Lord, as we come before you, and really come before the scriptures and come before you,
Lord, I just pray that we will be people that aren't just hearers of the word, but be doers
of the word.
Help us all to come under the authority of your scriptures.
Lord, we thank you that you are not a dead God, you are an alive God.
And when we crack this book, your scriptures, we come face to face with you.
Lord, I pray that you will be at work with the Holy Spirit in our lives this morning.
And if anybody's suffering any attacks from the enemy, Lord, we just ask that you will
stay the enemy's hand this morning.
We pray all these things in Jesus' name.
Amen.
So, Christine and I, we have begun this process of church planting.
It's been talked about at Messiah for a few months now about what it would look like to
discern a couple more congregations that would be associated with church and Messiah, East
End and West End.
So, we began this process.
It's kind of in the infancy stages, and it's a long process.
There's a lot of stuff that we need to do and go through.
There are a lot of questionnaires, homework to do, interviews.
Like, they put us through the rigor.
And I think a big part of that is because oftentimes, like businesses, not to equate church and business,
maybe it's not the greatest example, but startups fail.
And I think it's for a lack of training and just the reality of it.
All that to say is this whole process is making me anxious.
It is causing me to have anxiety.
And it's really bringing up a bunch of junk in my life.
I am not at peace very much of the time.
Christine is more kind of resolute, and she's a bit more excited.
But I'm just like, well, what about this?
And what about that?
And it's like the weight of the world sometimes is on my shoulders.
Not all the time.
Like, I am excited, believe me.
But I find that my anxiety has crept up and up and up and up, and my peace has went down and down and down and down.
And I think a big part of this is because I am ceding control of my life to others that I'm not quite in control of my life.
And that there are also unknowns.
We're not sure where this thing's going to be.
I mean, we're like a month or two into potentially a year and a half type of process.
So I don't know what's going to go down.
And a lot of those unknowns are causing me to fret.
And the times, it's interesting, if you've had situations where you've felt anxious,
you get a bit of a reprieve, you get a bit of a break, and you feel like a bit of peace comes in.
But that peace, it seems, at least for me, it's marbled with a bit of anxiety.
And I'm not sure how it works for you guys.
But for me, if there's peace marbled with anxiety, it's not really peace, is it?
You have something going on in the back of your head.
You can't really be at rest.
And all of a sudden, anxiety, again, starts to dominate.
Whatever the situation is, whatever the person is, whatever the issue is,
anxiety seems to follow to some degree or another.
It seems almost unavoidable.
So this summer, we're going through these one-verse sermons.
Well, really, it's kind of this two verses today.
But it's really just one thought, one kind of big, heavy, like, oomph of truth.
And today is Philippians 4, verses 6 and 7.
And I've read it before, but I'm going to read it again.
It says this,
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, or prayer and petition,
with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.
And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
I grew up, I still remember getting Nintendo for the first time.
And not long after, I got Nintendo.
And I'm talking, like, regular Nintendo, not Super Nintendo, not Nintendo 64,
not PlayStation 4 for you folks that might have that.
I'm talking original Nintendo, gray box with gray controller.
And I remember not long after getting that, I got a Game Genie.
I don't know if anybody here could possibly remember, if they're like a late 80s, early 90s person,
they remember what a Game Genie is.
A Game Genie was something that you'd put into your Nintendo,
and it would give you almost all the cheat codes for almost all the games.
So, for instance, I was not very good at Super Mario Bros. 3.
Could only get a few levels in, and then I'd die.
And I don't remember if there were continues or not.
But either way, I could never beat that game.
I put that Game Genie in.
I hit some codes, whatever.
I flew through Super Mario Bros. 3, one shot, like, in an hour.
I beat that game so easily.
This verse, to me, is like a Game Genie.
What do I mean by this?
With all of the difficulties and anxieties of life,
you're telling me all I need to do is pray,
and I will have peace that passes all understanding.
It seems like snake oil to me.
I'm saying this as somebody who's trained to become a pastor,
that the Bible is pretty central in my life.
And I'm just like, on face value, this is snake oil.
This is like a life hack.
This is a trick.
And I say that because life is full of all sorts of things
that cause tons of anxiety.
And not just, oh, man, you know, like,
I'm kind of worried about what we're going to have for dinner tonight.
No, no, I'm talking deep-down anxieties,
like pain anxieties, confusion, frustration, anger.
And on face value, just say, just pray.
It'll be okay, right?
Like, no, it won't be okay on face value.
This verse is not telling us to be anxious,
not to be anxious,
but if you become anxious here and there, that's okay.
Or it doesn't say, you know, life is kind of,
it's full of anxieties,
but, you know, try your best to avoid them.
Or, listen, it's okay, you're only human.
That's not what it's saying.
It's saying be anxious about nothing.
Now, there's some verses in the Bible
that are not to be taken literally.
What do I have here?
Isaiah 64 says that we are clay and God is the potter.
FYI, you don't take that seriously.
We're not clay, right?
We're not literally, we take it seriously,
but we're not, we don't take it literally.
We're not clay.
In Mark chapter eight, Jesus says,
if you, if your hand or your foot or your eye
causes you to sin, lop it off or gouge it out.
Jesus isn't just FYI saying,
if you sin, you have to lop off a part of your body.
It's hyperbolic.
It's hyperbole.
It's to get the point across.
This is a literal verse.
It is to be taken literally.
Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew six,
if you have a pen and paper, write it down 24 to 34.
I'm not going to read it, but Jesus here,
these are the same words that Jesus says.
He says, don't be anxious about where you will go
or what you will eat or what you will wear.
The cares of this life.
If God will feed the birds, won't he feed you?
If he clothes the grass who's here today and gone tomorrow,
won't he clothe you?
Don't be anxious about anything.
It's this, this verse is to be taken literally.
Don't be anxious about anything.
So if then we aren't to be anxious,
what are we to be like?
How do we deal with this anxiety?
Because the world is full of different things that cause anxiety.
Are we to be detached people?
Are we to find our inner self?
Are we to become one with the universe
or have this zen-like state where we are at peace no matter what?
There's an episode of Seinfeld where Kramer,
he started saying serenity now.
I don't know if you guys remember this episode,
but Kramer, he just decided,
I'm not going to be anxious anymore.
So whenever something came,
he just said serenity now, like that.
And eventually at the end of the episode,
he's a basket case.
He just serenity now, serenity now.
Like he's freaking out.
I don't know if you guys ever seen that.
That's not what the scriptures are telling us to do.
The scriptures are telling us actually to pray.
That is what we are supposed to do when we are anxious.
We are to be people who pray.
And here there's two different ways of prayer.
In verse 6, it says,
in everything by prayer and petition or supplication.
The first one is prayer.
This is like everyday type of prayers.
You wake up in the morning,
you thank God for the day,
you thank God for your breakfast,
you pray for your family,
you pray for your work,
you pray before you get in the car to drive.
It's kind of these ongoing daily prayers.
And these petitions are very specific prayers.
It's like if you need a breakthrough in something,
or if somebody's sick and you're just praying
that they'll get better,
or maybe you have a loved one who doesn't know the Lord,
and you're just praying that they'll come to faith.
There is just something that you just need
a specific answer to prayer.
And it's like taking an ax
and just doing the same thing,
the same motion, the same prayer,
until that tree falls over.
That's the idea of a petition.
So it's these two things,
these ongoing and the specific type of prayer.
And this will help us to be anxious about nothing.
I'm going to go back to this idea.
Can we really be anxious about nothing?
I think it is important to talk about what anxiety is
just really briefly,
so that we will have a better idea
of how to pray in a specific manner.
And I'll be honest with you,
I feel anxious in talking about anxiety.
And I do because
some of you guys have gone through the ringer.
Like we've been here for only a year now,
and I've got to know some of you guys.
And the people that I don't,
I just assume you've gone through the ringer,
because life is tough.
And what I don't want to do
is stand up here
and say something really trite.
And say,
yeah, you just need to pray.
Like, prayer solves everything, you know?
I remember there used to be
little, at the camp I worked at
when I was younger,
a lot of kids had these little
bracelets,
and they had an acronym that said
P-U-S-H, push.
And it was pray until something happens.
And it seems trite.
That's what you'd put on a coffee mug.
And that, I think, would be a bit insensitive,
because there's a real pain
that has been experienced here.
Ongoing pain for years.
I'm not, by any means,
an expert on how the human brain functions,
or the, I couldn't provide you
with an exhaustive list
of the things that cause anxiety.
I'm sure you guys could come up
with a better list
than I would give.
But I just want to put this
forward to you guys to consider.
It might seem a bit shocking.
We'll continue on.
But I want to say to you
that I think the real reason
that we have anxiety
and a lack of peace
is because we have an innate,
an innate distrust of God.
That, when I'm preparing this,
I'm just like,
if I say that,
that's like kicking somebody
when they're down.
It's like, oh,
they're going through anxiety.
Yeah, you didn't trust God enough.
That's not what I'm saying,
by the way.
But I'm actually kind of saying it.
But just not in a
kick you when you're down type of way.
That we have anxiety
and a lack of peace
because we have
an innate distrust
in God.
And what do I mean by that?
I think a lot of us
aren't saying,
God, I don't trust you.
I think a lot of us
are trying to trust God.
But when situations arise
or when difficulty comes,
we don't trust God
to solve these issues
and to bring us forward
through it.
And we either don't believe
God truly is good
or that he doesn't really care
or that he isn't capable
of helping us.
We struggle as people
to trust people
that we can see.
God, we don't see.
And it's hard to trust God
when we don't see him.
We have trust issues.
I have trust issues.
Going back to verse 6
after the Apostle Paul
tells us to pray,
he says we aren't just to pray,
but we are to pray
with thanksgiving.
It says verse 6,
the second part of it,
but in everything
by prayer and supplication,
with thanksgiving,
let your requests
be made known to God.
Thanksgiving.
That's kind of a hard thing to do.
I can pray a lot,
but how can I be thankful to God?
And what does it mean
to be thankful to God?
And I think it means
recalling God's goodness
and his mercy in our lives.
Remembering that he is loving
and kind,
recalling his attributes.
And this is tough
when we are people
that distrust
and especially distrust God.
But that's what the scriptures
tell us.
Nevertheless,
this is what we are to do.
And I'm going to get back
to this in a minute,
but let's continue on
in our passage this morning.
So verse 7 says,
The peace of God
that passes all understanding
will guard our hearts
and our minds
in Christ Jesus.
Almost always,
peace comes
because of understanding.
My folks are here
and they'll get a kick
out of me using this.
And I prepared this
before I knew
they were going to come,
but when my brother
and I were younger,
we'd have a curfew
for midnight.
And we live in a small town
and we go to house parties
or field parties
and we wouldn't come home
at midnight.
We'd come home much later.
And I just,
you know,
I'm a grown man,
you know,
like as a 15-year-old
that eats all my parents' food
and doesn't pay any bills
and like just
is completely irresponsible.
But I'm a man,
you know.
And my parents
would always be up.
They would always be awake
when we come home.
And it would frustrate me.
And I remember them saying
something you'll understand
when you have kids,
that we can't rest
until you're home,
that we know
that your home's
safe and sound.
My parents' peace
and all parents' peace,
they couldn't have that peace
unless they understood
their children were safe.
Peace follows understanding.
And that's kind of
a funny example,
but how about people
that have gone through
a tragedy
and they don't really know why?
They've lost somebody.
They're in a situation
where maybe they get a disease
and they don't know what's up
or their business fails
or their marriage fails
or their children,
something happens with them
and they don't know why.
That can cause a lot of anxiety
and peace is robbed
and frustration and anger,
all of this stuff
kind of wells up.
And you can become jaded
or you can become
just so cynical with life
or you can curse God.
You don't know the reason why.
This scripture is telling us,
hey, there's going to be peace
that transcends understanding.
So a peace that exists
where understanding does not,
that does not compute
very well with me.
I like to know the reason why
and only then I can be at peace
with the situation.
If you're a student
and you bomb a test,
well, maybe you want to know
the reason why,
which answers you didn't have right
and then you can go back
and relearn.
The whole point is
peace comes with understanding.
The scripture here says
peace will come
and it will exist
where understanding does not.
A peace that surpasses
or transcends understanding.
And this peace is said
to guard our hearts
and our minds.
So this peace
isn't this passive peace,
isn't the serenity now
Kramer type of peace.
It's not a peace
that is delusional
about the ups and downs of life.
It's a peace that is active.
And Paul talks about this peace
and almost personifies it,
making it like a guard
or a sentry
that is watching over a city
or that is in an outpost
looking for the enemy advance.
And when that enemy comes,
the alarm is sounded
and that advance,
that enemy advance
is pushed back.
This is what this peace
is supposed to look like.
This is what Paul is saying
saying to us this morning
about what this peace will do.
It will guard our hearts
and our minds.
And this whole peace,
it says,
it finishes off in verse 7,
that it's in Christ Jesus.
So it's not just that
this is the peace of God,
but it's actually the peace
from God
that he gives it to us.
The key to all of this
is what Paul says
in verse 6,
to be thankful.
And he really,
he hammers this idea home
a couple verses ahead
in verse 4,
where he says,
rejoice again,
I say rejoice.
How can we rejoice
when we've gone through tragedy?
How can we rejoice
if we've gone through divorce?
How can we rejoice
if we have suffered?
Or people overlook us?
Or we are desperately lonely?
How can we rejoice?
In all of these things,
we are dealing
with a small sliver
of reality.
And I'm just going to
pause really quickly
because I don't want to say
something trite again.
What we see in this life
is our small sliver
of reality.
But it is our sliver
of reality.
It matters to us.
And for all that we know,
this is reality.
But it's just a sliver of it.
My sliver of reality,
apart from the whole
church planning stuff,
it's my wife and my daughter.
That is my reality.
There's not much
that really exists
outside of that.
That is my reality.
And you guys have
your own sliver of reality
and you hold it dear.
But we are finite people.
And God is infinite.
So he sees the beginning
from the end.
Our sliver of reality
fits in that,
but it is not
the beginning and the end.
So it's not to downplay
any of the things
that we've gone through
at all
or that we are going through,
but it's to recognize
that God is actually
bigger than everything.
So I'm not trying to be,
again,
trite or quaint,
but God is actually
in control.
the scriptures,
when Paul says
for us to rejoice,
and when he says rejoice,
I mean,
this is a theme
throughout Paul's letters.
They're not just saying,
hey guys,
sing a tune,
be happy.
But this rejoicing
is a call for the church,
for us,
to put our faith
and trust
and hope in God,
whether we feel like it
or not,
whether it comes across
easy or not,
that when the scriptures
talk about God
being always good
and always merciful
and always just,
that we need to
believe that.
And the reality,
I mean,
that is the reality.
Jesus,
God the Father,
gave us his son,
his very son,
to pay the penalties
for our death.
the most prized thing
in the universe,
the most prized person
of the universe
was given to us.
Everything below that,
everything that we need
is below that.
And if he gave us his son,
how won't he give us
everything else
that we need?
When he'll give it?
Not sure.
There's no promise here
of when that peace will come.
And most certainly,
there's no promise here
of the calamity
or the tragedy
or whatever it may be
that has caused us
to have anxiety.
There's no promise
that that'll disappear.
But if he has given us
his son,
then what else
will he hold back?
And that's what it says
in Romans 8.31.
I encourage you guys
just to,
when you are feeling low,
just feast on Romans
8.31 and 32.
Feast on it.
Read it and read it
and read it again.
In the end,
as believers,
we can go through
all sorts of stuff.
But with God,
when we're putting our hope
and trust in him,
we are praying
and being thankful
when we pray,
recognizing who God is
and what he has done,
we will realize
that whatever goes on
in the temporal,
in the here and now,
will be trumped
by the eternal.
That whatever tears we cry,
whatever anxiety we have,
whatever pain we suffer
in the now,
will not exist
in the eternal.
That Jesus has paid
the penalty for that.
It doesn't mean,
like I mentioned,
that we will be
free from those things,
but that we will have
literally,
truly,
a peace
that passes
all understanding.
Psalm 73.
If you guys want to turn
to Psalm 73.
This is a psalm
by Asaph.
This is one of the psalms
that aren't by King David,
but this is a psalm
by a man named Asaph,
and he is pouring out
his everything to God.
He is rattled.
This is a prayer,
there's anxiety in it.
If you read verses 1 to 22,
there is a lot of anxiety
in this,
and yet he says this,
starting in verse 23.
Nevertheless,
I am continually with you.
You hold my right hand.
You guide me
with your counsel,
and afterward
you will receive me
to glory.
Whom have I
in heaven but you?
There is nothing
on earth
that I desire
besides you.
My flesh
and my heart
may fail,
but God
is the strength
of my heart
and my portion
forever.
That's not saying
I am rescued from it.
It says everything
can crumble,
but God,
you are the portion
of my life.
And if you've gone
through stuff
and you know
that God has,
he is there for you
and he has carried
you through it,
this is your prayer.
These are your words.
And if you haven't
gone through that,
these can be your words.
That your heart
and your flesh,
they may fail,
but God
is your portion
and your strength
forever.
What a wonderful
truth.
How is all
of this stuff
achieved?
How is this
possible?
Jesus,
the night
he was betrayed,
he went to the
garden of Gethsemane
and he was anxious.
He had anxiety.
He was pouring
out his soul
to the father
and he said,
God,
the son of God
had anxiety
and said to the father,
if it is possible,
let this cup
pass from me.
Meaning,
if I can find
another way,
if you can find
another way
that I don't have
to go to the cross
of Calvary
to go through
all of that,
then let it be so.
But he said,
not my will,
but yours be done.
So in the garden,
Jesus suffers
unbelievable anxiety.
He sweats
drops
as if they were
blood.
He is going
through so much
anxiety.
Why?
So he could
bring us peace.
So it's not just
peace of God
or peace from God,
but it's actually
peace with God.
That we were
sinners,
we were at odds
with the God
of the universe
because of our sin,
but he sent his son
to suffer our anxiety
so that we could
have his peace.
That is the gospel.
We could have peace
that surpasses
all understanding
because our faith
and our hope
is in our Lord
and not in ourselves
or in our situation.
And what great hope
that is.
If you are here
this morning
and you don't know
what this hope is,
you're not somebody
who considers themselves
a Christian,
or maybe you are
a Christian,
and you have let
anxiety creep in,
and you're in this spiral
going down and down
and down,
and you're anxious
about being anxious,
and you're sick and tired
about being sick and tired,
there is great hope for you.
We pray,
we bring it to God,
and we thank him
for who he is,
and he will give us
incredible,
incredible peace
that nothing in this world
can give.
Lord,
as we come
to the latter part
of our service
and as we close
your scriptures,
Lord,
help us to be people
that take you
at your word.
Let us be people
that trust in you
even though
our heart
and our flesh
fail us.
Even when we are
just frustrated
and we are full
of anxiety,
give us that peace.
Help us to pray.
Teach us to pray.
Help us to know
that you are
starting,
you've started
to work in us
and that this is
a journey we're on
where you are teaching
us to come under
your lordship
in greater degrees.
Come into a trust
in you in greater degrees,
Lord.
And give us hope
that that's not
a difficult thing,
but that your son
says that his yoke
is easy
and that his burden
is light.
that that is
something for us.
That is great hope.
So Lord,
we just pray
that you will
help us
to be
those people
that pray
and to trust in you.
We pray all these
things in Jesus' name.