1 Authority over Anxiety I have learned in life there are reasonable fears and unreasonable fears. As a child I almost drowned in a swimming pool incident diving for coins with my brother and I almost choked to death in a supermarket on a piece of hard candy and I was very scared. Reasonable anxiety! One time, in middle school I had a bat literally fly onto my chest and sink its little claws into me while screeching at me, revealing it s sharp little teeth, while staring into my eyes, probing into my brain. These were very reasonable fears that spiked my emotions, alerted my adrenal system which made my heart race and brought upon me a powerful sense of dread. I have also succumbed to unreasonable fear and useless anxiety. Faulty perceptions, undisciplined imagination, nominal faith is the breeding ground for unreasonable and useless anxiety. I was preparing to travel to India and I was instructed it required numerous immunizations. As I pondered that word immunization I quickly realized it is a fancy code word for shots. Why didn t someone just say, in order to go to India your going to have to get 4-5 shots? A dread came upon me, my emotions spiked, my adrenalin kicked in and I still had 3 weeks to my appt. 3 weeks of anxiety and worry and dread. Finally as I sat down, sweating, tense and fearful, to be injected and poked with sharp metal needles, the doctor explained to me what these immunizations would protect me from and then after his speech he said your all done. I said Really? When do I get shots and scream in pain for everyone to hear throughout the whole office and waiting room? This was my imagined scenario. I just gave you all the shots and here are 3 oral vaccines. Your all done! Wow, a useless fear just took from me hours of worry, hours of distraction and days of chronic dread. I didn t even feel the shots. Do we ever experience that in life? Get robbed by useless and unreasonable anxiety? 1
2 Here is a powerful promise and strategy to exercise authority over anxiety. 1 Peter 5: 6-7 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, 7 casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you. Written by Peter. He knows what anxiety looks like. He knows it is something to throw away from you otherwise it will lodge in you. He publicly denied Jesus, after proudly asserting his own loyalty. He was overcome by anxiety of what might happen, anxiety of what people might think which led to Peter running away and denying Jesus. All of the disciples hid and stayed behind closed doors due to concern and fear after the crucifixion. They were overcome by anxiety. Anxiety causes you to hide from something rather than face something. Anxiety can cause us to run from serving Jesus and cause us to hide our faith in Jesus. Anxiety will assert pressure on us to obey it s message rather than advance in our faith. We all have many things to worry about. The only way you can have nothing to worry about in life is to be dead. We have long lists of what we can worry about. The national economy, our own finances, our fantasy football league standings. Our kids and their well being and safety. Our pets. 4th of July. Bella makes me anxious because of her anxiety caused by fireworks. It unfortunately is contagious. The main anxiety that Jesus addressed was what we call worry anxiety. Anxiety, or as Jesus would say taking thought about what you will eat or what you will wear. It is worry that continues longer than it should. Worry is not productive. Someone once said worry is interest paid in advance on a debt you may never owe. Most worry follows a circular path. It starts nowhere and ends up back where it started. 2
3 Worry is like as a rocking chair, lots of movement but no progress. 95% of what we worry about never comes to pass. 20 percent of the population, 1 in 5 are known to be chronic worriers. Anxiety in the first century was not as developed as modern day anxiety. Why? Speed of travel. In biblical days the fastest one could travel was the speed of a camel. Today we fly, we drive, we ride trains. Modern day urbanization, industrialization and depersonalization have contributed to a spike in anxiety related disorders. The increase of types of anxiety It modern times is largely due to a faster paced life which induces stress. In biblical times there was ample recovery time built in to life s tasks. Even 100 years ago there was much less talk of panic disorders. A disorder is considered an anxiety problem that persists more than a month. Panic anxiety disorders, generalized anxiety disorders, specific phobia s, social phobias s, agoraphobia, obsessive compulsive disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, acute stress disorder, separation anxiety disorder. These are fears gone wrong, anxiety that has evolved. Fear gone wrong is also called a phobia, which is a heightened sense of trouble over specific scenarios. No one is immune to anxiety. The scripture acknowledges anxiety that even strong people of faith experience. 2 Corinthians 11:28 Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. Isn t there a difference between concern and anxiety? Actually, it is the same word as anxiety. It is assumed in scripture we will have various forms of anxiety. However, there are limited forms of worry that actually give evidence of your spiritual maturity. Paul discussing Timothy. 3
4 Philippians 2:20 I have no one else like him, who will show genuine concern for your welfare. Paul compliments Timothy because of what he worries about. The church. Timothy distinguishes himself due to the content of his worries. How often do we worry about the welfare of the church? Keith Potter cried in homiletics class because people didn t know the Lord. My worries typically revolve around the orbit of my own wants and needs. We can measure our spiritual maturity by what we worry about. Scripture does not deny the existence of anxiety but it is very clear that they should not own us but rather be handled well. Advancing through adversity, authority over anxiety Humble yourselves under This is the first step. Go low to get high! Previously Peter said to clothe yourself with humility towards one another. Why would humility be such an important step toward advancing over anxiety? Humility gives us the correct assessment of ourselves, our problems and most importantly our God. Humility will say this problem is bigger than me, but not bigger than my God. The biggest contributor to anxiety was when satan suggested Adam and Eve be more than you can be. He said you can be like God. He led them to ultimate exasperation. Which is exactly what fathers are told not to do with their children. Telling somebody to do something they can not do, or not empowered to do. Satan says be more than you can be and God says be all you can be. God says be all you can be and partner with me. That is wonderful and doable and joyful. Satan says leave God behind and achieve more than you can. Satan attempted to get Adam and Eve to be self oriented. Which is pride rather than humility. 4
5 Humility is the best answer for the lie of exalting yourself beyond what God designed for you. Humility is not thinking less of yourself it is thinking of yourself less. Humility is a choice to come under God s authority by recognizing His superior authority. The very thing that will gives us the greatest strength against fear is not to address it ourselves but to first come under a greater authority. What looks like weakness, humbling yourself under something, is actually a very smart diagnosis of yourself, God and your problems. Mighty hand of God Are you ever asked where do you see yourself in five years? Here is my answer the most important place I want to be in my future is under the mighty hand of God. What city I am in, what college I am going to, what job I have is all secondary to being under the might hand of God. That is crucial, everything else is negotiable. Being under the mighty hand of God has less to do with location and more to do with submission. The hand of God is everywhere. You can be in a dangerous place and still be safe because God s hand is there. You can be in a desert but feel refreshed because God s hand is there. What are we under today? The hand of anxiety or the mighty hand of God? Anxiety has an authority but an illegitimate authority. It will crumble when confronted by true authority. God s hand is a picture of His provision, His protection and His favor and in all these things He is mighty. Whatever is under His hand is a part of His authority and will ultimately get lifted up and exalted. Anxiety cannot last and ultimately has no place within the domain of the mighty hand of God. It truly is an anxiety free zone. Jesus spoke of the comfort of Gods hand when He said no one can be snatched from His Hand. 5
6 I am constantly amazed at the growing anxiety and panic and depression of all types of people. I think it is because we are under other things, other influences not under the mighty hand of God. You have heard the term, under the influence of. It usually means someone is about to get arrested. It is like the hand of something is upon us. The hand of shame, pride, confusion, self preoccupation. He will exalt you In due time - It also means He will honor you. In other words Peter is saying Your time is coming. God has made you for an opportune time. He knows it more than you know it. Our role is to stay available through humility and prayer. Your humble submission will be rewarded in the right time and in the right way. You don t have to worry about honoring yourself because God will do it. My job is not to try and exalt myself but to humble myself. I leave the exalting part up to God and the timing as well. Will Rogers said, "Get someone else to toot your horn, and the sound will carry twice as far." Allow God to honor you, and you won't have to worry about honoring yourself. He will take care of it. Insecurity will convince us to gather praise and honor from others. We can become easily offended, easily wounded, easily discouraged when we are CEO of our own marketing department. Any slight, any mistreatment will cause us to lash out because it is so threatening to my own prestige. What if we gave all of that to God and fired ourselves. Sean, your fired from exalting yourself. Now I can focus on promoting other things like the Gospel or others. You may be thinking, I do what I am supposed to do, day after day after day, and nothing ever happens, nothing ever changes, nothing gets better. When will I begin to see results, when is my time?" In his good time. 6
7 At the proper time. If it isn't happening now, it's because in his wisdom he knows that it is better for you, and better for his kingdom, that you be given honor then instead of now. But at the proper time, he will exalt you. Eternal life is the highest from of exaltation. Casting all your anxieties upon Him Don t bury them or ignore them, redefine them, rationalize them instead identify them and cast them away. This is a decisive act, a choice, an action. You can t cast away what you are not aware of. We should be highly skilled people when it comes to fear and anxiety. We should be good throwers, good casters. That should be one of the churches specialties. Some people and philosophies addressing anxiety say to meditate into a mind of nothingness, chant peaceful sayings, draw more inward into yourself to achieve peace over anxiety. God says call them what they are, collect them and toss them onto Him. Your anxiety is to be shared personally with God. No other religion in the world is this personal. Asbestos illust. I remember my first encounter with asbestos in a church remodel project of a youth room. There is certain way to properly demo and remove asbestos material. You just don t put it in the trash can. There is a specific way to handle this dangerous unhealthy material. We simply may be too casual about our anxieties or adopting less than effective measures to properly remove them. Well I tried it once and it didn t work. Anxiety is like forgiveness. Complete experience of freedom is a process. When you forgive someone it is immediately registered in the heavens, now it is going to take some time for your emotions to catch up. The greatest anxiety in ministry for me was officiating my first wedding. I prayed not to be nervous, and I prayed some more, and then I prayed 7
8 again at the next wedding, and slowly but surely the anxiety subsided to a manageable and helpful level. We call it spiritual training and discipleship to take something that is true and metabolize it deeply into our souls. I read an article called 7 weeks to break the worry habit. It is a great plan. You may have a persistent anxiety. Keep giving it to the Lord. Namaan, a powerful Syrian general had to dip 7 times in the Jordan river to be completely cleansed of his leprosy. Sometimes the Lord takes it away a little bit at a time so we learn to walk with Him. Journal about these things, make a prayer list. This is how God will prepare your hands for war, by first learning how to handle your own anxiety. He is training you for bigger things by using this present worry as a training camp for future battles. He cares for you Some bibles read cast all your cares, your anxieties upon him because he cares for you. One could wonder. Does it mean cast all your worries on God because He worries about us? These are different original words. Worry, the first care, is a thought, an imagination leading to an emotion, something presumed. Cares, the second care is an action. God doesn t imagine or think about helping us, He helps us. He actively cares about us rather than passively think about us. This is not an adjective but a verb. It means God is actively caring for you. The more I recognize my true needs the more I see that God is actively caring for me. Illust. Church: These last 4 years have been a lesson in my anxiety and God s care. I have learned that God s care is much more real and reliable and joyful than my worries, concerns and anxieties. 8