WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:13.880 Okay, when we talk about anxiety, we are talking about psychology. 00:00:13.880 --> 00:00:20.519 And psychology in older ancient times is a little bit different than the modern field 00:00:20.519 --> 00:00:22.379 of psychology. 00:00:22.379 --> 00:00:29.320 And the Bible has so much to say about psychology, about who we are and what we are and how we 00:00:29.320 --> 00:00:32.560 think and how we feel and how we act. 00:00:32.560 --> 00:00:36.920 Psychology is just the study of the psyche, which is the soul, which is me, that's the 00:00:36.920 --> 00:00:37.920 self. 00:00:37.920 --> 00:00:43.079 And we know the Bible has a lot to say about it because the word psyche, the Greek term, 00:00:43.079 --> 00:00:45.240 shows up all sorts of times in the New Testament. 00:00:45.240 --> 00:00:51.920 But if there's a term that really gets at the Bible's big emphasis on psychology, it's 00:00:51.920 --> 00:00:53.880 the word heart. 00:00:53.880 --> 00:00:59.280 Heart is the term throughout the scriptures appearing seven, eight, nine hundred times. 00:00:59.280 --> 00:01:04.600 And you know, as Bible readers, that the word heart does not refer in the Bible to 00:01:04.600 --> 00:01:07.400 that internal organ that pumps blood, right? 00:01:07.400 --> 00:01:12.900 We actually, in English and other languages, have adopted very commonly the way that the 00:01:12.900 --> 00:01:19.400 Bible talks about the heart into our normal patterns of speech, you know, when two people 00:01:19.400 --> 00:01:25.640 who become romantically involved see each other the first time across the room, we talk 00:01:25.640 --> 00:01:31.440 about their heart fluttering and then the engagement comes in the wedding day and the 00:01:31.440 --> 00:01:38.560 groom gets up and he says, from the first moment I saw her, she stole my heart, right? 00:01:38.560 --> 00:01:43.600 And actually that manner of speaking is exactly the way the Bible talks because the Bible 00:01:43.600 --> 00:01:44.840 doesn't use heart to refer to. 00:01:44.840 --> 00:01:48.800 And we're going to use this heart to refer to what the groom is talking about. 00:01:48.799 --> 00:01:53.719 The groom is saying, she stole every aspect of what I am. 00:01:53.719 --> 00:01:59.039 You know, I gave her my intellect, my emotional life, and my desire. 00:01:59.039 --> 00:02:00.039 And that's what the heart is. 00:02:00.039 --> 00:02:01.120 The heart is actually the term. 00:02:01.120 --> 00:02:05.719 It's the psyche, it's the soul across the scriptures. 00:02:05.719 --> 00:02:07.039 And so we're talking about that. 00:02:07.039 --> 00:02:12.800 The Bible deals with it all the time and if we were to state the problem that we're really 00:02:12.800 --> 00:02:18.599 dealing with in this short little series we're doing this month, we live in what's been 00:02:18.599 --> 00:02:21.319 called the age of anxiety. 00:02:21.319 --> 00:02:27.479 Anxiety is endemic, it's pervasive, and it's much more pervasive today than it was a century 00:02:27.479 --> 00:02:32.199 ago and it was much more pervasive a century ago than it was a century before that and 00:02:32.199 --> 00:02:33.199 so on. 00:02:33.199 --> 00:02:38.079 And we're going to do next week a consideration of why people are getting more and more anxious 00:02:38.079 --> 00:02:40.840 every decade, which is statistically the case. 00:02:40.840 --> 00:02:42.120 But we're going to reserve that for next week. 00:02:42.120 --> 00:02:48.000 The goal, if that's the problem, if anxiety is so endemic, the goal of this series, you 00:02:48.000 --> 00:02:50.879 could state it as 1 Corinthians 4-1 states it. 00:02:50.879 --> 00:02:55.319 It says, because of the mercy of God we do not lose heart. 00:02:55.319 --> 00:03:00.280 Let me say this, there are all sorts of ways to deal with the problem of anxiety and medication 00:03:00.280 --> 00:03:04.400 is absolutely one of them sometimes. 00:03:04.400 --> 00:03:09.000 And all I'm going to do, because I have no ability to talk about medication, is talk 00:03:09.000 --> 00:03:11.759 about how the Bible deals with anxiety. 00:03:11.759 --> 00:03:18.719 Not neglecting the fact that there are a multiplicity of ways that it has to be dealt with quite 00:03:18.719 --> 00:03:20.479 often in people's lives. 00:03:20.479 --> 00:03:24.759 But we're just going to deal with the way theology, scripture, the Bible, God, and Jesus 00:03:24.759 --> 00:03:26.799 talk about it. 00:03:26.799 --> 00:03:32.079 What we're told is because of the mercy of God, it is possible for a Christian, by the 00:03:32.079 --> 00:03:37.919 power of the Holy Spirit, to not lose heart, which is another way of talking about anxiety, 00:03:37.919 --> 00:03:44.639 which that means is verse 8, we can be afflicted but not crushed where in heart. 00:03:44.639 --> 00:03:50.119 We can be perplexed but not driven to despair, which is a synonym for anxiety. 00:03:50.119 --> 00:03:55.119 We can be struck down by the world and the circumstances of the world but not destroyed 00:03:55.119 --> 00:03:58.000 where, not physically. 00:03:58.000 --> 00:04:02.439 We know that there it's talking about somebody who might be struck down physically because 00:04:02.439 --> 00:04:07.479 of their faith, but yet not driven to ultimate despair and destruction where inside, meaning 00:04:07.479 --> 00:04:13.079 what we're talking about here, the goal is that the Christian has the resources and scripture 00:04:13.079 --> 00:04:20.319 in relationship with Jesus Christ to find themselves in a place through time, over time, 00:04:20.319 --> 00:04:26.839 not all at once, but over time where you can find a real peace and buoyancy in the heart 00:04:26.839 --> 00:04:31.079 even when everything on the outside is bad. 00:04:31.079 --> 00:04:36.519 And that's exactly what the texts that talk about anxiety throughout scripture talk about. 00:04:36.519 --> 00:04:41.639 Now in the past I've done this series before, this is a focus of mine that I've worked 00:04:41.639 --> 00:04:46.000 on actually the first time I ever taught on anxiety was here at a conference and I'm 00:04:46.000 --> 00:04:51.279 working on a book right now on it and the past couple of times I've done this, I've 00:04:51.279 --> 00:04:57.439 done it over eight weeks and I've had about 45 minutes per week. 00:04:57.439 --> 00:05:02.120 So this time we're going to do it in four weeks with about 30 minutes or less. 00:05:02.120 --> 00:05:05.159 So what we're going to have to do is get to the meat and talk about the main thing. 00:05:05.160 --> 00:05:09.040 So today we're going to ask what is anxiety. 00:05:09.040 --> 00:05:13.120 Next week we're going to ask why are we so anxious, why are modern people so much more 00:05:13.120 --> 00:05:16.760 anxious than pre-modern people, which is a fact. 00:05:16.760 --> 00:05:21.520 Third week we're going to talk about how Christ came to deal with our anxiety. 00:05:21.520 --> 00:05:27.120 In the final week we're going to talk about theological habits or habits, Christian habits 00:05:27.120 --> 00:05:30.760 to help you fight for a peaceful heart against anxiety. 00:05:30.759 --> 00:05:36.319 So it means you're going to have to come back the whole series to get to the things that 00:05:36.319 --> 00:05:37.480 are actually practical. 00:05:37.480 --> 00:05:39.599 The fourth week of the helps. 00:05:39.599 --> 00:05:40.599 Okay. 00:05:40.599 --> 00:05:41.920 All right, so let's do that. 00:05:41.920 --> 00:05:43.800 I'm going to read two passages to start. 00:05:43.800 --> 00:05:51.039 Matthew chapter six verses 25 to 34 and then Philippians four, four to seven. 00:05:51.039 --> 00:05:52.759 So this is a very famous passage. 00:05:52.759 --> 00:05:56.240 If you have a Bible, feel free to turn there with me if not just listen because you'll 00:05:56.240 --> 00:06:01.879 be very familiar with it and listen for anxiety, anxiousness obviously. 00:06:01.879 --> 00:06:05.759 Therefore I tell you Jesus says, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat 00:06:05.759 --> 00:06:10.759 or what you will drink or about your body, what you will wear is not life more than food 00:06:10.759 --> 00:06:12.759 and the body more than clothing. 00:06:12.759 --> 00:06:13.759 Look at the birds of the air. 00:06:13.759 --> 00:06:18.879 They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns and yet your heavenly father feeds them. 00:06:18.879 --> 00:06:21.120 Are you not of more value than they? 00:06:21.120 --> 00:06:25.759 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 00:06:25.759 --> 00:06:28.360 And why are you anxious about clothing? 00:06:28.360 --> 00:06:32.159 Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they neither toil nor spin. 00:06:32.159 --> 00:06:36.959 Yet I tell you even Solomon and all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 00:06:36.959 --> 00:06:41.319 But if God so close the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown 00:06:41.319 --> 00:06:46.120 into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, a you of little faith? 00:06:46.120 --> 00:06:49.480 Therefore do not be anxious saying, what shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall 00:06:49.480 --> 00:06:53.719 we wear for the Gentiles seek after these things and your heavenly father knows that 00:06:53.719 --> 00:06:54.959 you need them all. 00:06:54.959 --> 00:06:59.359 And seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be 00:06:59.359 --> 00:07:00.359 added to you. 00:07:00.359 --> 00:07:05.039 Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. 00:07:05.039 --> 00:07:08.639 Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. 00:07:08.639 --> 00:07:15.159 And then if you have a copy of the Bible, turn over to Philippians chapter four, verses 00:07:15.159 --> 00:07:18.279 four to seven. 00:07:18.279 --> 00:07:21.479 Rejoice in the Lord always again, I will say rejoice. 00:07:21.479 --> 00:07:24.039 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. 00:07:24.040 --> 00:07:25.840 The Lord is at hand. 00:07:25.840 --> 00:07:31.200 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, 00:07:31.200 --> 00:07:33.439 let your request be made known to God. 00:07:33.439 --> 00:07:39.320 And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ 00:07:39.320 --> 00:07:40.320 Jesus. 00:07:40.320 --> 00:07:41.320 Okay. 00:07:41.320 --> 00:07:47.640 Ed Welch, who wrote a book on anxiety a couple decades ago, points out that when you read 00:07:47.640 --> 00:07:52.160 those two passages, which are the two most famous passages about anxiety in the New Testament, 00:07:52.160 --> 00:07:57.200 you get the command three times, do not be anxious. 00:07:57.200 --> 00:08:02.320 And when you hear Jesus say that and Paul say that, if you're like me, and the reason 00:08:02.320 --> 00:08:06.760 I've worked on this a lot is because of my struggles with anxiety, if you're like me, 00:08:06.760 --> 00:08:11.840 then you say, as Ed Welch points out, I don't want to be anxious. 00:08:11.840 --> 00:08:16.120 So why is it that Jesus is turning and saying to me, don't be anxious? 00:08:16.120 --> 00:08:17.960 It's a command. 00:08:17.960 --> 00:08:19.160 How can it be a command? 00:08:19.160 --> 00:08:24.080 In the same way that he tells me, do not murder, do not commit adultery. 00:08:24.080 --> 00:08:28.240 Those seem to me so different than the command, do not be anxious. 00:08:28.240 --> 00:08:34.800 And you say, how forceful and assertive of Christ to come and offer a command like this. 00:08:34.800 --> 00:08:41.279 And of course, the thing to point out is that simultaneously what Jesus is doing here is 00:08:41.279 --> 00:08:48.279 both giving a command and doing so in a totally different way than those other commands. 00:08:48.279 --> 00:08:53.600 He's not coming as a drill sergeant trying to teach you about the moral order exactly 00:08:53.600 --> 00:08:54.600 here. 00:08:54.600 --> 00:08:55.600 He's doing something a little bit different. 00:08:55.600 --> 00:09:01.120 The reason we know that is because in Luke 1232, it's a parallel passage. 00:09:01.120 --> 00:09:07.039 And in Luke 1232, he uses the synonym in the New Testament for anxiety, which is fear. 00:09:07.039 --> 00:09:08.039 It's one of the synonyms. 00:09:08.039 --> 00:09:14.519 And he says this, do not be afraid, little flock. 00:09:14.519 --> 00:09:15.519 And that's how he speaks. 00:09:15.519 --> 00:09:17.559 He says, do not be afraid, little flock. 00:09:17.559 --> 00:09:19.799 And the same tone is happening in Matthew 6. 00:09:19.799 --> 00:09:23.079 He says, do not be anxious, do not be anxious. 00:09:23.079 --> 00:09:29.639 But the tone is of a father putting his hand upon a child's head and shoulder and saying, 00:09:29.639 --> 00:09:30.839 don't be anxious. 00:09:30.839 --> 00:09:35.439 I've come here to both give you this command and help you at the same time. 00:09:35.439 --> 00:09:36.679 I want to heal you. 00:09:36.679 --> 00:09:39.479 I want to help you grow up out of this. 00:09:39.479 --> 00:09:44.399 And so we've got to recognize that Jesus is saying, I've come here to be your savior 00:09:44.399 --> 00:09:45.919 in this, to help you. 00:09:45.919 --> 00:09:49.519 And at the same time, it is a command. 00:09:49.519 --> 00:09:51.120 It's different, but it's also a command. 00:09:51.120 --> 00:09:52.599 And it's a command in this sense. 00:09:52.599 --> 00:09:57.559 It's a command because being anxious is not good. 00:09:57.559 --> 00:10:04.000 And we'll get into this later down the road that there is such a thing as sinful anxiety. 00:10:04.000 --> 00:10:10.159 And I think, I think at least non-sinful anxiety, that you can be a passive recipient 00:10:10.159 --> 00:10:15.399 of anxiety in a way that is not sinful, but anxiety can also very much be sinful. 00:10:15.399 --> 00:10:16.399 There's both. 00:10:16.399 --> 00:10:21.559 Nevertheless, what we can say is that in both, anxiety is not good. 00:10:21.559 --> 00:10:22.919 It's a fallen condition. 00:10:22.919 --> 00:10:24.759 It's an aspect of a fallen condition. 00:10:24.759 --> 00:10:26.639 It is derivative of a broken world. 00:10:26.639 --> 00:10:31.240 It comes about because our relationships with God and with other people and with our own 00:10:31.240 --> 00:10:35.199 selves and with nature have been disturbed and disrupted by sin. 00:10:35.199 --> 00:10:36.679 It's a fallen condition. 00:10:36.679 --> 00:10:38.439 And so he's coming and saying, don't be anxious. 00:10:38.439 --> 00:10:39.439 It's not good. 00:10:39.439 --> 00:10:40.439 It's not good for you. 00:10:40.439 --> 00:10:42.559 Fight to not be anxious. 00:10:42.559 --> 00:10:46.559 And so we've got to ask them, what is it? 00:10:46.559 --> 00:10:49.199 And let me just start. 00:10:49.199 --> 00:10:55.479 Let me just get at the definition first by considering just one verse about psychology, 00:10:55.479 --> 00:11:00.000 where the Bible deals with our psyche and just to introduce this. 00:11:00.000 --> 00:11:06.919 Proverbs 14, 13 says this, even in laughter, the heart may ache and the end of happiness 00:11:06.919 --> 00:11:08.119 may be grief. 00:11:08.120 --> 00:11:13.600 A similar 1410 just before the heart knows its own bitterness and no stranger can share 00:11:13.600 --> 00:11:14.600 its joys. 00:11:14.600 --> 00:11:19.200 Now, you see what the text is saying here again, even in laughter, the heart can ache. 00:11:19.200 --> 00:11:24.639 It's saying that our psychology is very complex. 00:11:24.639 --> 00:11:30.320 And the way that a person appears on the outside does not necessarily reflect what's going 00:11:30.320 --> 00:11:31.960 on on the inside. 00:11:31.960 --> 00:11:35.960 Even in laughter, the heart may be aching. 00:11:35.960 --> 00:11:41.080 And Tim Keller, preaching on a number of Proverbs, says this, that you can be as gentle as a 00:11:41.080 --> 00:11:43.720 kitten on the outside, but angry as a moccasin. 00:11:43.720 --> 00:11:44.720 That's a snake. 00:11:44.720 --> 00:11:45.720 We have those in Mississippi. 00:11:45.720 --> 00:11:47.240 I'm not sure if you're not. 00:11:47.240 --> 00:11:52.639 But a water moccasin, a rattlesnake on the inside. 00:11:52.639 --> 00:11:59.000 In other words, human beings cover broken hearts with smiles quite often. 00:11:59.000 --> 00:12:04.000 And that means that even if you're here today and thinking, I'm not really a person who 00:12:04.000 --> 00:12:09.080 regularly struggles with anxiety, chances are that if you don't know somebody that has 00:12:09.080 --> 00:12:15.799 deep anxiety problems, that struggles with anxiety, which has been me in the past, then 00:12:15.799 --> 00:12:21.879 it may very well be the case that you just don't know the person sitting next to you. 00:12:21.879 --> 00:12:26.360 And the truth of the matter is, is we don't fully know anybody. 00:12:26.360 --> 00:12:28.240 That's the beautiful, bright thought for today. 00:12:28.240 --> 00:12:29.600 We don't fully know anybody. 00:12:29.600 --> 00:12:32.679 And actually, I think scripture teaches we don't fully even know ourselves. 00:12:32.679 --> 00:12:35.639 We don't even know the depths of our own self. 00:12:35.639 --> 00:12:37.439 We can be surprised. 00:12:37.439 --> 00:12:40.639 Sometimes anxiety creeps up on people and they're anxious and they're not even aware 00:12:40.639 --> 00:12:41.639 of it. 00:12:41.639 --> 00:12:43.000 They have to be told, this is your issue. 00:12:43.000 --> 00:12:45.399 You're struggling with anxiety. 00:12:45.399 --> 00:12:50.799 And so Saint Augustine in the fourth century, when he opens up his famous book, The Confessions, 00:12:50.799 --> 00:12:57.240 he says, the twin objects of my devotion, his life, he said, I dedicate my life to this, 00:12:57.240 --> 00:13:01.919 knowing God and knowing my soul in the light of God. 00:13:01.919 --> 00:13:06.519 Just to properly even know what's going on in our own soul, we actually have to see the 00:13:06.519 --> 00:13:07.519 face of God. 00:13:07.519 --> 00:13:10.240 We have to look at God in order to know who we are properly. 00:13:10.240 --> 00:13:16.000 Calvin opens up with that line in his famous institutes at the time of the Reformation. 00:13:16.000 --> 00:13:23.599 So step one, I think, in fighting the problem of anxiety, if you struggle with it, is actually 00:13:23.599 --> 00:13:26.319 just getting a really good grip on what it is. 00:13:26.320 --> 00:13:35.080 Actually, being able to define it well can be the big first step in the road to healing. 00:13:35.080 --> 00:13:39.520 So let me break through the barrier here, because there is no barrier. 00:13:39.520 --> 00:13:40.520 We're Protestants. 00:13:40.520 --> 00:13:42.560 There's no barrier here. 00:13:42.560 --> 00:13:47.160 And ask a question of you and see if anybody will respond. 00:13:47.160 --> 00:13:50.800 What do you think of when you think of anxiety? 00:13:50.799 --> 00:13:56.839 Synonyms, associations, just one to three words is enough, anything, just a couple of 00:13:56.839 --> 00:14:02.519 people before I give the definition I've written. 00:14:02.519 --> 00:14:04.519 Sorry? 00:14:04.519 --> 00:14:05.519 Worry. 00:14:05.519 --> 00:14:08.159 Yeah, so classic synonym is worry. 00:14:08.159 --> 00:14:10.759 And we're going to talk about that. 00:14:10.759 --> 00:14:11.759 Yeah. 00:14:11.759 --> 00:14:12.759 Panic attacks. 00:14:12.759 --> 00:14:17.439 Okay, so physical manifestation, absolutely. 00:14:17.439 --> 00:14:20.319 Yeah, we're going to talk about that. 00:14:20.320 --> 00:14:21.320 Maybe one more. 00:14:21.320 --> 00:14:22.320 Anybody? 00:14:22.320 --> 00:14:23.320 Yeah, absolutely. 00:14:23.320 --> 00:14:26.200 Yeah, so those are really good. 00:14:26.200 --> 00:14:31.160 Those are right on the line of what we respect. 00:14:31.160 --> 00:14:34.560 Let's go to the definition from the experts first. 00:14:34.560 --> 00:14:38.240 And then I'll give you another definition as well. 00:14:38.240 --> 00:14:46.880 The DSM, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Psychology, is the international standard 00:14:46.879 --> 00:14:53.559 textbook for defining all issues in relation to the field of psychology. 00:14:53.559 --> 00:14:58.080 The DSM, I think sometimes gets it wrong and sometimes gets it right, but on anxiety it's 00:14:58.080 --> 00:15:01.080 pretty helpful and this is what it says. 00:15:01.080 --> 00:15:08.159 Fear is the emotional response to real or perceived imminent threat, whereas anxiety 00:15:08.159 --> 00:15:12.440 is an anticipation of future threat. 00:15:12.440 --> 00:15:16.000 So here's the distinction they draw. 00:15:16.000 --> 00:15:22.519 Fear, there's a type of fear that is what other psychologists have called normal fear. 00:15:22.519 --> 00:15:25.159 Normal fear is responses to immediate threats. 00:15:25.159 --> 00:15:29.320 It's your fight or flight mechanism, your instinct. 00:15:29.320 --> 00:15:36.519 You are crossing Princess Street and you realize that you mistimed the distance between yourself 00:15:36.519 --> 00:15:38.919 and the bus that's coming. 00:15:38.919 --> 00:15:43.440 And immediately God gives you a gift, good fear. 00:15:43.440 --> 00:15:44.759 And what does good fear do to you? 00:15:44.759 --> 00:15:48.799 It tells you if I don't act, I'm going to die. 00:15:48.799 --> 00:15:50.439 And you run straight across. 00:15:50.439 --> 00:15:51.439 And that's instinctive. 00:15:51.439 --> 00:15:56.600 It's actually one of the common grace gifts of God to humanity in a fallen world. 00:15:56.600 --> 00:16:01.399 Every time you're afraid and you should be afraid, that's a gift of God. 00:16:01.399 --> 00:16:02.399 So that's good fear. 00:16:02.399 --> 00:16:03.399 That's what they're talking about here. 00:16:03.399 --> 00:16:10.159 But then they say, right after that, if I can find the definition again, here it is, 00:16:10.159 --> 00:16:12.879 anxiety is an anticipation of a future threat. 00:16:12.879 --> 00:16:18.240 Now yes, but no, I think that some nuance needs to be had there a little bit. 00:16:18.240 --> 00:16:24.279 Let me give you a definition I've written and then we'll break it down. 00:16:24.279 --> 00:16:26.240 That's all, I think the DSM is almost there. 00:16:26.240 --> 00:16:35.759 But anxiety is a bad form of fear where we use the capacity of the human imagination 00:16:35.759 --> 00:16:43.319 to construe hypothetical circumstances of loss, which then manifest in both soul and 00:16:43.319 --> 00:16:49.080 body as angst and various forms of physical illness. 00:16:49.080 --> 00:16:50.559 All right. 00:16:50.559 --> 00:16:55.600 Now I know that's a mouthful, so let's break it down a little bit. 00:16:55.600 --> 00:16:59.799 The DSM was right that there is a good fear, an immediate type of fear that happens to 00:16:59.799 --> 00:17:01.039 us when we're in danger. 00:17:01.039 --> 00:17:06.759 When your child is about to stick a fork into an electrical socket, good fear raises up 00:17:06.759 --> 00:17:11.839 in you and your autonomic nervous system triggers in you, race over to try to help the little 00:17:11.839 --> 00:17:16.720 one so that they're not injured. 00:17:16.720 --> 00:17:21.440 Anxiety is bad fear. 00:17:21.440 --> 00:17:28.079 When we use our imagination to play the prophet. 00:17:28.079 --> 00:17:37.839 And in playing the prophet, we imagine hypothetical circumstances that do not exist, but may be 00:17:37.839 --> 00:17:39.559 possible. 00:17:39.559 --> 00:17:49.000 And those circumstances typically contain images, thoughts of deep loss, death to ourselves, 00:17:49.000 --> 00:17:53.839 to someone we love, losing the things that we love most in life, whatever it may be, 00:17:53.839 --> 00:17:55.559 it could be anything. 00:17:55.559 --> 00:18:00.319 Being embarrassed in some type of public forum. 00:18:00.319 --> 00:18:08.799 Hypothetical imagination, prophesying future circumstances of loss that we allow to snowball 00:18:08.799 --> 00:18:14.240 into restless fear. 00:18:14.240 --> 00:18:17.159 This is actually, and the reason I want to distinguish that a little bit from what the 00:18:17.159 --> 00:18:18.159 DSM said. 00:18:18.159 --> 00:18:23.919 The DSM says anxiety is the anticipation of a future threat. 00:18:23.920 --> 00:18:30.800 However, in Chavon brought this up, I think there is a difference between good fear, yes, 00:18:30.800 --> 00:18:38.880 anxiety, that type of fear, and worry or stress, which stand actually in between anxiety and 00:18:38.880 --> 00:18:40.039 good fear. 00:18:40.039 --> 00:18:41.840 What's the difference? 00:18:41.840 --> 00:18:51.200 Worry and stress is fear of maybe non-immediate threats, but actual threats. 00:18:51.200 --> 00:18:57.880 So if your boss tells you, it's Monday and he says, you are going to give the presentation 00:18:57.880 --> 00:19:03.279 on Friday to the board because so and so has got COVID. 00:19:03.279 --> 00:19:08.279 And you say, okay, and you start to get stressed and you start to get worried and you work 00:19:08.279 --> 00:19:11.279 harder than you've ever worked and you stay up all night, three nights in a row to try 00:19:11.279 --> 00:19:13.120 to get it done. 00:19:13.120 --> 00:19:17.960 That in the way I'm defining it is not actually anxiety. 00:19:17.960 --> 00:19:25.000 That's concern and worry and stress placed on an appropriate object where there are real 00:19:25.000 --> 00:19:29.600 circumstances because if you fail, you might get fired. 00:19:29.600 --> 00:19:34.000 Or to put it another way, and this is why the DSM definition doesn't work exactly, because 00:19:34.000 --> 00:19:39.039 let's say you're there with your beloved one, your spouse, your child, your grandparent, 00:19:39.039 --> 00:19:45.559 whoever it may be, and the diagnosis comes, a bad diagnosis, a stage four diagnosis. 00:19:45.559 --> 00:19:53.159 The threat is not that you're going to lose them today or tomorrow, but you start to think 00:19:53.159 --> 00:19:55.279 what's a year look like from now? 00:19:55.279 --> 00:19:56.759 What's two years look like? 00:19:56.759 --> 00:20:01.279 What are all the things that we've got to do to prepare in early grief sets? 00:20:01.279 --> 00:20:06.000 And that's worry and concern and it's appropriate and it creates stress. 00:20:06.000 --> 00:20:08.599 And in a broken world, it's to be expected. 00:20:08.599 --> 00:20:12.079 That is different than what we're talking about when we talk about anxiety. 00:20:12.079 --> 00:20:16.279 Now, let me show you, we talked about the experts and I gave a definition. 00:20:16.279 --> 00:20:20.839 Let me show you briefly, and we'll start to turn towards the close for today, briefly 00:20:20.839 --> 00:20:24.960 that actually this is how the Bible talks about anxiety. 00:20:24.960 --> 00:20:29.399 So let me give you just one example, because we're going to come back to Matthew 6 in Philippians 00:20:29.399 --> 00:20:33.159 4 later, not this week, but in the coming weeks. 00:20:33.159 --> 00:20:38.960 This is from Jeremiah 17-8, and this is a bit of Hebrew poetry. 00:20:38.960 --> 00:20:46.680 And Jeremiah is working with Psalm chapter one here, and he's talking about how the 00:20:46.680 --> 00:20:50.400 healthy and holy and happy person is like a tree planted by water. 00:20:50.400 --> 00:20:53.360 We know that from Psalm chapter one, and this is what it says. 00:20:53.360 --> 00:20:59.079 He is like a tree planted by water that sends out its roots by the stream, and he does not 00:20:59.079 --> 00:21:02.640 fear when the heat comes. 00:21:02.640 --> 00:21:05.640 So fear when the heat comes. 00:21:05.640 --> 00:21:13.280 Or its leaves remain green, and he is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does 00:21:13.280 --> 00:21:16.360 not cease to bear fruit. 00:21:16.360 --> 00:21:19.680 That's a bit of Hebrew poetry, and if you put it out in the way it's written in the 00:21:19.680 --> 00:21:27.360 lines, you would see that does not fear when the heat comes, and is not anxious in the year 00:21:27.360 --> 00:21:30.320 of drought, or parallel lines. 00:21:30.320 --> 00:21:33.040 They're meant to be read as the same exact thing. 00:21:33.039 --> 00:21:42.480 In other words, fear is the synonym there of anxiety, and heat is the synonym of drought. 00:21:42.480 --> 00:21:48.359 Meaning when bad circumstances come, there is a way of responding in life that is bad 00:21:48.359 --> 00:21:53.159 fear or anxiety as the Bible puts it there. 00:21:53.159 --> 00:21:57.319 Now we'll close with this. 00:21:57.319 --> 00:22:01.799 Some of Tim Keller's writings on anxiety, he points to one middle of the 20th century 00:22:01.799 --> 00:22:06.279 psychologist, Roland May, who summarizes all this really well. 00:22:06.279 --> 00:22:10.559 This is what he says, just to give a summary definition again. 00:22:10.559 --> 00:22:15.440 He says that normal fear is like crossing the street when the bus is coming faster than 00:22:15.440 --> 00:22:16.440 you thought. 00:22:16.440 --> 00:22:21.519 Your autonomic nervous system triggers, your adrenaline pumps, you haven't run in a year, 00:22:21.519 --> 00:22:26.440 but you're faster than ever, that particular moment. 00:22:26.440 --> 00:22:31.720 What happens is your stomach comes up into your throat, and it takes you 15 or 20 minutes, 00:22:31.720 --> 00:22:35.920 maybe to calm down, but then eventually you do. 00:22:35.920 --> 00:22:44.559 Neurotic fear, as Roland May calls it, bad fear is lingering fearfulness with no specific 00:22:44.559 --> 00:22:52.559 immediate danger in view that becomes restless angst. 00:22:52.559 --> 00:22:58.039 Keller comments, and he says, and you'll all love this, he says, normal fear is like a 00:22:58.039 --> 00:23:05.200 thunderstorm, it comes, the lightning crashes, the immediate threat is there, and it leaves, 00:23:05.200 --> 00:23:08.359 and you calm down. 00:23:08.359 --> 00:23:11.519 Anxious neurotic fear is like Scottish weather. 00:23:11.519 --> 00:23:13.399 This is Keller's quote. 00:23:13.399 --> 00:23:19.200 It rains a little bit every single day, and that's how it is on your soul. 00:23:19.200 --> 00:23:27.159 Neurotic anxious fear is lingering restlessness, like it's always raining on the soul a little 00:23:27.160 --> 00:23:35.880 bit because of fear of hypothetical circumstances of loss that are out in front of you that 00:23:35.880 --> 00:23:39.279 do not exist. 00:23:39.279 --> 00:23:48.120 Now if you read existentialist philosophers, I don't know why you would, but if you did, 00:23:48.120 --> 00:23:56.200 or middle 20th century psychologist on this, Roland May, people like Heidegger or Kierkegaard, 00:23:56.200 --> 00:24:02.480 they will talk about anxiety in the same way as bad fear, and they will say, why are we 00:24:02.480 --> 00:24:03.480 so anxious? 00:24:03.480 --> 00:24:04.480 Why do people get anxious? 00:24:04.480 --> 00:24:05.480 Why do we struggle with this? 00:24:05.480 --> 00:24:11.440 And what they all say, and I think this is right, they say, anxiety is actually reading 00:24:11.440 --> 00:24:20.080 the reality of ultimate loss backwards into the present, meaning we all know that we have 00:24:20.080 --> 00:24:23.039 to face death. 00:24:23.039 --> 00:24:30.639 And anxiety is like little Ebenezer, he's the old word, little memorials that come up 00:24:30.639 --> 00:24:36.079 in our life in the present, knowing that there is an end of the track, there is a death 00:24:36.079 --> 00:24:38.399 out in front of us, an ultimate loss out in front of us. 00:24:38.399 --> 00:24:45.680 And so anxiety is this angst and restlessness and this snowballing fear, this dread that 00:24:45.680 --> 00:24:52.519 can be placed on littler losses all throughout our life, little ways that it's like we experienced 00:24:52.519 --> 00:24:57.960 little, little, little deaths until the final end actually comes. 00:24:57.960 --> 00:25:04.000 And when that happens, the reason it's so bad for us is because we are both body and 00:25:04.000 --> 00:25:09.079 soul together, and everything that happens in the spirit impacts the body, and everything 00:25:09.079 --> 00:25:14.039 that happens in the body impacts the spirit, and when you are afraid, it triggers your 00:25:14.039 --> 00:25:18.839 autonomic nervous system, but when you're anxious, it triggers your autonomic nervous 00:25:18.839 --> 00:25:20.039 system. 00:25:20.039 --> 00:25:26.559 Your stomach drops, you have all sorts of symptoms, but it doesn't stop, you don't let 00:25:26.559 --> 00:25:32.159 the fear subside, it keeps going and going and going, and so it slowly starts to literally 00:25:32.159 --> 00:25:37.559 eat away at you, and different people experience all sorts of different symptoms from that, 00:25:37.559 --> 00:25:41.960 and I've sat down with person after person over the years and talked about it with them, 00:25:41.960 --> 00:25:46.759 and they'll have this set of symptoms, and I'll have that set, and it manifests in different 00:25:46.759 --> 00:25:49.559 ways, but that's how it happens over time. 00:25:49.559 --> 00:25:59.119 Now, the last word, most pastoral books, Christian books on anxiety actually say that besides 00:25:59.119 --> 00:26:03.480 getting a good, robust definition of what's happening when we're anxious, like we've tried 00:26:03.480 --> 00:26:11.119 to do today, the first step to actually take is to step in to the vulnerability, not to 00:26:11.119 --> 00:26:15.839 fight it, and that's exactly what Jesus pushes in Matthew 6. 00:26:15.839 --> 00:26:19.519 He says, why are you anxious? 00:26:19.519 --> 00:26:24.039 Yes, I'm calling you to, He's calling the disciples to go forward. 00:26:24.039 --> 00:26:28.720 He's calling them to go forward in poverty, in real loss, to go forward, and He's saying 00:26:28.720 --> 00:26:33.000 to them very first century concerns that they have, what am I going to eat? 00:26:33.000 --> 00:26:34.000 What am I going to wear? 00:26:34.000 --> 00:26:36.240 Where am I going to sleep? 00:26:36.240 --> 00:26:40.599 These aren't the same concerns we have, but we have common concerns in our day, in our 00:26:40.599 --> 00:26:45.599 context, just like they had common concerns in their context, and He's saying to them, 00:26:45.599 --> 00:26:48.799 seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be out of to you. 00:26:48.799 --> 00:26:50.559 Don't be anxious about today. 00:26:50.559 --> 00:26:51.559 Seek first the kingdom. 00:26:51.559 --> 00:26:55.159 In other words, He's saying, you've actually got to lose control. 00:26:55.159 --> 00:26:57.199 Look at the birds. 00:26:57.199 --> 00:27:01.039 They're not in control and they're not anxious, but you've actually got to step in to the 00:27:01.039 --> 00:27:02.879 vulnerability. 00:27:02.879 --> 00:27:09.399 It's actually part, I think, of daily prayer, daily meditation on Scripture to say, I am 00:27:09.399 --> 00:27:10.399 contingent. 00:27:10.399 --> 00:27:11.399 I'm not absolute. 00:27:11.399 --> 00:27:13.079 I'm not in control. 00:27:13.079 --> 00:27:14.599 There will be losses. 00:27:14.599 --> 00:27:19.159 Today, there might be losses. 00:27:19.159 --> 00:27:22.919 Whatever happens, God, you are good. 00:27:22.919 --> 00:27:26.759 Stepping into the vulnerability, just like repentance from sin every single day, we've 00:27:26.759 --> 00:27:32.799 got to wrestle, I think, every day with our contingency with the fact that we're not safe. 00:27:32.799 --> 00:27:34.439 We might very well lose today. 00:27:34.439 --> 00:27:37.519 Today might be the day of deep loss. 00:27:37.519 --> 00:27:42.399 We have to surrender our whole selves to the reality of God, the one who takes care 00:27:42.400 --> 00:27:44.840 of the birds, the one who takes care of everything. 00:27:44.840 --> 00:27:53.680 Jesus is saying, walk with me in this issue and it will be no magic pill, but in time, 00:27:53.680 --> 00:28:00.160 the Holy Spirit can grow us up into buoyancy that can pop you up to the surface, no matter 00:28:00.160 --> 00:28:04.800 what the circumstances are. 00:28:04.800 --> 00:28:09.400 Sunday night this week, we'll start doing something new, just a little bit new on Sunday 00:28:09.400 --> 00:28:12.840 nights and we'll have a time for the children to come forward, trying to encourage more 00:28:12.840 --> 00:28:17.960 kids to get back on Sunday evenings and we'll have a children's catechism that we're going 00:28:17.960 --> 00:28:19.960 to do corporately. 00:28:19.960 --> 00:28:25.200 This week says, so appropriate to what we're saying, and it's the New City Catechism, which 00:28:25.200 --> 00:28:27.240 is written from the Heidelberg Catechism. 00:28:27.240 --> 00:28:32.160 The question is, what is our only hope in life and death? 00:28:32.160 --> 00:28:37.480 The kids' version, which is a lot easier than the paragraph of the original, is that I am 00:28:37.480 --> 00:28:41.960 not my own, but I belong to God. 00:28:41.960 --> 00:28:47.759 That's really the first confession of actually fighting the problem of anxiety. 00:28:47.759 --> 00:28:50.799 Next week we'll consider the question, why are we so anxious? 00:28:50.799 --> 00:28:53.680 Why are 21st century people so anxious? 00:28:53.680 --> 00:28:54.680 Let's pray. 00:28:54.680 --> 00:29:01.599 Father, we give thanks that your word speaks to the issues that we really do face, the 00:29:01.599 --> 00:29:03.880 issue of anxiety. 00:29:03.880 --> 00:29:08.520 We ask, Lord, we've taken just a baby step and defined it, that's all. 00:29:08.520 --> 00:29:15.760 We ask today that even defining the issue, you would take that and use it in our lives 00:29:15.760 --> 00:29:24.040 and you would help us to be aware as we struggle with anxiety what's happening. 00:29:24.040 --> 00:29:29.000 And that you would use that to open our eyes, open our heart, help us to rest in your power, 00:29:29.000 --> 00:29:34.039 sovereignty, your control as we face hard circumstances. 00:29:34.039 --> 00:29:37.440 So we ask for this help in Jesus' name. 00:29:37.440 --> 00:29:59.400 Amen.