From Panic to Peace: Tackling Anxiety with Biblical Wisdom | Part 1
If anxiety has left you restless, weary, or discouraged, you’re not alone. In this episode of Fortifying Your Family, you’ll discover the first step toward encouragement and hope for quieting the storm within and experiencing a deeper sense of peace that can steady both you and your family.
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Transcript
Welcome to the Fortifying youg Family podcast.
Speaker A:It can be daunting to navigate through an anti marriage and family culture.
Speaker A:Our teacher will expound biblical principles to help fortify our families and keep these sacred institutions strong.
Speaker A:And now, here's this week's teaching from Sam wood.
Speaker B:In Albert Mohler's June 14 briefing, he refers to a headline back in June of a story in the New York Times titled An Anxious Nation.
Speaker B:An Anxious Nation.
Speaker B:The subhead is to doctors, It's a medical condition.
Speaker B:But anxiety is starting to seem like a sociological one too.
Speaker B:In the article, Alex Williams writes, this past winter, Sarah Feder, a 37 year old social media consultant in Brooklyn who has generalized anxiety disorder, texted a friend in Oregon about an impending visit.
Speaker B:When a quick response failed to materialize, she posted on Twitter to her 16,000 plus followers, I don't hear from my friend for a day.
Speaker B:My thought they don't want to be my friend anymore.
Speaker B:She added the hashtag thisiswhatanxiety feels like, Williams writes.
Speaker B:Thousands of people were soon offering up their own examples under the hashtag.
Speaker B:Some were retweeted more than a thousand times.
Speaker B:You might say Mrs. Feder struck a nerve.
Speaker B: ou're a human being living in: Speaker B:Mola continues.
Speaker B:Anxiety, as a matter of fact, and its disorders are being diagnosed to an increased number of young persons, as the Times article says.
Speaker B:According to data from the National Institute of mental health, some 38% of girls ages 13 through 17 and 26% of boys have anxiety disorder.
Speaker B: ealth concern, according to a: Speaker B:Meanwhile, the time tells us a number of web searches involving the term has nearly doubled over the last five years, according to Google Trends.
Speaker B:Certainly we could say that anxiety is a major problem our culture today, but anxiety is not something new.
Speaker B:Man has always had to deal with fear, worry and anxiety.
Speaker B:The question is, how do we deal with it?
Speaker B:How does man cope with anxiety?
Speaker B:There are many ways I think that all of us would say that we cope with anxiety.
Speaker B:In fact, let me just stop right here this morning and ask you, how many of you have ever been anxious before?
Speaker B:See how many honest people we have here this morning?
Speaker B:Okay, all of us have to deal with anxiety, but we deal with it in so many different ways.
Speaker B:I mean, some people deal with it with comfort food.
Speaker B:Some of you know what I'm talking about.
Speaker B:I mean, you find that comfort food that you really, really like.
Speaker B:Brother Roger's raising his hand, and you start eating, and then you find out that your anxiety soon is causing you to be very overweight.
Speaker B:Some people deal with it with not eating at all, and they just kind of quit eating.
Speaker B:Some people hide.
Speaker B:Some people don't get out of the bed.
Speaker B:We deal with anxiety in a lot of different ways, but if we don't deal with it at some point in the right way, it can even lead us to a point where we might have to take medication for it, as Dr. John would explain.
Speaker B:I'm sure it's a major problem in our culture.
Speaker B:It's a major problem certainly in our churches.
Speaker B:So how does the Bible say that we are to deal with anxiety?
Speaker B:I want you to turn your Bible to one of my favorite Psalms, Psalm 27.
Speaker B:In Psalm 27, I believe the Bible gives us an answer to this question of how to deal with fear, how to deal with worry, how to deal with anxiety.
Speaker B:Look at it with me here this morning, and I want to ask you once again if you are able physically to do so, to stand in honor of the word of God, if you would, as I read it here this morning.
Speaker B:So we are at Psalm 27, and I want to read the entire psalm here with you this morning.
Speaker B:The Lord is my light and my salvation.
Speaker B:Whom shall I fear?
Speaker B:The Lord is the strength of my life.
Speaker B:Of whom shall I be afraid?
Speaker B:When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell.
Speaker B:Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear, though war should rise against me.
Speaker B:In this will I be confident.
Speaker B:One thing have I desired of the Lord that I will seek after that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple.
Speaker B:For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion.
Speaker B:In the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me.
Speaker B:He shall set me upon a rock, and now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies.
Speaker B:Round about me.
Speaker B:Therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices, joy I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the Lord.
Speaker B:Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice.
Speaker B:Have mercy also upon me, and answer me.
Speaker B:When thou saidest, seek ye my face, my heart said unto thee.
Speaker B:Thy face, Lord, will I seek.
Speaker B:Hide not thy face far from me.
Speaker B:Put not thy servant away in anger.
Speaker B:Thou hast been my Help.
Speaker B:Leave me not, for neither forsake me, O God, of my salvation.
Speaker B:When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up.
Speaker B:Teach me thy way, O Lord, and lead me in a plain path because of mine enemies.
Speaker B:Deliver me not over unto the will of mine for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty.
Speaker B:I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
Speaker B:Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thy heart.
Speaker B:Wait, I say, on the Lord.
Speaker B:What a beautiful, beautiful word from the Word of God in Psalm 27.
Speaker B:Really, this Psalm in Psalm 27 is all about fear, weary and anxiety and how the Bible tells us that we are to deal with it.
Speaker B:If you look in the dictionary, it defines anxiety as a painful or apprehensive uneasiness of mind, usually over an impending or an anticipated ill, or a fear of nervousness about what might happen.
Speaker B:I think there is much written, in fact, I've seen many, many books, many, many articles and kind of looking and reading on this subject, many secular articles, in fact, that talk about how to deal with anxiety.
Speaker B:Most of it tells you something probably kind of like this, and you probably have had somebody to speak in your life this way, or maybe you have spoken into somebody else's life this way.
Speaker B:There's no need to worry.
Speaker B:There's no need to be anxious, because most of what you're worrying about and most of what you're anxious about will probably what will probably never happen.
Speaker B:How many of you heard that before?
Speaker B:And we probably have given that advice to people before.
Speaker B:Most of what you're worrying about, most of what you're anxious about will probably never, ever happen.
Speaker B:And that is probably true.
Speaker B:But let me ask you, as we look at Psalm 27, is this the way that David handles anxiety?
Speaker B:And the answer to that question is absolutely not.
Speaker B:In fact, in verse three, look at a couple instances, it says, though and host should encamp against me.
Speaker B:He doesn't say that a host has encamped against him, or an army has encamped against him.
Speaker B:He says, rather, what if it did?
Speaker B:Then he says, though war should rise against me.
Speaker B:And again, he doesn't say that war has come against him, but he says, what if war did come against me?
Speaker B:But even look at verse 10, he says, when my father and mother forsake me, there's no evidence that David's father and mother had forsaken him.
Speaker B:But he's saying, what if my father and mother Forsake me.
Speaker B:Really, David is doing exactly the opposite of what we normally advise others to do when they worry or when they get anxious.
Speaker B:David is imagining the worst things that could possibly happen to him.
Speaker B:Wow.
Speaker B:He's thinking, what if a army encamps against me?
Speaker B:What if a host comes against me?
Speaker B:What if my father and mother were to leave me?
Speaker B:You might say, well, why is he doing that?
Speaker B:Because he wants to have a strategy.
Speaker B:What to do if these things actually do happen to him?
Speaker B:He wants to know ahead of time, how can I handle this if these things were to happen to me?
Speaker B:David is saying, if these fearful and bad things do happen, I've got to be ready to know how to handle them.
Speaker B:The Bible says you can have a way of dealing with fear, worry and anxiety that assumes the worst things may and can happen to use.
Speaker B:So we might ask the question.
Speaker B:We should ask a question.
Speaker B:Just what is David's strategy then?
Speaker B:What is his way of dealing with anxiety?
Speaker B:What is his way of dealing with his worst fears?
Speaker B:Well, in verse four, we see his secret or we see his strategy to dealing with anxiety.
Speaker B:He really uses three words to describe this strategy.
Speaker B:If you look in verse 4, he uses the word dwell.
Speaker B:To dwell.
Speaker B:Then he says to behold.
Speaker B:Or the word behold means to gaze upon.
Speaker B:So he uses the word to dwell.
Speaker B:He uses the words to gaze.
Speaker B:And then he says to inquire or to seek.
Speaker B:So really, there's three very significant words in this verse that David uses in his strategy of how he and really how we, according to the word of God, should handle anxiety.
Speaker B:The words to dwell, the word to gaze, and the word to seek.
Speaker B:So what does it mean, each one of these words?
Speaker B:What is he talking about when he says firstly to dwell?
Speaker B:Look at verse four.
Speaker B:He says one thing.
Speaker B:Have I desired of the Lord that I may.
Speaker B:Here it is.
Speaker B:Dwell in the house of the Lord.
Speaker B:What does it mean to dwell in the house of the Lord?
Speaker B:We know that he can't literally dwell or physically take up residence in the temple.
Speaker B:Only the Levites could do that.
Speaker B:Only the priests could do that.
Speaker B:The house of the Lord is where God's presence abides.
Speaker B:So David is saying here, the one thing, the one thing that I desire is to dwell in the presence of God.
Speaker B:I want to dwell in God's presence.
Speaker B:David is desiring the unbroken presence of God.
Speaker B:Or as we see in verse 8, he wants to be face to face with God.
Speaker B:Look at verse eight again.
Speaker B:When thou saidst, seek ye my face, my heart said unto thee thy face.
Speaker B:Lord, will I seek you might say, brother Sam, what exactly does he mean by that?
Speaker B:Listen, you can't know someone from observing them from afar.
Speaker B:We could have a visitor in the church this morning, maybe someone I've never seen, I've never been introduced to, and I can't really know them until I come to them and I'm face to face with them.
Speaker B:We might say the face is a relational gate to the heart.
Speaker B:When I come up to somebody, I don't look at their knees, I don't look at their feet.
Speaker B:I look in their eyes, I look at their face.
Speaker B:David says, a secret to overcoming your anxiety and fear.
Speaker B:David is saying, if the one thing you want most is God, if the one thing I want to see most is the face of God, be in the presence of God to dwell in his presence, and I can be free from fear and I can be free from anxiety.
Speaker B:Look at verse five.
Speaker B:For in the time of trouble.
Speaker B:How many of you ever had a time of trouble in your life?
Speaker B:Or many of you are going through a time of trouble right now?
Speaker B:For in the time of trouble, he shall hide me in his pavilion, in the secret place of his tabernacle shall he hide me.
Speaker B:He shall set me up upon a rock.
Speaker B:David says, when I'm in trouble, he says, I'm safe.
Speaker B:I'm without fear and anxiety if God is the one thing that I desire the most.
Speaker B:St. Augustine was a great African theologian of the Church.
Speaker B:He lived in the 4th and 5th centuries, and he said this concerning anxiety.
Speaker B:Here's where anxiety comes from.
Speaker B:All of us have good things in our lives, and we love them and we desire them.
Speaker B:Good things.
Speaker B:Parents and children are good things.
Speaker B:A career is a good thing.
Speaker B:Romance is a good thing.
Speaker B:Sex is a good thing.
Speaker B:All sorts of things are good things.
Speaker B:We have lots of good things in our lives.
Speaker B:But when good things become one things, when things that are good have to become things that you have to have when they become the central values of your life.
Speaker B:That's where anxiety comes from.
Speaker B:Because anxiety is always a sign of the collapse of a false God in your life.
Speaker B:Wow.
Speaker B:You say preacher, that's pretty hard to practically apply because there's a lot of good things.
Speaker B:You just mention them in my life.
Speaker B:Parents are good, children are good.
Speaker B:You know, there's so many good things, and it's so easy for these good things to creep into our lives and become the one thing they become the little idols that creep into our lives.
Speaker B:They become what Augustine talks about, a false God in our life.
Speaker B:You might say, well, Brother Sam, are You saying that you should never have any anxiety at all.
Speaker B:I believe a little anxiety, we might say, can be a good thing because it shows that we are a caring and a loving person.
Speaker B:We should care.
Speaker B:We should love.
Speaker B:And so we might say a little anxiety might be a good thing.
Speaker B:In fact, we see an example of this in Scripture.
Speaker B:In Second Corinthians, chapter 11, Paul says, I have on me the daily cares.
Speaker B:If you look at that word or anxieties of all the what churches says daily, I have the cares of the anxiety of their churches upon me.
Speaker B:A little anxiety can show caring.
Speaker B:A little anxiety can show loving.
Speaker B:But debilitating anxiety, devastating anxiety, shows that you have let good things become one things in your life.
Speaker B:So David is saying, God, if you're my one thing, if you're the one thing I desire the most, the one thing I ask for is to gaze on your beauty, to seek you in your temple, then I'm fearless.
Speaker B:Then I don't have any worry.
Speaker B:I don't have any anxiety.
Speaker B:Why does he say that?
Speaker B:Because he knows that nothing can take God away from him.
Speaker B:He can't lose God.
Speaker B:He can't lose his presence.
Speaker B:Nothing can take God away from him.
Speaker B:Listen, folks, anything else you set your heart upon in this world, whether it's money, whether it's a new home, whether it's a career, whether it's a new car, whether it's a relationship, can be taken away from you.
Speaker B:It can be taken away from you.
Speaker B:But one thing that can't be taken away from you, that is a rock in your life, is God.
Speaker B:He cannot be taken away from you.
Speaker B:So when there's a threat of it being taken away from you, if you've got other things that have become your one things, then you fall apart.
Speaker B:You fall to pieces, you have a breakdown.
Speaker B:You have debilitating and devastating anxiety in your life because you've let some little things become the one thing in your life.
Speaker B:Let me give you an example.
Speaker B:David gives us a wonderful example in this psalm in verse 10.
Speaker B:Again he says, when my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up.
Speaker B:You know, God created the family.
Speaker B:It's a beautiful thing.
Speaker B:And God created the family, parents to love their children and for children to love their parents, to obey and give honor to them.
Speaker B:That's a good thing.
Speaker B:But what happens to a child if the parent forsakes that child?
Speaker B:And let me stop and ask you this question.
Speaker B:In America, have many parents forsaken children?
Speaker B:Hey, we deal with it all the time.
Speaker B:We talk to young people.
Speaker B:We talk to grown adults who, parents, at some point in their life, have forsaken them.
Speaker B:Unfortunately, the answer to that question is yes.
Speaker B:There are people who, because of that, because their parents have forsaken them, say to themselves, I'll never forgive them.
Speaker B:I'll never be okay again because my parents abandoned me.
Speaker B:I'll always feel worthless.
Speaker B:I'll never be happy ever again.
Speaker B:You say, what's happened to them?
Speaker B:Brother Sam, you see, a good thing, parental love is a good thing, has become their one thing.
Speaker B:And they're gazing at its beauty, that is parental love, and longing for it and seeking after it.
Speaker B:As a result, they'll be anxious and fearful all of their life.
Speaker B:God wants us to see and understand.
Speaker B:If my father and mother forsake me, if my spouse forsakes me, if my career forsakes me, if romance forsakes me, if my looks forsake me, which I know they have, when all of that forsakes me, the Lord will receive me.
Speaker B:I hope you're getting this.
Speaker B:I hope you're really getting this.
Speaker B:The Lord is the one thing that will never, ever.
Speaker B:If you're a child of God, he will never, ever forsake you.
Speaker B:Unless you understand.
Speaker B:The reason that we get anxious is because little things become one things in our life and become the focus of our life.
Speaker B:Unless we really grasp this, we'll be full of fear and anxiety and worry when trouble comes our way.
Speaker B:You have listened to the first part of a two part message by evangelist Sam Wood.
Speaker A:Thank you for joining the Fortifying youg Family podcast.
Speaker A:And if you feel encouraged by today's teaching, give us a follow so we can invite you back and share us on your socials so more marriages and families can be strengthened and fortified through the truths of God's word.
Speaker A:Remember, fortifying your family starts with a strong belief in God's Word.
