Turn your Bibles to Philippians chapter four. Philippians chapter four. Our passage this morning is Philippians 4, four through seven. And as you're turning there, I want to encourage you to set aside, if any of this applies to you, to set aside any justifications, excuses, or rationalizations you may at this moment have for the anxiety you may experience in your life, whether small or great, whether past or present. I want to encourage you to not think emotionally this morning about your emotions. And what I'm asking of you is nothing new, not around here, not in this church. Those of us who are members here at Grace Fellowship have had it said to us at one time or another, maybe regularly, hey, let's talk about that. We hear that whenever one of our pastors wants us to think deeply, maybe differently, always biblically. So if you have anxious moments, if you're anxious today, If you've ever been anxious, I want you to try to set aside how you feel about your feelings, and let the word of God minister to you this morning. Go ahead and stand with me as we read Philippians 4, four through seven. God's word tells us this. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. You may be seated. 10 years ago, almost to the day, March 24th, 2013, to be exact, Pastor Mike preached a sermon titled, Stand Fast in the Lord, Part Two. His text was Philippians 4, six through seven. A decade ago, almost to the day. God's providence is always so amazing to me, especially when I actually see it with my own eyes. It is not coincidence, it's not happenstance, that I stand before you 10 years later, almost to the day, to preach the same passage that Pastor Mike preached then. Since it's been a decade, though, I think a brief overview of the letter to the Philippians is in order. Of course, it was written by the Apostle Paul. It was written to the church in Philippi, which was the first city where Paul planted a church. The letter to the Philippians is one of four letters penned by Paul that are known as the prison epistles. The other three are Ephesians, Colossians, and Philemon. Philippians was written during Paul's first imprisonment in Rome, which puts the date somewhere between 60 and 62 AD. And like most of all, or all of Paul's letters just about, it is rich in theology and practical application. Borrowing from Pastor John MacArthur's outline of the letter, Paul begins as he usually did with a long, heartfelt greeting, and then he communicates the circumstances in which he found himself, basically giving a brief report to his circumstances, to those he was writing to. From the end of chapter one to the middle of chapter two, Paul exhorts the Philippians to stand firm in the midst of persecution, to be united in humility, to always remember Christ's example, and to ever be light in a dark world. In the second half of chapter two, Paul tells the Philippians about his two companions, Timothy and Epaphroditus. All of chapter three is committed to warning the Philippians against legalism and lawlessness, the two extremes of an unbiblical pendulum. In chapter four, Paul admonishes the church for the quarreling that was going on within. He expresses his thankfulness for and to the church, and he ends the letter with a short farewell. One of the major themes of Paul's letter to the Philippians is joy, knowing that the church was facing its share, a fair share of difficulty. Five times in this short letter, only four short chapters, Paul speaks of joy. In chapter one, verse four, Paul writes that the Philippians are always in every prayer of his, for they all were making my prayer with joy, his prayer with joy. In 125, he writes, convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy and faith. In chapter two, verse two, he asks the reader to complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Later in chapter two, in verse 29, he tells the Philippians regarding Epaphroditus, so receive me in the Lord with all joy and honor such men. And then in chapter four, verse one, Paul writes, therefore my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved. In Philippians one, 27 to 29, Paul encourages the Philippians to stand firm, not as individuals, but as a church family in the midst of persecution. He wrote, only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind, striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God. For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ, you should not only believe in him, but also suffer for his sake. In chapter two, verse 14, and again in chapter four, verse two, Paul admonishes the Philippians about conflict within the church. Do all things without grumbling and disputing, he writes. And also I entreat Iodia and Syntyche to agree in the Lord. And in chapter three, verse two, Paul warns the Philippians not to fall prey to false teachers. Look out for the dogs. Look out for evildoers. Look out for those who mutilate the flesh. So that's just a quick look at the letter to the Philippians as a whole. Again, our focus this morning will be on Philippians 4, verses four through seven. The title of this morning's message is Anxiety. It's not something you have. It's something you do. Anxiety is not something you have. Anxiety is something you do. And as we look at this passage, and for those of you who are taking notes, we're gonna consider what anxiety is, why we shouldn't be anxious, and how to biblically fight against it. What anxiety is, why we shouldn't be anxious, and how to biblically fight against it. What, why, and how of anxiety. Now because this is a topical exposition of the text, we're not gonna follow the passage letter by letter, word by word, and we may not walk through it as slowly by slowly, as our Kenyan brethren like to say. But before we dig in, I wanna share with you what I've discovered over years of biblical study and just as much personal experience on the topic of anxiety. First, everyone, everyone, at one time or another, to one degree or another, for various lengths of time, experiences anxiety no matter how fabulous their life is. We all experience anxiety. To be sure, for many, anxiety occupies no more than an occasional, maybe even rare fleeting thought. For others, anxiety is like the crazy uncle or distant cousin who comes unannounced, quickly wears out his welcome, but refuses to leave. And if he does leave, it is only to move from the spare bedroom to his RV along the side of the house. Everyone else likely finds themselves somewhere between those two extremes, somewhere between I'm not anxious by nature, I hardly ever get anxious to anxiety being like the crazy uncle and never seems to leave. If these things were not true, if they were not true about believer and unbeliever alike, God's word would not have so much to say about it. God's word speaks a lot about anxiety. So the what, well, that's obvious. The what is anxiety. Paul writes in Philippians 4.6, do not be anxious about anything. So let's start by determining a baseline working biblical definition of the word anxiety. The Hebrew word translated anxiety in the ESV translation of the Bible is da'aga, which means carefulness, fear, heaviness, and sorrow. No surprises there in that definition. It's used in verses like Proverbs 12, 25, which reads, anxiety in a man's heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad. In the New Testament, the Greek word translated as anxiety in the ESV is mrymna, which simply means care, worry, or anxiety. Again, no surprises. Now an example of its use is when Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 11, 28, and apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. Paul experienced anxiety and admitted to it. Interestingly, the Greek word myrimna is a cognate, a fancy way of saying related to the Greek word myrizo, which means apart or separated from the whole, dividing and fracturing a person's being into parts. And isn't that what anxiety does? It fractures our mind, making us double-minded and unstable in all our ways. It separates our minds from our hearts. Anxiety is a fractured state of mind in which we deny what we know in our hearts to be true according to the word of God and instead opt to believe the lies we listen to in our minds. So let's take a quick survey. of what the Bible says about anxiety and its related emotions, emotions like fear and worry, distress, and the like. The word anxiety appears six times in God's word, at least in the ESV translation. We just saw how Paul uses the word in 2 Corinthians 11, 28. It's the only time the word appears in the ESV translation of the New Testament. The word anxious appears 24 times in the ESV translation of God's word. And the only time it's used in a positive sense is in 1 Corinthians 7, where positive and negative anxiety is contrasted. In verses 32 to 34, we read this. I want you to be free, Paul writes, from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord, but the married man is anxious about worldly things, how to please his wife, and his interests are divided. Again, sinful anxiety divides the mind. Paul continues, and the unmarried or betrothed woman is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to be holy, in body and spirit, but the married woman is anxious about worldly things, how to please her husband. The phrase, do not fear, appears 38 times in the word of God. We find the phrase, do not be afraid, 33 times, the phrase, fear not, 34 times. Jesus asks the question, why are you afraid? He asks that twice, and both times it comes with a rebuke to those having so little faith. The word fainthearted appears three times, and the word worried only once. Found that interesting. We find the one instance of the word worried in Luke 12, 29. And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. The phrase cast down appears four times. The word troubled appears 30 times, twice. It is mentioned as not being sinful, the two references to Jesus's troubled spirit in the garden. We know that however Jesus was troubled, he did not sin. Once it is mentioned in the context of people being troubled by demonic forces. Once it's mentioned in the context of God troubling the people with distress. The remaining 26 times, the word troubled is used by God in this word to describe someone's state of mind. The phrase, fret not, appears four times. Once in Proverbs 24, 19, which reads, fret not yourself because of evildoers and be not envious of the wicked. The other three appearances are all found in the beginning of Psalm 37, one of my favorite Psalms. In verses one and seven and eight. God's word says, fret not yourself because of evildoers. Be not envious of wrongdoers. Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him. Fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices. Refrain from anger and forsake wrath. Fret not yourself, it tends only to evil. The word distressed appears 15 times. The word dismayed, 40 times. The command, do not be dismayed, seven times. Now, just in the words and phrases, we just surveyed 235 times. God's word speaks of anxiety, depression, fear, worry, and the like. And these various states of mind are always, but for very limited exceptions, spoken of negatively. or were commanded not to be this way. That God, through the Holy Spirit-inspired human authors of his infallible, inerrant, God-breathed word, commands, not suggests, that his people not be anxious, not be worried, not be fearful, not be depressed, I think should lead us to only one conclusion. Anxiety, depression, fear, worry, and the like are not ailments. They're not conditions. They are not disorders. They are not diseases that people have. Anxiety, depression, fear, and worry are ways that people think. Anxiety, depression, fear, and worry are not things a person contracts or catches like the common cold or cancer. These are things people commit. These are things that people do in their minds, which often leads to all outward manners of further unrighteousness. Anxiety is sin. Depression is sin. And there is not a pill for that. There are no man-made medical cures for sin. Now, as I've thought long and deeply about these things, and you all know that I have thought long and deeply about these things, and several of you, in addition to our pastors, have helped me to think long and deeply about these things, I can come up with only one reason, I think, why we as Christians would disagree with what I just asserted. Which again is this, anxiety is sin, depression is sin, there is not a pill for that, there is not a man-made medical cure for sin. The only reason I can think of that we would disagree with this biblical assertion is that we've bought into the world's notion, society's standard, of putting black robes over the shoulders of those who wear white lab coats. We've given the medical profession an authority in our culture and in our own lives. That is unbiblical. And in doing so, when it comes to sinful thinking like anxiety, depression, fear, and worry, we've limited the authority of God and his word to an arbitrary line in the sand, a line that we draw for ourselves, a line that well-intended Christians will not let God's word cross, a line determined by how we feel about how we feel and think. I'm anxious, I know it's a sin, but I can't take this anymore. Prayer isn't working, the Bible isn't working, counsel isn't working, I need to see a doctor, maybe I need to take something. And before we know it, we have replaced the authority of God's word with the DSM, the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. We have taken the proverbial black robes of the judge of the universe and draped them over the shoulders of men and women wearing white lab coats. We have been well taught here at Grace Fellowship Church about what the Bible says about authority God is sovereign over all. And within God's divine providence and revealed will, we see in His word three primary spheres of authority under and within the ultimate authority of God. And those three spheres are the family, the local church, and government. And what we've learned, what we know, is that there are times when those spheres may overlap each other, and in a more limited and specific sense, when one sphere may usurp the authority of another, with the understanding that none of these three spheres ever usurp the authority of Almighty God and his word. The Bible is clear, God rules and reigns, and as he rules and reigns, mankind functions under God's sovereignty and divine providence in the spheres of the family, the local church, and government. What we do not see in those clearly defined and clearly delineated spheres of biblical authority is the medical profession. They're nowhere to be found in those three spheres. The men and women in white lab coats do not have any biblical authority in our lives. The medical profession is a service industry. Nothing more, nothing less. Your doctors work for you, you do not serve your doctors. My beloved brethren, we are foolish when we submit to doctors the way we would submit to a judge on the bench. We are foolish when we look to those who, by definition, are practicing medicine as if they're practicing law. Now, you may want at this point to hurl a straw man my way, Tony, you are wrong to say that we should never see a doctor and never take medication. Well, of course, if you could take a deep breath. look through what might be the haze of your emotions, and be honest, you know I haven't said or suggested that at all. What I'm suggesting, no, what I'm telling you is that we shouldn't give any authority to the medical profession that the Bible does not give it. Family, the Bible has the cure for all sin. which includes the sin of anxiety, depression, fear, and worry, and it's not measured in milligrams. It's not prescribed by a doctor. It's prescribed by the great physician, the Lord God, and it's measured by faith, not in milligrams. Yes, dear ones, the Bible has the cure for anxiety, depression, fear, and worry. The medical profession does not. The world does not. And when it comes to this issue, the best the medical profession and the rest of the world can offer you is nothing more than a Band-Aid for mortal wounds. And without Christ, without Christ, anxiety like every other sin is just that, a mortal wound. And here's one more thing, something I believe is very important that I want you to consider. Where in all of God's word does God command his people to repent of illness? Where? Where in God's word does God command his people to repent of illness? Where are we told we should turn from diseases and disorders? Where, brethren, where are we commanded to flee from maladies and ailments? Now, before you tear the pages of your Bibles looking for examples, let me help, nowhere. You won't find it anywhere. Nowhere in the Word of God are the people of God called to repent of illnesses, diseases, disorders, maladies, and ailments. In fact, the place where we find such unbiblical ideas are in Pentecostal, Charismatic, Word of Faith, Prosperity, New Apostolic Reformation, cultish circles. That's where we find that kind of ideology, but not in the Bible. Yet as we see, the Word of God clearly commands us to stop being anxious, to repent of anxiety, Do not be anxious about anything. We are commanded. The phrase do not be anxious is an active, present imperative in the Greek. And what does that mean? God, through the Apostle Paul, is commanding us to not be anxious now, never, and or for any reason. Yeah, Tony, but what about, no, no. Yeah, but in this situation, no. Surely when this happens, no. Yeah, but what if no? Nowhere in scripture will you find a condition or circumstance in which God allows for sinful anxiety. And again, let me whack what should be a dead horse a couple more times. God does not command his people to flee from or repent of illnesses, diseases, maladies, disorders, and the like. God never tells us to repent of our cuts, our colds, our cancers, our bruises, our benign ailments, or our bacterial infections. He never calls us to repent of those things. But he most certainly does call us, command us to stop sinning against him. And according to his word, if we love him, we will live to please him, trusting in and counting on his grace and his mercy when we fall short of his glory. And if you are anxious, brothers and sisters, you are not sick. You are not ill. You're sinning. And God commands you to stop it. Here, I think it's important to say this. If you were to ask me if I think a Christian can take psychotropic, mind-altering medications for sin, issues like anxiety and depression, my answer has to be yes. But let me explain. Don't run away, don't check out. Not yes in an affirming way, as if to say, sure, I think that might be best for you, or yeah, you ought to give that a try, or sure, that's okay. No, not at all. Rather, yes in a soteriological way, as to say a Christian taking such medications does not bring into question by default his or her salvation. Christians make mistakes. Christians make errors in judgment. Christians listen to bad advice. Christians sin. I came to faith in Jesus Christ in 1988. Twenty-two years later, I experienced a dark night of the soul that led to the decision to take an antidepressant. For the next eight years, I put a little pink pill in my mouth every morning. And in 2018, God's gracious and good providence complete with lots of chastisement, brought me to terms with what I had always known, but I did not have the strength, courage, or faith to admit. I had more trust and faith in that pill than I had in Christ. I had more trust in what a psychiatrist told me than what the word of God told me. For the last five years, with the help of our pastors and several of you, my church family, the Lord has brought about real repentance and ongoing sanctification in this area of my life. And yes, I praise God. And at no time did I lose my salvation. My theology is better than that, and so is yours. Were there times when I lacked assurance? Certainly, but the Lord who saved me on September 4th, 1988 is the same Lord who has kept me every moment of every day for the last 35 years. He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is it to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died. More than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword, or dare I add, anxiety, or depression, or medication? As it is written. For your sake we are being killed all the day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. No, no, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. No, I'm not saying that a person who takes antidepressants or other kinds of psychotropic drugs can't be a Christian. I'm not saying that. I am living, born again, testimony of this reality. What I'm saying is that a Christian shouldn't take these kinds of medications. They're not good for you physically. They are not good for you mentally. Most importantly, they are not good for you spiritually as they desensitize you to your need of repentance by medically altering your emotional state and suppressing the truth about what your sinful ways of thinking say about your trust in Christ and his word. A Christian who takes antidepressants isn't by default a false convert. But I don't believe any Christian should take psychotropic medications. I don't believe any Christian needs to take psychotropic medications. With that, let's continue to look at what the DSM. has to say about the treatment and cure of anxiety, why we shouldn't be anxious and how we should go about not being anxious. No, I'm not talking about the worldly and godless diagnostic statistical manual of mental disorders. No, let's go to our DSM for the rest of the time. The Didactic Spiritual Manual of Mindful Discipline, the Bible. All right, let's move on now to looking at why we shouldn't be anxious. Be encouraged, brethren. God's Word gives us lots of reasons why we shouldn't be anxious. He gives us at least three here in this passage. In Philippians 4, 4-5, Paul writes, Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand. The word rejoice is a present active imperative. It's a command, plain and simple. And the word rejoice is translated from the Greek word kairate, which means cheerful, calmly happy, or well off. The word is derived from two Greek words, kara, meaning joy, and karas, meaning grace. And we see the word rejoice used elsewhere in the New Testament. In Matthew 5, 11 and 12, we're told by Jesus to rejoice when persecuted. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. In Luke 10, 20, Jesus gave his disciples good reason for rejoicing. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven. In 1 Thessalonians 5, 16, we're commanded to rejoice as we are commanded to pray always without ceasing. And in 1 Peter 4, 12 to 14, we're told to rejoice now in preparation to rejoice forever. Peter writes, beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. God's word commands us to be cheerful and calmly happy as people who are truly well off. Oftentimes when I'm engaged in evangelistic conversations, I've assured people that I am no better than them, but I am most certainly better off. Why? I am in Christ, they are not. I am ultimately better off than any lost person because I'm in Christ. Aren't we as Christians so much better off than any and every unbeliever? Of course, of course we are. He is risen. We've been saved by the grace of God alone, through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone. We have much to rejoice about. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15, 12 to 20, now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. Brethren, we are not the most pitiful people on the planet. Everyone else is. Everyone without Christ, those of you here this morning without Christ, are those in the world to be most pitied. And you fools, you spiritually dead, hard-hearted, pitiful fools, turn to Christ. Repent and receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and your Savior while God's giving you time. As for us Christians, having been saved by the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross, we should be perpetually and calmly happy. We should be a cheerful people. We should be filled with joy because of the grace given to us by God through faith in Jesus Christ. We should all say and resound with our pastor that we are actually fabulous. Because it's true. If we're in Christ, it's true. Why shouldn't we be anxious? Because we have so much to rejoice about. We should be spending so much time rejoicing in Christ that there's no time. There's simply no time to be anxious. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say, rejoice. Paul gives another reason in verse five why we should not be anxious. As Christians, we are to be reasonable people, and anxiety is unreasonable. Anxiety is unreasonable. I am never more unreasonable than when I am anxious. Paul writes, let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Greek word translated as reasonableness is epikase. Here's the definition, seemly, equitable, yielding. The word is also translated as gentle, mild, forbearing, fair, reasonable, moderate. In ESV, the word is only translated as reasonableness here in Philippians 4.5. The only other three instances where the Greek word is used, it is translated as gentle. In 1 Timothy 3.3 and Titus 3.1-2, it's used to describe a qualification of an elder. In James 3.17, the word is used as an indicator of a Christian possessing wisdom from above. Now stay with me, it's gonna get just a little technical here for a moment. I think this is going to be very useful in helping us understand what it is that Paul is saying to us, particularly as it pertains to why we shouldn't be anxious. Paul uses the Greek word translated reasonableness as an aorist passive imperative. Stay with me. Most simply, the aorist tense in the Greek is equivalent to our English past tense. That's what it means. But the Greek aorist tense not only expresses action having been completed in the past, that completed action has ongoing results and effects. That's important. The passive voice represents action being done to something or to someone. And as we all know, of course, an imperative is a command. All right, so stay with me, let's put this together. This is where it gets really interesting. Kyle Barton on the Conversant Faith website wrote this of the passive imperative. Quote, the passive imperative is a command directed to you in which you are not the active doer, but rather the cooperator and recipient of someone else's doing, and yet you still retain responsibility. That's huge. So while Paul commands his readers to be reasonable, leaving the responsibility for reasonableness squarely on their shoulders, he commands them in such a way as to affirm that that reasonableness to which he calls them is a reasonableness that has been given to them. That matters. That's huge. During our time in Kenya, I don't think Pastor Mike referenced any passage of scripture more than Romans 12, one to two. It was a key element in his teaching from the pulpit. It was a key element when he was seated before pastors and teaching them during the conferences. It was a key element to his discipleship and his mentoring of the pastors when he was sitting down talking to them over a meal. Pastor Mike drove home over and over again with the Kenyan pastors with whom we spent time that transformation by the renewing of the mind was foundational in their pursuit of the reformation of their own lives, their families, and their churches. He emphasized that over and over and over again. Paul writes in Romans 12, one to two, I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing, you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. I'll give you one guess where Paul uses a passive imperative in this passage. It's this phrase, be transformed. Be transformed. Cranfield explains in his commentary, The Use of the Passive Imperative, in Romans 12 too, this way. Quote, the use of the passive imperative, be transformed, is consonant with the truth that while this transformation is not the Christian's own doing, but the work of the Holy Spirit, they themselves have a real responsibility in the matter, to let themselves be transformed, to respond to the leading and pressure of God's Spirit. The transformation is not something which is brought about in an instant. It has to be continually repeated. Or rather, it is a process which has to go on all the time, all the time the Christian is in this life. So, as Christians, our reasonableness is a gift of God, an aspect of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in each and every one of our lives. And while reasonableness has been given to us by God the Holy Spirit, like all our spiritual transformation, our reasonableness is something into which we must grow. And we are sanctified and continue to be sanctified. God has made us reasonable people. If we are in Christ, our new nature includes reasonableness. Therefore, we are responsible to behave that way, a Holy Spirit-wrought behavior that is noticeable to the people around us. So why shouldn't we be anxious? Well, if you are in Christ, since you are in Christ, God has made you reasonable. To be anxious is to be at war with the Spirit of God within you. To be anxious, Christian, is to live contrary to who you are in Christ. So again, why shouldn't we be anxious? Because we are to be, because who God is in us, what God has done for us, and what God has done to us, we are by our new nature to be rejoicing and reasonable people. Those are two extremely powerful reasons not to be anxious. We are to be a rejoicing people, and we are to be a reasonable people, and God has enabled us to do both. So we don't have to be anxious. We can choose reasonableness, we can choose rejoicing over anxiety because that's how God has made us as Christians. Paul gives us one more reason not to be anxious in this part of the passage. Again, we read in Philippians 4, four to five, rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand. The Lord is at hand. My brothers and sisters, we ought not be anxious because the Lord is at hand. The Lord is near, the Lord is here, and the Lord is returning soon. Paul expressed the omnipresent nearness of God during his speech to the Athenians in the midst of the Areopagus. In Acts 17, 26 to 31, we read, and he, God, made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for in him we live and move and have our being, as even some of your own poets have said, for we are indeed his offspring. Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent because he has fixed the day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed. And of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead. Yes, God is actually, truly, really not far from any of us. That should be an anxiety-eliminating reality in every Christian's life. And at the same time, for those of you here this morning who are outside of Christ, lost and dead in your sins, that same reality should make you extremely anxious that the Lord is near. There's nothing you say, nothing you do, nothing you think. There are no secret places from the God who is near. Turn to Christ. Instead of being anxious, brethren, we should live with the expectancy of the Lord's return. In Philippians 3, 18-20, Paul writes, For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their God is their belly, and they glory in their shame with minds set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like His glorious body by the power that enables Him even to subject all things to Himself. We should not be anxious because we are not citizens of this world. We are citizens of heaven. Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ has gone to prepare a place for us. And as citizens of heaven, we wait. not with troubled, anxious hearts, but with rejoicing hearts filled with glad expectancy. The Lord is near, and the Lord is returning soon. And with that glad expectancy should be a Holy Spirit given patience. James 5.8 tells us, you also be patient, establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. We should always be calmly happy, have good control of our emotions, a control derived from our reasonableness. Why? The Lord is right here. The Lord is with you. The Lord will never leave you or forsake you. You are always in Christ, in the presence of the Lord. But yet how easy is it for us in those anxious moments to forget the omnipresence of God? My brothers and sisters, dwell on the reality of Lord's nearness. If you're anxious, dwell on the reality that God is here, that God is with you. This is why we as Christians should never be anxious. The Lord is near to us. That should bring us great comfort, peace, joy, and gladness, all of which are the antithesis of anxiety. So thus far we've considered the what, what anxiety is and isn't. We've considered the why, why we have no need to be anxious. Now let's consider the how. How we can battle anxiety when it comes and how we can prevent it from taking hold of us. Look again at our passage. From the second half of verse six through verse seven, we read, but in everything, by prayer and supplication 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. The first line of defense, as well as the best offense in the fight against the sin of anxiety is prayer. And Paul prefaces this instruction with these words, but in everything, but in everything. But even before exhorting the people to pray, Paul gives important instruction with a single word. In English grammar, the word but is known as an adversative, meaning it's a word that expresses contrariety and opposition or antithesis. Not this, but that. Do this, but not that. The word but is one of the most important words in the Bible, and it is often used to express some of the most beautiful contrasts in all of scripture. Let's look at a few. Genesis 48, 21. Then Israel said to Joseph, behold, I am about to die, but God will be with you and will bring you again to the land of your fathers. Genesis 50, 20. As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive as they are today. Psalm 49, 14 to 16. Like sheep, they are appointed for Sheol. Death shall be their shepherd, and the upright shall rule over them in the morning. Their form shall be consumed in Sheol with no place to dwell. But God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol, for he will receive me. Psalm 73, 26, my flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Ecclesiastes 5, 7, for when dreams increase and words grow many, there is vanity, but God is the one you must fear. Luke 16, 15, and he, Jesus, said to them, you are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts, for what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God. Romans 5, 7 and 8. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die. But God, but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 2 Corinthians 7, 5 and 6. For even when we came into Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but we were afflicted at every turn, fighting without and fear within. But God, but God who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus. Ephesians 2, 1 to 5, and you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air. the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved. But God, One of the most powerful, beautiful, and sweetest phrases in all of Scripture, but God. Here's one more beautiful use of the adversative. We find it in a passage that we have heard often from Pastor Mike and in this church, 1 Corinthians 6, 9-11. Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God, and such were some of you. But you were washed. You were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of God. Battle against anxiety is a battle of the mind. It is a thinking war. It is a war over and against your thoughts. It's a fight. You must win. It's a fight. You can win because if you are a Christian, then you are from God and have overcome them for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. In this wonderful classical book, Spiritual Depression, a book that ministered to me in a time of deep spiritual darkness, Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones wrote this, quote, have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You've not originated them, but they are talking to you. They bring back the problems of yesterday, et cetera. Somebody is talking. Who is talking to you? You yourself is talking to you. Now this man's treatment in Psalm 42 was this, instead of allowing this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself. Why art thou cast down on my soul, he asks. His soul has been depressing him, crushing him, so he stands up and says, self, listen for a moment, I will speak to you, end quote. Look, living here in Iowa, although we don't have hills, we do have snow, eight inches over the last day or so. So this should be an easy picture for you to wrap your heads around. You form a snowball in your hand standing at the top of a hill. You roll the snowball down the hill. What happens to the snowball? It grows larger and picks up speed as it rolls down the hill. So let me give you a silly but accurate example of what the snowball effect looks like when it's applied to anxiety. The snowball effect is a term that we have coined in our own home. All right, so here it goes. So I wake up this morning and I review my sermon manuscript. I even preached it once to myself this morning. I spend some time in prayer, then I put down the manuscript. I go to the kitchen and pull a bowl from the cupboard and fill it with dry, overly processed cereal and drown it in a lot of milk. Here I stand, I can do no other. I enjoy breakfast. and I go about my Sunday. Something tells me that line's what everyone's gonna remember. I don't know. I enjoy breakfast and I go about my Sunday morning routine. Maria puts a couple of comics in front of me from the Sunday paper. I will, of course, walk the dog. I'll pray some more and the like. Now it's time to go. My ladies know that I'm pulling out of the driveway at 9.25 a.m. and they are on time. We hop in the car, wave to the dog that is sitting in the window and looking at us as if we've committed some abominable act by leaving. And we drive down the street. Without warning, I slam on the brakes. Maria and Amanda love it when I do that. Where's my sermon manuscript? I bellow. Maria and Amanda in unison bellow back, I don't know. So I quickly turn around and head back to the house. And as I drive the quarter mile back to the house, I think, what if I can't find my manuscript? There's not enough time to print another copy. It's 30 pages long for crying out loud. I'm going to have to preach without my notes. The sermon's going to be terrible. The pastors are never going to let me preach again. In fact, my sermon is going to be so horrible that the pastors are going to want to meet to talk about it. To the principal's office I go. I'm going to get defensive and I'm going to say something I shouldn't. Then they're going to tell me I can no longer be an evangelist. Then what? What do I do then? I guess I can go work at Vibrant Mobile Detail. That wouldn't be bad. I could do that. I could do that. But if I do that, what if Johnny ends up being my boss? I'm going to have to work for Johnny. Life is over. We laugh, it's ridiculous, but that's what anxiety does. That's how ridiculous I can think when I get anxious. I let that snowball build, and instead of getting out of the way, I hop on knowing I'm not gonna enjoy the ride. Again, the scenario I just described is ridiculous, but I assure you the snowball effect is very real. Maybe you've experienced it to one degree or another, when you've been anxious. When someone in my family shows signs of the snowball effect, we admonish the person to get off the snowball. And the way to do that is to stop believing the lies in your head and start telling yourself the truth. And a great way to do that is with two words, but God. I listen to a lie in my head, then I tell myself, but God says this. I listen to a lie in my head, then I tell myself, but God has done this. I listen to a lie in my head, then I tell myself, that's not true, God promises this. So I hope you get the picture. The next tool Paul gives us is, of course, prayer. But Paul exhorts the Philippians to pray a certain way, a very strategic way, with thanksgiving. When you're anxious, how do you pray? Do you pray something like this? God help me, help, help! I don't want to think this way. I don't want to feel this way. Let me sleep, God, let me sleep. Oh, you've never prayed that way? Well, I have. I've prayed that way. I've prayed the wrong way. Praying that way only serves to verbalize your anxiety. Am I suggesting we shouldn't, as Paul says in this passage, let our requests be made known to God? No, not in the least. But we should make our requests to God with an attitude of genuine thankfulness. I tell you, brothers and sisters, this is so vitally important. When I stopped glazing over or running past that phrase, with thanksgiving, it changed everything for me in prayer. When I used to become anxious, for instance, because of insomnia, I would verbalize my anxiety to God as I lied in bed looking at the ceiling, sometimes in tears. The anxiety, though, would rarely go away. In fact, it often got worse. Why? Because I was focused, I was the focus of my prayer. And I treated prayer like another pill, little more than a sleep aid. Now, what I'm about to say is not to suggest that thankfulness is a pill or a sleep aid, it's not. pray with thankfulness in my heart to God, not only for the myriad examples of His manifold grace in my own life, but also for the hardships He graciously allows, I found myself not only praying differently, but also thinking differently, and peace came to my heart and my mind, which would allow me to rest. My focus was no longer on getting rid of my anxiety and falling asleep. My focus was now on God, who he is, what he's done, and how I should think of my circumstances in light of thinking of him. So now if I have a sleepless night, I'm not thinking, God, why won't you let me sleep? I'm thinking, God, what would you have me do at this time? Who should I be praying for tonight? What should I be writing now? What should I be thinking about? Instead of thinking, God, why aren't you allowing me to do this? I'm thinking, God, what would you have me do instead? Praying with an attitude of thankfulness is more than thanking God for what he has done for me, but also for what he has done for and through others. Praying with an attitude of thankfulness and simply being thankful in general is a wonderful way for you to be other-minded with your thoughts. Anxiety is selfish. Anxiety is selfish. Anxiety puts me at the center of the universe with all of God's creation revolving around me. And so when I make a concerted effort to obey God's word and be thankful in all things, which leads me to be thankful for others and to pray for others, I'm no longer the center of the universe. It's no longer about me. God's word tells us this. Colossians 3 15 to 16, and let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts to which indeed you were called in one body and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Psalm 100 verse 4, enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him, bless his name. Psalm 50, verse 23, the one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me. To one who orders his way, rightly I will show the salvation of God. Psalm 116, 17, I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of the Lord. Colossians 2, 6, and 7, therefore as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. It's interesting that Paul follows Colossians 2, 6, and 7 with these words in verse 8. My beloved brethren, see to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit regarding anxiety, the way I was taken captive for eight years. See to it that no one takes you captive according to human tradition and the elemental spirits of the world regarding anxiety, the way I was taken captive for eight years. Don't be held captive to the rudimentary religious teachings of this thing called modern science or the temporal philosophies of what's called the medical community or the medical establishment. No, loved ones, the answer to your anxiety is not a pill in your mouth, but Christ in your heart. The answer to anxiety is not a pill in your mouth, but Christ in your heart. And look at the wonderful promise of God in Philippians 4, 7. And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Theologian Albert Barnes wrote, the peace which God gives, the peace here particularly referred to is that which is felt when we have no anxious care about the supply of our needs and when we go confidently and commit everything into the hands of God. John Gill wrote, not the peace which God calls his people to among themselves and their effectual calling, rather it is a peace which he requires of them to cultivate and maintain, and which he encourages in them by the promise of his gracious presence among them, and which indeed he is the author of. The peace of which Paul writes is a peace that comes with sanctification, a peace that grows in the Christian as his or her maturity grows. It is a peace that God gives, but also it's a peace that must be cultivated by the believer. And this peace will be the kind of peace that surpasses all understanding. It's this kind of peace. 1 Corinthians 2.9, but as it is written, what no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him. It's a peace that is beyond what we can ask or think. Ephesians 3.20, now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us. within us. Yes, beloved, God can, does, and will replace your anxieties with peace, His peace. Not only will He give you peace from all anxiety, but He will guard that peace as He guards your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. Isaiah 26, one to three. In that day, this song will be sung in the land of Judah. We have a strong city. He sets up salvation as walls and bulwarks, open the gates that the righteous nation that keeps faith may enter in. You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you because he trusts in you. He will guard both your heart and your mind in that way. This is the same language in 1 Peter chapter 1, one of my favorite passages of scripture. If you find yourself anxious this morning or ever, listen closely and let the word be a soothing balm to your troubled heart and mind. Listen to the language of God about guarding the hearts of His people, blessed. Be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. Why would we be anxious? And all of this, of course, the renewing of the mind, the freedom from anxiety, the peace of God, the guarding of the heart, all of this is found only in Christ Jesus. The ability, even the desire to be anxious for nothing is found only in Christ Jesus. The ability and desire to replace anxiety with thankfulness is found only in Christ Jesus. The peace of God and peace of God is found only in Christ Jesus. And God guards only the hearts and minds of those who are in Christ Jesus. He guards the hearts and the minds of his people, his adopted children, Christians. Only those who are born again by the grace of God alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone. If you are outside of Christ this morning, your heart is unguarded and there's no pill to fix that. You need Christ. If you are without Christ and hearing this, you are without hope. If you are anxious, depressed, fearful, or worried, putting a pill in your mouth will only make you more comfortable on your way to hell. If you are a born-again follower of Christ and hearing this, and the world, maybe even some well-intended believers, is encouraging you to medicate your sin, I beg you, please don't. That pill will not help you repent of the sin of anxiety. On the contrary, it will keep you, it will prevent you from repenting. Medication does not make the sin of anxiety go away. It only suppresses the anxiety. It masks it, it hides it. It will convince you that you've dealt with the sin, when in reality, you've only buried it under the rubble of a medically altered state of consciousness. No. If you're a troubled brother or sister, no, don't put a pill in your mouth. Instead, sanctify Christ as Lord in your heart. Honor Christ the Lord as holy and trust in the Lord. When I was fighting against these truths, when I was desperately fighting to keep that pill in my mouth, I got so angry at Pastor Nick when he quoted this passage to me. I did not want to hear this. I wanted a pill and I wanted to feel better. But by God's grace, God made me listen. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and turn away from evil. Listen, brothers and sisters, listen. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones. And it's true. It's true. What I've presented to you this morning is what I believe to be a strong, dare I say, ironclad case that anxiety is not something you have. Rather, anxiety is something you do. Anxiety is sin, and God has the cure. In our study of Philippians 4, 4 through 7, we've considered 50 supporting passages of Scripture this morning. And in doing so, we've only scratched the surface of what God says about the sin of anxiety and its remedy. God's word is more than up to the task. God's word is sufficient. All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. And whoever may hear this outside of our local assembly, regarding our subject this morning, regarding the sin of anxiety, I do not care what your doctor says. God has spoken. Believe him, trust him, obey him. Now, someone might hear that and say, how dare you, Tony? You have no idea what I'm going through. Try walking a mile in the shoes of someone who struggles with anxiety. My response, what size shoe do you wear? I wear a 4E and a size 10. Yes, I have wide fat feet, hobbit feet, both on my feet and in my personal experience with anxiety and anxiety medication. Someday I might tell the entire story, but now is not the time. Suffice to say, God has given me yet to be perfected victory over anxiety. And my sanctification continues. And what God has done in my life, no pill could ever do. Now maybe your shoes are bigger. Then again, maybe not. But even if I never walked a mile in your particular pair of anxious shoes, so what? I no more have to walk a mile in your shoes to tell you to believe God and stop being anxious than I have to have a uterus to tell a woman to not murder her unborn child. Again, God has spoken. Believe Him. Trust Him. Obey Him. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything. By prayer and supplication 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 mind in Christ Jesus. Now I'm guessing you've all been waiting to hear these two words, closing thought. Like all of the world's problems, as well as the problems in our own hearts and minds, the answers are not to be found in legislation, education, or medication. Rather, they are to be found in reconciliation, the reconciliation of man to God through faith in Jesus Christ. Solving the problem of the sin of anxiety is no different. Jesus Christ has not only freed his people from the penalty of sin, but he has also freed his people from the power of sin, including the sin of anxiety. Everything you need to stop being anxious is found in Christ and in His Word. Believe Him. Trust Him. Obey Him. And if you are anxious, whether you are saved or unsaved, repent and believe the Gospel. Let's pray. Father, I thank You, Lord, for our time and Your Word this morning. And I pray that it is ministered to my brothers and sisters in Christ here in this family, my family. I thank you, Father, for what the truth of your word has done in my own life. I thank you for sanctification. I thank you for chastisement. I thank you for it all, because you do, in fact, Father, cause all things to work together for good to those who love you and are called according to your purposes. I pray, Father, that we will consider what Your Word has taught us this morning. That, Father, You would indeed give us not only ears to hear and eyes to see, but minds to understand and hearts, Father, willing to obey. In Jesus' name, Amen.