Live Free with Josh Howerton - Conquer Worry God's Way • Pastor Steve Stroope | Ep. 134 | Thursday, August 10, 2023

Episode Date: August 10, 2023

Everyone worries. In this podcast episode, Pastor Steve discusses the topic of worry and provides advice on overcoming it. He emphasizes the importance of obeying God and staying within His will to avoid unnecessary worries. And, by praising God, our worries diminish in comparison to His greatness. For more information, visit lakepointe.church/dailydrive

Thanks for tuning in to today's Daily Drive with Lake Point Church, a daily dose of God's Word for your morning drive. When the word, not the world, becomes the majority of your week, your life will start to change. For that reason, our prayer is that God will speak to you through today's devotional. For more digital content to feed your faith, visit lakepoint.combe. And now let's dive in to today's devotional. Hi, this is Pastor Steve and I welcome you to Daily Drive. Today we're going to be talking about worry. And I know that if you're listening today, you probably don't ever struggle with worry.

But you probably know somebody who does. And so you'll take note of what we're talking about today out of God's word. Maybe you can pass that on to somebody who really needs it. I say that facetiously because we all worry, don't we? And we worry about the craziest things. But the Bible says, don't be anxious for anything. Now, at first glance, when you see Paul writing that in the book of Philippians, you think he's just saying, hey, don't worry, as if it's like a light switch that you can just flip on and you can flip off. And we know it's not that easy. I remember when I first started pastoring here at Lake Point, I had to do some counseling before we actually had a counseling center. And I'm not that great of a counselor. I remember the very first person who came to me, they were depressed. And they told me about their depression. And after they'd talked for a while, they said, do you have any advice for me? And I said, well, you. Yes, don't be depressed.

And apparently I did a really great job because the person never had to come back for counseling. Well, you think that that maybe is what Paul is saying. It's just, hey, don't worry about it. But that's not what he's saying. He gives us some real handles on how to overcome worry. In Philippians the fourth chapter, verse 6, he says this, Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with Thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God.

and the peace of God which surpasses all comprehension shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. And then in verse 9 of that same chapter, he says, The things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. Now the first thing he says we find there in verse 9, he says that if you want to overcome worry, then the things that you've heard and you've learned as a believer, practice those things. In other words, the secret to overcoming worry is to obey God.

My belief is most of what we worry about is because we've stepped outside of God's will. And we've stepped in a place where we're open to danger. And then we begin to worry about the consequences of our sin. And if we want to overcome that worry, just don't sin. In other words, obey is the first advice that he would give. But you and I know that living in a fallen world, even when we're obeying God, even when we're living by his power and his will, there are other people who are not.

And they cause problems for us that we have a tendency to worry about. So how do we overcome those worries, those worries that don't get solved by our own obedience? Well, he says to those issues, he says, pray. And he gives us a particular prayer there in verse six. Look back in verse six. He says, with everything by prayer and supplication, with Thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. I'd like to call this a prayer pill, okay?

There's three words that he uses here for prayer. The first word that he uses for prayer there, if you go back and you look at the original meaning, it literally means praise, all right? Now, what's the difference between thanking God and praising God? Praiseing God is talking about who He is. Thanking him is, you know, obviously acknowledging what he does. But think about what would happen to you if you started to worry,

and every time you started to worry, you took this prayer pill called praise, and you started talking about who God was, that he's mighty and that he's present and that he's loving and that he's patient and he's creative. And you go on and on. And here's what happens when you and I praise God.

Our God gets bigger and bigger. Now, of course, he's not getting bigger, but our understanding of how great he is gets bigger. And as he gets bigger, what happens to the thing we're worried about? That's right. A greater is he that's in you than he that's in the world. and the problem that we're worrying about

gets smaller in light of the resource that we have in a relationship with God. Now, the second word that is used there in this passage is the word supplication. Everything by prayer and supplication. That word supplication is just a fancy word for ask. Okay, so if something in your life is big enough for you to worry about,

it's big enough for you to invite God into and ask him to handle it. But let me warn you here. If you ask God to step into it, your finances. He may take you from prey back to obey. Okay? You say, God, I can't pay my bills. And his answer to you may be, well, then stop spending so much money, then cut up your credit cards, stop being materialistic, stop trying to keep up with everybody. So be careful when you ask him into your situation because he may move you from prey back to obey. But many times when we hand it off to him, what happens is

then we don't carry it around. There's a reason in the Old Testament when they went to sacrifice animals that they killed them on the altar. Because if you take something to the altar and you don't kill it there, it will follow you back home, all right? We have to take it to him and say, I'm giving this to you. I'm not caring anymore. And then the last word that's there is the word Thanksgiving. And what that is saying is, please, if you have something you're worried about, I want to invite you, God says, to come to me in prayer. And first of all, talk about who I am and how big I am, because you have something. You're worried about, because your problem is going to get smaller. But then ask me what I want you to do about that.

Sometimes it's just to leave it there, and sometimes it's to obey me in that area of life. But don't you dare get up from your prayer without thanking me for everything else that's going on your life that's going right because of my relationship with you? I want you to hear something. Some of you are struggling with financial problems right now. Some of you're struggling with health problems.

Some of your relational problems. I don't know what's going on in your life right now. But if you put them all on the board and you put pluses by them and you put negatives by them, if you'll add one thing in there, it will come out a plus. And it's where we started off. It said, rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice. Our joy is found in our relationship with the Lord.

And it doesn't matter how many negative arenas of your life you have. When you factor in the fact that God is walking with you through this problem. And when you factor in that one day he'll take us to heaven where there will be no more sickness. There'll be no more death. There'll be no more enemies. When you factor that in, I don't care what else is on the board, it comes out as a plus. Sometimes when we're going through a problem, what happens is we get tunnel vision. And all we can see is that one thing that we're worried about that day. And what God is saying is take a wider view of your life. Please talk to me about your problems. But before you get up from your prayer about that

what you're worried about. Tell me what's going on right because you have a relationship with me. Thanks for tuning in today. For more biblical teaching and worship, join us for our church online live weekend services on Saturdays at 6 p.m. and Sundays at 9.30 and 11 a.m. Central Standard Time. Also, if this podcast was helpful to you, would you be sure to rate, review, and share this podcast to help get the word out? For more information about all, all digital ministries of Lake Point. Visit lakepoint. compt.