WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:11.200 Let me start us just by reading a passage from Philippians 4. We've been in this passage 00:00:11.200 --> 00:00:17.240 a couple times already and we won't be camping out really on it tonight, but I wanted to 00:00:17.240 --> 00:00:22.199 at least open up with Scripture and with another famous text of Christ talking to us about 00:00:22.199 --> 00:00:26.120 anxiety or Paul, God, Christ, through Paul, I should say. 00:00:26.120 --> 00:00:34.000 Of Philippians 4 verses 4 to 7, rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice. 00:00:34.000 --> 00:00:39.400 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand. Do not be anxious about 00:00:39.400 --> 00:00:45.480 anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. Let your request 00:00:45.480 --> 00:00:50.359 be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard 00:00:50.359 --> 00:00:54.520 your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 00:00:54.520 --> 00:01:01.040 So this is a series on God and anxiety, right? And we've been talking about how theology, 00:01:01.040 --> 00:01:06.480 talk about God, helps us with one of the most common problems of the inner life, and that's 00:01:06.480 --> 00:01:13.000 the problem of anxiety, which is a pervasive problem, and increasingly so since World War 00:01:13.000 --> 00:01:19.640 II. And the Bible we've seen every week has so much to say about human psychology, about 00:01:19.640 --> 00:01:25.239 the psyche, about our soul, what the Bible calls the heart. And if we could summarize 00:01:25.239 --> 00:01:29.879 it all, it's to say this, that Jesus and Luke in the book of Luke, Luke chapter 10, puts 00:01:29.879 --> 00:01:37.120 his hand on the shoulder of a disciple and says, do not be anxious, little flock. And 00:01:37.120 --> 00:01:45.000 that's Jesus combining a command, don't be anxious, with the pastoral love and care of 00:01:45.000 --> 00:01:49.959 the Savior who's come to help you, putting his hand on your shoulder and saying, this 00:01:49.959 --> 00:01:56.079 is something I've come to walk alongside you with, little flock. And so he puts it like 00:01:56.079 --> 00:02:01.400 that. Another Old Testament passage we haven't mentioned yet, that does something very similar, 00:02:01.400 --> 00:02:08.479 Psalm 94 verse 19, when the cares of my heart are many, your consolations, oh God, cheer 00:02:08.479 --> 00:02:16.639 my soul. So on this very last night, I just want to say God wants to help and deal with 00:02:16.639 --> 00:02:21.879 the problem of anxiety. And he comes across the six passages of scripture that we've dipped 00:02:21.879 --> 00:02:27.599 into and says, I'm here to help to walk alongside you, I'm here to send the Holy Spirit to help 00:02:27.599 --> 00:02:35.359 you with this great problem. And at the same time, it is not a quick fix. And that's because 00:02:35.360 --> 00:02:44.120 humans are complicated and sin is devastating. And so the problem of anxiety, Jesus Christ 00:02:44.120 --> 00:02:50.320 offers great help and it's not a quick fix. It's an aspect of slow growth, a slow burn 00:02:50.320 --> 00:02:57.800 in this life. And so because we had originally planned to only do four weeks, I skipped what 00:02:57.800 --> 00:03:04.200 I'm going to talk about tonight. And so this is actually normally day, week one, this is 00:03:04.199 --> 00:03:11.039 intro material. But I want to come back to it at the very end and then rehearse what we've 00:03:11.039 --> 00:03:16.959 said and pull it all together at the very end of this talk tonight. And that's to address 00:03:16.959 --> 00:03:23.399 first the question, why is the problem of anxiety so complicated? So that's the question 00:03:23.399 --> 00:03:27.599 that we need to address tonight. And then we'll once again rehearse the theological 00:03:27.599 --> 00:03:36.079 habits that treat that complex issue of anxiety just briefly as we close. Okay, so let's 00:03:36.079 --> 00:03:43.079 let's dig into this first, the complexity of anxiety. There's a very important book 00:03:43.079 --> 00:03:48.680 that was published a few years ago by a guy called Matthew LePine. And it was his PhD 00:03:48.680 --> 00:03:54.199 dissertation that was then published by Lexan Press. And it's called The Logic of the Body. 00:03:54.199 --> 00:04:01.280 And in it, he uses anxiety as a case study for the relationship between the human body 00:04:01.280 --> 00:04:07.199 and the human soul in both theology and psychology. Now I want to use that book and give you an 00:04:07.199 --> 00:04:12.959 example that he gives of chanted a little bit, but this is a very familiar. There's 00:04:12.959 --> 00:04:19.719 a woman we'll call her Mary. And she's a new mother. And ever since she became a mother, 00:04:19.720 --> 00:04:28.360 she's got increasing anxiety that didn't exist prior. And she didn't struggle too much with 00:04:28.360 --> 00:04:35.600 the uncontrollable nature of her worry until she was caring for this baby. This is LePine's 00:04:35.600 --> 00:04:42.920 example. And one of the issues for her is safety concerns. You know, she's always checking 00:04:42.920 --> 00:04:48.840 and rechecking little things to do with the safety of the baby. She's coming back to the 00:04:48.839 --> 00:04:54.239 crib multiple times at night when the baby's sound asleep to see is the baby still breathing? 00:04:54.239 --> 00:05:00.599 This was me when we first had a child, more than my wife, probably adding to my anxiety. 00:05:00.599 --> 00:05:07.959 And she's finding herself worried about her child at all times, over time, even when there's 00:05:07.959 --> 00:05:16.679 no clear reason to. And it becomes consuming. Now Mary, she doesn't communicate that really 00:05:16.680 --> 00:05:22.280 to her husband in any verbal way. He can see signs that this is taking over little things 00:05:22.280 --> 00:05:28.560 like she clearly doesn't feel comfortable with other people caring for her baby. She 00:05:28.560 --> 00:05:36.280 doesn't want to take her child as it gets older to places like a crash. And many people 00:05:36.280 --> 00:05:41.759 have pointed this, after you read books on anxiety, this term comes up. There's a German 00:05:41.759 --> 00:05:49.319 word from some German philosophers in the 20th century. And the word is Gavorfeneit. 00:05:49.319 --> 00:05:57.399 And if there's one thing you should remember tonight, it's that term, Gavorfeneit. That 00:05:57.399 --> 00:06:05.599 was a joke, but it's okay. Gavorfeneit, it's a great word though. And what it means, it's 00:06:05.599 --> 00:06:10.279 not really translatable to English, but it comes from a verb in German that means to 00:06:10.279 --> 00:06:17.559 be thrown into something. And the meaning they used it for is to describe this unshakable 00:06:17.559 --> 00:06:24.639 angst, this unsettled dread that comes upon us when we struggle with pervasive anxiety 00:06:24.639 --> 00:06:31.000 over and over again. A feeling that something is always wrong, or that something bad is 00:06:31.000 --> 00:06:36.159 always about to happen. It's always on the horizon. And of course, that typically, as 00:06:36.160 --> 00:06:42.280 we've talked about many times already, manifests in physical symptoms. And for Mary, let's 00:06:42.280 --> 00:06:46.840 say hypothetically, she's got this great concern and it's snowballing, but then she 00:06:46.840 --> 00:06:53.440 gets physical symptoms from the anxiety, and those start to be part of the concern as well. 00:06:53.440 --> 00:06:58.400 And then it's snowballs and it's snowballs and worry compounds both about her child safety, 00:06:58.400 --> 00:07:04.000 but then her job performance and finances and the health issues that she's being seen 00:07:04.000 --> 00:07:10.120 about but nobody seems to really be helpful with. And it all snowballs and becomes long 00:07:10.120 --> 00:07:17.720 term chronic anxiety. Now, the question that Lapine asks is, what is the source of the 00:07:17.720 --> 00:07:24.160 problem in all of this? What is the source of the problem? Of course, as Christians, 00:07:24.160 --> 00:07:29.480 we say, well, this is undoubtedly the product of the fall. It's the sin-cursed world that 00:07:29.480 --> 00:07:34.800 we live in produces situations like this. And absolutely, that's true. But if we try to 00:07:34.800 --> 00:07:40.520 get down more specifically within Mary's life, within my life, within whoever's life it is, 00:07:40.520 --> 00:07:45.480 your life that struggles with something like this, what is the source of the problem? And 00:07:45.480 --> 00:07:52.720 let me overstate a dichotomy on the answers that might be given to the source of the problem. 00:07:52.720 --> 00:07:57.879 Okay, so one, Mary goes to her pastor. She's a Christian. She goes to her pastor. And what 00:07:57.879 --> 00:08:00.759 does her pastor say? Well, he says a lot of the things we've been saying in here. She's 00:08:00.759 --> 00:08:08.319 like, you know, look, you've got an idol in your life. And actually, your love and concern 00:08:08.319 --> 00:08:18.719 for your child is much greater than your trust in God and His plan and His control over all 00:08:18.719 --> 00:08:23.759 things and His, and His, the fact that He's the creator of your child, right? You're not 00:08:23.759 --> 00:08:31.959 resting cognitively in faith. You're not trusting enough, right? And so it's an issue for the 00:08:31.959 --> 00:08:39.720 pastor of belief. And he tells her, you know, anxiety is a negative emotion. And we've been 00:08:39.720 --> 00:08:44.919 saying that and that's true. Emotions are the product of the will. Emotions are the product 00:08:44.919 --> 00:08:51.600 in this view of your will, of your desires, of your beliefs, your deepest beliefs. And 00:08:51.600 --> 00:08:57.879 so if you have sinful will, if the beliefs that you hold at the very bottom of your heart 00:08:57.879 --> 00:09:05.840 are disordered and broken, then that's going to manifest in broken emotions, negative emotions. 00:09:05.840 --> 00:09:12.240 Now that's quite a common evangelical way of dealing with something like the problem 00:09:12.240 --> 00:09:18.160 of anxiety. Okay, now, and it's not untrue. It's actually affirms a lot of the things 00:09:18.159 --> 00:09:23.279 that we've said. It's true in many ways. The Bible is very clear that the negative emotions, 00:09:23.279 --> 00:09:29.000 like anxiety, have a moral quality about them. And that we're told, do not be anxious. That's 00:09:29.000 --> 00:09:34.600 what Jesus tells us. Anxiety is not good. It's the product of the fall of a sinful world. 00:09:34.600 --> 00:09:41.439 The will can be reshaped. Our desires can be reordered to love God more than the things 00:09:41.439 --> 00:09:46.879 of this world and fight against the problems of anxiety. We say yes to all of that because 00:09:46.879 --> 00:09:54.840 the Bible says yes to all of that. But at the same time, what happens with Mary? Mary, 00:09:54.840 --> 00:10:02.120 she works on this and she prays and she seeks counsel and friendship with Christians and 00:10:02.120 --> 00:10:12.720 she's in worship and she's soaking in the means of grace and she's still struggling over time. 00:10:12.720 --> 00:10:17.120 And it's maybe improved a little bit, but the fight and the struggle and the anxiety 00:10:17.120 --> 00:10:22.519 is still there. And she's starting to question actually the work of God in her life. And 00:10:22.519 --> 00:10:27.560 then questions about assurance starts to come in. Am I part of the people of God? Is this 00:10:27.560 --> 00:10:35.480 an issue that I don't even have basic faith? And so all sorts of things start to snowball 00:10:35.480 --> 00:10:41.200 because here, the evangelical standard historically has been that emotions, and here's a definition, 00:10:41.200 --> 00:10:50.160 emotions are a mental state that arise when a deep belief is elicited into consciousness. 00:10:50.160 --> 00:10:56.800 Let me say something about it. In other words, emotions are a product of our truest, deepest 00:10:56.800 --> 00:11:06.400 beliefs coming out, coming out whenever we're in a circumstance that brings them out. And 00:11:06.399 --> 00:11:15.840 that means emotions are as malleable, as changeable in this view as your beliefs themselves. In 00:11:15.840 --> 00:11:24.399 other words, the idea is that if you would believe more and trust more and get yourself 00:11:24.399 --> 00:11:33.439 together cognitively, then you would not have the negative motion of anxiety any longer. 00:11:33.440 --> 00:11:38.600 And that means that we are being called here to repent of false beliefs and desires so 00:11:38.600 --> 00:11:45.240 our emotions will change. Now, let me flip it around to the opposite side and say that 00:11:45.240 --> 00:11:52.640 instead Mary goes to a psychologist, a therapist who is also an atheist and a materialist. 00:11:52.640 --> 00:11:57.080 And what does he say? And here's one scholar named LeDoux who talks about what he would 00:11:57.080 --> 00:12:03.160 say in this situation. And he would say this, anxiety is something that happens in the brain 00:12:03.159 --> 00:12:09.759 and the nervous system. Brain transmissions to the amygdala from the sensory thalamus 00:12:09.759 --> 00:12:15.679 and the sensory cortex, parallel tracks in the brain that form images of a sensory world. 00:12:15.679 --> 00:12:20.480 One is more realistic, one is more crude. Part of your brain adjusts your body to inputs 00:12:20.480 --> 00:12:26.919 of fear by elevating your heart, activating your autonomic nervous system and your adrenaline. 00:12:26.919 --> 00:12:32.399 Anxiety therefore is a bodily reaction that conditions us for context of danger. LeDoux 00:12:32.399 --> 00:12:39.079 says that sometimes that trigger goes haywire, construes new neuro pathways where no matter 00:12:39.079 --> 00:12:43.679 what you do, you can't break the cycle. And so you see what LeDoux is saying. LeDoux 00:12:43.679 --> 00:12:49.679 is saying in all that complicated biological data that I don't understand. LeDoux is saying 00:12:49.679 --> 00:12:56.159 that anxiety is completely a product of biology. That it's an issue of neuro pathways being 00:12:56.159 --> 00:13:03.000 rewired and then your brain essentially going haywire and responding to all circumstances 00:13:03.000 --> 00:13:09.439 as circumstances of danger or threat, your body reacting in those ways. So on the one 00:13:09.439 --> 00:13:16.719 hand the pastors might say, this is an issue of your faith, of your trust, of your belief. 00:13:16.719 --> 00:13:22.279 And then the psychologist comes and say, actually this is entirely biological and there's nothing 00:13:22.279 --> 00:13:28.000 you could do to get out from underneath it. And he says anxiety for the psychologist is 00:13:28.000 --> 00:13:33.120 a hypersensitivity to the possible presence of danger. And it's when danger is not present 00:13:33.120 --> 00:13:41.159 but your body acts like it is. So we've got two extremes, if you will. On the one hand 00:13:41.159 --> 00:13:48.279 the issue is entirely an issue of cognitive faith, belief. And on the other hand the issue 00:13:48.279 --> 00:13:53.399 is entirely material. It's about what's going on in your body. Now what I want to say, this 00:13:53.399 --> 00:13:58.919 is again, this is introductory material. So we're walking back here. What I want to say 00:13:58.919 --> 00:14:08.199 is for Christians, for Christians this is a distinction not a dichotomy. For us that 00:14:08.199 --> 00:14:16.720 it's a false dichotomy to say one or the other. And actually you don't have to study biology 00:14:16.720 --> 00:14:25.080 to be able to say that. Because theology gives us the tools to say that this is a distinction 00:14:25.080 --> 00:14:30.600 not a dichotomy. It's a false dichotomy. If we separate the two too far from each other, 00:14:30.600 --> 00:14:36.759 why? Okay, two reasons. That the Bible tells us that we've got to listen to both people 00:14:36.759 --> 00:14:42.360 quite often. That we've got to be open to both perspectives. That they're not fighting 00:14:42.360 --> 00:14:49.560 against each other actually. And here's the one. The Bible teaches us very clearly that 00:14:49.560 --> 00:14:57.480 human beings are psychosomatic holes. Meaning soul and body, psychosomatic soul and body 00:14:57.480 --> 00:15:07.480 holes. Now this is very important because in Western culture a lot of the formal high 00:15:07.480 --> 00:15:12.560 art and things that have come down to us, even though most of us probably aren't going 00:15:12.560 --> 00:15:19.680 down to the National Museum and looking at the portraits regularly. I know I'm not. Nevertheless, 00:15:19.680 --> 00:15:27.240 in Western culture there's an idea that's crept in from philosophies of old and from 00:15:27.240 --> 00:15:37.120 philosophies of old mixing with Christianity. That human beings really are just souls. And 00:15:37.120 --> 00:15:43.120 now ultimately the most important thing is the soul and the body is a take it or leave 00:15:43.120 --> 00:15:50.879 it aspect of what a human being is. And that is actually what we call a Platonic idea. 00:15:50.879 --> 00:15:56.480 An idea that comes from the philosopher Plato and got mixed into Roman Catholic theology. 00:15:56.480 --> 00:16:02.480 And then you see all these paintings of souls being anywhere and everywhere and angels having 00:16:02.480 --> 00:16:09.279 very different features than the Bible actually teaches that they do. Now the reform theology, 00:16:09.279 --> 00:16:15.360 the Protestant theology, the Bible does not teach that at all. Instead what the Bible 00:16:15.360 --> 00:16:22.440 says is that we are, what is a human being? A human being is an embodied soul, period. 00:16:22.440 --> 00:16:31.600 An embodied soul. Meaning that it's not as if God took a soul that he created and made 00:16:31.600 --> 00:16:39.600 and then stuck it into a body like a man being put inside of a machine. So that whenever 00:16:39.600 --> 00:16:47.680 the soul is removed from the body you're still wholly, fully you. No, anytime the soul is 00:16:47.680 --> 00:16:54.879 separated from the body that is a death condition. That is a death condition. Even in the intermediate 00:16:54.879 --> 00:16:59.320 state before Jesus comes back and our souls are separated from our bodies and Christ does 00:16:59.320 --> 00:17:06.039 give us life in that season. Nevertheless, that is not full salvation. Full salvation 00:17:06.039 --> 00:17:14.000 is what? The resurrection of the body. It's when I am me embodied soul. Embodied soul. 00:17:14.000 --> 00:17:20.480 That's what we are. Meaning that the body is incredibly important when it comes to God's 00:17:20.480 --> 00:17:25.759 understanding, God's telling us of what we are. And so we've got to take the body very 00:17:25.759 --> 00:17:31.119 seriously when it comes to issues of the soul. When it comes to things that are going wrong 00:17:31.119 --> 00:17:36.480 with our souls, the body is very important. And we have to pay attention to it. There's 00:17:36.480 --> 00:17:41.759 no dichotomy there. It's a false dichotomy. If we draw a dichotomy, just one little example 00:17:41.759 --> 00:17:50.359 of this. In the very beginning of Scripture, Adam, the first man, his name is Adam, he's 00:17:50.359 --> 00:17:58.159 made from and for the ground, we're told. So Adam is a product of God breathing life 00:17:58.159 --> 00:18:03.319 into something that he raises up from the ground. And Adam's an even made for the ground, 00:18:03.319 --> 00:18:08.199 for the earth to till it, to take dominion over it, right? Well, the word in Hebrew for 00:18:08.199 --> 00:18:17.519 ground earth that gets used there is Adamah, A-D-A-M-A-H. So in the Hebrew text it says 00:18:17.519 --> 00:18:23.240 that Adam came from the Adamah and was made for the Adamah. The stuff, that's what the 00:18:23.240 --> 00:18:30.319 word Adamah means, the stuff, the material, that humans are dirty and they're supposed 00:18:30.319 --> 00:18:35.400 to be. They're raised up from the dirt, they're made for the dirt, they're made for the stuff, 00:18:35.400 --> 00:18:42.240 and to be human is to be physical. And so we see that emphasis very clearly that the body 00:18:42.240 --> 00:18:45.759 is so important to the life of the soul and the life of the soul is so important to the 00:18:45.759 --> 00:18:50.759 life of the body precisely because that is what we are. That's what a human is and embodied 00:18:50.759 --> 00:18:56.240 soul. The second reason that we can't draw a dichotomy between these two things is because 00:18:56.240 --> 00:19:02.640 of common grace. So what's the doctrine of common grace? Common grace says that God, 00:19:02.640 --> 00:19:10.279 even after sin, shows to bless the world and everybody living in the world, no matter what 00:19:10.279 --> 00:19:17.279 you believe in, Christian or not, with an amazing amount of gifts. And so we often, 00:19:17.279 --> 00:19:23.440 the best proof that common grace is real is to say, sometimes my non-Christian neighbor 00:19:23.440 --> 00:19:30.039 is nicer than me as a Christian. And how is that so? Because God has blessed that person 00:19:30.039 --> 00:19:35.480 with common grace. He's given everybody in this world gifts. The first is life itself, 00:19:35.480 --> 00:19:40.279 the ability to wake up and breathe. But many other intellectual gifts and cognitive gifts 00:19:40.279 --> 00:19:44.579 and artistic gifts and all sorts of things. And that means that Christians can never 00:19:44.579 --> 00:19:51.920 spurn the work of culture when it's not sinful. That we can look out into culture, into art, 00:19:51.920 --> 00:19:57.480 into science, into development, technology, whatever it might be, into music and say, 00:19:57.480 --> 00:20:02.160 that is good. If it is not committing sin, if it's beautiful, if it's got an aspect of 00:20:02.160 --> 00:20:05.720 goodness to it, then it's good. Then I'm willing to use it. I'm willing to learn from it. I'm 00:20:05.720 --> 00:20:10.320 willing to say that this is actually, without you knowing it, the product of the gift of 00:20:10.320 --> 00:20:15.440 God given to you. And so even as somebody like Ladoo's research, Ladoo is incredibly 00:20:15.440 --> 00:20:23.240 wrong about worldview, about materialism. He doesn't know what he's talking about. And 00:20:23.240 --> 00:20:29.519 yet at the same time, he may very well have found something very true about the human 00:20:29.519 --> 00:20:34.920 biological effect of prolonged anxiety that we've got to pay attention to at the very 00:20:34.920 --> 00:20:46.039 same time. Now, theologians of old did an even better job actually of talking about 00:20:46.039 --> 00:20:53.559 this than we have in the Christian church in the West for the past 100 years or so. 00:20:53.559 --> 00:21:00.359 And so if you go, just for an example, people like Saint Augustine and John Calvin and Thomas 00:21:00.359 --> 00:21:05.639 Aquinas. Thomas Aquinas has a section in one of his famous books, 200 pages just on the 00:21:05.639 --> 00:21:11.759 complexity of the emotions and how they relate to the body. And he lived in the 12th and 00:21:11.759 --> 00:21:18.359 13th century. Or if you come up a little more recent to Jonathan Edwards, people have often 00:21:18.359 --> 00:21:24.359 called him the theologian of the emotions because he talks so much so often about affection 00:21:24.359 --> 00:21:31.559 and emotion and how complex it is and how much our physical habits play into our emotional 00:21:31.559 --> 00:21:36.839 life and the possibility of our anxiety. And so I've mentioned this already, but let me 00:21:36.839 --> 00:21:42.199 just say it very quickly again, and we'll move things towards the close. And that's 00:21:42.199 --> 00:21:47.839 this Thomas Aquinas, we mentioned this, I think in week three, Thomas Aquinas, right? 00:21:47.839 --> 00:21:53.679 He had a really helpful account of this. He said that when you think about who you are 00:21:53.679 --> 00:21:57.439 and what kind of gifts God has given you, what kind of abilities God has given you, God 00:21:57.439 --> 00:22:05.159 has given you a rational, the gift of rationality, intellect. You can think, you can make decisions, 00:22:05.159 --> 00:22:12.519 you can do math problems, and you can decide what type of tea you want at the store. That's 00:22:12.519 --> 00:22:18.799 all an aspect of the intellect. It's your decision making faculty, right? And in it, 00:22:18.799 --> 00:22:23.960 you are very active. You are the one doing the thinking. You are the one working things 00:22:23.960 --> 00:22:28.000 out. You are the one making decisions. On the flip side, the opposite side, God has given 00:22:28.000 --> 00:22:36.440 each of us completely involuntary aspects of what we are as embodied creatures, right? 00:22:36.440 --> 00:22:42.960 You can't help the urge to sleep and to eat and all sorts of other drives that we all 00:22:42.960 --> 00:22:48.160 know that we have, right? As human beings, because we're embodied. And those are things 00:22:48.160 --> 00:22:54.039 that have been given to us by God, yes, corrupted by sin, but nevertheless created by God, right? 00:22:54.039 --> 00:22:59.880 And so there's the voluntary life when you think, you make decisions, you solve problems. 00:22:59.880 --> 00:23:04.640 There's the involuntary life, but then there's something in between that, what he called 00:23:04.640 --> 00:23:11.400 the sentient life. And the sentient life is this arena in which you have an active part 00:23:11.400 --> 00:23:15.960 to play, but at the same time, you can't quite control it. In the main category, there's 00:23:15.960 --> 00:23:22.160 many things he put there, but the main thing he put there is what? The emotions, right? 00:23:22.160 --> 00:23:30.080 The emotions are indeed, to say yes to the pastor earlier, a product of many of your 00:23:30.079 --> 00:23:36.679 decisions over the course of time. We are captains in some sense of our emotional life, 00:23:36.679 --> 00:23:42.839 yet at the same time, our emotions are at least halfway involuntary, right? They arise 00:23:42.839 --> 00:23:48.759 in us in circumstances, not through us thinking, I want to get angry. It feels more like it 00:23:48.759 --> 00:23:56.159 happens to us, right? And so Aquinas pointed out that the emotions are changeable, but 00:23:56.160 --> 00:24:01.800 they're very difficult to change, that both of those things are true at the same time. 00:24:01.800 --> 00:24:07.440 Anxiety is a negative emotion, and that means it's very changeable and it's very difficult 00:24:07.440 --> 00:24:13.000 to change, and the body plays into it, and the soul plays into it, and your cognitive 00:24:13.000 --> 00:24:18.880 life plays into it, your belief systems and idolatry plays into it, but also trauma from 00:24:18.880 --> 00:24:24.800 things that might have happened to you in the past play into it, and also shifting neuro 00:24:24.799 --> 00:24:31.159 pathways in your brain that I know nothing about, play into it, we're told. And all sorts 00:24:31.159 --> 00:24:37.119 of factors combine to create a situation of negative emotion that arises in the case of 00:24:37.119 --> 00:24:38.119 anxiety. 00:24:38.119 --> 00:24:46.440 Now, we'll close by saying this, and that's that Ladoo actually talks and others about 00:24:46.440 --> 00:24:54.779 how physical biological aspects of something like anxiety, negative emotion, can also be 00:24:54.779 --> 00:25:01.359 changed through the habits of the soul. So there's all sorts of factors that play into 00:25:01.359 --> 00:25:06.920 it, but it's also been seen very clearly that habits of the soul, so the way we believe, 00:25:06.920 --> 00:25:14.519 the way we think, the way we may pray, actually can have both spiritual and physical impact 00:25:14.519 --> 00:25:19.200 at the same time, because we are psychosomatic holes, because we are embodied souls, and 00:25:19.200 --> 00:25:26.240 so it always works both ways, right? Medicinal needs might be at play that have an impact 00:25:26.240 --> 00:25:31.000 on the body first, but also on the soul, but also changes in the life of the soul can have 00:25:31.000 --> 00:25:36.640 an impact on the body as well. And we know that's true, because oftentimes anxiety in 00:25:36.640 --> 00:25:43.680 our soul over perhaps maybe an idol in our lives that's causing it can create long term 00:25:43.680 --> 00:25:50.519 physical change in us, physical damage in us, and many, many people can tell that story, 00:25:50.519 --> 00:25:56.320 right? And so it works both ways, and that's why we've got to then see Aquinas said the 00:25:56.320 --> 00:26:03.200 great solution to changing the emotions and the negative emotion of anxiety, he said is 00:26:03.200 --> 00:26:11.039 the biblical virtue of self-control. And when he talks about it, he says the biblical virtue 00:26:11.039 --> 00:26:18.920 of self-control is when the intellect, your reason, your beliefs, your theology, what you 00:26:18.920 --> 00:26:29.480 know about God, and your desires for God meet together to change you over time by the way 00:26:29.480 --> 00:26:36.879 of habits, spiritual habits, spiritual as we call them today, disciplines. And that's 00:26:36.880 --> 00:26:44.640 why we've been talking about theological habits that lead over time to a peaceful heart. So 00:26:44.640 --> 00:26:49.920 let me just finish by reviewing them. And this is what we've said, these are them. These 00:26:49.920 --> 00:26:58.360 are, these are by my estimation, all the ones I can find so far in the Bible, that God gives 00:26:58.360 --> 00:27:04.960 us very directly. And on most of them, I've tried to literally just name them by the phrases 00:27:04.960 --> 00:27:10.319 that God has given us in Scripture. So these are God-given, Scripture-based theological 00:27:10.319 --> 00:27:17.720 habits for fighting for a peaceful heart over time. Okay? And if you've been around, you've 00:27:17.720 --> 00:27:21.559 already heard them all. But here they are again, first. And I'm just going to rattle 00:27:21.559 --> 00:27:27.880 them off because we're out of time. First, remember, look at the birds Jesus says, which 00:27:27.880 --> 00:27:36.080 is, you've got to, when fear strikes, you've got to talk to your heart about God. You've 00:27:36.080 --> 00:27:43.960 got to apply theology to your heart every time that fear starts to creep up. You've 00:27:43.960 --> 00:27:48.680 got to preach to your heart in the face of your anxieties. That's one. Look at the birds. 00:27:48.680 --> 00:27:56.480 Secondly, cast your cares upon him. Right? First Peter, also Philippians 4, which is 00:27:56.480 --> 00:28:02.480 to say, as soon as fear strikes, do theology on your heart, look at the birds, then immediately 00:28:02.480 --> 00:28:08.960 cast your cares upon him, pray your fears. That's number two. Number three, we've got 00:28:08.960 --> 00:28:19.039 to say, Lord willing. Remember James 4, we've got to include God in every single plan that 00:28:19.039 --> 00:28:26.000 we make. Meaning we've got to be God conscious when we pull out our diary and our calendars 00:28:26.000 --> 00:28:31.559 and our little sticky pads to make notes about what our day is going to look like. Even that 00:28:31.559 --> 00:28:39.799 has got to be an object of devotion where we're prayerfully doing our one day goals, 00:28:39.799 --> 00:28:44.759 our one year goals and our five year goals. So we say, Lord willing, whenever we make 00:28:44.759 --> 00:28:51.359 plans, we're God conscious of our schedule. Number four, Jesus tells us very clearly, 00:28:51.359 --> 00:28:59.319 Matthew 6, focus on today. He says, don't let hypothetical happenstances of tomorrow 00:28:59.319 --> 00:29:07.879 be the enemy of today. Meaning today is the day to devote yourself to the Lord. Today 00:29:07.879 --> 00:29:13.399 is the day to fight your temptations. Today is the day to get back on the horse and seek 00:29:13.399 --> 00:29:20.799 the face of God. Tomorrow doesn't exist. You can't do anything today about tomorrow's 00:29:20.799 --> 00:29:25.639 commitment to the Lord. Today is the day that you can do it. And so there's a very clear 00:29:25.639 --> 00:29:33.879 imperative to focus on today. Number five, seek first the kingdom of God, Jesus says. 00:29:33.879 --> 00:29:39.119 And this is back to what the pastor, the evangelical pastor told us, right? Seek first the kingdom 00:29:39.119 --> 00:29:48.119 of God does mean examine your anxieties to figure out what is burning on the altar of 00:29:48.119 --> 00:29:56.319 your heart. Chase the smoke of your anxiety, anxiety is smoke. You feel the symptoms of 00:29:56.319 --> 00:30:02.839 it. You follow it all the way down to the heart and ask, what is the idol that's burning 00:30:02.839 --> 00:30:09.839 in the altar of my heart to create this? What am I so afraid to lose or never gain that 00:30:09.839 --> 00:30:15.719 is causing such restless fear? And I've got to prayerfully seek first the kingdom, meaning 00:30:15.720 --> 00:30:22.360 I've got to love, I've got to seek and fight to love God more than whatever the thing is 00:30:22.360 --> 00:30:30.120 that I'm putting everything into. And then finally, finally, from Psalm 27, seek the 00:30:30.120 --> 00:30:37.559 face of God, we're told, David in the midst of anxiety, he said, Lord, give me the ability 00:30:37.559 --> 00:30:46.319 to want you more than anything else. Specifically, he was saying, make my greatest hope actually 00:30:46.319 --> 00:30:55.799 seeing the face of Jesus Christ in the end of the world. That's utter salvation, if you 00:30:55.799 --> 00:31:03.000 will, what we were truly made for, full and final salvation to see Jesus Christ himself 00:31:03.000 --> 00:31:06.960 in the land of the living. And so when we pray, Lord, help me to seek your face, we're 00:31:06.960 --> 00:31:18.360 saying, give me the desire to want you more than everything else. Final word, the X factor 00:31:18.360 --> 00:31:26.360 that Ladoo especially cannot account for, and that we haven't talked about yet is this, 00:31:26.360 --> 00:31:32.360 that in all this, the biblical promise is even bigger. And that's that God says in Philippians 00:31:32.359 --> 00:31:39.199 4, that He will gift you the Holy Spirit. And that the Holy Spirit is the one who will 00:31:39.199 --> 00:31:44.959 raise you up out of anxiety. And so by the power of the Holy Spirit in the midst of these 00:31:44.959 --> 00:31:52.039 spiritual disciplines, here's the promise, 1 Corinthians 4-1, because of the mercy of 00:31:52.039 --> 00:32:00.719 God, we do not lose heart. Christians have the power to not lose heart. Verse 8, we can 00:32:00.720 --> 00:32:08.519 be afflicted but not crushed. We can be perplexed but not driven to despair. We can be struck 00:32:08.519 --> 00:32:17.319 down by circumstances but not destroyed in heart. And that's what Jesus means when He 00:32:17.319 --> 00:32:24.160 says, don't be anxious, little flock. I want to help you learn what it means to have peace 00:32:24.160 --> 00:32:32.560 that surpasses understanding. Let's pray. Father, we give thanks that you address this 00:32:32.560 --> 00:32:38.400 issue for us so acutely throughout Scripture. And so we ask tonight at the end of the series 00:32:38.400 --> 00:32:44.400 that you would take these habits and shove them deep down into our desires and that we 00:32:44.400 --> 00:32:53.920 would be moved by the Holy Spirit whenever we do fear to pray our fears and to talk to 00:32:53.920 --> 00:33:00.680 our hearts about God and to make our plans according to your will and thinking about 00:33:00.680 --> 00:33:07.759 your power and that we would want you more than we want the things that we love in this 00:33:07.759 --> 00:33:13.400 world. And so rearrange our desires tonight, we ask, as we go to prayer. And we pray this 00:33:13.400 --> 00:33:25.200 in Christ's name. Amen.