July 27, 2021 Show with Geoff Thomas on “Dealing with Anxiety”

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Carlisle, Pennsylvania, it's Iron Sharpens Iron. This is a radio platform in which pastors,

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Proverbs chapter 27 verse 17 tells us iron sharpens iron so one man sharpens another.

Matthew Henry said that in this passage we are cautioned to take heed with whom we converse and directed to have a view in conversation to make one another wiser and better.

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This is Chris Arnzen, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, wishing you all a happy Tuesday on this 27th day of July 2021.

I'm always thrilled to have back on the program one of my favorite guests, a frequently recurring guest,

Reverend Jeff Thomas, who beginning in 1965 served for over 50 years as pastor at Alfred Place Baptist Church of Aberystwyth, Wales, a theologically reformed congregation in the

United Kingdom, one that has a lot of history behind it as well. He is also a very popular

Banner of Truth conference speaker and author of many books published by the

Banner of Truth and also Reformation Heritage Books and Day One Publishing.

Today we are going to be dealing with the subject Dealing with Anxiety and it's my honor and privilege to welcome you back to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, Jeff Thomas.

Thank you very much Chris, it's my delight to be on the show again and I hope we'll be able to hear things that are profitable for this world and for the world to come.

Amen, I'm quite confident we will brother, and if anybody has any questions they'd like to ask on the issue of anxiety, and of course since Pastor Jeff has had over half a century as a pastor, we will allow other pastoral questions and theological questions, but the main theme will be

Dealing with Anxiety. Our email address is chrisarnsen at gmail .com, c -h -r -i -s -a -r -n -z -e -n at gmail .com.

As always, give us your first name at least, your city and state of residence, and your country of residence if you live outside the

USA. Only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter, and obviously with a subject like this,

I could readily understand that there will be listeners who do have personal and private matters over which they want to question you, since anxiety is obviously a problem that people experience very often connected with very personal and private and intimate issues in their lives.

So we will grant you that request, but if it's just a general question on theology, and my guess, pastoral experience with this issue, if it's just a general question, please give us your first name, city and state, and country of residence.

Well, I must confess right off the bat, Pastor Jeff, that anxiety, or being anxious for quite a number of things, is likely my most often repeated sin.

I refer to it as a sin because Jesus commands us to be anxious for nothing, and yet I find myself being quite frequently anxious and disobeying him.

But why is it that you wanted to address this issue today? Well, it's there in the

Sermon on the Mount, the greatest sermon ever preached, and the last half of chapter 6,

Matthew 5, 6, and 7, is that sermon, and there the Lord Jesus deals with worry and anxiety at our most profound and pastorally, psychologically, emotionally helpful an area, so that Christianity isn't about the past, and it isn't about theology dogmatics, but it's about our relationship today to ourselves and to one another.

And I thought how very important that was, and the Apostle Paul then, which

I'll refer to in a moment, brings it up in the lovely fourth chapter of his letter to the

Philippians, which, as you know, Chris, is one of the most popular and loved

New Testament pieces of literature. And so, it's very interesting, it's in a cluster of three marks that are to characterize every

Christian, or what would we say would be three marks we talk about? Certain ethical issues and doctrines of the

Trinity and the Incarnation. Paul says three things he wants a

Christian to be known for. Firstly, this is in 4, 5, and 6 of Philippians.

Firstly, a Christian is known by his joy, that he rejoices in the

Lord, rejoices for who the

Lord is and what he has done for us, and so when we gather together in our

Christian religion, we sing. They don't sing in Buddhism, they don't sing in Islam, they don't sing in Hinduism, in the temples, but when we gather together, we don't listen to one cantor singing, but we all sing together.

We rejoice in the Lord. Come ye that love the Lord, and let your praise be known.

And that's the first feature. I was raised in a home where my mother sang.

She sang hymns. She did all the chores of church, and a friend said to me when

I was 15, oh your mother's a remarkable woman, isn't she? I said, yes, the way she sings hymns all day.

He noticed it, and I thought to myself, his mother doesn't sing hymns.

I thought every mother sang. So that's the first, the joy, and then secondly, let your gentleness be evident to all men.

And he's speaking there of graciousness. He's speaking of a disciplined reaction to the providences of life when we're under provocation, that we are strong in kindness and goodwill, that we don't retaliate when we're provoked, that we're known in the office as a gentle person.

We're known in school. Teenagers are not known to be gentle, but Christian girls and Christian boys, there's a graciousness, a gentleness about them.

Oh, it's wonderful in a family when there are parents and when there are children that are gentle.

Older ones with the younger ones. So that's the second. So joy and gentleness.

And the third characteristic is the one we're looking at tonight. Don't be anxious, he says, about anything.

He's not saying we ought not to take reasonable steps and foresight about what might happen.

He's not saying that it's wrong to look ahead or to prepare or to be a saver or to take precautions or even wrong to be fearful of what might happen.

But he is concerned about neurotic anxiety, about an obsessive preoccupation with some of the details of life.

A preoccupation that's obsessive and paralyzing and that is irrational.

An obsession that bears no relationship to the importance of the problem or to our ability to control it or even to the reality of the problem itself.

It isn't just a warning about true thoughtfulness or lack of preparation, but he's concerned about a neurotic, obsessive, paralyzing, irrational anxiety.

It is with that that Paul is concerned as he writes to this fledgling

Christian girl in Greece. You find it in Psalm 107 and it describes a man who is just lost in a storm.

He's at the top of a mast in the sea and he's going up and down. Paul is concerned about us losing sleep over things that don't deserve it, over things we can't control, over things that God has said he'll take care of them.

This is obsessive anxiety and it is characterized by a destructive mind.

A mind whose attention is divided between things that really matter and things that don't matter at all.

Whose attention constantly takes us away from the things that are really important.

By what the Bible says, now come on, that's a triviality. It's going to go.

And we have this obsessional, irrational, paralyzing, distracting care.

We are emotionally deranged in our personality. It's very, very common in London where I live.

It is very, very common in the USA where many of you live. It's almost the hallmark of our present society.

The way people have reacted to the coronavirus. We have a crisis in neuroses because of our generation's obsession with the things that they see and the things they hear.

And because there's a collapse of the old institutions and old standards, the traditional comforts that held our personalities together.

And so Paul is saying then, as he sums up, you know, his moral and ethical exhortations at the end of his letters, he says, let us as Christians be distinguished from the world around us by the fact that we don't have this neurotic anxiety.

And then we can cast the net wider and we can look at this feeling. Not just the feeling itself, but we can look how that feeling is concerned with certain categories of problems of human experiences that the

Word of God tells us should not at all be the objects of anxiety to Christian behavior.

Let me analyze for a moment. We have this theme then, the sinful or irrational compulsive anxiety.

And what are the objects that generate or create such an attitude?

Well, firstly, it is anxiety that is directed to things that are unimportant and trivial.

That's what Jesus does in Matthew 6 in the Sermon on the Mount. He says, why are you worrying about what you eat?

You've got to eat two or three times a day. You've got to drink. You've got to put clothes on.

And part of the problem of this neurotic anxiety is these trivialities, eating and clothing.

It is perfectly reasonable to a non -Christian that he is perturbed with stuff like that.

But a Christian has other preoccupations, other visions, other sources of strength.

I'm not saying to you who are listening, who are unbelievers and atheists and humanists not to be anxious.

I could say that, but you're not my focus in this problem.

I'm saying to people who believe in God, who believe in Jesus Christ, you shouldn't be obsessed with food and drink and economics and this life.

It's a denial of your perspective. It's a denial of God's provision for you.

It's a denial of your priorities in life. The great priority for you and for me is the kingdom of God.

God's reign of grace over us. And we are his subjects.

And we are the recipients of his care and his provision.

And the whole problem of distraction is so important when we look at this matter of anxiety because it is, it results in a divided mind.

Don't have a divided mind. You know, I get it. I get it. I take to the pulpit with me some concern, maybe about my health, maybe about some event that's going to take place.

And I can't give myself to this word from God and give myself to this people.

My mind is distracted and it weakens my life and my testimony.

And it becomes dominant, dominant. And I'm no longer then this one thing

I do. Seek the glory of God. What is my chief end? My chief end is to glorify and enjoy

God for ever. And this world is pulling me away.

And Paul is saying, don't be distracted. Don't be distracted from the concerns of the kingdom of God.

You know, there's a famous story in the life of Dr. Lloyd -Jones where he's thinking of giving up then his eminent position at working with the king's physician in London and a great medical career.

And he doesn't know what to do. And he and his newlywed wife are invited by two friends to go to a theater in London and see some play that was getting good reviews.

And he went along and it was quite enjoyable. And they came out and walked into Leicester Square and there was a

Salvation Army band. And it was playing Rock of Ages. And it was playing

Jesus lover of my soul. And it was playing onward Christian soldiers.

And Dr. Lloyd -Jones said to himself, these are my people.

This is my concern to identify with them and stand with them and strengthen with them and serve them.

Don't be distracted from the great concern of the kingdom of God.

The Christian is someone who gives undivided attention, an absolute priority to the glory of God.

And then that shuts off that conviction.

It just shuts out the great concern of the problem of neurotic anxiety, a divided mind, a distracted mind.

And that's the first thing. You mustn't let anxiety distract you from the concerns of the kingdom of God.

And then anxiety does something else. Not only does it become a preoccupation with things that are trivial, like what clothes am

I going to wear? You know how teenagers say, I can't wear that color. Or those trainers, they're out of fashion.

I've got to have new trainers and so on and so on. But now here's a preoccupation with things we can't influence or control at all.

Which of you by taking thought, asks Jesus, can add an influence to your life?

Can he add an influence to your stature? Here's a little man and he's got this awful problem that he'll never get on well in life.

He'll never have promotion. He'll never get a beautiful woman because he's short.

And what can he do about it? Here's a man who's worried that he's not going to live long enough to get his pension.

He's fretting about the length of life. I know a woman in my congregation, she was desperately worried every time there was a thunderstorm, that lightning would strike her house.

She couldn't worry about it in the unlikelihood of that happening.

The precise hallmark of neurotic anxiety is that we're obsessed with things we can't control.

Which we have no possibility of controlling them whatsoever. Here's an expectant mother and she has all sorts of fears about the unborn baby in her womb.

And she's anxious. And there's an extremity about her anxiety with this child's development.

The doctors will show her and show her little photographs that the baby is doing very well.

She's not persuaded. There's absolutely nothing that can be done. What is the point of obsessive preoccupation with things we can't control?

How much energy, psychological energy, spiritual energy, over things which we can't handle?

We worry about our child's IQ. You can't do anything about it. You've done your exam and it's away now being marked by some examiner.

Why are you worried? You can't do anything by your worry about what that marker makes of your examinations.

Jesus says before you get involved in a problem, before you get involved in some distress,

I'm obsessed with it. Ask, can I do anything about it? If I worry about it day in, day out, in the end what can

I do? We have to learn to say to ourselves, I have no control over this problem.

There's nothing I can do. I've made this application for a certain job.

I've invested in a certain company. I've got this unborn child in my womb. It's my child.

Now I'm not going to be obsessed. That's the second concern.

Why get obsessed if you have no effect or no outcome on it at all?

Those are my first two points, Chris. Shall I go on to a third point or do you want to say anything at this juncture?

Well, why don't I ask an audience question and then we'll go to our first break and then we'll have you continue.

Fine. Okay, we have an anonymous listener. The anonymous listener says, must we not be extremely careful not to be cavalier with others who are indeed worried with realism about where they're going to be getting the food necessary to provide for their children and whether or not they're going to be evicted from their homes and the clothing they truly need for their children?

I'm not talking about spoiled brats here. I'm talking about people who are indeed in desperate and urgent need for these things.

Yes, that's a very, I think, appropriate and reasonable question.

It's one thing how we are to address ourselves, is it not? And another, how we are to respond to others.

And as the person indicated, we're not talking about the spoiled brat who says, I want a $300 pair of Nikes and I'm very anxious that I'm not going to get it.

We're talking about people who are in serious financial need, genuine need.

Yes. You know, I'm eating a nice meal and I'm seeing a picture of a baby with a drawn face and a huge potbelly and legs and arms as thin as a flute.

And oh, how I wish I could just send that plate of food and put it down before that child.

Oh, what a groaning world this is. And some people, oh, how cruel life can be.

Life has been for them. They've married a guy who's been a rotter and he's left them with their children and he doesn't send any money.

And this woman, what concern she has to provide for them and keep their spirits up.

And of course, with all tenderness and practical help, we are to help her in every way that we can.

We arrange a little rotter of women from the church who will cook on different days and who will go along and will offer help in the home.

And there are husbands who do some work, the heavier work in the garden for her. Oh, yes, you are raising a problem about Christian concern for people in need.

And let's be much more imaginative and energetic. I had a letter today.

I sent a copy of it to Chris on the program here and it talks about their next door neighbor.

She went away to the West Coast. And when she was there, her husband who was staying in that home died.

And she's come back, come back to an empty house. And oh, how they worked in that home.

And she's decided she's got to move to her family now and live with him. And so they've cleaned every room in the house and they've tidied.

And she's given all she's not taking to the charity shop where they work a day a week.

They've given themselves and at the end they were exhausted. And my friends, let's be zealous of the good works that God has before ordained that we should be the ones to be doing them.

And we have to go to our first break right now. If anybody has a question of your own that you'd like to ask

Jeff Thomas, our email address is chrisarnsen at gmail .com. C -H -R -I -S -A -R -N -Z -E -N at gmail .com.

Give us your first name at least, your city and state of residence and your country of residence if you live outside the

USA. Please only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter.

Don't go away. We'll be right back with Jeff Thomas. I'll be speaking there along with over 20 other speakers including

John McArthur, Phil Johnson, Votie Balcom, Joel Beakey, and James White.

For details, visit g3conference .com. That's g3conference .com.

Please join Chris Arnzen and me September 30th through October 2nd at G3 2020.

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Welcome back. This is Chris Armson. If you just tuned us in, our guest today for the entirety of the program is

Jeff Thomas, who is a world -renowned author and conference speaker, author published by Banner of Truth, Reformation Heritage Books, and also

Day One Publications. We are addressing a very prominent theme in the lives of Christians, dealing with anxiety.

Our email address is chrisarmson at gmail .com, chrisarmson at gmail .com.

And give us at least your first name, your city and state of residence, and your country of residence if you live outside of the

USA. Before we return to our discussion, Jeff, I have a question that is somewhat off -topic, but it is relevant to where you formally pastored in Wales.

Let me see here. We have Alexander in Orlando, Florida.

I think Alexander may be a first -time questioner. He asks, my brother in Wales, who lives near Cardiff, is not a believer, and I want to try to point him to a solid church in his area to hear the true gospel.

Do you have a good church recommendation? And I'll go on to the second question after you answer that one.

Yes, there are numbers of good churches. My son -in -law is an elder in Immanuel in Cardiff, and that is a fine, strong, growing church.

And a whole wide age range amongst the people who attend it.

And yes, Immanuel, Cardiff. There's an Immanuel, which is a fine

Presbyterian church, and then there's Immanuel. I preach in them both. That's a

Reformed Baptist church, so those are some of the churches. There's a lot of gospel in Cardiff, I'm glad to say.

And do you happen to have, you may not have it handy right now, but do you have websites or anything like that that gives more details?

Well, if you go to Google and you write in Immanuel Church, then all the details of that church in Cardiff will be provided for you.

I also happen to know, and I'm sure you are familiar with this, brother, because I'm nearly 100 % certain that you have preached on the same platform with him at Banner of Truth conferences.

But Mark G. Johnston, there's a T in there, J -O -H -N -S -T -O -N, he is a pastor at Bethel Presbyterian Church.

Not any longer. Oh, really? No. Six months ago, he resigned and returned to his native

Ulster, and to the church where he first pastored was ordained 30 years ago.

And that's where he is now the minister, and that church is looking for a new pastor.

Well, I'm sure it's a church that is still worthy of recommendation. Yep, oh it is, yes,

Bethel. And if anybody wants more information, especially our listener, go to BethelPCR .org

.uk. BethelPCR .org

.uk. But you can continue on. Oh, by the way, let me let our listener know,

Alexander in Orlando, Florida, if you are indeed a first -time questioner, you have won a new

American Standard Bible, because we always send out free new

American Standard Bibles to our first -time questioners, compliments of the publishers of the

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C -V for Cumberland Valley, B -B -S for BibleBookService .com, who always ship out our books,

Bibles, and other things that listeners win when they send in questions. And this also goes for the first anonymous questioner, if you are indeed a first -time questioner, let me know and give me your full mailing address, so that we can have

CVBBS .com ship out to you a new American Standard Bible.

So we'll be waiting for your full mailing addresses, so we can have those Bibles shipped out as soon as possible.

So you may continue now where you left off there, Brother Jeff. Okay. Okay. The third possibility, we've dealt with our

Lord's concerns about trivial things, and things about which we can't control, but surely also he's concerned about problems that haven't yet materialized.

Tomorrow. Take no thought for tomorrow. But people do.

And they're concerned about what might happen. I might lose my child, my three children.

There might be a nuclear war. There might be a famine.

I might make appalling discoveries about my health and my congregation.

And I can dwell on all the possibilities for evil for tomorrow.

I can let my imagination run riot. And our Lord says, sufficient to the day is the evil thereof.

Each day has enough troubles of its own.

And there are possibilities. That's all there are. They may never materialize. It's time enough to take countermeasures when the problem emerges.

There are some we can prepare for. Some we can foresee that are likely, that are inevitable.

And we can take measures. But others are just possibilities.

And sometimes only wild and extravagant possibilities. And there are thousands of poor men and women who live around us, who are listening to this program maybe, whose present is mortgaged, whose today is a strain and darkness, because they're obsessed with the mere possibility of what might happen tomorrow.

And we have to learn to keep tomorrow at bay. Sufficient for today are the evils of today.

Tomorrow will bring its own problems. And then fourthly then, if we are guilty as believers of going into neurotic anxiety, not only is the possibility that we are obsessed with trivia, obsessed with things we can't control, obsessed with what might not yet materialize, but so often we are anxious about things about which

God has said he is going to take care of them.

And that's why this directive is so categorical. And why this prohibition is so unequivocal.

Because you remember where at last Christ homes in on anxiety.

He goes to your faith. And he says, ah, it's a question of trust.

O ye of little faith. Because he says, ye heavenly father, he knows that you need

X, Y, Z, A, B, C. You're worrying about food and drink and clothes and life and survival.

You're behaving as though God didn't know. And God wasn't going to provide for those things.

But our God shall supply all your need. According to his riches in glory.

Do you believe that as God promised that? That God, the

God who looks after the animate creation, who looks after the birds of the air, the seagulls, who clothes a muddy field and makes it a verdant green pasture, who makes the flowers grow in abundance.

How much more will he clothe you? Will he provide for you?

Will he take care? I'm going to do it, he says. There's a difference between anxiety and laboring to earn one's bread and the food of the people that depend on us.

And the first is exercising foresight, taking steps, taking measures to do all the things that are needed.

But the anxious mind goes beyond that to worry.

It's labored, it's prayed, and yet it can't sleep because it has no confidence in its own labor, in its own foresight, in God's promises, in the effectual fervent prayer of righteous men and women, availing, obtaining much.

And so it's a matter of trusting your Father in heaven. I've done what

God has told me to do. I've worked, I've cast my burdens on the Lord. Just as he's asked.

And now I'm not going to be distracted and preoccupied because I've taken that burden to the

Lord. I brought it into that communion season of conversation and intercession in the presence of God where the

Son of God is speaking to his Father about you.

He's mentioning your name and these concerns that you have brought to him.

And he's telling God about you, that woman in Pennsylvania, that man in Florida.

And he's asking his Father to send help. Our personal needs that he is going to supply, his promises, his plans, he's going to fulfill.

And it's so sad when you don't trust him, when you worry.

It's really a distrust with a

God of love, a God who cares, who says, it's okay,

I'll work all things together for your good. So let that be my objective, that I will trust him for these things.

Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to thee.

I'm not going to be anxious about anything because God gives me no right to worry.

There's nothing that can justify the unbeliever, neurotic and disturbed, because God is going to be in control.

So those are my first four points about why the Lord says that we are not to be anxious.

And I want to go on, Chris, when you give me the go -ahead,

I want to say the positive things, that what we are to do are concerns.

Well, you've actually come very providentially to a very timely point, because this is the point where we have to take our midway break.

So therefore, I don't need to interrupt you mid -sentence. So, folks, please remember that this is the longer break in the show.

We hope that you'll be patient with us as we take this longer break required of us, because Grace Life Radio 90 .1

FM in Lake City, Florida is required by the FCC to localize

Iron Sharp and Zion Radio and all of their programming geographically to Lake City, Florida.

They do so by airing their own public service announcements and other local things that tie their programming in to Lake City.

So please be patient with us as we simultaneously air our globally heard commercials.

Use this time wisely. Write down as much of the information as you possibly can for as many of our advertisers as you possibly can, so that you can more frequently and successfully respond to our advertisers.

We hope that many of you will be able to respond to our advertisers by purchasing their products, using their services, visiting their churches, supporting their parachurch organizations.

But when you cannot do any of those things, please, at the very least, respond to the advertisements by telling the sponsors, thank you for sponsoring

Iron Sharp and Zion Radio. You will never know how much it will mean to us if you do that, because that will go a long way to appease our advertisers that our listeners appreciate what they are paying for.

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So, please, respond to our advertisers as frequently as possible, at least by thanking them for sponsoring the show.

And also use this time to write down questions and send them to Jeff Thomas on Anxiety.

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Give us your first name at least, your city and state of residence, and your state of the

USA. Only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal or private matter. Don't go away, we'll be right back with Jeff Thomas on Dealing with Anxiety after these messages from our sponsors.

I'm James White of Alpha and Omega Ministries. My friend Chris Arnzen, host of Iron Sharp and Zion Radio, and I are headed down to G3 conference.

G3 will be held Thursday, September 30th through Saturday, October 2nd on the theme Christ is

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Taking a moment of your day to talk about Chris Arnzen and the Iron Sharp and Zion Podcast. I consider

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Wow, that's some compliment. How much do I owe you for that? You don't have to owe me anything.

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that's gracechurchatfranklin .org This is Pastor Bill Sousa wishing you all the richest blessings of our sovereign

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always mention that you heard about them from Chris Orensen at Iron Sharpens Iron Radio before we return to Jeff Thomas I just have a couple of more announcements to make please continue to pray for my oldest brother

John 76 years old in a skilled nursing facility in Denton, Texas still battling with cancer still battling critical stage emphysema an inoperable aneurysm and pneumonia please pray for him also especially because he is not a believer although he has been showing very promising signs by things that he is telling me that he may indeed be coming to Christ maybe being drawn to Christ or perhaps has even arrived at that point where he truly is a believer but I just am not yet 100 % convinced of it from what

I have heard and what I know please pray that the

Lord gives me full confidence that my brother is indeed a believer that our

Lord rescues him before he departs this earth and we also would ask for physical healing because God can do anything and I would love for my brother to be spending a lot longer time here on earth and especially if he is a new creature in Christ and is spreading the gospel to his family and to my friend

Pastor Mac Tomlinson who lives nearby my brother in Texas and who visits him and shares the gospel with him and in fact

I think Jeff don't you have a friendship with Mac Tomlinson as well? Very close he has preached to me he lived in the mountains in Arboristrit he has just got an excellent article in the

Bible Truth magazine about him

Great, in fact I remember Mac mentioning David Brainard's brother in a previous interview

I had with him so keep praying about that folks and also if you love this show folks please

I am urging you to go to www .IronSharpensIronRadio .com click support then click click to donate now you can donate instantly with a debit or credit card in that fashion if you prefer a snail mail well when you click support at www .IronSharpensIronRadio

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click support then click to donate now last but not least if you are not a member of a biblically faithful theologically sound local church no matter where on the planet earth you live

I may be able to help you find a church just like a listener if you are someone in his position where you either yourself need a church or you have a family friend or a loved one who needs a church please send us an email to chrisarns at gmail .com

and put I need a church in the subject line and I will be more than happy to help you find a church if indeed a church nearby you is listed on the extensive list that I have spanning the globe and I've helped many people in our audience all over the planet earth find churches sometimes within a few minutes drive from where they live so please send me an email to chrisarns at gmail .com

and put I need a church in the subject line that's also the email address where you can send in a question to Jeff Thomas on dealing with anxiety chrisarns at gmail .com

chrisarns at gmail .com and brother Jeff you may feel free to pick up with more points that you planned to address on dealing with anxiety right ok ok now positively um what do we do about it if we are anxious simply anxious well we we present our requests to God that's what

Paul says in uh that's the positive don't be anxious about anything but he says present your request you have a problem take it to the

Lord in prayer oh what peace we often forfeit oh what needless pain we bear oh because we do not carry everything to God in prayer what a friend we have in Jesus you know that lovely old hymn so um you go to God it's it's an offering it's a present it's a gift you make to him and you leave it with him your prayers and your petitions um you come to one who is prophesied as being a wonderful counsellor and he's wonderful because he knows everything about us and he gives us the very best advice and as I said come let us reason together it's a great place to go for discussing your problems to tell

God that you want him to help you um and you talk about it in his presence like looking at a diamond and you show every facet every aspect every dimension of it to the

Lord and you analyse it as you're speaking to him you say this is the problem if this happens and this happens help me

Lord and he turns it round and round in your presence and so often it dissolves in the light of his company um you've reasoned with him before you've gone into public debate before you've phoned your sister before you've committed yourself to other lines of contact first thing to do is to tell the

Lord about it and then you you ask him show me if there's anything wrong anything that's absurd or foolish about me and about how

I'm dealing with this give me some wisdom here and you tell him what you want you spell it out and sometimes you know there are certain things you discover you can't pray for and that's the wrong way you can't say let me win the lottery this week you can't you can't ask for any questions like that to be answered by God in the asking of them you realize what am

I what am I doing what am I saying so you offer him your problems and then he says with thanksgiving and that's what we forget so often

Jesus when he teaches us to pray says our father who is in heaven hallowed be your name we hallow it we honor we don't run straight in with our problems and forget the invocation of giving him the glory that is due to almighty

God and so you lay it down as a fundamental principle of prayer that you never make an urgent request known to God while omitting thanksgiving to him for all his goodness and mercy that have followed you all the days of your life until this moment you remember the past and all the kindnesses that God has shown and you never can forget them and you remember the present and how much goodness there is even this because there is the there is a light always about where we are not that we are that we're not in the flames of hell we're not forsaken by God we are talking to him now and wanting to honor and and please him you remember how our lord walked and tasted the bitterness of the cup that God gave him he was going to be forsaken by God because he was going to be made sin bearing our sins in his own body on the cross and he had a prayer there father is it possible to let this cup pass from me nevertheless not my will but you will be done you know

I've spoken to you about contentment and the way to contentment is to say simply to God may your will be done there's no moment in the christian life when thanks is not to be joined with petitions hitherto has the lord helped me you know it's a great principle that prayer and worry are mutually exclusive be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and petition will thanksgiving make your requests be known to God there are two things that can't live together prayer um neurotic obsession resentment discouragement deceit and what you do with those you bring them to God you say

I'm sorry lord here I am again and I've got this bitterness I'm sorry it seems to put a root down in my heart and I want it uprooted my resentment my blame of others

I want to take that the way I I can hurt the people

I love and you offer those things to God for God to remove for him to take them away and that's the alternative to anxiety it means then trust and rest is beginning to replace your anxiety because you rolled the problem off you've cast your cares on an inviting lord who says cast them on me come to me again you came to me all those years ago when you put your trust in me and now

I want you to do it again I want you to cast your cares on me and then

I will give you rest and that's the

Christian life isn't it and that's what Paul is concerned about here um how tremendously important it is for us not to forget um oh

Elijah had forgotten God's wonderful care and protection of him and the triumph that he had experienced on Mount Carmel he forgot it

Jonah forgot all of God's goodness in calling him to be a prophet and using him to teach the loveliest people the disciples forgot all that Jesus had said to them they were afraid

David forgot Psalm 23 that he had written and fell into calamitous wickedness those past sins we can keep on dragging them up day after day and cause ourselves utmost pain and anguish we forget that God says

I don't remember them I've cast them into the depths of the sea so you do not as a matter of fundamental spiritual logic and Christian practice you do not keep dragging up into your conscious mind forgiven sins all your past sins as a

Christian are forgiven sins they're buried the problems that I've I can't

I give so much attention to and ignore God I leave them with Him I put them there basically they're on the shelf before the throne of grace and I leave them there for God to deal with He says

He's gonna look after them I can't look after them I can't influence their emergence or their development but I leave them on the shelf with Him and I won't keep constantly dragging them up I've asked

God to deal with these things some are trivialities some I can't control some are precisely what

God says He's going to look after and so I leave these concerns with God any more questions

Chris? Yes and my apologies to Alex I'm sorry

Alex in Orlando Florida I forgot to go back to his second question

I never asked it he says I really do not know much about Wales and have not visited my brother there yet I haven't seen how it is there on the ground regarding the gospel my question is what is the biggest hindrance to the gospel in Wales right now oh well oh well materialism of course and unbelief and the whole attitude that is described so well for us in the first chapter of Paul's letter to the

Romans of man in his sin and hostility to God and education system and entertainment system which have ignored the ten commandments and the loveliness and beauty of the

Lord Jesus Christ cynicism about religion century in which

European unbelief emptied the churches and that has meant an enormous ignorance now about the gospel and bible that there are actually two testaments an old testament and a new testament and that Saul of Tarsus is a different person from King Saul simple things that you and I take for granted there was a good

American friend who has come across and he's working here now and he is shocked at the degree of ignorance that he finds here so that is the basic situation very few men are going into the ministry but in every university town in every medium sized town

Christ crucified is found in a pulpit in that place and I'm encouraged by the number of men and the wonderful supply of Christian literature and the access that we have now through the internet to wonderful preachers and great living vital sermons that one can hear and that is how a lot of people in lonely places are surviving.

The little white houses on the mountains and they can tune in and they can hear of our wonderful Redeemer the

Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Can you compare your experiences having lived in the

United Kingdom and also having lived for a portion of your life in the United States when you were in seminary but also having you've come here many times many many many times to preach can you compare the different challenges some of what you have mentioned as far as the climate of the gospel in Wales is some of it is universal but is there any specific differences that you have that you have seen in both when you compare the

UK to the United States? I certainly greatly admire the seminaries in the

USA little ones the biggest one in the world in Kentucky 5 ,000 students there in the southern baptist seminary extraordinary

Is that the biggest one in the world? Yeah 5 ,000

I don't know anything bigger than that even in Korea and then the network of presbyterian seminaries and the little ones that are doing such a good work and gospel churches and the

Christian radio the publishing houses the magazines that network you're very big and you're 300 million people and you know we are very small and we've been

Europeanized then through Freud and Marx and the

Darwin they've had extraordinary influence here whereas you had

Atlantic Ocean of 3 ,000 miles that slowed down the spread so Spurgeon is fighting with it in the 1920s in America you had some buffer and some attempt to revitalize the truth and so there was more gospel but of course we can thank you for the cults that all started in North America you sent them around the world thank you very much it actually astounds me that in the

UK Mormonism was received especially since it involves so much of the

North American continent in its own theology and so on but crazy how can you explain that except the gullibility of a natural mind when you give up believing in god you believe in anything anyone who comes to your door with a twinkle in his eye and a smile in his face and some seriousness about what he would have to say and people will swallow it yep well that's also the influence of satan but we have to go to our final break it's going to be a lot shorter than the other breaks if you have a question

I would recommend highly that you send it in now because we're rapidly running out of time our email address is chrisornson at gmail dot com c -h -r -i -s a -r -n -z -e -n at gmail dot com give us your first name at least your city and state and your country of residence if you live outside the u -s -a don't go away we'll be right back with jeff thomas and dealing with anxiety after these messages hi i'm phil johnson host and executive director of grace to you the media ministry of john mccarthur i hope you plan to join me and chris arnzen host of iron sharpens iron radio for the g3 conference in atlanta georgia thursday september thirtieth through saturday october second the theme this year is christ is supreme over all my friend chris arnzen and i will be joined by several of our other friends including justin peters daryl bernard harrison virgil walker and james white more than twenty other speakers will be joining us and the lineup this year includes my pastor john mccarthur for details visit g3 conference dot com that's g3 conference dot com chris arnzen and i hope to see you september thirtieth through october second at g3 twenty twenty one this is phil johnson reminding you that christ is supreme over all hi i'm buzz taylor chris arnzen of iron sharpens iron radio has had a long time partnership with our friends at cvbbs which stands for cumberland valley bible book service they specialize in supplying reformed and puritan books and bibles at discount prices that make them affordable for everyone cvbbs has been a family owned book service since nineteen eighty seven operating out of carlisle pennsylvania they seek to bring you the best available christian books and bibles at the best possible prices unlike other book sites they make no effort to provide every book that is available or popular because frankly much of what is being printed is not worth your time that means you can get to the good stuff faster it also means you don't have to worry about being assaulted by the pornographic heretical and otherwise faith insulting materials promoted by the secular book vendors browse the pages at ease shop at your leisure and purchase with confidence at cumberland valley bible book service order online at cvbbs .com

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I'm Dr. Tony Costa, professor of apolitical science at the University of Michigan, and I'm a professor of apologetics and Islam at Toronto Baptist Seminary.

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Welcome back, and Jeff, we have two anonymous questions, and I'm wondering if it's the same married couple.

I guess they are connected. We have one anonymous question from someone who says,

I try to practice what I preach in remaining anxious for nothing, and my spouse frequently misunderstands this lack of anxiety as being not worried at all about very serious and important matters in our lives, to the point that she thinks

I am neglecting these things due to sheer laziness. Then we have the other anonymous question.

When someone is relying and trusting upon the Lord and attempting to be anxious for nothing, don't you think they should also simultaneously be doing all that they can do aggressively to bring about positive resolution to conflicts and problems in the lives of their families?

I don't know if that's the same couple. Oh, very good. What a nice balance that is.

And you find that balance in Scripture, don't you? You find it in the Apostle, and he says to us that we're not to be obsessed with anxieties at all over the various categories that I've described.

And yet, is there a man more concerned about individuals that he prays about?

That last chapter of Romans, chapter 16, where he knows, he's never been to Rome, he knows the people, and he knows the people who love those people, and he's praying for them all and mentioning them all.

His concerns about Corinth, one after another, the issues that are being raised there, the

Lord's Supper, the Resurrection, marital relationships, and how wise.

One by one, he answers them. So, he doesn't say, oh, well, the

Lord will decide. The Lord knows. Just keep going, keep trusting.

He is concerned with the details of our lives, and he set an example for us.

He tells us we're to be like him, as he is to be like his Lord. And so, yeah,

I have no sympathy for people who just don't take important issues seriously and just say, oh, don't worry, when there are things that only we know and only we can do, and we have to ask strength and wisdom from God to help us deal with those things.

I can remember years ago, decades ago, when

I was an advertising agent for WMCA Radio, one of the affiliates of the largest

Christian radio network in the world, Salem Media, and I remember an advertising client owed quite a bit of money, thousands of dollars, and I remember seeing him a couple of times dining in the same restaurant that I would be in, and I would approach him and say hello and remind him of the debt that he had, as politely as I could.

And he would say, waiting on the Lord, brother, waiting on the Lord. Now, that would really infuriate me, because I think he was misusing the

Biblical truth, not to be anxious for anything, by avoiding his responsibility to the point where it was actually theft.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I hope he's listening. Do you have any other points that you care to share regarding the positive end, or even just summary remarks?

Yes, I have one final point. Verse 7, Philippians 4, and the peace of God that passes all understanding comes into our lives, and that's the test of our prayers, isn't it?

Because there are no conditions, no qualifications. How have we agonized or whatever?

We've gone to God, and we've brought it, and we've spread it out before him, and then there's

God's peace. And that's wonderful. It's divine peace, in other words.

It's infinite, eternal, unchangeable peace. There are no neuroses with God.

There are no obsessive fears in God, no distracting, distorting anxieties with God.

The Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit get on. They love one another.

They support one another. There's peace. You go into God, and there's peace.

You go in and in, and there's peace. And in, and in, and in. And in, and in, and there's peace in God.

Right in the profoundest depths of the mind of God, there's peace.

He's called the blessed one, the completely integrated one, the completely fulfilled one, the completely unified personality.

He's complete. He's self -fulfilled. And he gives that peace.

That peace he gives. His own peace he gives. He doesn't develop and strengthen our peace alone.

But he gives us his peace. And when we roll our problems onto him, he doesn't become obsessed with them.

He's not neurotic about them. He can manage. He can cope.

If all of New York, and all of Pennsylvania, and all of America, if they all come and bring their concerns and fears and anxieties to Jesus, he can cope.

And he will give us his rest. And when God looks at our problems, he's completely composed and assured.

And you see that in the emotional life. The people, you think of the people who have most helped you, that you most admire, that you look up to in the congregation.

And there's a certain stability and a sweetness and a consistency in their lives, in their words to you, in their attitude, how they've influenced their families.

And the reason is God has given to them his peace.

And that's why it's so sad when we have cranks in the

Christian church, when we have deformed and unbalanced personalities who have some cause, something that they've seen, and no one else can see it.

That they're championing, and they're confused, and they're unbalanced.

And my dear hearers today, dear listeners, take your concerns to God and plead with him that he will pour out his peace into your hearts and minds.

You know the wonderful story of J. Adams. J. Adams tells of this man known throughout the community as a worrier, bent like a question mark as he goes through life, everything.

And then one day, you see him, and he's upright, and he's smiling, and there's a spring in his step, he's bushy -tailed.

And you go to him and say, hey, Bill, you look so good today. Well, yeah, I'm fine. But you've been such a worrier.

How is it that there's been this remarkable change in you? Ah, he says,

I'll tell you. There's a man, and I pay him $100 a week, and he does all my worrying for me.

Well, you say, that's amazing. But how can you afford to pay him $100 a week?

Ah, he says, that's his worry. And that's what we're to do.

We're to cast our cares upon the one who cares for us. And he takes them at no charge, without money and without price.

And we have the peace of God that keeps us.

Amen. We have time for one more question. The answer will have to be fairly brief, because of the lack of time.

But we have John in Bangor, Maine, who says, Earlier, Chris Arnzen referred to anxiety as sin, because it is a violation of the command of Christ to be anxious for nothing.

How would you describe what Christ himself experienced in the Garden of Gethsemane, when he was sweating as if great drops of blood?

Was that anxiety, or was it something else? It was as the creature, as the man,

Christ Jesus, a human being, bone of our bone, without a psychology, and he was only too conscious, absolutely aware of what lay before him on the next day, when he would be made sin, when he would experience the anathema of God.

This was not fearing the unknown, as is most often the case with us who are anxious. And obviously it was not at all sin for Christ to be going through this.

Of course it wasn't. And he was saying, is there another way?

Is there another cup? He's not a masochist who enjoys pain.

He didn't enjoy Calvary. It was God's will for him. But he longed for the possibility of any other way that we could be redeemed and saved, apart from him who knew no sin, had known no absence from his

Father in heaven, ever, ever, from eternity. Now to know the forsaking of his

Father. Why hast thou forsaken me? And it was the proper response that he had to drinking that cup with damnation in it.

Well, we're out of time, brother. I'm sorry we can't expand this further as much as I'd love to, but we're out of time.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm finished. If you would like to find out more about Jeff Thomas' books, go to cvbbs .com,

cvbbs .com for Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service. Type in Jeff Thomas. He spells his name

G as in George, E -O -F -F. And I want to thank you so much,

Jeff, for being such a superb guest as always. I want to thank everybody who listened. I want you all to always remember for the rest of your lives that Jesus Christ is a far greater