Abolishing Anxiety, Part 13

It is so good to be able to open God's Word and be able to share with you what the Bible says concerning abolishing anxiety. That's our topic. It's been our topic for a number of weeks and we'll continue to do so even into the month of July.

Yes, we're going to finish it because we want you to understand exactly how you are to be free from a worry, anxious kind of life. And so we have given you eight principles, eight principles that help you understand Proverbs 12 25, which says, Anxiety in the heart of a man weighs it down, but a good word makes it glad. What is the good word? Well, the good word is the good news that Christ himself has given to us in his word.

So that when my anxious thoughts overwhelm me, Psalm 94, thy consolations delight my soul. Well, the only way that's going to happen is for us to be in the Word of God. And so the principles that we have given to you, the eight so far, are principles that are directly from the Word of the Lord to show you exactly what needs to happen in your life if you are going to abolish anxiety, not only during this pandemic, this situation, all that's happening in our country, but for whatever is going to happen down the road in your life.

And we're looking at point number eight, which means to reflect the Christ and his glory. And we've covered three points for you that were recovered last week to help you understand how it is we as believers radiate the Christ and all of his glory. You know, if we were to ask people, what is the glory of the Lord? Some people would have a hard time defining that.

And once they define it, they'd have a hard time explaining to you how it is you actually do do that. So what we're doing is helping you understand that when you give glory to God, you as redeemed people are reflecting the righteous radiance of your Redeemer. That's what it means to glorify the Lord.

We know that John 17, 22 says that his glory is in us. First Corinthians 10, 31, we are to give glory to the Lord. Because his glory is in us and we are to give glory to the Lord in whatever we do, whether we eat or whether we drink, we are to do all to the glory of the Lord.

We also know that the Bible tells us in Ephesians 3, 21, let there be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus forever and ever. Amen. And so glory is to be not only individually and corporately, but perpetually from generation to generation.

So how does that happen? Well, it begins when there's a salvation from my idolatry. Why? Because that's what God does. God saves us.

And when he saves us, according to Ephesians chapter 1, we know it's all to the praise of his glory. God wants to receive glory to his name. How does he do that? He saves people.

When he saves them from their sin, it gives glory to his name because it accentuates the fact that he is a Redeemer, that he is a Savior, that he is a deliverer of man from his sin. And when he delivers us, we are saved from being idol worshipers. Worshippers of ourself, worshippers of sin, worshippers even of Satan.

But now we are worshippers of the one true Savior, Jesus Christ our Lord. So when there's a salvation from my idolatry, there comes a confession of my iniquity. Joshua chapter 7 tells us that when you confess your sin, you give glory to God.

Why? Because it radiates his glory, his beauty. It radiates his forgiveness. It radiates his faithfulness.

We believe in the attributes of God, the character of God, the nature of God. And so when we give glory to him, we do so with the confession of our iniquity. And then the third point was a demonstration of my spirituality.

John 15 verse number 8, right? Because it says, and this is my father glorified, that you bear much fruit. When you bear fruit, when you are a fruit bearer, you are doing that because of the Spirit of God within you. The fruit of the Spirit is, Galatians 5, 22 and 23, delineates for us the attitude that's supposed to permeate our lives, because that gives glory and honor to Jesus Christ our Lord.

And so that's what it means to give glory to the Lord. But we're not done, because there are so many things in scripture that explain to us how it is we, as the redeemed, reflect the righteous radiance of our Redeemer. Once we're saved from our idolatry, once there's a confession of our iniquity, once there's a demonstration of my spirituality, point number three, or number four, is a submission to his sovereignty.

A submission to his sovereignty. When you put your hand, yourself, under the mighty hand of God and his control of your life, when you submit to his sovereignty, you are reflecting the beauty and glory of the Christ. Because our Lord became a servant, our Lord submitted himself to do the will of his Father who is in heaven.

And so when we, as his children, submit ourselves to his sovereignty, we are demonstrating that our Lord is the controller of all things. Remember point number one of our whole outline, when we began to abolish anxiety, was to rest in God's sovereignty, right? And we, we rest in the fact that God is providentially controlling all things that are happening on this planet. When we submit to his sovereignty, we are saying, Lord, we understand that you, you have consciously permitted this, or purposely caused this to happen in my life, in my family, in this world.

And there's no better illustration of that than 1st Peter chapter 1, when Peter talks to people who are dying because of their faith. They're losing their lives. And Peter spends a lot of time on this.

We did a series on this a long time ago called Hope for Those Who Hurt. And Peter gives hope to the hurting. In 1st Peter chapter 1, verse number 6, he says these words.

If you've got your Bible, turn there with me, if you would, please. In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith being more precious than gold, which is perishable, even though tested by fire may be found to result in the praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. And though you have not seen him, you love him.

And though you do not see him now, but believe in him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls. In this you greatly rejoice. Why? Because the full expression of the glory of God.

You are putting God on display when you suffer for righteousness sake. Because that's what Jesus did. He goes on and picks us up in 1st Peter chapter 4 and verse number 12.

He says, beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you which comes upon you for your testing as though some strange thing were happening to you. Isn't that great? Peter says, look, I don't want you to be surprised. Why would you be surprised? Our Lord has already told us that in the world you're gonna have tribulation, but it's okay.

Be of good cheer. He's overcome the world. All those who live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.

So don't be surprised at this fiery ordeal, not just this ordeal, not just this difficulty, but this fiery ordeal that's come upon you. And the fiery ordeal was what? That these people were actually suffering tremendously because of their faith in Christ. They were dying.

So he says these words. He says, but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing. Say also at the revelation of his glory, you may rejoice with exaltation.

If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed because the spirit of glory and of God rests on you. Make sure that none of you suffers as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or a troublesome meddler. But if anyone suffers as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed, but is to glorify God in this name.

You're to give glory to God. You're to put him on display. You see, Peter is talking to people who are having a hard time understanding what is happening to them as believers.

But part of God's sovereign will was for them to suffer tremendously. Listen, we know that as time goes on, things will get worse. They're not going to get better.

And we know that as things go on, there's a good chance that the persecution against the church will be sooner rather than later. But are you ready for that? The pandemic that's just come upon us is just a very small way of helping us to understand what's going to happen when the church is dispersed and we can't be together. How will you survive? How will you handle that with your family? Will you as a father be able to lead your family through a crisis? Will you as a father be able to lead your family through hardship, difficulty, and persecution, a fiery ordeal? So you can say with your children, with your wife, do not be surprised at this fiery ordeal that's come upon us as though some strange thing has happened to us.

We should be aware of this. We should know this. It's going to come.

When it's going to come, we have no idea. We have been blessed in America to be able to meet together as a church. We're blessed even now.

Even though we can't meet with everybody together, we know that we can meet to some degree as a church body and we're doing all we can to do that for the glory of His name. But there's going to come a time with the persecution against the church because we stand against the LGBTQ movement. We stand against homosexuality.

We stand against abortion. We stand against all those things that the world is progressively going toward. And there'll come a day where they'll say you cannot speak against these things, but we will.

And when we do, we will suffer tremendously. Are you prepared for that? It might not happen in my lifetime because I don't have that much longer to live, I don't think, you know. But it might happen in my children's lifetime, see.

And so you've got to be aware of those things. That's why Peter would say in 1 Peter 5 verse number 6, he says, Submit yourself. He says it this way.

Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God that He may exalt you in the proper time, casting all your anxiety upon Him because He cares for you. Are you able to humble yourself and submit yourself under God's mighty hand of destiny? These people in 1 Peter learned how to do that. When you submit to God's sovereignty, you say, yes, Lord, we know that you providentially have consciously permitted or purposely allowed or planned all these things to take place.

And we know that you're in charge and therefore we submit to you and cast all of our anxiety upon you because we know you care for us. That's the way we should be, right? That gives glory to the Lord. That gives honor to His name.

That's number four. Number five is simply a participation in our ministry. Do you know that when you participate in the ministry, you give glory to God? If you're still in 1 Peter, hopefully you are.

1 Peter chapter 4. Peter says these words in verse number 7. The end of all things is near. Or you can translate it this way. The end of all things is next.

The next thing on the agenda is the end of everything. Therefore be of sound judgment, sober in spirit for the purpose of prayer. Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another because love covers the multitude of sins.

Be hospitable to one another without complaint as each one has received a special gift Employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Whoever speaks is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God. Whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever.

Amen. When you participate in a ministry by exercising your giftedness, whether it's a serving gift or a speaking gift, Peter says you give glory to God. Now, how does this abolish anxiety? How is this abolishing anxiety? If I'm to radiate Christ in his glory, how does that rid my life of worry and fear? Simply because when you are giving glory to Christ, you're not worried about glorifying yourself.

When you're worried about putting God on display, you don't care if you're ever on display. One of the reasons we worry and fret is because we want to be on display. We want to be seen.

We want to be recognized. And when that doesn't happen, we become very anxious and very worrisome. But if we're concerned about putting Christ himself on display, we really don't care about ourselves.

It's like John the Baptist. He must increase and I must, what? Decrease. Wouldn't that be good if we adopted that? I think we should put that on the forehead of every person who's a believer.

He must increase, I must decrease. And every time that you seek to lift yourself up, someone just points to your forehead and says, what does that say? What does that say? Are you decreasing? So important. So when you're participating in the ministry, what are you doing? Your eyes are off yourself and they're on to everybody else.

And when you begin to do that, you have no time to worry or fret about what's happening to you. Now, Peter's talking to people, remember, who are suffering greatly, who are dying. So he says, the end of all things is next.

Keep sober in spirit. You got to know that the end is coming. So in the meantime, I want you to realize that love covers a multitude of sins.

And I want you to engage in serving your brethren. I want you to engage in getting your eyes off yourself and ministering to those who are in need. If you have a serving gift, serve.

If you have a speaking gift, speak the utterances of God. Because when you do that, you are glorifying the name of Christ. Putting Christ on display, isn't that great? How good is that? You know, one of the things that I was so overjoyed about, and forgive me if you weren't called during those 10 weeks as elders and staff, we tried to call everybody in the church, at least that were in the directory.

So if you weren't called, maybe your name's not in the directory, or we have your wrong phone number, or maybe you just want to stay hidden for the rest of your life. I don't know. But we wanted to contact people.

And one of the things that came across as a resounding theme were how each and every one of you were involved in ministering to other people in the church. Serving other people. Whether you were buying them CD players because they were too old to understand how to watch it online.

So you bought them CD players so that they could listen to CDs that we send out and made sure that people had those. Or when you went to someone's house and showed them how to find us online and take them through the steps, or whether you brought them food, or whether you took them to a place they needed to go to during the 10 weeks that we were absent one from another. We saw overwhelmingly that people in the church stepped up and did what they could to help other people in need.

What a great thing. And those of you who gave testimony to that, saying, I am so overjoyed with what people have done to minister to me at this time. And one person even said to me, they said, you know, there's nothing I can do, but I'm going to pray for everybody in my church.

Everybody in my church. We got Cy Brun in the back. I don't know if you know who Cy Brun is or not, but Cy Brun's been faithful in our church for 25 years.

His beautiful bride went home to be with the Lord a number of years ago. But what Cy was doing was all the people who brought food to his door, he was sharing Christ with. He was looking for the opportunity.

He was taking advantage of the opportunity. He was redeeming the time. How great is that? See, you're looking for ways to serve.

You're looking for ways to honor the Lord. You're looking for ways to utilize your giftedness. You're looking for ways to minister to the body of Christ and to those outside the body.

If you have a speaking gift, because you can share the word of the Lord with them. And all of a sudden, all of a sudden, the things that are happening to you really don't matter that much. But what really matters is how God is put on display.

Isn't that great? So when you participate in the ministry that God has called you to, that's why Peter said this to these people who are suffering greatly, who are dying. None of us here are dying because of our faith. None of us here are being burned.

None of us here are being fed to lions, okay? We get in our nice cars, and we go home to our nice houses, and we go to our nice restaurants if we can get in or be seated, or we go to the beach, we just go where we want to go. Now, we couldn't before, but now we can, right? So we do all these things as if we don't have a care in the world. But Peter says to people who are filled with fear and anxiety, participate in the ministry.

When you do, you put God on display and He is glorified. Next point, on the outline above, we put it out there because there's so many of them, a contribution of my money. You know what gives glory to God? A contribution of my money.

When you give yourself to the Lord, and you give of the first fruits of your increase, you give glory to the Lord. Remember 2 Corinthians chapter 9? In 2 Corinthians chapter 9, Paul is talking to the Corinthians, trying to help them understand, as he gave an example in 2 Corinthians 8 about the Macedonians, and how they gave, listen, out of their poverty, liberally, cheerfully, they gave because they were poor, because they had given themselves to the Lord first. I know there's always somebody says, well, you know what, I don't have the money I used to have, or whatever the case may be.

Look at the Macedonians and see what they did, because they gave out of their poverty, they gave liberally. Paul says because they gave themselves first to the Lord. So Paul wants to pick up that attitude with the Corinthian church, and he says this in 2 Corinthians 9, verse number 12, for the ministry of this service is not only fully supplying the needs of the saints, but is also overflowing through many thanksgivings to God, because of the proof given by this ministry, they will glorify God for your obedience to your confession of the gospel, and for the liberality of your contribution to them and to all.

In other words, the churches will glorify God, because you contributed to their need. God's put on display. Why? Because God is a giver.

God is the ultimate giver. He gave his life away. He gave so you would obtain that which is the best ever.

And so in giving his life away, you obtained eternal life. And so he goes on to say these words in 2 Corinthians 9, verse 14, while they also by prayer on your behalf yearn for you, because of the surpassing grace of God in you, thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift. Paul wants to remind them once again of God's unspeakable, unfathomable gift, the gift of eternal life.

But he reminds the Corinthian church with the liberalness of their contribution. Glory will be given to God. And that's because our Lord is the biggest grace giver ever.

He just is. And one of the ways that we demonstrate our trust in a faithful God is to give back to him. And that is a beautiful reminder.

Remember over in Proverbs chapter 3, Proverbs chapter 3, verse number 9, it says these words. Well, we know Proverbs 3, 5, and 6, right? Trust the Lord with all your heart and not your own understanding. We know those.

We can quote those verses. But you got to follow it through in the book of Proverbs, the third chapter. Because when you get to verse number 7, he says, Do not be wise in your own eyes.

Fear the Lord and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your body and refreshment to your bones. So if you fear the Lord and you turn away from evil, what's going to happen is something unique is going to happen to you physically.

All right? Then he says in verse number 9, Honor the Lord from your wealth and from the firstfruits of your produce. In other words, glorify the Lord. Give glory to God by giving to Him of the firstfruits so that all will know that God gets what's best.

Do you give what's best to the Lord? I would hope you do. I hope that whenever you receive your paycheck, you give the first check you write to the Lord. You want to give your best to the Lord.

He says this, So your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will overflow with new wine. But he says this, follow this through. Verse 11, My son, do not reject the discipline of the Lord or loathe His reproof.

For whom the Lord loves, He reproves, even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights. Now God is sovereign. And when God spoke His word, He spoke it in a way that it flows naturally, right? So we're not to be wise in our own eyes, but we're to fear the Lord, trust Him, turn away from evil.

And one of the ways we do that is to honor the Lord with the firstfruits of our increase because we are giving glory to His name. And God promises if you do this, I will supply all your needs. Your vats will be overflowing.

And then He says, do not reject the discipline of the Lord. Why does He say that? Because do you know how many believers are disciplined by the Lord because they refuse to honor Him with the firstfruits of their increase? Happens all the time. And we get so hung up in the fact that we don't have enough money to do whatever it is we want to do.

Not realizing that God could be in the process of disciplining, correcting us as a father would do his own children to put us back on the straight and way, to help us to value that which is important. Because read on, how blessed is a man who finds wisdom and the man who gains understanding. Why? Because they outweigh wealth.

He says this, for a profit that is wisdom is better than the profit of silver and their gain better than fine gold. Listen, if you gain wisdom, the application of truth to life, if you gain that, you gain something far better, far more valuable than silver and gold. So don't be wise in your own mind, thinking that if you had more money, things would be better.

No, understand this, that to fear the Lord and turn away from the evil by honoring the Lord with the firstfruits of your increase is the way in which God shows you that wisdom and understanding outweigh anything you can obtain on earth. And then he goes to this huge dissertation about how she, wisdom is more precious than jewels and nothing you desire compares with her. Long life is in her right hand, in her left hand are riches and honor.

Her ways are pleasant and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her and happy are all who hold her fast. Happy are all those who hold her fast.

But so many of us want to talk about the glory of the Lord, but don't realize that part of giving glory to him, reflecting the righteous radiance of my Redeemer, is to be a giver. And how much you give is, that's up to you, that's between you and the Lord, right? But the fact of the matter is, you want to honor him with the firstfruits of your increase, because you want to put the fact that your God, who gave himself away, is more valuable to you, thanks being the God for his indescribable gift, is more valuable than the coins you hold in your hand. Let me give you one more.

Next one is the sanctification of my body. The sanctification of my body. Do you know this is glory to God? See, I can just go on and on and on.

This is so good. It's so rich. You need to grasp this.

Why? Because of all the things that you cannot control, there's one thing you can control. Only one. Of all the things, you can't control your kids, you can't control your wife, can't control your husband, ladies, right? Can't control your salary.

You can't control those at work. You can't control those in your ball team. You can't control how long you're gonna live.

You can't control anything. You want to, but you can't. But you can control one thing.

And that is whether you choose to reflect the righteous radiance of your Redeemer. That's the one thing you can do. You can control.

Why? Because the first one, salvation from my idolatry. That was all to the praise and glory of the Lord, Ephesians chapter one. But John 17, 22 says he puts his glory in us.

So now all I do is choose to manifest my Lord more than I choose to manifest myself. I choose to put him on display and not me. And this is how I do it.

And the sanctification of my body, setting my body apart for his glory is one of the ways I do that. And that's found over in the book of Ephesians, the sixth, I'm sorry, first Corinthians, the sixth chapter, verse number 18, flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body.

In other words, every sin that we commit is outside, but there's one sin that affects the inside. What's the sin that affects the inside? Immorality. Anything that's a sexual sin affects the inside of a man.

The inside of a woman. Every other sin is an external effect. This is an internal effect because it affects not just me physically, but it affects me mentally and affects me emotionally.

It also affects me spiritually, unlike any other sin. So Paul says to the Corinthian church, flee immorality. He says this, verse number 18, I'm not 19, I'm sorry.

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, who you have from God and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body. Give glory to God, magnify God in your body.

Your body is a temple of the spirit of God. I love this because it's so important because we think that this is a sanctuary. It's not.

It's a building with four walls. That's all it is with some pews in it. All this is is a building.

But your body is a sanctuary. Your body is the temple. Your body is the holy place because God dwells in you.

And therefore, Paul is screaming to the Corinthian church, glorify God in your body. Because your body is a temple where the spirit of God himself dwells. Earlier he says, why would you want to join your body, join the spirit to a harlot? Why would you want to do that? Because God dwells in you.

The sanctification of my body, the setting my body aside for the purposes of God, okay, is what I'm supposed to do. That's why over in 1 Thessalonians 4, Paul says, this is the will of God, even your sanctification that you abstain from sexual immorality. He goes on to say that each one needs to know how to possess his vessel, his temple, his body in honor, in glory for the fact that God needs to be seen in your life.

My friends, this is so important because when you're doing these things, I know it's a lot of them, but your mind is completely focused above, not below. What do I do for the glory of God? How do I best put God on display? How do I get my eyes off of me and onto my Lord constantly? Once I'm saved from my idolatry, I confess my iniquity because my God is faithful just to forgive me of all my sins. And with the confession of my iniquity comes a demonstration of my spirituality because I really can't demonstrate the beauty and glory of God's character if I live in sin.

And then when I submit to his sovereign control of my life and then participate in the ministry that he's given to me as a child of the living God and contribute from my income, from my wealth in honor of the Lord, what happens then? I begin to sanctify, set my body apart for the glory and honor of God. See, this is what you can choose to do. This is the one thing you can control.

It has many facets to it, but it's the one thing you can do. It's the one thing you choose to do. Every morning when you wake up, you choose, I will give glory to God today.

No matter what happens to me, no matter what difficulty comes my way, no matter what hardship I'm going to face, no matter what conversation I'm going to engage in, no matter what kind of road rage I face on the road to work, no matter what kind of demonstration I will face in the inner city when I go down to LA to work, I will choose to put God on display. I would choose to radiate my Christ so others will see him. My body has been bought with a price.

My soul has been bought. God's going to resurrect my body. Yeah, it could be burned up, right? Okay.

It could be drowned in the depths of the sea. It could be blown up on the fields of Afghanistan. But no matter where it is, God's going to gather it all together.

It's no big deal for God who created us out of nothing in any way, right? It's no big deal for God to gather up all the different fragments of my body, put it together, resurrect that body and make it a glorified body. A glorified, like my Lord's body is glorified, a perfect body because what we have is imperfect. Look at us.

Look at us. We're all imperfect, but one day we'll have a perfect body because that body is symbolic of the holy temple of God where he resides and dwells in us, that he might shine forth all of his beauty so others will see him. Let me pray with you.

Father, thank you for today. It's a great day to be with the people of God, to worship the one true God for the glory of your name. May we leave this place looking to put you on display every moment of the day that others will know that Jesus Christ reigns supreme in our lives.

We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.