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Collierville First Baptist Church
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Well, if you're a mother in this room, would you stand up?
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Let's give our moms a hand, amen?
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(Congregation Applauding)
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Thank you, moms. My heart was broken this morning when I found out that Dalton Rissinger, our student pastor's mom died early this morning.
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She's about 50 years old.
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You know, the Bible says our life is like a vapor.
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It's here one moment and gone the next.
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If you're in this room today and you've never received Jesus as you're saved in your Lord, I would pray that you would do it today.
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You're just not guaranteed tomorrow.
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While the Bible says today is a day of salvation,
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just raise your hand if your mom has already stepped into eternity, just raise your hand. Wow.
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I miss my mom. I know you miss your mom.
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So thank God for mom. Now we're gonna focus today on two verses of scripture
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out of Philippians chapter four, verses six and seven,
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where Paul wrote, "Be anxious for nothing,
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"but in everything with prayer "and supplication with thanksgiving, "let your requests be made known to God "and the peace of God, "which surpasses all comprehension "will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."
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I tell you, this portion of scripture is perfect for Mother's Day.
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It's perfect for families, but it's also perfect for the church in light of our pastor search team being formed and looking for the next pastor that God has for this great church. He's gonna be blessed to be able to preach the word of God to you, I assure you. I've preached in churches before
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where you feel like you're swimming in glue,
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but this church is not like that. You love the word of God. You bring it out of a preacher and I praise God that he's allowed me to be your pastor these 23 years.
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So right off the bat, we're introduced to a common problem.
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Be anxious for nothing. Anxiety.
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Every family at one time or the other, in one way or the other, must deal with this thief that is out to steal our joy and to strangle our spiritual life.
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In the United States, about 19.1% of adults experience an anxiety disorder annually.
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Roughly 31.1% of US adults experience an anxiety disorder at some point in their lives.
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And this is one that shocked me. In the United States, 11% of children,
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ages three to 17, have a current diagnosed anxiety disorder.
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Now there are many causes that contribute to anxiety.
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Some of these include childhood trauma,
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stress associated with work or school,
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conflict in the family or conflict at work,
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financial pressure, concern about your kid's future,
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caring for aging parents. All of these are contributing factors to anxiety that is experienced in the home.
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But anxiety involves imagining the future in a worst case scenario and then stressing out about it. That's what anxiety is all about.
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Is there an answer to this dilemma?
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I believe there is and I believe it's located right here in the two verses that I quoted for you a moment ago. So here's a challenge I wanna drop in your heart this morning.
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Stop worrying and start praying.
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That's what this text is all about.
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Stop worrying and start praying. But what is prayer?
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Some people think that prayer is hard. Some people think that prayer, you have to have a PhD in some kind of theological discipline in order to pray the way God wants you to pray. Listen, prayer is talking to God.
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That's what prayer is talking to God. And we listen to God when we read the Bible. So there's a dialogue going on, there should be going on in our lives. As we read the Bible, we listen to what God says to us. And then we turn around and we pray to him based upon what we've read in the word of God and what's going on in our lives.
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Listen, Paul wrote this letter,
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according to chapter one, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who were in Philippi.
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He didn't address this letter to the pagans who lived in Philippi. He didn't address this letter to those who were unsaved. He addressed this letter to those who were born again, believers who lived in the city of Philippi.
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Now, prayer is exclusively for Christians. We see that in the last two words of verse seven, in Christ Jesus, okay?
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Are you a Christian? That's something you need to ask yourself this morning. Are you a Christian? I gotta be honest with you, there are a lot of people who think they're Christians and they're not, they're not.
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They bought into some kind of nerf ball Christianity that is not Christianity as it really is in the Bible. And I would encourage you to examine your heart this morning. Make sure that you're in the faith. Make sure that you have truly repented of your sin and received Jesus as your savior and Lord by faith. Now, if you're a Christian, you have access to God's throne 24 seven.
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And your worst moment, the most harrowing experience of your life, you can go to God's throne because you have access to God as a believer through the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen, if you don't live with an anchor of faith, you will drift in a sea of anxiety, I assure you. So we gotta get a grip on this problem of anxiety.
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So let's look at the text itself. The first thing I'd like to point out is the admonition.
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The admonition, look at verse six.
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"Be anxious for nothing."
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For nothing.
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No wiggle room there, right?
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"Be anxious for nothing." It is a command in the Greek language.
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Paul was in prison when he wrote this epistle.
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Most scholars believe that he was in prison in Rome. Not because he was a thief, not because he had broken some laws, he was in prison because of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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And even being in prison, he wrote this epistle to the church. Stuff was going on in his life that was beyond his control.
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In Philippians 1.12, he said, "Now I want you to know, brethren, "that my circumstances have turned out "for the greater progress of the gospel." So he talks about his circumstances.
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In Philippians 1.19, he said, "For I know that this will turn out for my deliverance "through your prayers and the provision "of the Spirit of Jesus Christ." In Philippians 2.23, he said, "Therefore I hope to send him immediately "as soon as I see how things go with me."
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Philippians 4.11, "Not that I speak from want, "for I've learned to be content "in whatever circumstance I am." Now the Christians in the church at Philippi were devoted believers.
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They were, in fact, they were one of Paul's favorite churches. However, their hearts and their minds were being ripped apart by the threat of the Roman government, by the possibility of persecution, and by the conflict that existed within the church. Yes, there was conflict in the church.
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Look at this, verses one and two, chapter four, look at it. "Therefore, my beloved brethren, "whom I long to see, my joy and crown, "in this way stand firm in the Lord, my beloved. "I urge you, Odia, and I urge Syntychae "to live in harmony in the Lord." So evidently they were not living in harmony in the Lord.
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And Paul said, "Look, you lay to get it together.
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"Be unified, love each other in Christ." That's what he's saying. That's the condition of the church. Now this was not an idle command from the apostle Paul.
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In fact, Paul and Silas brought the gospel
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to Philippi in the first place. If you remember, back in Acts chapter 16, we see that story.
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And Paul and Silas were arrested, they were beaten, and they were thrown into prison, and their feet were put in stocks.
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Not the ideal situation for having a rosy attitude,
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not the ideal situation to avoid anxiety, but however, I want you to see how they responded. In Acts chapter 16, verse 25, the Bible tells us this, but about midnight, after they'd been beaten, after they'd been thrown in jail, after their feet were placed in stock, about midnight, Paul and Silas were griping and complaining.
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Is that what it says?
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No, it's not what it says.
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The Bible says, but about midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.
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Anxiety would not get the best of these two missionaries.
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They understood that the best thing they could do in those circumstances was to stop worrying and start praying. I hope and pray you learned that lesson today. I'll tell you, it's a powerful thing in our lives. It shows us the potential of prayer in our lives.
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So we've seen the admonition.
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Now I want you to pay attention to the application.
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Did they make application of the admonition?
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In verse six, the Bible goes on to say, "Be anxious for nothing." Look at this, "But in everything by prayer and supplication "with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God." Let your request be made known to God. Now prayer in this text is a general word that carries the idea of adoration, devotion and worship.
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Whenever we find ourselves beset by worry and anxiety, our first action, not the second, not the last, but the first action that we ought to take, as born again believers, is to get along with God,
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to worship Him and to pray to Him. That ought to be the first thing we do. As we see the majesty and the greatness and the power of God, it gives us a new perspective on what we're dealing with.
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Now look at this word supplication.
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Supplication.
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This word refers to an earnest or urgent request to God.
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Jesus modeled this for us. In fact, in Hebrew chapter five, verse seven, the Bible says, "In the days of His flesh,
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"He offered up both prayers and supplications "with loud crying and tears to the one "able to save Him from death. "And He was heard because of His potty." Remember the Garden of Gethsemane? Before the Lord Jesus was crucified. He's there, He takes three of His disciples with Him into the inner part of the Garden, and He goes by Himself, kneels down, and begins to cry out to God.
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Cry out to God, "Oh God, if it's Your will, "let this cup pass from me."
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Three times He prays that prayer.
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But it was not God's will.
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Did God answer His prayer? Yes, He answered His prayer.
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I'll tell you, Jesus is a model of supplication.
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And then the next word we see here, "But in everything by prayer and supplication "with thanksgiving."
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Now, thanksgiving is gratitude to God. And it's a crucial part of your prayer life. However, I think that it's a missing part in most believers' prayer life. We're quick to go to God and make our request.
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And then when God answers our prayer, we're not so quick to turn around and thank God and give Him the glory for what He's done in our lives. Remember the story in the Gospel about the 10 lepers who came to Jesus, crying out to Him, "Oh, Jesus, heal us, remove this leprosy from us."
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And the Bible says that as they were going away, all 10 of them were healed.
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Jesus set them free from the curse of leprosy.
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But only one came back to thank Jesus. That's one out of 10.
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In my estimation, that's 10%. I wonder if we do any better than that in the church today.
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I wonder if 10% of us, when Jesus answers a prayer in our lives, go back and we fall on our knees and we thank Him for what He's done in our lives.
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In Colossians chapter four, verse two, Paul wrote, "Devote yourselves to prayer, "keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving." Do you have an attitude of thanksgiving? When's the last time that you sat down for an extended period of time and just began to thank God for what He'd done in your life and through your life?
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And then the next word we'd see here, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request. Now the word request simply means that we're to pray specifically, not generally.
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Too many believers pray in a general way. Lord, bless all the missionaries.
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Well, don't you think it would be more effective if we called out their names?
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Don't you think if we're praying for Zach and Becca Tucker and their kids there in Mexico, that we don't just lump them in and say, "Bless all the missionaries," but what if we actually called out their name before the throne of God and prayed for Zach and Becca and the kids that God would bless them and use them and pray specific prayers?
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I'll tell you, that's what this word request is referring to. In 1 John 5, verses 14 and 15, John wrote, "This is the confidence which we have beforehand,
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that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.
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And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the request
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which we have asked from Him." Is that not an amazing promise?
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If we make sure that the request that we make to God in prayer line up with the Word of God and the will of God, then we can have confidence
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that the Lord is going to answer our prayers.
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Man, that's powerful.
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Ernest's biblical prayer is the way we transfer our anxiety into the capable hands of our Lord.
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And it's the way He transfers His peace into our brittle hearts.
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Robert Morgan wrote, I quote, "Prayer is a closet where we change clothes and replace a spirit of despair with a garment of praise."
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He said, "Prayer is the bank where we present the promissory notes of God's promises and withdraw endless deposits of grace.
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Prayer is a dark room of the soul where negatives are turned into positives. It's the transfer station where the pulse of fear is exchanged for the impulse of faith. It's the currency exchange where we trade in our liabilities for God's abundant life." So when we face challenges in our families and in the church, whatever they may be, we must cast our anxiety upon God who loves us and has promised to meet all of our needs according to His riches and glory in Christ Jesus. So stop worrying and start what?
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Come on. (Congregation Laughing) Stop worrying and start.
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There you go. That's good.
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All right, now we've analyzed the admonition and the application. Now I want you to see the affirmation.
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The affirmation, look at verse seven.
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"And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension,
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will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." So when we make a conscious decision to pray,
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God promises that He will provide something we can't find anywhere else.
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Know what? You can't find this anywhere.
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They don't sell it at Target.
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You can't go to some hook and crook faith healer and get this kind of stuff that God makes available to you through your prayer life.
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The Bible says that God will give us peace.
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Boy, the world needs some peace today, doesn't it?
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We live in a world that is half crazy, I believe.
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We need peace. The word peace means a state of wholeness, untroubled and undisturbed wellbeing.
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When you go to Israel and you meet Israelis on the street, you don't say, "Howdy."
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You say, "Shalom."
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Peace.
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It refers to this state of wholeness, integrity, untroubled, undisturbed wellbeing.
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Now this kind of peace is a supernatural byproduct of genuine salvation. That's why you see the two words tacked onto the end in Christ Jesus. It is peace with God.
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In Romans chapter five, verse one,
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the Bible says, "Therefore, having been justified by faith, "we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."
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When Jesus died on the cross, he died an atoning death.
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God the Father took your sins and my sins and placed it upon the broad shoulders of his son and Jesus bore the guilt of our sin and God the Father poured out his wrath against his son who was dying for our sin. He had no sin of his own.
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And when we repent of our sin and place our faith in the Lord Jesus, our sins are forgiven. They are forgiven. And we are justified before God as the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us.
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At that moment, we enter into a state of eternal peace with God.
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I remember in 2016, I was going in for open heart surgery
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the next morning and I remember praying that night, asking the Lord to give me a word, give me a promise.
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And he led me to Philippians 1.21.
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For to me to live as Christ and to die is gain. I remember the next morning, early the next morning,
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they wheeled me down right before they gave me the little happy pill or drug or whatever it was.
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I looked into the eyes of Darlene and Heather and Zach and my family, my mom, my sister. I forgot who else was there. I looked into their eyes and I said this,
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I can't lose.
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I can't lose.
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If the Lord lets me live, I'm gonna serve Jesus.
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If he chooses to take me, I'll be with him in glory. I cannot lose. I had an amazing peace in my heart. The kind of peace we're talking about today.
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Listen, there's not only the peace with God,
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but there is the peace of God. In Isaiah chapter 26 verse three, Isaiah prophesied and he wrote this, the steadfast of mine, you will keep a perfect peace
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because he trusts in you. He trusts in you. In John 14.27, right before Jesus was crucified, he was speaking to his disciples and he said, peace, I leave with you. My peace, I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful. Let me ask you a question. Do you trust God?
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See, I believe this. I believe when we choose worry over the peace of God, over trust in God, it's a sure sign that we do not trust God. We don't trust him.
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We don't think he can handle our situation.
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Can I tell you, there's not a situation you will ever face in your life that God cannot handle. He can handle it all. Nothing's too big for him.
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You can have peace about your finances.
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You can have peace about your health, about the future of your kids, about caring for your aging parents, about retirement, about the search for our next pastor. You can have peace and the amazing plan the Lord has for this church. You can have peace about these things.
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Now this peace, according to the Bible here, verse seven, surpasses all comprehension.
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Our little peanut brains cannot grasp this amazing peace that Jesus makes available to us as born again believers. The peace of God, like the love of God, is beyond our ability to comprehend, even though we can't understand it. This peace is available to us as believers 24 seven. Now notice what he says about this peace.
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This peace will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
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Now the word guard in the Greek language refers to a, it's a military term and implies that God's peace stands on duty to keep out anything that brings anxiety into our lives. If you were in a military camp in a foreign country and you were at war, some of the gods would sleep but they would post centuries, centuries who would guard the camp.
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That's what God makes available to you. Peace is your guard. It guards your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
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In fact, these are two areas that create the most worry and anxiety in our lives. Our heart refers to wrong feelings and our mind refers to wrong thinking.
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Peace means that we have a quiet confidence within, regardless of circumstances or people that may be messing with us, okay? Several years ago, a submarine had to remain submerged for many days. When it returned to port, someone asked the captain,
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how did that terrible storm affect you last night?
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And the officer looked at him in surprise and said, storm, storm, we didn't even know there was a storm.
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The sub had been so far underneath the surface that it reached the area known to sailors as the cushion of the sea.
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Although violent storms were raging on top,
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nothing was happening and it was perfectly calm and peaceful deep underneath the ocean. That's a great picture of the supernatural peace that God makes available to us in Christ Jesus. He makes available to every person in this room, the peace with God and the peace of God. So my challenge to you is stop worrying and start praying.
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So I ask you this in closing today,
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do you have peace with God?
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I remind you that this peace with God cannot be achieved by being more religious.
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It can't be achieved by turning over a new leaf. How many times have you heard somebody say, I'm turning over a new leaf?
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Well, if you turn over a new leaf, it's gonna be dirty on the other side too.
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It is.
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So turning over a new leaf or choosing to be more religious or by devoting yourself to a great cause or by living a moral life, none of that stuff will save you. None of that stuff will result in you having peace with God.
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Listen, peace with God comes only through a personal relationship, life-changing relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
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We're talking about Philippi,
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the very jailer who had jailed Paul in Silas.
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There was a great earthquake and all the doors flung open and he knew if these prisoners escaped, the Roman government would take his life. And he had his sword, he was ready to pierce his own heart. And Paul said, stop, we're all still here.
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And this jailer took them out and took care of their wounds, took them to his house and he asked him a question.
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He said, sirs, what must I do to be saved?
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You see, he didn't have what Paul in Silas had. He didn't have peace with God, he didn't have the peace of God. And here's how Paul in Silas responded, believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, you and your household.
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So here's my question to you today.
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Will you place your faith and trust in Jesus
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as your personal savior and Lord? I hope and pray you do. In fact, I'm gonna ask our staff to come, our worship team to come.
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And in just a moment, we're gonna have a time of worship.
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And I'm gonna invite you to leave your seat in just a moment. And you say, pastor, I don't have that peace with God.
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Pastor, I go to sleep at night and I worry about what would happen to me if I die.
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I worry what would happen to me if I'm driving down the road, I have a wreck and I get killed. I worry about things like that, pastor. Oh, listen, listen to me. Come and give your heart to Jesus. Receive him as your savior and Lord by faith.
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And he'll give you peace with God.
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You come to one of the staff members and they'll help you.
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Now, a second question.
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If you're a born again believer,
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if you've believed in Jesus, do you have peace with God, the peace of God this morning? Do you have it? Be honest now. Is worry strangling the spiritual life out of you?
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You must decide, you gotta make a decision
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that you're not gonna let worry win,
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that you're going to do exactly what the scripture says that you need to do, that you're going to pray,
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you're gonna worship, and you're gonna allow the Lord to transfer to himself the care and concern that you have and he'll give you in turn his supernatural peace. The Bible says cast your care upon the Lord
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and he will sustain you.
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So I hope and pray this morning that if you're a born again believer,
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that you will come to this altar and you will bow down and you will take the worry that strangling the spiritual life out of you and robbing you of abundant life, that you will come and bow before the Lord at this altar and take that anxiety that you have and turn it over to the Lord and trust him. Pray about it.
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He'll answer that prayer.
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He promises to do that.
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You can walk out of here with that load lifted today.
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You can walk out of here with the peace of God.
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In Hebrew chapter four, verses 14 to 16,
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the Bible says, "Therefore, since we have a great high priest "who has passed through the heaven, "Jesus, the Son of God,
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"let us hold fast our confession.
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"For we do not have a high priest "who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, "but one has been tempted in all things as we are "yet without sin."
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Therefore, I love the therefore here in verse 16,
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"Therefore, let us draw near with confidence "to the throne of grace "so that we may receive mercy
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"and find grace to help in time of need." Oh my goodness. I open pray that you'll go to the throne of grace this morning and find the help and mercy that you need to get rid of the anxiety that you're facing right now. Stop worrying, start praying. Let me pray, heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus,
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I pray that through the ministry of the Holy Spirit,
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you would work powerfully in our hearts.
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I pray, Lord, that you would help every individual in this room who's a believer to identify the cause of the anxiety that they're facing today. And I pray, Lord, that they would come to the altar or right there in their seat, they would pray and they would cast their burden upon you, their care upon you. And I pray, Lord, in turn, that you would take it and then you would give to them the peace of God.
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Oh Lord, have your way in our lives. We love you and bless you in Jesus' name, amen. Let's stand and worship and you come as God lead.
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