All right, so we're going to get into the topic of anxiety, something that obviously many, many, many people struggle with. Psychology has a lot to say about anxiety. I'm sure that you've been taught a lot of things in your life, but today we're going to actually look at what the Bible says about anxiety.

It's important to have a biblical view on this because the world has a way of shaping our thinking, and I want the Word of God to shape your thinking. Just to begin with a little definition, defining, we'll just kind of get right into it because I'm sure you're exhausted.

I hope that you can endure with me, but the first thing that we should note is that in the Bible, the word worry is actually often translated as anxiety or concern. So in our vernacular, we typically say worry, but what we mean by that, or at least how the Bible speaks to that, is anxiety or concern.

Jay Adams points out, Jay Adams is one of our biblical counseling mentors, you know, we've learned from him over the years. He points out that really the Greek word for anxiety ought to be translated worry because it's something that we understand better in our contemporary language. But anyways, here's a good definition.

According to Jesus, the definition for anxiety just simply means to care for or be concerned about some future event. It's really small up there, but at least you've got it on your outline. So again, to care for or to be concerned about some future event. He tells us in Matthew 6, 25, "Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on.

It's not life more than food and the body more than clothing." So it's just interesting to note that there really are two types of anxiety in the Bible. You have a godly concern, people can have godly concern. It's not always ungodly or ungodly concern. But let's just kind of take a look at godly concern.

Paul talks about godly concern, especially in one particular verse in 1 Corinthians 12, 25. He's talking to the church there and he's saying, you know, he hopes that there may be no division in the body there, but that the members may have the same care for one another. And that verse is really speaking to Christians and what he's saying there is that we as a body of believers should have care, the same care for one another.

So the Apostle Paul was genuinely concerned, or you could say had godly concern or godly anxiety, because he was eager to maintain unity in the body in Corinth. And he wanted them to be more focused on the greater gift. Because if you know anything about the book of Corinthians, it's, you know, a lot of the people that went to church there, they were really kind of more about the gifts that they had and the boasting in those gifts.

But he kind of gets after him about that. And he says, really the greater gift is Christ and you shouldn't have that self-focus. And so he had a genuine concern. He's expressing godly concern. He wants them to have godly concern for one another. And so concern that is constructive is not a sin.

I mean, there's lots of times when you're going to have godly concern for people and that's appropriate. Scripture recognizes certain types of intense concern as being perfectly legitimate for Christians. Do you think of some times in your life where godly concern would be appropriate? Yeah. What about your children?

You know, you're concerned for them in particular ways or friends that are making particular choices. So sometimes it's completely legitimate to have godly concern. But what about when you're, another thing is the way God wires us, think about times when you're kind of walking in a potentially dangerous area and you notice that your senses are a little bit heightened.

And that's a good thing because that godly concern can get you out of trouble and kind of make you a little bit more discerning about your environment. But God's Word does address ungodly concern or anxiety. And so let's turn to Philippians 4, 6. Take a look at that. Turn book over.

Paul says in verse 6, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God." And in that verse, Paul is actually using the same word for anxiety as he did in the first Corinthian verse, but this is in the negative form.

In this context, anxiety means to divide or to rip apart or just to be distracted in your attention. And so this word is actually describing the action and the effect of worry. So unlike the care and concern that he had for the church in Corinth, unlike that, he is trying to show us, you know, that there's a type of anxiety that can be very destructive and very sinful in our life.

And really the big difference between both of these, the godly concern and the ungodly concern, is that godly concern focuses on God. So if you want to discern whether you have ungodly or godly concern, godly concern has its focus on God, and ungodly concern, of course, is a little bit more self-centered in its focus.

And so it's important to think through that. I thought what would be a good idea is to introduce you to two women in the Bible to kind of, so you can look at their life. Let's let Scripture shape our thinking in that sense. There are two women in the Bible that we can look at.

One had a godly concern and one had a very ungodly concern. Both believers, both love the Lord, but one of them that was having ungodly concern was just having a really, really bad day. And I think that you'll relate to her, most women do. And so why don't we go ahead and we'll look at that now.

Go ahead and turn back to Luke 10, and we're going to focus our attention on verses 38 to 42, and I'll just read it for you. You'll recognize who this is right away. I'm sure this is a familiar passage. "Now as they were traveling along, Jesus entered a village, and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home.

She had a sister called Mary, who was seated at the Lord's feet, listening to his word. But Martha was distracted with all her preparations, and she came up to him and said, 'Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me.' But the Lord answered and said to her, 'Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things, but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part which shall not be taken away from her.'" And so here we have two sisters.

This could be anybody's life. We've all been here, I think. But we have two sisters who lived with their brother Lazarus. And Bethany, and I've been there, Bethany is about a city that's about two miles away from Jerusalem. You can walk there. And Martha is probably the oldest of these two sisters.

Some commentators say that she was probably a widow, and so this house was probably hers. And apparently at this time, Jesus was passing through and came to Martha's house, probably at her invitation, more than likely. And I don't think this invitation would have been unusual. I think that we know from other texts, like when we read through the book of John 11, 5 in particular, we learn a little bit about Martha and Mary.

We learn that these women really loved the Lord, including Lazarus. These were friends of Christ. So it wouldn't have been unusual for her to invite him over to her house for dinner with her sister and brother. And when you find yourself in this kind of a life circumstance, like Martha did, like any good hostess, what do you do?

When you have people come over, what do you do? You get into task mode, and you begin to engage in whatever the cultural expectation is at the time. And for sure, the cultural expectation at that time would have been if you had a guest come to your house, you would get on it, you would make those preparations for the meal.

And get this, as a woman, I think you can identify with this. It is probably assumed that Martha had to get food together, not just for Jesus. He probably had at least the 12 disciples with him. Okay, so think about that. And some commentators say that, so it could have been a dinner party for about 15, but sometimes commentators will say it could have been 70 people.

But we'll just kind of camp on 15, not to get too overwhelmed. But even 15 could be quite a bit. Now before I kind of pick on Martha a little bit, I just want you to know, I don't have any doubt in my mind that Martha is a believer.

She loved the Lord. This isn't like a contrast between an unbeliever and a believer or anything like that. I just really think that she, as a believer, is just like a lot of us. And so she was just having a particularly tough day. And we know, again, that she loved the Lord from other cross-references.

So if we assume the best, if a person like Martha came to me for counsel, because she's anxious about so many things, I would honestly think that Martha was somebody that had as an original heart motive to serve others and to be a blessing. I would have thought the best that way.

I would have thought she started out great. I can see her servant's heart. I can see her desire to want to serve others and to practice hospitality. It's very evident in her life, and it's very commendable. But what we need to discover is how did Martha, who had great intentions here, how did she go from joyfully serving others to suddenly this ungodly concern?

How did she get from here to here? And becoming anxious about so many things. And we need to ask, because Jesus says at the end that, "Martha, Martha, you're worried about so many things." And so he had to even gently rebuke her at that. So let's go back to the text now.

Luke actually gives us a clue word in verse 40. So look at verse 40 of the passage. And in contrast to what her sister Mary is doing, Martha was what? What does the text say? She was distracted, right? With all her preparations. That word "distracted" in the original language just kind of has the idea of being drawn away.

So she was being drawn away from Christ by this task at hand. Or she was overly occupied with whatever it is that she is doing. Or she is just too busy. Too busy about a thing. And it's interesting, isn't it? Because at first, remember, what we notice about Martha is that her external behavior was servanthood.

She had as an idea to serve others. Great. She welcomed Christ into her home for a meal, but somewhere in the process of preparing and serving, Mary became overly occupied or overly busy about that task. And in contrast to Mary, she became distracted. Now what was Mary up to?

Look at verse 39. What was she up to? She was what? She was sitting at the Lord's feet, right? Listening to his word. So she was not distracted. She was focused. She was focused and sitting lovingly at Christ's feet. And so here's an interesting cultural side note on this whole issue.

In that culture, the rabbis would take on certain students, and these students would literally sit at their feet. And those students would have been considered disciples of whoever the rabbi was. So when the text says, you know, we read these things, but if you really want to take it at a different dimension, when the text says that Mary was sitting at the feet of Christ, it's trying to give you a picture of what a true disciple is.

Okay? So Mary is sitting at the feet of Christ, and she's taking on that role of a disciple. And that was a big deal, because rabbis back then didn't take on women as disciples. But Christ did, and that was actually really radical. That was a radical thing for him.

And in the Gospels, you know, we often see Christ encouraging women to listen to his teaching. I'm always encouraged when I read the resurrection story, because it was the women that he saw first post-resurrection. So he cares for women, lots and lots. But that was very radical. And so here we have two women in the same intense circumstance.

The pressure is on. You know, this would be their heat, in a sense. One person is choosing to intently focus and listen to Jesus, while the other is distracted with her serving, and it got in the way of her doing the same as her sister. So what were some of the effects of Martha's ungodly concern?

Because we need to kind of think through, what did it reap? You know, what kind of fruit did it reap as a result of her getting kind of worked up and anxious? Looking back at verse 40, it says, "But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she went up to him and said, 'Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone?

Tell her then to help me.'" And you know what? I could say that a little bit louder, because she meant it intensely. Can you imagine talking to Jesus like that? But she was worked up. And so the first effect, or you could say the first complicated sin, is that her anxiety or her ungodly concern manifested so much so that she went up to Jesus and she actually interrupted his teaching.

The second effect, or complicated sin, is that she humiliated Mary in front of everybody. What was she assuming about Mary? She was what? Maybe lazy? There was some assumption on her part. Do you think Mary was being lazy? No way. No way. Mary was—where Mary's actually—her priorities were in the right place.

She was sitting at Christ's feet, and he was shepherding her through his teaching that evening, which is what happens when we make it a priority to spend time with the Lord. He shepherds us. And he helps us when we seek him out through his word and in prayer. And that's really actually a very significant part of this narrative and something that you'll need to point out to women who you might counsel on this issue.

Above all other things, one thing I would encourage them to do is that you need to be spending more time with Christ. I think that you're just so caught up and distracted by what's going on in your life, the pressures outside of yourself, that you're allowing that to distract you from your relationship with the Lord.

And so we would be talking about what we can do to help her to spend more time with her Savior. We're in relationship with our Savior, right? We don't want to think of Christ like a roommate that we never see. We're like two ships passing in the night. And that's often how people deal with their relationship with the Lord.

We're actually in a relationship, and so we want to spend time with him. And it's only when Jesus has filled up our own lives and ministered to our own souls that we would even be fit to serve him and others. So Mary's heart was really in the right place at that time.

She wasn't lazy. She was focusing all her attention on Christ, and he was ministering to her. But Martha, on the other hand, she was distracted by all of these preparations that she had to deal with. And she was also anxious about the future deadline. I'm sure as a woman, if you've been in this situation before, sometimes when we're serving, we're doing dinner and things like that, we get very anxious about getting things on the table on time.

You know, there's just a lot that we think about in preparation. And so she probably, I mean, can you imagine? I can kind of identify. I'm like, I can see why she got angry at her sister, because she's not helping her. That would have been the cultural expectation. What are you doing?

What are you doing? Why aren't you helping me? But really, she was thinking the worst about Mary, and that's really a lack of love for her, which is really a problem. So the third effect, or maybe complicated sin of Martha's ungodly concern, and maybe the biggest bomb of all, is she told Jesus, "Lord, do you not care?" Can you imagine?

"Lord, do you not care?" She's actually accusing Jesus of something. What's she accusing him of? Without realizing. She's accusing him maybe of sinning, you think? So at least she's accusing him of failing to do what is right. And it's kind of fun. When I was talking to my pastor about this passage a few years ago, he told me that with this particular study, he said there's some ancient manuscripts that were written about this passage.

And let me just kind of quote this. It says, "At that time, when Mary said those things, the disciples moved away from Martha because they were fearful that they might be scorched by the fires of heaven." So they were really struggling. I can just imagine. She said, "What?" And so, you know, you just got to have compassion for Martha.

I mean, poor Martha. How did she get here anyway? Can you identify with Martha? So here's some circumstances that I think influenced her ungodly concern. I think really part of the pressure for her, and it happens to us as well, is that it kind of appears from her reaction that she just felt under pressure from a few things.

The first thing it could have been was that just the circumstance that she found herself in, you know, I'm sure it was hard when she realized all these people were going to be showing up. I mean, she wanted that, but at the same time, it was probably a lot of pressure to have a lot of people and the Lord come to your house.

Also, just the culture in which she lived. You know, culture's hard. Sometimes culture really plays into pressure. Culture doesn't trump the word of God, but culture can definitely be an influence, and I think you know what I mean when I say that. So she had a particular culture that was—there were certain things that were expected of her.

It was probably just the importance of the guests that she was serving. I'm sure that was a lot of pressure that happened. Sometimes we have the—I don't know, what would we liken it to? Sometimes we feel pressure and we have certain people come over. Maybe it's your in-laws for the first time or a new friend, you know, or the pastor and his wife or something like that.

Just the importance of the guests. I think another pressure could be just the desire to serve the Lord. That can be a pressure. You just want to serve the Lord wholeheartedly. And then of course, self-imposed expectations. We just do it to ourselves all the time. Why do we do that to ourselves, ladies?

Why do we impose these expectations on ourselves? That is such a killer, it seems. So there's five possibilities, but instead of really focusing on what's truly important, like Mary seemed to recognize that day, Martha allowed herself to be distracted by the preparations and her serving. And now what we're seeing is it's just yielding this sinful fruit in her life.

And it's really weighing her heart down with anxiety, which ultimately for her would be pride because she's trying to control something. She's not leaning on the sovereign Lord for help. Doesn't she believe that Jesus could make dinner just like that? I mean, seriously. So anyways, like I said, I think Martha had as an original heart motive really to honor the Lord, no doubt in my mind.

She loved Him. We love the Lord. We have these great intentions. And I think she had great plans of just seeking to help and minister to others like we do at times. But now in this moment, she's unfortunately sinning to do it. So have you ever been there? Anybody want to say guilty?

Guilty! Been there so many times I can't even tell you. We start out with the greatest of intentions. We really want to serve people and then we end up sinning in the process. So I know we've all been there and we've just fallen into the same trap. We just get busy in our life.

We get caught up in the busyness of life or in the busyness of ministry. And you know how it is. You volunteer to do something. You know, you start out great. You volunteer to do that ministry task or you work hard at serving your families. And the problem is you have expectations of other people though within that context.

And when they don't rise to the occasion, we suddenly just find out, wow, there's just no joy doing this anymore. There's no peace. I'm just really anxious and upset. So I would say that while it's true that there were cultural expectations of Martha in that day as there are in our own roles as wives and mothers and daughters, sisters, students, employees, I think probably the bigger thing was probably just the self-imposed expectations that she placed upon herself.

So that might be something you can think through with somebody that's anxious. Maybe that's the issue. They've really just self-imposed some things. And let's just kind of talk through that a little bit. You know, you can ask her, what are some things that you were hoping or wanting that you're not getting?

And you know, in Martha's case, do you see in the text anywhere that she ever asked Mary for help? Did she ever ask? I mean, she just expected, right? She didn't actually ask her. So it's possible that she just expected Mary to help, which would have probably been expected in that day.

But when Mary didn't rise to the occasion, Martha just lost it. So it's yielding sinful anger at this point. And her distraction over much serving made something other than Jesus the focus of her heart. And that's the problem. Jesus is no longer the focus of your attention and your heart.

It's more centered on self. But you know, thankfully, we have this gentle rebuke that Jesus, who is all wise and all knowing, gives us in verse 49. And look, or verse 41, look at that again. What is he saying? He says, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious, or we could say worried and bothered about so many things.

But only one thing is necessary for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her." The word that Jesus uses for anxious is the same word that we've been learning about. It means to care for or to be concerned about some kind of future event.

And that's what Martha was really intently concerned about. She was intently concerned about getting this dinner on the table, probably. And so, you know, I would say, hmm, probably started off as godly concern. You know, we're wanting to serve others. I could see how that would be a part of what we do.

But in that process of godly concern, it just kind of manifested into ingodly concern. The same word that Jesus uses for anxiety in verse 31 also appears in Luke 12, 22. And in the same way there, as Jesus exhorts Martha in Luke, he's exhorting his disciples not to be anxious about their life.

It might be a passage that you're familiar with. But he tells them, too, that they ought to be, instead of being anxious about your life, what we ought to be doing is we ought to be seeking the kingdom. And all those things that we're so worried about, like food and clothing and all those things, would be added unto us.

And that's something that you can emphasize with people that you want to help. You know, take them to great passages like Luke 12 or take them to great passages like Matthew 6, and let's just see what Jesus says about the issue. I mean, he talks about the Lord cares for two little birds.

Don't you think he's going to care for you? You know, and you can kind of walk them through that practically. And that's just something that we need to emphasize. And you know, by the way, when you worry about your life, does it add anything to your life, positively speaking?

What do you think? Does it add even any—how about, does it add gray hair to your life? Does it add ulcers to your life? Does it keep you up at night? Sleepless nights, I mean? Man, it doesn't add anything well to our lives in a positive way. It only adds trouble when we worry about our life.

So Proverbs 27, 15, "Do not boast about tomorrow, for you don't know what a day will bring." So live in the present. Trust the Lord for what he gives you today. And the right course would be to seek his kingdom first, and God will see to the other things, which is what Jesus speaks to us as we read that entire narrative, if you get a chance, in your own just time in Luke 12.

But kind of getting back to our text, Jesus is really communicating the same principle to Martha as he did to his disciples in Luke 12. You know, really, Martha, you know, instead of being anxious—you know, you can put your name in there, really, Shelby, instead of being anxious, there's really only one thing that's necessary.

Look at your sister. She's chosen the good portion, or the good part, which isn't going to be taken away from her. And probably Martha was taken aback by that a little bit, by that response, because she probably believed that she was really doing the right thing. And she started out doing the right thing, for sure, so she was probably taken aback.

And of course, you know, Jesus is admonishing her here. So we talked about admonishment last night, right? So here's an example of when Jesus admonished somebody. But in this case, it's a gentle rebuke. He's trying to encourage her in that, you know, she is being anxious. And so he is trying to help penetrate straight to her heart, and I'm sure it did.

And the reason why I know it did is because she did another dinner about eight months later. Okay? And you can read about that on your own in John 12. But when she had this dinner, Jesus came again to visit Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, and it was six days before his Passover, or six days before the last Passover of his earthly life.

And so they gave another dinner, and while the disciples were there and Martha served, Mary was anointing Jesus' feet. You recall that passage, when Mary did that? And who was complaining? Do you remember Martha complaining during that dinner? Do you remember who was complaining? Who was complaining about that anointment, the perfume?

Judas, right? Yeah. He was the one that was complaining. But Martha, on the other hand, she was holding her peace. She wasn't anxious. She appeared quite content to serve the Lord. And the reason why is because she understood, finally, the importance of the occasion, because in a very short time, Christ would be crucified.

You know, this narrative here, although it's small, and it's really taken from one day in a life of a woman, it has such huge impacts. It had a huge impact on me personally when I first studied it, but it has a huge impact on women if you really take the time to study it deeply.

I remember, just on a personal note, that where it had an impact on me was when my husband, back in 2008, if, you know, a lot of you are so young, you might have been really little, but for those of you that are married and were around in 2008, we went through a recession in California.

You recall? My husband's an electrical contractor, and he was out of work for an entire year. And that's pretty devastating in the state of California, because it's so expensive to live here, right? I wasn't working at the time. I was home, still raising a daughter that was in junior high at the time.

And so when that happened, I became anxious over my life. And the reason why is because I was more focused on losing earthly treasure, right? Because you start thinking, like, ridiculous thoughts, like, you know, am I going to be thrown out? You know, am I going to be homeless?

Am I going to, you know, you just, you start getting very exaggerated in your thinking. And that was really, literally dragging me away from the most important treasure in my life, which is Christ. And so I had to sit at Christ's feet, and I had to repent of that idolatry, because that's what was driving the anxiety in my life.

And I had to allow Christ to minister to me at a heart level. And that's what's so wonderful about spending time with the Lord, because He becomes your anchor in the storm. And He is that to many, many people, of course, and was to me as well. So that's definitely an important passage that I would take a woman to if she's steeped pretty strongly in anxiety.

I'd want to minister to her, because Jesus is ministering to her and to both of them, and it's just a good thing to look at. But in addition to Luke 10, another great text that we can turn to and kind of look on this issue of anxiety is Matthew 6.

So let's turn there for a minute and kind of center your eyes on verses 25, and I'll take it through to 34. We'll just kind of take a brief look, but it's just a great passage, again, for you to think through and study this portion of Christ. This is part of the Sermon of the Mount that you can apply to your own life.

But the first thing I want to point out is that worrying or being anxious is just so unproductive in our life. That would be the first thing. So let's look at Matthew 6, 25 to 34, and I'm going to read—by the time you kind of get to verse 25, He's really telling the crowd and the disciples and all of us why being anxious is just foolish.

And the first reason He gives why it's foolish comes out in verse 27, where He says, "And who of you, by being worried, can add even a single hour to his life?" And of course, I already kind of made a joke about that, but He's just saying, you know, all this worrying and all this anxiety that we engage in accomplishes absolutely nothing.

It really doesn't. It just works you up, and like we said, it leads to things, complicated issues in our life, conflict, physical issues. I see that. When people come in and see me and they're just—and anxiety is their thing—usually they're not sleeping, and that can cause other problems, because if you get a person that's just not sleeping, it usually manifests into depression and things like that.

It spirals. And, you know, they're just struggling so much. But anyway, if we jump down to 34, let's see what Jesus says there. He says, "So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." And so what we learn there is that anxiety or worry is really unproductive because it's a thief of your time.

Just think about how much time you've lost when you've sat there and really worried about something. You know, I mean, it's such a bummer when we think through that. And again, kind of pointing back to my own testimony when my husband lost his job—and by the way, he's doing fine now, but like 15 years ago—I lost a lot of time worrying about my life because I was so consumed with just thinking and dwelling on all of these what-ifs.

And I would be willing to bet that a lot of you are probably consumed that way, and you probably have friends in your life that are the same. It's just a common thing that we do. So it's very unproductive because it's a thief of your time. It's also very unnecessary.

So let's look at verses 28 to 30 now. Jesus says, "And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow. They do not toil, nor do they spin. Yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these.

But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?" And so Jesus is just saying there that worrying or being anxious about your life is just unnecessary because God is completely able and He's completely trustworthy to provide for your needs.

So why do you fret over things that you're going to wear or eat or drink, you know, specifically in the passage? I mean, don't you believe that God's concerned for you? Don't you believe that? So a lot of times when we struggle this way, it's really the sin of unbelief, right?

Because we're failing to believe that God is good and that God is sovereign and that God is trustworthy. That's where a lot of that comes from. But don't you believe that God is concerned for you and He's more than able to take care of those things. In fact, it kind of comes to mind when I think about things like this is 1 Peter 5, 7 when Peter says, "Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and He will exalt you in due time by casting your cares on Him who cares for you." And so when we don't cast our cares on our sovereign Lord, we're actually struggling with pride in that way because we're trying to take care of things in our own strength and we succumb to that ungodly concern.

So it's really about the sin of unbelief at times. The point three there, Jesus says that anxiety is foolish because it's unbecoming. And the reason why is because it focuses on what one doesn't have. And so let's look at verses 31 to 32 now. Do not worry then saying, "What will we eat or what will we drink or what will we wear for clothing?

For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things, for your heavenly Father knows that you need all those things." And so He's just trying to point out that being anxious about what you're going to eat or drink is really a focus on earthly values. You're really kind of focused just on things that aren't eternal.

And sometimes with the issue of anxiety or worry, it stems from the fact that your focus is too much on earthly treasure or the gifts and not the giver, we would say. And it's also very unbecoming because when you engage in sinful anxiety, you act as if you have no hope.

And that's a problem, right? Because of course we have hope. We have Christ. So kind of to sum up here, here are just some truths I gleaned from my study of Luke and Matthew as far as sinful anxiety. I'm pretty sure it's on your outline. I didn't look, but let's see how it goes.

The first thing is that I know I'm being anxious, sinfully anxious anyway, when my thoughts are focused on trying to change the future. So when you're doing heart examination, you can think through that because in many situations, women are leaning too much on their own understanding and they look for ways to get out of the mess they're in and they expend a lot of energy trying to solve things in their own strength versus seeking God's kingdom first and sitting at Jesus' feet and learning from His word and praying especially.

It really exhibits a low view of God when you're not doing that because you forget that He's sovereign and in control. Secondly, as we've just discussed, you'll know that you are anxious when you recognize that your thoughts are just simply unproductive. You know, when you start examining your thought life, you know, maybe you are allowing yourself to go into the land of what ifs.

I mean, am I just making this up? Do you guys go into the land of what ifs when you're anxious? We just create these negative scenarios that aren't true and we just envision all these horrible things that are going to happen to us that just aren't true. And at the heart level, that's a struggle again with wanting to trust the Lord and wanting to be in control.

So remember, notice the first two things I talked about, that has to do with your thinking. So again, the battle is in the mind as far as that goes. Thirdly, anxiety controls you instead of you controlling it. You ever notice that? It's a very controlling thing. It can be controlling like it controlled Martha because it can dictate the next move that you make.

When you succumb to it, it will dictate your next move. And then fourth, being anxious could actually lead you to neglect your responsibilities and your relationships. When you're consumed with yourself and have anxiety, you're more than likely exhausted and you're very distracted and so you're really not serving, you're neglecting responsibilities and that can be in a whole bunch of ways.

It could be at home, it could be at church, whatever, but it can lead to other things. And then five, anxiety can just damage your body physically. That's something to kind of think through. Excessive anxiety really does manifest into physical problems. We are body-soul creatures. Physical problems will have an impact on your physical body and vice versa, but this is a spiritual issue and it will manifest into a physical issue.

And I just named a few, but I know there's all kinds of things. If you're chronically fatigued, that is a manifestation of being simply anxious. If you have trouble just even with insomnia, just not sleeping, that could be a reason. Anxiety can also lead to a loss of hope.

So instead of finding answers, you spend your time worrying and fretting about your future rather than looking to Christ for your hope in his word. And when you don't do that, you feel hopeless. And so that can be a really scary place for many people because it can lead them into suicidal thinking.

I actually lost a friend to suicide because of that. They just let their thoughts consume them and they just didn't deal with it and it took them down the wrong road. So you've got to be careful. So we spent a great deal of time discussing how anxiety is defined in the Bible.

It can be a godly concern. It can be an ungodly concern. But for our purposes today, I want to just take a closer look at how sinful anxiety and ungodly concern manifest in a life of a woman. That's why we looked at Martha and how Jesus responded to her.

And now we're just going to kind of end our time with good old-fashioned applications. So turn to go back to Philippians 4. What kind of biblical counselor would I be if I didn't give you practical application, right? All right. So let's look at Philippians 4. This will be super helpful.

Something that I talk to counselees about constantly and from my own heart as well. Okay. Starting in verse 4 of Philippians 4. "Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things and the peace of God will be with you." Okay. So really quick. First point, right response. We need to have a right response to and an awareness of God. That's what verses 4 to 5 is talking about.

Instead of succumbing to anxiety, we're to have a right response and an awareness to God. Paul is calling the believer to rejoice in the Lord twice, which is really a present active imperative, which means it's a command. And so all of us, as we know, to rejoice simply means to be glad or to welcome.

And he's really emphasizing that by saying it twice. So even when you are faced with difficulty, you can encourage others, yourself to rejoice and just let your reasonableness be known to everyone because the Lord is at hand. And what he's saying there is he's saying, "Look, the Lord is omnipresent.

He is near to you. His nearness is your good." So instead of being caught up in this anxious thinking, you need to stop and you need to have a right awareness. I mean, my goodness, why are you living as if the Lord is not near? Because that's really the issue.

But rather you can rejoice in the fact that he is near and so you can let that reasonableness be known. That's having a right view. Just trying to train someone to have a right view, even when they're in trial. We can have joy in trials. We're not all so excited to be in a trial, but we can have joy in the trial because theologically we know that God is working through the trial and he's there to provide a way of escape.

The next one is right praying. That's where verses six to seven comes in. You are to have right praying. Verse six begins with another command. It says, "Do not be anxious," similar to what Jesus taught in Sermon on the Mount. But in this case, the believer is being called to put off anxiousness and to instead put on prayer with thanksgiving.

Okay? So as we lay aside our anxiety and renew our mind in the scriptures, we put on prayer with thanksgiving and that means to have gratitude at a heart level to the Father. There are so many things we can be thankful for, ladies. Can you imagine? What if we just sat here for the next hour and just wrote out lists of all the things we're thankful for?

You think you'd have some things to say? And that's kind of what he's talking about. Too often when we're in trials, we just get very self-focused and we lack gratitude, quite frankly. It gets to be too much about you. But if you can have right praying, what follows is peace.

And that's that divine peace from God which excels our understanding and guards our hearts in Christ. It's kind of a military term. It just kind of implies that peace is standing on duty to keep out anything that brings ungodly concern. The next thing in verse eight is he says you must have right dwelling.

And so you've got all of those wonderful commands in verse eight that tell you how to think. You want to think true thoughts and honorable thoughts and just thoughts and lovely thoughts and commendable thoughts and excellent thoughts and worthy of praise thoughts. Those are actually the standards for Christian thinking.

So that's important to emphasize in your own life. You can make that super practical. I wish we kind of had time to do that. Maybe I have that set up in the questions you're going to go through together. But that's just important. Let's just talk about how to apply that.

And I'm not talking about cognitive behavioral therapy because they'll try to train you to think differently. I'm talking about getting at the heart level and really, really being able to renew your mind because that's what the Holy Spirit does is he renews your mind and helps you to do those things.

And so not only are we to have a right response. So you know you're tempted to be anxious. So you start thinking about how can I have a right response. I need to think, have a right view of God, have an awareness of God. I need to pray, have right praying.

I need to begin to dwell on right things because your mind is beginning to go into the land of what ifs. And then finally Paul says we're to put on a right practice. And that's where verse 9 comes in. Paul is saying not only are we to learn these things, but we're to practice these things.

So it's not just intellectual stuff. We're actually to put this into practice. And so make sure that when you are applying this to your life that you are actually practicing and walking out these truths, actually doing it. Try to make it as practical as you can. Okay. Man, covered a lot in the probably a little less than an hour.

I didn't want to go as long this time. I don't want you guys to fall asleep on me. But that's just some practical stuff. And I think probably where this is really going to hit home is just you in your groups kind of talking some of these things out.

And let's see how many questions I've got for you this time. Let's see. For the bitterness talk, we have what? I think it's what page is it on? It's on page 22, right? Not too bad. So you've got a couple to work through there. You're going to read some scripture and you're just going to dialogue about forgiveness.

And then there's a good scenario for you. The second question for bitterness. I think that'd be neat for you to really take time to really talk through that because that would be sort of a common thing that you would run into. And then on page 29 is the questions for anxiety.

And you get to talk with each other about ways you're tempted to be anxious and how you can actually put what we just talked about, the Philippians 4 passage into practice. So I'm hoping that you're going to get that far.