Latest / Pastor John Piper's answers / Defeating Daily Anxiety

Transcript

Defeating Daily Anxiety · Pastor John Piper's answers

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: The alarm buzzes, you wake up, or try to wake up.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: You haven't even gotten out of bed yet, but your
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: phone is in your hand, and World War three is
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: turning on Twitter. Your email inbox is full of new
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: messages to respond to. You regret opening your phone. This
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: sort of low grade dread comes over you, partly from
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: another day ahead of bad news online, but partly because
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: you're reminded of overdue bills, and the day ahead is
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: full of challenges and things you don't really want to do.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: You just want to stay in bed, but you can't.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: You have to fight today. On ask Pastor John defeating
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: daily anxiety. The experience is global, and the question comes
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: from Juliana in Brazil. Pastor John, Hello and thank you
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: for APJ. As a woman in my mid twenties, I
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: feel the constant weight of anxiety. Not full blown debilitating
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: panic attacks, but more of a percist background hum of dread, pressure,
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: and exhaustion. I feel all the time, between social expectations,
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: a NonStop cycle of bad news I see on my
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: phone and from my own overthinking. I just feel overwhelmed,
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: and I feel it almost every day. How can someone
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: like me cultivate peace? Sanity and spiritual steadiness in a
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: world that feels to be driving me into a state
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: of relentless hyper anxiousness. What practical steps minimize the nerves
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: I feel every day in order to live like how
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: a daughter of the sovereign King should live.
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: Well, Juliana. Since I don't know you well enough to
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: diagnose all the factors that might be making you anxious,
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: maybe the most responsible thing I can do is to
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: ponder with you some words of Jesus that he spoke
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: exactly so that you would be free from anxiety. That's
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: his aim. There are eight arguments or reasons in Matthew
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: six twenty five to thirty four that Jesus speaks to
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: help you not be anxious. It's amazing. I know there
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: are people who think they've told me so that arguments
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: or reasons don't affect our emotions. Well, Jesus did not
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: believe that, or he wouldn't have spoken the way he's
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: about to speak. He expected that his words in the
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: power of the spirit, and believed by his disciples these arguments,
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: these eight reasons, would make them amazingly bold and free
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: from fear and anxiety. So let me just preface these
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: few comments with the fact that Jesus really did believe
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: in the absolute, meticulous, pervasive sovereignty of God that's assumed
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: in this passage. He believed that it would have an
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: effect on his disciples to know that. He said in
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: Matthew ten twenty nine, not one sparrow will fall to
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: the ground apart from your father. So fear not, Juliana,
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: that's for you. Fear not. You are of more value
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: than many sparrows. That's the way Jesus argued. In other words,
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: believing that God is that much in control of the
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: details of the world steadies the Christian heart and makes
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: us bold, makes us free. So I'm going to take
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: Matthew six twenty five to thirty four one argument at
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: a time and draw your attention to it and why
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: it can help take away your anxiety. Matthew six twenty five.
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: Do not be anxious about your life, what you shall
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: what you shall put on. Argument number one is not
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: life more than food, and the body more than clothing.
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: In other words, God has already given you the greater
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: gift of life and body. Will he not give you
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: the lesser gift of food and clothing. Your life and
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: your body are astonishing. They are astonishing works of God.
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: Be amazed at the wonder of your own life and
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: your own body. And if He created those, how easy
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: it is for him to meet your physical needs. That's
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: argument number one verse twenty six. Look at the birds
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: of the air. They neither sow nor reap, nor gather
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: into barns that your heaveny father feeds them. Are given
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: number two. Are you not of more value than they?
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: This is an argument from the lesser to the greater.
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: If he concerned himself with the least valuable mere birds,
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: billions of mere birds, will he not concern himself with
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: the greatly valuable, namely his disciples. Yes he will. So
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: don't be anxious as if he won't take care of you.
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: Verse twenty seven. Argument number three, And which of you
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: by being anxious can add a single hour to a
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: span of life? In other words, anxiety doesn't work, it
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: doesn't help, It makes matters worse. Jesus really does expect
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: us to think this way. I mean, people scoff at
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: this kind of argument, like stop, it doesn't help. And
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: he expects that our thinking this way is going to
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: make a difference in our feelings. Preach to yourself, so
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: say self, this feeling of anxiety is not helping me
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: at all. It's only making matters worse. So stop it. Now.
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: We may laugh, We may laugh at that kind of assumption.
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: I used to I don't anymore. I don't. I think
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: we can preach to ourselves and to our emotions in
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: the power of God's spirit much more effectively than we
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: think we can Verse twenty eight. And why are you
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field. They
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: how they grow? They neither toil nor spin. Yet I
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: tell you, Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: like one of these. And here comes argument her four.
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: But if God so close the grass of the field,
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven,
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: will he not much more clothe you, O, you of
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: little faith? In other words, if God provides lavishly for
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: the ephemeral lilies the grass, will he not provide for
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: his children? Yes he will. He will give us the
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: clothes we need to do his will and glorify his
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: name if he will Verse thirty one. Therefore, do not
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: be anxious saying what shall we eat? Or what shall
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: we drink? Or what shall we wear? Argument number five,
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: For the gentiles seek these things. When we are anxious,
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: we are acting like unbelievers who have no heavenly father
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: who cares for them. You don't want to act like
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: an unbeliever, and so you renounce anxiety. You put it
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: to death. You say to your anxiety, you are not
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: telling the truth about me, Anxiety. You are not telling
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: the truth to me, and you're not telling the truth
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: to other people. You are lying about who I am.
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: I am a child of God. You are making me
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: look like I don't have a heavenly father. So stop
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: it right now and go away. You are a liar,
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: Get out of my life. Verse thirty two. Argument number six.
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: Your heavenly father knows that you need them all. In
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: other words, you have a father in heaven, not a
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: cosmic force, but a father, not a slave master. I'm
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: not an employer. You have a father, a need meeting
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: father who is meticulously sovereign over your life and this world.
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: Your father knows every need, and he is God implication.
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: He'll meet your needs. Yes he will, believe him. Verse
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: thirty three. But seek first the kingdom of God and
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: his righteousness verse or argument number seven. All these things
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: will be added to you. In other words, the reason
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: God meets all our needs is because He loves the
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: advance of his saving rule in the lives of his people.
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: He loves the advance of his righteousness in the lives
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: of his people. He loves to support his mission. All
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: these things will be added to you everything you need
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: to do his mission, to do his will, to glorify
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: his name Verse thirty four. Last one. Therefore, do not
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: itself sufficient, for the day is its own trouble. In
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: other words, tomorrow's trouble is appointed for tomorrow, and there
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: will be new mercy for it tomorrow, not today. Don't
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: try to run tomorrow's car on today's. Guess, that's not
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: what it's for. His mercies are new every morning, because
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: our troubles are new every morning, and there will always
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: be sufficient mercy for the day's trouble. So, Juliana, take
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: your precious Savior at his word, hold fast to God's
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: pervasive sovereignty and goodness, and preach to yourself reason after
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: reason after reason from the Bible. Why you do not
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: need to be anxious in this world. Yeah.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: I guess that's the thing about anxiety, right. We tend
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: to think of it as an untamable monster, something to
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: normalize that you have to live with. Have you get
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: used to But Jesus says, no, you don't, and he
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: employs divine logic to fight worry so that we can
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: preach against our anxiety. You are lying about who I am.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: I am a child of God. You are making me
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: look like I don't have a heavenly father. So stop
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: it right now and go away. You are a liar.
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: Get out of my life. Yes, I love that pushback,
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: Paster John, thank you. And you know, when it comes
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: to social media, we've covered a lot of ground when
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: it comes to the worst of our compulsive phone habits.
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: You can see my summary digestive all those mini episodes
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: in the aspester Don book on pages two seventy seven
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: to ninety on smartphone, social media and selfie sticks to
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: see kind of what we've covered in the past on
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: our worst social media and smartphone habits. And when it
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: comes to the evil that we see on our phones,
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: what do we do with it? Should those become the
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: theme of Sunday morning sermons. That's next time preaching outrage.
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: I'm Tony Ranky, See you on Thursday.