Be Anxious For Nothing

Well, before I begin preaching, before I even read the scriptures that we will attend to this morning,

I have a couple of things of matters of housecleaning or business to present to you.

The first is to, as many of you know, welcome Samantha Liberty Owens into this world, born 130 yesterday morning,

July 4th, so Liberty, her name, being quite appropriate and something that every

July 4th will have an extra measure of meaning. We praise God for mother and child safety and for her coming safely and healthfully into this world.

We praise God that Liberty is about to be raised in a godly family where she will learn and understand about the liberty that we have in Christ Jesus.

So many, many venues there to thank God for what he has done and welcome

Samantha Liberty Owens into this world and congratulations to the whole family on that.

The second thing, I have a couple of points I need to clarify from last week and I just want to get these out to you.

They were important to me, they were kind of, some were presented to me and some were rattling around in my own mind for a while.

From last week's message about rejoicing the Lord always again, I say rejoice.

I believe that I too much under -emphasized the command nature of rejoice, it is a command.

Now it is descriptive as I gave it to you because it is a continuous command and it is to characterize the whole of the

Christian life and it's also descriptive in that Paul does not say a specific thing that is to be rejoiced over, though he gives us the cause for rejoicing and that's

Christ Jesus, rejoice in the Lord always. And because the Lord is always with us we always have cause for rejoicing and in that sense it's descriptive but I under -emphasized that it is an imperative that the

Apostle Paul under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, so God is telling us rejoice always, rejoice in the

Lord always. It is a command that describes the whole of the Christian life and so having under -emphasized too much last week the command nature of it,

I want to get that before you that it is a command and you are commanded to rejoice. The second piece of business is that I mentioned

George Floyd last week but I used the name Foster. I don't know if this happens to any others of you but once you get a wrong name in your head or at least in my head it's hard to correct, it's hard to get it out.

When I first saw it on the news somehow even though they used the right name Floyd I got Foster in my head and in my notes last week it said

Floyd and yet I said Foster and I just want to make very clear to everyone here that that was not meant in any way to disrespect the family or the man or even the movements that have sprung up since then or anything like that.

It was a slip of the tongue. I meant Floyd. I said Foster. I apologize for that but I want you to know there was no ill intent, there was nothing, no more behind that other than just that slip of the tongue.

So I want to get that out to you as well. If you would turn now to Philippians chapter 4 and we'll continue going through this section verses 4 through 7 where we've kind of slowed down taking them one at a time as Paul gives us these instructions for the

Christian life and this morning we will look at the last half of verse 5 so as we call it 5b and then verse 6 the

Lord is near do not be anxious for anything but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

Anxiety is something that the scripture addresses actually quite often though here the

Apostle Paul does not give us any specific things that he's telling the Philippians or even ourselves to stop being anxious about and what he says here to the

Philippians and to us is stop your habitual worrying do not be anxious for anything now the

Philippians had much that they could have been anxious about many things could have stirred up their spirit into the state of anxiety the

Apostle Paul was in prison and very reasonably expected to be executed now that could cause some anxiety for some people could it not?

Iodia and Syntyche who we talked about a few weeks ago were at each other's throats and the church was dividing over this they were lining up behind one or the other whatever the controversy is and like these causes of anxiety

Paul was not specific but that could have been a great cause for anxiety you recall from chapter 3 several weeks ago that they had these

Jewish evangelists if you will or perhaps members of the church who were from a Jewish background telling them that they had to be circumcised in order to be saved and Paul was writing against that too to get them back on track in terms of what it means to have faith in Christ and Christ alone and not circumcision or any other right and all these things could have made them anxious just as many things today make us anxious some of us are more anxiety ridden than others some of us have physiological issues thyroid issues that can make us feel nervous and anxious when there's no logical cause for it others suffer from PTSD which causes real anxiety even when that is unreasonable based upon the circumstances but all of us have many touch points of anxiety and this is what the

Apostle Paul tells the Philippians and tells us tells you this morning to not be anxious for anything to stop your habitual worrying it's actually in very strong terms such as when

Jesus Christ cursed that fig tree and said that no fruit be born by you ever again and it's the same kind of language that Paul uses here to us when he says do not be anxious for anything but in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving lay your requests be made known to God so this morning we will look at anxiety we will look at the causes of anxiety we'll look at the implications of anxiety what causes anxiety and what does it imply about us when we're anxious in the way that the

Apostle Paul tells us to stop being and then praise

God thanks to his spirit we have the answer to this not an immediate answer not as if we're anxious about things and you're a person who has many anxieties and I tell you to do these things and all of a sudden it's going to go away though God willing it will and in God's power it can but that's not necessarily what we're promising what

I will tell you this morning is if you have anxieties or even an anxiety that the scripture tells us two things stop but not just stop stop and do everything by prayer and supplication so let's look at that this morning look at what we have before us this morning in Philippians 4 in the last part of verse 5 to verse 6 first we need to find out what anxiety is what is it we can't go to a doctor and tell him

I'm not well and he says well what do you want me to do for you and will make me well make me stop feeling badly he says well what's the matter well

I just feel unwell in general buzz your head doctor I just feel unwell uh maybe

I have an upset stomach doctor I just feel unwell no more than that can we go to God just in general say

I am anxious anxiety has a cause it has a touch point as we say today during this pandemic era that we are in what is anxiety let's define this before we go to the scripture so we know what it is the scripture is trying to cure us of it is a sense of uneasiness and anxiety about the future scripture tells us that anxiety is ultimately grounded in a lack of trust in God and his purposes why are we anxious we're anxious because we don't know what is going to happen we're anxious because we don't know what tomorrow will bring we don't know what the next moment will bring now to be anxious can have some positive aspect to it go to a sporting event because you're anxious to see who might win the game you come here and I hope you're saying

I'm anxious to hear what the pastor is going to say on the other hand there's an anxiousness that has the negative negative aspect it's a worry it's a fretting it's a stirring up it's an unsettled feeling because we don't know the future and this is what

Jesus Christ himself says in Matthew 634 about anxiety he says therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow for tomorrow will be anxious for itself sufficient for the day is its own trouble and this is where I want us to focus as we think about anxiety it's our ignorance of and desire to have knowledge of what's going to happen tomorrow you know some time ago there was that series on tv called early edition do you remember that have you ever seen that this is this guy

I don't remember his name we're not going to go into a lot of detail but he was able to get these newspapers for tomorrow today so he knew what was going to happen so he did not have this anxiety about what was going to happen though as the series evolved he had much anxiety over getting people to respond correctly to what he knew was going to happen we have no such early edition and the answer to our anxiety is to know and to acknowledge and confess we have no idea of tomorrow though many yesterdays might predict tomorrow for us we still don't know only

God does and what is tomorrow tomorrow tomorrow is as spoken of in Deuteronomy 29 29 the secret things belong to the

Lord our God only he knows tomorrow and Jesus Christ says do not worry about tomorrow so that's what worry is worry is basically anxiety is essentially this concern about tomorrow this uneasiness about what is going to happen this desire if you will to know and dissatisfaction because I don't know what is going to happen and this is what the apostle tells the

Philippians it tells us to stop doing stop worrying about tomorrow stop being anxious for these things what causes our worry where does worry come from well

Jesus again we go to him Matthew 6 25 says therefore I tell you do not be anxious do not be worried do not be concerned you could say about your life what you will eat or what you will drink nor about your body what you will put on is not life more than food in the body more than clothing we worry about our needs we worry about being able to satisfy our needs and get the things that we need to survive we worry if you're a

Christian I can say that maybe God will not provide for me and that by worrying perhaps

I'm doing something by worrying maybe I can accomplish something which of course the way I say that and the way you're hearing that I trust you see that is a ridiculous premise

Jesus says do not be anxious about tomorrow for excuse me do not be anxious about your life what you eat what you will drink don't be worried about any of these things because your father in heaven knows you have need of them anxiety is part of the human condition it shall be

I fear until the Lord Jesus Christ returns and brings us back to himself and yet I said a moment ago that while we can be anxious about tomorrow we know nothing about tomorrow ultimately a whole bunch of yesterdays can give us some comfort

I don't want to say confidence let's just say comfort about what might happen tomorrow yesterday did

God provide you food and clothing and shelter the day before that did

God provide you food and sheltering and clothing and the day before that and the day before that and the week and the month and the year and the decade how long have you been walking with Christ and here we are healthy well -dressed alive has not

God cared for your needs why then do you worry about these things

Jesus asked the apostle says do not worry you need to stop this worrying this takes us to a point of faith does it not of trusting

God God who so graciously has given you a history of his watch care for you and has provided for your needs and then could look down from heaven as it were and say well what are you worrying about if I have so faithfully provided and so faithfully met you at your point of need time and time again this really takes us back to exodus 16 do you remember that exodus 16 you don't have to turn there let me just tell you the story very quickly this is when the manna first fell from heaven and this is when the first lesson on the sabbath came to Israel because they were told what was it that on the sixth day they were to take a double portion because on the seventh day none would fall and so they were trust to trust

God not only day by day each day that the manna would be there so they could go out of their tents have what they need and have their needs met but then on that special day a double portion would be provided to them if worry is uneasiness and anxiety about tomorrow about the future does not

God's history with you alleviate that concern should it not logically take it away altogether we worry about our needs and this worry can so overcome us that we forget that our needs have been met time again and on top of that Jesus Christ says your father in heaven knows that you have need of these things implying obviously that he will continue to provide for the cause of worry is ultimately a lack of trust a lack of faith in God it's an amnesia about yesterday and a behaving as if I can do something about tomorrow other than trust to God from where does work excuse me from where does worry come but worry is a worldly thing is it not if we are spiritual in Christ by the faith he has given us in him if we are inhabited by the spirit of God as Jesus Christ makes so clear we are the worry comes from without it comes from this world this is exactly what

Jesus says in Matthew chapter 13 in the parable of the sower you could turn there if you would to Matthew 13 in verse 18

I'm going to read down to verse 23 here the verse 22 is the real key to what