What if I told you a way that you could be free of anxiety in 2023, or at least have a strategy to successfully fight it? Below is an outline summary of the sermon for your further study and deeper reflection.

TEXT: Philippians 4:4-7
TITLE: Anxiety, Our Enemy & Prayer, Our Weapon
PREACHER: Guest Pastor, Trey Richardson
BIG IDEA: God is greater than any fear, trust Him and pray.

POINTS:
1. His perspective for us (vs. 4)
2. His nearness to us (vs. 5)
3. His invitation for us (vs. 6)
4. His promise to us (vs. 7)

SERMON EXCERPTS:
”Anxiety is a menacing enemy that affects each one of us. The categories are different for each of us, but the problem is the same.  But how about the anxiety that seems to paralyze you?! Anxiety that leads to fear, that makes you feel that it is impossible to get through whatever ‘it’ is?”

“Our text today addresses anxiety at every level from - ‘will I get there on time in this traffic’ to anxiety that tends to be overpowering and at times even brings crippling fear. Paul addresses the Philippians about anxiety in a way that echoes down through the centuries with truth for us today.”

“Our issues are more 1st world issues [compared to the Philippians] but they are our real problems, they are of no less concern because they are the ones we live with every day, with the enemy of anxiety robbing our thought life of joy and peace.”

“Describing anxiety is not the issue, responding to it in a way that keeps it from overwhelming us, is the issue.  In reviewing our passage, we will be talking about anxiety.  But the greater focus will be on growing in our understanding of how God has provided all that we need to successfully fight anxiety, each and every day.  This fight begins with trusting a sovereign God, and trusting God always includes prayer.”

“Joy and rejoicing are mentioned seven times in Paul’s letter to the Philippians.  Each other reference to joy in this letter is tied to a specific reason for being joyful.  But, in our text today, this command to ‘rejoice in the Lord’ is not connected to any specific reason.  In fact, the addition of the adverb always indicates that the rejoicing that Paul is calling for, does not depend on specific circumstances, but they are called to rejoice in all circumstances.  …notice, it is a rejoicing ‘in the lord’, not in the situation.”

“Paul reminds the Philippians of who they are as Christians. He is helping them to see that their ability to rejoice in the Lord, is a reality for every Christian in every situation.  It comes from seeing life through ‘God’s perspective’ - a perspective that includes seeing Christ’s complete dominion over all things including the individual things in their lives. The resulting perspective is trusting that God is sovereignly in control even though it is not observable.  Knowing this about God, allows them to ‘rejoice… ‘in the Lord’… always’.”

“Do you find yourself rejoicing, or being glad, in the midst of life’s challenges? Typically, this is the opposite of what we feel when life presses in hard. …Paul uses some pretty inclusive language - always, and then he even repeats the command.  Paul gets their attention, and ours, when he adds that adverb - always!”

“Over time, these anxieties (worries, fears, things we fret about) can be destructive.  They can begin to erode our trust and confidence in God’s care for us, seen in His ability to protect us in life’s situations, especially the serious ones.  So, we just live with an acceptable level of anxiety, all the while it is driving us away from experiencing any ‘joy in the Lord’.”

“Paul then goes on in the second part of verse 5 to help us to see more clearly reasons why we can trust Him, in order to ‘rejoice in the Lord’ in the face of anxiety… He is near to us.”

“The Lord is at hand… or more literally, the Lord is near. This Is not a near like Ina Road is near to you, but how your lungs are near to you. This phrase is telling us that God is here, literally here with us, right now He is with every believer.  We have been indwelt by the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38).   His presence with us is not a concept, or a theory, it is a reality.  He is at hand.”

“God is here within every believer. This is something we often just don’t feel, especially in the midst of anxious moments and situations.  But this reality goes further.  Yes, he is with us, present with us, but not as a passive passenger through life, but a powerfully active presence with us. …He is powerfully working for us, on our behalf, against the enemy who is warring against us, bringing fear and anxiety.”

“It is good to plan to think through things, and to count the cost, just as Jesus says in Luke 14:28.  But none of this planning, thinking through, counting the cost, is to be defined as worrying, and being anxious.  We worry when we are afraid that God is no longer protecting us, that he is no longer on our side, and we feel we are really on our own.”

“…there is nothing that will ever affect any believer’s life that in some way falls into a category that is not included in God’s invitation for us to come to Him in prayer when we are anxious about something.  There is absolutely nothing that He cannot carry with us, nothing that we cannot depend on him through prayer, nothing that is beyond His care. Nothing!”

“How does God describe this peace and help us to experience it?  By giving us His great and precious promises to help us see His on-going part in our story.”

“Remember, God is not affected by anxieties. He offers to us His peace, the peace with which he lives. That means that regardless the trouble that comes our way, God is with us, at hand, bringing peace to our souls. This peace is beyond what we can understand, but it is not beyond what we can experience. It is the promise of God.”

QUOTES:
Jerry Bridges - “Accept the adversity and resist the anxiety.  We typically do the opposite.”

H.B. Charles - “The things you pray about are the things you trust God to handle.”

William Hendriksen - “By nature, man is totally unable to comprehend this wonderful peace as is a blind man to appreciate a glorious sunset.”  How do you help a blind man experience what he can’t see?  You describe it to him, and help him to experience it.”

H.B. Charles - “Let me give you a single formula to make sense of life’s problems.  If you have a big God you have only little problems.  But if you have a little God you have big problems.”

Fanny J. Crosby, “What A Friend We Have In Jesus” Lyrics - What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear, what a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer. / Oh, what peace we often forfeit, oh what needless pain we bear.  All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.”

ADDITIONAL SCRIPTURE:
Matthew 8:23-27
1 Peter 5:7

Feeling alone in your struggle with anxiety? Matthew 28:20, Romans 8:26
Feeling helpless against your fear? 2 Corinthians 12:9
Feeling hopeless that it will ever change?  1 John 4:4, Romans 8:31
Feel that your temptation is too strong? 1 Corinthians 10:13
You fear what might happen next?  Psalm 31:15
You can’t see how things can work out? Romans 8:28
You don’t think God sees you and knows your struggle? Psalm 56:8

APPLICATION:
-If joy is deficient in your life, is that the result of dealing with constant anxiety? Anxiety unchecked will eventually eclipse your view of the sovereign and loving God, and your joy in the Lord will become a casualty, because a right view, or perspective of God, has been lost. On a scale of 1-10, where would you register your level of joy?

Have we just learned how to live with a certain level of anxiety, and put on a happy face?  Have we just considered that our lives are going to have to deal with a certain amount of anxiety?  We know how to deal with it and ‘put on a happy face’.

Remember - God is greater than any anxiety, trust in Him and pray!

• Follow the direction of scripture: When you feel anxiety pressing in, at any moment, anytime, anywhere, take your anxious thoughts and convert them to prayerful expressions (supplications), and add thanksgiving to your prayer.

• Spend more time praying about our situations than thinking about them. Remember, thinking and praying are different…pray more about it than you think about it, or talk about it.