Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] I don't know where Burger went, but I have it on real good information that chili is served in hell every day. So as.
[00:00:16] Yeah.
[00:00:17] As part of the eternal punishment.
[00:00:21] It does kind of fit. It's hot there. Chili's hot.
[00:00:33] I love this church.
[00:00:41] We're going to study Psalm 37.
[00:00:47] It was written by King David.
[00:00:50] And I believe there are nine great ideas in this psalm about how you can live a better life next year.
[00:01:06] Why settle for.
[00:01:11] I don't need to preach last Sunday's sermon over again, but why settle for a mediocre life?
[00:01:20] We can live great lives.
[00:01:24] God has created us to live great lives.
[00:01:28] He's given us the resources to live great lives. And then on top of that, he teaches us skills for living great lives.
[00:01:38] So we're going to study this psalm together, and I suggest that you read the psalm once a week while we go through this series.
[00:01:49] This psalm is an acrostic.
[00:01:52] That means every stanza begins with a different letter in the Alphabet. So the first stanza, the first word, begins with an A.
[00:02:02] The second stanza, the first word, begins with a B. Now, it doesn't show up that way in English because this was written in Hebrew. But if you look at this in the Hebrew, the first word of every stanza is the next letter in the Alphabet.
[00:02:18] There are several psalms like this, and it was a technique to help people memorize it back in the day.
[00:02:28] So we take Bibles for granted, and because they're everywhere in the Bible, they. They were rare.
[00:02:37] So you would go to the synagogue or wherever, and you would learn to memorize Scripture so. So you could have Scripture available to you in a daily way. Many people memorize this acrostic. They memorize this poem, and they would recite it to themselves to help them live better lives. It's really a great idea.
[00:03:01] Let's invite the Holy Spirit to teach us.
[00:03:04] You pray in your heart, and I'll pray out loud.
[00:03:07] Dear Heavenly Father, I want to be a better man.
[00:03:12] I want to live better next year than I did this year.
[00:03:17] I want to.
[00:03:19] I want to love my family better than I loved them last year.
[00:03:23] I want to. I want to be a better friend than I was last year.
[00:03:28] I want to. I want to serve you better than I've ever served you in my whole life.
[00:03:33] I want to.
[00:03:34] I want to realize my full potential.
[00:03:38] So I pray that your scripture would enlighten the eyes of our understanding and we would come to think these great ideas and then implement them into our lives in the kind of way that makes a difference in Christ's name. Amen.
[00:03:57] So David started out like this.
[00:04:01] Fret not yourself because of evildoers.
[00:04:05] Be not envious of wrongdoers, for they will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb.
[00:04:17] The skill I want to teach today is replacing anxiety with trust.
[00:04:25] Some of you live anxiety filled lives.
[00:04:32] You live under the tyranny of anxiety day after day, and it keeps you from living the life God wants you to live.
[00:04:41] It steals the life that God wants you to have.
[00:04:45] And I want to teach you the skill of replacing anxiety with deeper trust in God.
[00:04:55] So let's start by defining anxiety. What do we mean by anxiety? All right, here's the medical defin.
[00:05:03] An emotion characterized by feelings of tension, worried thoughts, and physical changes like increased blood pressure.
[00:05:13] All right, so what is anxiety?
[00:05:19] Are you ever aware that you have an internal tension and you don't know what's causing it?
[00:05:25] You just know you feel tense on the inside.
[00:05:28] It's not like something's happening outside.
[00:05:31] You might be sitting peacefully in your backyard, but you feel this tension within yourself.
[00:05:39] That's anxiety.
[00:05:42] It's also.
[00:05:44] I'm going to talk about this in a minute. It's these worry loops where you worry about the same thing over and over and over again.
[00:05:54] It occupies your thinking.
[00:05:56] It feels like you can't escape it.
[00:05:59] And then when anxiety really kicks in, then you start having physical effects like high blood pressure and other unhealthy things.
[00:06:15] Sarah and I are talking in our podcast about Brene Brown's book on understanding emotions, labeling and understanding emotions. And in her book she has a section on anxiety.
[00:06:31] And this is what Brene says about anxiety.
[00:06:35] It is an escalating sense of losing control.
[00:06:41] Anxiety feels like something bad is about to happen and I, I have no control over it.
[00:06:50] I have a reoccurring dream that sometimes I'm driving and it's pitch dark, I can't see anything, but I'm still driving.
[00:07:00] I, I don't know what's in head, I don't know what ahead of me, I don't know what's around me, but the car is going and I'm driving.
[00:07:09] That's an anxiety dream. All right, Anyway, ah.
[00:07:13] When you have this sense of something bad is about to happen and I have no control, that's anxiety.
[00:07:24] Worst case scenario, thinking we have a joke in my family.
[00:07:30] Worst first. Worst first. That's where you think the worst thing that can possibly happen first.
[00:07:39] Look, there's time to get to the worst.
[00:07:41] We can start, we can start a little lower on the disaster scale. Than worst.
[00:07:48] So anxiety is the propensity to think the worst first instead of saying, well, where are we really?
[00:08:01] And then Brunet says it is also a.
[00:08:10] Being overwhelmed by uncertainty and losing my capacity to deal with uncertainty. I get so overwhelmed by uncertainty, I lose my capacity to deal with it.
[00:08:24] I'll tell you what this is like.
[00:08:27] Have you ever said to yourself, I can't take one more thing?
[00:08:36] Anyone?
[00:08:38] All right, that's anxiety.
[00:08:41] Anxiety says, the uncertainty in my life is so high right now, I can't take one more uncertain thing.
[00:08:53] There are issues that go along with anxiety, and one of these issues is a higher intolerance for uncertainty. So we start backing off from life.
[00:09:14] We start avoiding, we start retreating.
[00:09:18] We start putting up barriers around ourselves.
[00:09:25] These negative thought loops.
[00:09:30] Anxiety produces these negative thought loops that we think the worst case scenario again and again and again and again.
[00:09:43] And the anxiety keeps us stuck there.
[00:09:47] It's not like you just think through it one time and, and you let it go. No, it comes back again and again and again. When you don't want it, it comes back. When you're, when you're not. When you're having a good time, it comes back. These negative thought loops.
[00:10:03] All right? And the trouble with these negative thought loops is I start thinking wrong about the future because I'm listening to myself again and again and again say the negative thing.
[00:10:18] This is never going to work. There's no.
[00:10:22] Well, then I am creating a future in which the best thing can't possibly work because I've already decided in my negative thought loop it can't work. Do you see the negative side of this? All right.
[00:10:39] And when anxiety really kicks in, it becomes full fledged dread.
[00:10:44] And dread is the terror of tomorrow.
[00:10:49] I hate tomorrow to come. I know it's going to be bad church.
[00:10:55] Now, I'm telling you, if this kind of anxiety has control of your life, you're not going to live the life God wants you to live next year.
[00:11:06] There's people here who can say to me, I lived this last year. I know it doesn't create a good life. All right?
[00:11:15] So King David, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he said, you can displace anxiety with trust.
[00:11:26] So here's how your soul works. You can't have anxiety and trust at the same time. Trust pushes anxiety out or anxiety pushes trust out.
[00:11:38] Faith pushes out anxiety. And you say, tomorrow can be good.
[00:11:45] I may not have lived the best year of my life.
[00:11:51] I'm going to. I've got some stuff that I'm going to figure out and life is going to be better.
[00:11:56] That excludes the anxiety or the anxiety says, you might as well give up right now.
[00:12:05] Church.
[00:12:06] This is what David said.
[00:12:09] Don't fret yourself because of evildoers.
[00:12:14] I want to paraphrase that. The world is full of evildoers, so don't give in to anxiety.
[00:12:22] I'm not denying that there's bad things out there.
[00:12:27] I'm not denying that.
[00:12:29] I'm not saying life doesn't genuinely hurt.
[00:12:34] I'm not saying that you don't have to go through difficult things. Ah.
[00:12:39] But what I am saying is you don't have to confront all of this with anxiety. You can confront it with faith and courage.
[00:12:50] I can't. I can't stop all evil, but I can confront evil in an altitude, a different way.
[00:12:58] I can confront evil from a place of strength, not weakness.
[00:13:03] And then he says, don't be envious of evildoers.
[00:13:06] This is the idea of don't wish you could do what evil people do.
[00:13:12] For example, when was the last time you heard, you have to fight fire with fire?
[00:13:19] Anyone?
[00:13:21] Okay. You fight fire with fire. You burn the world out.
[00:13:26] Church.
[00:13:28] Don't be envious and say, I wish I was like those people and I could do this and this and this bad thing.
[00:13:37] Listen, Ah, ah.
[00:13:43] I don't have to be a crusader against evil.
[00:13:49] The church got messed up somewhere and we saw ourselves as crusaders against evil.
[00:13:57] Okay? That's not the job Jesus gave us.
[00:14:03] Find me the scripture where he said, go out and confront every evil you can.
[00:14:10] No. This is what he said.
[00:14:13] All power is given to me in heaven and earth.
[00:14:17] Go therefore and make disciples, teaching them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
[00:14:24] Do you know what? I am not a crusader against evil. I am a force for good.
[00:14:31] There is a difference between taking on every evil, taking on everything. We disagree and see ourselves as the. The ones who have to beat them down or to get up in the morning and say, I'm dangerous for good today.
[00:14:50] I'm on God's side. I'm going to do good everywhere I go.
[00:14:56] I'm going to treat my wife like the princess she is.
[00:15:00] I'm going to treat people nice when I meet them at work.
[00:15:04] I'm going to give my server an extra tip today. I am going to be a force for good in the world today.
[00:15:11] You see?
[00:15:13] Then you say, well, then, what about evil? Isaiah says, say to those who have an anxious heart, be strong and fear not.
[00:15:24] Behold your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.
[00:15:33] Evil will be overcome by God.
[00:15:37] God wins the ultimate triumph over evil.
[00:15:42] I don't have to confront. I don't have to walk around going, evil, wicked sinner.
[00:15:49] What's wrong with you?
[00:15:52] Doesn't make the world a better place anyway. All right, But I tell you, God is not morally neutral. And God does confront evil, and we're going to see it in this psalm.
[00:16:04] So he starts out by saying, ah, ah, you live in a broken world, but that doesn't have to make you anxious. And then he gives us this beautiful little poem.
[00:16:18] The, the. The way to understand poems in the Bible is to say, what is the poetic image? First of all, what is the image? And then to ask yourself, what does it mean?
[00:16:30] So let's look at this image.
[00:16:33] They will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb.
[00:16:40] All right?
[00:16:42] Ah, use your imagination.
[00:16:47] Think of a cornfield in the late fall after it's all turned yellow and it starts to flake apart.
[00:17:00] Some guy planted corn on Mark's road and never picked it. I don't know how you're that rich, but I drive by it and I see all that yellow. It's just all the stocks are breaking down. It's all yellow. Everything's crumbling.
[00:17:15] Last summer when I drove by it, it was all beautiful. It was green, it was standing tall. It had yellow tassels on it. I.
[00:17:23] And it looked like. It looked like it was a hardy plant that would last forever.
[00:17:29] But then autumn came and then it all faded and now looks terrible.
[00:17:38] All right.
[00:17:39] God said, don't be anxious about evil people, because that's exactly what's going to happen to them.
[00:17:49] Right now they look green. Right now they look healthy. Right now they look like they're winning. But fall is coming, and everything that makes them makes you anxious about them. It's all going to fade away to nothing.
[00:18:06] And then he uses this second beautiful image. I'm not a gardener, but I've seen a garden or two.
[00:18:12] Ah, think about a garden at the end of the year when you've picked everything out of it. You're going to pick. And all that's left are the stems and the stalks and the vines and the branches. Right?
[00:18:28] That tomato plant is still there, but it's not going to produce any more tomatoes. And it's looking pretty. Sorry.
[00:18:35] Right?
[00:18:36] Those vines that the cucumbers grew on, ah, they. They're starting to turn yellow. The leaves are falling off. There is the stems of what once was a healthy garden.
[00:18:52] And that's what he's saying. I want you to think about the wicked that way.
[00:18:57] You're thinking about them as a healthy garden and they're going to be healthy forever. And I'm telling you, they have one growing season. And when that growing season is over, the time for their evil goes with them.
[00:19:11] All you have to do is read history. Evil has never triumphed. Oh, it's had its day in the sun.
[00:19:17] It's been green and strong.
[00:19:20] But God is not morally neutral. And their day passed.
[00:19:25] The politicians, the world leaders that are filling you with anxiety, don't be anxious.
[00:19:33] It won't be long that they will all have faded away.
[00:19:37] I remember 1960s Lyndon Johnson would be the end of America.
[00:19:45] Anybody from the 60s, Lyndon Johnson, the war in Vietnam, we're ruining America. America won't last all of this.
[00:19:55] Where's Lyndon today?
[00:19:58] Ah, Lyndon served his time. Somebody else got voted in and nobody worries about Lyndon Johnson anymore. Church, you don't have to be anxious about all these predictions of disaster.
[00:20:11] They only fill you with anxiety.
[00:20:16] I think every news networker network should have to start every show and say a disclaimer. Fret not yourself because of evildoers, huh?
[00:20:33] All right.
[00:20:35] Everything that is making you anxious right now is temporary.
[00:20:39] I want you to hold onto that thought, cause I'm gonna come back to it.
[00:20:42] Everything right now that makes you feel anxious, it's temporary.
[00:20:48] And you can deal with anxiety by coming up with a way of looking beyond the temporary to the eternal.
[00:20:58] Because you're never going to have trust that you need if you keep focused on the temporary.
[00:21:03] The eternal creates the trust.
[00:21:08] All right, so then David says, starting in verse three, I'm going to show you five ways to turn anxiety into trust.
[00:21:21] I'm going to teach you five techniques for turning anxiety into trust.
[00:21:27] And the first one he says is it's just a straightforward statement.
[00:21:32] Ah, hopefully trust in the Lord.
[00:21:37] I know the English just says trust, but the original has the idea of trust in hope. Ah, you can trust that everything's gonna be a disaster.
[00:21:47] You can trust that something bad is gonna happen. So I don't wanna translate it, just trust. I want to translate it as trust with a trust that fills you with hope.
[00:21:59] Trust in a way that your sense of the blessings of God are just about to come.
[00:22:07] You trust in the Lord that way.
[00:22:11] The answer to anxious thoughts and worst case thinking is hopeful trust.
[00:22:18] Now how do I do that?
[00:22:20] I start to feel anxious and instead of following that anxiety loop, I interrupt it and I say, I'm going to remember the faithfulness of God.
[00:22:35] I'm going to stop thinking about what I'm anxious about and I'm going to remember. I'm going to remember the faithfulness of God.
[00:22:44] When I was writing my plans for this year, I stopped for a little bit and I thought back over 43 years of the incredible things God has done for this church.
[00:22:56] The incredible faithfulness, how he met us moment by moment by moment.
[00:23:04] I remembered our church was transitioning to be more of the church we are right now.
[00:23:11] And some people didn't like it. They wanted to stay old school.
[00:23:20] And a family invited five or six other families on over to their house for a cookout.
[00:23:28] And after the cookout, the guys stood up and said, we really invited you here today because we wanna get your support to Fire Dock.
[00:23:39] Well, somebody at the cookout called me up and so I called that family up and we had a conversation and they found another church.
[00:23:52] Look, the unholy one's playing for keeps.
[00:23:57] The unholy one's not playing games. He's tried many times to damage this church.
[00:24:04] But every time God has been faithful.
[00:24:08] Every single time God has been faithful.
[00:24:17] So don't be calling people up to get me fired.
[00:24:23] All right?
[00:24:25] What I want you to do is when you start to feel anxiety, think about the ways God has been faithful to you.
[00:24:35] The ways God has been faithful to you. I think about Sharon and I working our way through college. We had no money, we. I had to hitchhike to work, I'd hitchhike to church sometimes. Is that true, Shay?
[00:24:50] Ah, all right.
[00:24:54] I think about my life and I think about.
[00:25:00] God has helped me every step of the way.
[00:25:03] Have I had problems? Yes. Have I had difficulties? Yes.
[00:25:08] I spent a month in the intensive care one time.
[00:25:11] Not my idea of a fun summer. Ah.
[00:25:15] But God blessed me. I recovered. I had no long term after effects. All right, listen.
[00:25:22] I deal with anxiety by remembering that God has been faithful and I am where I am today because of the goodness of God.
[00:25:35] I also want to. I also want to remind myself that God is sovereign. The world is not out of control.
[00:25:42] Because I can't understand how he's controlling it.
[00:25:46] Doesn't mean he isn't controlling it.
[00:25:49] I got in my truck this morning, best looking F150 out in the parking lot, I might add.
[00:25:57] Ah.
[00:25:59] Started it up.
[00:26:01] Well, actually I started in the house with.
[00:26:06] I do not know how that works.
[00:26:08] I know if I push the buttons right though it starts.
[00:26:13] I don't understand how the engine works. I don't understand how the Transmission works.
[00:26:18] But because I don't understand doesn't mean that it isn't all working. Do you see if I can say that about a truck engine, why can't I see the reality of that about God? God is running something magnificent here.
[00:26:39] Now, he may not. I may not understand how he's running it and why he does it the way he does it, but I still believe that he, somebody real smart has got their hand on the wheel.
[00:26:51] Church.
[00:26:52] When I think that way, it reduces anxiety.
[00:26:59] This is not mayhem. This is. This is not chaos. I don't understand it, but somebody a lot better than I am does.
[00:27:09] Listen what the proverbs say. The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord, and he turns it wherever you will.
[00:27:18] All these politicians and world leaders that you're afraid of, their heart is like a stream of water, and God turns it wherever he wills. You don't have to be anxious.
[00:27:32] Philippians 4. 6. I'm sure some of you memorized this.
[00:27:37] Do not be anxious about anything.
[00:27:41] But in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God.
[00:27:48] The next time you feel anxious, pause and say, God, I trust in you.
[00:27:54] You've been faithful to me.
[00:27:57] I trust in you. I believe you're in charge.
[00:28:01] I'm feeling anxiety about this.
[00:28:05] And you said that I didn't have to be anxious, that if I talk to you about it, you would be my partner.
[00:28:13] It is remarkable how prayer calms anxiety.
[00:28:18] Church.
[00:28:20] The second step to turn trust into. Turn anxiety into trust.
[00:28:26] Do good.
[00:28:28] It's pretty simple.
[00:28:30] When you feel anxiety about the evil in the world, do something good.
[00:28:35] This isn't hard.
[00:28:38] You're feeling anxiety about one of your children.
[00:28:42] Something's happening. You feel anxiety, okay? Instead of burning that energy on the anxiety, do something good for them.
[00:28:52] Make a cookie. I don't know.
[00:28:55] You're feeling anxiety about your spouse.
[00:29:00] Instead of all that anxiety, stop.
[00:29:03] Figure out what you can do and do something nice for your spouse. You see, when I start doing good, I'm doing the very thing that. That overcomes the thing I'm anxious about.
[00:29:17] When I worry, I'm reinforcing the anxiety. When I start doing good, I start solving the source of anxiety.
[00:29:30] How about this?
[00:29:32] Invest your energy in doing good rather than worrying whatever you are anxious about. Do something good in that area, and the doing of good will lower your anxiety.
[00:29:51] I'm reading several rabbis on this chapter because I want to understand their understanding of the original text better. Listen what Rabbi Shlomo says genuine trust must lead to action.
[00:30:06] If. If you're willing to take a risk or make a sacrifice as a result of trust, then you know your convictions are strong and sincere.
[00:30:17] Listen what he says.
[00:30:19] Sometimes if you're gonna overcome your anxiety, you have to take a risk.
[00:30:26] Maybe you're anxious about a relationship and you don't feel like the person is open to you, and so that makes your anxiety even more. Well, this is where you're gonna have to trust and take a risk.
[00:30:40] Try.
[00:30:42] Try showing kindness in a way you haven't shown kindness in the past.
[00:30:47] Be creative, trusting that God is able to do exceedingly and abundantly above what you can ask or think.
[00:31:00] And as you start doing good, anxiety abates.
[00:31:06] The very act of doing good causes anxiety to abate.
[00:31:12] 3.
[00:31:14] Live in the land.
[00:31:16] I want to translate this as live in the moment.
[00:31:21] Stop predicting an unwanted future through through anxiety and start living in the moment.
[00:31:30] When I'm anxious, I'm very rarely anxious about the moment.
[00:31:36] I'm usually anxious about something that's in the future.
[00:31:40] Listen what Jesus himself said.
[00:31:43] Do not be anxious about tomorrow.
[00:31:47] Tomorrow will be anxious for itself.
[00:31:51] Do you get that?
[00:31:53] Don't waste your life today being anxious about tomorrow.
[00:32:04] Ah.
[00:32:05] Ah.
[00:32:09] Live in the riches of the moment.
[00:32:15] All right?
[00:32:17] Every day has its own potential.
[00:32:20] Every day has its own opportunities.
[00:32:23] When I live in the moment, I'm seizing those opportunities and blessings that God has for me that day.
[00:32:31] When I'm living in anxiety, I'm sacrificing today for an unknown future.
[00:32:41] Are you hearing that, Church?
[00:32:43] I waste today in anxiety about tomorrow. And it's not like if I use up all my anxiety about tomorrow, today, tomorrow, I won't be anxious. Cause I used it all up.
[00:32:57] Jesus said just the opposite. Every day produces its own stuff.
[00:33:05] And then he says, ah, cultivate faithfulness.
[00:33:14] I could also translate this, Shepherd. The riches of the day.
[00:33:20] Every day has its own riches.
[00:33:26] Every day has its own beauty.
[00:33:29] Every day has its own blessings.
[00:33:34] And I need to use those blessings in that day to live that day the fullest.
[00:33:41] Do you get it?
[00:33:43] I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow, but there'll be some beautiful moments tomorrow, tomorrow. Unless you just get up determined to be miserable there. Every day produces something.
[00:33:57] Every day produces a moment.
[00:34:00] There is a eagle in the golf course behind our house. And every day when I drive out, I look between the houses to see if I can see that eagle. Because every time I see it, I go, awesome.
[00:34:13] I feel pumped for the day. Do you know what I mean, there's just something awesome about eagles. All right?
[00:34:20] Every day has its moments.
[00:34:23] And David said, if you replace anxiety with trust, you're going to be able to grab those beauties, grab the riches of that moment, and use them in your life in a way that makes your life better.
[00:34:41] That's good advice. Church.
[00:34:45] Ah.
[00:34:47] Jesus said, which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to his lifespan?
[00:34:59] You know what? It's just the opposite.
[00:35:02] Being anxious shortens your lifespan.
[00:35:07] Trusting, living well, using the beauties of the day, lengthen your lifestyle, your life.
[00:35:16] Do you get it?
[00:35:19] Why is it that miserable days are always longer than beautiful days?
[00:35:27] Huh?
[00:35:28] Miserable days are always longer than good days. Ah. God said. Ah. Ah. Look, don't wreck your life with anxiety.
[00:35:40] Live in the richness of the day.
[00:35:45] Ah.
[00:35:46] Anxiety will not change your future.
[00:35:49] Who of you, by being anxious, can add a single Anxiety doesn't change your future, but you know what it does? It changes today for the worse.
[00:36:00] The thing you're anxious about in the future, your anxiety doesn't change that, but it changes today. And it changes it for the worst because you've lost another beautiful day that you never get back. There are no mulligans. You never get it back, and you've lost it over something that doesn't have anything to do with today at all.
[00:36:28] 5.
[00:36:29] I like this one the best, says, delight yourself in the Lord.
[00:36:34] This word that's translated delight. It's actually an eating verb.
[00:36:39] So for you who like to eat, this will be good. For you, the verb is the joy you feel, the delight you feel when you eat a really good meal with people you really enjoy.
[00:36:56] It's a really picturesque word. All right? Last Thanksgiving, my family ate my favorite meal. I don't waste any room on my plate. All that goes on there is mashed potatoes, gravy, turkey. That's it.
[00:37:09] I'm not wasting one bit of space on any of that other junk, Okay?
[00:37:22] Just remembering this makes me happy. I'm sitting at the. I'm sitting at the living room table. My family is huge. We got kids, grandkids, we have friends over. It's mayhem.
[00:37:35] And I love it. I'm sitting there eating mashed potatoes and gravy, spilling them on my shirt.
[00:37:43] My family is there. My grandkids are there. My ridiculously awesome little great granddaughter's running around.
[00:37:51] I'm giving her all the candy she wants, all right?
[00:37:57] When I remember that I have a sense of delight.
[00:38:04] Do you see what I'm saying? That's what the psalmist is Saying. The psalmist is saying, delight yourself in the Lord the very same way that you do a good meal and family.
[00:38:19] And that will drive out anxiety.
[00:38:24] Anxiety cannot stand being around delight.
[00:38:31] He's anxiety is too gloomy and too ugly, doesn't like to be outshone by delight.
[00:38:39] I might translate it this way.
[00:38:42] Savor the Lord.
[00:38:46] Learn to really enjoy God.
[00:38:50] Learn to really feel the beauty and the blessing of being around God. It will drive out anxiety.
[00:38:57] I'm telling you, God is not anxious.
[00:38:59] God has never been anxious a moment in his life.
[00:39:04] Ah, Part of this is also, hopefully you are a mature soul, that whenever you have these delightful meals with delight with the people you love, you have a sense of appreciation and thanksgiving.
[00:39:24] Doesn't that go together?
[00:39:27] I appreciate my wife for what a good job she did raising our kids.
[00:39:32] Ah, Thanksgiving.
[00:39:34] When you're savoring something, it. It triggers thanksgiving in you. When I'm savoring God, it triggers in me a thanksgiving for how good he's been to me and the blessings that I have and the riches of my life and the beautiful experiences.
[00:39:53] And that thanksgiving teams up with delight and drives anxiety away.
[00:40:03] Just start saying thank you and your anxiety will lower.
[00:40:09] All right.
[00:40:13] And then David said, if you'll do these five things, I'll make you a promise. I promise you your life will be better.
[00:40:23] He says, you do these five things and look at that verse four, and the Lord will give you the desires of your heart.
[00:40:33] When anxiety is being replaced by trust, we become the kind of people that God can give us what we really want the most.
[00:40:46] Ah, ah, ah.
[00:40:53] If God were to give. If God showed up right now and said to you, what do you most want and why do you want it? Could you answer him?
[00:41:07] Or has anxiety shut you off from a preferable future?
[00:41:17] Some of you have to admit, if God asked you right now, what do you want the most and why do you want it? You could not answer him because you've lost a sense of the. The best future. You've lost a sense of a future you'd love to live in. You've lost a sense of a future you can thrive in.
[00:41:38] I'm saying you got. You have to replace anxiety with trust.
[00:41:44] So if God gives you the desires of your heart, you'll recognize it.
[00:41:49] Church, how can David guarantee that if we do these five things, that God will give us the desires of our heart?
[00:42:02] Because David also said, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not not want.
[00:42:13] You see, really, living a better life is being guided by a better guide.
[00:42:23] Anxiety is a Terrible guide.
[00:42:26] Anxiety will only guide you into disaster.
[00:42:30] The Lord is my shepherd.
[00:42:33] Ah, he knows how to guide me.
[00:42:37] Are you anxious about the future?
[00:42:40] The Lord is my shepherd.
[00:42:42] He makes me lie down in green pastures.
[00:42:46] My shepherd knows where the green pastures are. I don't have to be anxious about tomorrow.
[00:42:53] He leads me beside the still waters.
[00:42:57] My shepherd knows where the quiet waters are. He knows where my soul can find comfort and peace and rest.
[00:43:08] Life damages me. I get beat up. I get disappointed.
[00:43:13] I become afraid. My soul suffers.
[00:43:17] I feel anxiety. And then I look to the good shepherd. And the good shepherd says, you don't have to be anxious. I know how to restore your soul.
[00:43:27] I don't know how to get where I'm going.
[00:43:29] I don't know how to get past these obstacles. There seems to be problems that are unsolvable.
[00:43:35] Ah, the good shepherd says, don't be anxious.
[00:43:40] I'm going to lead you in the paths of righteousness for my name's sake. Do you hear this church?
[00:43:48] And then you say, ah.
[00:43:52] Anxiety is filling me with bad scenario loop. Anxieties make me afraid of the future.
[00:44:01] I'm on the. I'm on the edge of dread.
[00:44:04] Ah, the good shepherd says, trust me.
[00:44:09] Surely goodness and mercy will follow you all the days of your life.
[00:44:15] What are you anxious about? The good shepherd said his goodness and his mercy and is going to follow you all the days of your life.
[00:44:27] And then he asked us one more time to look past the temporary to the eternal and listen what he says. He says, because the Lord is my shepherd, I don't have to be anxious about the future because I'm going to dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
[00:44:46] Did you get this church?
[00:44:48] There is no reason to live under the tyranny of anxiety. This year you have a good shepherd who is fully worthy of your trust.
[00:45:00] You have a good shepherd that can meet you day by day.
[00:45:03] He knows where the green grass is. He knows where the still waters are. He knows how to restore your soul. He knows the paths of righteousness.
[00:45:12] His goodness and mercy is going to be in your life every single day.
[00:45:17] And this whole pathway leads right in to the presence, the goodness, the eternal richness of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:45:34] You say, doc, I can't take that all with me tomorrow. All right, you can take this with you.
[00:45:41] You can put this all. You can wrap this all up.
[00:45:45] I'll live a better year this year if I cast all my anxieties on him because he cares for me.
[00:45:54] First. Peter 5:7.
[00:45:57] That's the whole sermon. You can live a better life next year by replacing anxiety with trust.
[00:46:06] And God says to you when you feel the anxiety when place all your anxieties on him because he cares for you.
[00:46:17] Our dear Heavenly Father, oh how wonderful you are.
[00:46:25] Oh how delightful you are, how trustworthy you are.
[00:46:32] Father I pray for myself and I pray for everyone here and everyone who's watching online.
[00:46:38] My prayer is simple that this good idea that you teach us in Psalm 37 would click in our minds and we would start to put it into practice in our everyday life.
[00:46:52] I pray that we would have clarity of thought about this and that when we feel anxious the very first thing we would do is turn to you and we would seek the the the trustworthiness, the faithfulness, the goodness, the mercy and all these attributes and that your our trust in you would lead us to confident living, realizing our full potential, living each day in the richness of it. And I ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord.
