Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] You're listening to a live recording from Westside Church in Bend, Oregon. Thanks for joining us.
[00:00:06] Today we're going to talk about a non anxious presence. As a church. We're going to talk about prayer and anxiety. What does prayer have to do with anxiety? Now, we've used this term especially over the last several months when it comes to the state of our nation and this. We didn't plan this series for anxiety to be the Sunday before the election day.
[00:00:28] We totally did.
[00:00:32] But we've been using this term a non anxious presence. We want to be a non anxious presence. Non anxious people. And what you discover is that just by telling yourself, I'm not going to be anxious doesn't necessarily create a soul that is not anxious, right? It just kind of happens. It just shows up anxiety and these thoughts and these rumination. It just, it comes upon you, right? It's not something that you usually conjure up or ask for.
[00:00:55] And I'll give you an example. I have one of these fitness watches. I have an Apple watch. I know there's a lot of like Garmin people in here that are looking down upon me right now. I understand your watches are so cool and I don't understand them. But mine's very simple, rudimentary, right? The Apple watch is very, very simple. It wants to keep track of three things when it comes to your fitness. It wants to keep track of your calories, your fitness minutes or hours. And it wants to keep track of how many times you've stood up over the course of the day. Now, really, what the Apple watch wants to do is it wants to passive aggressively insult you a few times during the day. That's what it wants to do. It's not trying to keep you informed, it's trying to make you feel bad. All right, so what happens to me in meetings? Sometimes I'll have meetings for one or two hours and I'll be sitting down and midway through the meeting, the watch will go, hey, it's time to stand up, man. Like, it's been a while. And then I finally stand up and it goes, oh, you did it.
[00:01:50] Great job. I'm like, hey, I don't need this Apple watch. It's fine. I get it. I know I've been sedentary today. It's a problem. But the worst one happened this last summer where I've been walking and then running a little bit more than I have in the last while. And I stayed at a friend's place out at Lake Billy Chinook, and they have one of these places Kind of around the backside of the lake, there's all these dirt roads, and a lot of them go uphill and then ways downhill uphill. And I was like, you know what? I'm ready. I'm gonna run these hills. And so we're gonna generously say, halfway up this hill, I am doubled over and I can't hardly breathe. And I'm questioning every decision I've ever made in my life. And I'm just standing there for a second to catch my breath, and my watch pings me and goes, hey, are you done with your workout?
[00:02:38] I gotta say, this is kind of sad, Ben. You know, like, all right, I don't need this from you. I'm all alone. I'm out of breath. I'm suff quite a bit. And I don't need any kind of voice to go ahead and show up right here and tell me how awful I am. I know, I get it.
[00:02:56] And anxious thoughts and anxiety is the same way. We're all alone. Oftentimes we're in a position where we're suffering or we're struggling, we're working through something. And then this voice pops in and is like, hey, how about these 10 other things to make you feel a little extra bad? Why don't you rotate through these things that you actually don't have as much control of as you'd like to? How about these things from your past that maybe you even asked forgiveness for, you gave forgiveness for a while ago. But let's go ahead and readdress these things. This anxious feeling is not something that we ask for. It's something that comes upon us.
[00:03:30] And so I contend today that our solution isn't to just stop and say, no, I'm not gonna be anxious. I'm not gonna be anxious. I'm not gonna be anxious. I actually believe that God is asking us to pray our way into and through these moments so that our soul might be enriched and not just numbed to this idea of anxiety. And the apostle Paul in Philippians chapter four gives us a little bit of a framework for this. He says in verse six, do not be anxious about anything. So again, he starts off with that kind of blunt, no, let's stop being anxious, but then offers an explanation. He says, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
[00:04:12] And then the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
[00:04:22] Let's pray together. Father God, we thank you for your presence.
[00:04:26] That is the key to this entire thing. Understanding that you are with us, that you go before us and behind us. Lord, I pray that we would be reminded of that presence today, and that would be a solution for this anxious generation, this anxious thoughts and anxiety that often comes upon us, especially in times like these. Lord Jesus, let us be reminded of your presence. In Jesus name we pray.
[00:04:49] Amen.
[00:04:53] I was anxious pretty recently and was prepping for this sermon, which is always a terrible dichotomy to feel like, yeah, I'm totally going to teach people about the power of prayer and anxiety. And I'm going to be anxious about it actually, while I do it.
[00:05:10] I was actually really anxious about a few things in my life, a few relationships, some things I needed to take care of. I was talking about this with my therapist, and my therapist gave me this cool revelation where I said, I'm just ruminating on these things. I'm going over them, over them, over and over and over again. And she said, well, maybe you're not that far then from meditation, right? Maybe your anxiety is actually an invitation to meditation. And then in my mind, I said, and then maybe this meditation is an invitation to prayer. Maybe this thing that I'm doing isn't that far away.
[00:05:41] And while I think about the condition of our nation and a lot of our hearts and souls and spirits, our hopes and dreams, our nightmares that might be coming to fruition, depending on how you feel about it or what the results may be, I want to offer up a few just really broad things to help you in the middle of this. Number one, any voice that says whatever the results of this election are will determine whether or not our faith will continue to exist. This is not a voice that can be trusted.
[00:06:12] The worst things have happened in Christian nations or non Christian nations or two Christian groups. The worst things have happened over the course of history and the faith has endured.
[00:06:24] I'm not saying I'm excited about some kind of struggle or difficulty or pain or sorrow, but I am saying if there is one thing that is completely safe, regardless of any election results or any kind of international policy, it is our faith.
[00:06:39] God will be with us and go with us again, before us and behind us, no matter what happens. And any voice that would say otherwise, I promise you, is not to be trusted.
[00:06:50] I'm not a politician, I'm not an economist, and I can't predict how a lot of things will turn out as a result of the election process that we have. But I can tell you that God will still be good. He will be faithful and merciful and love us Deeply.
[00:07:06] So maybe that'll help frame our anxiety immediately out of the way. All right. It probably doesn't take away all of it, but maybe that gives a little bit of relief right out of the gate.
[00:07:17] But Paul, who's encouraging us again to not be anxious about anything, understands that this anxiety is something that is relatable for people back in these ancient times as well for us today. It could be concerns about work and finances, not even just an election, or our health. We find ourselves overwhelmed again. This unwanted thing and voice comes into our lives and minds.
[00:07:40] But in the midst of this anxiety, I really, truly believe that prayer is the solution. It's not just a ritual, although rituals in prayer are not a bad thing. It's a lifeline that connects us to this peace that passes all understanding, a peace that can happen in the midst of the worst of times. Which is why Paul, even while he's writing this letter to the Philippians, finds himself in prison and finds himself teaching about thankfulness and gratitude.
[00:08:08] We're gonna explore this relationship between these two things, this thing that is not anything that's new. Because throughout history, God's people have all been faced with fear, uncertainty, and worry. So that's another thing we have to remember, especially as Christian people, we are not special. We are not in a completely unprecedented time. Things look a little bit different and they sound a little bit different. But people going back thousands and thousands of years in their pursuit of understanding and knowing God, have encountered this anxiety that we feel today.
[00:08:37] Even David, who they call as one of one who's after God's own heart, who wrote many, many of the Psalms, and was this incredible leader, even speaks in Psalm 94, verse 19, he says, when anxiety was great within me, your consolation God brought me joy.
[00:08:56] Here's an example from the teachings of Jesus. It says in Mark 4, verse 40, or, excuse me, Mark 4, 35, it says, as evening came, Jesus said to his disciples, let's cross to the other side of the lake. And so they took Jesus in a boat, and they started out leaving the crowds behind. And although other boats followed, but soon a fierce storm came up. High waves were breaking into the boat, and it began to fill with water. Now, at this point, I don't know if you've ever been on a road trip with people that have had an attitude change in the middle of the road trip. You know, children, parents, dogs, cats. I don't know why you're traveling with your cats, but I want to be inclusive and kind of have a change of heart in the middle of it, right? And if I'm a disciple in this situation, I am remembering. I've got receipts on. Who said, let's cross this lake right now? Jesus, in the middle of this fear storm. And now the boat is filling with water. Who said this was a good idea?
[00:09:58] It's a terrible idea.
[00:10:01] I want to go where? Back.
[00:10:05] Let's go back.
[00:10:08] That's always the solution in a time of strife and suffering and wondering. I want to go back. Because maybe back was difficult, but at least I know it wasn't this. I know it wasn't a flood. I know it wasn't the boat filling up. I want to go backwards instead of forwards. And you are going to be tempted in the middle of your anxiety and this whole process to just go backwards or just to say, if we could go back to this old thing, this previous thing, then everything would be better. But of course, God is not just with us back on the shore. He's actually in the boat.
[00:10:38] He's with us right now in the middle of the rain and the waves and the wind.
[00:10:44] But this is the worst part about Jesus in this scenario is that it says in verse 38, he was sleeping in the back of the boat with his head on a cushion.
[00:10:53] The worst is he paying attention.
[00:11:00] I love that the author even includes he has his head on a cushion. It's like a little extra jab. He's sleeping and he's sleeping comfortably.
[00:11:10] The disciples woke him up, shouting, don't you care that we're going to drown?
[00:11:18] When Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and said to the waves, silence, be still. And suddenly the wind stopped and there was a great calm. And then he asked them, why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith? And this is the best response from the disciples. Jesus says, why are you afraid? And then it says in the next verse, the disciples were absolutely terrified.
[00:11:40] Oh, the wind and the waves, the rain, it all stopped. And now we're more scared than ever. We would have rather died, actually just now than see the power that this guy has. And of course, this is actually how anxiety works. Have you noticed that when you kick one thing or you get past one thing, you're pretty good at finding the next thing to be anxious about. It doesn't take a whole lot of time.
[00:12:04] Says, who is this man? They asked each other. Even the wind and waves obey him. I got to take a sabbatical this last year. I had a couple months off.
[00:12:11] I love working at Westside, and our staff is amazing and incredible. And when I Got to go on two months of sabbatical rest to be with my family, to jump into things that really I wanted to do right without a work schedule jumping in the way of some of those things. I had no worries about anything that was going to happen at work while I was gone. And yet I found myself at about 9:00am, 9:15am out on a walk with my dog, finding something to be anxious about.
[00:12:42] And it could be the dumbest thing, the smallest thing.
[00:12:46] It could have been coaching Little League baseball and this kid that just simply won't understand how to fuel the ground ball. And I'd be like, oh, how am I going to fix this? It's a tremendous problem.
[00:12:57] It was almost as if my body was timed, it was regulated. It's on the to do list. Okay, 9:00's gonna come around. We gotta start worrying about stuff.
[00:13:07] Otherwise we're not paying attention, we're not responsible, we're not engaged. And I would have this for a good two or three weeks. I had nothing in my life to worry about. And yet my body and my mind were like, it's time to ruminate. It's time. Time to engage with this thing so that maybe I can feel alive again, maybe that I can feel something again.
[00:13:27] And even these disciples who walked with Jesus, they had seen miracles, they experienced still fear in the middle of this storm.
[00:13:38] How this story, as well as the one where Peter walks on water, it's like we lose track of the ultimate power of Jesus. Jesus has done incredible things, and now they're in a storm and they're like, well, you know, he can make blind people see, but weather, he's terrible at weather.
[00:13:54] How is this going to be fixed? And then Peter, another time, walks out on rough seas into the waves, right? And he's walking towards. He's walking on water.
[00:14:04] And then it says the wind picks up a little bit extra. And Peter's like, well, I mean, I could walk on water before, but not in a windstorm.
[00:14:13] That was easy. This difficulty is way higher.
[00:14:16] In the middle of a miracle, in the middle of the thing that God is doing, we can find ourselves becoming anxious as if right smack in the middle of an incredible thing that God is doing, we can forget about his power.
[00:14:28] That's how fallible we are as Christians often.
[00:14:33] That's why when people come in at the moment of an election, they want to rile people up. They want to prey on anxiety. They can even go as far as to say, the Christian faith will be no more as a result of what happens at the polls this week. And I go, this is crazy.
[00:14:46] In the middle of God loving us and taking care of our families and moving our faith forward and showing us his power and his glory. In the middle of all these things, we can still fall prey to something that just wants to instill more fear and anxiety. And I have to tell you, it's prayer that pushes back against these things.
[00:15:07] Again, Paul says in Philippians 4, 6, don't be anxious about anything.
[00:15:12] He doesn't just say, stop worrying, but he provides this alternative in every situation by prayer and petition. With thanksgiving, present your request to God.
[00:15:21] Prayer now becomes a space where we trade our anxiety for God's peace.
[00:15:28] It's an act of prayer that we acknowledge our helplessness and we also remember at that moment, God's sufficiency.
[00:15:37] When we pray, we actually shift our burden, right? It's a process of taking our fears and worries and placing them, instead of in our own hands, into God's hands. And we say, God, I trust you with this.
[00:15:52] I trust you with my future and my health. I trust you with my helplessness.
[00:15:59] I trust you with my inability to fix all of these things, and I trust you with whatever burden comes to me next.
[00:16:07] So we shift the burden to God, and then we align our hearts. Prayer doesn't often change or always change our circumstances, but it certainly changes us in here.
[00:16:17] As we bring our anxieties before God, this perspective shifts. We begin to see our problems instead of through the lens of our own fallibility with which we are deeply familiar. Yes, I know my own failures, I know my own shortcomings, but this actually allows us, through the power of prayer, to see the situation and the circumstance through the sovereignty of God.
[00:16:41] Notice that we don't see God's sovereignty through the filter of our experience, but we see then our experience through the filter of the sovereignty of God. And that changes everything, changes everything.
[00:16:56] So we shift the burden. Then we align our hearts. Then we experience God's presence. Anxiety's greatest desire is to isolate us and make us feel all alone.
[00:17:08] Prayer reminds us, of course, even when we do seem and find ourselves alone, that we are never alone.
[00:17:17] God is with us. And in that presence, of course, we find comfort.
[00:17:21] And then prayer reminds us that this is all part of a process.
[00:17:26] Sometimes it's a long process and an unwieldy process.
[00:17:31] We're doing a little bit of work on our house right now that requires permits from the city.
[00:17:36] Some of you laughed, by the way. God bless anybody that works in the city permitting department right now.
[00:17:44] Because I have had a difficulty on my end of this process. But I also want to acknowledge that I am walking into city Hall, I am asking somebody to stop what they are doing so that I can come to them and say, excuse me, can we talk about my septic tank? Because I believe I've answered all your questions and I deserve my permit now. You know, it's a tough job, but of course we make our plans, right? And we actually have to write out these plans in our case, and then we have to present them, and then they get rejected for whatever reason. Maybe something wasn't completed or done properly, or they have questions about this, and then it goes back to them again, and then it comes back. And for someone like me, who isn't always invested in this kind of planning process, I go, well, what is taking so long?
[00:18:30] This is ridiculous. And forever. And this is not that complicated.
[00:18:35] And then, of course, who is the stabilizing voice in the middle of this process? Well, it's my contractor.
[00:18:42] And I go, excuse me, Anthony, can you. Did you see this email? I mean, this is crazy. And he goes, oh, yeah, this is normal.
[00:18:51] Oh, and of course, my contractor, who has been through it, who understands the vocabulary of it, his blood pressure is a lot lower than mine in these situations because he's experienced it and he's seen it. He knows that there's an outcome on the other end. And he also is confident that there will be several steps in the middle involved that we don't yet see. And such is this life. As a follower of Jesus, we believe that there's a process. We know that prayer is an incredibly valuable part of that process. And yet if we get into this mindset that because of how we consume everything, that we get instant results, that we get instant feedback, we begin to believe that we as human beings were people that were meant to get these instant results, that we were meant to acquire greatness and peace immediately. But prayer actually slows everything down so that we can be reminded that we're in this process that we don't always see the steps to.
[00:19:48] Sometimes we take a longer and winding journey than those of us around us. And I believe that God has blessed us in that process and journey.
[00:19:57] See, this peace that God offers us isn't always logical. It doesn't necessarily come from a change in our situation immediately, but it comes from this deep assurance that God is with us and he is still working. He's working in every circumstance.
[00:20:11] To trust God doesn't mean that you'll never feel anxious again. But it Means that now we have a response to our anxiety. We have a tool, we have a way to walk through and work through this thing. And actually it gives us another opportunity to humble ourselves and present ourselves before God.
[00:20:28] Anxiety, if understood in ourselves, then becomes an opportunity to engage with God. Instead of being consumed by fear, then you can bring it to him. We may not always understand this way, of course, but we can trust God. I believe that he has been proven to be trustworthy.
[00:20:49] So what's something that we can do in order to understand this process? Well, I would encourage you, even this week, do something that requires you to go really slow.
[00:21:02] Make yourself slow down.
[00:21:05] Maybe you bake something instead of buying it.
[00:21:09] Maybe you walk one day instead of run.
[00:21:14] This pace that we're invited into in our culture means that we have to be faster and quicker and more agile. But often this process, in the way of Jesus, is slow and difficult to understand. And maybe if we actually slow our bodies and our hearts down just for a little while, we can reengage and not feel insecure when our processing God is going slow.
[00:21:37] I used to play this when I was in high school, this PlayStation 2 game called Spider Man 2. And this is called an open world game. And so there's objectives that take a long time, but what they would also do is plant these people all throughout New York City that you, as Spider man, need to help.
[00:21:56] And so you would kind of come out of this one point in the level and there would be five people around, all with issues ranging from somebody stole my car to my pizza still hasn't been delivered.
[00:22:06] And when you play this game, there's voices constantly going, hey, I need this. Come on, you gotta do this. And that's part of the fun, right, is that you can go out and you can snag the pizza and you can snag the car, and then you can beat the Lizard King and you can do all these things.
[00:22:20] It's a cool game. But our lives, if they begin to be like this, right? The email all of a sudden is the guy that needs pizza. And then the text messages and the phone calls and the work emails, and then the team's messages. And slack is going off. When we have. When we force ourself to slow down, we reengage ourself with the pace that our process is. When it comes to our connection with Jesus, when we interact with the world that gives us quick results. We begin to believe that we should create our own instant results in ourselves, that we ourselves should be an instant result, which of course Is not true. God has us in a process, us.
[00:22:58] So I would encourage you to do something that encourages you to go slower than you normally would.
[00:23:03] And then finally, a big key in this as we get ready to close that Paul indicates Again, in Philippians 4, we're called to Thanksgiving in prayer.
[00:23:17] Paul instructs us to pray with this Thanksgiving because Thanksgiving is an actual not simply just of gratitude or of kindness, but Thanksgiving is actually an act of faith.
[00:23:29] It reminds us of God's past faithfulness to us, and then it strengthens our belief that he will be faithful again.
[00:23:39] When we give thanks, we focus not on the size of our problem, but of course the greatness of God and his size. Gratitude opens this door to peace. It shifts our focus from what we lack to what God has actually already provided in our lives.
[00:23:56] Now, the cynical piece of me does not love this Thanksgiving bit.
[00:24:02] I'm going, God, I'm worried about the world. I'm worried about myself. I'm passionate about all these things, which by the way, over the course of the next couple weeks and of course the rest of your life, you should be passionate about things. You should care. An invitation to prayer in the midst of our anxiety is not an invitation to be passive about everything in the world. Instead, it's an invitation that in our passion and in our deep care and need and in our conversations and love with our neighbors, we are reminded still that God has us and is caring for us.
[00:24:35] But what I hate about this idea is it reminds me of the Thanksgiving table, which we're all about to partake in here in a little while. Do you guys have some of those parents that were like, now everyone's gonna say something they're thankful for.
[00:24:47] And you know, 70% of the Thanksgivings, I'm going, I'm not in the mood.
[00:24:52] You know, it's fine. I'm just not feeling it right now. And when I'm most anxious, if someone were to come to me or put me down at that table and say, hey, I know you're feeling anxious right now, but what are you thankful for? Be like, oh, how dare you?
[00:25:07] I am processing in the deep recesses of my soul right now. Don't interrupt this with gratitude.
[00:25:14] I prefer these other things. I want to respond in anger, in hatred. I want to ruminate on how I'm going to out argue someone the next time I see them. Oh, you guys. My favorite ruminations and thoughts are me just dunking on people in conversation that I know are going to have a conflict with me. Oh, feels so good. I'm the only one. I appreciate that.
[00:25:41] Gratitude, again, slows this thing down.
[00:25:46] It doesn't make any sense. Again, in a world that is profiting off of our anxiety, it doesn't make any sense to them or even to us sometimes to stop and to find thankfulness in the middle of our anxious thoughts. But I believe that that places us at centers us in the middle of God's presence in love. The history of what God has done and of course what he will do, even changes a bit of our brain chemistry. I got this quote from Lindsay Parnell, our worship pastor, who heard this from a professor of hers says, gratitude turns on our social engagement system which prioritize connection over self protection.
[00:26:23] I'm gonna read that part again.
[00:26:26] Gratitude turns on our social engagement system which provide which prioritizes connection over self protection.
[00:26:35] Oh my goodness.
[00:26:39] Again, what people, how they want to shape your ethos, especially around election time, they want to do the opposite.
[00:26:47] Let me highlight where you need to protect yourself and then act accordingly. Gratitude prioritizes a connection with the people around us.
[00:26:58] There's not a lot of money and a lot of fear and anxiety in a community that wants to connect and love and care for each other, that's willing to talk face to face and not just online.
[00:27:11] Even though I want you to know that your Facebook posts have changed the world.
[00:27:18] It says the same part of our brain that expresses appreciation and can experience gratitude is the same part of our brain that's connected to our social engagement system.
[00:27:28] Practicing gratitude forces our nervous system to turn on the priority to connect.
[00:27:36] My goodness.
[00:27:40] Now maybe Paul didn't understand the intricate mechanisms of the brain, but now we see here in a very spiritual way, as well as even a physical and biological way, gratitude connects us to God.
[00:27:57] It connects us to our history and to our future. And it connects us to the people around us.
[00:28:06] It prevents loneliness. That anxiety wants to create. That anxiety wants to put us in a dark room all by ourselves, afraid and hateful toward the world around us. And we will resist this temptation.
[00:28:23] Prayer is the answer to anxiety because it draws us into this presence of God and into the presence of others.
[00:28:30] Both of those places in that solo presence with God as well as this presence with others are sacred and holy places because we are all made in his image.
[00:28:43] And that's where we find that peace that surpasses understanding.
[00:28:47] That's where as we present our requests to God and we release control and trust to him to guide us and protect us and provide for us.
