Anxious No More #4 - Trusting With Anxiety
Message Description
Senior Pastor Dr. Kurt Bjorklund concludes "Anxious No More" messages series. In a world rife with uncertainty, Matthew 10 offers a fresh perspective on anxiety, urging us to trust God amidst cultural tensions. We're reminded that anxiety can be a signal to important issues, and our trust in God should be like a child's leap into a pool, knowing a loving adult is there to catch them. Jesus calls us to be 'sheep among wolves,' living with purpose and navigating life's challenges with the wisdom of serpents and the innocence of doves, focusing on internal growth over external distractions.
Message Transcript
Good morning and welcome to Orchard Hill. My name is Kurt Bjorklund. I get the privilege to serve here as the senior pastor and it's great to be together. Over the last several weeks, we've been in a series that we've called Anxious No More. And I know from having just had several conversations that many of you have grappled with some of the reality of the texts that we've looked at over these weeks. And today we're going to look at the text that you just heard read from Matthew ten.
Our idea originally was to pick four passages that address anxiety in the New Testament and speak about them. My guess is over these couple of weeks that if you've been around church, you've read your Bible a few times, that you would have said, oh, yeah, I kind of knew that text was in the Bible about anxiety. You know, don't be anxious for anything, but in everything, pray or cast your anxiety onto the Lord or even, you're anxious about many things, but only one thing is needed. And if you were to say what other text speaks about anxiety, you'd probably say Matthew chapter six, Sermon on the Mount, Jesus talks about not having to be anxious about your life. I chose not to do that text, in part because we talked through the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew five through seven, a couple of years ago. That's still online. You can find it.
And because this text and Matthew ten are unexpected in this way, that is probably few of us would have said, oh, this is an anxiety text. You might have had a vague remembrance of when you're called in before the counsels. Don't worry. Don't be anxious about what you'll say because the spirit will speak for you. But here's my other guess. And that is very few of us have ever been dragged in front of the counsels. Very few of us have ever had a moment of having to give a defense for our faith. And so, this seems remote to us. And yet, as I looked at this passage and considered where we are today in our nation and faith, I realize that it's not as remote as we might think.
There was an account in the recent Olympic Games where the Dutch sailing team was competing to get the gold medal. They had already raced several regattas in this race. All they had to do was finish third to get the overall gold medal. As they rounded their final buoy, they went toward what they thought was the finish line, but it wasn't the actual finish line. So they pulled up thinking that they had won the race outright, only to realize when they didn't hear the horn signifying the end of the race or the victory in the race, that another boat came and finished and then another boat came and finished, and they were able to just get their momentum up enough to get across and get the third place finish.
But what this demonstrates is that if you have the wrong end point in mind, you'll get the wrong result. And we've called the series Anxious No More. Not meaning to signify that all anxiety will forever be gone because anxiety is a sign that something isn't right. And so, it's not a sinful thing to have anxiety, but it's destructive in the sense that when anxiety becomes something that's diffuse and characteristic of our lives, where we're starting to say, I am anxious about things that may never happen, then it becomes destructive.
But being concerned, which is really what this word means, an over concern about something, is a sign to say, I need to address that in my heart and soul. So, if your desire is to say, now, hey, I'm going to never feel any anxiety, then maybe that's not the finish line. What the desire should be is to say, when I feel anxiety, I need to trace that anxiety backwards and say, what does it mean that I need to address in my life now?
Have you ever been at a pool either with kids, little kids that maybe are yours, your grandkids, a niece, nephew, something like that, or you've watched this play out and you've seen a kid wanting to jump into the water? And in the water is maybe a mom or dad, somebody waiting for them saying, jump, you can do it. And the kid comes up, and they're afraid to jump. You've seen the scenario play out. One kid can come up and there can be nobody in the water and they're just like something good will happen. There's no fear. And then other kids, you can stand there with your arms out saying, trust me, you can jump, and they'll be afraid, worried.
What's the difference? Well, the difference is one trusts the person in the water, and one says, I'm not sure. That's the difference. The difference between saying, I'll jump, or I won't jump. And the kid who jumps, is living life, and they're enjoying life. And the kid who doesn't jump, is not living life, and they're not enjoying life at that moment. Now, eventually, most kids learn to jump. They get to a point where they say, okay, I'm big enough. You know, I can do this. All is good. But if you take that as a microcosm of how anxiety works in our lives, it keeps us from living and enjoying life.
Now, why is Matthew ten important to this? Jesus is addressing his followers, and he's talking about the possibility of persecution. He uses three images here. He uses the image of sheep among wolves. And then he says, be prudent like serpents, wise like serpents, and innocent as a dove. So, we have sheep, serpents, and doves. He uses these three images to paint a picture of what it means to be a follower of Jesus in society. He talks first about these sheep among wolves, which speaks, I believe, a vulnerability in our society. Here's why I think this has some bearing for us today, and that is because when you consider now what's going on in our world, you may say, look, I've never been invited in front of the councils. I've never had any of these issues that are talked about here.
But it doesn't take much of a stretch to say that there are some things happening in our world right now that are going to make holding a Christian perspective on certain issues more and more difficult in the days ahead. In our culture, where if you say, I believe what the Bible says and I won't back away from it, there will be, at least in some instances, a price to pay. It may not be legal, but it might be economic in terms of a job or an opportunity. It might have to do with social credibility, where you're shunned by a particular group, or it might be legal. We saw last year where a man who simply protested in a legal way what he believed was right biblically, that his home was raided by FBI agents, and he was taken into prison.
You see, there are things happening in our world right now that say this passage is not as remote as maybe it used to seem like it was because there are real dangers that exist in our world. And historically, globally, this should not surprise any of us. And what I mean by that is, is if you've lived in America for the last 30, 40, 50 years, you have been an anomaly in terms of how faith has interacted with what is publicly celebrated, because globally, historically, Christians have always been a minority opinion and not only a minority opinion, but often a marginalized and persecuted position in our world. And so, it shouldn't surprise any of us if that is indeed what happens.
Now, some of you may say, well, okay, well, hang on a second. Maybe that's why I don't want to be a follower of Jesus. I don't want to be part of this. I just want to get on in the world. And if God can help me, then that's what I want. But notice something that's said here that's pretty significant. He says this in verse 16, “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves.” And so, what Jesus is saying here with this phrase is I'm sending you out, I'm commissioning you to be my representatives.
The grand narrative of the Bible is a little bit like this. God creates Adam and Eve. He creates perfection. Adam and Eve choose to eat fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden. The one kind of restriction that says, we want to be in charge, we want to be our own gods. Through that, sin enters the world. When sin enters the world, all the things that you look at in this world and you say, that's not how it should be, enters the world. Jesus comes, he pays the price for sin, makes restoration possible, and invites his followers to be part of his restoration. I send you out, he says. And so, the invitation of faith isn't just to say come to faith, and Jesus will make your life better because he may not. Or, come to faith, and God will make your future secured, which he does. But it's ultimately to say your role is to be engaged in helping to bring a taste, a picture of heaven to the here and now.
So, you're not saved so that you can have heaven on earth here. You're saved, in a sense, to bring a taste, to bring a picture of heaven to earth. And Jesus says, when you do this, it will be like you’re sheep among wolves. It's vulnerable. Don't underestimate the reality of what it is that you are doing now. Not only that, but I believe there's a danger probably to our soul in the sheep among wolves idea. And what I mean when I say this is that it's not just that there's a danger out there, but there's a danger that our hearts, our souls become distracted from the things of God.
Just in our current climate there’s a piece that has gone around online that's supposedly from C.S. Lewis. I say supposedly because if you fact check it, it isn't actually C.S. Lewis. And the reason I mention this is because I think if you want a quote to go viral, it probably has more chance of going viral if you say C.S. Lewis said it, then like you say it or I say it, but it's actually well-written. The point's good, even if C.S. Lewis didn't write it. So, I'm going to share this. And it's supposedly written from the standpoint of Screwtape, which C.S. Lewis wrote this book called The Screwtape Letters, in which an older demon advises a younger demon in how to get a Christian person of faith off track. Here's what he says. And again, hear this in light of our current climate.
“Be sure that the patient, (so, the patient being a person of faith) remains completely fixated on politics, arguments, political gossip, and obsessing on the faults of people they've never met, serves as an excellent distraction from advancing in personal virtue, character, and the things the patient can control. Make sure to keep the patient in a constant state of angst, frustration, and general disdain toward the rest of the human race in order to avoid any kind of charity or inner peace from further developing. Ensure the patient continues to believe that the problem is out there in the broken system rather than recognizing there's a problem within himself.”
You see, the danger a lot of times isn't just that there's stuff out there and you may be called to give an account, but there's a danger in here because the danger is that I'm always saying the problems, the other people, people who don't agree with me, or see it the way I see it. And again, I'm not suggesting here that there isn't an important place for debate about important issues. But what I'm saying is as soon as you create the other in other groups, what you're doing is you're saying that's the problem. And the message of Christianity is the problem is in here. And we all need a savior. We all need Jesus Christ to be the one who works in our lives.
By the way, one thing C.S. Lewis did actually write in The Screwtape Letters around this issue is he said, “But we want a man hag-ridden by the Future—haunted by visions of an imminent heaven or hell upon earth—ready to break the enemy’s commands in the present if by so doing we make him think he can attain the one or avert the other...” In other words, what he's saying is that the strategy is often to say, do this, agree with this group, disagree with this group, and either heaven or hell on earth is coming. Therefore, I'm willing to compromise. Do you hear the danger that he actually speaks about?
And the other thing that's here is just to not underestimate God's power. This is verse 19, where he says when you go in before the council, when you're standing there, don't be anxious about what to say, but the spirit will speak on your behalf. God will intervene. God will work. So, sheep among wolves.
Then he says very simply, verse 16, this idea of saying that you are to be shrewd as snakes, prudent like a serpent. A serpent was thought to be one who was shrewd. And what this is saying, I believe, is ultimately that the idea of simply saying trust God, jump, doesn't mean that you don't take some responsibility for wise choices. Meaning you are called to say, if my kids are in school, I should be aware of the curriculum that's being taught to them because there is an agenda that wants to get their thinking away from the things that are biblical. In my way of thinking, if you're at work, it means that being shrewd means understanding that just because you hold a certain position, if you know it's unpopular, that you don't need to lead with it. You can think through how to position yourself in that arena that when it comes to your relational world, you can ask questions about what it means to be shrewd.
One of the things that the Bible says Jesus says often is watch out, be on your guard, pay attention. In fact, if you take a concordance and trace those phrases, what you'll see is Jesus is often saying, or the New Testament writers are often saying, one of the important things that you can do is pay attention. And here's why this is important.
What this means is that often being shrewd means paying attention, because what our tendency will be is to drift. And drifting means very simply that what happens in our lives is we say, I think this, but because of busyness, perception, just life, the way things go, this is where I end up a lot of times. And so, what happens when it comes to interaction with the world is people of faith will often end up thinking more like the world because they haven't been paying attention to the things of God.
And this happens so suddenly, so easily. In fact, a couple of the places that this phrase is used to watch out are these. Just a couple examples. In Mark 8:15, Jesus says watch out for the leaven of the Pharisees. The leaven of the Pharisees is basically the idea of self-righteousness coming into our souls. So, pay attention so that you don't become so full of your own goodness that you become proud and conceited. Watch out, Romans 16:17, for divisions and people who teach basically false doctrine. Watch out, Galatians 5:15, for relational strife. People who are always creating the kind of fractures in group life.
You see, what he's doing is he's saying, pay attention to your soul, and being shrewd means that you don't drift. And anxiety, I believe, thrives when we're not focused on the things of God. Because when you're calm, it's like you're standing at the edge of the pool and you're saying there may be something scary, but there's a great God who has said, you can trust me. But when we drift, well, it's almost like we forget, and we say the pool, the water, it's scary, it's dangerous. There's an intention that comes from focusing our attention on the things of God that says it's going to be okay. And sometimes it's just our busyness that keeps us from being there. And what we really need is just to slow down enough to be able to say there is a God and his way is good and right.
In fact, what happens a lot of times is you come home from the day of being kind of pushed and stressed in a lot of directions, and you say, you know what I need right now? I need some me time. Do any of you know how this goes? And here's what me time might be for some of us. For some of us it might be I go putter on something, or I work out or something, good for you if that's you. A little better me time. But for some of us, what it becomes is what's on Netflix. I just need to binge something to kind of escape for a while. Or what sport is on, or let's see what happened in the day in the news, politics, or stock market.
Let me just ask you, did you ever after a day of of feeling kind of stressed and frayed, get some me time, and after two or three hours of a game or news coverage or Netflix go, wow, do I feel focused on the things of Jesus? Now, don't get me wrong, I intend to watch lots of games this fall. But my point is there is a drift that happens if you're not intentional to say, I want to be shrewd because when I get away from that focus, then I start to say the world is a place of great anxiety.
And then Jesus has one other analogy here, one other image, and it's the innocent as doves. So, understand, he says, basically, I'm sending you out like sheep among wolves. There's a vulnerability just inherent to being a person of faith in this world. Therefore, he says, be shrewd like a snake, prudent like a serpent, and innocent as a dove. Again, it's an image that he pulls that the people say doves are innocent in the sense that they don't manipulate things, they just are.
And this is probably the opposite in some ways as shrewd as a serpent because this is saying don't live your life always assuming that everything's up to you. In fact, when Jesus does teach about anxiety in Matthew six, one of the points that he makes is he says, look at the birds of the air. He says they don't worry about tomorrow, and yet your heavenly father always takes care of them. They have enough. And what's his point? He says you're worth more than a couple of birds.
The same thing can be said here. This word innocent here in the original language means literally unmixed meaning there is no vice or deceit that's mixed into your life. In other words, you're able to say with confidence that the way that you're living is not perfect, but it's not hidden. And this is really a way of communicating, just this idea of Jesus saying, if you want to live without anxiety, then you can't live with something that's mixed because you're mixed motive or mixed agenda will often lead you toward something that's outside of God's best for you, God's agenda for you.
Harry Ironside, who is the pastor of Moody Church close to 100 years ago now, 90-100 years ago when he was the pastor, there is the same church in Chicago. There was a young woman who started coming to the church and got real engaged and her father was against it. And so, he decided that he was going to disprove Harry Ironside’s faith. And so, he hired a private investigator to follow him everywhere and dig up all the dirt he could on him. And when Ironside found out about it, his response allegedly was to say, you can write my life in the skies. I have nothing to hide.
You know, I wonder sometimes if somebody dug into your life, would you say, go ahead, there's nothing here. I used to say this to students often when I was in the church ministry with students, I would say, hey, listen, if you have to hide something from your parents, there's a chance it's a really bad choice. And students would always push back. They'd be like, oh, now, come on, parents, they're so archaic, they know nothing. And at the time, I would say to them, you know, when did your parents grow up? And they would always tell me, like, you know, they were in the I'm old enough now, you know, that was like they grew up in the seventies or something. I was like, yeah, in the seventies there was no such thing as sex, drugs, and rock and roll.
And here's what I'm saying. If your parents who are for you see a choice you're making and you're saying, I don't want them to know, there's a chance that the choice that you're making isn't good. Now there's a legitimate time to say, hey, I'm making a different choice than you like. The choice that you're talking about is just a preference. It's not a biblical conviction. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about when you say I'm hiding something from my parents, from my spouse, from my small group, what you're doing is you're confirming that there's something in your life that isn't innocent before God. And here the implication is to say, listen, there's enough problems in terms of danger because you're sheep among wolves. Don't hide things from the God of the universe because you can't, but instead offer your life wholly, then the God of the universe will go before you in whatever is ahead.
Now, I know that you know this topic, there's people online, it gets a lot of clicks if you're really fearful about the future and everything bad that can happen. I'm not as negative about where we're headed as a country as a lot of people. But I'm also not unaware that there are real things that are going on that are concerning and troubling if you're a person of faith. Jesus says, I don't want you to be anxious, I want you to trust. Understand that there's a danger, you're sheep among wolves so be wise like a serpent but be as innocent as a dove. And you can trust me, because when you jump into the pool, you're not jumping in alone. God is the one who says you can trust me in the midst of whatever feels like it's out of control.
Father, we ask today that you would help us to learn the lesson of the sheep, serpents, and doves. That it would inform the way that we feel about the culture we're living in, and as a result, the way that we can live and enjoy the life that you've given us. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen. Thanks for being here. Have a great day.
