HOW TO DEAL WITH WORRY

[1]WELCOME: Good morning everyone! If you’re new with us this morning either on campus or joining us online, my name is Nic Cook and I’m one of the pastors here at Cornerstone. So today and next week we will be finishing up our teaching by talking about worry and how it steals our joy. The reality is that our world has figured out how to…[2]

·  MAKE A PROFIT BY SELLING FEAR: For example, the news programs have figured out that they can get more people to watch their programs by playing on their fears. “North Korea could be preparing to carry out their first weapons test since Biden took office.” Or “Crisis in the Senate”, “Crisis at the border.” It’s a crisis! Be afraid, and come to us so we can tell you more about how to be afraid! All the while they’re making money from people watching their shows. A sociologist named Barry Glassner famously once said “If it bleeds, it leads, ‘drug, crime, disaster stories make up most of the news portion of the broadcasts.” Even if we didn’t have a media that thrived on our fears we all still have enough to worry about right? [3]

·   I’m mean, it’s not like we’re living in the middle of a pandemic where everything has changed. There’s nothing to worry about in your job, or in your school, or in your marriage, or with your kids, or with your friends, or in the church, right? I remember when we first had Levi, there was overwhelming joy at first, then overwhelming fear…what if something happens to him? Someone told me the most vulnerable you will ever feel is when you become a parent. If you have a pulse, you probably deal with worry. And worry leads to all kinds of problems. Physical problems like not being able to sleep, knots in our stomach, headaches. It leads to emotional problems like depression, anxiety, fear, and anger. It bleeds into relationships and makes us clingy, or overprotective, or overreactive and unpredictable as we try to control everything around us, or avoid any kind of danger. I am so grateful that…

o GOD HASN’T LEFT US STUCK WITH NO WAY OUT OF THE PIT OF WORRY: He has spoken through his messenger Paul and that message is just as needed today as it was for the Philippian Christians. So, if you would, go ahead and pull out your bibles or your digital devices and turn to [Philippians Chapter 4 verses 1-8] [4]. I’m going to pray for the Holy Spirit to speak directly to our hearts and minds and address our worries and fears today and point us to how we can know and experience the presence of Jesus, who gives peace beyond any earthly understanding. Let’s pray… [Read Phil. 4:1-8]

(TEACH) WORRY IS A HEAD/HEART PROBLEM (God)

BACKGROUND: [5]If there was anyone who had a right to worry, it was Paul. As he wrote this he was sitting in prison in Rome, chained to elite Roman soldiers, unable to go anywhere and awaiting a trial where he knew he might be executed at any moment. There are people in Rome trying to make his life harder. Then a guy named Epaphroditus from the city of Philippi comes and almost dies during his journey. He hears that the church back in Philippi is struggling with some oppression in their city. He hears that there is division in the church between two prominent female leaders named Euodia and Syntyche. If I were Paul, I would need a box of rolaids for all the indigestion that would cause me. Yet here he is saying “rejoice, and again I say rejoice.” He tells them “not to be anxious about anything.” Paul says don’t let anxiety and worry steal your joy. I think for us to address how to trade anxiety and worry for joy, we need to talk about the root causes of worry and anxiety. As I thought about it and studied this week, I believe that…[6]

·  WORRY IS CONNECTED TO OUR PAST AND IS FOCUSED ON THE FUTURE: I’m currently reading a book called The Anatomy of the Soul that is written by a Doctor, Psychologist, Counselor and Christian. In it he explains how our brains both receive information about our world from the time we are born and how our brains process that information and store it. There are a number of ways our brains do this because they are incredible creations made by our incredible creator and there is still a great deal, we don’t know about it and how it works. However, one way of looking at the way the brain processes information is from a top down or bottom-up perspective. [7] When we look at the brain this way, we have three systems. The reptilian complex, the Limbic Circuitry, and the Neocortex. The first two parts deal with unconscious things like breathing, hormones, noticing the environment and producing emotions. The last part is the Neocortex that deals with higher level complex thought like language, logic, creativity. The point is that much of our life is determined by the first 2 without even realizing it, response to potential dangers or pleasurable stimulation in the environment and emotion associated with fear or pleasure. Our bodies jump into action usually before our logic does. This means that from the time we are born

o our brains are processing if the people and environment that we are in is good, safe, and secure, and whether we are loved. [8]Our mind has been trained to pay attention to people and situations in certain ways through our previous experiences. Experiences we have in our families, in school, in church, and other relationships and environments all affect how we think and feel usually without thinking. Then what happens is we have an experience in the present that triggers our body and our emotions. For example, if in the past we grew up in a family where there was a sense of worry about finances, or there were arguments about money, then our brains process that information without us noticing and it affects how we react. Then one day your boss gives you feedback that is hard to hear. Subconsciously your brain begins the process it learned early on, worry. What if I lose my job? How will I feed my kids? We’ll have to sell our house. All of this happens in seconds without even realizing it. Then you spend days and weeks living in worry about something that may never come true in the future. If you grew up in a family that had really high expectations you learned from an early age that failure is not an option. Disapproving looks from parents, grandparents, authority figures, tones of voice, are neatly stored in your memory. Hypothetically, Let’s say you had to stand up on Sundays and preach to people. Saturday nights become times when worry sets in. What if I look stupid? What if I say something that makes people mad? Can you see how…[9]

§ THE THINGS WE’VE EXPERIENCED IN THE PAST CAUSE US TO WORRY ABOUT WHAT MAY HAPPEN IN THE FUTURE. This morning, I’d like to invite you to begin thinking about the things you worry about, and look back to see if there is a connection to experiences you’ve had in your family growing up, or even simple experiences in school, or as a young adult. The thing is we read scriptures like Phil 4:6 that says “do not be anxious about anything” and we beat ourselves up. I must be a bad Christian. I don’t have enough faith. Our brains have been trained to think a certain way. We don’t even realize our brains are wrestling with the questions of…[10]

§ WHAT IF GOD LET’S ME DOWN IN THE FUTURE?  In seconds our brains run down questions like: what if God doesn’t provide for me? Is he really a good provider? What if God allows me to lose my job? Is he really good and wise? What if God allows me to get sick? Is he really powerful enough to heal or can I trust him even if I don’t get better? This is the root of worry. Past experiences causing us to doubt the goodness of God in the future, so we are consumed by worry in the present. Sit with this. [11]What in the past, is making you worry in the present, that God won’t come through in the future? Here’s what I’m doing, I’m…

·  engaging the 3rd part of the brain so we can override and retrain the other two parts. Now before some of you start worrying that I’m just teaching a science lesson and straying from scripture, let me ease your concern. What science tells us is about how we experience true transformation from thinks like worry is by transforming our minds. In [Romans 12:2] [12] Paul says, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” Science is simply confirming what our bibles have been teaching for thousands of years. Our brains need the neocortex to remind the other two parts of who God is and what he is capable of doing in us, for us, and through us. We need truth to override past experiences and emotions. The writer of Anatomy of the soul compares this to walking through a forest trail and seeing something that looks like a snake and instinctively your brain tells you to avoid it and run. However, if you have your child with you, instead of instinctively running away, the neocortex overrides the first two and says jump in front and protect them. A greater truth took control and caused you to behave differently. And amazingly, over time it retrains our brains to not react the same way all the time. We can actually retrain our brain to trust God and not worry so much. We can even train our brains to worship instead of worrying! Our brains need something bigger to hold on to when worry seems huge. This is why Paul says “do not be anxious about anything, but…[13]

·  PRAY ABOUT EVERYTHING: Prayer reorients our brain to the God who is with us in the present, the God who has brought us through our past, and the God who knows the future. It engages the higher part of our brain that is capable of regulating our fears and our emotions. Now, I don’t want to give you the impression of a technique, if you worry, all you have to do is pray and it will trick your brain into not worrying anymore. Prayer is not a pill to take when we slip into worry and anxiety. What I’m saying is that it appears that our Creator purposefully designed us to need to connect with him. He knows how our minds work and he knows how we will worry and he wants us to turn to him. So if God has designed our minds to need to turn to him in prayer when we are stuck in the pit of worry or if we realize we are about to fall into it, then…[14]

(APP) HOW DO WE PRAY?

There is no one right or wrong way to pray. I do believe that when it comes to worry, and anxiety Paul gives us some clues. He mentions supplication and thanksgiving. Supplication simply means asking. When we tell children how to ask for things, we tell them to say Please. Please help me? Can you please get me this or that? He also mentions thanksgiving. To help make this way of praying when we’re experiencing worry or are tempted to worry memorable, I’d like to call it a…[15]

THANK YOU SANDWICH PRAYER: We start with…

·  THANK YOU, GOD FOR BEING GOOD TO ME IN THE PAST: I believe there is a reason why God told his people to constantly remember. Right after he delivered them from slavery in Egypt, God told his people to remember every year what he did for them by celebrating Passover. Remember how I brought you out of Egypt. Remember how I spared you, rescued you, love you. Later we have Jesus doing another kind of rescue by dying on the cross to deliver us from slavery to sin, to forgive us and rescue us from punishment. He said remember what I’m going to do on the cross by taking communion together each time you gather like we’ll do in a minute together. He wants us to remember how he has been good to us in the past as we consider the future. So we thank him for the things he has already done. Then Paul says we should ask God for things. This is where we ask… [16]

·  PLEASE GOD, BE PRESENT WITH ME RIGHT NOW: It is appropriate to ask God to help us with our jobs, with our kids, with our health, and everything. Help me trust you. Help me let go of grasping for control. However, I have found that after we ask God for those things what is even more important to ask for is that we be able to experience his presence with us in our present circumstances. When we are feeling crushed by our burdens and worries, there is nothing more powerful than feeling the presence of the almighty God with you in the middle of it. The one who created the world with a word. The one who has guided human history since its beginning. The one who didn’t leave us alone but sent his Son Jesus so that we could know him personally. The God who has given us his holy Spirit to live inside of us. The same Spirit that has raised Jesus from the dead that is dwelling in our hearts. When we feel his presence and hear his voice it makes us be able to claim the promises of [1 John 1:4:4] and say Greater is he that is in me than he that is in this world. We can say with Paul in [Romans 8:31] If God is for me, then who can be against me! Finally, we end by saying…[17]

·  THANK YOU IN ADVANCE GOD, I TRUST YOU: We do not pray in order to get God to do things for us. He tells us we can pray for things. He also often answers those prayers and gives us what we ask for. However, we also pray so that we can connect with our God, so that we can hand our worries over to him, to thank him for his goodness. And we can thank him in advance for however he chooses to answer our prayers even if they aren’t the way we want them to be answered. This is the way…

(JC) JESUS PRAYED (JC)

There are two major places where we see Jesus himself illustrate this way of praying. The first is when he teaches his disciples how to pray. [18] [Matt 6:9-13]Can we say this together… “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Jesus is saying pray for your needs. Please give me today’s bread. But he’s also saying pray for God’s will to be done. The way he answers may be different, but we can trust that he knows what he’s doing. But what if his way hurts and it’s hard? Then we turn to the Garden where Jesus prays this [19][Matt 26:39] “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” It may be hard for us how God can take something absolutely awful and use it as part of his plan. However ,being forsaken, betrayed, beaten, tortured, being crucified, dying, and death seemed like the farthest thing his followers could imagine being part of God’s plan Yet it was and it was critical for all of human history.We also know that even the worst that can be done to us isn’t forever because as we’ll celebrate it a few weeks, Easter day put an end to deaths grip on those who love Jesus. So we can look at Jesus, the cross, and the resurrection and pray thank you in advance for however you answer my prayer. I trust you. Your will be done. And I believe when we learn to pray this way it rewires and retrains our brains. It allows the neocortex to take control and help us to trust god. We learn to trust God our creator, our sustainer, we become like Jesus our Friend and Savior and Lord, and we depend on the Spirit our comforter and the one who gives us power to endure. And as we pray we are promised that we will experience… peace that passes all earthly and human understanding.