Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - What Does Jesus Say About Anxiety? | Who Is Jesus? | John 6.16-24

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to Tim Minna Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. My name is Patrick Miller. And I'm Keith Simon. Right now, we're asking, who is Jesus? God doesn't give you any more than you can handle. Maybe you've said that to a friend, or maybe a friend has said that to you. And the point is that no matter what comes your way, whether it's cancer or a car wreck or getting into the college of your dreams, well, you can handle it. You can handle the blessings and the challenges that come your way.

Starting point is 00:00:36 And that kind of thing is said to bring comfort to a person, to it instill a kind of confidence that it's all going to be okay because, remember, God doesn't give you anything that you can't handle. The only problem is that it is completely wrong, absolutely unbiblical. God doesn't give you any more than you can handle? What are you talking about? Of course he does. Most of the time, it seems that's all he's.

Starting point is 00:01:02 gives us. See, the phrase, God doesn't give me any more than I can handle, well, that directs me back to, well, me. It tells me that I can handle things. I've got what it takes. I'm sharp enough, smart enough. I'll get it figured out. I'm tough enough. I can handle it. But I think that me directed back to me, well, that's exactly the opposite of what God wants, the opposite of what the Bible teaches. According to Amazon, the most highlighted passages read on any of its Kindle books in 2014. In fact, this phrase was highlighted twice as often as any other passage, was from the second volume of The Hunger Games. And here's the sentence most frequently highlighted that year, because sometimes things happen to people and they're not equipped to deal with them.

Starting point is 00:01:53 Now, why was that sentence highlighted so frequently? Why was it highlighted more than any other sentence in any book read on Kindle? Because it resonates with something deep within us. Because sometimes things happen to people and they're not equipped to deal with them. Yeah, we can all identify with that. That's how we feel. Sometimes we're in way over our head. But what if those things that happen to us that we're not equipped to deal with? What if those things come from God? We all know that when we feel like we're in over our head, our reaction is to worry. We worry and fret and are anxious about things that are outside of our control. I don't need to unpack anxiety for you today. You experience it on a day-to-day basis.

Starting point is 00:02:47 There are lots of articles you can read that try to explain why anxiety. is on the rise. Today, I want to help us think about what Jesus says about anxiety. What does Jesus do for anxious people? I want us to think about this question through John chapter 6. It's a passage about a very familiar story of the disciples being on the Sea of Galilee when a great storm arrives. These professional fishermen are scared for their life. It's a doozy of a storm. You see, the Sea of Galilee is a freshwater lake below sea level. In fact, it is lower than any other lake in the world. And it's not very big. It's much smaller than, say, the great lakes that we're familiar with in the north part of the United States. So here the disciples are, they're in the dark,

Starting point is 00:03:41 and a great storm comes. Jesus isn't with them, and they know that they're in trouble. storms on the Sea of Galilee could be extremely violent. They were caused by the cold air rushing down from the mountains and colliding with the warm moist air rising off the surface of the water. The place the disciples were headed in their boat wasn't very far away, but the storm was so violent that despite their best efforts to control the boat, it had driven them into the middle of the sea. All told, they rode for close to nine hours that evening,

Starting point is 00:04:17 but they only went three to four miles. And now it's somewhere between three in the morning and six in the morning, and they're totally exhausted. John chapter six, verse 19. When they had rode about three or four miles, they saw Jesus approaching the boat walking on the water and they were frightened. But he said to them, it is I. Don't be afraid. Jesus walking on the water is a well-known miracle. Now miracles in the gospel of John are called signs, and that's helpful. because it reminds us that these miracles were never an end to themselves,

Starting point is 00:04:52 but they were given to us to teach us to be assigned toward a much deeper truth. And I think one of the things that Jesus wants to teach us about anxiety, about the things that we worry about, is that it is in our problems, it is in the storms of life that Jesus comes to us. When storms come your way, when problems arise, when things seem like they're against you and you're not in control, what's your first response? I talked earlier about the most highlighted Kindle passage in a particular year.

Starting point is 00:05:26 What do you think the most highlighted Bible verse is? For God so love the world? No. Do not judge lest you be judged? No. It's this, Philippians 4. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer, and petition with Thanksgiving, present your request to God. And the peace of God, which transcends

Starting point is 00:05:50 all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. See, our first response when problems overwhelm us is to worry. We worry about our future. We worry about our friends. We worry about our health. We worry about our finances. We worry about our career. We worry about our worrying, wondering if we're worrying too much. And it seems right now in the time of COVID, people are worrying even more. And I understand why. It's because our life is so uncertain and we hate uncertainty. We would rather know that it's going to be bad than to not know how it's going to turn out. There's this well-known Dutch experiment where some people were told that they were going to be intensely shocked 20 times. Then researchers told a second group of people that they would receive

Starting point is 00:06:42 three strong shocks and 17 mild ones, but they wouldn't know when those more intense shocks would come. So they hooked the people up to monitors, to monitor their breathing and their heart rate and their sweat glands. And what they found was that the people in the second group, sweated more, experienced faster heart rates. In other words, those who only got three intense shocks, but didn't know when they were coming, had more physical effects associated with worry and anxiety than those who got shocked intensely 20 times. See, uncertainty caused their discomfort. They didn't know when the shocks were coming, and that drove them crazy. So because we don't know what is going to happen in the world, because we don't have the power to fix our own lives,

Starting point is 00:07:34 because we hate uncertainty? Well, that's why Philippians 4, 6, and 7 is so frequently highlighted in our Bible. Given that we're constantly thinking about the future, given that we don't like uncertainty, given that we don't have the power to fix our own life, much less the world in other people's lives that we care about. Well, all that explains why the most frequently highlighted passage in the Bible explains how to deal with worry. everything in our life is unpredictable. The weather is unpredictable. Our problems are unpredictable. The future is unpredictable. We don't know the future, so we worry. Mike Tyson said, everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth. We all have plans about how our day is going to go or how a relationship is going to go or how our career is going to go. But it seems like life is always punching us in the mouth and our plan

Starting point is 00:08:30 quickly goes out the window. So that takes us back to John 6. It takes us back to the Gospels where we read other accounts of this story of the disciples being in the boat in the middle of a storm. Here's a couple things to remember. Jesus told them to get in the boat. He sent them out into the storm. In fact, in Mark, we see that Jesus could see them sitting out there in the storm. God sends us us into the storm for reasons that we can't always know. But we do know that he sees us and that he has a purpose in the storms that come our way, that God is at work through them for our good. But then remember what Jesus did, he walked out there on water and he got in the boat with them. I think when he is walking on water, what he is doing is showing them that he is in control of the things that they are

Starting point is 00:09:30 about. They're worried about the waves. Well, Jesus walked on the waves. They're worried about the rain and the hail. Will Jesus walked right through it all? He walked right to them. All the things that you're worried about, Jesus is in control of. And then he got in the boat with them. He gets in the boat with you. He says, it is I. Don't be afraid. Not because you don't have storms, but because I'm with you in the boat in the middle of the storm. Isaiah 43, verse 2. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. And when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you.

Starting point is 00:10:14 It's in our problems that we meet Jesus. Jesus took his time coming out to them in that boat. He didn't immediately rush to them and rescue them from their problem. He didn't hurry to them. he let them struggle. He let them come to an end of themselves. When all hope is gone, when we're on her knees surrendering all to God, that is when he comes to us and gets in the boat with us and tells us, don't be afraid, for I am with you. See, the one who is in the boat with us is the one who is in control of all things. You cannot have control over your life, but you can know the

Starting point is 00:10:58 one who does. You can't control the storms in your life. You can't control when they come or what they look like or how fierce they are, but you can know that the one who is in control of all things is in the boat with you. Maybe we need to learn something about how we can best help other people. When Jesus gets in the boat with us, he models how we can come alongside others and their problems. When people share their problems with me, it is a very rare thing for me to be able to fix it. But what I can do is get in the boat with them. What I can do is remind them that they're not alone. What I can do is say, I'll walk through this with you.

Starting point is 00:11:47 I'll pray for you as you're in the storm, and I'll get in the boat, and we can go through this storm together. But maybe the best thing that we can get them to do is to remind them to call or on Jesus. Maybe the best help that we can offer to any friend that is in trouble is to pray with them that Jesus would come and get in the boat with them and remind them that he is there with them, that their storm is not an accident. It comes from the hand of a loving God and that they are not alone. You're there with them, but most importantly, Jesus is too. Thanks for listening. If you've enjoyed this content, please subscribe and give us a rating. That helps others find this podcast more easily.

Starting point is 00:12:33 Also ask yourself who you could share this podcast with. Texting an episode to a friend or family member is a great way to help them grow spiritually. If you want to go deeper, check out our show notes for book recommendations.

Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - What Does Jesus Say About Anxiety? | Who Is Jesus? | John 6.16-24

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