Welcome to a firm foundation presented by Princeton Ministries with Dr. Ken Smith. This is Carol Smith, Ken’s wife. Please enjoy.

Paul says, be anxious for nothing, 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 minds through Jesus Christ. Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report. If there is any virtue, and if there is anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do. And the God of peace will be with you. Our God and our Father, we ask you now that you would watch over our hearts, that you would cause us to reflect upon those experiences and events in our own lives that cause us to be anxious.

And, Father, help us to take this precious word, and by the power of your holy spirit, that you would cause us to be men and women who can take this teaching of the apostle Paul, that we would be able to be anxious for nothing. Father, we know that this is not possible on our own. So we are asking that your spirit would imprint this truth in our lives, for we ask it in Jesus name. Amen. Anne Landers receives over 10,000 letters a month. And some reporter recently asked her, is there one problem that seems to be above all of the others? Her answer, people are afraid of losing their health. People are afraid of losing their wealth. People are afraid of losing their loved ones. People are afraid of life in general. There was a study done by a private foundation for children.

What is it that our children are thinking about? What concerns them? They found that two thirds of our children are afraid that there is someone who is bad, who is waiting out there to strike them. One fourth of our children are afraid to go out of doors because of the things that they are frightened of among their friends, in the classroom and on the streets. And it seems that we’re living in an age where everyone is full of cares, that we are living in an age of great anxiety. Just this week I spoke with a businessman. He told me that in his business, large firm, there’ll be 1000 people laid off. Does that make you anxious? A bit? How many of us are anxious about how our children are going to turn out?

How many of us are anxious about how that course that you’re taking is going to turn out? How many of us are anxious about how our marriages are going to turn out? How many of us are anxious about our finances? Is anyone anxious about your retirement? There’s hardly an area that we can mention for which anxiety is not the characteristic word. To help us explain the feeling that’s going on inside of our hearts and in our minds, the apostle Paul in Philippians chapter four, verse six says to us, do you know all those things that make you anxious? Make a list of them. Two things, five things, a hundred things. Take them all. And the apostle Paul says, be anxious for some of them. Be anxious for all of them. No, he says, be anxious for none of them. Anxiety is a feeling.

It is something that crosses our mind routinely. It comes from a Greek word which means to be drawn in different directions. It has the meaning of being distracted by a thought. Have you ever had an event that at night as you lay your head on the pillow, it goes around and around and there you are on this merry-go-round, ever increasing in velocity, and you wonder, how do we get off of this merry-go-round? Why am I so anxious? We’re able to identify anxiety in ourselves. But I wonder how many christians identify anxiety as a sin, anxiety as a basic disagreement with God and questioning whether or not God truly has a plan that he’s working out in your life.

If ever there was an emotion that has never produced a solution, that has never given wise counsel, and yet seems to hover around every decision that we make, it’s anxiety. What is it that you are most anxious about? Jesus said; therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, nor about the body, what you will put on. Life is more than food and the body is more than clothing. Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, which have neither storehouse nor barn, and God feeds them. Oh, how much more value are you than these birds? And which of you by worrying can add one qubit to your stature? If you then are not able to do the least, why are you anxious for the rest?

It seems that we live in a generation that is not interested about today, certainly does not reflect upon the blessing of yesterday with thanksgiving, but seems to be preoccupied on the uncertainties of what’s going to happen tomorrow. Have you ever sat in a committee meeting, a board meeting, and what happens? Do we focus upon the things that God is doing now? Do we look back with great thanksgiving at what God has done in the past? Or do we nervously look to the future and begin to ask all manner of questions that no one can answer? And then we become preoccupied with anxious thoughts. The apostle Paul is very concerned that as christians we not be anxious about tomorrow. As a matter of fact, that we not be anxious about anything. And the reason is that anxiety is a destructive force in our lives.

One reason that it is destructive is because it makes us double minded. It helps us to create a list of excuses why we will not be able to do something tomorrow, and more specifically, why I can’t help you today, because tomorrow I’ve got so many things to worry about. In Luke, chapter 14, the great parable of a great banquet that is going to occur, the Lord had given the message to send people out with the great invitation. But the people to whom they went were double minded. And what happened as a result? Well, when they were invited to this great feast, the first said, I’ve bought a piece of ground and I must go to see it. I asked to be excused. Another said, I’ve bought five yoke of oxen and I’m going to test them. I ask to be excused.

And still another said, I’ve married a wife and therefore I can’t come. And so today was filled with excuses why they were not able to go to the great banquet of the king, because of anticipation and anxiety over things that were going to come tomorrow or next week or next year. Our Lord teaches that anxiety on the part of a Christian chokes our faith. Do you remember the parable of the sower? The third seed grows well, it grows high. People look at it and they marvel at all the abundance of the greenery and the size. But Jesus said as time went by that third seed, it was actually sown among the cares of this world. It was sown among a mind that was more consumed about this life than the next life.

And so that seed, which seemed to start out so well, was choked because of the cares of this world. And it’s the same word that is used, anxiety. But there is another reason that anxiety is such a destructive force in the life of a Christian, and that is that it simply deceives us. As you become anxious, you build into your life a way of looking at decisions and people and events that forget the promises of the Lord. In Luke 21, verse 34, Jesus is teaching about when he will return. Now you would think, well, here’s a group of Christians. They are certainly wanting to know, when is the Lord going to return? Here we are in the midst of 1986, living as Christians, and certainly one of the things that is of greatest interest to us is when is Jesus Christ going to return?

That certainly will fill my heart with joy and hope. Well, Jesus said, take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing drunkenness and the cares or anxieties of this life. You mean to say it’s possible as a Christian not to be filled with the hope of going to heaven, the hope of what the Lord Jesus Christ is going to do when he returns? Because I am so full of anxiety? That’s exactly right. And there is many a Christian today who lacks joy, who has little hope. But if you ask them what is it that you’re anxious about, they can tell you and fill your ear for hours about the things that produce anxiety in their life. There are two things I’ve noticed about anxiety in the life of those who profess to follow Jesus Christ.

One is that very often anxiety, the cares of this life, as they become greater and greater in your life, they begin to produce a prayerless Christianity, a worship less Christianity, a witness less Christianity, that the cares become so great that when you are encouraged to pray with other christians to serve a needy world in the name of Jesus Christ? I’d love to do it, but I’ve got such a problem with my children. I’ve got such a problem that I don’t know exactly how it’s going to turn out, but I’ll tell you in six months. Get back to me, and I’m sure I can be used to you then. How many christians have become derailed in usefulness to the Lord because of anxiety about what is going to happen tomorrow?

But I’ve also noticed that anxiety in the cares of this world, which we all experience every day of our lives for another group of christians, becomes the source of greater devotion to the Lord, of a deeper walk with Jesus Christ. For this Christian, they’re able to say, here is anxiety, a care in my life. Am I going to focus on tomorrow and the next day and next month, or am I going to do as the Lord asked me to pray with thanksgiving? You see, the very thing that we don’t want to do is what the Lord asks us to do and the very quality of prayer and service and worship, the very things that anxiety often creates and prevents christians from coming to pray and to worship and to witness for another group.

Those emotions of anxiety become the very source for wanting to pray more and to be with God’s people more and to worship the Lord and to serve him. I remember before I became a Christian, I was a very anxious person. I remember being anxious about, will I get through high school? And if anybody had a question for me, I’d say, well, you have to wait three or four years before I’ll be able to really get my life focused because I’ve got to get through logarithms. And then the question was getting through college. Well, I’ll really be of service, and I’ll really be able to have my life on track when I get through this experience of four years at college. There are many people who continue to create such obstacles to ever getting their life on track.

Well, I’ve got to go to graduate school. It’s only going to be a year, but when I’m finished with graduate school, then my life is really going to be dead center. Gee, I’m out of graduate school. I’ve got to find a job. You know how hard the application process is. It’s so tough to find a job. Please don’t expect me to be of much help to you right now. But once I get my job lined up, well, now that I’ve got my job lined up, you know, I’ve got to work an extra 15, 20 hours a week. All my nights are gone. Overtime’s killing me. But that’s going to end in six months. Then I can help you.

And so we go from one obstacle to another with the illusion that someday we’re going to get our life on track until finally we reach retirement. And we’re so busy in retirement that all that we can say to the Lord is, I’m sure you have a place for me in the choir. When I get to heaven, there is a danger in looking at our life and thinking that in a year or five, it’s all going to fall into place. The apostle Paul wants us to be anxious for nothing. Not tomorrow, next year, but today. Be anxious for nothing. This was brought home to me this week with a 20 month baby. There are things that happen for which you become anxious. And Mary had turned over a cup of milk, and I said, mary, we have to clean that up.

So we cleaned up the little glass of milk, gave her another glass, said, mary, here. Here’s a glass of milk for you. Just say please, and I’ll give it to you. She looked at me, and she was silent. Said, mary, just say please. Have a glass of milk. Nose, eye, ear, light bulb. No, Mary, just say please. Just one little word. Please. Daddy, mommy. Mandible. Say, mary, just say please. Do you know what happened? I began to feel anxious. I began to think, well, this little child is involved in a power struggle. She wants to take over the house. Well, I’m not going to give in. Mary, say please. And so for a good part of an hour. Say please. She never said please. An hour later, I went back in. Mary, say please. And this little soft voice said, please, daddy.

And I thought to myself, well, we’ve solved that problem. But then we woke up in the morning and just testing. Mary, say please. Nose, eye. And I was filled with anxiety. I was worried because here is this delicate little child, and certainly as a parent, you don’t want to do anything that’s going to hurt that child. At the same time, you don’t want them to go too far and to become undisciplined. Was this a critical moment in her development? So what did I do? I did like everyone would do. I called James Dobson and I said, here’s a situation, and I’m really anxious about it. They said, you know, the best thing to do. Don’t be anxious. Just forget it. So I called home. I said, forget it, carol. Forget the please.

And as soon as we did, she went back to her normal personality. But it was a living example to me of feeling that tension, that pulling, that sense of, I know I’m supposed to do something, but I’ve got two or three opposing thoughts and I’m confused and I’m anxious. Can you identify that in your life? Do you know when that’s happening? Well, let me suggest, if you’re able to identify that feeling, that the apostle Paul gives us a solution. He says in verse six, in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God, and the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Have you learned in the middle of your anxiety to do the thing that is hardest? And that is, we are told to pray.

There is something about prayer in the midst of great anxiety, where you come apart and you say, lord, I acknowledge your presence. I ask you to watch over me, give me wisdom. Take this double mindedness away. Help me. There is something about those words and the attitude of prayer in the midst of the most anxious moment that is able to step in and to begin to put things in order in a way that nothing else is able. If you say, I’ve been anxious for years, then there’s something I am sure that you have never done, and that is you have not. In the midst of your anxiety, said, lord, I acknowledge this as sin. I ask for your forgiveness. Please help me. Usually we do anything but that.

The apostle Paul tells us, be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God. He is instructing us in prayer. If you went to a military school, I would expect you to become a good soldier. If you went to law school, I would expect that you would know law. But if you come to the school of Jesus Christ and his church, then I would expect you to be a prayer, to be a person who knows, to pray, to be able to call your family together and pray when you privately face anxious moments in your prayer closet, privately, to be able to pray to the Lord, to ask for his assistance. At a breakfast this week, I was talking to a businessman about this portion of scripture.

He asked me what I was going to be teaching on. I said, well, I’ll be in Ephesians four. He said, oh, that’s my omadto. He said, when in a fix, Ephesians four six. When in a fix, Ephesians four six. When feeling anxious, what should I do in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God, and he will answer your prayer just as you prayed. That’s not what the scripture says. The scripture does not say, if you pray at that moment of anxiety, it’s all going to turn out exactly as you want it. The scripture does not say that, but rather the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your heart and mind through Jesus Christ. And so what is the answer to christian prayer?

The true answer to christian prayer is not to be able to say, I prayed about this and look what happened. The greatest example of answer to christian prayer is I prayed and the peace of the Lord Jesus Christ is in my life. We have christians who are able to say, I prayed and look at the great building I constructed. I prayed and look at the thousands of people I prayed and look at my money. But I would ask you, prayed, do you have peace? Do you have the joy of the Lord? The apostle Paul was far more concerned with that quality in a Christian’s life of joy and peace. To know that in the midst of whatever it is that makes you most anxious, most fearful, most caring, that he says, I’ll give you my peace in the midst of that trial.

Finally, he says, my brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report. If there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, the God of peace will be with you. You mean to say, even though I am so articulate in being able to explain to you the anxieties of my life, and I know the anxieties of my life to a t. And if you were to ask me, I could construct a long list of the cares of this life that personally are difficult to cope with. You say, well, Ken, what do you do with those things? Well, I’m learning to forget those things.

The apostle Paul says, far better to forget that long list of the things that bother you that cause anxiety and fear and frustration, those problems. You say, well, then, what should I be thinking about? What should I sound like when I talk to people? Should I tell them the long story of all of the anxieties and fears of my life? The apostle Paul says, no, don’t do that. There’s something you can do. Whatever things are true. Is there anything noble in your life? Is there anything that is just in your life? Is there anything that is pure, anything that you would say is lovely? Anything that is a good report? If you can find answer to any of those questions, then let your mind and your tongue and your life talk about and live those things.

I was listening this morning to one of my favorite pastors, Ben Hayden. He told about a minister friend of his who was divorced, left his work, was so hurt that the only thing he could think about was going back home. He went back to Arkansas because there was a black lady who had raised them as a child. And there was something about that woman that everything that she ever talked about was always good, was always lovely. She always talked about the things that were a good report. She always seemed to see the hand of the Lord in every situation. He hadn’t seen this woman in decades. He went back, found her home, walked down the path, knocked on the door, and this aged voice had come in. He found Lucy in her bed, dying with cancer.

And he came and he simply told her of all the things that had happened, the tragedy, the anxieties, the fears that had driven him to say, where can I come? Who can I talk to? I’ll go see Lucy. And he thought to himself, here’s this woman who I used to laugh at, because she always saw the silver lining. She always was positive. She always seemed to trust that the Lord knew better than circumstances seemed to dictate. And I looked at that lady, and what did she say? She said, what a great day this is. You’ve come to see me. And he thought to himself, but you’ve got cancer. Your husband left you years ago. You live in this little shack. You’ve got a lot of anxieties, fears, hurts.

You mean the only thing that you can say to me is, I’m so glad you came. You made my day. It could well be in your life and in mine that there have been so many things that cause anxiety and fear and hurt that the only thing that we’re able to take out of the ashes is the fact that someone came. But the apostle Paul says, you think on those things and you talk about those things and you live your life thinking and living not about the anxieties, the fears, but about the hope of the Lord and the good things. Remember a woman named Lucy. I hope and pray that your life as a Christian is like a Lucy to bring joy to others. Let us pray. Our God and our Father.

Each of us lives with our own anxieties and fears, cares of this world. Father, help us to see that there’s a better way, there is a higher ground. That Jesus walked that path. He was able to forgive us even though we would spit at him. Father, we ask that you would help us to take this wonderful promise that we can be anxious for nothing. But instead, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, we can make all of our requests known to you and to know that the peace of God, which does pass all understanding, will fill our hearts and our minds through Christ Jesus. Help us, Lord, not to be anxious, but instead to anticipate the good things that you will do tomorrow. And Father, that our life would be one of hope to the end, that Jesus Christ would be honored. We give you thanks in his name. Amen.

Thank you for listening to a firm foundation presented by Princeton Ministries. This programming is supported by you, the listener. You may go to our website, princetonministries.org, or send your donation to Princeton Ministries Post office box 2171, Princeton, New Jersey 8543. That’s Princeton Ministries Post Office Box 2171, Princeton, New Jersey 8543. The Lord bless you and Dr. Smith looks forward to hearing from you. We would like to thank Rones web development company for making this webcast possible. You can find their link at the bottom of our website, princetonministries.org.