How to Stop Worry

Well, yesterday was the first day of summer and summer for many people means more spiders. You're afraid of spiders? I mean, most people are either afraid of spiders or they just don't like the critters, one of the other. They're just not much good to be said about spiders, but I read something about spiders this week. I read that there are 400,000 species of spiders. Only 200 of them are harmful to humans. 98% of spider bites are harmless. I mean, even if you do get bitten by a spider, 98% are harmless. Only 200 out of 400,000 present any harm, any threat to humans. You know what I thought when I read that? 200, man. I thought I only had to worry about black widows and brown brick, but 200 spiders, I don't even know what they all are. You know, I'm worried about getting bitten by some nameless spider that no entomologist has even discovered yet. 200 harmful, harmful spiders. I'm kind of like Mark Twain. It was Mark Twain who said, I have been through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened. Do we have a tendency to worry about things, don't we? Worry about a lot of stuff. We worry about things that never happen. Doesn't make it any more unrealistic. It's still very realistic to us. We worry about those things, but worry is a significant issue that we probably all face. Every day of our lives, there are issues related to our jobs or our homes, our families, our neighborhoods, our own personal lives, things that we worry about, issues that we're just not sure about what's going to happen. And so we worry about these things. And I think it's one of the greatest problems that we face as believers. Paul addresses the problem of worry in Philippians chapter 4. And I want to put that in context. Paul addresses the problem at the tail end of a passage that describes the greatest barriers to becoming Christlike. And I think there's really kind of a running commentary here on this issue. Paul is still talking about the same thing, about the barriers in our lives that keep us from becoming more like Christ. Last week we saw there were three or four of them, problems like instability and selfishness and discouragement and disunity. But I think he saved the biggest one to last because it's a problem that probably a greater percentage of people struggle with than maybe any one of those others. And that is worry. Worry about any number of things. And so Paul addresses that as a very real spiritual problem that can be a barrier between us and being more like the Lord Jesus. In Philippians 4 verses 6 through 9, he deals with that issue of worry. What I want us to see this morning, I want to summarize what Paul is teaching us in this passage in four words. Four words that hopefully you can hang on to and remember because they really are four keys to stop worry in its tracks. How do we stop worry? Well, key number one, word number one is the word recognizing. Recognizing, in other words, we must recognize the problem. We must recognize what it is we're dealing with when we talk about worry. So let's see what Paul says, Philippians 4 verse 6, do not be anxious about anything. All right, let's just stop right there. We want to grasp that phrase, do not be anxious for anything. What does he mean by that? One translation says, be careful for nothing. What does it mean by that? Does Paul mean, and this is the meaning of worry now, we need to understand, recognize the meaning of worry. Does Paul mean by that? Don't be anxious for anything. Don't be careful for nothing. Does Paul mean that we should just live a carefree life? That we should not be careful about anything? That we should not be careful about the way we appear. Should not be careful about taking care of our family. Shouldn't be careful about paying our bills. No, no, he's not talking about that at all. Is Paul saying when he says, do not be anxious about anything or be careful for nothing? Does he say we should just live a careless life? That we can shirk responsibility? That we can just drift along through life? We never have to plan for anything. Think about the future at all? No, no, Paul's not saying that. The Bible very clearly tells us that we have lessons to learn from ants in this regard. Look at these verses in Proverbs chapter 6. The Bible says, go to the ant, you sluggard. Consider its ways and be wise. It has no commander, no overseer, no ruler. In other words, no one telling it what to do, but it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest. The ant who has no one in the summer, as a drill sergeant, saying, you must get to this, you must do this. The ant doesn't have anybody telling it to do that. God has built into the ant though, the sense of responsibility and discipline to think about the future, plan for the future, diligently prepare for the future. So Paul is not saying, when he says, don't be anxious about anything, be careful for nothing. He's not saying, live a careless life. Paul is also not saying that we should live a callous life. In other words, he's not saying that we shouldn't be concerned and have care and anxiety for others. And just, you know, don't give a rip about what happens to anybody. He's not saying that. In fact, back in, an earlier part of this book in chapter 2, verse 28, Paul expresses anxiety for a fellow believer. Look at chapter 2, verse 28. He's talking about the Paffer Daitis, the man who was sent as a messenger from the church and the Philippi to this, to where Paul is in Rome. And he says about a Paffer Daitis in verse 28, therefore I am all the more eager to send him so that when you see him again, you may be glad and I may have less anxiety. Now what was Paul anxious about? If Paffer Daitis had been sick and he'd been so sick, he about died. Paul felt a sense of responsibility there because he had come to visit Paul and so Paul felt some response. He was anxious about this matter. So Paul is not talking about anxiety or care or concern for others. Paul also said this about his own life in 2 Corinthians chapter 11 and verse 28. Paul said besides everything else that was going on in his life and ministry, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. Paul had some concerns. Paul had some cares. Paul had some anxiety about things in his life, but he was concerned about others and their needs. And so there is a proper kind of care and concern. We might even use the word anxiety about the needs of others. If Paul's not talking about those things here, what is he talking about? What is the meaning of worry? Well, I think the word worry does capture best what he says when he says, do not be anxious about anything or be careful for nothing. Worry is that nervous, brooding and pondering, that threading and fuming about what's happening or what might happen in your life. The word literally means to turn something over and over and over in your mind. And you know what it's like. I know what it's like. It's that kind of turning something over in the mind that frets about it, that just stews over it all the time. It's something that robs you of joy. And it's usually about issues that you cannot change or that you're not responsible for or that you are unable to control, things that frighten you, things that torment you, things that agitate you, things that keep you awake at night when you should be asleep, those are worries. It is fretting, pondering, turning over and over and over again in your mind in a negative way, things that might happen, things that are coming up in the future. That's worry. That's what Paul's talking about when he says, do not be anxious for anything or be careful for nothing. But I want us to see not only the meaning of worry, I want us to see the source of worry. Where does this come from anyway? Well the source is actually described by Paul when he talks about where the remedy for worry is applied. Because God goes directly to the source and applies the remedy for it at the source in verse 7, notice what he says in verse 7. The peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. So where does worry come from? If God applies the cure to your heart and your mind, that tells us that's the source. That's where it comes from. Worry comes from your heart and your mind. Okay, now let's remember what the Bible means when it talks about the heart and the mind. The heart is the center of your personality. It's the real you on the inside. It includes your intellect, whatever of that you may have. It includes that. It includes your emotions. It includes your will. It's the real you on the inside. And so worry may spring from the heart, the intellect, emotion and will in the sense that things like fear or emotions of anger or discouragement can cause worry. May come from a type of personality that is more sensitive to things or someone who is more perfectionist in nature. Your intellect, emotion, your will, your makeup is just that way and so you have more of a tendency to worry. But it originates from your heart, from the inner person or it may come from your mind as Paul says. Your mind, a lot of things we worry about are things that we imagine. It's a function of the mind. We're thinking through things and we're imagining. This could happen. Somebody will break into my house tonight. I'm in harm's way. All this could happen. And we imagine the worst case scenario. Worry is a result. Sometimes of the imagination. Sometimes worry is a result of the function of the mind in memory. We remember certain things that happened to us and we worry that might happen again. Or because we were sick with this one time, we're concerned, we're worried that we're going to be sick with that again and again and again. It's threatening our life and we worry about things because of our memory. But there's another function of the mind. That is our reasoning that sometimes may cause worry. Some people have a tendency to analyze everything, to reason everything very carefully, cover every detail and those are the kind of people that will come up with every imaginable scenario that could possibly happen that you could possibly worry about. Sometimes our reasoning capacity is the source of our worry. But notice, the source of worry in God's word and God's perspective is inside us. It's not the things that are happening outside us. Worry comes from inside our heart and our mind. So it's not changing the circumstances that will change the worry. I mean, you can change all your circumstances. You'll find a whole new batch of things to worry about tomorrow. So it's not changing the circumstances that's a problem. When God applies the cure, He applies the cure to the heart and the mind, that's where worry comes from. So that's where we've got to deal with things. It's on a heart and mind level. This is serious business. We've got to understand, we've got to recognize what we're dealing with. This is a constant turning over in our minds, things that come from our mind and heart that begin on the inside. But I also want you to see the seriousness of worry. Paul gives us a command in verse 6. Do not be anxious about anything. That is a command. You know what that means? That means to violate that command is disobedience to God. That means to violate this command is sin. Worry is sin. It's not just a personality quirk. Now some people have more trouble with worry because of the way they're made on the inside. But it is a sin to worry because it violates this command of God. It sets aside His promise. It distrusts His goodness. It does not trust or accept His wisdom about what's happening in life. Worry rebels against the Word and the will of God. It is that serious. And here may be the most serious thing of all, long term in your life. The most long term, serious result of worry is it will keep you from growing spiritually. Do you know that? It will keep you from growing spiritually. Look at what Jesus says. In Matthew 13, He's describing in parable form what God's kingdom is like and He's talking about one of the parables which is the sewing of the seed of God's Word and the different kinds of soil it finds, representative of the different kinds of reception in the heart, the different kinds of prepared hearts or unprepared hearts. And He says in Matthew 13, verse 7, He says, other seed fell among thorns which grew up and choked the plants. Now He later on describes what He means by that symbolism, by that parable in verse 22, where He says, the one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the Word but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful. So here's what's happening. Some of you are sitting here this morning and you came into this auditorium worried about something in your life, a job situation, a financial problem you're facing, a family difficulty problem with a wayward child, whatever it may be, you're worried about a health issue, doctors diagnosis, whatever it may be, you came in worried about it this morning. And you have not been able to get it off your mind and it is still turning over and over and over again and you're plotting and thinking, how am I going to deal with this and you're worried. Now if that continues, the Word of God which is preached this morning, you may hear bits and pieces, you may grasp little bits of it but as you walk out that door, there will be thorns that will choke out the effectiveness of God's Word and the ability of God's Word to find good soil to be planted in and to be nurtured and grow and you as a result will not grow because the worries of this life have choked out the Word of God taking root in your heart. That's what Jesus was talking about and that is serious business. Long term, if that continues, you will not grow as a Christian because the Word of God has choked out before it ever has a chance to really take root and produce any fruit in your life. So this is serious stuff. We need to recognize first of all what we're dealing with. Worry is not just, well you know I'm like my mom, you know I'm just that way, I kind of have that personality. Now that's not the issue here. Worry is a serious disobedience to God's Word and it will keep you from spiritual growth. It originates in your heart and mind so it begins with the way you respond from inside or the way you think. That's where it starts, that's its source. And this spreading and turning over of stuff in your mind and worrying about it all the time, it's very serious stuff. So the first step in stopping worry is to recognize what we're dealing with. Second step and these are sequential by the way. Gotta start with recognizing. Then secondly, requesting, requesting. I think that's a good word to kind of summarize what Paul's talking about in the latter part of verse 6 where he says do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and petition with Thanksgiving present your requests to God. So requesting, what he's talking about here is praying. We need to bring our requests before the Lord. Now I want to say to you this morning that is the only solution that Paul offers. That is the only solution to worry. I'm not here to offer you half dozens of potential solutions to choose from. It's the only solution right here. I'm not here this morning to tell you, just stop worrying. That doesn't do you much good. That's like telling an alcoholic or a drug addict, just stop. Well, it's a lot more complicated than that. You see. And so telling a person who is beset with worry, just stop worrying. That doesn't help you any. That's not the solution. I'm not here this morning to tell you, don't worry, it probably won't happen anyway. The reason why you're worried is because it may happen. You don't know, but it may happen. So that doesn't help you any. You know, I like the hood it won't, but that doesn't really help you any. So I'm not here to give you that solution. I'm not here to tell you this morning that worry doesn't help, even though that's true, worry doesn't help. That's not the solution. Just to tell you that is not going to help you overcome worry. It doesn't get to the root of the problem. There was a French soldier in World War I that had this piece of paper that he kept with him at all times, and it was his way of dealing with worry. Here's what it said. He said, of two things, one is certain. Either you are at the front or you are behind the lines. If you are at the front of two things, one is certain. Either you are exposed to danger or you are in a safe place. If you are exposed to danger of two things, one is certain. Either you are wounded or you are not wounded. If you are wounded of two things, one is certain. Either you recover or you die. If you recover, there's no need to worry. If you die, you can't worry. So why worry? That sounds great. Wouldn't it be easy to reduce all of our problems to that little simple solution, little formula? Not all of your problems fit that neatly in a package. Don't do that. So that's not the solution. Just stop worrying. It's no benefit. It doesn't do any good. That doesn't really help you. The only solution to worry that Paul God's Word has to offer is bring your requests to the Lord. Now, let's think about this. Why is that the best solution, the only solution, why should we bring our problems to the Lord? Well, obviously because the Bible says it, yes, but think about this for a moment. The basic reason why you worry and I worry is because we feel inadequate to meet a certain situation. If it's a physical problem or a financial problem or a family issue, we feel inadequate to deal with it. So we worry, how is this going to work out? How is this going to be handled? I don't have it within me to handle this. I can't handle this, though we feel inadequate, right? That's the reason we worry. To a believer, to a Christian, one who knows Christ as Savior, your life is God's responsibility. Now that doesn't mean that you should just say, whoop, oh, I don't have any responsibility anymore. I don't need to do anything. No, no, we've already talked about the fact that we need to be diligent, not careless, and those kinds of things. But ultimately, in the end result, especially with things that you worry about, about the future, that is God's responsibility. And He has taken that responsibility. He has told you He will bear that responsibility for you. And so the Bible consistently says, you are God's child. He is your heavenly Father. Let Him take care of those cares and worries. Look at these two verses, familiar verses, but so powerful. Psalm 55 verse 22 says, cast your cares on the Lord, and He will sustain you. It means He'll give you the strength for whatever you're facing. He will never let the righteous fall. That doesn't mean you're not going to have problems, but there's a safety net, if you will. Okay? You're not going to fall to destruction. The Old Testament, the concept of falling means to be destroyed, to be devastated. You're not going to fall. God will take care of you. You can cast your cares on Him, and He will sustain you. Another very familiar verse, verse 5-7 says, cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you. So as your Father, what He's saying is, you're a child. You're my child. It's just as silly for a little child to be worried about the concerns of how family is going to make it financially, as it is for you to be worried about the concerns of your life because I am your Father, and I will take care of those things. There's an insurance company by the name of AIG, and I'm not selling insurance this morning, but they have a really clever commercial. I don't know if you've seen it or not. We're going to run it right now because it shows you this concept, and they've hit on a concept here that I think is great. Let's watch their commercial. Did you have a nightmare? No, I'm worried about this family's financial future. Does your retirement plan provide a predictability of income and protection against market risk? Do you have good supplemental health insurance? One-box state planning, car insurance. That's easy to fix, but why build is the nightmare? Buddy, what are with AIG? The AIG companies, the Strafe to Be There. Don't get up, I'll talk to myself in. Again, I'm not selling insurance, but when I saw that, I thought they've hit on something, and what they've hit on that makes us laugh is it's utterly foolish to think that a little eight-year-old kid or have a oldies, six or eight-year-old would be worried about retirement plans and financial future of our family and whether or not we have all the risks taken care of. Six-year-old kids don't worry about those things. Why? Because that's mom and dad's responsibility. That's the parent's responsibility. Take care of those things. They don't even think about those things. And that's the cleverness of that commercial that makes us realize how silly it is to even imagine that that would happen. Well, what God is saying is, I'm your father, you're my child. It's silly for you to worry about those things because I will take care of you. It's my responsibility to do that. I think it's probably stated most clearly in what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 6. Look at these words. Matthew 6 verse 31, it's on the screen for you. So do not worry, Jesus said, saying, what shall we eat, what shall we drink, what shall we wear, you know, things about provision for the future, for the pagans run after all these things, and your Heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well. You see what Jesus is saying? You have a Heavenly Father who is responsible to take care of His children. And He'll take care of that responsibility. He'll make sure that responsibility is covered. He is your father. And you know, in that culture, in that day, the things they worried about from day to day was, where's the food coming from tomorrow and what we're going to wear and those kinds of things. I mean, those are things that we take for granted in a culture like ours, many parts of the world they don't. And in the western part of the world, we just kind of take those things for granted. But you fill in the blank. Okay, if you don't relate to what am I going to wear tomorrow, what am I going to eat tomorrow, where am I going to get something to drink tomorrow? If you don't relate to that, relate whatever you do relate to, put fill in the blank with whatever you're worried about. Because the principle is the same. Your Heavenly Father knows that you need all those things. Now the pagans, people who don't have a Heavenly Father, they spend their lives scheming about how they're going to get enough to make ends meet and to make life work. And we've got a Heavenly Father who says, I'll take care of all those things. I know you need those things to live. I know you have to have a certain amount to live and things to make it from day to day. And you've got to put food on the table, you've got to have clothes to put on your back, a place to live. You've got to have those things. I'll take care of those. You focus on my kingdom and my righteousness. And I'll make sure that those things are taken care of. You see, God Himself has taken the responsibility as a Father to provide for your needs. That's why we need to bring our worries to God. That's why Paul says, bring your request to him because he is our Father who takes care of his children's needs. But I think some of you are probably saying, okay, John, I've tried that. I've prayed. It hasn't worked to be quite frank. It hasn't worked. So let me ask you this. Have you prayed in the way that Paul tells you to pray? Okay, let's look at how we are to bring these things to our Heavenly Father. How do we bring this to the Lord? Verse 6 tells us very plainly, do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. This requesting part is very specific and Paul is not just using flowery language, adding words on top of words to sound impressive. There's a meaning behind all these words. They're telling us how we should pray about our worries. First of all, Paul says, in everything. That means in every situation, in every circumstance, regardless of what's got you troubled, in every part of the day, this is praying without ceasing, this is praying at any time about anything that concerns you. So in everything, and then notice what he says, in everything, by prayer. The word for prayer there is a word which if it has a shade of emphasis in the New Testament, that shade of emphasis is worship and adoration of God, a recognition of who God is. And so what Paul is saying is when you come to God with your worries, your requests, take a moment to remember who you're talking to. Take a moment to just reflect that you are bringing your concerns to the God of the universe, the God who created all things, the God who has named, by name, the trillions of stars in the universe, the God who has numbered individually every hair on your head, that's the kind of God that you're coming to. You think he's able to handle your problem? I think so. You see, when you come with this kind of adoration and worship of God, with this kind of prayerful spirit of recognizing whose presence you're walking into, then that puts your problems in perspective. It right sizes your worries. So you've got to come with that perspective in prayer and then notice the next word. In everything, by prayer and petition, petition means a specific request. It's not as you drift off to sleep, kind of carelessly saying, Lord, just meet our knees. And you're gone. You know, that's not what he's talking about. He's talking about specific requests. Lord, I am having this problem with my 16 year old son. Lord, he is not responding to authority. I'm concerned about the issues. He's bringing home things he's saying. Make me think he's into some things at school. They should be very specific about what you're concerned about. God wants you to bring your petitions to him. Have you ever signed a petition? I've signed a few in my life. I've never signed a petition that says, we want a petition somebody that's something, will be done. Sign your name. What good is a petition like that? It's not going to reach anybody. It's not going to accomplish anything. A petition is very specific. We are appealing to the governor to consider this piece of legislation. It's very specific. When you come to the Lord with a petition, that word means a specific request. So be very specific about what you're praying about. But there's more than that. Paul says, in everything, by prayer and petition, notice the next two words, with thanksgiving. Ah, here's the problem for some of us. Because of the things we're worried about that may have some tie into the past, we've got some bitterness. And when we come to God, we're coming almost with an angry spirit. God, you better take care of this. Right? We may not say it in those words, but we have that spirit, that spirit of bitterness or anger or resentment, maybe even against God for allowing certain things to happen, or that we're in the pickle, we're in, we're facing the situations we're facing. If you come to God with resentment and bitterness, don't expect God to answer your prayer. You say, well, how can I be thankful? Well, we'll bake back off a minute. Let's think about this. Whenever you come to the Lord, there are a multitude of things you can be thankful for, regardless of how worried you are about something. You can be thankful for who He is, that He is the God of the universe, that He can take care of your problem. You know He can. If it's His will, He can do that. You can be thankful for that. You can be thankful for the fact that you know He has a purpose for whatever He allows to happen in your life, and you can be thankful and thank Him in advance for whatever purpose He's going to work out, even if it's through a very difficult time in your life, that you know coming out of that is a good purpose that He has. Be thankful for that. Be thankful for the fact that you've got His Word to give you comfort and peace in the midst of difficulty. Be thankful that you have His Holy Spirit to give you strength for each day to meet whatever challenges you're worried about. And the list could go on and on. There are all kinds of things to be thankful for. The ways God has worked in the past that you can remember, and you've seen Him show Himself strong in your behalf in the past. You can thank Him for that. There are lots of things that you can be thankful for as you come to the Lord, regardless of the size of the issue you're worried about. Come with thanksgiving. Now it is in that framework that you bring your requests to God. Bring your requests to God. It's not just shot out of the blue. It's in that framework. In everything by prayer and adoration and worship of the God who is so great He can meet all of our needs and petition specific requests with thanksgiving for all of those things we can be thankful for present your request to the Lord. Have you been praying that way? If you have, remember that the Bible says don't give up praying. Keep praying. Jesus told His disciples one time a story that was designed to encourage them to not give up or quit praying. And it was a story about a woman who came to an unjust judge and kept bothering him with a request and he relented. God is not an unjust judge. He's a loving Heavenly Father. Keep praying. Keep praying. Okay? So requesting. Quickly, let's get to the third word. Resting. Resting. If you've recognized the problem of worry, the source of it and the seriousness of it and you are bringing your requests to the Lord about specific areas you're concerned or worried about, then the next step is to rest. What I mean by that is resting in God's promise. The promise is in verse seven. And the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. That's a promise. What God is saying, what Paul is saying here is that if you come in prayer in the ways that he's saying about the specific things that are worrying you, then the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Now let's look exactly what is promised here. What is it that's promised? God promises, first of all, that his peace will come. That's exactly what you're needing and exactly what you're looking for is peace. That's the opposite of worry. Worry is that constant fretting and turning over in your mind and being upset about what might or might not happen or has happened or could happen or whatever. And peace is a calmness and a resting in the Lord that whatever happens I can trust him. That's what you need. That's what you're looking for. So God promises that. But notice, he promises a peace that transcends all understanding. A peace that is beyond, and I believe what he means by understanding here is your ability to figure out your problems. You see, that's the essence of worry. You've got to figure out how I'm going to do this. I've got to figure out how I'm going to meet them. And we worry about those things because we can't figure them out. And what God is saying is he has a peace that is beyond your ability to figure things out. You may not still have it figured out, but God's peace will give you a calmness and a restfulness and a sense of serenity and joy in him that is beyond your ability to figure out your own problems. And notice what he says will happen with that peace as it comes. It will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. The word guard is the operative word here. It's the key word. It was a word used in first test or New Testament times, first century times, of actually putting a garrison of soldiers around something or even building a fort around something. It meant to protect something from attack. Okay. So here's what he's promising. When you bring your request to the Lord as he has taught us to do here, then he says, my peace will build a fort, will put a garrison of soldiers around your heart and your mind to protect you from the attack of worry. Now, here's what is not promised. Okay. That's what is promised. What is not promised is that your circumstances will change. They may, God is able to do that, but that's not part of the promise here, friend. And that's where we get thrown a lot because we think if we pray, then God's supposed to take away my problems, right? Not always. Nope. Remember Paul had a thorn in the flesh? He prayed for very specifically three times and God said, what? No. I have another purpose, lessons that you can only learn through the remaining, that thorn remaining in your life. And so no, I'm not taking it away. See, the promise is not necessarily that your circumstances will change. You've often heard the expression prayer changes things. And that's true. It does. God and His sovereign purpose can change anything through prayer. But the better expression is this, prayer changes people. It may not necessarily change your circumstances. It will change you. And you will face your tomorrow and the things that worry you with now a sense of peace that's built of fort around your mind and your heart so that when your heart begins to fear or some other emotion of anger or personality issue comes up or you begin to imagine or reason or those kinds of things from your mind, there's a fort there. Built up now. And as the attack comes, the peace of God fends it off. Now that doesn't mean you just pray one time and it's done with. I think what Paul is indicating here is that we continue to pray so that when the attack comes we bring the request back to the Lord again in the same way with a spirit of worship and thanksgiving and specific petition. And then that peace is there to battle off the worry again. See, and as you keep responding in that way, resting in God's promise, then you'll stop worrying. You'll stop worrying. There's one final word and it deserves at least a few moments of attention and that is the word replacing. And this is key because if you stop here and never learn to think differently to start with, then worry will continue to attack with the vengeance. It will keep coming at you. So what Paul is saying next is we need to replace the way we have learned to think about problems with a new kind of thought process. And he even explains it in detail to us in verse 8. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things. A list here of things that we need to learn to focus our minds on, to replace, worry some thoughts with these kinds of thoughts. Now let's take it word by word very quickly. This is what he means. Whatever is true, the Greek word means that is that which is valid, reliable or honest. It's not false. Much of what we worry about is not reliable information. It's what might happen, that could happen, but may never happen. Keep your mind on what you know to be true. Keep your mind on those thoughts. And that will replace the worrisome thoughts. What is true and then says what is noble? That's a word that's used in 1 Timothy 3 of qualifications for pastors and deacons. There it's translated worthy of respect or honorable. Anything that's worthy of respect that's honorable, that's noble. We should be thinking about those things. Then he says whatever is right, that word means upright or just something that conforms to God's standard. Obviously, his word would be a good place to start with that. So whatever is right, then whatever is pure, morally pure is what he's talking about there. Keep your mind focused on that which is morally pure. Then whatever is lovely, these next two words are very interesting. Whatever is lovely, the word simply means pleasing, agreeable, that which brings out love from you, that which is enjoyable to you. That's a very broad word. It can be anything that is pleasing to you that brings you enjoyment. You like travel, think about that. You may not be able to afford the gas, so just think about it. Think about those trips. That'll be fun. You may enjoy some kind of sport or some kind of music or watching a good movie. Even those things fit into that word, that description. It's not just Bible verses here. Anything that is lovely, is pleasing, agreeable, enjoyable. He's going to qualify that in the moment. But think about those things. And then the next word, admirable. That word means anything that is attractive, that meets the highest standards, that is well spoken of. So think about those things or those kinds of people. And then he adds this disclaimer, especially about the last two words. Anything you might enjoy, he says, now wait a second. It's got to be verse 8, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy about those things. It's got to be morally excellent and it's got to be worthy of something glorified God. They say, I enjoy ripping people off and feeling like I've taken advantage of them. That doesn't fit. So you can't think about those things. That doesn't fit about morally excellent and praiseworthy. So he adds those qualifiers to make sure that the things you're thinking of that are admirable that are lovely, that bring you enjoyment, bring love out of you are things that are morally excellent and things that are worthy of glorifying God. Think about those things, Paul says. In other words, change the way you think about things, about life and about people. Think about those things. Here's the problem, worry forces us to focus on the wrong things. Worry forces us to focus on things that are not of eternal value. Ten years from now, they won't make any difference in eternity. And so worry forces us to focus on those kinds of things. So what Paul is saying is focus on the right things. Focus on the things that are just and pure and all of those things he said. Those are the kinds of things we need to be thinking about. So when you find yourself attacked by worry, begin to recognize, okay, here's what I'm thinking about. I need to change my thought pattern. Remember that godly character, Christlikeness comes through the renewing of our mind. And so it is a way that we change our thinking about things. So here it is in four words, how to stop worry. Recognizing, requesting, resting, replacing. When worry attacks you tomorrow, today, think these things. I need to recognize what's happening. I need to request of the Lord. I need to pray specifically with worship and thanksgiving to God about that specific issue that I need to rest in God's promise that he will send his peace to build forward around my heart and mind. And I need to be going to replace the way I'm thinking with something that is pure and admirable and excellent and praiseworthy. And you will find worry leaving you. You will stop it. This is a biblical prescription. This is not one of those secular self-help books that I was talking about earlier. This is God's self-help book. This is God's remedy. And this will help you. Let's pray together. Father, thank you for your word, your eternal word, which gives us right counsel about the issues in life that we face. Should we all worry, we are all guilty to some extent of this kind of thinking? And it keeps us from growing and being more like Christ. So I pray that you would help us to clearly understand what we're dealing with and to learn how to bring our requests to you and to rest in your peace and to begin to replace the way we think with the right kinds of thoughts. And may we this week see some ground taken, see some success and progress made in stopping worry in our lives. We ask in Jesus' name, amen.