Psalm 23 this is the Psalm that says the Lord is my shepherd and as you're turning there Let's think for a second. Why is this such a powerful Psalm for us? Well among other reasons I think it's really comforting in a world of trouble in a world where there's a lot of uncertainties a lot of things that go wrong It's good to be reminded That we have a shepherd that we have someone who's guiding us protecting us providing for us Please follow along as I read out loud Psalm 23 the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want He makes me lie down in green pastures He leads me besides still waters. He restores my soul He leads me in passive righteousness For his name's sake even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for you are with me. You're rot in your staff comfort me You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies You anoint my head with oil my cup of her flows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever Amen Imagine that you're standing at the edge of the Amazon rain forest You're getting ready with your group to venture in a two-week expedition into the rainforest and before you go in Your guides gather you together They sit you down and they remind you of a few important facts as you journey into the rainforest two things among others They're really going to highlight one. They're going to remind you of the dangers of the rainforest It's not just in the movies where people die in the Amazon rainforest There are animals in the rainforest that will kill you. There are jaguars. There's alligators. There's pythons There are poisonous snakes of all kinds on the path hanging from the trees There are real dangers out there in the jungle and your guides if they're good guides are going to tell you to be cautious because There are dangers out there But the second thing that your guide would remind you is that if you stick close to him the guide Then things will go all right with you why because the guide knows what he's doing the guides and control the guide Knows the area and in those circumstances your guide is more powerful than you are there are dangers out there But stick close to your guide I think if we consider what the Bible says about the troubles in this world It's not that different from the guide warning you about the jungle this world oftentimes to us feels like a jungle There are dangers there are troubles out in this world and yet God remind us again and again and again That you're not alone that you have a guide you have God himself as your guide stick close to your guide Things will be okay. Let's look at Matthew chapter 6 now We're continuing a sermon on the Mount Matthew 20 or excuse me Matthew verse chapter 6 verse 25 I'm going to read out loud and we're going to talk about this at length and the point of our Sermon's day the topic is anxieties. How do we respond and overcome anxieties in our life? Matthew 6 25 therefore I tell you Jesus says do not be anxious about your life What you will eat or what you will drink nor about your body? What you will put on is not life more than food and the body more than clothing Look at the birds of the air. They neither so nor eat nor gather into barns and yet You're heavenly father feeds them Are you not more valuable than they and which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to your span of life And why are you anxious about clothing? Jesus says consider the lilies of the field how they grow They neither toil nor spend yet. I tell you not even Solomon King Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these But if God so close the grass the food which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown to the oven Will he not much more clothes you owe you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious Saying what shall we eat or what shall we drinker? What shall we wear for the Gentiles? See after those things and your heavenly father knows you need them all But seek first seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow for tomorrow will be anxious for itself sufficient is the day for its own Trouble do not be anxious. We're going to look at three truths today They're going to help us with this challenge to not be anxious first off We're going to look at the truths about this world Secondly, we're going to look at the truths of our relationship with our heavenly father and Thirdly, we're going to look at our responsibilities as a child Truths about this world our relationship with the heavenly father and our responsibilities as a child Now first off, let's look at this command to not be anxious Jesus says here therefore. I tell you verse 25 Do not be anxious about your life Why is anxiety so powerful for us? Why do we tend to worry? Well, I think it's simple there are things to worry about in this life There are bad things that happen to us. In fact the Bible assures us that in this life bad things will happen So the Bible doesn't comfort us by telling us that nothing bad will ever happen to us Note in quite the opposite it assures us that bad things are going to happen You see the Bible tells us that God created this world perfect and in a perfect world There were no troubles and there were no causes for anxiety. There were no panic attacks in Creation but as sin entered the world as we rebel against God all of a sudden the world became broken If you tell me that your truck is broken down I'm going to assume that when you try to start it things aren't going to go very well for you If you tell me that my computer is broken down Then I'm going to assume as I open it press power and start typing things are not going to go so well for me If you tell me that your marriage is broken I'm going to assume that there are bad things going on in your marriage It's not working well So when the Bible tells us that we live in a broken world it shouldn't surprise us when bad things happen The Bible tells us Jesus tells us in John 16 in this world he's saying to his disciples in this world you will have troubles you will have troubles but take heart I have overcome the world you said Psalm 23 the same Psalm that gives us great comfort reminds us of the perils of living in this life First off we're sheep we're helpless sheep that means there's wolves out there to get us that means we're defenseless We're needy we're vulnerable if we're sheep we walk through the valley of the shadow of death The valley of the shadow of death if I ask you how you're doing you tell me I'm in the valley of the shadow of death That's a dark story. That's a dark image of depression of of of danger and this is what the Bible tells us We're in the presence of our enemies the Bible does not paint a pretty picture of this world It reminds us that in many ways this is a jungle for us and this is practical very practical for us We have many reasons to be afraid in this world bad things do happen you get bad doctors Reports or bodies start breaking down Relationships don't go the way that you think they ought to You're dating someone and that breaks up their marriages that break up the things that they go wrong This is not the way it's supposed to be you think there are bad people in this world who do bad things There are good people in this world who do bad things Strangers out there and friends who betray who wound you deeply there wounds that you carry around in this world There are financial woes you lose your job. You're in danger of losing your job You don't know if your company's going to downsize you or not. There's a lot of troubles out there But if you think about anxiety the way it works anxiety is not primarily about these external things out there in life These troubles anxiety is about how you respond to These troubles and that's what Jesus is telling us today He's not telling us to avoid troubles. He's telling us when troubles come how we are to respond You see there's a way of responding to troubles That paralyzes you you're like a deer in the headlights Terrorized paralyzed unable to move you cower You're crippled as anxiety's way you down The statistics for anxiety disorders in America are are are really telling 40 million people Are said to struggle with major anxiety illnesses that could be panic attacks That could be generalized anxiety disorder if phobias obsessive compulsive disorder social anxiety is any manner of deep deep intense anxiety struggles 40 million just to help you with that. That's 18% of the population in a Congregation this big that's roughly 30 people at least 30 people Statistically who would struggle with anxiety in a major major intense life crippling way I guess so you're not alone if that is where you are But even for those of us who don't struggle in such an intense way we all Feel anxiety and the negative impact that has on our lives Maybe your anxiety is carried in your your body physically You're you're you're always tense your back is always hurting you your neck is always stiff because you carry Anxiety's internally maybe you're just constantly irritable and so you find yourself taking out your anxiety your stress on your kids on Your spouse on your co-workers this anxiety makes you irritable Maybe you're losing sleep you don't sleep well because and this is this hits home This happens to me sometimes. I'm not sleeping because I just can't turn it off I've got these anxieties spinning around in My head maybe you're doing everything you can't to flee your anxieties But not fleeing to the Lord you're pouring yourself into work as a workaholic You're obsessing over your your schedule your work your different hobbies You're pouring yourself into substance abuse trying to just avoid the cares of this world. So you're drowning it out in simple ways There's a lot of negative ways obviously that you can struggle with things out and you see the way that that actually adds to the stress in your life It adds to the negative experiences because we're anxious because bad things happen in this world and then when we're anxious That's another bad thing to pile on top of the stack of bad things in this world Jesus is challenging us as a loving father. He says Don't respond this way. Yes, there's troubles out there But don't respond in this way respond instead with peace with peace I think we've all noticed people we've all watched people going through amazingly hard time Very challenging times and yet there is just something about them that conveys a sense of peace and calmness I've sat with people who have a terminal diagnosis and we're not talking about someone who's lived their years out and is just ready to die We're talking about someone who's had an untimely Terminal diagnosis a young man who knows that his days are numbered talking about months and yet I've watched so I've set across a table from somebody in that situation and instead of being Overcome with anxieties. They are peaceful. They are looking for ways to minister Minister to me they are at peace because they're aware of their heavenly father and so what they're doing is they're saying The days are numbered and so I want to use it as best I can I want to use it to pour into people to minister to others I've seen people in hospice homes who minister to the nursing staff the nursing staff It was me pouring into them, but because of the peace that they have internally despite the external pressures of dying they have this peace and so they're a blessing For those who were around them. I've sat with missionaries telling me about the experiences on the field one Mother who was on the field as a young mother with young children She was telling me that where she was stationed with her husband There was no access to medical care So she had these young children running around and at certain times of day and certain seasons They were completely cut off from the rest of the civilization and so she knew that as there as her young children were running around with poisonous Snakes poisonous insects all around if they got bitten they were they were going to die like it wasn't a question of whether or not They could get them to medical care. There wasn't a medical care So she told me that the only way she remained sane was every night in her mind as she prayed before the father Father protect them knowing that it was completely in God's hands There was no safety net. There was no buffer. There was no protection other than the hand of God This is an amazing type of peace It's not that we're in unimpacted by the bad things of this world It's that in light of this wave of bad things come we're able to still have The attitude that we're pressing forward trusting in God so we keep working walking and fulfilling the mission that God has for us. Well, how do we do this? How do we just Matthew 26 or Matthew 6 26? Tells us look at the birds Jesus says birds the air. They neither so nor eat nor gather into barns and yet You're having my father feeds them Are you not of more value than they? Jesus is is outside teaching the crowds at this point and he is probably actually pointing up physically look at the birds They're floating around they're flying around and look at them. What are they doing? Are they like you? Are they toiling? Are they sewing seeds and reaping and storing up in bars? No, no They're they're receiving What their heavenly Father gives them It's very simple later. He says or consider the lilies of the field look around you Jesus is saying look at these beautiful flowers What are they doing are they toiling are they spinning are they with needle and thread working? With these no of course not God the Father provides for them Let gives them all that they need so here's what he's just telling us to do And this is opposite of the way we typically handle problems in our life in our life This is what we typically do when problem solving we see a problem in front of us and we analyze the problem We study the problem We look deeply at the problem and we try to find creative solutions to the problem Jesus is telling us to do the complete opposite that he says when you have problems in front of you Now that's not a bad thing to do many places in life But when you're overcome with anxiety and worry because the problems are too big for you What I want you to do is instead of looking at the problem and I was in the problem. I want you to look at God and analyze God study God Fix your gaze on God on who he is on his power his provision over all creation There are millions and millions of of of birds of animals all throughout creation and God has got his hand Providing protect each of those do you not think that he's doing that You are so much more valuable Then this grass that gets trampled on that gets burned
He cares for you as a powerful protector Chris Tomlin wrote a song God of angel army and the point of the song was that we have this God by our side who commands The angel army. There's this amazing story in the Bible in the Old Testament Alisha this prophet and Alisha and his Servant are surrounded by enemy troops these evil can't this evil king and these evil soldiers coming to kill him They're not coming to talk with them. It's sit down and have tea They're coming to kill him and as Elijah walks outside looking at this vast Horde of evil soldiers His his servant Alisha servant is freaking out because he see and he sees what's coming and not only is he freaking out But he's mad at Alisha for not freaking out. He's looking at Alisha and Alisha standing there in peace And his servant is really frustrated. What are you doing? You need to do something I'm trusting in you. You have to figure it out do something Alisha Alisha just looks at the servant and he prays to God God fix his eyes on you Help them to see you and your presence here and all of a sudden God opens his eyes and as his servant looks around He sees this greater greater vast Legion of of heavenly soldiers burning angels with chariots of fire When he sees God in the situation all of a sudden the troubles don't seem so big Because God is there there is a blessing of anxiety. We don't want to miss this There's something of anxiety that can be a blessing for us because when we are anxious Then we are reminded How much we need our heavenly father My daughter Eden She loves to be walking around and going off by herself But then there's always these times when I watch her totalling around where she gets scared she gets nervous She looks around and sees a bunch of strangers and doesn't see her daddy And so she starts crying fussing and squirming and having all kinds of problems In that moment in her little One-year-old mind what she's doing is she's seeing all of these dangers around her in her mind All of these dangers and she is thinking okay, it's her versus the world She has there's all of these evil people in her mind coming to hurt her or there's these big animals that are coming to to destroy her in her mind And she thinks that it's her versus the world what she doesn't see in that moment is that I'm two steps behind her I'm right there with her. She has taken her eyes off of me And so she thinks it's her versus the world when in fact it is her With her daddy who will then take her pick her up turn her to me and hold her and comfort her as she's crying and shaking And I calm her down for daddy see You see we oftentimes Yeah, we think so great of ourselves, but often how we're just like little children We forget in our anxiety in our stress and how many of us have experienced this even this week Anxiety's worries in this world that seemed too great for us and in those moments what we're doing is acting as if it's all alone It's us versus the world and God says you have may you have may have taken your eyes off of me God says but I have not Taken my eyes off of you There's a there's a passage here. That's right. There's a verse here. It really challenges me verse 32 Jesus is doing and if the whole tone of this in my opinion the whole tone of this passage is one of of of gentle Rebuke It's kind of like a father gathering his children's children are freaking out and if you know father gathers his children kind of gets on one day It says come on How many times have I taken care of you before uh have I ever let you starve? Have I ever let you kind of wander into the street and get hit by no no, I've got you. I've got you Calm down. I'm waiting the whole tone of that. He says you have little faith But he's not doing that in a condemning way. He's he's challenging him He's turning their eyes away from the problems up to the lower and he says this Don't worry about these things what you eat what you drink what you wear for the Gentile seek after these things Jesus is saying Yeah, what's the hypothetical situation if you did not have a heavenly father If you were an orphan in this world if it really was you versus the world then it would be very appropriate to freak out And that's what the Gentiles do because that's what the Gentiles think that it's them versus The world but Jesus says but help me understand this okay on the one hand You say that you've got a heavenly father who cares for you who knows that the every hair on your head is numbered Everything about you he knows and controls the way but on the other hand you live As if it all depends on you come on remember father. God just come on. I'm here for you. I've got it under control Does the whole passage is reminding us to take seriously our relationship with the father But lastly, let's consider this our responsibilities as Children our responsibility is that shoulder. What are we to do? We have a heavenly father. What are we to do? Well, first of all we are to cry out to our father cry out to God not don't just know it Don't just remind yourself. Oh, I have a heavenly father No, in the midst of your anxieties and the midst of your worries However intense they may be right now whether it's a one or a ten on the scale of intensity of worry cry out to God And don't do this Oftentimes when we're overcome with emotion. We like to kind of hide ourselves in a little closet We kind of get it together. We kind of wipe away our tears. We kind of check our hair. Okay. We're good Okay, now we go interact with people that's not what God wants God wants us in the messiness in the fear in the anxiety in the anger to bring that emotion to God Even if you don't know even the words to say My daughter Eden Does not have a big vocabulary. She got two words mama and data. That's it. That's all she can say But that doesn't stop her from crying out to me and in that moment. I know I know that she wants my comfort You may not even know what to say they got cry out to The Bible says the Holy Spirit intercedes with us in our groaning Taking our desires and our longing to God cry out to him Don't live as an orphan you have a heavenly father who loves you who cares for you Kling to God ask him honestly to change your circumstances ask him We know that God is sovereign He may or may not answer our purpose in the way that we want him to but don't stop being honest in pray Lord take this sickness away Lord heal my son Lord make this marriage come back to life Lord ask him but don't stop Asking him to change external things Don't just ask him to change external things and forget to ask him to change you As well This is something that we forget a lot. I believe we spend so much time in our prayer quest Asking God to change our circumstances that we forget to ask God to change us in our response To our circumstances and remember that's what Jesus is after here our response Lord help me to know that you're near Lord help me to fix my eyes on you Lord help me to know that you're listening to me Lord help me to know that you're good
The Bible does not promise us a pain-free existence He promises God promises through the Bible that he is with us always We need to cry out to God and secondly we need to listen to God as he speaks to us sometimes in the midst of our anxiety And most of our worries our minds are spinning and it was just out of control And so we need in those moments someone to come to us and say are you calm down Let me talk you through this Because your mind is going 100 miles an hour which let's slow it down. Let me talk you through it There are times where we need to let God talk us through What we're going through we need to listen carefully to God's promises on our lives and remember this as I just said God does not promise a pain-free existence. He promises that whatever happens is for our ultimate good There are times listen to this there are times when I intentionally inflict pain on my kids now before you called DSS Let me explain what I mean by this There are times when I punish them my wife and I we punish our kids Inflicting pain maybe physical pain with spanking maybe it's emotional pain is we're taking something good away from them as a Consequent why because we have a bigger vision for their lives than that momentary pain We know that there is a blessing sometimes to the momentary pain that children experience because it teaches them Important truths about life and it helps shepherd and train them There are times when I take them to the doctor Where they are going to be Very specifically and intentionally Poked and prodded there are times when I on the doctor's table Hold my shield was hold my children down as they are crying out As they are thrashing as they are trying to escape and they're crying in their faces red and they're they're begging me to stop And sometimes I'm crying tears of holding them down as the doctor takes a long needle and sticks it into their arm Why would I do that because I love my kids and I want them to experience this fullness of life and I know that sometimes they're a momentary pain That we experience that is for our ultimate good god looks at us as children He says you don't understand this right now you can't understand this right now, but I am doing this for you're good You probably don't believe me, but you have to trust me. I am your father and look at me look at me It's okay. It's okay. I love you. This is for you're good Probably don't believe that we look we have to let God talk to us And as he talks to us it changes Slowly not over night maybe in a small way changes the way that we look at our life Lastly we need to do this We need to focus on the things that we actually can't control Here's one of the dangers of anxiety It tempts us to take our eyes off the few things as children Then we actually can do something about and we start spending our energy and all of our time thinking and and trying to fix problems That are much too great for us You can't Control How your kids are gonna grow up the choices they make that's too big for you What you can do Is control how you speak words of love to them how you pray for them how you write a letter Just conveying once again maybe for the hundred thousandth time that you love these small things your child you can't do a whole lot But you can do a few things You can't control Whether or not your spouse is going to have a long life But you can control how you treat your spouse caring for them loving him or her sacrificing for him or her You can't control whether or not you lose your job if you're downsized if you're laid off a lot of times in a bad economy Bad things happen even if you're doing a great job at your work But what you can control is how you go in to work Every day Serving as not men but serving the Lord Speaking to your co-workers it works of encouragement reminding them of these sources of peace in the gospel these are the small things That you can control sometimes it's helpful to write a list of all the things we're worried about and of that list Ask yourself the hardest question What of these can I actually do something about most of the time our list of anxieties? It's a list that's too big for us. We can't do much about any of these things, but maybe Here's one thing one small thing That I can take my mental energy and I can focus on this loving My spouse loving my friends Right sending a text message to a friend who I know is hurting a visiting a friend who I know is sick Speaking words of Jesus Christ Someone who's who's hurting those are the small things That we can do This is is an amazing promise to us Jesus is telling us that in the middle of the valley of the shadow of death as you are feeling like there is darkness around And you like Jesus like the psalmist says at times like your only friend is darkness in those moments There is yet this inner peace that can guard your heart No matter what happens externally in this world hear that and abundance life and joy is offered to you not Not when things are going well, but when things are going poorly as well when you're losing things that are dear to you God can still in that moment guard your heart But hear this It all depends Jesus Christ You see these promises as great as they are These are promises for children god These are promises that god makes to his children Men and women and children who have have looked at their selves Honestly and they see the sin inside of them And they recognize that they are not up to the task of saving themselves That is one of those things on the list that's much too great for them They can't save their selves as they need a savior And so they fall at the feet of Jesus Christ begging for mercy asking for his righteousness to come in And make you holy his death on the cross to take your sin away so that you can stand before the god You see what we have done as children of god created to be with him We have disinherited ourselves through sin That's what we've done We've rebelled against the Father and we have left home This inheriting ourselves and so we're out there alone in a dark and dangerous world And yet Jesus says let me calm and die for you so that I can bring you back
We all Need Jesus the key to the peace that he has offered Offering us here the peace that surpasses understanding And when we do that when we are clothed and Christ brought back home We recognize that we have a savior. We have a god. We have a shepherd We have a Father and this is his world It's not ours Let's pray Heavenly Father, we thank you for the goodness of this promise We thank you for the way that you care for us So deeply we thank you for the assurance that we have Then the midst of the storm you are there to love us to care for us We thank you that you have demonstrated that once and for all Through the death of Jesus Christ Give us a new reminder today of fresh reminder today of how much we need our savior and let us cling to him As a child clings to a Father As in Christ and we pray