Good morning, Saylorville! My name is Andrew. It’s a pleasure to be bringing the word of God to you this morning.

Those of you who know me well know that I’m not exactly an athlete. Anything that requires more than say a teaspoon of athleticism is probably not my forte. It doesn’t really matter if you’re talking baseball, football, or cornhole, or darts. It doesn’t really matter. I’m terrible at pretty much all of it! And my parents discovered this at a pretty young age. They signed me up for Little League Baseball, and I’m pretty sure I never once hit the ball the entire time. Okay? I don’t know how many years I did Little League, but I never hit the ball, probably because I stepped up to home plate and I knew at least some of the basics. It’s like, ‘Okay… Knees, shoulder width apart. Feet, shoulder width apart, Knees slightly bent…’ you know, got the stance and all this, but when the ball is thrown, I would… I was terrified of the ball! Have you ever felt a baseball? Those things are like a rock! Okay? And they’re throwing it at you as hard as you can! It was like, my mind was, ‘Are we playing dodgeball or baseball here?’ Okay?

And so I’ve discovered since then that there’s a key to baseball. Let me pass some wisdom on to you guys. If you want to hit the ball, you really have to keep your eye on the ball. It’s because the ball’s what’s most important in that moment. Okay? To not strike out, you’ve got to keep your eye on the ball. You fix your eyes on what’s most important.

This morning, we’re continuing our Real Council series with a message about overcoming worry. We’re talking… I’m going to be using the words “worry” and “fear” and “anxiety” pretty much interchangeably throughout this message. And as we speak to this issue, it’s something where we’re going to find that it’s incredibly important to be fixing your eyes on what’s most important. If you want to stop striking out when it comes to your fears and anxieties, it has less to do with putting on a set of protective equipment and more to do with fixing your eyes on God.

Before I unpack that statement more, I want to share a little bit of why this is a burden for me. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that things are not trending in a great direction when it comes to fear and anxiety in our culture, in this church, in our world as a whole. You could pick any number of statistics. I don’t have time to go through a lot of them, but just one thing to note. I think it’s fair to say that we live in the most anxious generation in history. In the U.S.

62% of millennials and Gen Z reported feeling in a “constant state of worry.” That’s pretty serious! Right? And even 38% of older generations agreed with that with 10% even scheduling time within their day as “worry time.” Okay? This is a pandemic across our nation, and it’s certainly here within this church, as well. And all of this I would add is in a time when I don’t think we’ve ever had more awareness, more knowledge about this, more acceptance towards people being vulnerable and authentic about mental health struggles, more medication that’s been given. This is a… there’s never been more options and yet things seem to be trending in a bad direction, not in a good one.

So with that in mind, I want to take a moment and ask the Spirit of God to come and open up our eyes to His Word this morning, because what we don’t need is another opinion. We don’t need a talking head or a guru. What we need is the Spirit of God to illuminate the Word of God to us so that we can find some real counsel, some Gospel-centered hope that’s based on the word of God and the character of God. So would you join me in prayer this morning?

Father, I’m well aware that this room is filled with people, each one as unique as the next. And I am totally incapable of speaking to every person, every idiosyncrasy, every situation, every battle. And yet, Lord, we are dealing with Your Word that is sufficient for all things to make us more like Jesus. It’s useful for teaching, in correction, reproof, and for training in righteousness, and You’ve given us by Your Word and by Your Spirit all that we need to live a godly life. So, Spirit of God, would You come and talk to us? Would You open our eyes? Would You help us to see, and would You bring real help, hope and encouragement to those that are hurting this morning? I ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

As we start off, I wanna begin by defining a little bit of what I’m talking about when I’m talking about this issue of fear, worry, anxiety. And I’ve got sort of a definition that’s going to be on the screen.

Worry isn’t something that happens to you. It’s the sin that flows from a heart and a mind set on something less than the character of a good and perfect God.

Let me take a little moment to unpack that, because I don’t take for granted that everyone necessarily agrees with that statement. So let me tell you a little bit about where I’m coming from in all of this.

First of all, you’ll notice, maybe most significantly is that I have listed anxiety as “sin.” And for some of you, this is maybe ‘Duh!’ — but others of you may bristle at this idea. You may say, ‘This is just something that seems to happen so uncontrollably. It’s just sort of a part of who I am, a part of my temperament, the way that God has wired me.’ And yet, we can’t ignore the fact that God consistently throughout His Word is always telling us, “Do not fear.” “Don’t be anxious.” “Don’t worry about anything.” In fact, I think we have a sampling of some scripture that I’ll put up. These are just a few of the more popular, the more well-known verses that all speak… this is your direct imperative commands from God. “Don’t be anxious.” “Don’t fear.” “Don’t worry.” If you were to tally up all of these, and it depends on how you tally these things, but you could see upwards of 300+ times in the Bible where God tells us something to this extent. “Be courageous.” “Don’t fear.” “Don’t be anxious.” “Don’t worry.” It’s again and again, God’s will for you to not worry. Therefore, we would say that when we do, we are in direct contradiction to His will and His Word.

When we think about anxiety, we oftentimes think about some of those more physical expressions of fear that come across us. You think about a certain situation, a way that you feel when you’re anxious; the rapid beating of your heart, the sweating of your palms, the words catching in your throat, and you start to think about all of those physical things that tend to happen to us when we get nervous. And we say, ‘I can’t really control it. It’s not something that I chose. It’s just the way that my body is reacting to the world around me.’ But when the Bible speaks of anxiety, it’s not usually referring to these more physical expressions of things. Let me try and explain a little bit more.

Many of us have rightly been comforted in knowing that Jesus knows what it is to face fear, and one of the key texts you could go to with that is Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. Right? There’s that scene where Jesus is about to bear the wrath of God for our sins. He’s under intense pressure, immeasurable stress! He’s enduring the agony of grief as he’s contemplating the fact that He is about to take on your sins and mine on the cross, dying for us, not just the excruciating physical pain, but the more important, the pain of being separated from His heavenly Father. And in that moment we read in Luke 22:44:

Luke 22:44, “… being in agony He prayed more earnestly; and His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.”

I mean, we read that and we think, ‘Okay, Jesus was pretty anxious. Maybe even having a full blown panic attack right here! Okay? But I think we have to be very careful about the words we use and the way that we think about Jesus in this moment, because

… If Jesus was anxious in the Garden, then either anxiety is not a sin or Jesus wasn’t perfect, and neither of those options are acceptable to me. Andrew Bush

Jesus was our perfect Passover Lamb. He was unblemished. He went to the cross perfect so that He could be the sacrifice for our sins. And I don’t think He was anxious, because it doesn’t make a lot of sense that Jesus Himself would say, “Don’t worry about anything,” and then spend the night before His death worrying. So I think that tells us that when God is talking about anxiety, He’s not speaking of those physical expressions of the nervousness that we feel when we stand up in front of people, or when we’re walking into a stressful situation. He’s talking about a heart underneath it that’s been taken off the ball, so to speak. Jesus, as He contemplated the horrific future that was ahead of Him that very night, set His face like a flint toward the cross. And He totally yielded Himself to the will of God, entrusting Himself to the One who judges justly and said,

[Luke 22:42b] “… not My will, but Your will be done, Father.“

Jesus wasn’t anxious in the Garden. He was the most courageous person that has ever walked this earth! Andrew Bush

And so I would keep that in mind for those of you who are nervously walking in obedience. God doesn’t see anxiety in your heart. He sees great courage when you do something like get baptized when that’s a really nervous thing for you, or when you confess your sin openly to people. When you take a step of obedience and your hands are shaking and you’re sweating and you’re not quite sure if you’re doing the right thing. God loves that!

But if we could put our definition back on the screen, worry and anxiety is not something that just happens to you. It’s the sin that flows from a heart and a mind that’s set on something less than the character of a Good and Perfect God. It’s when we’re trying to wrest control from God for our situations. It’s when we are forgetting entirely that He’s even there and believing that we’re the terminus for our problems, and we have to figure everything out, and we start to stew on all of the things that could possibly go wrong, forgetting that God is on the throne. It’s actually best when we call anxiety “sin,” because, if anxiety is just something that happens to you, then you’re a victim of your circumstances. You have no control over any of it, and you’re left scrambling for coping mechanisms for something that’s totally outside of your control. But if anxiety is sin, then that means transformation is possible through confession and repentance and through a renewed mind that God can give us by His Spirit. So it’s important that we understand the problem correctly.

Just last month, I was driving home from Lake Ann Camp. I was riding the bus along with a hundred other high school and middle school students, and the bus ride home from Lake Ann is a scary place to be! — not for the reason that you might think. You might assume that everybody is wild and crazy and going nuts after a week of camp. Actually, they’ve been running on like two hours of sleep for the whole week, so they have hit a wall and they are like asleep in the back. And so it’s pretty quiet on the bus ride home. But, unfortunately, what makes it scary is that that silence is so often broken by the hacking cough, and the sniffles, and the blowing of noses of the hundred kids who have been running on two hours of sleep, a Red Bull and French toast sticks all week. And their immune system is crying out for mercy saying ‘Stop!’ — and finally, crashes.

I was sitting next to Denver Porter on the bus ride home. Denver’s not here today. He left for Cedarville [University] a couple days ago, so I figured… perfect chance to throw him under the proverbial Lake Ann bus! Denver, he insisted that he just had allergies. He’s like, ‘I just have allergies, Andrew. I promise!’ — as he blows his nose… Okay, Denver…! Well, I I caught those allergies a couple days later! — and you know what Denver needed in order to be healed in that moment wasn’t a Zyrtec. It was a good night’s sleep, and some nutrition in his life and maybe a NyQuil! Okay?

So, when we diagnose the problem correctly, it really helps us lean towards better solutions to our problem. When we say the anxiety is a sickness, then I’m left trying to scramble for coping mechanisms, and in ways to sort of keep the darkness at bay. Then we’re usually scrambling after the wrong types of fixes. But when we identify it as sin, then we’re given a whole new path, a whole new recipe for change.

And so, I wanna start with something that, hopefully at this point, is exceedingly obvious. But if you’re in this room and you are wrestling with anxiety, you’re plagued by fear, the first step for any of us would be to recognize that that is a sinful offense to a holy God, to ask God for mercy, to say, ‘I’m sorry for the ways I haven’t trusted You, God.’ ‘I’m sorry for the ways that I have tried to wrest control for myself.’ ‘I’m sorry for being arrogant enough to think that I had to know all of the answers,’ and just ask God to forgive you on the basis of Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection for you, and beg Him for the grace to change in your life. This is a first step that you cannot skip if you want to get past sin… and it’s the step that most people probably skip. We explain it away. We minimize it. We say ‘My anxiety… everybody’s anxious these days,’ ‘It doesn’t really matter.’ But you must confess and repent of your sin if you want to change.

Some of you are just waiting with baited breath to figure out what I’m going to say next because you’re already there! You’re like, ‘My anxiety eats me up! — and I know that it’s an offense to God, and it hurts me that I feel like I’m constantly wrestling with the same things!’ And maybe you’re here and you’re just thinking, ‘I need to know what’s next. I confess my sin. It seems like every day I’m begging God for forgiveness for my restless heart!’ —and what do I do next, though? What’s the next step? — and my guess is, you’ve done a fair bit of things already.

If you do a simple Google search or ask ChatGPT, ‘How do I help cope with my anxiety?’ You’re going to be given a laundry list of really, really good ideas. You might have people speaking into your life saying things like, ‘Hey, you should really check out therapy. It’s done wonders for me!’ ‘You know, I’ve been prescribed some anxiety medication that’s really helped clear my head.’ ‘Stay away from the anxiety meds! They’ll mess you up!’ ‘What you want is some supplements. Magnesium goes a long way. Okay?’ And, ‘Have you tried yoga, by the way? It’s really helped me find some mindfulness in my life!’ And ‘I’ve got an amazing support group that meets on Thursday nights! You should join us!’ ‘You know, your diet is super important. Swap out those ultra-processed foods for some whole foods, and a salad and you’ll be amazed at how much better you feel!’ ‘There’s an app that I use to sleep at night. It really helps me to calm down.’ ‘Have you tried journaling?’ ‘You know, essential oils are amazing!’ ‘Lavender is going to really help you out.’ And, ‘How much time do you spend on social media, by the way? That’s only going to make things worse!’ And the list goes on and on and on… and it’s enough to give you anxiety! Right?

Now listen… there’s a lot of options out there. And don’t hear me saying that any of those things are wrong for you to look to for some relief here. Okay? Pretty much everything that I listed is potentially a good idea for you. The problem with all of those things that I just listed is not that they’re wrong, not that they’re sinful. The problem is, they all help… but they don’t heal. Okay? These self-care type methods, many of them are really, really good ideas. By all means, put some lavender on when you’re going to sleep at night. But it may help, but it won’t heal. Why is that? Well, again, this is why we spent so much time defining anxiety as something that is sin within our lives, because already, we’ve found a new path that we can go on. Is sin something that originates in the outer man or the inner man? According to Jesus, it comes from the inner man. His most famous teaching on this would be Mark 7:20-23. He says:

Mark 7:20-23

20 …“What comes out of a person is what defiles him.

21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery,

22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.

23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

So when we’re talking about anxiety, we’re not primarily looking at a problem with our brains. We’re looking at a problem with our minds. It’s a nuance, but it’s an important one. We’re talking about the inner person that needs to be renewed by the Spirit of God, not with medication, or self-care or something like that. Now don’t get me wrong. The outer man and the inner man, they overlap. There’s some connections there. It’s not like they’re completely separated, which is why all of those things that I listed and probably many more are a good idea. They’re really great for you, and you may find some relief there. But they will not deal with the core of the issue, because we’re talking about primarily an inner person issue when we look at anxiety. Greg Gifford in his book “Lies My Therapist Told Me” says:

“If somebody goes on vacation to practice self-care and grows only in their materialism and selfishness, their self-care isn’t aiding mind renewal. It’s sabotaging it. They may have gotten more rest, but they likely didn’t address the issues plaguing their mental health, and they come back with a mind even more corrupted. So get help from a nutritionist, a sleep-aid specialist, the general practitioner… but you cannot self-care your way to a renewed mind.”

Greg Gifford in his book “Lies My Therapist Told Me“

So how do we renew our minds? Well, it’s not through a salad, a vacation, or a nap. The Bible says that our minds are renewed as we gaze at Christ, as we look at God. And one of the passages that would speak to this directly related to fear and anxiety is found in the book of Isaiah, chapter 26:3 where it says:

Isaiah 26:3, “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.”

Where’s the perfect peace come from? It comes from a mind that’s fixed, that’s stayed on God. When we’re looking at God, that’s what brings peace.

Last week, Pastor Pat shared with us what he referred to as “God’s selfie,” Exodus 34. We looked at a number of communicable attributes of God, things like His faithfulness, and His patience, and the way that He forgives us. And it’s the ways that God is God. It’s His attributes, but the attributes that He shares with us. There are more attributes beyond what we were able to cover last week, and I’d like to share with you just a few more. Most of what I wanna share is actually what theologians refer to as incommunicable attributes. And the reason these are important is because incommunicable attributes are attributes of God that make God… God. They’re what make Him totally different from you, totally other from you. And when we dwell on these things, I think it is a sucker punch to our anxieties, because it reminds us that there is a God ruling and reigning in the universe Who’s not like you. He’s not dealing with the same weaknesses. He’s not dealing with the same failures. God is completely other in many different ways, but one of particular significance to us would be his omniscience.

God’s omniscience… God is Someone who knows everything, every people group across the world, every one of the over septilian stars in the sky, their name and their placement. God knows every goat and every soaring eagle in the book of Job. God knows everything in a wide sense, but also in a deep sense. In David’s magnum opus on God’s omniscience,

Psalm 139, he speaks of God knowing when we sit down and when we rise up and everything in between, every action in your day. He says that ‘darkness is like light to God’ and that ‘he knows who you are visible to everyone else, and the ‘you’ that perhaps hides in the shadows. He knows the real you. He knows the things that you’ve hidden from others. He knows your frame. He knows your identity. He knows every single one of your days from the day of your birth to the day of your death. They are written in His book. God knows you personally down to every hair on your head. He knows… — and part of the reason God knows is because He’s always been there, not just in eternity past and into eternity. God is eternal, but He’s also there as in, He’s right here with you.

He’s omnipresent. (congregation laughing) God’s omnipresence means that He’s filling the entire earth. There’s never been a step you’ve taken where God hasn’t been right there. He’s been there when you failed your exam. He’s been there when you found out about your miscarriage. He’s been there when you took your wedding vows. He’s there at your most monotonous day at work. He’s there when you’re on vacation. He’s there in the midst of every moment of your life. He has been following you. He sees everything. He knows everything. Jeremiah 23:24 says:

Jeremiah 23:24, “Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him?” declares the LORD. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the LORD…”

God is omnipresent. So He knows everything, He’s always there, and He also is powerful enough to change whatever it is He would deem needing of change according to His infinite wisdom.

He is omnipotent. Almighty, sovereign God… so much greater and stronger than you or I. God knows everything that’s happening and has the power to deal with Hamas, and with Russia and Ukraine. God’s got power over the devil. The devil isn’t God’s arch enemy. The devil is a creature, more like you and me than he is like God… and he’s on a leash that God has never once allowed him to go further than He deemed eternally wise. And so God is powerful enough to shut the mouth of lions, and to part the seas, and to heal the diseased, and to raise the dead and to save sinners. God’s omnipotent over every single thing that happens in this life. Isaiah 40:28-29 says:

Isaiah 40:28-29

28 “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; His understanding is unsearchable.

29 He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might He increases strength.”

God’s not scared of your weakness. He invites you to be weak so that His strength might be manifest in you! ‘Boast in your weaknesses!’ — He says.

Tying all of these things together: God knows everything. He sees everything. He is everywhere. He’s all powerful… but, maybe most important for our anxious hearts… Does God care? — Because if He’s up there reigning supreme, but He doesn’t really care about me, then none of this matters. Right? But God does care! Doesn’t He? And God’s Word tells us that not only does God care for us and love us, He loves us like a father. As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him. He remembers our frame. He knows that we’re dust. God is as familiar with your cries as you are familiar with the cries of your own child. He never brings harm upon His children. Only loving correction as a kind parent would patiently teach and nurture a child. He doesn’t treat us like we deserve. He pulls us close, encourages our faltering faith. He knows the baby steps of obedience that you have taken, and He rejoices over every single one of them. God loves you! He is our Father.

You might say, ‘Andrew, what are we talking about here? Is this theology or is this an antidote to anxiety?’ — and the answer is “Yes!”

[Isaiah 26:3] “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.”

You’re looking at God. You’re seeing what He’s like. And when you consider God, when you think, ‘God knows so much more than me. His knowledge outpaces mine by infinitely more than I can understand… And He’s here! He sees what I’m going through. He knows what I’m scared about. He can feel my pain. He’s been there and He’s powerful enough to change my circumstances, and powerful enough to keep me in the midst of circumstances that in His wisdom He’s decided not to change… and He’s my Father who loves me, who cares for me!

[Romans 8:31b] “If God is for us, who can be against us?” Right?

We have nothing to fear, because God is with us, if you know Him.

The antidote to anxiety is not having a better plan for tomorrow. It’s having a bigger view of God… today. That’s the solution. That’s the key. If you want to be transformed… if you want to find real healing from anxiety, it begins with confessing your sin, repenting of it, asking God for grace to change, and then fixing your eyes on God. Getting a bigger view of God, looking at Jesus, finding Him to be your perfect, amazing, almighty, sovereign Father who loves you and who will carry you through any darkness that you pass through.

Some of you might say, ‘The world’s too big. It’s too big for me! It’s too scary! There’re too many things that have gone wrong!’ — but as Ray Ortlund has said:

“How big God is matters more than how frightening the future is.” Ray Ortlund

Sometimes people say, ‘God’ll never give you more than you can handle.’ That’s a lie! He gives us more than we can handle a lot, but He never gives us more than He can handle.

Some of you may say, to be frank, ‘I don’t really feel very loved by God.’ There’re tons of situations in this room, some that I’m aware of and many more that I’m not. And perhaps you’re just feeling burdened by the fact that it feels like God is against you. Can I just remind you, God loves you so much? This is how God loved the world:

[John 3:16] “… that He gave His One and only Son, that whoever would believe in Him would not perish but have everlasting life.”

[Romans 5:7] Somebody would scarcely die for a good person, for a righteous person somebody might dare to die—”

[Romans 5:8] “… but God demonstrates His love for you in this, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Do you have a relationship with Jesus Christ? Do you know Him? To be candid, the world is too big for you, and you will be crushed by your anxieties without having the sovereign ruler of the universe as your Father. So if you’ve never placed your faith in Jesus, I would urge you to do that today. Your sin is an offense to Him! Your worries are an offense to Him! —So run to the One who has born your worry on the cross. And to the Christian in this room today who still wrestles with these anxious thoughts.

One more verse I wanted to share with you… Zephaniah 3:17.  I love this verse!

Zephaniah 3:17, “The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty One who will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness; (Listen to this) He will quiet you by His love; He will exult over you with loud singing.”

Can you hear God singing over you this morning? Have you been quieted as you have looked at Him and remembered His great love for you in the Gospel of Jesus Christ? I pray that you would find perfect peace this morning as you fix your eyes on the One who holds it all together. Would you pray with me?

Father, we love you. We’re so grateful that You love us! We didn’t do anything to deserve it. We couldn’t possibly earn it, but You have given Your very life for us, Father, thank You for sending Your Son. Thank You for Jesus Christ. Thank You for giving us hope and a future. Thank You for giving us… You. I pray for every person who is worried, who is anxious, who’s fearful. God, would You meet them? Would You hold them close? Would You whisper Your love to their heart and help them to trust You, oh God? Thank You that You can relate, that You know what it is to face fear, but thank You that You didn’t succumb to it, but that You were courageous through it. Give us that same type of courage, God. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen. [Music]