty. Not even Solomon was dressed as one of these.”
Have you seen that before? When you've gone by somebody's house and they have a well-manicured garden and you look at the flowers and you are just like, “Wow! I haven't seen that deep red or how those purples can go into those yellows.” And it's glorious. We can't reproduce it. And yet the Lord clothes you. The Lord cares for you.
And there's a paradox that Jesus points out here. It's the paradox of anxiety. See, we often get stressed out. We often get worried. We often get, “Oh no, what's going to happen?” And we think that somehow that's going to add value to our life. Jesus says, “It's not even going to add one cubit.” If you're worried about being short as a kid, worrying about it ain't gonna get you taller. If you're worried about the commodities market, your worry is not going to change the commodities market. I don't know anybody in here who's the president of the United States. Your worrying isn't going to change it. And in reality, what most doctors will tell you is that anxiety equals stress, and stress equals death. The paradox of anxiety is not that it adds to your life, but it actually takes away from your life.
You might ask, “Okay, so what is anxiety? Aren't there real cares in this life?” Well, yeah. Yeah, there are real things we should be concerned about in this life. This isn't saying, “Go about with a happy face and act like everything's okay all the time.” That’s not what this is. Anxiety is an unreasonable care about things in the future that you can't do anything about. An unreasonable care about things in the future that you can't do anything about.
And you might still ask yourself, “Okay, that's fine. But how do I know if my concern has crossed that boundary line and become anxiety.” Well, Matthew Henry, a Puritan commentator, wrote a couple of easy tests for this. First test: If this is a legitimate concern verses anxiety, are you losing sleep? Psalm 127 says, “It's the Lord who gives His loved ones sleep.” Is your anxiety stealing sleep from your eyes? Give it to the Lord. That was the first test.
Second test: Is your mind tossed here and there and here and there and here and there and here and there, and you're not able to just have peace. That's a sign that this is something you have anxiety over, and you need to give it to the Lord. If your mind is constantly focused on this thing and even when you open up your Bible, or even when you go to prayer, you can't think of the goodness and joy of God? That's an anxiety that you need to give to the Lord. If you have a concern and it becomes your all-consuming anxiety that you can't enjoy the good gifts that the Lord has given you, that's an anxiety you need to give to the Lord.
But again, does this mean that we just walk around happy-go-lucky all the time? No. No, that's not what Philippians chapter four verse five is telling us. It is telling us that we have a peace that comes from God even in the midst of the concerns of this life. And how do we get that peace? Well, the first part is you need to pour out your heart to God. Pour out your heart to God. Look with me again at verse six. “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.”
Pour out your heart to God. Pour out your heart to God. That's the first step of how do we get this peace filled life, not dragged down by anxiety, is pouring out our heart to the Lord. Last week, we looked at, just for a moment, a woman from the Rwandan genocide and the amazing amount of forgiveness that she showed. But I wanted to read to you just a passage of, as she was in this bathroom, this tiny little bathroom, locked up for three months, wasn't able to move at all because there were seven other women in this tiny bathroom. I want you to hear her words of what she said. She said, “The mental anguish was even more intense than the physical. I was trapped alone with my thoughts and the dark fears and doubts that had haunted me since my arrival became relentless. They wormed into my heart and undermined the foundation of my faith. When the killers were out of ear shot, my thoughts drifted away from God and the negative energy rushed in. Yet when I prayed, I immediately felt His love around me and the anxiety eased. But even a few minutes not spent in prayer or contemplation of God became an invitation for Satan to stab me with his double edged knife of doubt and self-pity. Prayer became my armor. And I wrapped it tightly around my heart.”
Do we wrap prayer tightly around our heart? The answer to anxiety, to getting that long lasting peace of the Lord, is to go to the Lord with our cares and with our concerns. But you might ask how do I know that He's listening to me? How do I know that the Lord is listening? Well Hebrews chapter four is clear, that Jesus Christ is your high priest. And that Jesus Christ, as your high priest, gives you access into the throne room of God Himself. And Jesus, as your high priest, is able to bring your prayers to the Father where you are sure He is going to hear you.
And it's interesting, the words here in chapter four verse six, “Let your requests be made known to God.” This idea of be made known to God is “be made known before Him.” If this is the Hebrew, it would be lifne Elohim, it would be “before the face of God.” This is, if you're going to go to prayer, you enter into the very throne room of the king of the universe and you take your concerns and your cares and you leave them at the king's feet.
But you might ask yourself, “Well, okay, that's fine, but I'm not good enough to go before God's throne.” Maybe you're humble. You have a hard time thinking of you going before the master of the universe. There's one of my favorite pictures in the 1960s of President JFK sitting in his desk at the Oval Office. And he's there talking to world leaders. But underneath his desk is sitting JFK Jr. His son has access to his father. To hear his father's decisions to be able to tug on his leg, to be able to distract him, even though he's the president of the United States, he's able to sit at his father's feet and know that his father is hearing him. No matter what's going on, you have that type of access to your heavenly Father.
Well, you might say, “But God feels so far away.” And this is honest thing, how many of you in your prayers have said, “But God feels just out there. It's like the floor of heaven is made out of concrete, and I can't break through it. What do I do?” You need to realize that Christianity isn't about warm, mushy, gooey feelings, but it's about the propositional truths that God has told us. God has said that He is nearer to us than our very breath. Last week we looked at “The Lord is at hand.” The Lord, Psalm 145, “The Lord is near to those who call on Him.” If we have a feeling somehow that God is up there and won't hear us down here, it's because we haven't taken into account His grandeur and the greatness of His promises; that He is near to those who call on Him.
But again, you might say, “Well, that's fine, Pastor. But I've prayed at times, and I don't get the answer that I want.” Well, this is the reality of prayer. That when we pray, our prayers are in the left hand and God's answers on the right hand, but in between is His sovereignty. And He is the one who determines how to bring His loving care to us while He orchestrates all the ways of the entire universe. He does hear your prayers, but He's going to bring it about in His timing. And His answer might not be the answer you’re wanting. But it sure is the answer that you need. It's the Lord who desires to have our hearts poured out to Him. He knows what you need, but His desire is for you to come to Him. He's a loving father. You don't ask your kid, “Just write it down on a slip and put it underneath my office door. Let me know what you need, and I'll get to you eventually.” That's not what a good dad does. What a good father does is he says, “Come on in. Let's talk. Tell me what's on your heart.” How many times has your father had to tell you, “That's not what's best for you, buddy.” The Lord does that with us. Sometimes He knows that we're asking with wrong motives. Sometimes He knows we really want this thing, but it's not what’s best for our life.
But you might still find yourself having a heart of anxiety. You might still find yourself struggling with, “Okay, I've poured out my requests to the Lord. I've told him everything I want, but I still have this anxiety.” Well, notice that the text before us doesn't just say that we offer up to Him our prayers, our supplications and our requests, but there's a key phrase in the middle of verse six. “But in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving.” You need to cultivate a heart of thankfulness. We all need to cultivate a heart of thankfulness.
I used to love, before I had kids, going to a grocery store and watching a mom with little kids in the cart because I was always amazed by these little kids. They would be put in a cart and they would be crying because they wanted this and they wanted that and they wanted this and they wanted that. “But, Mom, I really want this thing! Why aren't you getting me this thing? Mom, Mom, Mom, Mom!” And you're sitting there and you’re like, “Kid! Do you not feel the groceries surrounding you? Your mom is buying you all sorts of food. Your mom is planning on making a huge meal for you tonight. But you're worried about those sugary pops that she knows are going to ruin your teeth.
Sometimes we're like that kid in the cart. “God, I really want this. I really want this. I really want this.” And all the while the Lord is saying, “No, no, no, no, no. Trust me, I know what you need. Look at all the good gifts around you.” This is exactly what was going on in Exodus. Do you remember what was going on with the people during the time of wandering? I mean, God shows them His glory. God takes them out of Egypt. God puts them through the Red Sea. God provides food for them from heaven. It's even sweet food. He gives them manna and they don't even have to work for it. All they had to do is walk outside their tent, gather it up in their basket, and every day there's new food for them. But sure enough, instead of being thankful for what they have, “God, we want meat. We're tired of this manna from heaven.” I don’t know about how many of you wives and mothers out there, how much do you wish you could just go tell your husband to go get the manna out in the outside of the tent? I'm not cooking today. They weren’t thankful. And God calls them grumblers and complainers and stiff-necked people, because they couldn't see the graciousness that He had poured out on them.
Thankfulness is not something we're born with, but it's something that you cultivate in your soul. If you've ever met a newborn and you've seen them cry for food, they don't say thank you afterwards, but they just want what they want. You have to teach them and smile at them and cultivate that thankfulness in them. This is why dads have to tell their children, “You better thank your mother for the meal they just made for you.” We have to cultivate that heart and that life of thankfulness.
There was a Chinese woman who was locked in prison for a number of years, and the Communist government rationed her down to a small bowl of rice every day. And this woman was, if any of us were starving, and she was starving, you might think she out of everybody who lived right then she has a reason to not be thankful. But she would take her rice and she would line it up, grain to grain. And however many grains filled up that line that day, she would thank God for something in her life. For every grain of rice that she got to eat that day. She had to work for it. She knew that if she gave in to “Oh, I'm starving,” that all she would think about is starvation and she would forget about all the blessings that God had poured out in her whole life.
Do you thank God in your prayer life? This is an honest question for you to ask of your own soul: How often do you go to the Lord and say thank you? How often in your prayer closet? How often in your family worship? How often in your quiet times do you not ask the Lord for something, but just thank Him for the good things He's given you? This is something we need to cultivate in our hearts, in our lives. We become anxious because we're not thankful. And when we're not thankful, we rob ourselves of the joy that God has given us in Jesus Christ. We rob ourselves of the joy of His good blessings.
If this is something that you struggle with, if you struggle with having a heart of thankfulness, if you find yourself anxious, if you find yourself worried, if you find yourself sometimes just being in a pattern of bitterness, start a Gratitude Journal. This is just a practical application of this. Pick up a ruled 70 page dollar notebook and every day write down five things you're thankful to the Lord for. Just five things. And you'll start to cultivate this heart of thankfulness. Or if you're one who likes to pray a lot about things, wanting things, for every prayer or supplication, give one of thanksgiving. So when you pray for that person who's ailing and is suffering with a sickness, that's a good prayer. Thank the Lord for all the years of health he gave that person. When you're praying for this person who is going through this really hard situation, thank God for putting that person in your life. “Do not be anxious for anything but in all things by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.”
And there's gonna be a result here of this type of pouring out your heart and cultivating a heart of thankfulness for the Lord. And the result is you're going to get to enjoy peace of God. Enjoy the peace of God. Look with me at verse seven, “and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” This is God's own peace. God Himself is the Lord of peace. And He tells us that when we offer up our prayers and supplications with thanksgiving, the God of peace is going to give us peace. It is God who is going to protect our hearts against that worry. It is peace that he sends, security and calmness.
And notice how the Scriptures tell us about this peace of God. “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” This isn't just momentary peace. This is talking about all eternity, loving God, peaceful state. Because you are going to be in God and the Spirit of God is in you. And forever you are going to enjoy communion with this God of peace. Are you enjoying the peace that God gives you that surpasses all understanding? That when everything breaks down in your life, when everything is falling apart, you're able to go into the Throne Room of Grace and you’re able to say, “Thank you, Lord. I need you to take this from me. And thank you for taking care of it for me.” Do you go to your Father like that and then be able to leave that Throne Room and go, “I've done the most I can.”
Often we tell someone, “I'll pray for you,” when we feel like there's nothing else that we can do for them. When all reality, when we pray for someone, that's the most that we can do for them. And what the Lord does when we lay it before Him is He's saying, “You don't need to carry that yolk. That's not your burden to carry anymore. You’ve brought it to me. I'm carrying it now.”
The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding. This next part, “will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” Philippi is a Roman colony. Philippi in Macedonia is a fortress city. It is surrounded by thick walls. It has a fortress, an Acropolis on the top of its hill. It is here in Philippi that the road from Persia came through. And as the enemies from the east would come to try to fight against Rome, they would have to go through Philippi. Because Philippi was known as a garrison city. The people who lived around there were veterans. The people who lived in the town were soldiers. The people who protected the town were also protecting the gateway into the Roman Empire. And God is saying that He is going to guard you thicker than the walls of Philippi. That when you go to the citadel of Christ, you enter into your great refuge. When we go to God, our Father in prayer, with thanksgiving, it is God who will protect you. It is God who will love you. It is God who will give you a peace, because no one can penetrate His defenses. He is going to guard you. He is going to protect you. He is going to give you a peace which surpasses all understanding.
Are you running to Jesus Christ, that city of hope? Are you going to God, your refuge, in prayer, with thanksgiving? Are you finding a peace in your life in a God who will never leave you nor forsake you, but will guard you for all eternity? Brothers and sisters, run to Jesus Christ, your great hope of peace, by prayer, supplication with thanksgiving in your heart, and enjoy the true peace that comes from Jesus Christ.
Let's pray. “God, we thank you so much for the promises that you have poured out before us. We thank you for Jesus Christ. God, we pray that your Holy Spirit would move our hearts that we wouldn't just be hearers of these things, but we would be doers. Lord, we pray that you would move us, Lord, to take our refuge in You and You alone. Lord, we pray that we would love you. And we would have a peace that surpasses everything. God make this true of our lives we pray in Jesus’s name. Amen.”
Thank you for listening to God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon RP church in Morning Sun, Iowa. We pray that you would be blessed as you grow in your love for God, your love for His word, as well as your love for His people. Until next week, God bless you.