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What if the absence of conflict outside you has never once produced calm inside you? Why does the Bible’s commands to rejoice keep colliding with our own racing thoughts that refuse to quiet down? There’s only one rearrangement of our thinking that can actually silence the strangling grip of anxiety and replace it with true peace that stands guard over the heart.
📝 Study Notes, Scripture List, Transcript, and more: https://medicallake.church/sermons/how-to-defeat-anxiety
#mlcc #church #churchonline
📝 Study Notes, Scripture List, Transcript, and more: https://medicallake.church/sermons/how-to-defeat-anxiety
#mlcc #church #churchonline
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LearningTranscript
00:00In all of human recorded history, long time,
00:04in all of human recorded history, there have been 268 years of peace.
00:12That's like 8% of all recorded human history,
00:16we've only lived in a time of peace for 268 years.
00:22Even if you were a person that lived inside that 268-year period of peace,
00:28just because there was no open hostilities on the outside
00:31doesn't mean that you had peace in your heart on the inside.
00:37External obstacles on the outside doesn't equal internal problems on the inside.
00:42You can live in peace on the outside but be in turmoil on the inside.
00:48Doesn't guarantee peace.
00:53We know those nights, don't we?
00:57Can't sleep nights of anxiety.
01:00Wake up, can't go back to sleep if you can even go to sleep to begin with.
01:05Mind is gnawing on something.
01:07It's just, you're not at ease inside your soul.
01:14It's an anxiety that strangles.
01:18Strangles any hope of a better future.
01:20You know we've been there, all of us have been there.
01:22Everyone even listening today understands inner turmoil, inner conflict,
01:28lack of peace inside our hearts.
01:30We get it.
01:35Chaotic, disorganized thoughts race through our minds, flood them.
01:41Has this been you?
01:43It's been me in the past.
01:44I've been there.
01:46I think we've all been there before.
01:48When somehow our attention is focused on this one object that's the cause of our anxiety and lack of peace
01:55in our hearts.
01:57Has anxiety attacked you like an armed thug?
02:03And question better is, do you want to be set free from this anxiety that racks and strangles your thinking
02:10and your mind?
02:14Maybe it's time this morning to just rearrange the way we think, to rearrange our minds, to focus on what
02:20is important and to think about all of these things that will bring us inner peace.
02:28The Bible says to rejoice in the Lord, and Paul reminds us of all the things that Jesus has done
02:35for us and tells us to be thankful about it and tells us to arrange our mind around those things
02:43that he told us.
02:45That even though there may be an absence of external conflict, we can be rid of the internal conflict that
02:52you and I feel.
02:55When we're honest with ourselves, sometimes we don't arrange our minds correctly.
03:00We get focused solely on what's happening around us in the moment, and we lose sight of a bigger picture
03:04that God wants to show us.
03:07So today, Paul wants us to arrange our minds on the bigger picture, so when difficult times do come, and
03:15they will come, we may not give way to worry or anxiety in our lives.
03:21You know as well as I do, there are enough things to cause worry in our lives.
03:25Just here locally, expand that out to the whole world, and we can see that there are many things that
03:31would distract our attention from what is really important, and arrange our minds on other things.
03:38We're going to be, if you have your Bible, or your phone with your Bible on it, whichever the case
03:43may be, we're going to be in Philippians chapter 4.
03:46It's not an unfamiliar passage to you, you'll recognize it once you get there.
03:50And what we're going to see here at the end of this book, the book of Philippians, he's concluding the
03:56book, chapter 4, that when God saves us, he gives us his peace.
04:03He grants it to us by grace to have his peace, which then guards our minds and our hearts, and
04:12erases anxious thinking from our minds.
04:17This is what Paul wants to, see what happens is right now we're talking about at the beginning of this
04:21chapter, there are two people that are in a disagreement in a church.
04:24Now, that's never happened in churches before, right?
04:26People don't ever get in disagreements in churches at all.
04:30Well, these two people were in a disagreement, and Paul wanted to remind them, listen, let's not be in a
04:35disagreement, because both of our names are written in the book of life.
04:38We ought to rejoice in what God has done for us instead of fighting in the church.
04:43That's the foundation of this passage that he's going to be.
04:47Chapter 4 of the book of Ephesians, and we'll read just verse 4 and the first part of verse 5.
04:53Sadly, they broke the verse differently, and so we're going to just break it ourselves.
04:58Verse number 4.
05:01Rejoice in the Lord always.
05:03Again, I will say, rejoice.
05:06Let your reasonableness, or some translations say gentleness, be known to everyone.
05:14Rejoice.
05:14He commands it twice.
05:15He doesn't just say it once.
05:16He repeats it to remind us how important it is to rejoice.
05:22To rejoice.
05:23It's very hard to rejoice when your mind is racing a thousand miles an hour on something that is not
05:27the real important thing in our life.
05:31To be glad, to be delighted, to rejoice.
05:34Do you notice what it says here?
05:36It says rejoice in the Lord.
05:39This kind of rejoicing is not something a person who does not know Jesus Christ can do.
05:43We can only rejoice for those of us who know Christ as our Savior.
05:46We can rejoice in the Lord.
05:50This kind of rejoicing, Kenneth Litwick said, denotes not only a feeling and expression of joy, but also an action
05:58one chooses.
06:00So, see, it's a way of rearranging our minds, choosing to think differently.
06:04The stress that this rejoicing is in the Lord implies gratitude for what God has done for them.
06:08Again, that's what Paul wanted to write.
06:10Just rejoice in what God has done for you and stop with the fighting.
06:13Be happy that both of our names are written in the book of life.
06:16Let's not disagree anymore, these two people that are in this text.
06:20And if you remember at Philippi, what happened to Paul at Philippi?
06:23He and Silas were beaten and thrown into prison.
06:26And then at night they're singing songs and praising Jesus.
06:30And there's an earthquake.
06:31And you know the story that happens in the book of Acts.
06:34So they remember what happened to Paul.
06:36He could be beaten and in jail and still rejoicing.
06:40They go, oh, Paul did that.
06:42Yeah, I remember.
06:43Paul did that.
06:44In fact, it's written in Acts chapter 16.
06:46Having received this order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.
06:50And about midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God.
06:54They were rejoicing in prison.
06:56And the prisoners were listening to them.
06:59And because of the trials and difficulties of life, it's sometimes hard to rejoice.
07:03I understand that.
07:04It's hard.
07:06I mean, we think about Paul's experiences and he's now actually commanding us to rejoice.
07:12It's not just a suggestion.
07:13He's commanding us.
07:15Even in times marked with sorrow and difficulties and trials, we're commanded to rejoice.
07:22How can that happen?
07:23We have to rearrange our minds.
07:26Joy is available, again, for those who are in Christ Jesus, those who know the Lord as their Savior.
07:31This kind of joy is not found outside of Jesus.
07:35And he tells us to be reasonable people, to be people that are gentle kind of people, the attitude of
07:40being gracious and kind, not demanding one's own rights.
07:44And it seems to be perhaps what these two people were doing.
07:47One stood here and another stood here and no one gave way or made a compromise.
07:52And they're fighting back and forth.
07:55Be reasonable.
07:56In fact, in chapter 2 of Philippians, he said this,
07:59Do nothing from selfless ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.
08:04Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
08:08Be reasonable people.
08:09Be gentle.
08:10Be kind people.
08:11Don't be in arguments.
08:13Rejoice because God has saved you, putting you in his family and wrote your name down in the book of
08:18life.
08:19Rejoice.
08:21We are people that are to be friendly, well-balanced, showing a reasonable, mild and kind, enduring wrongs with gentleness.
08:30So now he answers the motivation.
08:32How can we rearrange our minds and begin to think differently about life?
08:39Well, he says we do it because the Lord is at hand.
08:43Look at the rest of verse number 5, 5B.
08:47It says, the Lord is at hand.
08:49That's the beginning of a sentence there.
08:51The Lord is at hand.
08:52How can we do this?
08:53Well, the Lord is at hand.
08:55Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made
09:03known to God.
09:04And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
09:14This is the remedy to remember that the Lord is near.
09:17And you say, well, what does that mean?
09:19I mean, does it mean that he's like here in our presence?
09:21He's close.
09:22He's concerned with our attitude.
09:24Yes.
09:24It also means that his second coming, the rapture of the church first and the second coming next, that's also
09:30near.
09:31So both of these play a role.
09:32He's here to help us.
09:34He's here to give us strength.
09:36He's here to let us know that we're not by ourselves in this.
09:38He's there.
09:40We can rejoice.
09:42We can have joy.
09:44Don't be anxious about anything.
09:46Don't be anxious.
09:48The word worry or anxious, actually it's the word worry, comes from a German word.
09:52It's vergen.
09:54It means to choke or to strangle.
09:57And you know what worry does?
09:59It chokes and it strangles our mental capacity.
10:02It chokes life out where he does.
10:06It's a mental strangulation if you want to say it like that.
10:11Don't worry.
10:12Don't be concerned about it.
10:13In this case, they were actually doing it.
10:16So he's asking them to stop doing what they're doing.
10:18Stop worrying.
10:20Stop being anxious.
10:21Don't do that.
10:22See, anxiousness comes from wrong thinking.
10:25It's wrong thinking.
10:26That's why we have to rearrange our thinking.
10:28Wrong feelings about the circumstances around us.
10:33David Dyke says, a man recently remarked to me, don't tell me that worry doesn't work.
10:38It must work because most of the things I worry about never happen.
10:43It must work.
10:45We do waste a lot of precious time, don't we, about worrying about things that will never occur in our
10:51life, in our daily bread.
10:54Worry is like that.
10:55We spend a lot of energy on problems that don't exist.
10:59Yes, I know we all face real problems, but we often create additional ones by thinking of all the bad
11:04things that might happen, but never do.
11:07Stop worrying.
11:09He's telling them, we're not any better than them.
11:13We can fall in the same boat that they are.
11:15Stop worrying.
11:17Rearrange your thinking.
11:19Think about other things.
11:20It's the same thing that Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount.
11:23He mentions this exact same thing.
11:25The type of anxieties that you and I face are physical attributes.
11:28I'm not tall enough.
11:30I'm too short.
11:31Or I don't look right.
11:34Whatever the case is, physical attributes.
11:36In this case, it was height.
11:39Clothing, food, drink, and future things.
11:43About all of the things that you and I would worry about, Jesus talks about in Matthew chapter 6.
11:48He says,
11:49Therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink,
11:55nor about your body, what you will put on.
11:58Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?
12:02Therefore, do not be anxious, saying, what shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear?
12:08For the Gentiles seek after all these things.
12:12And your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
12:16But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
12:22It's seek first the kingdom.
12:24Rearrange your thinking.
12:26Think differently.
12:28How is it possible in a world that has so many causes of anxiety to be not anxious?
12:36How is that even possible?
12:37I mean, can a person really live what Jesus is saying here and say, hey, I don't have to worry
12:42about my food.
12:42I don't have to worry about my clothing.
12:43I don't have to worry about where I reside at or my height or my shortness.
12:47I don't have to worry about any of that stuff.
12:49Can you really live like that?
12:51Is it possible?
12:53Is it really possible that a person can trust God so much that they don't have to worry about any
12:58of this stuff?
13:00By seeking his kingdom.
13:03Anonymous writer says, a day of worry is more exhausting than a week of work.
13:08Or Corrie ten Boom said, worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows.
13:13It empties today of its strength.
13:16Can we really live like that?
13:18Where I can get up in the morning and know that my heavenly father will take care of every one
13:21of my needs today.
13:23I don't have to worry about anything.
13:26So how can we stop being anxious?
13:28How can we stop worrying?
13:29The text tells us it's something that we all know.
13:32It's we pray.
13:34We pray.
13:35When we worry or we get anxious, we immediately go to prayer.
13:38That's what we do.
13:39We pray.
13:40We see prayer, supplications, and requests.
13:43We just pray about it.
13:45When something comes up, we pray about it.
13:47We don't get anxious about it.
13:49R. Kent Hughes was telling a story of Floyd Pearson, a retired Africa Inland mission worker.
13:55He was literally a man who prayed on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.
14:01So habitual was this, that in his 70s, when he went to take his driver's test, he said to the
14:06examiner,
14:06I always pray before I drive, let's bow our heads together.
14:11The official likely wondered, what am I getting myself into here?
14:16We can imagine him checking his seatbelt and seeing his perspiring hand on the door handle.
14:21And needless to say, Pearson passed the test.
14:24So what do we do when we get anxious?
14:26We pray.
14:27We bring all of our requests before the Lord, no matter how small or great.
14:31Everything.
14:32Rainey said, the way to be anxious about nothing was to be prayerful about everything.
14:38So we find release from our anxiety through prayer.
14:42Prayer relieves the problem of anxiety.
14:45When we notice that we're beginning to be anxious, the first thing we do is we pray.
14:49We praise God and we worship him.
14:50What are we doing?
14:51We're rearranging our thinking.
14:52We're not thinking about the thing that causes anxiousness in us.
14:55We're thinking about him who takes care of all of his children.
14:59Warren, Warren Wiersbe says, talking to God about everything that concerns us and him
15:04is the first step toward victory over worry.
15:07Prayer.
15:08You and I have to understand that God is big enough.
15:12He's powerful enough to solve all of our problems.
15:16There's nothing that he can't solve in our life.
15:19Why do we want to put it on our shoulders and carry it around when he can carry it himself?
15:23In fact, we read in 1 Peter, casting all your anxieties on him
15:27because he cares for you.
15:30Anonymous poet wrote,
15:32So lift up your hearts to the heavens.
15:34There's a loving and kind father there
15:36who offers release and comfort and peace
15:39in the silent communion of prayer.
15:42Let it be made known to God.
15:44It's not that God doesn't know it,
15:46but tell him.
15:47This is bothering me.
15:48This really has my mind thinking about this all the time.
15:51Tell him.
15:52No matter how small or big it is,
15:53we're not informing him of something he doesn't already know.
15:56He knows these things.
15:58John Newton, the guy that wrote Amazing Grace,
16:01said about prayer,
16:02Thou art coming to a king,
16:04large petitions with thee bring,
16:08for his grace and power are such,
16:10none can ever ask too much.
16:12I like that.
16:14For his grace and power are such,
16:17none can ever ask too much.
16:19This personal nature of prayer
16:21that we go to our closet
16:23and we pray to our Heavenly Father in Heaven.
16:25He answers us.
16:27And how are we to pray?
16:28With thanksgiving.
16:29You mean I'm supposed to thank God
16:31for the thing that's causing anxiousness in my life?
16:33The thing that's causing turmoil?
16:35I'm going to thank God for that?
16:36That's what he's saying.
16:38Thank you, God,
16:39for everything that comes your direction and my direction
16:42must go through the loving hands
16:43of our Heavenly Father first.
16:45All of it.
16:46We do it with thanksgiving.
16:48Colossians 3 says,
16:50And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts,
16:52to which indeed you were called in one body,
16:54and be thankful.
16:55Be thankful.
16:58Anonymous poet said,
16:59For all his children God desires,
17:01a life of trust, not flurry.
17:04His will for them each day is this,
17:07that they should trust, not worry.
17:11The key to the answer of this question
17:13is really how much do I trust God?
17:16Do I really believe
17:17he's going to take care of all of my needs?
17:19Do I really think that
17:20I have to carve this one out
17:22and hold it on to myself,
17:23that I can't let it go to God,
17:25and that he can't take care of all of my needs?
17:27How much do we actually trust God?
17:30George Mueller, that man of faith,
17:31said,
17:32The beginning of anxiety is the end of faith,
17:34and the beginning of true faith
17:36is the end of anxiety.
17:38When we are anxious,
17:39when we worry,
17:40it shows a lack of trust in God.
17:42Not over all things,
17:44I understand that.
17:44We trust him in all these other areas,
17:46but this one little area,
17:47somehow we carve out to ourself
17:49and say,
17:49I just can't trust him with that.
17:51Not that.
17:52I have to take care of that.
17:58God will show up.
18:00He'll show up.
18:01He'll do what he promised to do.
18:03He will come.
18:04He'll show up.
18:07When we came to faith in Christ for salvation,
18:11the Bible tells us we have peace with God.
18:14So we were enemies of God.
18:16We were alienated from God,
18:18and by faith in Christ,
18:19we have peace with God.
18:21But this is something different.
18:23This is the peace of God.
18:25This is the kind of peace of the essence of God's being,
18:27who he is.
18:28He is a peaceful being.
18:30He's never not at rest.
18:33It's the peace of God.
18:35It's a divine peace transcending our understanding.
18:39We don't understand this kind of peace.
18:41It's something that he imparts into our hearts.
18:42It's his peace he gives us.
18:44His very peace.
18:46A person who has cancer that has been arrested in remission may say,
18:51I'm so thankful to God.
18:52That is praise.
18:54That is praise.
18:55But a person who is dying of cancer and pain may calmly say,
19:00everything is all right.
19:01The Lord doesn't make mistakes.
19:03I have peace in my heart.
19:04That is the peace that passes all understanding.
19:07That we stand back and look at and say,
19:09that is the kind of peace that only God can get.
19:12His peace.
19:12Peace that belongs to him.
19:14The kind of peace that Jesus gives to his people.
19:17In fact, he promised us this kind of peace.
19:19In John 14,
19:21Peace I leave with you.
19:22My peace I give to you.
19:23Not as the world gives do I give to you.
19:25Let not your hearts be troubled.
19:27Neither let them be afraid.
19:29I have given you my peace.
19:31The peace of God.
19:32For we need this peace to sustain us in difficult times,
19:37hardships,
19:37when the normal flow of life is affected by the circumstances around us.
19:42We need this kind of peace.
19:44That's origin is in God himself.
19:46It's his peace.
19:49This peace corresponds,
19:51if you remember in the Old Testament,
19:52the phrase shalom.
19:54Shalom means peace.
19:56It means an inner well-being.
19:58An inner well-being.
19:59You're not in turmoil inside your life.
20:03Richard Mellick said,
20:04prayerful people are peaceful people.
20:07Are peaceful people.
20:09So any personal disagreements the Philippians had
20:12ought to be put to an end
20:14through the peace that God gives to us.
20:16So don't fight anymore.
20:18That's what he's saying here in Philippians 4.
20:20Stop fighting.
20:21Rejoice that your names are in the book of life.
20:23Come on, let's move forward.
20:24Let's not be anxious.
20:27And the peace of God will guard,
20:29like a military unit,
20:31like soldiers will guard your heart and your mind,
20:36like soldiers standing over a city to protect a city.
20:40Peace guards the heart,
20:42not allowing in anything that brings care and anxiety.
20:46When we have a sudden onrush of fear or anxiety,
20:49the peace of God guards the believer's mind and emotions
20:52from being overwhelmed.
20:54But only we have this in Christ.
20:57If you don't know Jesus Christ here today,
21:00these are not promises made to you.
21:02If you know Christ as your Savior,
21:04these are promises made to you.
21:05So if you don't know Jesus today as your Savior,
21:07I ask you to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
21:09to repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation,
21:12that you too would be saved
21:14and have all of these wonderful promises
21:16that you can walk in as well.
21:18He'll guard our hearts,
21:20that whole inner person,
21:22our whole inner person.
21:23That's the heart.
21:24It's the heart that the enemy attacks.
21:26He attacks our minds,
21:28that messes with our emotions.
21:30And then we make bad decisions.
21:31He attacks the inner person of who we are.
21:35And no one else can have this kind of peace
21:37other than those because their peace,
21:39rejoice in the Lord.
21:40It's the peace of God.
21:42Only those who've been born again have this.
21:46As we're reminded by Pastor Myers,
21:50he wrote,
21:51Our Father has made provision for us
21:53in setting us free from sin and death.
21:56He also gave us a freedom
21:58to have unhindered fellowship with Him.
22:00He is our peace.
22:01And as we rest in Him,
22:03we can rejoice all the time.
22:05He has not left us unequipped
22:07and defenseless against the trials
22:09and tribulations of life.
22:11Even in most dire of circumstances,
22:13we have a surety and knowledge of His help,
22:16which we can rejoice in.
22:18So I say to you,
22:19rejoice.
22:20And again,
22:21I say,
22:21rejoice.
22:22Let your reasonableness,
22:24your gentleness be known to all people.
22:26Don't be anxious.
22:27Don't worry about anything.
22:28But with prayer and supplication,
22:32may your request be made known to God
22:33with a thankfulness in your heart.
22:36And let the peace of God enter in
22:38and wash away all of your anxiety and worry.
22:42For if the God is the God
22:44who has revealed Himself in the Bible,
22:46He is the God that can certainly take care of us
22:48all the time,
22:49each day,
22:51each hour,
22:52in each second.
22:53Let's pray.
22:55Father,
22:55thank you.
22:56Thank you for this text to remind us
22:59all of us struggle with this.
23:01We all become anxious
23:03or worry about stuff.
23:05And we need our minds rearranged,
23:07Father.
23:08So we're asking by your Spirit
23:09that you would rearrange our minds,
23:11that we would stop thinking about
23:13those things causing the anxiousness
23:15and think about you,
23:16the one who has redeemed us,
23:18written our names in the book of life,
23:20who has given us His Spirit
23:23that dwells within us
23:24to strengthen us,
23:25to choose wisely
23:26to do the things that honor you.
23:29Father,
23:29thank you for the grace
23:30that has been poured out
23:31and the mercy to us.
23:33We are so grateful.
23:35We want to trust you more today
23:37than we've ever trusted you before.
23:39And we want to lay aside
23:40all worry and anxiousness.
23:43And we want to cast
23:44all of our cares upon you
23:47because you care for us.
23:49We thank you.
23:50We pray in Jesus' name.
23:51Amen.
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