WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.679 So let's read together from James chapter four. 00:00:06.679 --> 00:00:10.400 We're going to read from verse 13 to 17. 00:00:10.400 --> 00:00:12.679 This is God's word. 00:00:12.679 --> 00:00:18.120 Come now, you who say, today or tomorrow, we will go into such and such a town and spend 00:00:18.120 --> 00:00:20.839 a year there in trade and make a profit. 00:00:20.839 --> 00:00:23.240 Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. 00:00:23.240 --> 00:00:28.000 What is your life for you or a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes? 00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:33.759 Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that. 00:00:33.759 --> 00:00:37.799 As it is, you boast in your arrogance and all such boasting is evil. 00:00:37.799 --> 00:00:44.640 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it for him, it is sin. 00:00:44.640 --> 00:00:53.320 We have said for the past couple of weeks that anxiety is fear, a restless fearfulness 00:00:53.320 --> 00:00:59.759 of hypothetical circumstances of loss that we project into our futures. 00:00:59.759 --> 00:01:06.439 We play the profit and we imagine things we might lose, things we might never attain 00:01:06.439 --> 00:01:13.879 that we had always hoped, or things we might do or not do in a future that does not exist. 00:01:13.879 --> 00:01:18.840 We read that back into the present and it makes us fearful. 00:01:18.840 --> 00:01:22.920 That fear becomes fearfulness over time. 00:01:22.920 --> 00:01:28.840 We have this activity of restlessness in our heart, what used to be called angst. 00:01:28.840 --> 00:01:33.840 It manifests both as sickness and soul and body. 00:01:33.840 --> 00:01:39.200 So oftentimes we know we're anxious because we first feel it in the sweaty palms and the 00:01:39.200 --> 00:01:44.640 burning sensations and the pins and needles and the stomach aches and the heartburn and 00:01:44.640 --> 00:01:48.000 the bathroom trips or whatever it might be. 00:01:48.000 --> 00:01:53.359 That can snowball over time and get worse and worse and worse and literally eat us 00:01:53.359 --> 00:01:57.040 up from the inside out both physically and spiritually. 00:01:57.040 --> 00:02:04.439 We said last time that because we are modern people, we are created or raised in our environment 00:02:04.439 --> 00:02:06.200 to be individualist. 00:02:06.200 --> 00:02:12.000 And in an individualist culture, all of us are called to form and create our identities 00:02:12.000 --> 00:02:15.960 in ways that people in earlier centuries never had to do. 00:02:15.960 --> 00:02:19.680 So if you've ever been asked the question or you've ever asked the question of a child, 00:02:19.680 --> 00:02:21.599 what do you want to be when you grow up? 00:02:21.599 --> 00:02:24.719 Then it shows that you're an individualist, you're a modern individual. 00:02:24.719 --> 00:02:31.760 We all are because we are called in this culture to curate our identities, to develop our identities 00:02:31.760 --> 00:02:32.760 by choice. 00:02:32.760 --> 00:02:39.520 And when choice is maximized, we're much more prone to anxiety because we have to determine 00:02:39.520 --> 00:02:46.560 our own existences, our identities, our successes, and we're much more prone to failure in that 00:02:46.560 --> 00:02:47.760 circumstance. 00:02:47.760 --> 00:02:49.920 And so those are the things we've been talking about. 00:02:49.920 --> 00:02:56.160 The last thing we did last time was to introduce the first theological habit for a peaceful 00:02:56.160 --> 00:02:57.719 heart as I'm calling it. 00:02:57.719 --> 00:03:02.879 And that theological habit which we're going to talk more about today is what Jesus says. 00:03:02.879 --> 00:03:07.000 He says, do not be anxious instead, look at the birds or look at the lilies. 00:03:07.000 --> 00:03:12.840 Look at the birds and look at the lilies, meaning look out and know that God is absolute 00:03:12.840 --> 00:03:14.280 and you are contingent. 00:03:14.280 --> 00:03:18.360 God is in total control of all things and you're not. 00:03:18.360 --> 00:03:24.479 And it's actually a call to do theology, to talk to your heart about God. 00:03:24.479 --> 00:03:32.159 So whenever the first habit of a theological habit, pursuing a peaceful heart over time, 00:03:32.159 --> 00:03:38.639 is to whenever fearfulness strikes and restlessness strikes to immediately get habituated into 00:03:38.639 --> 00:03:41.960 saying to the heart, this is what God is like. 00:03:41.960 --> 00:03:46.519 Remember again that this is God, you're not God, you're not in control. 00:03:46.519 --> 00:03:48.240 That's Jesus' command from Matthew 6. 00:03:48.240 --> 00:03:52.719 We're going to tonight look at one more habit, really two more. 00:03:52.719 --> 00:03:57.199 But before that, I want to think a little bit more with you about theological habits, 00:03:57.199 --> 00:04:00.240 this phrase I'm using, theological habits for the peaceful heart. 00:04:00.240 --> 00:04:06.640 And what I've tried to do here is crunch about 90 minutes of material on this page into 30 00:04:06.640 --> 00:04:07.640 minutes. 00:04:07.640 --> 00:04:12.360 And so I've kind of just made it into six points that just kind of grow logically on 00:04:12.360 --> 00:04:13.360 each other. 00:04:13.360 --> 00:04:17.160 So we're going to go through them briefly tonight. 00:04:17.160 --> 00:04:18.720 So here's the first. 00:04:18.720 --> 00:04:24.759 The first thing as we will pause on the idea of anxiety, concept of anxiety for a moment, 00:04:24.759 --> 00:04:26.160 we'll come back around to it at the end. 00:04:26.160 --> 00:04:32.200 Just think first about habits and how habits work on us and why habits are so important 00:04:32.200 --> 00:04:34.560 for fighting anxiety. 00:04:34.560 --> 00:04:42.120 First thing, one, the heart, the Bible teaches us that the heart is plastic, like the neurosciences 00:04:42.120 --> 00:04:44.400 tell us the brain is plastic. 00:04:44.400 --> 00:04:51.960 So one of the things that's been very present in the neurosciences the past however long, 00:04:51.960 --> 00:04:54.400 I'm told, I have no expertise in this. 00:04:54.399 --> 00:05:02.399 I'm told is that scientists are discovering more and more about the plasticity of the brain, 00:05:02.399 --> 00:05:07.639 meaning that we actually have the capability as humans to rewire our brains, to create 00:05:07.639 --> 00:05:12.679 different neural pathways through habits, through thoughts, through actions, over time, 00:05:12.679 --> 00:05:16.279 through medication, through the foods we eat, all sorts of ways. 00:05:16.279 --> 00:05:19.879 And that's similar to the way the Bible actually presents the soul. 00:05:19.879 --> 00:05:26.079 The soul is also plastic, not meaning that, well, it's prone to love money and cars and 00:05:26.079 --> 00:05:30.839 big houses, but not that meaning of the term plastic, meaning it's malleable. 00:05:30.839 --> 00:05:35.639 The brain is malleable and the soul is malleable. 00:05:35.639 --> 00:05:39.639 Thomas Aquinas is one of the great theologians of church history. 00:05:39.639 --> 00:05:44.600 And in the Middle Ages, he presented a quick little synopsis. 00:05:44.600 --> 00:05:46.719 It's not quick in his book, but you can present it quickly. 00:05:46.720 --> 00:05:54.240 The quick little synopsis of the construction of the soul, of what the soul is like, which 00:05:54.240 --> 00:05:56.760 is a big question and a hard one to answer. 00:05:56.760 --> 00:06:00.320 But he said that we can be pretty confident about a few things. 00:06:00.320 --> 00:06:05.960 One, that the soul contains what he called a vegetative appetite, that there's a vegetative 00:06:05.960 --> 00:06:06.960 component to our souls. 00:06:06.960 --> 00:06:12.320 In other words, we have instincts that are completely involuntary. 00:06:12.320 --> 00:06:15.520 Like our soul desires things. 00:06:15.519 --> 00:06:17.439 We have drives. 00:06:17.439 --> 00:06:22.279 And our soul working alongside our bodies creates a drive for hunger. 00:06:22.279 --> 00:06:24.599 And you don't really control that. 00:06:24.599 --> 00:06:27.959 When you get hungry, you get hungry, and it's pretty involuntary. 00:06:27.959 --> 00:06:31.639 So he talked about how there's involuntary aspects to our soul. 00:06:31.639 --> 00:06:36.560 But then on the flip side, there's completely voluntary aspects to who we are, like our 00:06:36.560 --> 00:06:39.079 decision making. 00:06:39.079 --> 00:06:42.879 We think about something that we're going to do, and we decide, well, this is what I'm 00:06:42.879 --> 00:06:45.279 going to do, and we go and we do it, make a choice. 00:06:45.279 --> 00:06:47.199 So there's voluntary aspects. 00:06:47.199 --> 00:06:53.479 And then he talked about the space in between what he called the sentient appetites in his 00:06:53.479 --> 00:06:54.479 fancier terminology. 00:06:54.479 --> 00:07:00.559 But it's just the space in between voluntary aspects of the life of our soul and involuntary. 00:07:00.559 --> 00:07:07.759 And they're in between, meaning what goes into this space both can be controlled, but 00:07:07.759 --> 00:07:10.199 is also hard to control. 00:07:10.199 --> 00:07:14.519 It kind of brings the involuntary and the voluntary together, meaning you can control 00:07:14.519 --> 00:07:16.479 it, but it's really difficult. 00:07:16.479 --> 00:07:22.240 And the big thing that he stuck into that category is the emotional life, our emotions. 00:07:22.240 --> 00:07:27.759 Our emotions are malleable, but also difficult to control. 00:07:27.759 --> 00:07:32.359 They're not like thoughts where you can put them away quickly. 00:07:32.359 --> 00:07:38.079 You tend to not be in control of your emotions in the immediate, but you can change your 00:07:38.079 --> 00:07:40.240 emotional life over time. 00:07:40.240 --> 00:07:42.879 So that's where Aquinas put them. 00:07:42.879 --> 00:07:47.759 And that means, that's very important because we said last time that in addition to saying 00:07:47.759 --> 00:07:55.920 anxiety is fearfulness in the soul about hypothetical circumstances of loss in the future, we said 00:07:55.920 --> 00:08:01.000 that is also to say anxiety is an emotion. 00:08:01.000 --> 00:08:02.000 Fear is an emotion. 00:08:02.000 --> 00:08:04.879 Fearfulness is an emotive state. 00:08:04.879 --> 00:08:07.839 And so anxiety is an emotive condition. 00:08:07.839 --> 00:08:13.639 And so Aquinas is saying to us there that the heart, the soul, the place where we experience 00:08:13.639 --> 00:08:20.000 anxiety is malleable, but it's also very difficult to change at the same time. 00:08:20.000 --> 00:08:22.599 It can be changed, but it's not easy to change. 00:08:22.599 --> 00:08:25.639 And so Aquinas jumped straight from there to say, that's what the Bible is talking about 00:08:25.639 --> 00:08:29.159 when it says the fruit of self-control. 00:08:29.159 --> 00:08:36.480 Self-control is hard to acquire because it pertains to emotion and behavior. 00:08:36.480 --> 00:08:39.560 But it can be gotten over time. 00:08:39.560 --> 00:08:45.080 And it's part of the process of the theological we use, the growth over time of our emotional 00:08:45.080 --> 00:08:49.759 life, of our active life sanctification, the term that the Bible uses. 00:08:49.759 --> 00:08:50.759 All right, that's the first thing. 00:08:50.759 --> 00:08:57.120 The second thing, to build on top of that, to get a little closer to habits is then there's 00:08:57.120 --> 00:09:09.399 real urgency or appropriateness or a real call from both the Bible and Christian history 00:09:09.399 --> 00:09:16.159 for us as modern people to recover theological habits. 00:09:16.159 --> 00:09:23.320 The modern term for this is spiritual disciplines, but the older term that people used to use 00:09:23.320 --> 00:09:25.240 was the rule of life. 00:09:25.240 --> 00:09:31.320 You see that little phrase, the rule of life pop up in older texts that come from Christian 00:09:31.320 --> 00:09:33.240 thinkers and Christian writers. 00:09:33.240 --> 00:09:41.279 And the rule of life simply described always seeking better daily and weekly rhythms organized 00:09:41.279 --> 00:09:47.879 by Christianity, organized by the fact of the gospel, seeking better daily and weekly rhythms 00:09:47.879 --> 00:09:49.320 organized by the fact of the gospel. 00:09:49.320 --> 00:09:57.160 Now, if you pick up any productivity book at Waterstones or wherever, they are going 00:09:57.160 --> 00:09:58.280 to have some... 00:09:58.280 --> 00:10:03.400 The best ones out there are going to have some section that basically is a secularized, 00:10:03.400 --> 00:10:06.400 non-religious view of the rule of life. 00:10:06.400 --> 00:10:10.920 Because almost everybody that writes in the productivity world has realized that something 00:10:10.920 --> 00:10:14.520 like the rule of life is incredibly important in all sorts of ways. 00:10:14.519 --> 00:10:21.679 So one writer that's very popular that you can go by at Waterstones, he talks about it 00:10:21.679 --> 00:10:24.840 as what he calls keystone habits. 00:10:24.840 --> 00:10:32.879 And he says, keystone habits are small micro changes in your daily life that make macro 00:10:32.879 --> 00:10:40.759 changes over time, that produce big effects 10 years on, 20 years on, 25 years on, that 00:10:40.759 --> 00:10:44.439 slowly change you over time. 00:10:44.440 --> 00:10:50.760 And this is the same idea that's shown up in religious history too, because it's real, 00:10:50.760 --> 00:10:52.440 because God actually made us like this. 00:10:52.440 --> 00:10:56.040 He made us to grow over time like this. 00:10:56.040 --> 00:11:01.400 And theological habits for the Christian are incredibly important for getting there. 00:11:01.400 --> 00:11:09.200 David Foster Wallace is the famous author that died around 2010, died very young. 00:11:09.200 --> 00:11:14.300 He's known, you might have heard of him for his famous Kenyan college address. 00:11:14.299 --> 00:11:21.000 But he has a little speech where he gives an old hat, silly example to make this point. 00:11:21.000 --> 00:11:28.000 He says, two young fish, two young fish were swimming and they met an older fish. 00:11:28.000 --> 00:11:31.519 And the older fish said, morning boys, how's the water? 00:11:31.519 --> 00:11:36.279 And the two young fish, of course, said, what is water? 00:11:36.279 --> 00:11:42.759 And David Foster Wallace comments, he says, the most important realities are often the 00:11:42.759 --> 00:11:45.679 ones in our lives that we're not aware of. 00:11:45.679 --> 00:11:52.559 We're all living according to a specific regimen of daily habits and those habits shape most 00:11:52.559 --> 00:11:53.559 of our life. 00:11:53.559 --> 00:11:58.200 You know, so one of those daily habits that maybe we haven't, we don't think about too 00:11:58.200 --> 00:12:03.679 much, but it does pop up into our minds at the end of the week every week when our iPhones 00:12:03.679 --> 00:12:08.840 or whatever phone you might have tells you what you've done is the amount of average 00:12:08.840 --> 00:12:13.759 time every day you spend talking to somebody in person versus the amount of average time 00:12:13.759 --> 00:12:15.600 you spend scrolling. 00:12:15.600 --> 00:12:19.720 And then, you know, your iPhone, they gave us this feature and you have to choose, I 00:12:19.720 --> 00:12:23.720 want to know how many hours I've spent every week on this thing. 00:12:23.720 --> 00:12:30.560 My phone tells me every week how much worse I've done than the last week at my amount 00:12:30.560 --> 00:12:32.639 of scrolling time, right? 00:12:32.639 --> 00:12:40.679 This is, that's a habit and it's unconscious because it's not something that I'm specifically 00:12:40.679 --> 00:12:44.879 making a plan for to do, to change or to do better at. 00:12:44.879 --> 00:12:50.519 And so, so much of our spiritual life, our unconscious life, the life of our soul is 00:12:50.519 --> 00:12:57.799 actually formed through habits, through media that we ingest, through ideas that we ingest, 00:12:57.799 --> 00:13:04.079 through the way we treat objects in our lives that are not planned by us. 00:13:04.079 --> 00:13:05.639 We're receiving them and they're changing us. 00:13:05.639 --> 00:13:10.279 And so, one of the things to end this point that has been talked about a lot throughout 00:13:10.279 --> 00:13:16.879 history is the difference in theological education and real spiritual formation. 00:13:16.879 --> 00:13:22.279 You know, if you've been in the church any time, you know, very well that there's a 00:13:22.279 --> 00:13:29.319 huge difference between being educated about Scripture and actually having your spirit 00:13:29.319 --> 00:13:34.679 shaped to love God, that those are different things. 00:13:34.679 --> 00:13:41.759 And ideally they go hand in hand, but the former theological education only becomes 00:13:41.759 --> 00:13:48.879 healthy spiritual formation typically when we have healthy spiritual habits standing 00:13:48.879 --> 00:13:54.159 in between theological education and the formation of our spirits. 00:13:54.159 --> 00:14:00.320 All right, let me just rattle this off and get back to anxiety. 00:14:00.320 --> 00:14:05.679 There's a recent book from a guy named Justin Early, or Yearly, I'm not sure how to pronounce 00:14:05.679 --> 00:14:11.159 it, where he talks about renewing the rule of life, the old rule of life, but in modern 00:14:11.159 --> 00:14:15.519 terminology for modern people in a way that makes sense for us in the 21st century. 00:14:15.519 --> 00:14:20.000 And so he takes a lot of the things, the best things that you see practiced over the Christian 00:14:20.000 --> 00:14:22.919 centuries and adapts them. 00:14:22.919 --> 00:14:27.519 And this is more general and not directly pertaining to anxiety, but I just want to 00:14:27.519 --> 00:14:30.600 read these off to you because I think they're really good. 00:14:30.600 --> 00:14:31.600 This is what he says. 00:14:31.600 --> 00:14:39.399 He gives the daily rule of life for modern people, pray three times a day on your kneeling. 00:14:39.399 --> 00:14:40.840 This is just his prescriptions. 00:14:40.840 --> 00:14:46.960 Pray three times a day kneeling, have a meal every day with another person or more people 00:14:46.960 --> 00:14:51.960 than one focused on them, asking them questions. 00:14:51.960 --> 00:14:58.040 One hour with the cell phone and all screens turned off during your waking hours, and the 00:14:58.040 --> 00:15:02.639 rule is touch scripture before you touch your phone. 00:15:02.639 --> 00:15:05.960 So those are his four daily habits for the modern rule of life. 00:15:05.960 --> 00:15:08.600 And then here's his four weekly. 00:15:08.600 --> 00:15:16.639 One hour of an intentional meeting with a developing friend, a Christian friend, a plan 00:15:16.639 --> 00:15:18.960 to curate your media intake. 00:15:18.960 --> 00:15:24.960 So determining this is how many hours I'm willing to watch of Netflix, and this is the 00:15:24.960 --> 00:15:27.240 shows I'm willing to spend my time on. 00:15:27.240 --> 00:15:30.600 And these are the rules for things I'm not. 00:15:30.600 --> 00:15:36.240 Fasting from something you love for 24 hours during a seven day period, and a firm commitment 00:15:36.240 --> 00:15:39.960 to worship, corporate public worship and Sabbath rest. 00:15:39.960 --> 00:15:40.960 That's an example. 00:15:40.960 --> 00:15:43.360 All right, point three. 00:15:43.360 --> 00:15:48.720 I bring up that overall generalized topic of theological habits of the rule of life, 00:15:48.720 --> 00:15:54.039 of being trying to grow into that a little bit more, to say that theological habits for 00:15:54.039 --> 00:16:01.039 a peaceful heart, this phrase I'm using, is essential, I think, to the way the Bible prescribes 00:16:01.039 --> 00:16:05.799 the fight against anxiety from a Christian perspective. 00:16:05.799 --> 00:16:13.439 As we know, we said this week one, are not promised in this life unbroken psychological 00:16:13.439 --> 00:16:16.799 tranquility. 00:16:16.799 --> 00:16:22.759 We know that the Bible says for Christians, the heart will be vexed, anguished, suffer 00:16:22.759 --> 00:16:28.399 disturbed, grieving, fearful, a host of all sorts of emotions throughout our life. 00:16:28.399 --> 00:16:37.120 The promise, rather, well, the promise is from one place, Romans four, when it describes 00:16:37.120 --> 00:16:38.679 the life of Abraham. 00:16:38.679 --> 00:16:44.559 Paul describes the life of Abraham, and it says, in hope, he believed against all hope 00:16:44.559 --> 00:16:48.399 that he could become the father of many nations. 00:16:48.399 --> 00:16:53.399 And in other words, it's saying that every single circumstance that Abraham walked through 00:16:53.399 --> 00:16:57.240 in the Abraham story pointed in the opposite direction of the promise. 00:16:57.240 --> 00:16:59.799 If you read through the Genesis story of Abraham. 00:16:59.799 --> 00:17:07.480 And yet, in hope, he believed, he had hope, which gave him a peace at heart in the midst 00:17:07.480 --> 00:17:13.200 of waves crashing on him from the outside all the time. 00:17:13.200 --> 00:17:18.880 And so the promise of sanctification, the promise of growth in this is not utter psychological 00:17:18.880 --> 00:17:23.160 tranquility in this life, nor is it to get out of hard circumstances. 00:17:23.160 --> 00:17:30.519 Rather, it is hope and a peace of Philippians four that surpasses understanding. 00:17:30.519 --> 00:17:34.279 So that famous passage in Philippians four that talks about anxiety, cast your cares 00:17:34.279 --> 00:17:36.880 upon him because he cares for you. 00:17:36.880 --> 00:17:42.440 And the Holy Spirit has the power to give you a peace that surpasses understanding, meaning 00:17:42.440 --> 00:17:48.720 it's possible to grow over time into a piece that is surprising peace. 00:17:48.720 --> 00:17:50.960 That is a piece that does not make sense. 00:17:50.960 --> 00:17:55.200 It surpasses understanding, meaning it's hard to understand how a person could have 00:17:55.200 --> 00:17:58.319 peace in the midst of what they might be walking through. 00:17:58.319 --> 00:18:00.840 All right, so that's the biblical promise. 00:18:00.840 --> 00:18:06.759 All right, four and four, five and six, as we start to draw things to a close is just 00:18:06.759 --> 00:18:11.799 to come back to anxiety and say something about the second habit that I want to introduce. 00:18:11.799 --> 00:18:13.799 Really habits two and three. 00:18:13.799 --> 00:18:18.160 All right, habit one was look at the birds, spiritual habit. 00:18:18.160 --> 00:18:26.480 Look at the birds, meaning as soon as fearfulness creeps in anxiety, the early stages of anxiety, 00:18:26.480 --> 00:18:35.320 you've got to make it a habit to talk to your heart about God and about the power of God. 00:18:35.320 --> 00:18:37.720 The second habit comes from James four, 13 to 17. 00:18:37.720 --> 00:18:42.680 We read it at the beginning and Tim Keller, when he's reflecting on this passage, he puts 00:18:42.680 --> 00:18:51.840 it this way that we have to be habitual, make it a habit of saying Lord willing, Lord willing. 00:18:51.840 --> 00:18:57.080 Now, actually, I meant to ask Derek this, but we have this kind of old, I'm from the 00:18:57.080 --> 00:19:02.400 South in the US and we have this kind of old joke about how Southern Christians always 00:19:02.400 --> 00:19:07.240 say Lord willing after everything, you know, we say, I'm going, I'm going out, I'm going 00:19:07.240 --> 00:19:10.240 to the shop, Lord willing, I'll be back in 30 minutes, whatever. 00:19:10.240 --> 00:19:14.079 I'm not really sure if that's a thing here or not. 00:19:14.079 --> 00:19:18.400 And we're sort of talking about that, except you don't have to say it all the time out 00:19:18.400 --> 00:19:22.039 loud, but you can think it in your soul and in your heart. 00:19:22.039 --> 00:19:27.400 That's exactly actually what James literally commands through God, through James commands 00:19:27.400 --> 00:19:28.400 right here in this passage. 00:19:28.400 --> 00:19:33.440 Because in this passage, what's happening is he's talking about making plans and thinking 00:19:33.440 --> 00:19:35.480 about your future. 00:19:35.480 --> 00:19:41.559 And we said that anxiety is thinking about the future, hypothetical future and imagining 00:19:41.559 --> 00:19:47.559 circumstances of loss that don't exist and reading those back into your life at the present 00:19:47.559 --> 00:19:49.400 and growing in fearfulness about those. 00:19:49.400 --> 00:19:51.759 And so James is addressing that very directly here. 00:19:51.759 --> 00:19:58.759 He's saying, as you are making plans, you better say Lord willing, because most of our 00:19:58.759 --> 00:20:05.039 anxiety has to do with thinking about the future, asking questions like, what if I lose 00:20:05.039 --> 00:20:12.440 this or what if I never get this or what if I do this or what if I never do this? 00:20:12.440 --> 00:20:17.480 These are the types of questions that can be asked of the objects that our anxiety is 00:20:17.480 --> 00:20:18.480 focused on. 00:20:18.480 --> 00:20:21.159 And that's exactly what James is dealing with here now. 00:20:21.159 --> 00:20:25.639 In verse 13 to 14, just very quickly, he says, come now you who say to dare tomorrow 00:20:25.639 --> 00:20:29.159 we're going to go and we're going to do such and such and such and such a town and spend 00:20:29.159 --> 00:20:32.000 a year there and we're going to trade and we're going to make a profit. 00:20:32.000 --> 00:20:35.160 Yet, you don't know what tomorrow will bring. 00:20:35.160 --> 00:20:39.359 It's very similar to what Jesus says in Matthew 6 about do not be anxious, look at the birds, 00:20:39.359 --> 00:20:43.480 you just don't stop thinking about tomorrow because today has enough trouble. 00:20:43.480 --> 00:20:45.359 You don't know what tomorrow is going to bring. 00:20:45.359 --> 00:20:51.519 It's very similar here and here just to point out, James is talking about something very 00:20:51.519 --> 00:20:56.039 normal making plans and he's talking about how people haven't really changed from then 00:20:56.039 --> 00:21:02.559 to now because the example he gives is you say over the course of the next year I'm 00:21:02.559 --> 00:21:05.279 going to go to the market and I'm going to trade and I'm going to make such and such 00:21:05.279 --> 00:21:06.279 profit. 00:21:06.279 --> 00:21:11.039 So he's saying people in the first century struggle with the same things people in the 00:21:11.039 --> 00:21:15.639 21st century do and that's saying I want to be this successful, I want to make this 00:21:15.639 --> 00:21:21.599 much money as an example of one of the things that we might be anxious about projecting success 00:21:21.599 --> 00:21:23.240 into the future. 00:21:23.240 --> 00:21:27.599 And then he says in verse 14 to 16, you don't know what tomorrow is going to bring, what 00:21:27.599 --> 00:21:28.599 is your life? 00:21:28.599 --> 00:21:33.200 It's a vapor picking up on the Ecclesiastes language and he says instead you've got to 00:21:33.200 --> 00:21:37.359 say, you ought to say if the Lord wills we will do this or that. 00:21:37.359 --> 00:21:44.200 So to bring it together, when we become anxious it's because we're thinking about the future 00:21:44.200 --> 00:21:49.200 and what the Bible does is it does not say, well stop thinking about the future altogether. 00:21:49.200 --> 00:21:52.039 It's saying how is it that we should think about the future? 00:21:52.039 --> 00:21:53.519 How is it that we should make plans? 00:21:53.519 --> 00:21:58.039 How is it that we should project hypothetical circumstances into the future? 00:21:58.039 --> 00:22:04.240 And it says you've got to be conscious of God as you make plans. 00:22:04.240 --> 00:22:12.159 You've got to say as you make plans I hope to do this but only if the Lord wills. 00:22:12.159 --> 00:22:17.500 In other words, the negative side of that is he's saying he's attacking the great sin 00:22:17.500 --> 00:22:22.240 of what's been called in the past God-forgetfulness. 00:22:22.240 --> 00:22:25.799 And it's a sin that all of us struggle with, God-forgetfulness. 00:22:25.799 --> 00:22:32.519 It's going on about in your daily existence and not having a consciousness of God, of 00:22:32.519 --> 00:22:38.000 who you really are, of who made you, of who saved you, of where you've come from and of 00:22:38.000 --> 00:22:39.599 where you're going. 00:22:39.599 --> 00:22:42.680 It's the sin of God-forgetfulness and the sin is this. 00:22:42.680 --> 00:22:46.480 It's saying I made plans for this week, I made plans for this day, I made plans for 00:22:46.480 --> 00:22:51.440 my life, my career, my relationships, who I was going to be, who I was going to be with, 00:22:51.440 --> 00:22:57.759 who I would never be with, who put your struggles into that picture. 00:22:57.759 --> 00:23:05.480 And it's when we forget to say in that, well, those are my hopes but only if the Lord wills. 00:23:05.480 --> 00:23:11.519 And I've got to be prepared habitually over time to conform myself to the Lord's will 00:23:11.519 --> 00:23:15.360 because I just don't know what he is going to do with my life. 00:23:15.359 --> 00:23:18.879 I don't know what he is going to choose in the path of my life. 00:23:18.879 --> 00:23:21.759 Psalm 9 talks about this. 00:23:21.759 --> 00:23:26.919 It says, the Lord is known by his justice, the wicked are sent to the grave, and all 00:23:26.919 --> 00:23:30.799 those who are judged who forget God. 00:23:30.799 --> 00:23:36.159 And so Psalm 9 takes this sin that every human is prone to and maximizes it and says, there's 00:23:36.159 --> 00:23:41.439 a way of forgetting God so often that you ultimately forget God. 00:23:41.440 --> 00:23:47.080 And James is coming to us in the midst of this gospel book, the book of James, and saying, 00:23:47.080 --> 00:23:49.080 there's very good news here. 00:23:49.080 --> 00:23:53.400 And that's, as you think back on it today and think, man, all the times in my life, 00:23:53.400 --> 00:24:00.400 in my day to day, and last week where I determined my schedule and made my plans, and I did not 00:24:00.400 --> 00:24:02.680 think about the living God in any of it. 00:24:02.680 --> 00:24:05.680 I didn't say if the Lord wills, I forgot about God. 00:24:05.680 --> 00:24:10.960 The good news for us today is that for all the times that we've forgotten God, God in 00:24:10.960 --> 00:24:13.600 the gospel did not forget us. 00:24:13.600 --> 00:24:17.400 And the coming, the incarnation of Jesus Christ, the death of Christ, the resurrection of Jesus 00:24:17.400 --> 00:24:22.200 Christ is God's pronouncement to the world that says, I know you forgot me, and that's 00:24:22.200 --> 00:24:26.519 why I've come because I would not forget you, no matter how many times you break the covenant, 00:24:26.519 --> 00:24:32.559 no matter how many times you forget to say, if the Lord wills, I will come for you nevertheless. 00:24:32.559 --> 00:24:39.240 And so in love, he reaches out and says that in grace, you're forgiven, and in the hope 00:24:39.240 --> 00:24:45.559 of growth, renew your spiritual habit of saying every single moment you make plans, if the 00:24:45.559 --> 00:24:50.240 Lord wills, you don't have to say, Lord willing, like I was, grew up here and all the time, 00:24:50.240 --> 00:24:53.759 but you've got to say it in your heart, you've got to make it part of your plans. 00:24:53.759 --> 00:24:55.319 And so that's the secret. 00:24:55.319 --> 00:24:58.720 Look at the birds, talk to your heart about God. 00:24:58.720 --> 00:25:07.120 Habit two is be God conscious in all your plan making, both daily, weekly, monthly, 00:25:07.119 --> 00:25:12.119 yearly, and in who you want to become, what you want to become over time. 00:25:12.119 --> 00:25:17.519 All right, five and six, which are very short, just a few minutes, some will be finished. 00:25:17.519 --> 00:25:26.039 Five and six, five is really just to say this, that these together start to form up theological 00:25:26.039 --> 00:25:28.719 habits for a peaceful heart, habit one, habit two. 00:25:28.719 --> 00:25:33.599 Look at the birds, do theology, talk to your heart about God, be immersed in who God is 00:25:33.599 --> 00:25:38.719 that helps and then be God conscious throughout your daily life of that God who is as you 00:25:38.719 --> 00:25:41.079 make plans. 00:25:41.079 --> 00:25:46.159 And so the fifth is just to call you to an orient to renewing an orientation and a posture 00:25:46.159 --> 00:25:52.959 or picking up an orientation and posture in your life of trying to actively seek spiritual 00:25:52.959 --> 00:25:55.319 disciplines. 00:25:55.319 --> 00:26:01.359 Making this year, it's still early 2022 a year of spiritual disciplines. 00:26:01.359 --> 00:26:07.679 Making your daily planning, one way to do this, turn your daily planning, if you like 00:26:07.679 --> 00:26:15.039 to make lists, I've taken over this room up here is my office here and I have little sheets 00:26:15.039 --> 00:26:21.279 of paper all over it with lists and I like to make lists of what to do for the day. 00:26:21.279 --> 00:26:24.979 Make your daily list into prayer. 00:26:24.980 --> 00:26:31.920 So as you write it, pray it, turn it over to the Lord and say if the Lord's wills because 00:26:31.920 --> 00:26:36.039 this is to recognize, to believe that everything that you have at the moment as you make plans 00:26:36.039 --> 00:26:39.960 is of God's grace and everything that you're going to do and be successful at is of God's 00:26:39.960 --> 00:26:45.480 grace and that God is of total control right now as I make my plans and I don't possess 00:26:45.480 --> 00:26:49.839 God's incomunicable attributes and so I can't ultimately control how any of this is going 00:26:49.839 --> 00:26:57.039 to go and that over concern about all of it is going to lead me towards anxiety and so 00:26:57.039 --> 00:27:00.759 I've got to be God conscious in this moment as I think through these things. 00:27:00.759 --> 00:27:02.599 Alright, that's five, six. 00:27:02.599 --> 00:27:11.359 I'll close today by just giving a third habit and it's just to point out both here and in 00:27:11.359 --> 00:27:18.919 Matthew six, there's a real emphasis on focusing on today, not tomorrow. 00:27:18.920 --> 00:27:23.120 So we have to make plans, we have to think through our futures with wisdom but there 00:27:23.120 --> 00:27:30.080 is this biblical theme of actually being more concerned about today than tomorrow. 00:27:30.080 --> 00:27:35.400 You see Jesus say to Matthew six, the passage we've read the last two weeks when he says, 00:27:35.400 --> 00:27:36.600 don't worry about tomorrow. 00:27:36.600 --> 00:27:38.960 Today has trouble in itself. 00:27:38.960 --> 00:27:41.360 Focus on today. 00:27:41.360 --> 00:27:43.680 And then we see it again here in this passage. 00:27:43.680 --> 00:27:44.680 What's your life? 00:27:44.680 --> 00:27:45.800 You're a myth that appears for this time. 00:27:45.799 --> 00:27:49.279 You don't know what tomorrow is going to bring focus on today. 00:27:49.279 --> 00:27:51.599 So there's this theme. 00:27:51.599 --> 00:27:56.960 We've got to make plans, we've got to be wise about our scheduling and at the same time 00:27:56.960 --> 00:28:05.519 sometimes the focusing on the future can become the enemy of the present and we might miss 00:28:05.519 --> 00:28:08.440 opportunity today. 00:28:08.440 --> 00:28:14.759 Today is the day God's called us to love God and today is the day God's called us to 00:28:14.759 --> 00:28:19.960 reach out for an opportunity to talk to somebody about the gospel and today is that day. 00:28:19.960 --> 00:28:23.839 We have no idea what tomorrow will bring but we do know what God calls us to be and to 00:28:23.839 --> 00:28:24.839 do today. 00:28:24.839 --> 00:28:26.799 And so there's this real emphasis on today. 00:28:26.799 --> 00:28:33.720 Jonathan Pennington is a New Testament scholar and he's got a book on some of the gospels 00:28:33.720 --> 00:28:38.920 and one of the things that he talks about is the Lord's Prayer also in the same chapter 00:28:38.920 --> 00:28:41.440 is Do Not Be Anxious in Matthew. 00:28:41.440 --> 00:28:47.240 And actually he says that from other scholars that in the original text, the Greek text 00:28:47.240 --> 00:28:55.320 that stands behind it, there's an implication that the word today should be present in most 00:28:55.320 --> 00:28:57.480 of the clauses. 00:28:57.480 --> 00:29:04.000 So we pray our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, that will be 00:29:04.000 --> 00:29:05.519 done on earth as it is in heaven. 00:29:05.519 --> 00:29:09.960 And then there's the word give us today, our daily bread. 00:29:09.960 --> 00:29:15.559 And then he says, and the implication then follows, forgive us today, our debts as we 00:29:15.559 --> 00:29:20.079 forgive our debtors, those who have sinned against us today. 00:29:20.079 --> 00:29:27.000 And lead us not into temptation when today and deliver us from the evil one today. 00:29:27.000 --> 00:29:31.039 There's this implication that actually the Lord's Prayer is a daily prayer because it's 00:29:31.039 --> 00:29:35.799 reorienting us and saying today is the day to love the Lord. 00:29:35.799 --> 00:29:36.799 Today is the day to serve God. 00:29:36.799 --> 00:29:40.680 Today is the day to remember that the gospel stands and I'm forgiven for yesterday. 00:29:40.680 --> 00:29:42.799 So yesterday is gone. 00:29:42.799 --> 00:29:44.039 And I don't know what the future is going to hold. 00:29:44.039 --> 00:29:46.599 So I've got to focus on today. 00:29:46.599 --> 00:29:52.799 And that doesn't prevent us from making plans, but it focuses our hearts on ministry and 00:29:52.799 --> 00:29:58.399 spiritual habit and work and the things that we were made for in the present day today. 00:29:58.399 --> 00:30:03.799 Every day remember that God is the ground of all being in existence and grace and gifts 00:30:03.799 --> 00:30:11.159 today and that can really be a help, I think, in fighting anxiety over time. 00:30:11.159 --> 00:30:12.159 Let's pray. 00:30:12.159 --> 00:30:19.319 Father, we ask, we pray, we pray, as you taught us, we say, hallowed be your name, your kingdom 00:30:19.319 --> 00:30:24.559 come, your kingdom come and your will be done on earth in the way that it is done in heaven. 00:30:24.559 --> 00:30:32.079 And we say, give us this day our daily bread and forgive us today our debts and help us 00:30:32.079 --> 00:30:33.079 to forgive others. 00:30:33.079 --> 00:30:35.559 Lord, who might have sinned against us this day. 00:30:35.559 --> 00:30:41.079 And today we ask that you would help us to flee from temptation as the day goes on towards 00:30:41.079 --> 00:30:46.079 bed our bedtime and that you would help us to resist the temptations of the evil one 00:30:46.079 --> 00:30:47.799 today. 00:30:47.799 --> 00:30:53.079 We pray we pray these prayers Lord and we pray ultimately in all this that you would 00:30:53.079 --> 00:30:59.279 have glory and we pray the specific focus free us from our anxieties today. 00:30:59.279 --> 00:31:03.399 We cast our cares upon you because you care for us today. 00:31:03.399 --> 00:31:08.359 Today is the day that you are giving us oxygen and upholding our bodies and giving us life 00:31:08.359 --> 00:31:11.720 and breath and grace and gospel promises. 00:31:11.720 --> 00:31:13.399 And so we rest in you today. 00:31:13.399 --> 00:31:14.399 In Christ's name we pray. 00:31:14.400 --> 00:31:30.400 Amen.