Dial In with Jonny Ardavanis - Three Primary Catalysts For Anxiety - Jonny Ardavanis

Episode Date: September 10, 2024

In this episode, Jonny Ardavanis breaks down the three primary catalysts for anxiety according to the teaching of Jesus in Matthew 6. In Matthew 6:25, Jesus says, "Do not be anxious..." but only after articulating that our treasures (6:19-20), our eyes (6:22-23), and our masters (6:24) often contribute to our anxieties. "When we treasure the gift more than the Giver Himself, our hearts inevitably grow anxious." - Jonny Ardavanis.You can pre-order Jonny’s book wherever books are sold! Releases October 8, 2024!Watch VideosVisit the Website Pre-order Consider the LiliesFollow on Instagram

Hey folks, my name is Johnny Erdovanis and this is Dial-In. I want to thank you for continuing to support Dial-In Ministries and sharing these resources with your friends and your family. We have some exciting things coming up in the future with some additional people joining our team. In this series, I've been walking through some of the main themes that are in my forthcoming book, Consider the Lilies, Finding Perfect Peace in the Character of God. And I was burdened to write the book after working not only in camping ministry with students and not only because of my time with students at a university level, but also now just because of my role as a pastor in Tennessee. And I wanted to look at what the scripture says, not only about what the remedy

Jesus provides and God provides in his word for those who are anxious, but in this episode, looking at some of the spiritual root causes that contribute as recipes for anxiety. Although I go into much greater detail in the book, I do hope this episode helps and encourages and maybe even challenges you if necessary, as we evaluate some of the content and nature of our own heart that may contribute to our anxiety. Now, without further ado, let's dial in. Welcome to Dial-In Studios. This is Johnny Artavanis. I'm sitting here with Hank Bowen. How are you doing, Hank? I'm doing fantastic. The bigger question is, how are you doing after your international travels? You know, I did go to Mexico for a few days, tried to get bronze.

It's easier said than done. I was worried based on some of your texts coming back. I was seriously worried we had lost our senior pastor. We are going to plant a church there. Yeah. It's a missional thing exclusively. And I wore a white shirt today. If you're listening, just so that it would accentuate my olive Greek skin. But moving on to more biblical things, we're talking about the subject of anxiety. And in our previous episode, we started to navigate maybe some of the definitions, the terms. We begin by talking about how some people say it's just semantics. But in a conversation about anxiety, we wanted to delineate that between care and concern, which can be good and godly things versus what the Bible describes as an ungodly worry, where legitimate cares and concerns become a lack of trust in who God is.

And you had given us kind of a helpful metaphor with some water. So basically water that flows into your soul and doesn't move on and it begins to almost sour in your soul and contrasted with kind of flowing streams. Is that right? Yeah. We just presented the contrast between what would be a stagnant pool where we're dwelling on the problems and pressures of life. We're contemplating them, a stagnant pool versus a channel where we are casting all of our burdens on God. And so when we pool our anxieties rather than channel them to God, we inevitably become sinfully anxious because our problems are terminating in ourself rather than in bringing those to God.

And we'll continue to talk about that in this episode. But one of the things that I wanted to do is begin to talk about maybe some of the other recipes for anxiety, or we call them root causes for anxiety, because Jesus in Matthew 6, 25 is going to say, therefore, do not be anxious. And we already have established that whenever you see the word therefore in the scripture, you ask the question, what's the therefore? Therefore. Sometimes even in an expositional environment, which means for those of you who may not be familiar with that term, when we're expositing through the scripture, we're taking

chunk by chunk and we're moving through the text. But sometimes what may get lost in expositional format is losing the forest for the trees, meaning we forget the passage that immediately preceded those words because we just teach that section of verses as a standalone passage. But Jesus says, therefore, don't be anxious. And that therefore functions as the culmination and consequence of everything that Jesus had said in the verses prior. And so in order to understand some of the root causes of anxiety, especially as it relates to our heart and mind as a Christian, we have to go back five verses to Matthew 6, 19. And in that section, Jesus says, do not store up for yourself treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy

and where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourself treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal. And as we go through those verses, Matthew 6, 19 through 24, I want to ask really three questions and then I'll provide a fourth that Jesus, as the great physician, is going to ask of you. If you're anxious, you come into the doctor's office and you're not with any ordinary doctor. You're with the great physician. And great physicians don't just get immediately, go immediately to the pain point.

They begin to ask you questions. Does it hurt here? What about here? What about when I do this or when I do this? And Jesus is going to ask three questions of those who are anxious to consider some of the underlying recipes for anxiety. And the first of which is where is your treasure? Where is your treasure? Because he says in Matthew 6, 19, do not store for yourself treasures in heaven. Five verses later, he's going to talk about anxiety. Does that correlation make sense so far?

Yeah, I think I'm tracking. And so maybe the first question I would have related to treasure is, are we talking specifically about money or maybe more broadly, how are you going to define treasure? Yeah, well, treasure is an all-inclusive term. He is talking about money, but he's talking about more than just money because you can, you can have a lot of money in that yet view your wealth and possessions with an open hand, or you could have very little money and very little, you know, wealth to your name and yet cling to it. And so he's talking about money, but he could be talking about prestige or reputability or athletics. It could be whatever you have established on the heart's pedestal, which is something you elevate above other things. And so Jesus says, the great physician is going to

ask you, where is your treasure? Now, for someone that may be wondering, what does this have to do with anxiety? Let's just, I'll give a story that may help provide some sort of an illustration. Several years back, I had a nagging pain in my foot. As all stories do, they relate back to some physical ailment. Physical injury for me. I was limping for a matter of months and I go into the doctor and they begin to ask me different questions. And about an hour later, they send me to get an x-ray on my full leg to get some idea of what's happening in my foot. I came back and the doctor asked me on a scale of one to 10, how much pain are you in? And I said, I don't know, on a scale

of one to shark bite, you know, four, but it hurts, man. And he says, well, the x-ray revealed a break. And I'm going, well, obviously my foot, because that's what hurts. And he says, no, in your knee, your patella is broken. And basically had alluded to the reality that over time, I remember hurting my knee, but didn't think much of it. But over time, because of the compensation of that, basically I was feeling the pain somewhere else. So the pain in my foot was real, but it wasn't the root cause of the pain that I was feeling. That was my knee. And we may be anxious in our minds, but Jesus saying, well, well, that may be real, but there is an underlying root, and it begins with what we're treasuring in our hearts. And Jesus is going to illustrate bottom line that whether it be wealth or athletics or reputation or academics or how people look at you, your own beauty, when we treasure the gift more than the giver himself,

we become attached and our allegiances are driven there rather than to God. And when we elevate those things in our life that are fleeting and fragile and unpredictable because moths eat and rust destroys and thieves break in and steal, everything in our life that we elevate has the potential to be taken away from us. And so Jesus says, when you take a good thing and make it an ultimate thing, that thing becomes a treasure and whatever you treasure grabs your heart. And whatever is grabbing your heart is ultimately what is going to drive you towards anxiety about that thing or person.

Okay. So this is making, so we're taking our eyes off the creator to the created. Yep. We're moving and fundamentally that's sketchy ground because anything of this earth is perishable is the most fundamental point there. Absolutely. So Jesus just very fundamentally just saying, Hey, good things, because remember in a matter of verses, he's going to talk about food and clothing and

relationships good things can become idols and when idols are situated in our heart they become treasures and those things drive us towards anxiety and despair because we've elevated them above god himself and he doesn't stop there. He says, but lay for yourself treasures in heaven where moth don't eat and rust doesn't destroy. But that's the first question. Jesus is the great physician. You're anxious.

You've stepped into the doctor's office. And he asked you, where's your treasure? And you have to take an inventory of your life and say, hey, are the things that I treasure, the very things or the very people that are driving me towards anxiety? Good things can become ultimate things. And when ultimate things are situated in our heart, they become our treasures. The second question the great physician asks is, where are you looking?

Because he's going to go from our treasures. And basically he's going to say the eye is the lamp of the body. And if the eye is bad, then the whole body is going to be full of darkness. Again, typically you could preach through this text and totally isolate it from Jesus's sermon on anxiety. But this is right before he says, therefore don't be anxious. He's saying the eye is the lamp of the body. And if the eye is bad,

the whole body will be full of darkness. The eye is the window into your soul. So Jesus is gonna ask you as a great physician, what are you looking at? This is very relevant in a culture that is ever gossiping, ever materialistic, hypersexual, rumor mongering. People flood their minds and their eyes with information. The average person is looking at their phone seven hours a day. We live in a pornographic world. Even from a secular perspective, you understand the rising link and relationship between porn consumption and anxiety. But whether it's pornography or materialism or coveting things you don't have but you want or

whatever beauty, Jesus is saying, hey, could there be a relationship between what you're looking at with your eyes and the anxieties within your heart? So he says, the eye is the lamp of the body. What are you looking at? Because there is often a direct correlation between those two things. Yeah, it makes sense. Well, and to build on your prior point, that which we're gazing at and kind of meditating and stewing upon is likely also going to become the treasure. Back to your first question. And so I'm seeing the connection here. Keep going. Can you give us a third question? Yeah. And then one just other thing to add is that it doesn't necessarily have to be sins of commission with our eyes. It could be sins of

omission because we're called to take every thought captive that we might honor God. And often what we're looking at, if it's not explicitly sinful, it could be explicitly neutral, but it robs us of fixating our gaze on who God is, which is the very anchor we need in a world of turbulence and chaos. And so where are you looking? You don't have to think of bad movies and bad shows. It could just be something that distracts you from looking towards God and his character. The third question the great physician asks is, who is your master? Because Jesus says, one verse prior to, therefore, don't be anxious in Matthew 6.25. In Matthew 6.24, he says, no one can serve two masters. He will either hate the one and love the other or despise the one. And so the third question the great physician asks is,

who is your master? Who is your master? I think sometimes we look at this verse from a very literal sense, you know, like I have no master, but we could be mastered by a myriad of different things that would contribute and cause different elements of anxiety and despair. A couple examples of that would be, you know, sometimes when I talk to people who are anxious, and even in my own heart, and if you've read Corrie ten Boom's biography, she was really battling anxiety and despair. She spent long seasons in concentration camps. She watched her sister Betsy die in a concentration camp. And she would say that one of the contributing factors for her anxiety was that she was mastered by bitterness. Because bitterness, it says in Hebrews 12, let no root of bitterness spring up within you that many be defiled. Bitterness is

a corrosive that deteriorates your soul. And so when Jesus as the great physician says, who is your master? You could say, I have no master but God. And yet at the same time, be mastered by bitterness and a lack of forgiveness that contributes in Corrie ten Boone's biography to the anxiety within her because she was failing to let go of other people's sin against her, which only fueled and perpetuated her own worry, anxiety, and despair. Absolutely. It's helpful because it just strikes me hearing you speak through, these are things that are like supremely understandable from an earthly perspective.

I mean, a victim of a concentration camp, you'd understand why they would be prone to bitterness. And it's only the miracle of the gospel that could set you free from something so imprisoning like that. Yeah. And so, yeah, it's very obviously too, when Jesus is asking these questions, this is God's timeless word. And so I always tell people if Jesus was going to show up on the scene in 2024 and preach a sermon on anxiety, he would have nothing novel and new to say. He would say, good morning, everybody.

Would you take your Bibles and turn with me to Matthew chapter 6? Because this is God's timeless word. And sometimes in a world that's craving novelty and relevance, we forget and fail to see that. So Jesus asked those questions, you know, where, you know, who is your master? And have you been mastered by bitterness? And I think another one would be that is a large contributing factor to anxiety, just from a biblical perspective, is have you been mastered by unconfessed sin? David says, and we've

talked about this, I think, elsewhere. David says in Psalm 32, when he kept silent about his sin, he felt as if his body was wasting away and as if he was being drained by the fever heat of summer. Unconfessed sin is a massive load upon your soul that produces anxiety and despair, and you are simply not strong enough to bear the massive load of unconfessed sin without being crippled by anxiety. That may be the anxiety of being found out, or it could just be the deprivation of fellowship if you're a Christian that you have with your Heavenly Father. You can't lose your salvation, but you can lose your joy, your peace, and really the serenity and the peace of a clean conscience. And so that would be just another

example of, have you been mastered by unconfessed sin? And does that have a contributing, maybe root cause to the anxiety you may be facing? Yeah. And that's, I think you're referencing, we did a prior episode on confession specifically. And again, just repeating back to you, but it's such an obvious fact that the opposite of anxiety would be joy, or the inverse of joy would so easily be understood as anxiety. And when we're confessing sin, it renews the right relationship between God the Father of a totally clean spirit and conscience. That would allow us to approach our daily lives. And that's what David prays for in Psalm 51, you know. Yeah.

I want a clean conscience. God purge me with hyssop. Yeah, absolutely. So that would be the third question. But I think there's a fourth, and that's what gets played out over the remaining verses of Matthew 6. And it's really the theme of God's response to every anxious individual throughout the scripture. And that fourth question is, who do you believe or who do you trust? Because in that following section, Jesus is going to say in Matthew 6, therefore, don't be anxious, but he doesn't stop there.

He doesn't say just snap out of it, cut it out. He's going to draw their attention to the character of their heavenly father, because he's going to say, don to the character of their heavenly father. Because he's going to say, don't be anxious. And then he says in Matthew 6, 30, like the Gentiles who do not know God. And then he says, oh, you of little faith. That ultimately the underlying recipe and the underlying cause for ungodly worry and anxiety is a failure to fix our gaze and exercise our faith in who God is. And if it's part of the root cause for anxiety, it's also, as the great physician Jesus is going

to explain, part of the remedy. Part of the remedy and the remedy in scripture is that if you're anxious, Jesus is going to then, and over the next series of episodes we'll cover and over the next series of verses in Matthew 6, begin to lift our gaze towards a deep consideration, meditation, rumination, whatever Asian you want to talk about on the character of God. And he's going to say, hey, consider the birds, consider the lilies. Do they take care of themselves? And then he begins to lift up their gaze towards the character of God. This is how God responded to Job in the Old Testament

when Job was anxious to Elijah, to Moses, and to these followers on the Mount 2,000 years ago. Jesus is gonna ask the question, who is your father? And sometimes I think we look at the character of God through a depersonalized lens. And so if the antidote to our anxiety is to know God's character deeply, Jesus wants to anchor that truth, not in just the reality that God is the king of the universe or the creator of the universe, but he's the father of you as his child. And we'll begin to draw

specific attributes and characteristics of who God is as our father that provide the believer, the anxious believer, the anxious individual with comfort, peace, and encouragement. And then even when necessary, Jesus is going to rebuke the littleness of our faith, not the absence of it, because a lot of our anxiety, Jesus is going to detail, is that we have a deficient and deprived, inadequate view of who God is. And if that's the problem, then that's the remedy. We need a deeper view of his character. Yeah, absolutely. And so this is, in many ways, we're finally to kind of the core thrust of the entire book more broadly, which is consider the lilies, subtext.

Finding perfect peace in the character of God. And that's the theme in scripture. And that's the theme of really the heart that wants to trust the Lord is as I face the uncertainties in this life, the chaos of this life, the trials and troubles in this life, what you need more than anything is a deep understanding of the character of God, but not just an understanding, an exercise. That's why I refer to faith throughout the book. I think it was Oswald Chambers who refers to faith as a fixation of your gaze, because faith is not a thing. Faith is an action. And so I think sometimes we say, well, I believe God, but it's a totally different thing to exercise that faith constantly and to deeply consider, because consider is an active word. And so we're going to draw out those attributes and those specific characteristics of who God is as our Father that provide us with the comfort and courage we need in a world of anxiety and despair.

Yeah. Well, I'm really looking forward to the next coming episode. So thanks for sitting down, Jenny. Thanks, Hank.