If we're not careful, what we hear Jesus saying here, do not be anxious, is just, cut it out, stop it. That's how I talk to my kids sometimes. Stop. Just stop it. Get a little Snow White in you. Whistle while you work. If we're not careful, we hear Jesus genuinely kind of say like, buck up. You know, get your crap in order. Don't be anxious. And what you need to understand is Jesus is not a drill sergeant, like barking at our hearts and minds to like stop it and cut it out. That's not what he's doing. He's actually going to reason with us today. And I love that about Jesus.
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For Jesus, his perspective, according to God's worldview, is that anxiety is not meant to be the resting heartbeat of your days. But for many of us in the room, anxiety is the irregular heart rhythms that we carry.
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Anxiety, worry, stress are often related to a feeling of concern around that which we cannot control. So anxiety is this desire to control that which we cannot control. Do you feel that?
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Bad news disrupts our perception of control. That's the good news. Bad news, things happening outside of our control—the headlines, the stress, the anxiety, the job, the relationship, the finances, the health, whatever it is—that bad news disrupts our perception of control. You see, when things get out of hand, it brings to reality something that we have to wrestle with. And not everyone agrees on this, and that is that you were never in control in the first place.
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As human beings, we have a tendency to disbelief and to dislike that we are totally dependent on the supporting power and goodness of God. There's something inside of us that does not want to believe and does not want to accept and does not want to acknowledge that we are totally dependent on the power and the goodness of God for every breath in our lungs today.
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Sin at its core is a lack of trust in God in an effort to become more in control of my own life. Does this make sense to you guys? All right, so what we're dealing with is where does anxiety come from? It comes from this desire for control.
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If you want to deal with anxiety in your life, you're going to deal with wrong thinking and wrong priorities. Does it sound okay? So if you're taking notes, by the way, it's helpful to take notes. I don't know about you, but typically for me, I can sit and listen to something really good, hopefully this is good, and then totally forget everything I heard and just go eat lunch.
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Every day, all day long, your heart, which the scriptures authors talk about as kind of the central, like, like reality of, of all of life, like the kind of the control center, the command center of your life, if you will. Your heart is muttering to you, all kinds of wild, ridiculous things. And the scriptures and, and Jesus and the scripture authors, they warn often, do not listen to your heart. It's deceitful, it's confused, it just runs its mouth all the time, and it normally leads you in really bad directions. So Jesus would teach us to our hearts to shut up and then bring them back to truth, to argue with our hearts and bring truth into the matter.
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Faith is a position of confidence in this life based on the character of God made known through Jesus, the scriptures and experience, in that order. Faith. If you're wondering what does it mean to have faith in Jesus, faith in God, what are we talking about? Faith is a position of confidence that determines in how I live in this life based on the character of God made known first through Jesus.
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God's providence is, is him working in and through everything, even the bad stuff, to work things together for the good of those who love him. That's Romans, chapter 8, verse 28. That God is big enough and good enough that he cannot, he doesn't override your free will, but he can also work in and through all kinds of different circumstances to bring about good and his glory and the good of others at the same time.
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If you can't lean into God's providence in your life, of all the things that are out of your control, you will carry anxiety as the central reality of your life. There's no way around it.
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If God was just creator and we're just his creation, then he could just like, hook us up with—I have this vision of like Minecraft protein blocks. See what I'm talking about? You know, everything in Minecraft, just like a little square. Like, if it was just about a creator and creation, it'd be like, you know, feeding a gerbil or something. I don't know, right? Like, just here's a protein block, right? But think about the variety of food that you and I get to experience. If God is creator and Father, he didn't have to give us variety to enjoy the splendor of the lilies. Does it make sense to you guys? Like, think about, man, the palette of your life, that you can taste all of these different things, you can see all these different colors. God didn't have to give variety. Why would he do it? Because he's generous.
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If you have anything at the center of your life other than Jesus, you will continue to experience anxiety even if it's not there right now. Because you have built a layer of control that's uninterrupted in your life. That's fine. If you built peace right now and things are going well, that's great. That's fine. Until it's not.
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One of the ways you can deal with your anxiety today is by naming your fears. What is it that you fear? Like, what is it that concerns you? There's some things in my heart that God's been working on that sit in the background. That Jaws theme song I was talking about. What are your fears? If you will follow the breadcrumbs of your fears, it will reveal to you the areas that you struggle to trust in God. Your fears are revealing something to you. If you will follow them.
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The invitation to seek first the kingdom of God is. Friends, if you will lean into my business, I will handle yours. That is Jesus invitation to today.
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One of the issues around anxiety is it's not just robbing you of being present in the moment, but it's robbing you of what matters most. That Jesus wants to secure, yes, in your heart, the love of the Father, but he also wants to transform you into the kind of person that lives a sacrificial life for the sake of other others. That you were actually made in that control to steward it for the sake of others. That life is not going to be found in self indulgence, but self sacrifice. Jesus is the one that demonstrates this.
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It's one thing to trust in Jesus, and it's another thing entirely to trust Jesus. Does that make sense, to trust him? Is he reliable? Are his teachings true? Is he speaking into reality? So not just can he save me from my sin, sure. But do I trust him enough to obey him with my finances? Do I trust him enough to obey him in my sexuality? Do I trust him enough to obey him in my career? Do I trust him enough to obey him in relationships and in dating? Do I trust him enough to lean into sacrifice sacrificial community? Do I trust him enough to lean in and have spiritual conversations and make disciples? Do I trust him in all of these other areas? Not do I trust in him, but is he reliable and trustworthy and true? It's one thing to trust in Jesus. It's another thing to trust him.
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If you're struggling to trust in Jesus, the real struggle is that they, they don't want to doubt themselves. They have no problem doubting God. Like, oh, yeah, I could poke holes in that all day. But they, but they don't want to doubt themselves. The perceived idea of being totally self sufficient is what they're holding on to. And friends, can I just encourage you if you have yet to doubt yourself, you are living in blind faith. You are living with the blinders up because everyone else around you can see that you don't have it all together.
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Some of us need to argue with our hearts daily to marinate and rewire our minds in right thinking. Your biggest issue is wrong thinking you're a follower of Jesus, but you're saturating your narrative in a story that is not the one that Jesus is writing for you. The first thing you look at when you wake up in the morning is your phone and you let the world inform you of reality rather than letting Jesus shape your reality.
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One of the reasons that like that we're leaning into this is not just for you, but part of the call of a Jesus follower is to carry heaven's perspective on the behalf for the behalf of others, for the sake of others. That you want that perspective for yourself. Yes, but how much more for the sake of others, you carry it for yourself. Yes, but then you go out and you share that perspective with others. You speak what's true over others. You look in someone, you're in a city group and someone is sharing something false about them and you say that's not true about you. This is who God says that you are. That's not true about the world. This is what God is doing. That's not true about your reality, this is what's true. You should be, as a follower of Jesus, that kind of person in the life of others.
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The most consistent feedback of every single person that deletes it completely off their phones. Like they're just life came alive for a month. They're like, man, I like, my mind is so fresh, my anxiety is gone. I'm like reading the scriptures and I'm hearing the voice of God and I'm serving others. And all because I deleted these little terrorists in my pocket and they can't bother me anymore. Like, what if like the best thing you can do is not just delete it for 30 days, but like forever. Like maybe just remove it. Like literally. I just turned my smartphone into a dumb phone. I was like, I'm done with it. I'm not doing it anymore. Like it's just gonna, I'm gonna text people and do work. You can't. Nothing else exists on my phone anymore because I don't have time to let my worldview be interrupted by what's not true. And I'm so easily manipulated the opposite direction.
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Some of you are just. The invitation is very simply to reprioritize that your anxiety is coming from anything other than Jesus being at the center of your life, which is like, you know, the fight every day. And so I would encourage you to lean into what God is doing through the scriptures, through this church, through community. Let Jesus worldview influence the life that you're living and watch him deal with your anxiety in a way that you can.
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