Welcome to the Illuminate Church podcast.
We hope today's message is encouraging to you.
We are in a series called Weeds in My Garden where we're being
honest about mental health, a subject the church has been
silent on for too long and left people in this Gray area of what
do I do? How do I go forward?
And the Lord God loves us enough to say, OK, it's time to deal
with this now. And it shouldn't be surprising
to you, but it's kind of amazing to think about what we're
addressing today in light of what's going on in our nation.
Because God intended this message over a year ago.
He said, hey, you're going to be preaching this message.
And here's when you're going to be preaching it.
And this is the subject. And the subject today is worry
and anxiety. And our nation is worried and
anxious. Even within the church, we are
worried and anxious. And the Lord loved us so much
that sovereignly appointed this time to be this message.
The 2 came together. I love when God does that.
We took a survey in the church before this series began to kind
of see where people were in regards to mental health.
And we had all these different mental health issues and people
said, yeah, I have this, I don't have this, I have this.
And this one, worry and anxiety, was by far the one that most
people checked. I'm dealing with worry and
anxiety. In fact, 69%, almost 70% of
people who call Illuminate home wrestle with worry and anxiety.
If you look down your road to the four people next to you, 5
people next to you, nearly four of them are wrestling with
warrior anxiety. That's a lot.
And also on Tuesday night, we did a question and answer during
that time where people could anonymously submit questions.
And it shouldn't have shocked me.
I should have expected it, but so many questions were submitted
related to fear, being shook up, traumatized.
What do we do? Can we be bold again?
Can we Are we led to preach without fear of being harmed?
How do we move forward? I mean it makes total sense now,
but I just wasn't expecting it. In fact, I couldn't get those
questions off my mind Tuesday night into Wednesday morning
when I'm writing the message and I'm thinking wow, we need to
deal with more than worry and anxiety.
We need to include it's near cousin, which is fear and the
three of them kind of go together today.
So let's lay some groundwork. If you want to, you can take out
your Bibles. We're going to be in Matthew
chapter 6 in just a moment. If you need a Bible, raise your
hand. We almost ran out of Bibles in
the first service that felt like we were handing out so many
Bibles in Jesus name. And we're bringing you a Bible
right down here. Yes, Sir.
Is that you Edward? Hey, my neighbor.
Anyone else need a Bible mezzanine?
Here we go. We got them.
We're coming to you. We're coming to you right here
down the aisle from you as well. Raise your hand again.
It went down. There it is.
Hey, Bibles for free. So let's lay some groundwork.
We'll get to Matthew 6 in just a moment.
We tend to use worry and anxiety as words interchangeably.
What we're talking about is this general feel, this sense of
nervousness or unease and even all the way to dread.
Everyone say dread. Yeah, we're in anxiety, or the
suspension between hope and fear.
We're in the middle. How is this going to go?
Is it going to go well? Is it not going to go well?
I'm fretting that it's not going to go well.
And you don't know if you're supposed to be excited or
afraid. Your body is responding.
There's chemical things happening.
You feel this, this sense of these emotions arising.
Is this excitement? Is this fear?
I don't feel like I have a solid foundation for what's about to
happen. I don't know how to proceed.
And so we use these words, and we use them for incredibly
different things. For instance, we may say I feel
anxious or nervous about asking a date for prom.
Got these jitteries. And then we'll use the same
words to say I'm not sure I feel anxious or worried that I can't
pay the hospital bill or pay for food.
I would say we're worried and anxious about going to Islands
of Adventure, Universal Studios. Can I say that?
Am I allowed to use those words? Nobody's going to Disney.
Crucify me. OK, Yeah, when you're in line
for Velocicoaster. Anyone done this?
Yep. And you're in line thinking I'm
an idiot. Like I'm willfully about to do
this. And the whole line, 17 hours of
line, you're just worried and anxious at least.
And then they shoot you out 70 miles an hour times 10, and then
you're up in a hot top hat and upside down and puking.
And then we use the same words when we say, hey, I'm afraid
about the diagnosis. I'm anxious about end of life.
And we use these words and what do they mean and what power do
they have for us? From a physiological
perspective, we can start to see the divergent of the word worry
and the worry and the word anxiety.
Worry is an automatic response. It might be more called concern
in this case that your body has naturally.
It's a natural mechanism that is a purpose for helping us from
danger. This is where flight, flight,
flight, fight or freeze, it's hard to say, emerges.
It's the heightened awareness of like when you're walking to your
car alone at night in the middle of the city, you're just alert.
Your, your body is telling you be alert, stay vigilant, be
safe. It's when you have a test coming
on Friday and it's Tuesday and your body is saying you better
prepare for that so that it goes well.
It's informing you to change your behavior so that there are
better outcomes in the future. It can be helpful.
Anxiety though, is different physiologically because what
happens is we have this persistent period of worry that
brings us deeper roots in our Physiology.
It can be caused by situational challenges, it can be caused by
past trauma. But whatever it is, your brain
literally physically changes and it hard wires differently in
your brain so that you live in a constant state of this unease
worry. It comes and goes.
Anxiety. It's a constant state of this
unease, this nervousness, this dread and fear creeps in, tries
to snuff our life out from us. Think of worry and anxiety on a
spectrum. Worry can motivate, while
anxiety can incapacitate. Somebody say, Yep, too much
worrying becomes anxiety. So you can see that the spectrum
can tilt towards incapacitation. Doesn't have to go that way, but
it can go that way. It's a slippery slope.
The best way that I can talk about this is to describe how I
feel about heights. I ain't never sitting up in the
mezzanine. Me and heights, we're not
friends. High places are not.
Nope, don't like it. There's only one wedding that
I've ever said no to that wasn't a schedule conflict.
I've had to say no to some scheduling conflicts, but
there's only one other wedding that I said no to.
And it's because the people getting married said we want to
step into a Wicker basket that's tied to a gigantic flaming
cannon that's shooting at flammable fabric and go up in
the air and you marry us. These people wanted to get
married in a hot air balloon while it was hot airing.
You know what I said? See you at the reception.
I did not do it. Another pastor in the church,
they went up in the balloon and it was guys.
It was a terrible experience for them.
There was no wind. It was so hot.
They barely went out anywhere in the they just went up a little
bit and they stayed there. They didn't move anywhere.
They got married and they came back down.
They got to the reception all sweaty and like told y'all we
could have done this on the ground in the air conditioning.
But our family went to Paris 2 summers ago.
You know what's in Paris? Eiffel Tower.
They're like, it's iconic. I'm like Nope it's historic.
Nope Nope. You'll see.
So Many thanks from up there. Nope.
So a bunch of people went up to the top of the tower.
I rented an E bike and went around the tower.
True story. Yep, glad you're laughing at me.
Some of you find this funny because you have No Fear of
heights because some of you are wired differently.
God made you in an unfortunate way, your brain says.
Put me in an airplane with a backpack full of fabric and when
it gets up to 5000 feet, let me jump out of a perfectly good
airplane, which is the backpack and some fabric.
It's called skydive. Yep.
Now for me, situationally being afraid of heights is not a big
deal because I don't interact with heights all that often.
God loves me and he made me short 5 foot 9 on a good day.
Imagine if I was Bob Spraker. Tall Bob?
How tall are you? 6 what?
6-8? He was almost 6/7.
If I was 6-8 Can you imagine every day I'd be like I'm so
high up here get me down right? The Lord loves me so he put me
in Florida. Flat boring next to sea level
Florida. Our mountains are called space
splash and Thunder. Yep, he loves me.
I don't have to deal with it very often.
Now imagine if the church decided that we wanted to honor
the Lord and build a big tower out front like this glorious
thing, and they put my office at the top of the tower.
Now what I barely interacted with suddenly situationally
becomes regular to me and I have to deal with this terrifying
thing in my life every single day.
Situationally, I've gone from barely having to deal with it to
always having to deal with it, and it goes from worry to
anxiety and incapacitation as a result.
Now, for you, it may not be heights.
For you, it could be speaking from a platform like this in
front of 1000 people. Anybody have a fear of public
speaking? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Makes sense. What seems like nothing to me is
everything to someone else. But what about actual important
things? Not heights or speaking on a
platform. What if we're concerned about
things that really matter? Things like being separated from
your family when somebody goes off to college or somebody gets
married and starts a new household, Whatever.
Concerned about losing our marriages?
Or maybe you're concerned about being in large rooms with large
groups of people. You're struggling right now.
Maybe you have a fear of failure.
Maybe you're worried concerned about an upcoming test, be it
medical or academic. Maybe you're worried about
performance reviews, losing your job, financial pressure, social
rejection. Or maybe you're concerned that
somebody's going to find out your secret sin.
And so you have this constant situational right in your face
anxiety. Here's the point.
Unchecked worry can lead to anxiety, and unchecked anxiety
can lead us into a debilitated state.
Believe it. It can drive us into isolation.
It can rob from us our passions. It can cause us to miss out on
making so many memories, and it can make us feel like we are
disqualified from participating in the mission of Jesus Christ.
Remember last week we said the devil comes to steal, kill and
destroy. Anxiety is the stealing part.
Worrying is the stealing part. Now, Jesus knew that we would
wrestle with it. This is not on the screens.
But you know, John chapter 16 says that Jesus says in this
world you will have trouble. And then he says, take heart, I
have overcome the world. How do you do that?
We're going to find that out today together.
The truth is we live in a fallen world, and because of the
fallenness of the world, there are things that injure us and
erode our belief and trust in the Lord our God.
But Jesus has given us an advantage.
Jesus has given us a way to overcome and hear me fear,
anxiety and worry. All of these things are trying
to get you to ignore the advantage that it doesn't exist.
Satan tries to get you to a nor ignore the advantage.
We're going to see this all unfold in Matthew chapter 6.
If you're there, we're in verse 25, verse 25, Jesus is speaking
and he says therefore I tell you do not worry about your life,
what you will eat or drink or about your body.
What you will wear is not life more than food and the body more
than clothes. First, if you ever read in the
Scripture and you see a therefore, you got to ask the
question, what's the therefore, therefore it's a contextual
question. What is, what am I reading and
why does it matter? Just before this, in Matthew
chapter 6, Jesus says do not store up for yourself treasures
on earth. They're just going to fade away.
They're going to be eaten up, but instead store it for
yourself, treasures in heaven, things which are eternal, things
that matter. Jesus is saying to us right
before we read Matthew chapter 6, verse 25.
I think you're caring about the wrong things.
I, I think you have the world's economy ahead of the Kingdom
economy and for your benefit, I'm telling you, store it for
yourself treasures in heaven. Therefore, because you have
treasures in heaven, because you have a Kingdom focus, because
you have a king, therefore do not worry.
Exactly. That was so perfect.
If you couldn't hear the baby laughing up here, she ain't
worried. I think she just preached way
better than I did. That wasn't funny.
Jesus says do not worry. How do you receive those words?
What do you hear? Is Jesus making an invitation to
you? Is Jesus saying, hey, maybe you
shouldn't worry. The right way to receive these
words is as command. Jesus is commanding his church
not to worry. He's commanding you not to
worry. Just like do not commit
adultery, do not use the Lord's name in vain, do not murder.
Jesus says do not worry. Whoa, think about that for a
second. Now, when you read that, would
Jesus give us a command that is not possible for us to follow?
Yes or no? Would Jesus give us a command
that is not possible for us to follow?
No, of course not. Why?
He is a good God and he's given us a command so that you and I
could leave here today saying, you know what?
It is possible for me not to worry.
It is possible for me not to be anxious because He is good.
Matthew 2626. Look at the birds of the air.
They do not sow or reap or Stow away in barns, and yet your
heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable
than they? Have you ever seen a bird pacing
on a branch trying to sort out life?
Birds are so chill and relaxed they land on electrical wires.
What's up? And God says we are much more
valuable than they. No worries.
Why? Because God is good.
We need to be convinced of this today, of the goodness of God.
He sees us, He values us, He cares about our needs.
And here's what happens if you don't think that God is good.
You end up trying to control things for yourselves.
I don't know if God can do it, so I better do it for myself.
Case in point, verse 27. Can any one of you, by worrying,
control your life, Add a single hour to your life.
You can see that by worrying, we're trying to exert our
control. We are trying to do the
impossible. We're trying to add to our
lives. Well, listen, worry does not
stop time and worry does not stop death.
What worry stops is life, and you're living of it.
Worrying does not make tomorrow's troubles go away.
It makes today's peace go away. When we worry, try to wrest
control. I can do this.
Matthew, chapter 6, verse 28. And why do you worry about
clothes? See how the flowers of the field
grow? They do not labor or spend.
Yet I tell you that not even Solomon and all of his splendor
was dressed like one of these. If that is how God closed the
grass of the field which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown
into the fire, will he not much more clothe you?
Addendum. Hear from Jesus, you of little
faith. Again, the question is, do we
believe that God is good? You of little faith?
Do you think that God can supply?
Do you think that God will supply?
Jesus says you have little faith.
Remember the song we sang his kids?
Will you sing it with me now? Come on, nice and loud.
Don't leave me alone up here all by myself.
He's got the whole world in his hands.
What? In his hands He's got the whole
world. OK, Yeah, Let me explain this
song to you in terms of a family.
My children don't worry if the mortgage is going to be paid.
My children, two of them are adults.
So it's we're calling them children.
They don't worry about car payments.
They don't worry about saving up for vacation.
They don't worry about whether or not there's going to be food
or Christmas presents because they trust mom and Dad and they
know that we're good. And mom and dad are imperfect
humans. Mom and dad are limited humans
in terms of resource. So when we say that God is good.
And that he can provide, if even here's we learn at a young age
to trust our parents or, or maybe you had a difficult
upbringing and I'm, I'm not trying to wound you in this, but
we learn from a young age that we can trust God.
And then it's like through time we stop feeling that way and
believing that way that He will provide, that He'll take care of
it, that He is able. Let's move on here.
Matthew chapter 6, verse 31. So do not worry, There's the
command again, not a suggestion, not an invitation, a command
saying what shall we eat? What shall we drink?
What shall we wear? For the pagans, You know what a
Pagan is, one who does not have a good God.
They run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows
that you need all these things. Follow me along here.
Let's say that you have a friend who knows that you have a
medical condition that can only be cured by cupcakes.
And let's say that your friend who knows that you have a
disease that can only be cured by cupcakes happens to own a
cupcake bakery. And let's say that your friend
who knows that you have an illness, a disease that can only
be cured by cupcakes, who owns a cupcake bakery, happens to be
your #1 fan. They love you like crazy.
They're always around the highs and the lows, the faithfulness
of this friend. And so when the doctor comes to
you and says, hey, you have a disease that can only be cured
by cupcakes, you go perfect, I have a friend, you won't believe
this. They love me like crazy and they
own a cupcake factory. I'm good.
I'm assured I'm not going to worry about this disease for one
single moment. Y'all know where I'm going with
this? Do you know where I'm going with
this? God knows what you need, and God
is the endless supply of what you need.
And he loves you, he's wild about you.
And so when the disease has come, they seek to devour us.
We say, wait a second, I've got a God who has an endless supply
of what I need. I'm going to be good.
How so? Why doesn't it feel this way?
Where's the disconnect between what we're experiencing and what
God is promising here? In Matthew chapter 6, it's in
the next verse, verse 33. But seek first His Kingdom and
His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as
well. Therefore, do not worry.
There it is again about tomorrow.
For tomorrow we'll worry about itself.
Each day has enough trouble of its own.
This is the key to all of this, to freeing us from worry and
anxiety, is to seek first. This sounds strange, but seeking
first is the advantage that God has given us that the devil
tries to get us to ignore. What do I mean?
When worry creeps up, you are not left helpless.
The devil wants you to think you're helpless, but you can say
in the back of your head, no devil, I'm going to seek the
Kingdom of God and his righteousness.
And as I seek him and his righteousness, everything that I
need, that I'm worried about it that you're trying to get me to
be worried about and anxious about, the Lord my God will
provide His peace, His love, His provision.
They're all coming from Him. With an open hand to me, you can
seek the Kingdom who happens to have a king.
This is our advantage as believers.
If we don't have a king with a Kingdom, there is no hope.
There's nowhere to turn. What you're facing is all you
got and all that you have in your hand, all that you have in
your brain. That's it.
It's the end of the that's all you got.
But we have an advantage that in each and every situation and say
hold up a minute, quit lying to me devil and stealing what God
has given me the ability to know without a shadow of a doubt my
king is on his throne and I will not be shaken.
This is my advantage. This is what it looks like.
How do you live it out? How do you seek God's Kingdom
first? Well, you may say get up early
in the morning to read the Bible.
I would say yes, absolutely, but let me give it to you in another
biblical way. First, Peter chapter 5, verse
six and seven says humble yourselves.
Therefore, under God's mighty hand, you go from being up here
where you're the boss and you said, no, I'm going to submit
myself instead to God's mighty and I'm going under the
authority and the leadership of the Lord that he may lift you up
in due time. Verse 7, cast all your anxiety
on to him because he cares for you.
There's something beautiful here in the original text that we
don't get in our English. These look like 2 separate
sentences. 1 is about humbling yourself.
Another one's about dealing with anxiety, but the two are
actually together. Humbling yourself is
surrendering control, acknowledging God's sovereignty
and His superiority so that He can add His time and in His way,
lift us up out of every miry pit.
The word cast, which comes in verse 7, is not a command, it's
not a verb. It's not the beginning of a new
sentence, though it looks like that in English.
In the original text, it's a subordinate clause.
How many all came today? Ready for a grammar lesson?
Some of you are sweating. This Is your fear a subordinate
clause? It's only job is to add more
information to the main clause. The main clause is verse 6, to
humble yourself. Verse 7, the subordinate clause
says how to do it. How do you humble yourself?
You get to this point and say I cannot handle this, I'm giving
it to you. This is a picture of humility.
I have been the king over this situation and it's not going
well for me. I'm going to allow you to be
king and I'm going to give this care to you because not only do
you care for me, but you can care about this a lot better.
I'm giving this to you. I don't have it.
You have it over and over. Now here's the key.
Don't walk back over to the pile and pick it up again.
Leave it under the care of Jesus.
Seek first his Kingdom. You guys know that we often seek
our own Kingdom first, our own ways.
The world will tell you ways this way is better.
Do this secular humanism, Marxism, these are better.
Instead, we're going to submit everything under the care of
God. And be careful here.
It says seek first his Kingdom and his righteousness, which
means don't you seek the person but seek his ways.
So when I worship you God, that's one thing.
When I obey you, that's a whole nother kind of worship and the
2GO together. So we can't come to church and
say God you are great and then go out there and say devil you
are better and then expect us not to be worried and anxious.
Instead, God says worship me and follow me and you will see worry
and anxiety dried up in your life, much if not all of it
completely gone because of who He is.
This is our advantage that we have as believers in Jesus,
according to His Word and according to His Kingdom
culture. Anxiety and worry attempt to get
us to forget what we already have in Christ Jesus.
When you start an intimate personal relationship with Jesus
Christ, you were placed in Him, in His body, in the body of
Christ. The advantage that Satan tries
to get us to ignore is that you are in Christ eternally in
relationship. And if we could let that fully
dwell within our hearts, it would castaway fear and anxiety.
So today I want to close by reminding you of the
immeasurable riches that you have in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Were you ready to? Are you ready to receive these?
Say yes. These are things that you have
and things that you are because of your relationship with Jesus
Christ. And only through a relationship
with Jesus Christ, you have freedom, innocence, grace upon
grace, redemption, and the righteousness of God in Christ.
You have a Heavenly Father, the selfless Son, a Holy Spirit, and
billions of brothers and sisters in the faith in Jesus Christ.
There's no condemnation. There's new birth, new life, new
creation, new clothes, new mind, new heart, new nature, new
covenant, new spirit that rose Christ from the dead, then
placed you in a new family and sealed you with a new destiny
and a new identity. In Christ you are chosen, you
are saved, you are accepted and you are adopted.
In Christ you have been consecrated, liberated,
initiated, supplied, anointed, purified, sanctified and
justified. In Christ Jesus.
Are you here at church? You have love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and
self-control in Christ. You have wisdom and knowledge,
vision, imagination, creativity, focus and purpose In Christ.
You have the mission of God. You have the meaning of life and
the mystery of the gospel. In Christ, the veil has been
lifted and torn. The distance has been erased.
The ransom has been paid. The trespasses have been
cancelled. Woo, the chains have been
broken. Praise God in Christ, you have
been made alive, made new, made steadfast, made one, and made
grateful. You have been given power,
victory, triumph, strength, every spiritual blessing in the
heavenly realm, immeasurable riches in Christ.
Are you hearing what I'm saying? You have been given a promise
that one day you will be consummated.
One day you will be vindicated. One day you will be resurrected,
rewarded, crowned and perfected. In Christ you have an identity,
You have a story. You have eternal value and
worth. You have the image of God.
You have the cross shaped heart of love of Jesus.
You have a realistic assessment of your evil.
But even greater than that, you have a way out of evil.
In Christ you have a transfusion of life, an epic mission, an
epic purpose, an epic ending filled with life giving, hair
raising, breathtaking lovemaking meaning.
In Christ alone, Christ is enough.
You have all that you need. You have too much going for you
to worry and be anxious in Jesus Christ.
To close it, I'm going to ask you to do something a little
different, and you may be here by yourself.
You may not know the person sitting next to you.
I'm asking you just for a little bit of boldness.
Get over the awkward. This is the House of the Lord.
I'm going to ask you just to join hands with somebody next to
you. If you're by yourself, you want
to slide over. If you want to come up here and
hold my hand, I'm just kidding. Don't do that.
Come on, everyone, come to you at home.
Hope you got somebody holding your hand with the reason that
we're doing this is because I want you to know that you're not
alone, that there are others who are struggling, But in the body
of Christ we're binding together to remind ourselves that God is
near, that he is enough, and that he is able.
So let the person sitting next to you be a physical
representation of what is guaranteed to us in the
heavenlies by the Lord our God. And if you continue, hold on
that hand as we pray, would you bow your heads and close your
eyes? Thank you, Father, for your
word. It gives us hope that a life
without worry and anxiety, debilitating fear, overwhelming
dread, it is possible. Why?
Because you are good God, and all you do is good.
Root it in our hearts so that no lie can remain.
Reframe, restructure, rebuild the synapses in our brain so
that those hardwired traumas are replaced by the glory and the
beauty and the power and love of who you are.
God in church, just as we're praying, I want to say this to
you clearly, there is no hope with fear and worry and anxiety
outside of a relationship with Jesus.
All you have is you against the fear, and you cannot win on your
own. And I believe you know that to
be true, based on the pain and the seasons of fear and anxiety
you've walked through, you need a helper.
And that helper's name is Jesus. We all do.
He is the only one, the only one to defeat Satan.
And so today you have an opportunity to cross the line of
faith and believe in Jesus for the first time, to receive him
as the power over sin and death, as the victory over fear and
anxiety, by simply believing in your heart and confessing with
your mouth. So the whole church is going to
pray this prayer together. Would you repeat after me
everyone saying, Father, in the name of Jesus?
I recognize that I am a Sinner in need of a Savior to overcome
my fears, to overcome my doubts, to give me salvation.
So I believe and I confess that Jesus is Lord.
I receive him as my Savior into my heart.
Live your life through me all the days of my life in Jesus
name. Wow.
Praise God, keep your heads bowed.
Make that personal. If you're praying that for the
first time, believe it in your heart.
You've just been saved by the grace of God through the blood
of Jesus. He stepped into your place and
sacrificed his life for you. Thanks be to God.
If you prayed that prayer for the first time, I'm going to ask
you in just one moment to raise your hand when I count to 3.
And the reason you're doing that is just a bold expression.
God, I'm in. But it's also a chance for us to
give you something that's crucial and important to your
brand new journey of faith. So if you're believing for the
first time on the count of three, raise your hand 123 nice
and high. Just hold it there for a second.
Come on, we see you. Congratulations.
Well done. The Lord bless you.
He sees you. You're making a good decision.
He's making all things new. He saved you.
He's redeemed you from the pit. He's brought you newness of
life. We see you.
Did we miss anybody? If we miss you, did we miss
anybody? This is important part.
Pastor Dave is going to come in just a moment and tell you what
to do with the stuff you got in your hands and to dismiss you.
But I say to you, the Lord blesses you and he loves you,
and so do I Thank you for sitting closely with one another
in this very sacred space of mental health.
God is doing a good thing. Amen.
Let's give him praise.
Thanks for joining us today. We hope God is speaking to your
heart through this message. If you'd like to connect with
us, you can text Connect to 4:07 588-0115 or visit Illuminate dot
Church. Have a great week.