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Series today. We'll end it when we're done. It's a series called Arresting Anxiousness. And I want to read a few verses of scripture found in the book of Philippians, chapter number four. Beginning at verse four, we're going to read a few verses from the new international version of the Scriptures. It says, rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again. Rejoice. Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything. But in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God. What happens when I do that? And the peace of God that transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever's true, whatever's noble, whatever's right, whatever's pure, whatever is lovely, whatever's admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things we're gonna use for a topic of today's teaching. It's gonna take me two weeks just to finish this text. All right? So I'm telling you that right now. So part one this week, part two next week, and then we'll go to another message after that. But I wanna talk to you from this subject. I'm putting anxiousness on under arrest. Clap your hands. 11:45. I'm putting anxiousness under arrest. I want to start this time of teaching with a question. It is a question simply for your reflection. Question is simply this. What is the most common command that God gives to humans all throughout Scripture? In other words, if you were to barricade yourself in a room with the Bible and examine all of the instruction that God offers from Genesis to Revelation, what would you see that God says more than anything else? If you are unfamiliar with the answer to this question, the answer is revealed in two very simple yet significant way words. What God says more than anything else from Genesis to Revelation, is simply this. Fear not. I love it. Some iteration or some variation of this instruction and exhortation is found over 300 times in the Bible. In some way over 300 times, God says to his people, fear or not, don't be afraid. Calm down. Hold your peace. Chill out, breathe. Relax. Sit down, drink some water. In Some way, over 300 times, God consistently communicates to his people to arrest their anxiousness. And the fact that God says this so frequently and so regularly isn't just an indication or a revelation of something about God. God's not saying this so frequently and so regularly because he's showing us something about him. God is saying this so Frequently and so regularly. Because he is showing us something about us. He's only saying what needs to be said. Said. He is showing us and saying to us that there is an inclination, a leaning, an orientation of the soul toward worry. Anxiousness and anxiousness, ladies and gentlemen, is often confused and conflated with anxiety. And although there may be some similarities, there is some distinction. I am not qualified or called to deal with anxiety. God grace and gifts and anoints and trains others to aid and assist us in that. But the book does speak about anxiousness, anxiety being a mental health reality that can be a. A result of a number of different sources, like brain chemistry and genetics and circumstances and seasons of life and hormones. Whereas anxiousness is an orientation of the soul toward fear. Anxiousness is a feeling of inner unrest and worry that is fueled by the fear of outcomes we may never experience. Did you hear what I just said? It is a feeling of inner unrest which lets us know it is a weapon that is wielded by the enemy. And I can say that with confidence because it underrodes and erodes. Excuse me. And undermines something that Jesus clearly came, clearly claims he came to give. In Matthew, Jesus says to those who follow him or who need to follow him, come unto me, everyone who is weary, burdened, heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. And then he says something else. He gives commentary on that claim to make sure we're clear on the kind of rest he's talking about. Because what he says is, if you come to me, I'm not just gonna give you rest for your body. That's sleep. He said, I'm gonna give you rest for your soul. Talking to anybody at the 11:45 that knows there's a difference between rest in your body and rest for your soul. Yeah. Cause if your soul is restless, you can go to sleep and wake up tired. Come on. If your soul is. Has anybody ever been there? Yeah. If your soul is restless, you can go on vacation and you can stay at the nicest resort and you can sit by the nicest water. But if your soul is not experiencing rest, you'll take a vacation and need a vacation. Vacation after you take your vacation. But Jesus said, what I give you is rest for your soul. He says, if you want rest for your body, go to bed. But if you want rest for your soul, come to me. That turmoil that's on the inside of you, I'll put it to rest. That angst on the inside of you, I'll put it to rest. That despair on the Inside of you, I'll put it to rest. But anxiousness is an attack against my rest. It is a feeling of inner unrest and worry that is fueled by the fear of outcomes we may never experience. I'm stressed about something that nine times out of ten, don't even happen. Where is. Who's. Who's going to talk back to me today? Come on. I'm wasting good days anticipating a bad day that never becomes my today. I'm gonna say that one more time. I'm wasting good days anticipating a bad day that never becomes my today. Fear of outcomes that we may never experience. It is an emotional thief that robs us of today's peace, anticipation of tomorrow's problems. It is an emotional epidemic that has become a social norm. We all anxious. We anxious if we live on the street. We anxious if we work on Wall Street. Anxious with no money. Anxious with lots of money. Because our soul will find something. Come on, guys. It's an orientation of the soul. The soul will find something to be anxious about. If I'm not anxious about getting it, once I get it, I'll be anxious about keeping it. It is an emotional epidemic that we have accepted as normal because it's frequent. And although it is normal in the culture. I'm reading what the apostle Paul writes to believers in Philippi, and I'm coming to the conclusion that although it is normal in the culture, it doesn't have to be normal in the kingdom. I'm reading what Paul says to believers in Philippi. Listen to this. You have a believer named Paul writing to believers in a place called Philippi. This is northern Greece. This is why the book is called Philippians. Make sense? So when you read the book of Romans, it's a letter Paul writes to believers in Rome. When you read the book of Ephesians, it is a letter Paul writes to believers in Ephesus. If I'm making sense, say yes. Okay, so it's a believer, spiritual leader writing to believers. Because once you get outside the Gospels, everything in the New Testament is from a believer to believers. Did you hear what I just said? I said, did you hear what I just said? So you have a believer writing to believers, saying, I know anxiousness is normal in Philippi, but when it comes to you, you need to be anxious for nothing. Y'all missed that. Did you hear what I just said? You have a believer writing to a group of believers saying, I know anxiousness is normal in Philippi, but anxiousness does not have to be normal for you. He's not saying you don't have anything to be afraid of. He's saying you don't have to be afraid. He's not saying there's nothing to worry about. He's saying you don't have to worry. He's not saying there's nothing happening that people wouldn't be stressed about. He's saying you don't have to be. It is an indication of the principle of exception which says what happens with them does not dictate and determine what happens with me. This is not exceptional. Exceptionalism. That's pride and arrogance. This is exceptionism. I'm not better than exceptionalism. I'm different from exceptionism. Did you hear what I just said? We're not better than. We're different from because we got something different that they don't have. I got something on the inside that they don't have that helps me handle things on the outside in a way they can't handle it. You think I'm strong, but strong is in me. You think I'm tough, but tough is in me. You think I'm great, but greater is he that is in me than he that's in the world. I'm not better than different from. Paul says you be anxious for nothing. I feel an attitude on that nothing. Because the enemy is trying to get us anxious about something and trying to rationalize our anxiousness. But I heard Paul said. When I said nothing, I meant nothing. I meant money, I meant honey, I meant them, I meant him. I meant it when I said nothing. Listen, he's not saying there's nothing to be anxious about. He's saying you don't have to be anxious. He is not articulating a theology of denial. Can I address that? Faith doesn't deny reality. Did you hear what I just said? And sometimes, sometimes there are things we've been taught. It's been well intended. We've been taught to deny reality. So when we say I don't receive that, what we should mean by that is I don't accept that as my long term outcome. Did you hear what I just said? Yeah, I'm not gonna. I can't defeat Goliath if I act like he not there, he's there. I'm not gonna walk around like I don't see this nine foot giant he there. But I heard my Bible say, greater is he. Faith doesn't deny reality. Faith believes God can change it. This is what it is. But this is not the way it will be. This is what it is right now. But before the dust settle, watch what he's saying here. This is interesting. He's not saying deny your circumstance. He's saying, deny your circumstance that much influence. Did you hear what I just said? He's not saying deny the circumstance. He's saying you're giving that circumstance too much influence. You are assigning influence it doesn't have. Some circumstances only have the influence you're assigning to it. You're giving it power it doesn't have. So it's like Paul is saying, you can be in it. Did you hear what I just said? You can be. But being in it doesn't determine whether or not I have anxiousness. Whether or not I have anxiousness is determined by how much influence I give, what I'm in. Now, this seems easy for Paul to say because he's not in Philippi. He not dealing with. He's not. He's not dealing with the external and internal persecution and tension they're dealing with in Philippi. And Paul anticipated I would bring up this tension point. So he texted me this morning. He text me, he say, darius, I say, what up, P? He said, are you gonna tell them who the letter was for? I said, yeah, I'm gonna tell them it was for believers in Philippi. He said, okay, you're gonna tell them who the letter was from? I said, yeah, I'm gonna tell them the letter was from you. He said, okay, so when you tell them who the letter was for and when you tell them who the letter was from, make sure you tell them where I was when I wrote it. Yeah, they know I wrote it. But I need you to tell them, Darius, where I was when I wrote it. Let them know when I wrote this, about being in something and not allowing what you in to influence you. Let them know when I wrote that letter, encouraging everybody else, telling them about peace, that passes all understanding. Tell them I wasn't writing what I heard. Tell them I was writing what I was living. Because when I wrote that letter, I was in prison in Rome. I was in Rome writing a letter to people in Philippi. So I was in a prison, but I didn't let the prison influence me. Y'all missed it. He says, I'm engaging Darius in prison ministry. And if you're honest, we don't like this kind of ministry. Because when God uses you for prison ministry, it's a different kind of usage. This is why, Lord, use me is a dangerous prayer. Let me go to this side over here. Did you hear what I just said? Use me, Lord. That's a dangerous prayer. Because when we say use me, Lord, what we really mean is use my gifts, use my talent, use my knowledge, use my relationships. And God's like, that's not incorrect. It's incomplete. There's another way I use you that's much more powerful than using your time and your gifts and your knowledge and your network. That's when I use your testimony. Y'all missed that. That's when I put you in a prison and I give you peace in the midst of your prison so that your testimony in your bondage becomes something that sets somebody else free. Y'all missed it. When I use your testimony, Lazarus, I don't heal you before you sit. Before you die, I let you die. And then I let a crowd gather to see you in the grave for four days. And I make them stay around. Cuz I want the same people that watch you go in the grave to have a front row seat when I bring you out of the grave. I want to use your testimony. So. So Paul's got credibility with this claim. You could be seated. He's. He's got credibility. He in prison and he gets this revelation. So when he talks about peace that transcends understanding, he's experiencing it. He's in prison experiencing it. So it's like he realizes something. My peace isn't tied to my place. I don't know what place you're in in life, but Paul is teaching us that my peace is not tied to my place because he's in prison. And when you look at the place he's in, he shouldn't have peace. But he's revealing to us that my peace isn't tied to a place. My peace is tied to a person. And that person is the prince of peace. And as long as I have the prince of peace in me, it doesn't matter what I'm in. My prince of peace gives me a kind of peace that transcends logical reasoning. Logically speaking, you shouldn't have it, but high five somebody and tell them, but I do. Y'all didn't do it, but I do. And the enemy's upset, but I do. And my friends are confused, but I do. And I'm confused, but I do. I've got a peace that passes my understanding. Paul calls it in the text. He calls it in the text peace of God. God. Okay. Is that the text he didn't say peace from? It's peace of. It is a peace that is connected to his personhood. It is the essence of his ontological existence. It is when I get him I get it is if it's there, he's there. So when I don't have it, I don't need to look for it. Y'all better come get me. I need to look for him, because if I can get to him, I can get to it. Because peace is tied to a person. Is this not what Jesus said to his followers in John 14? He says, Peace, I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. So he says, those who follow me and those who don't follow me both can use the same word, peace, but they not talking about the same thing, because what they have is peace that is connected to circumstances. So the circumstances have to be cool and calm for them to have peace. Anybody has peace when circumstances are cooling. He says, but. But this peace is connected to your creator, not circumstances, but to your creator. It is different in quality. It is more than an emotion. It is an asset that is a defender. Did you hear what I just said? Where did you get it from? I got it from the text. Paul says that peace of God that passes all understanding, the peace becomes your protector. They don't believe me. Give me the text. They. I got Bible. The peace which transcends all understanding. Look at the text. Will guard tario. They didn't catch it. What will guard peace, will guard. They don't. I need some help. Desean. I need. I need about five brothers to run up here real quick. Five brothers run up on the stage real quick. Because they don't believe me at the 11:45, but I'm getting ready to show you this. All right? All right, Rick, you stand in the middle. Stand in the middle. Now, y'all put a circle around Rick. Now I want you brothers, everybody put a circle around Rick. Now lock arms. If you got a circle around Rick, like, don't touch Rick. Lock arms. I want you to see the Greek word here. The Greek word here for guard is a word that speaks to a military garrison. Now watch this. I want y'all to back up a little bit. Now I want you to walk in a circle around Rick. This is what the word in the Greek means. That's what peace will do. So when the devil tries to find a weak spot and the devil's trying to get in, it can't get in. Because peace. Peace is guarding your heart and your mind. If you want that kind of peace, take 15 seconds and give God praise. The devil's trying to get in, but peace is circling. So when they try to come in through work, pieces circling. When you try to come in through the marriage, pieces circling. When you try to come in through the business, pieces circling. Paul says, as opposed to being overwhelmed by anxiousness, the believer can be protected by peace. As opposed to being overwhelmed by anxiousness, the believer can be protected by peace. Here's what I love about the text. I'm out of time already. Here's what I love about the text. It doesn't just tell us that it can happen. It shows us how it can happen. I see four things in the text, but I can only show you two because that's the only thing that the other two services got. And I'll give you the next two next week, but here it is. Here it is. Here's the first thing. It's right here in the text. Here it is. Because it's one thing to know I can. It's another thing to know how. Here it is. Let's wrap this up. Here it is. So if I want to arrest anxiousness, the first thing I got to do is I got to address my interpretations. The fact that Paul wrote this letter means he isn't interpreting. Boy, if I had time. He's not interpreting the event the way normal people would interpret the event. Because here's what happens. We experience an event, and then we come up with interpretation of what we think that event means. Can I give it to you? So we can experience downturn in economy. We can interpret that as downturn in my business. Y'all missed that. We can experience layoff. We can interpret that as homelessness. What happened happened, but it doesn't mean what you think it means. And your anxiousness is coming not from the event. Your anxiousness is coming from the conclusions you're drawing, the assumptions you're making about what the event means. And God sitting, looking at us saying, am I not still God? Some trust in horses, some trust in chariots, but we will put our trust in the Lord. You know what happened, but you don't know what it means. It's interpretation. So we anxious because we way down the line. Oh, my God. About what this means. Paul's in prison. Boy, if I had time, I will show you how Paul didn't interpret his prison experiences. Pastor, he'd be in prison. He'd say stuff like, I see you shortly. They. They didn't get it. They didn't get it. Preacher. I said he would be in prison and he would write and say, I'll see you soon. Meaning, I'm in here right now. But this, my current situation, it's not my final destination. I'm getting ready to get out of here because some people could be in prison and think, oh, I'm going to be in here forever. I'm going to die in here. I'm never going to get out. So the anxiousness isn't the event, it's the interpretation. But the Red Sea doesn't mean what you think it means. Jericho Walls don't mean what you think they mean. A nine foot giant named Goliath doesn't mean what you think it means. Because if God. We got to go. Place Tario. I gotta address my interpretation number two, send the text. He says, rejoice. And again I say rejoice. So I have to express intentional appreciation. Okay, now I'm gonna show you this next week because in the text you're about to see Paul showing you how what we're getting ready to call spiritual disciplines are the way you war against anxiousness. I'm gonna show you next week where he talks about prayer in the text. And I'm gonna tell you next week where he talks about addressing your thought life. It's all in the text. But he says, rejoice. And again I say, rejoice. So he is talking about the spiritual discipline of gratitude. Pastor, what's the spiritual discipline in the book of Timothy? Paul told Timothy, exercise yourself into godliness. So he said, the way you get strong spiritually, Timothy, is by doing spiritual exercises. If you don't do the exercises, you're not going to be strong spiritually. He says, so am I making sense? So he's telling him, do the things that get you in spiritual shape because you're trying to run spiritual marathons and you're not in spiritual shape. So I tell you to love your enemies and you're not in that kind of shape. I'm telling you, be anxious for nothing. You're not in that kind of shape. And so the warfare in the attack, only the warfare, is also the attack before the attack. It's the attack on your disciplines. So he says, let me make sure they don't pray. Let me make sure they don't study the scriptures. Let me make sure they don't express intentional gratitude called praise. Because different disciplines get different results. They are a means of grace. God chooses what God uses to give to you what you don't deserve. Grace, you don't deserve it. So a means of grace is something that God chooses to use to get to you what you don't deserve. So if you don't deserve it, God determines the conditions that must be met for you to get it. So God says, you don't deserve for me to give you anything. But it's some stuff I'm not going to give you unless you pray you have not. Because I choose what I use to get to you what you don't deserve. So if you don't deserve it at all, you can't complain about what I tell you to do to get what you don't deserve. So praise is gratitude. And here's what it gets me. It gets me, number one, his presence, he inhabits, or he's enthroned in the praises of Israel. This is what's called. Somebody say manifest presence. So God is omnipresent. That means he's everywhere. He's at the grocery store, right? But that's not the same as manifest presence. So he's present. But when we were talking about his presence, we're talking about when he manifests. You can be in my house, but you don't benefit from me being in my house. As I come out of my room, praise, make him come out the room. And the Old Testament word used to describe when he comes out of the room is Shekinah, glory, the kabod, the weightiness. You can feel something heavy just came in here. The weight shifted. Now you know what the old preachers meant when they would pray God, throw your weight around, throw your glory. And Psalm 16 says, in his presence, there's fullness of joy. So his presence is an automatic temporary eviction of anxiousness. So as long as I'm in His presence, see, you're not anxious right now, are you? Because his presence is an automatic eviction of anxiousness. So if the only time I'm in it is here on Sunday, then I'm only free from anxiousness here on Sunday, I'm done. But it not only gives us presence, it gives us perspective. Here's the word. I'm sorry. 1:30. Hey, I'm sorry. We'll be through in a minute. It gives us perspective. Now here's the way David describes this spiritual discipline. He says, magnify. So he says, when I express intentional gratitude, I'm magnifying. Now, let me ask you something. When you use a magnifying glass, do you actually make the thing bigger, your perspective? So when I'm expressing intentional gratitude, my perspective of God becomes bigger. Anxiousness comes not because your problem's too big. It comes because your God's too small. And as I worship and as I praise, as I intentionally. Here's the way the writer of Hebrews calls it. He calls it the sacrifice. I don't praise in response to what I feel. I pray so I can feel. And God wants to use these principles to free us from incarceration to anxiousness. Paul is in. He's actually his house arrest. And he's writing to people saying, I'm freer than y'all are. He says, the only difference is you can't see your bars. But look at Pastor. You will not live this way the rest of your life. By the time we done with this series, you're not only going to be getting sleep, you getting rest. I pray that over you. You are too blessed. You are way too blessed to be this anxious.