If you’re visiting with us, it’s our normal practice to preach systematically through whole books of the Bible or sections. This morning, however, we are going to be looking topically as Christians dealing with anxiety, and you see a medley of texts printed in your bulletin. As we look to reading of God’s Word, if you’d join with me in prayer.
Our Blessed Triune Lord, it is in your great and kind providence that all Holy Scriptures were written You have given to us and preserved for our instruction. We ask then that you would give us grace to hear them proclaimed this day, that you would strengthen our souls with the fullness of their divine teaching. Keep us from pride and irreverence, and may it please you to guide us in the deep things of your heavenly wisdom, and from your great mercy lead us by your word into everlasting life. And this we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Amen.
Psalm 94. When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought me joy. Psalm 56. When I am afraid, I put my trust in you, in God whose word I praise. In God I trust, I shall not be afraid.
Who— what can flesh do to me? Psalm 55. Give ear to my prayer, O God, and hide not yourself from my plea for mercy. Attend to me and answer me. I am restless in my complaint.
And I moan because of the noise of the enemy, because of the oppression of the wicked, for they drop trouble upon me, and in anger they bear a grudge against me. My heart is in anguish within me. The terrors of death have fallen upon me. Fear and trembling come upon me, and horror overwhelms me. Philippians 4: Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
1 Peter 5: Humble yourself, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him because he cares for you. And Matthew 6: Therefore do not be anxious, saying, what shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or what shall we wear? For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself.
Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Anxiety disorders are reported as the largest grouping of mental health issues, affecting close to 20% of our population. 14 to 15% of people taking prescriptions are for anti-anxiety medications, and this number jumps up considerably if you add with it its close cousin, antidepressants.
It seems that we are indeed an anxious people living in an age of anxiety. That phrase, it comes from the English poet W.H. Auden, and he coined it in his own poem, “On the Age of Anxiety.” It was written in 1947. It’s about the search for faith and meaning in the aftermath of the horrors of World War II. It’s also true though that we live in our historical moment and we are often somewhat emotionally unaware, as it were, of other times and places.
We can think that our times are unparalleled. No one has ever experienced what we’re experiencing. But that’s not the case. During the Black Death, parts of Europe experienced 40 to 50% fatality. Fatalities from the plague.
Think about that, take one side or the other and just gone from sickness. And then you have World War I and World War II produced global anxiety. If you lived in the United States in the 1960s, which there represents here a number of you who, who were alive and remember that quite well, you experienced the assassinations of President Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., Robert Kennedy, the Attorney General. There were the shootings at Kent State University. There were the protests of the Vietnam War.
It was really also the start of terrorist groups hijacking airlines and many bombings. And everybody’s wondering, what is taking place? The world is falling apart. And from this we see that no age is free from anxious thoughts and moments. The Psalms were written some 3,000 years ago, and they speak a great deal to all of these.
And as we consider rising levels of anxiety, the good news is that it’s not new news to the Lord. And the challenge, of course, that we have as Christians is not only to live in an anxious age, but to learn to thrive in it. Jesus has borne our anxieties, and in faith we are to trust in him in all of our life circumstances. Now, fear and anxiety are, are really close cousins with, uh, a lot of overlap. Fear tends to be something that speaks of a real or imagined danger while anxiety is more of a general worry or a vague feeling.
The Bible though uses many words to speak about this. Translators will use words like anxiety, fears, worry, cares, concern, and these often get used interchangeably. The good news again is that our hope remains the same regardless of which one of those words resonates the most with you. How does the Bible instruct our anxious hearts? Well, it does so by reminding us that we contend with them.
The sheer numbers of the Psalms that speak of fear, worries, anxieties of the believer It should indeed be a comfort to us. We’re not alone. This is not something new. In Psalm 55, David calls out to the Lord because of personal enemies. Give ear to my prayer, O God, hide not yourself from my plea for mercy.
Attend to me, answer me. I am restless in my complaint and I moan. You hear that agitation as the psalm just builds up because of the noise of the enemy, because of the oppression of the wicked, they drop trouble upon me and in anger, They bear a grudge against me. And then in verses 4 to 5, you think, who hasn’t felt this at some point? My heart is in anguish within me.
The terrors of death have fallen upon me. Fear and trembling come upon me and horror overwhelms me.
If you’ve lived long enough, you’ve, you’ve experienced that. Let’s say there’s— doesn’t take a very old age to start. Some of us can remember this even in childhood moments of, of these types of feelings overwhelming us. And then David in Psalm 6, be gracious to me, oh Lord, for I am languishing. Heal me, oh Lord, for my bones are troubled.
My soul also is greatly troubled, but you, oh Lord, how long? I am weary with moaning every night. I flood my bed with tears. I drenched my couch with my weeping. Weeping.
In the Psalms, we get more than a dozen ‘how long’ directed towards the Lord. Isn’t that the cry of the soul? Lord, do something! How long until you do?
And with this, we hear the psalmist contend with their own hearts in these hard circumstances. Psalm 27: The Lord is my stronghold. My life, of whom shall I be afraid?
It’s an incredible truth to start the Psalm with to bolster faith. The Lord is my refuge. Because as it progresses in verse 9, it says, hide not your face from me, turn not your servant away in anger, O you who have been my help. Cast me not off, forsake me not, O O God of my salvation. See, our worry is almost always a concern then for the future of this problem now of what it’s going to do as it goes forward.
And the psalmist is expressing that.
A hard circumstance today paralyzes us for an unknown tomorrow.
You think about that. How do you wait for a biopsy result without anxiety? The waiting is agonizing. We also have a new word. It’s called scans— scansiety.
It’s a real thing. It’s the dread you feel as you’re about to be imaged for the umpteenth time or be poked for a blood draw once more and then have to wait for the results. It can truly be overwhelming. For many, the anxiety of the unknown is worse than the results, even if they’re bad. Oftentimes when you, you get the results, you’re like, well, at least now I know what I’m dealing with.
It’s just something tangible.
Anxiety is largely irrational. We lock in on worry and it’s not easily shaken. And this fear, this, this worry, this anxiety, it’s a full meal deal. Our whole bodies are involved., and the more so, the more entrenched, the more difficult it is to move. The Psalmist tells us Psalm 32, my heart is in anguish within me.
When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. I am poured out like water. All my bones are outta joint. My heart is like wax. It’s melted within my breast.
My strength is dried up like a potsherd. My tongue sticks to my jaws. And repeatedly we hear that in the Psalms. How these things manifest themselves to us physically. And it doesn’t help when someone says, “Well, what are you so worried about?” Often questions like that are not really questions, they’re accusations, aren’t they?
It’s kind of like if two of you are going out and one of the persons say to you, “You’re going out wearing that?” No, it’s an accusation, isn’t it? You hear that, and so often questions like that are— we say things like that and it’s just meant to accuse, which makes you feel worse because it’s highlighting this thing that you’re doing and failing at.
But see how the psalmist takes the fear, the uncertainty, and brings it to the Lord in worship. Psalm 56:3, when I am afraid, I put my trust in you, in God, whose word I praise. In God I trust, I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me? Notice that question.
It’s not an accusation. It’s a wonderful reminder to the psalmist. What can flesh do to me? The answer is nothing, because I put my trust in God.
The praise, it anchors our hearts in the sovereign care of the Lord. And if we try to contend with our own resources, things go sideways very quickly.
Strange as it may sound, we worry in order to try and to regain control. If I worry enough, at least I feel like I’ve done something. Anger’s often the same. If I get mad enough, at least I, I know I’m, I’m doing something. I’m not helpless.
It’s destructive.
And control can be a way of self-medicating our fears. We can try and control people, manage their lives, make them do and have in certain ways for us. We can try and fixate on details, how something is done. It’s got to be done a certain way, and we really focus on it, or look over the same material over and over and over again. We can also try and deaden our anxious thoughts by distracting ourselves with all the usual suspects.
Why do people drink excessively and take drugs? Often it is to distract, to mask, to overcome these feelings. Whole hookup cultures arise from smothering fears. Binge-watching shows, mindless entertainment, doom-scrolling, We do that in order to put those dark thoughts off, to mask over them. I would also add that a destructive way to deal with fears is what we have seen in this strong polarization that’s out there.
This invective around us. It is also a form of control. It’s a way of trying to, to who’s in, who’s out. And we do that as well because there are anxious moments. They’re trying to draw hard lines to push people in, to push people out.
It’s a form of control. I really appreciate the wisdom in this year’s— in the PCA, the General Assembly, there was a committee on Christian nationalism. They were to write a report and they gave us a partial report. The full report will come next year, but it deals with many of the societal breakdowns all around us. In statement 9 of, of affirmations and denials, it’s a little long, I’m gonna read through it.
It’s gonna connect. It may seem a little strange to start. We affirm that God created human beings as embodied, sexually differentiated creatures, male or female, and established ordered relationships in family, church, and society. Scripture teaches distinct yet complementary roles for men and women in the home and the church, And healthy societies depend upon the formation of men and women capable of faithful service, responsibility, and self-sacrifice. Yes and amen.
Nevertheless, we deny that cultural anxieties or social change justify profane speech or contempt for women, affirming Complementarity does not preclude women’s participation in education, civic life, or public service. Political authority must remain accountable to justice and be exercised for the good of all. And then this: the goal is not to police political opinion, but to maintain a congregation where the gospel is central, where Christ’s lordship over all of life is acknowledged, and where Christians of varying political convictions can worship together in unity. That’s wisdom dealing with cultural anxieties. The Lordship of Christ is put in the center of everything.
It’s the center of a worshiping church. It’s putting our focus on the right thing to deal with the problems that are around us that do cause us stress and anxiety. Because Jesus alone is our consolation.
That is the really good news that we have. Psalm 94:19, when anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought me joy.
God was greater than his fears. And for the believer, God’s comfort is a source of great joy and consolation. We’re not alone. He is in control.
And with that, we don’t just give up and say, well, that’s just who I am. That’s, I just can’t help it. The Lord’s desire for his people is to walk in freedom that Jesus brings to us. There’s liberty from this. 1 Peter 5, humble yourself therefore under the mighty hand of God so at the proper time he may exalt you.
Casting all your anxieties on him because he cares for you.
Peter’s reminding us the Lord really does care for us. We’re not simply whistling in the dark. Casting our anxieties is an action. We do something. It’s not easy.
You know how you know it’s not easy? Because how quick do you pick it back up? Casting my cares— ah, I’m picking them back up again. It’s like this yo-yo. Going up and down.
There’s a lot of activity in this.
But it’s exactly what the Lord wants us to do, is to cast these things before him. That is a right action. It’s not destructive to the soul. And, and other good news for us is, like, for high anxiety, we are able to have medical help. We should be grateful that the Lord in his kindness has furthered our understanding of how to help people.
But what every clinician, counselor, and psychiatrist will tell you is that medication is not the only step. It may be a first step, but the underlying causes still need to be worked out.
And because we are physical creatures, we also have physical helps. We’re all used to this, the very last thing, what does the doctor tell you when you’re leaving his office? It’s sort of like your Medical Miranda or something. Get plenty of rest, eat well, and exercise. And there are just these people, yeah, sure, right?
Well, these aren’t just placebo fortune cookie advice. They really do help. It’s odd how many Christians seem so reluctant to include the body and mind together in helping people. God has made us physical beings, and there are things that we can actually do that do help us.
The reality is when it comes to dealing with these types of stresses, anxiety, we all want a quick fix and there really isn’t one. As Christians, the Lord gives us both a current help and a future hope. That’s what Jesus brings to us. We do have a present now help and a future hope to what is coming. And we also remember that the Lord is the one who has put us in these places to start with.
We acknowledge his sovereignty over our lives and the conditions that are there. And so often that is to teach us to trust in him. And it’s not the thing we want to do.
Uh, I put you in both, and it comes from Mike Mason. It’s from actually a commentary on Job, and you’ve heard me read this before, but it’s really poignant. He says, we Christians do not like to think about being absolutely helpless in the hands of God. With all of our faith, with all of his grace, we still prefer to maintain some semblance of control over our lives. When difficulties arise, we like to think there are certain steps we can take, attitudes we can adopt to alleviate our anguish and be happy.
Sometimes there are, but anyone who’s truly suffered will know that when it comes to the real thing, there’s no help for it. No human help whatsoever. Simply put, when we are in a deep, dark hole we cannot think our way out of, neither we hope, sing, pray, or even love our way out of, there’s nothing we or anyone else can do to better our situation. Only the Lord himself can do that.
That is an amazing statement, and it’s terrifying.
We all want to be there, but we don’t want to be there. But it’s in this utter state of helplessness that many will try then to go and run to a placebo and not to stay in that place waiting for the Lord to lift us out. And some, they can look for so-called prophets with special insight. Others search out hidden or secret knowledge that gives them the inside track. The rest of the world may be in anxious confusion, but we found the hidden answer.
Wanna know that? That’s simply the draw to most conspiracy theories right there. Like, why do people come up with this? That’s why. Things are going crazy, but we figured it out, even though we can’t change anything about it.
But that knowledge somehow gives me a little hope. No, it’s false hope. The only hope we have is in God.
Ever since the fall, we have been in a state of anxiety as creatures. Our own finite existence causes us anxiety. Ecclesiastes 3:11, God has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.
We, we live in that. We cannot see any further than what God has revealed to us. But it is exactly here that we stand. Beautiful verse from Deuteronomy 29:29. The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that he reveals belong to us and our children forever, that we may do all the words of his law.
We are called to live in obedience to this limitation that we don’t go farther than his word. We are to rest and to put our hope in him. Again, here David in Psalm 56:3, when I am afraid, I put my trust in you, in God, whose word I praise. In God I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me?
David allowed the truth of who God is to invade his fear rather than allowing his fears to invade his faith. He allowed God’s truth to triumph over his anxious heart. It’s not Pollyanna putting on a plastic smile. Everything’s okay. He’s recognizing the difficulties, but he’s not allowing those things to overrun his heart.
He’s letting the word and the truth of what God has spoken to him anchor his faith.
To be the mooring lines in the midst of the storm.
Like a, a, like a breath on a mirror. Anxiety can cloud our faith, just covers it. And we can often have a vertigo between our fear and our hope. And, and this is where Jesus steps in and he wipes the mirror clean so that we can see clearly.
Beautiful verses. Matthew 6, the Sermon on the Mount, and Jesus is reminding us, therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you’ll eat, what you’ll drink, about your body, what you’ll put on. Look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap or gather in a barn, but your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not more valuable than they?
And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to the span of life?
Why are you anxious about clothing? If God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow thrown in the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, what shall we eat? What shall we drink? What shall we wear?
The Gentiles seek after all these things, which your heavenly Father knows that you need, all of them. And then he brings it into just laser focus. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore, don’t be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
Caveat there: Jesus is saying the Father is providing what you need, and there are times that the Father knows what you and I need is a a lack, a hardship, a difficulty. That is not something we really like to hear, particularly as Americans. All problems are meant to be overcome, and there’s no suffering that we should have to experience for very long. But God will sometimes, and does, place us in those moments that only he can move us out of, where it causes us to call out to him. Just as those moments of blessing, so also those moments of hardship and privation because of a God who loves us.
And in the midst of this, we recognize that Jesus has borne the anxieties of the world. Isaiah 53:4, surely he has borne our griefs. He’s carried our sorrows. In John 16, when Jesus is giving his final instructions to his disciples, he warned them, he said, “Trouble is coming,” that he would be taken and they would be scattered. And he says this, “I have said these things to you that in me you may have peace.
In the world you will have tribulation.” That’s a guarantee. “But take heart, I have overcome the world.” Trouble and tribulation in the world, but in Jesus, peace. He is the overcomer. And when they were all shut up in a room after the resurrection, they don’t know what’s going on, they’re afraid. Jesus come in the midst of them, and then what did he say to them?
John 20, “Peace be with you.” He said it twice. Sure needed to because their fears were so great. “Peace be with you.” And Paul tells us in Ephesians 2, he says, “Jesus is our peace.” He came, he preached peace to you who were far off and peace to you who were near.
A very familiar passage, Philippians 4, rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say rejoice. What does rejoicing do? It allows God’s truth to penetrate our fears. We live by faith and not by sight.
The truth that we give thanks to God for his goodness, even when it’s hard to see And Paul goes on, do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. Paul’s not just saying stop it, get over it. He’s instructing us with real hope. Go to the God who listens and speak to him. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds.
In Christ Jesus.
We allow his truth to invade and to conquer our fears because he’s overcome. And as believers, his Spirit dwells in us. His Spirit who cries out, “Abba, Father,” causing us to go to the very one who loves us, who has given his Son for us, that we would have life in him. That his spirit powers enables to give us that animation and movement out of these bondages into real life and hope.
That’s the power of the cross. That’s the power of Jesus setting his people free completely, entirely. This side of glory? No. Am I gonna have it all worked out?
No. Sitting in the waiting room waiting for that biopsy to come back, am I gonna be anxious? Likely.
You’re not there alone.
Christ is present.
This is where David, in all the mess of his life, some of it self-caused, some of it from other people, he could rest assured in the goodness of his God who did not leave or forsake him.
Whatever age you are, whatever stress you’re going through, whatever fear, whatever anxiety, you can take this to Jesus. You can take this also to the people of God around you to pray for you, to support you, to be with you in the midst of this. That’s a great joy of, of the body of Christ.
We’re not alone. Christ is with us and his presence is, is then mediated through his people.
And I would just encourage you as well, brothers and sisters. When you are in those places of things are going really well and great beside you, come alongside others who are not. Don’t give them accusations, questions meant to be just little daggers. Bring them hope. And if nothing more, just bring them presence.
Sit quietly. Job’s friends did great. Until they open their mouth.
Our God is good. He is grand and he is glorious. Let’s pray. Father, thank you. Thank you for the hope that we have in your son Jesus.
Thank you, Father, that you have indeed crushed our fears through Jesus, your son. And Father, we would ask that you would continue to open our eyes to see more. So desire more of you, to look, Father, to what you have revealed to us, to be anchored in your words of truth and hope. Thank you for a future hope. We bless you.
All of this we bring before you in the name of Jesus our Lord.
Discaimer: This sermon text was generated by an automated transcription service.