<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Plymouth-Sorrento SDA Church

Ralph Henderson

Be Anxious For Nothing

This morning we are going to be talking about being anxious for nothing.

Now what I want to do at the beginning is I want to set this up for you this morning.

We're going to talk about what it means to be anxious, what that really means.

And Then we're going to talk about the things that cause us to be anxious, and then we're going to look at the solution to being anxious.

So I've told you what I'm going to tell you, and now I'm going to tell you.

And I'm going to begin with a little story.

There was an old sea captain that had a new crew member and the new crew member had just come aboard ship and the captain decided that he was going to test that crew member to see how he would really do out in the open sea and so we asked him a question he said young man he said if there is a storm coming in on the starboard side, what will you do?

He said, well sir, I will drop an anchor.

He said, well then what will you do if another storm comes in from the aft side?

He said, well sir, I will drop another anchor.

He said, well, what will you do then if a storm comes in from the forward side?

He said, wait, wait, just a minute, young man, Where are you getting all these anchors from?

And the young man said, Well sir, I'm getting them from the same place you're getting all those storms.

Now my brothers and sisters, the reality this morning is, is that we all will face storms in life.

The simple truth is that every 1 of us, and maybe in different ways, but every 1 of us will have our storm.

It may be financial, it may be emotional, it may be physical, it may be spiritual.

But this morning as we begin I want to take again a journey of faith with you today and I want you to go with me to our text for this morning Luke chapter 21.

Luke chapter 21 And we're going to begin in verse 25.

And when you're going there, I want you just to be reminded that Luke chapter 21 is sort of Luke's perspective on Matthew's perspective of Matthew 24.

Luke is kind of showing us his angle and what he heard as Jesus spoke that particular message.

And you notice in verse 25, Jesus again is talking about the end of time, the last days.

He said, there shall be signs in the sun and the moon and in the stars.

And then he says, and upon the earth distress of nations with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring.

Now, before I go any further, do you see distress of nations in the world today?

The United States as it's dealing with all of these issues over in the Middle East is trying to figure out how in the world do we calm this group of people down.

We have great distress in the world in which we live today.

We are living in a world that is full of distress and perplexity.

So think for a minute about those 2 words.

Distress is great pain, anxiety, or sorrow, acute physical or mental suffering, affliction or trouble.

Perplexity is the cause to be puzzled or bewildered over what is not understood or certain.

So as you look at the world around you, you can definitely agree that we live in a distressed and perplexing world.

Most of the world around us today, in fact many of us in this very room, live in a constant state of fear or worry.

Because they don't know what is going to happen next.

But the Christian should not be fearful, should we?

The Christian should not be fearful, But yet at times we are afraid.

In 2 Timothy 1 and verse 7, you don't need to go there, but Paul said, For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of sound mind.

So if we have the spirit of fear, it must be coming from somewhere else.

John said in John 14, 27, actually these are the words he quoted of Jesus.

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you.

Not as the world giveth, give I unto you.

Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

You see, Jesus wants us to understand that we should not be troubled or afraid at the signs that are around us, the signs that cause distress and perplexity in the world, because we have the story.

We know what's going to take place, and we know that Jesus is going to follow through with His promise.

In Matthew 6 and verse 25, He told us, don't worry.

And I want to look at a few of those words too before we go any further.

Because I want you to think about, perhaps in your own life, if you experience these things.

And I want you to also notice, this is what I always love about definitions, because In the definition of anxiety, we see the word distress.

When you're giving a definition of all these words, you oftentimes see different words that you've just read about in the definition of this word.

So anxiety is full of mental distress or uneasiness because of fear, of danger, or misfortune, or greatly worried.

Fear is a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain, whether the threat is real or imagined.

And worry is to torment with cares, anxieties, trouble, to torment oneself with or suffer from distressing thoughts.

So worry kind of covers all of the others, doesn't it?

And in verse 34 of Luke 21, Jesus said to make sure that we weren't overcharged with the cares of this life.

And you see, as we look at the world around us, we all are getting caught up, if we're not careful, we all are getting caught up into the cares of this life.

Our world is getting more and more unstable economically.

And that leads us, when we think of those other areas, leads us to 1 that many of us hear about.

Hopefully none of us in this room experience it, but panic attacks.

An intense attack of anxiety characterized by feelings of impending doom and trembling, sweating, pounding heart, and other physical symptoms.

Now I know some of you are thinking that that's exactly how you feel when you think about exercising.

But that's not what we're talking about here.

We're talking about a serious ailment that some people are afflicted with.

There are many who live out their lives filled with anxiety, waiting for that next event.

Now it's interesting that Ron brought up the snake story this morning, because some of us may have a fear of snakes.

Okay, so about one-third actually like snakes.

Now, you may have a fear of snakes, or you may have a fear of heights, so you don't have to often deal with your fear unless you work WIRONDAS.

But imagine what it must be like this morning if you have a fear of being in public places or driving in traffic or a fear of being rejected by people, a fear of financial problems, a fear of failure, or worse yet, you seem anxious for no reason at all.

These become an obstacle to living a victorious life of trust and peace in Christ.

Have you ever seen a Christian that seemed to be miserable?

That poor person is not really trusting the Word of God.

They're not really turning over their burdens and their cares to Jesus.

They're not allowing him to work through those with them.

They're still trying to manage everything on their own, and when we try to do that, we're simply miserable people.

So we see what anxiety is, we see what worry is, But now the question is, why am I anxious?

Well, generally, something has come into our lives, something that we have no control over, a circumstance that we couldn't have prevented, something that happens, we have no control over it.

I can't do a single thing to alter my current situation.

Back to Menu

Be Anxious For Nothing

Transcript

Sponsor

Recorded

Related

The Bible Predicted the Future 2,500 Years Ago

38m

Last Day Events

A World in Crisis

1h 4m

Living Today

Mainstream Spiritualism: The Rise of the Occult

1h 5m

Signs in the Heavens

31m

The Final Conflict

1h 3m

Chaos, Coronavirus, and the Christian Response

47m

God’s Thoughts On Life and Death

49m

Jesus on Prophecy

55m

The Time Is Near

53m

How to Survive the Coming Economic Collapse: 3 Financial Secrets the World Does Not Know

46m

Plenary

Israel’s Guardian Angel

1h 1m

Sound Doctrine