Message Description

Strip District Campus Pastor, Josiah Leuenberger, continues the 'Ridiculous Joy' series looking at Philippians 4:6-9 teaching about finding joy by letting God take care of our stress and anxiety.

Message Transcript

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Father thank you for this opportunity to be together, to be in a place where we can set our intention toward you. And God, anytime we gather we do so with a sense of expectation. God, you know our hearts. You know where we are on our journey of faith. God, you know the challenges we are walking through. Maybe even things we’ve never expressed to another person. But God, we invite you into this space. We invite your Spirit to speak to us God maybe in a way that would even be surprising to us or a way that would be encouraging or challenging when you connect our own hearts to your word this morning. And we pray this together in Jesus’ name, amen. 

I want to share with you. This week I was reading in my news and an article caught my attention for reasons you will see are quite obvious. It was titled, This is How to Get Back to Sleep at 3am, according to a neuropsychologist. And the article wrote, “When you are sleep deprived, there is nothing more frustrating than waking up before your alarm clock goes off. But you are not alone. Up to 30 percent o of Americans suffer from chronic insomnia typically caused by overactive stress hormones.” And the article goes on to say that “When you are awake at 3am the best thing you can do to fall back asleep is focus on your breathe. This neuropsychologist, he recommends a simple approach. Breathe in through your nose and breath our through your mouth. And when your mind wanders from your breathe, gently bring your focus back.” And I’ll tell you, I had about 5 times a night over the past 8 days where I had an opportunity to give this strategy a try. And I’ll tell you, it actually worked. And so, if you get nothing else out of today’s message, I hope that you will implement this approach to falling back asleep in the middle of the night.  

But let me be honest. This is not my first rodeo with lying awake at 3am. And most of the time it’s because of overactive stress hormones rather than those cries of a newborn ready for a midnight snack. I’m sure many of you know the feeling I am talking about. Maybe it’s a project at work that is weighing heavy on your mind. maybe it’s a situation with a friend or a family member where you have been hoping, where you’ve been waiting for a resolution but it’s slower to come than you desire. You know those kinds of feelings can not only keep us up at night, but they can be a distraction to us as we go about our daily lives. They can rob us of joy. But I think there is real hope for each and every one of us in today’s passage who will look to Jesus because the apostle Paul communicates in this weekend’s passage the truth to us that it doesn’t have to be this way. You and I have other options available to us than to simply spin our wheels wearing ourselves out in worry. Because what Paul tells these friends in the church in Philip that even in the midst of their concerns there is a hope be found in Jesus Christ, the one who is able to bring life from death. Because he’s involved in our lives and God cares about us deeply and he desires that rather than carrying our burdens ourselves that we would turn to him and find peace.  

You know I think a good next step in this conversation is for us to really just consider what anxiety is, and where this comes from. The Apostle Paul in this teaching right there from the get-go saying, "Do not be anxious about anything." The Greek word translated to anxious there is merimnao. It describes the experience of a feeling that can be appropriate in the right context, like concern over a threat to something we value, that can be an appropriate feeling but when we take it too far, those feelings they can become inappropriate and even harmful. 

And I heard a teaching on anxiety from one of my professors in seminary, a man named Dr. Rodney Cooper. And Dr. Cooper in addition to being a professor, a minister himself, he was also a trained psychologist, and he shared that fear is a response to real immediate danger, and anxiety is different from fear in that it's more of a general, low-grade emotional reaction to the possibility of a threat rather than a threat itself. And so, anxiety is future-oriented, and it functions as an internal alarm system of sorts. And like I said, anxiety can be helpful to us at a low level. It's a good thing to be a little bit anxious. When you are driving into downtown Pittsburgh, and you know you've got a quarter mile where you need to cross over three lanes of traffic and then get back over so you can end up in the right tunnel. It's a good thing to be a little bit anxious heading into that kind of scenario, right? 

I've spent a lot of time coaching athletes and in particular distance runners. And on occasion a runner will come to me before a race and say, "Man, I'm really nervous." And what I'll do is point them back to a little learning from sports psychology that I picked up myself and I'll say, "That's great. I am glad that you're nervous because nerves just show that you care." That's an appropriate response to something you care about and so the task is to keep your mind focused on what's immediately in front of you, the tasks of preparing to compete so that you don't go inward and negative interpreting those feelings of an anxiety in a negative way. And so, anxiety, it can be a help to us in the right measure. But wherever the problem lies is when our anxiety alarm system malfunctions and it can go off at the wrong time. It can blare at a 10 out of 10 when it only needs to be at a one and we don't know how to turn it off ourselves. 

And so when that happens, anxiety can leave us feeling desperate. When it happens in our lives in a chronic ongoing way, we can find ourselves feeling overwhelmed and exhausted. And like I said, in times of desperation we can do everything we can and scramble to change our circumstances to bring about resolution and just worry ourselves in the process to get away from whatever we may perceive our threats to be. And like I said, we turn to the pages of scripture, and we find some confrontation to our thoughts as we walk through moments of anxiety in our lives and act as if it's status quo because what scripture indicates to us is that this is really a symptom of sin, the brokenness of our world and how it affects us physically and mentally and emotionally, and even spiritually. This isn't the way that God intended us to walk through life. 

But like I said, there is some good news for us in today's teaching because God is in the business of bringing restoration to broken things. And for any one of us who will look toward Jesus we have resources of God's grace available to us as we navigate these times and seasons. We can find real joy even in the midst of our times of challenge because we have a God who not only promises to come again and renew all things in Jesus Christ, but we have God with us and God inside of us through the Holy Spirit, any one of us who's put our trust in Jesus Christ. And He can meet us in those moments and bring about real and lasting peace in our lives. 

Let's look to this passage together, follow along on the screen. We're in Philippians 4, picking up in verse six. Paul writes, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." I want you to consider that question that I shared about previously, have you ever found yourself in a season where you thought anxiety is just an inevitability, there's nothing you could do to get away from this, this is just life, the way things have to be? Here from the start of this teaching today, Paul challenges that mindset that we don't need to accept anxiety as our status quo. 

And as much as we have times where we feel like we have no other options, when we're under stress, Paul says, this is not the way things have to be because when we pause, when we press pause on those feelings and locate our own lives, our own stories, the things we're experiencing in light of the greater story of scripture we're reminded that there is a God who created the universe, the same God who created you and I. And this God, He is infinite, and He is eternal, but scripture also teaches us that He is close. He's close to us. He remains involved in His creation, He knows you and me. He knows you and I, and He cares about us. God loves His creation and you and I hold a special place among all of it, because the God who is our creator and sustainer is also our heavenly Father and so He desires to be involved in our lives, He cares about each one of us intimately. 

Listen to these words of David in Psalm 139 about the extent to which God knows us. David writes, "You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise, you perceive my thoughts from afar." That's the extent to which God knows the ongoing circumstances of our lives. And, David, he writes a later in the psalm, "You created my inmost being," God knows our hearts. "You created my inmost being, you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful, I know that full well." 

And listen to how well God knows our bodies. David writes, "My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth." And you know what I love about that passage is this truth that there is not one part of who we are that's a mystery to God. Even those parts of ourselves that you and I might sometimes wish we could change, none of them are an accident to God. Not one of us were created by Him and God said, "You know what? I wish I could get a do over with that guy." No, God looks at us and He loves us perfectly. He's created us with great care and intention in our mind, our body, and our spirit, nothing is accidental. 

And so, the Bible teaches that because God knows us personally and He cares about us deeply we can turn to Him with the things that we're experiencing, the burdens of our hearts and our lives and trust them to Him. Jesus explains it this way, in Luke 7 He speaks these words, "Which of you if your son asks for bread will give him a stone, or if he asks for a fish will give him a snake? If you then, though, you are evil know how to give good gifts to your children how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him? 

This whole concept of God as our Father, I'll be honest, over the past week of new fatherhood this is something that's blowing my mind because I'm coming to connect some dots emotionally about the love of a parent for their child in a whole new way. Things that I've known, things that I've heard, I'm now coming to experience them emotionally. And I'll tell you previously if someone would ask me to change a diaper I'd be like, "How much are you paying?" But here I am, left and right I'm changing diapers, I'm doing swaddles, all that good baby stuff and I'm loving it. I'm not sleeping a ton, but I don't even care because this is my daughter. I just love her so much. I can spend time just scrolling through my phone looking at pictures that are all only eight days old and just wishing she was back to how tiny she was. She's eight days old, and that's the love of a parent for a child. 

And let me tell you, as we look to scripture, we read through the Psalms, we see that God has emotions, and that is exactly how our heavenly Father feels about each and every one of us. That's how God, our heavenly Father feels about each and every one of us. He knows us deeply. He loves us personally and intimately and He desires to meet our needs. God wants us to turn to Him with the burdens on our hearts and trust Him to provide. 

And so, there's a first key principle that we see in this passage as it relates to dealing with anxiety. You can see it on the screen and it's the turning to God with our anxieties is a much better way to manage our concerns than living as if our lives depend on ourselves. It's incredibly simple but incredibly profound. Turning to God with our anxieties is a much better way to manage our concerns than living as if our lives depend on ourselves. 

You see, shouldering our own burdens isn't our best play. We don't score any bonus points with God when we have things that we're experiencing that are weighing us down and we say, "Hey God, I got this one, look how big and strong I am." We don't score any points for that because real faith isn't living self-sufficient, it's depending on the one who's truly capable of carrying those burdens for us and changing our circumstances and quieting our hearts, that's what real faith does. Real faith doesn't say, "I've got this. I'm strong enough on my own." Real faith says, "God, will you meet me and give me the grace I need because I can't handle this? I'm a poor guard over my own life." 

And in the next part of this passage, Paul, he tells us exactly how we can turn to God with our burdens. Picking up in verse seven there of chapter four, "And the peace of God when we turned to Him in prayer, the peace of God..." Oh, pardon me, I got ahead of myself. We're still looking at verse six. In the latter part of verse six Paul writes these words, "Do not be anxious about anything but in every situation by prayer and petition with thanksgiving present your requests to God." 

And so, what we see here is that God desires so much more than just to pull the strings of our lives in terms of making events unfold, God desires that we live with Him in a real relationship, that we would interact with Him on a personal level with the things that are going on in our lives and weighing us down, and that's what we can do in prayer. And think about this, who are the people that you're most close within your own human relationships? I'll tell you, it's probably not those people that you pass in your neighborhood maybe once in a week as you're going on your walk, "Hey, how's the dog? How's things in the office?" The old ball and chain. "All right, great. Take care, have a good week." 

That's probably not the people who you would say you're most close to. No, it's the people who you share with about the things that are going on, sharing your successes, your victories, but more than that the challenges, the struggles, your frustrations, and your failures because we all have those as a part of our story. And it builds real relationship when we're real with others in our lives, the things that are going on. And the same is true when it comes to our relationship with God. Oftentimes we can be polite in our prayers with God and just share the news and treat Him in a very formal way, but what we see in the pages of scripture is that God desires for us to have a genuine interaction with Him in prayer because He knows us. He knows what we're really feeling, He knows what's going on in our lives, what's the point in playing some sort of game? God wants us to turn to Him in our burdens and when we do that, we'll see that He's real and powerful to change things. 

And what Paul tells us next is the effect that this has inside of us. If we will be people who will turn to God with the anxieties that are weighing us down in prayer, the peace of God... In verse seven, "The peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." When we turn to Him with our anxieties, He will quiet our hearts and minds. And really the operative phrase there in verse seven is the words, in Christ Jesus. In Christ Jesus and all throughout this book of Philippians that we've been studying in this Ridiculous Joy series we have seen that the hope of the gospel, the life from death, resurrection, and power of God in Christ Jesus, it makes all the difference in eternity for any one of us who will confess our need for a savior and look to Him. 

But the truth that really comes out in today's teaching is that we not only have a hope for eternity, but we have a hope in the here and now in whatever we experience because the God who laid His life down on the cross and has risen from the grave knows us and He cares about the things that we're experiencing. If God's love for us went so far as for Him to give His own son to die for us on the cross, how much surer can we be that He cares about the circumstances of our own lives? He will not let us flounder. He will not let us perish on our own. God is near to us, and He cares deeply. He's shown us that because He's done something to meet our ultimate need through His own Son, Jesus Christ, on the cross and so we can turn to Him with our needs in prayer and trust Him to respond. That's something we all have the opportunity to do, to turn to God with our needs in prayer and trust Him to respond. 

And sometimes when we do that, we find that God, He does change our circumstances, sometimes we see that in a clear way. Isn't that nice when that happens, when we turn to God in prayer and we asked Him to meet our need and He does that in a clear way, changing things or providing? You know what? Other times we see that, God, He doesn't choose to change our circumstances, but the promise of this passage is that God always chooses to change us in the sense of meeting us with that peace that passes understanding. It's not always God's will to change our circumstances in a moment, He has full wisdom. We don't have that. We can trust that He's good, but we can know that God always desires to change us and give us peace in whatever we're experiencing. 

And I want to share with you. I got to experience that. I remember one time in my life where I experienced that in a really profound way. It was a time when I was incredibly stressed out. It was between jobs and when I was early in my career, I had just finished a graduate assistantship in coaching, and I was applying for jobs. Anyone who wanted to hire a track coach, I didn't care if it was an old folk’s home or a university in Timbuktu, I would have been there if they paid real money. And so, I was applying jobs, left and right, I was spending my time, I had a series of a few weeks where I was just waiting for that to connect. I was stressing out, I was praying, but let me be honest, they were polite prayers. Hey, God, it'd really be great if this could work out on your timeline. I know that you are you're good, but they were polite prayers. 

And I got to the point where I was depending on myself in my own heart, and I was absolutely wearing myself out. My prayers weren't real and enough was enough. I eventually got to the point where I was at the end of myself. And I did something that I don't often do, I got down on my knees and I said, "God, I am desperate for you to interact with me in a way where I would experience your grace in my life. I pray that you would meet these circumstances, these needs I'm lifting up to you. Sure, it would be great to have that job, but more than anything I need you to bring change in my heart." 

And let me tell you, I experienced that in a real and profound and transformative way. And what's funny is oftentimes when we pray those prayers and say, God, would you change me and He does that, you know what? Our circumstances - they change. And in this circumstance, that's not what happened. That's not what happened. It was a few more weeks before I found myself in a better place, but what's really cool is God, He really did know what I needed better than I knew myself. And in that time and through that experience, I really learned some lessons about His grace that changed my trajectory and my career moving forward and are a part of this story that's led me to where I am today. 

And so, I'm so grateful that God knows what we need. I'm so grateful that He provides and that even in the midst of our most difficult times He will provide us with peace that passes our own understanding. That's something He can do for each and every one of us. When we turn to Him with our anxieties in prayer, God hears us, and He cares, and He desires to quiet our hearts. That is a promise that is true for you and me. And I know there are some here who are in this room today, gathered for worship where you are walking through things in your own life right now where you're saying, "I'm doing everything I can to make this happen. I am wearing myself out." Listen to me, why wait one minute longer to hand that to God? You can experience that right now. 

Let's pray together. I'm going to press pause here in the middle of my sermon. Let's pray together. Father, God, we thank you that you're a God who knows us. You know our hearts, God, you know what we need. We thank you for the depth of your love for us, that you've shown us through your Son, Jesus Christ, who met our ultimate need on the cross. We thank you that you don't leave us alone to navigate our burdens in this world by ourselves. God, you know our anxieties, you know our hearts, we pray that you would give us open hands to trust you with our burdens. And, God, we pray that as we do that you would hand us back peace that only you can give. We pray this together in Jesus' name. I'm so grateful for the way that God answers those prayers, even above and beyond our understanding. As Paul says, when we turn to Him, He'll meet us with that kind of peace. Let's never take that opportunity that we have to pray for granted. 

And there's one more principle that Paul's words in today's teaching draw out that I think are worth giving some attention. And that principle is to set our perspective on the gospel each day as a way of preventing ourselves from going too far down the rabbit hole of anxiety in the first place. You and I can keep our anxieties in check by continually setting our minds on the truths of the gospel. And this is something that Paul draws out in verses eight and nine, "Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble and whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me or seen in me, put it into practice. And the peace of God will be with you." 

I shared about that to a seminary professor of mine earlier in some of his teaching. And one of the things I learned from him as it relates to our mindset is that oftentimes anxiety in our lives is driven by our perspective, our mindset about what life should be like, our perceptions of who we should be and how things in our lives should go. Our anxiety is often driven by our assumptions. And I want to ask you, can you see that in some of the anxious thoughts that you deal with yourself, those "shoulds" that you have adopted into your own mindset? 

Here's how my career trajectory should go. Here's how my kids' lives should be progressing. Here's where my parents' health should be at this point in their life. It's often our mindset, our frame of mind about how things should be that cause our anxiety. And so here in verse eight of Paul's teaching, what he does is he tells us to cross-check our mindset, to see if it's in line with what is true according to the gospel, to continually crosscheck our mindset with the truths of the gospel. 

In verse eight he writes, "Think about these thoughts, whatever is true." Because often times our worries aren't valid. Maybe you're a college student, have you ever caught yourself thinking, "Man, if I don't get an A or B on this test, I might as well start looking for lots down by the river now to park my van for the rest of my life, because it's all over." Is that true? No. The truth is God has your future under His control. Your future is God's job. He's better at mapping things out than you and I are, so we're to think about what is true, God is in control of our lives, that's the truth. 

And then Paul says, "Think about what is noble, what's worthy of respect," because often times our minds can be plagued by false ideas. We can catch ourselves thinking, "Hey, if this hasn't happened yet in my life, or if this doesn't happen in my life, there must be something wrong with me." Or we can catch ourselves thinking, "Hey, if this is part of my past, if people were to find out about this, it'll all be over. If that's part of my past, how could I possibly have a good future?" What Paul tells us here is those are thoughts from the enemy, shut them down, there lies. Think about whatever is noble. 

You see where he's going with this. You and I do well to continually confront our own mindset with the truths of the gospel to think about whatever is true, whatever is noble, what's right and pure and lovely. That's the second principle. We can keep anxiety in our life in check by continually setting our minds on the truths of the gospel because God's grace in Jesus Christ really is powerful to change everything because our lives are no longer about us, and we can thank God for that. Our lives are no longer about ourselves. And so, this skill of continually reminding ourselves of the gospel, this is something we need to practice each and every day because it's a daily challenge for us to bring our mindset back to what is true according to God's word, this is something we need to practice each and every day with God's help. 

And I want to share with you, if this is something that you'd like to grow in, something you'd like to learn more about I want to recommend a book, it's called Gospel Fluency by a man named Jeff Vanderstelt, a pastor out in Seattle. Gospel Fluency is the name of the book. If you forget that title, you want to know it, go ahead call the church office, ask for me, and I'll get you that information. It's a great read that could just be a real benefit to you in thinking about how to speak those truths of the gospel into your own life. It can be an incredible help for each and every one of us. 

And these truths in this passage, there's something that every one of us need to hear. But I also want to say this. I know there are some here who deal with anxiety on a level that is particularly intense or complex, and I'm so grateful that God has gifted medical providers and counselors. Like I said earlier, God has made us as beings who are physical and emotional and spiritual and so I'm grateful that God has created avenues for education and He's gifted people to be able to care for us in those ways when we need it. And so, if you're someone who's in a place where right now you could do well to have that kind of interaction in your own life, I want to encourage you to reach out to the Orchard Hill Counseling Center. We have a gifted staff who'll just love to be able to support you and care for you in your own life, the things that you're experiencing in that way. What a gift those people can be to us? 

And the reality is for each and every one of us, we are not meant to navigate life on our own, each and every one of us. We need those kind of relationships that I spoke about earlier with people where through our common bond of faith in Jesus Christ we can be real about the stuff that we're experiencing, our own difficulties, our challenges, our frustrations, and disappointments, a place where we can be real about that, but where we can also challenge one another to look back to Christ and point each other to the hope that's available at all times in the gospel. And there are moments for each and every one of us where we need that because through times and seasons of challenge our vision can get blurry. There may be truths in our minds that sometimes we need help in times of trouble with connecting those dots in our hearts and so what a benefit you and I can be to one another in that way. 

And so, to conclude, I just want to challenge you with this. That is an opportunity that each and every one of us have in our families, in our friendships, in our Life Groups. Here in Orchard Hill Church, in whatever our sphere of influence may be, whatever your age or your gender, however new you are and following Jesus Christ, you and I, we all have the opportunity to be a spiritual leader and a culture-shaper by setting a tone in our own relationships to be people who are real about the things we're experiencing but people who also make a big deal about Jesus because we believe that the gospel is the power of God for salvation, not just for eternity but in the here and now. 

Let's set the tone for that in our own community and make that difference, it's an opportunity that each and every one of us have through Christ Jesus. And what's really cool is when we do that, we can show the world the hope that's available to anyone, to anyone, no matter what we're experiencing, no matter how difficult our circumstances may be, no matter how heavy our burdens, for any one of us who will look to Jesus Christ and believe and put our trust in Him. 

Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the way that it presents us with truth. God, there are times in our own lives where each of us, even those of us who've known you, who followed you for a long time can just live as if we're the ones who are responsible for shouldering our own burdens, and, God, we ask that you'd forgive us for that. We thank you that you're a God who knows us completely, and, God, we thank you that you love us perfectly even in the midst of our imperfection, in the midst of our challenges. 

And so, God, we pray that you would give us what we need, give us the grace we need to turn to you with the burdens of our lives because we trust that you do care, God, and you want to change us. And so, we thank you for your goodness, we thank you for the peace that passes understanding that we experience when we take you up on your promises. And we ask this together in Jesus' name, amen.