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Peace of Mind Series
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I wonder how many of you are worried right now? You've got an ongoing weight, a burden, someone you love, something you care about, something that you want to change, but you can't figure out how to change it. It's a never-ending weight, something that's always present with you.
Today I want to talk to you about one of the biggest mental health problems facing our world today. According to the World Health Organization, Americans have a bigger problem with worry than any other people in the world. If you can imagine, the most affluent society in the world is actually the most worry-filled society in the world.
Many of us battle this chronic, ongoing, ever-present sense of worry that's poisoning our peace and killing our joy, and stunting our spiritual growth. According to Barna Research, about 60% of adults in the US struggle with worry and stress daily. Over half of us.
Why is it that so many of us find ourselves battling with worry? At its core, it's because of our sin nature. Because we're born as sinners, we tend to default toward fear instead of defaulting toward faith.
If you're awake some night at 2:00 AM, I can almost promise you that you're not awake trying to figure out how to manage all the peace and joy in your life. If you're awake at 2:00 AM, you're probably worried about your kids, or some health issue of you or somebody you love, or job stress, or how you're going to take care of your parents in the years to come. We live in a culture where worry is almost just a commonly accepted part of life.
You might ask: aren't worry and anxiety the same thing? They're actually related, but they're not the same.
When we think about worry, we tend to experience it in our minds. We rehearse the thoughts over and over again. Anxiety is different. We generally experience anxiety in our bodies. It's more holistic.
Worry might be specific. For example, you might worry that you're going to miss a flight. But you feel anxious about traveling in general. Worry is more specific; anxiety is more holistic.
No matter what we call it, with all the problems in the world today, it feels like somebody needs to worry about them. But Jesus tells us that we don't have to. In fact, with him on the throne, we shouldn't worry.
In Matthew 6, Jesus tells us multiple times: do not worry. He actually covers five of the biggest topics that most of us worry about:
Here's what Jesus says in Matthew 6:25:
"Therefore I tell you, do not worry."
Anytime you see the word "therefore" in the Bible, you're supposed to ask what's it there for? Look at the verse right before it. Right before Jesus says, "Do not worry," he says in verse 24: "You cannot serve both God and money." Then he tells us in verse 25:
"Therefore, do not worry about your life. What you'll eat or drink, or about your body, or about what you'll wear."
Jesus said don't worry about food. When he said this to that particular crowd, they probably worried about food because they were poor—where are they going to eat? Many of us worry about food on a whole different level. We worry about where we're going to eat and we fight about it. Someone wants to eat here, and you want to eat there. Then we worry if we ate too much, or if we ate the wrong kind of food.
Jesus says: let's not obsess about that which is temporary. Let's focus on what's eternal. Don't obsess about your health. Take care of yourself, but the body is temporary. We want to focus on our soul.
He says, don't worry about what you're going to wear. Don't worry so much about what people think about you, and don't obsess about your image on social media before the big event. If you spend as much time thinking about God as you think about what you wear, that might change the trajectory of your life.
Jesus says, don't worry about tomorrow:
"Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself."
Don't obsess about the future. Don't freak out about something you can't control—where you'll go to school, whether you're going to get the perfect job, whether a loved one's going to get sick, or whether your hair might be getting thin.
Jesus doesn't just tell us what to do—he gets very practical and shows us how not to worry. In verse 26, he says:
"Look at the birds of the air. They don't sow or reap, or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?"
Jesus is showing us that God loves you way more than the birds, and the birds don't worry. Now, to be clear, if a bird's hungry, the bird will do something about it. This illustrates a very important difference between concern and worry.
Concern focuses on challenges and moves you to action. It focuses on what might be a problem and motivates you to do something about it. You might think your marriage is struggling, and so you're concerned about it. Maybe you should get some counseling, or maybe you should be in a life group. Or you're concerned because you've gained 12 pounds, so you cut back on soft drinks or change what you're eating. Concern focuses on challenges and moves you to action.
Worry, though, worry focuses on what's beyond our control and results in inaction. It's stewing without doing. That's why Jesus perhaps asked the question:
"Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?"
In other words, you worry, but has anything ever gotten better because of your worry? Has anything ever changed just because you sat there? Jesus says, don't do it. It's not helpful. It doesn't change anything. When you worry, nothing gets better, but your mental health gets worse.
Birds don't worry, but they don't sit around doing nothing either. If a bird's hungry, it gets up, it flies around, and it finds food. The bird sees a worm and gets it. The bird eats the worm and flies around. The bird builds a nest. At the end of the day, the bird goes to sleep. You'll never hear a bird at two in the morning, pacing its little bird nest, worrying about whether the supply chain problem is going to result in a shortage of worms.
You don't see that because the bird knows that God's going to provide for the bird. And God loves you more than the birds. If God's going to take care of the birds, how much more is he going to take care of you?
When we're worrying, essentially we're saying: God, I don't trust you. God, I don't trust your plan. I don't really believe you're with me. I don't really believe you're good.
I've said for years, and I want you to think about how this might apply for you: what you worry about the most reveals where you trust God the least.
I want you to think about this. What is it? What are you worried about most often? A relationship? Your child? Your marriage? Something on your body? Your job? The stock market? Some kind of personal insecurity—you feel like you're just not going to be good enough? They're going to find out that you're not that talented, that you're not capable?
What do we do when we realize that there's a real category of our life, a person, a relationship, a thing that we're not trusting to God? How do we actually trust God when we find ourselves in this place?
Jesus actually shows us what our role is in Matthew 6:33. He tells us:
"Seek first God's kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."
Whenever you're worried, whenever you're freaked out, whenever you're panicked, whenever you don't know what to do, whenever there's too much to bear—what do you do? You seek first God's kingdom. You seek first his righteousness. You seek first his presence. You seek first his goodness, and then everything else will be added unto you.
So I would ask you this question: Is God really first in your life? Is he first in your day? When you wake up in the morning, does your mind drift to all the things you have to do that day? Or does your mind drift toward the things of God—who he is?
When you think about the financial pressures, do you tend to put him first in whatever he blesses you with? Or do you put him last, if you consider him even at all?
Where does your mind go when it drifts? Does it go to the worst possible case scenario? "Oh my gosh, my child is late; they're probably dead on the side of the road." Or does your mind drift toward the goodness of God, the presence of God, his power, his love, his grace?
Do you put God first in your relationships? Are they centered around him in every single way? Seek him first. Seek him first.
Some of you may just come to the realization that maybe the reason why you're so often burdened and worried is because you're not putting him first. And the good news is: there's an incredible opportunity for you to put your cares in the hands of God.
"Cast all of your anxiety on me, because I care for you."
Cry out your heart to him. When you draw near to him, he draws near to you.
Whatever it is on your mind, I want to show you very clearly three things. One of these things will happen with the very thing that you are worried about.
Number one: it may never happen. The very thing that's keeping you awake, that's weighing on you so heavily, it may never ever happen.
There's a study done by researchers at Penn State that asked people to document what they were worried about and how many of their fears actually came to pass in the next 30 days. According to their research, 91% of their worries did not come true. Nine out of ten things they were worried about never ever happened.
Think about this: very likely less than 10% of what you worry about will happen. But your worry will rob you of peace 100% of the time. Most of what you think about and worry about is not going to come to pass. But worry will rob you of peace, and maybe even awareness of God's presence 100% of the time.
Whatever it is that's on your mind—that burden—one possibility is that it's not going to happen.
The second thing is: it may happen, and it won't be as bad as you thought. This is very common. You think it's going to be horrible, and then it happens and you go, "Oh, well that wasn't so bad."
You worried all about that presentation, and you didn't do great, but nobody really cared. You still got your job. You asked her out on a date and she said no, and lo and behold, you didn't bleed out by her locker. You still live to ask another girl out on another day. Or you said something totally stupid and everybody laughed at you, and some of you even liked you more on the other side because now you're a human.
What you're worried about, what's weighing on you, it may never ever happen, or it may happen and not be as bad as you thought.
Or number three: it may happen, and God will carry you through it. It may actually happen—or maybe even worse than what you thought—and you may experience the goodness, the presence, the provision, and the peace of God in a way that you never ever imagined possible.
This message series has been hitting home with many people, sadly, because so many people are hurting. What I've found is that we often get to know God best when we need him most. There may be some of you right now carrying a burden that just seems too great to bear.
This may be an opportunity to take that relationship, that care, that situation, that fear, that very thing you dread and take it to God. Know that he cares about you, that he's with you, that he's always good.
Understand: what you worried about may not even happen. It may happen and it may not be as bad as you thought. Or it may happen and he'll provide for you in a way that you never imagined.
I received an email from someone about a message I did about people who feel hopeless and some consider taking their life. I have permission to share this, but I'm going to change the name out of respect. I'll call her Sherry.
She wrote:
"It's with tears in my eyes, and a heart of overflowing thankfulness that I write to you. My husband of 29 years struggled his entire life with depression. As he studied to become a pastor, his heart was changed, and I believe that we were on a path to life without sorrow. But when our 13-year-old son died in an accident, my husband's depression returned with a vengeance, and eventually weakened him to the point of taking his own life. I wondered, in your sermon today, how your words may have spoken to my husband. Your message of truth and encouragement fills me with hope for all those who've heard it. May God richly bless your every effort to reach those in the miry pit, and those who are willing to get muddy, and who desire to help pull them out."
She signed it: "Jesus is enough. Sherry."
I couldn't imagine a worse loss than losing a child, followed by losing your husband. And she writes and says she can't wait for this message to encourage someone else out of the darkness her husband was in. Jesus is enough. Sherry is a life group leader at one of our campuses, and she leads a life group to help people who are recovering from trauma. When she says Jesus is enough, she knows Jesus is enough.
Whatever you're going through today, Jesus says: trust me. Don't worry. Don't freak out. Don't worry about what's going to happen to your body; worry about your soul.
It's a very complicated world with real burdens, real weight, real significant fears, real pain, real trauma. What do you do? You seek him first. You seek him first. You call on Jesus. You press into Jesus. You love him. You cry out to him. You hurt with him. You might yell at him at times, and you go back to his word. You let his spirit work in you. You let his spirit heal you. You let his spirit minister to you, and you put him first.
You seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and then everything else will be added unto you. What you fear the most often reveals where you trust God the least. Today is an opportunity for you to take that burden, that care, or that person and trust it unto God, and seek him first.
No matter what you face, he will be with you. He will carry you. He will strengthen you. He will comfort you because he loves you, and he is with you.
Some of you may just recognize that Jesus isn't really anywhere near first in your life. I grew up kind of going to church and knew about God. I kind of knew the story of Jesus, but he wasn't first at all. I didn't know him. I recognized that I'd done so many things that were wrong and felt so much guilt.
How do we overcome that? How is it that we're made right with God? Scripture is so beautiful, powerful, and personal. It tells us that God so loved the world. He loved you so much that he sent his one and only Son—Jesus—who was perfect in every way. He gave his life, the innocent one, the sinless one, gave his life so that we could be forgiven.
I want you to hear that and feel it: no matter what you've done, God loves you. Jesus is the perfect Son of God, and when we put him first, when we call on him, God hears our prayers and he forgives our sins. Whatever the weight is, whatever the burden is, whatever the shame is, the guilt from your past—when you call on Jesus, he hears your prayers and he forgives your sins. He separates them from you as far as the east is from the west. You're forgiven. You're different. You're new. You're a new person. The old is gone and all becomes new.
The Holy Spirit moves into you, and you can live a life that's pleasing to God. And even though it won't be perfect, his perfect presence is always with you. Wherever you're watching from today, those of you that say, "I need that. He's not first, I want to put him first." We're going to step away from our sinfulness. We're going to step away from our old life, and we're going to say: Jesus, I give you my life. I want to know you. I want to serve you. I want to follow you. Those of you today, wherever you're watching from, you say, "I need him. I need his presence. I need his grace. I need his forgiveness." Today I step away from my sinfulness, and I give my life to Jesus.
