Skip to content Reversing Anxiety Consequences Oct 14 · 38 min ...more
October 14, 2022 · 38 min · Reversals
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Dr. Tony Evans is the founder and senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, founder and president of The Urban Alternative and author of over 100 books, booklets and Bible studies.
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0:00 Even when you're trying to do the right thing, you you just get hit with wrong things. It's like the guy at the airport some years ago when they used to have those machines where you could buy flight insurance, and he he0:11 bought flight insurance. It was 3 dollars for 200000 dollars. He said that's good investment, you know, the 3 dollars life insurance just in case something would happen to the plane. I don't expect that. But he he put0:22 his 3 dollars in, got this 200000 dollar life insurance, had a few minutes before the plane took off. So he went to a Chinese restaurant at the airport, ate his Chinese food, got his fortune cookie, broke up0:34 his fortune cookie, and it said, your recent investment will pay you soon big dividends. It's just0:48 boy, there's just so much in life to worry about. We worry about our money. We worry about our health. We worry about our relationships. We're worried about our jobs. We're worried about our careers.1:00 We worry. Well, let me ask, how many here, you worried about something? A large part of us because worry has become part of the human dilemma. 1 man1:12 said, I've got so much to worry about that I'm gonna pay somebody 100000 dollars to do my worrying for me. I I gotta get this off my back so bad. I'm gonna1:24 pay somebody 100000 dollars to do my worrying for me. Of course, a man applied for the job. He says, you're hired. He says, well, how do I get my hundred thousand dollars? He said, that's the first thing you got to worry1:35 about. Because some of us, if we could, we would pay somebody to lift this thing off of our shoulder. This thing called1:47 worry. And so in my moments with you today, by the time we are finished, you won't have to worry anymore.1:59 I don't care what it's about. I don't care what is provoking it, what is irritating, exacerbating, frustrating. We want to lift the burden2:11 based on God's word of worry. 3 times we're commanded in this passage not to worry.2:23 Verse 25 says, for this reason I say to you, do not worry. Verse 31 says, do not worry then. Verse 342:35 says, so do not worry. 3 times there is a command not to worry. Therefore, to worry is sin.2:47 If something is a command and you disobey it, it's called sin. Most people do not look as weary as sin. They look at it as natural.2:59 Look it as something that is legit given the circumstances that I am facing. Yet the Lord in this passage gives a command and he couples the command with this statement.3:11 Oh ye of little faith, you believe I can take you to heaven, you just don't believe I can cover you on earth. You believe I'm good for eternity, but I'm insufficient for time.3:25 Do not worry. The word worry, anxiety means to be torn in 2. Worry is concern on steroids.3:37 Worry is concern that's gone haywire. There is a difference between concern and worry. Concern is I have an issue in my life that is troubling3:49 me, and I am setting forth a plan as best I can to address it. That is legitimate concern. But worry is where the4:00 concern controls you. It is where because of the concern I can't sleep. Because of the concern, I can't control my4:12 temper. Because of the concern, I am losing my ability to cope. It is where concern has now become the controlling4:24 factor because of the issue, whatever it is that you face. Now, let me give a clarification here. I am not talking4:35 about chemical imbalance where there is a physical chemical reality that needs to be addressed because that physical is affecting that emotional and4:47 absolutely that may need medication. That is not to what I am addressing. What I am addressing is where the circumstance in and of itself is controlling you.5:01 It is dictating who you are, where you are, how you function, whether you function. It tells you if you can get up in the morning and tells you5:13 you better go to bed right now. It owns you. Well, he says in introducing this section, for this5:24 reason, and then he tells you don't worry. For this reason. So before he tells you don't worry, he says there's a reason. So you can't understand not5:36 to worry unless you understand the reason. So he says for this reason, which means we have to back up a few verses. And in verse 22, this is what he says. The eye is the lamp of the body.5:49 So then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the6:01 darkness? No 1 can serve 2 masters for either he will hate the 1 and love the other or he will be devoted to the 1 and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth6:14 because 1 of the big worries of life has to do with resources. He says, if you wanna get over worry, you gotta get rid of 1 of your masters.6:28 Worry will track you down if you've got more than 1 master. He says, if you got God over here and something6:40 else in control over there, since the definition of worry is to be torn in 2, and you've got 2 different masters going in 2 different directions,6:52 then they will keep you worried because they will keep you torn. He says the light is in the eye. If the light is in the eye, then the whole body knows what to grab, where7:04 to walk. The whole body can function because it's seeing things clearly. But if the eyes are dark, everything else is in trouble. The hands are in trouble, it doesn't know what it's grabbing. The feet are in trouble, it7:15 doesn't know where it's going. It says everything else is in trouble if there's darkness in the eye. If there's not clear sight because you have become divided with masters.7:27 1 of the reasons why we stay worried is we stay divided between masters. He says, you cannot serve 27:38 masters. And when you do, you will be worried because you will be divided. The spiritual division creates7:50 or supports the ongoing nature of worry. Let me put it another way. The more heavenly minded you become,8:02 the less earthly worry you will have. Say it again. The more heavenly minded you become, the less earthly worry you will have to8:14 carry. If I hold a glass here, it's going to be full of air. I can't just shake the air out because I'm shaking it, but the air is gonna stay in there. I can turn that glass8:26 on its head and the air is still gonna be in the glass. If I wanna get rid of the air in the glass, I gotta fill it with water. If I fill the glass with water, it will automatically remove the air in the8:38 glass. The more of God you get filled with, the more wary has to leave the environment. But if you are divided,8:50 double minded, if you are distracted in terms of having master, and a master is somebody who tells you what to do. A master is somebody who9:01 controls the priorities of life. He says, do not worry, oh ye of little faith.9:15 He now says, he goes a little deeper. He says, if you are consumed by worry, if worry is your middle name,9:27 if you weren't worrying, you wouldn't know what to do with yourself. He says, you don't understand God.9:39 You don't understand His nature and you don't understand His providence. And you don't understand His priorities. Notice what he says in verse 25. He says,9:52 I say to you, don't worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or as to your body as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food and body more than raiment?10:04 He says, folk get worried about the wrong thing. You get worried about what you are gonna eat. You ought to be worried about whether you're gonna get up to eat anything.10:18 Because life is more than food. You worried about food, but you are alive. Because if you don't have life, you don't have to worry about food. So if you have life,10:30 you can assume food. He says, the body is more than raiment. The body is more than clothes. We worry about old clothes, new clothes, torn clothes,10:42 sewed up clothes. We worry about clothes. He says, you're worried about the wrong thing. You need to worry about whether your body's intact to put your arms through those sleeves.10:55 We we we can think that order. Like the guy who was driving his BMW, he's driving his BMW, and, he loses control of the car. He's getting ready to jump off the cliff. He opens the door, jumps out just in time.11:07 Car goes over the precipice. He says, oh, no. My BMW. My BMW. Oh, no. My BMW. Policeman drives up. He says, mister, you just lost your arm.11:19 He said, oh, my Rolex. Oh, my Rolex. You know, you we can we can get things out of sync. Messed11:31 up priorities. He says he says in verse 26, have you ever paid attention to nature? He says, have you ever studied nature?11:44 Because he says in verse 26, look at the birds. Look at the birds. Pay attention when you leave church today and look at the11:56 birds. Because he says they don't sow nor reap or gather in the bonds and your heavenly father feeds them. Not their heavenly father, your heavenly father. Aren't you not worth much more than12:07 they? Birds don't have CDs, mutual funds, stock market investments, savings account, yet every morning they wake12:19 up singing. Every morning they wake up and they wake up singing with no savings.12:33 I don't have anything to draw on. But he says, but the birds in bird thought says, the father of12:45 the folk is gonna feed us. They assume there will be a worm somewhere today with their name on it. They assume that. So they12:57 get up singing. We get up fussing, cussing, and complaining. The birds get he says, have you not looked at the birds? They get up singing.13:09 They out on the limb. Come on, God. Show me my where my worm is today. Because they assume something that even we don't assume.13:23 Are you not worth much more than they? He says clothing. He says, Solomon was not arrayed like the lilies of the field. With all of his billion13:35 dollars, he couldn't he couldn't dread. You you he says, the lilies of the field, they neither toil nor spin. You've you've never seen a a lily using a sewing machine,13:47 calling on Singer to keep my pedal on. You don't see that. He says, because God13:59 works it out in nature. They don't toil, they don't spin, but your heavenly father supplies what they need. And it's all it's assumed14:11 that all of nature operates by God's natural supply. What I have discovered is at the core of this thing14:22 of worry is we really don't know who we dealing with. We have lost the awe of God. God is14:35 a great person up in the sky somewhere. We don't know who we dealing with. And because our view of Him is so small, we worry14:47 when there are things in our lives that are out of our control. I found out the other day, watch this man, I'm gonna I wanna help all of us to to go,14:59 about God. See, when you go, about God, when's the last time the thought of God made you go, wow. What time when's the last time the thought of God overwhelmed you?15:13 I found out the other day, in 1 drop of water in 1 drop of water, there are 6 sectillion atoms. 615:24 sectillion atoms in 1 drop of water. Now we're not talking about the dams. We're not talking about the ocean. We're not talking about the seas. We're not talking about the rivers. We're not talking about the lakes. We're15:35 not talking about the streams, which make all that water makes up more than 2 thirds of the earth's space on earth. And in 1 drop of water, there is 6 sicilian15:47 atoms. If God lost track of 1 atom in all the water in the world, he would no longer be God because he would15:59 no longer be omniscient. On every head of hair, the average is 100000 strands of hair on the average hair. The older you get, the shorter it16:11 gets, the lower it gets, but average. There are 100000 strands of hair on the average full head of people. Let's multiply that by16:23 7000000000 people. You're now beyond octillion. You you're beyond numbers you can count. You can't put enough zeros in this room to16:35 count that many strands of hair. Yet the Bible says God knows every strand of hair on everybody's head that has ever lived. And if he missed 116:46 strand of hair, he would no longer be God. What did you tell me you were worried about?16:58 See, the thing is we don't know who we dealing with. And so we find ourselves under the stronghold of worry.17:11 Yet he says, don't do it. It's a sin. And when you do it, you elevate the natural over the supernatural,17:23 man over God, and you're telling me you are your God, and you live divided and torn.17:36 So it shouldn't surprise us that Isaiah 26 verses 3 and 4, I will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on me. It shouldn't surprise us that second17:48 Thessalonians 3 verses 6 to 8 says, God gives peace in every circumstance. Now don't don't get me wrong. I am not suggesting that18:00 life does not get hard. I am not suggesting that. We all know better than that. Jesus said in John 16 33, In this world, you will have18:11 tribulation. But then He gonna bounce right off of that and say, Be of good cheer. Say, what? You just told me I'm gonna I can expect18:23 trouble, and then you're gonna tell me, cheer up and sing. When we understand,18:36 when God allows trouble in our lives, I'm not talking about trouble we create now, I'm talking about trouble that He allows that would create the insecurity that drives us from concern to worry,18:50 that what He is creating in your situation is an opportunity to see that He's God. So the next time you are tempted to worry beyond19:02 concern, concern is where you have a real issue and you are seeking a way to resolve it. Worry is where it has taken over the concern and it is controlling you.19:14 The next time you are tempted to worry, you must now look at that as an opportunity for God to let you see how much God He is.19:27 Paul put it this way in second Corinthians chapter 1, he said, God gave us a great ordeal of affliction, so we were down to the point where we didn't even know whether we were gonna19:39 live. It got that bad. But then he adds a phrase, and he did it so that we could see he is the 1 who raises the dead. He19:51 did it so he could let us see he's God. You ever notice in the Bible all the time Jesus would lead His disciples into a storm and they said, Carest thou not that we perish? Don't you care20:03 you sleeping and we're struggling out here? Oh ye of little faith. When worry is seeping in, that is a call20:15 to faith in the midst of the legitimacy of the concern. So what do you do? What do you do? Verse20:27 32, for the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things, for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. Okay. This is a little20:38 embarrassing because what He says is, when you worry, you have now joined the ranks of pagans. The Gentiles, the non believers,20:50 the pagans, he says, they break their necks, mismanage their priorities because they gotta make it21:02 happen themselves. They seek. They seek to control it. Why? Because they are their own gods. But you got a daddy.21:14 Your heavenly father. My my you know, raised in Baltimore and we didn't have much. And sometime my father was a stevedore longshoreman on the docks, would go months without work. And I21:26 can never ever recalling wondering whether my daddy was gonna have food on the table even when he was without work. The reason I don't eat fish21:38 today is because he went fishing. So there was gonna be something on that table.21:53 He would have been insulted if I said, daddy, am I gonna eat today? I would be insulted even when I was making we were making 350 dollars a22:05 month. I would be insulted if my kids asked, am I going to eat today? Because that insults my title as father. God gets22:17 insulted when we question his capacity, his ability, and his intentionality to cover the needs of his22:28 people. Now I'm not talking about everyone. I'm not talking about every desire. He's talking about he knows you need these things. He's talking about22:40 the needs of life. He says, stop being pagans because he says, I'm talking about your daddy. But your daddy has also gotta be your22:52 master. You you can't be divide you can't have divided loyalties. I love Jeremiah 17 7 and 8 cause he says, God23:04 will keep you from worrying in a drought. A drought is when there is no rain, so there is no growth. A drought is when the work stops, when the pink slips are being handed23:16 out. He says, will keep you from worrying in a drought. When we built this building, some of you remember this, we got down to 15000 dollars We didn't have enough to cover the funds to operate for the23:28 next month. And we had to believe that because the father had endorsed what we were doing it, the father was gonna cover it.23:41 And see, all you gotta do is see God do this a couple of times. Because see, once you see God do something a couple of times and it dawns on you who you dealing with.23:56 He says, no, your daddy knows where you are, how you got there, and what you need. He knows how to arrange things, rearrange things, flip things, tweak things,24:08 trip things. He knows how to do it. So you can see he is God. A man was rushing to catch a plane 1 day. He was rushing to catch a plane24:21 because he was gonna be late. Didn't know he'd get the end time. He rushed and he bumped against the guy, and the guy he bumped against was a pilot. Pilot said, is everything okay where you rush? He said, I don't know.24:32 I'm gonna make my flight. I'm I'm late. I'm late. He said, what flight? He told him what flight? He said, slow down. I'm the pilot for that flight. So you can chill because it ain't going nowhere till I get there.24:46 When you know ain't nothing gonna happen till God get there. See, what I'm telling you is tomorrow morning when you get up, sing.25:02 Join the birds in spite of the concern. Don't deny the concern, but you sing because you got a daddy. And your daddy is25:14 fully aware of what you're dealing with. He says stop acting like the heathen. So25:27 what do you all have to do? Verse 33, but seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. The keyword is first. First.25:42 Know, there's some things God can't do. Okay? God can't sin. Okay? We all agree God can't do that. He can't sin. Okay? Let me tell you25:54 something else. You know, people ask these they get these trick questions. Can God make a rock too big for Him to lift? I don't know if you've ever got a question like that. Because they try to put you in a catch 22.26:05 Because if He can make a rock too big for Him to lift, then He has a rock He can't lift. If He can't make a rock too big for him to lift, then he's limited in his power. No. What he can't do is contradict26:17 himself, and that's a contradictory question. But let me tell you something else God can't do. He can't be second. He can't26:30 be number 2. You put him in the back of anything in your life and you just lost him. Not if he's God, you can't have God and him number 2.26:44 So he can't be second. That's why references to God are always first. Seek ye first the kingdom of God. Love the Lord your God with all your heart. That's the first commandment. You got first. Give the God the first day26:56 of the week. First. First. First. First. First. First. Because he doesn't know how to be second. And the moment you make him second, he says, well, you can have the other thing completely. Because27:08 I'm I'm not a number 2 kind of God. Who else you know create universes? Who else you know creates life and27:20 all that? No. You seek you first the kingdom. The kingdom is divine rule that I'm in charge here. Righteousness is divine standard that you're living to27:32 please me based on the standards as revealed in my word. So my rule, my standard, that's first. Now you got my attention. And 1 of the reasons why we're not seeing more of God27:44 is he's somewhere down the line when we get to him. When I have enough time, when I have enough money, when I have enough patience, when I have enough this, when I have enough we get around to it later27:56 and worry all along the way. But to be able to take a chill pill and to say after I've done all that I'm28:07 supposed to do, because a bird doesn't go out on a a limb and open up its beak and wait for worm just to drop from heaven. He goes worm hunting, but he knows that28:19 worms to hunt have been supplied. So it does mean fulfilling your personal responsibility, but with expectation of God's provision. Like the guy talking about28:31 he trusting God for a job and he's sitting home next to the phone. You know, no, job hunting is okay. But God is28:43 still the provider. Seek ye first primacy, priority, the rule and the standards of God as28:55 your priority. And then he closes with this zinger. And it is a zinger because it's it's so hard to do. He says in verse29:07 34, so do not worry about tomorrow For tomorrow will take care of itself. Each day has enough29:18 trouble of its own. Well, yeah, God, you can say all that. You God. Okay. We29:30 are troubled by the problems of the past. We are troubled by the struggles of the present. And we are troubled29:42 by the uncertainty of the future. All those and sometimes we troubled about all 3 at the same time. He says, I need to teach29:54 you, the Lord says, how to manage time. Most of us are crucified between 2 thieves, yesterday and30:06 tomorrow. Today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.30:17 Can I know I missed somebody with that 1? Today is the tomorrow that you worried about30:29 yesterday. So yesterday, you were worried about today, but you're making it today even though you worried about it yesterday,30:41 which is the tomorrow that you were worried about yesterday when you were worried about today. I know you gotta graduate from30:53 high school to get that, but you ever noticed when you're worried about tomorrow, when you get to31:05 tomorrow, then you're worried about the next tomorrow? He says, when it comes to living, you have to learn to do31:16 it 1 day at a time. Lamentations 3 22 and 23, His mercies are new every day. And let me put it this way, He's not going to give you31:28 tomorrow's mercy today. Today, He's going to give you for today. There are people in countries, you take Syria, you31:40 take Mosul in Iraq, and they're just glad to make it 1 more day. They can't be planning for the future, planning for retirement. God believes in planning. He believes in31:52 planning for the future, inheritance, and all that, but you gotta live today. And if God has been faithful today,32:04 you got something to sing about. Even if you're unsure about tomorrow. Now what this means is that you gotta hang out with people32:18 who gonna make the heavenly more important than the earthly. See, worry is like hanging out with other worriers. You know,32:30 because it makes them feel better about their worrying. In fact, worriers like to hang out with people who are more worriers than they are so that they feel better about their worrying. It's32:42 like the guy or the woman who took her husband to the psychiatrist, and she said, my husband crazy. He said, what's wrong? He said, he crazy. And she said, what's wrong? The man thinks he's a chicken.32:54 Your husband thinks he's a chicken? He thinks he's a chicken. Well, have you told him he's not a chicken? No. Because I need the eggs. See, you need to be talking to folk who not as crazy as you are.33:11 In other words, you need to talk to folk who are going to okay. Come back. Come back. You need to deal with folk who are going to take you to the33:23 spiritual. You don't need folk who gonna just rehearse your worrying with you. And and, you know, 1 of the worst33:35 phrases in the world is you worrying and somebody come to you to tell you to stop worrying. Well, if I could do that, we wouldn't even be having this conversation. Right? You need somebody who will take you33:46 higher so that you can see that when you have 1 master and 1 father, and he's first, that33:58 worry does not have to be the controlling element in your life. Now here it is. When you are tempted to worry as we all are, that is a very natural thing to do. When you if you get34:10 laid off from a job, they're going to raise a question. It's gonna raise a question in your mind. And yes, there will be concern. That is not what's being condemned here.34:22 Worrying is where that concerns now owns you. So here it is. Whenever you are tempted to worry, that is an automatic immediate invitation34:34 to pray. On the spot, when worry shows up, you have then got a formal invitation in writing to pray. If you don't believe me, all you need34:46 to read is Philippians 4, 6 and 7. Be anxious for nothing, but with prayer, supplication, with thanksgiving, let your request be made known under God. This is not a34:58 prayer in the morning only. This is a prayer whenever worry shows up its ugly head, God has just said, you and I need to have a conversation35:09 right now. Excuse yourself, go to the restroom, close your eyes and just have a mental conversation with God, Drive along and let people think you crazy35:21 while you talking to yourself. But whenever the temptation is to worry, that is the invitation to pray. And guess what he says, and when you come to me, come35:33 with thanksgiving. Come with thanksgiving. I want you to give thanks in the midst of your request. And then he says,35:45 and the God of peace will meet you in that space. Psalm 55 2235:57 says, cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you. We'll meet you in that place. So here's what I want you to do. All36:09 of us, me, you, us. We need to change the place we put B U T, B U T. Because here's what we normally36:20 do. I trust God, but, but you don't know what I'm going through girl. I love the Lord, but I don't know how I'm a pay these bills.36:33 I know he's able, but but, you know, I'm gonna throw in the towel. No. That's wrong. No. Let's start. Let's try this36:44 again. I don't know how I'm gonna make it, but my God said he would meet all my needs according to his riches and glory. I'm sure struggling, but he's36:56 able to do exceedingly abundantly more than I can ask or think. I am so frustrated, but I've never seen the righteous or their seed begging bread. You gotta put God in his37:08 rightful place, not reacting to you, but you reacting to him. And when you start reacting to him, then you'll see heaven visit earth, eternity visit time, you'll see God37:20 visit you, and you can toss worry aside while you deal with your concern. Somebody ought to praise him up in here, up in here.
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