How much would you pay someone if they could
absolutely guarantee a solution to all your worries?
In other words, you would never, ever have to
worry again about anything. Does this sound impossible?
It's not, and that's today. Welcome to this edition
of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Our mission
is to inspire Christians to be genuine followers
of Jesus and to empower them to be active disciple
-makers in our world. Thanks for joining us as
we continue our series, I Choose Peace, How to
Quiet Your Heart in the Chaos of Life. Today,
Chip dives into one of the more notable passages
in the New Testament and reveals that even in
the most painful, agonizing seasons of life,
we can have supernatural peace. So if you're
ready to experience that, go to Philippians chapter
4, verse 6, as we settle in for Chip's talk in
anxious moments. It is well with my soul. It
is well with my soul. You can't sing a song like
that and not pause just to ask, how's it going
with your soul? I mean, is it well? When you
think of the fears, the frustrations, the thoughts
about the future. How are you doing? Song's really
powerful, but the story behind it might be more
powerful. It was first sung in 1876. It was written
by Horatio Spadford. He was an attorney that
did well in investments in Chicago. He was a
close personal friend of a guy named D .L. Moody,
who was an evangelist of an earlier century.
In 1871, There was a fire in Chicago. It's called
the Great Chicago Fire. And he lost almost all
of his holdings, all of investments. So any of
you that have ever gone broke, that's where he
was. And as he began to build his life up again,
he just felt like, you know, we need to pause
for a moment. He said to his wife, and he had
four daughters, I want you to get on the ship.
We'll all go together. Let's get a couple months
away to get perspective in Europe. I was just
ready to get on the ship, and there was a zoning
problem with some property, and so he had to
stay behind for a few days. He says, I'll catch
the next ship. It is now a famous telegraph.
The ship with his wife and his four daughters
was hit by another ship at sea. It went down,
and he received from his wife a telegram that
says, saved alone. All four of his daughters
died in that shipwreck. A very few weeks later,
he was on a second ship to meet his wife. And
when he came to the place where the two ships
collided, the captain brought him and said, this
is about the place where you lost your daughters.
And the words that we sang earlier is as he looked
out over the ocean with the spirit of God speaking
into the deepest parts of his hurt and his pain
and his loss, he said, when peace like a river.
It's well with my soul. Like see billows roll.
It is well with my soul. And I don't know about
you, but it seems humanly impossible to lose
everything financially, lose four of your daughters,
and to honestly and sincerely say, it is well
with your soul. And yet, if you'll notice on
the front of your teaching handout, that is exactly
what Jesus promised his early disciples. and
Horatio Spafford is just one person among millions
over the last couple millennia, have experienced
the Spirit of God to do something inside of them
that is beyond any human understanding. The last
night Jesus with his disciples said to them,
I have told you these things so that in me that
you might have peace. In the world you'll have
trouble, tribulations, but take heart, I have
overcome the world. This isn't theory here. We've
had 10 memorial services in the last 30 days
in our church. There's people all around you
that have lost a mom, a dad, a grandpa, a child.
And that's not unique. Everyone in this room,
right? We have our issues. But we can choose
peace. But how do you choose peace in moments
of extraordinary anxiety? That's what we're going
to learn. As we do, sometimes you have to learn
a little bit about the problem before you can
solve it. So let's do a little research together.
What exactly is anxiety? A textbook definition,
it's uneasiness, apprehension, dread, concern,
tension, restlessness, and worry. The anxious
individual often anticipates misfortune, danger,
or doom. We don't need that definition. That
kind of describes where a lot of us are multiple
times a week at times. The biblical word for
anxiety literally means to take thought. It can
be used in a positive way like taking thought
for something positively, but mostly it's used
in the New Testament for taking thought as being
obsessed with something. You can't get your mind
off of it. The German word comes from the word
to choke or to strangle, and anxiety at its heart
has the idea inside your mind of being pulled
in two different directions. What makes us anxious
or causes it is fear of the future. This is probably
the most common one. Fear of failure, fear of
another terrorist attack, fear of an economic
downturn, fear that your kids won't turn out
right, fear you'll be single the rest of your
life, fear that the marriage that you're in is
never going to get any better, fear of rejection,
fear of abandonment, you name it. For others,
anxiety is produced by conflict in the present,
conflict in your marriage, conflict with a friend,
conflict at work, conflict with a neighbor, conflict
with one of your kids, conflict with your in
-laws. A third cause for anxiety is, in the past,
regret. There's times when things are just going
well and you're just driving in your car and
out of the blue, you remember, oh my, what you
did back then that you hope no one ever finds
out. Or for some of us, we came to know Christ
later in life and we made some mistakes and there's
issues with some of our kids or some things about
our life that we can't change and we just start
getting overwhelmed with, I blew it, I blew it,
I blew it, and it produces this anxiety. Anxiety
isn't just a little thing to take a pill. Anxiety
can ruin your life. I have a friend who's a professor,
a medical doctor, and he wrote a textbook on
psychological disorders. Here's a list of things
that anxiety produces in us mentally, spiritually,
and emotionally. makes people hyper -alert, irritable,
fidgety, over -dependent, insomnia, talkative,
poor memory, fainting episodes, excessive perspiration,
muscle tension, headaches, including migraines,
quivering voice, hyperventilation, abdominal
pain, nausea, diarrhea, high blood pressure.
I don't know about you, but that list alone tells
me I don't know how to get rid of anxiety, but
I want to get rid of it in a hurry, right? So
that's the issue. How do you overcome anxiety?
There's many of you this last week, you woke
up at 2 .11 and then 3 .05 or 4 .07 and you're
thinking about the future and your mind, it goes
over and over and over again and you're very
fearful about something or you're in conflict
with someone and the stomach acid is going around.
How does that change? That's what we're gonna
learn. Open your notes. I wanna tell you that
you simply do not have to live as an anxious
person. It is possible to absolutely be at peace
in the midst of horrendous, difficult, and uncertain
times. Jesus promised it. My peace I give to
you. You might jot on the very top of your notes
1 Peter 5 -7. Peter would make a command and
he would say, cast all your burdens upon the
Lord because he cares for you. And the burdens
are cares. It's the picture of like a 9 or 10
-year -old boy coming home on Friday, and he's
got his backpack, and he takes his backpack,
and he throws it to the corner and goes, wow,
no homework. Weekend. Literally. And you know
what? He doesn't go in and go, oh, I wonder if
I've got something to do later. He's 8 years
old. He just takes it off. There's no homework.
Man, it's going to be fun. That's the picture
of... casting all your burdens on the Lord. Why?
He really cares for you. You give your problems,
your struggles, and anxiety to a personal God
who is in control, who's all wise, who's loving,
who's powerful, and you're the object of his
affection. And in Philippians chapter four, verses
six and seven, he will give you a specific game
plan that every time anxiety comes, and knocks
on the door of your heart, this game plan will
teach you that prayer can answer the door and
you can run into your father's arms and God will
give peace. You're going to learn that every
time anxiety knocks on the door of your heart,
that you literally can let prayer answer it and
then run into your father's arms. You're going
to learn. Do I need to say it again? I want you
to read the text silently as I read it out loud.
Command, do not be anxious about anything. Second
command, but in every situation by prayer and
petition with thanksgiving, present your request
to God. Promise, and the peace of God, which
transcends all understanding, will guard your
hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Now, if
you're a little bit new, we study the Bible together,
and so one of the questions we always ask before
we make application is, what does it actually
say? And by that, you need to make some observations.
The Word of God is living and active, sharper
than a two -edged sword, and it's truth. The
second question is after, what does it say? Well,
what does it actually mean? What did it mean
to its first century hearers, and what does it
mean to us? And then the last question that's
most important is, so, God, what do you want
me to do? How do I put this into practice? So
often, at least when I study, I will outline
the text. What I've laid out here for, I call
it a mechanical outline. Just like when you study
a poem or study Shakespeare and you want to grammatically
see what's happening in it. So what I've done
is I've taken it in the original language and
I've just literally put it in order so you can
see the grammar. You don't need to know the original
language, but in this particular case, it's interesting
that he takes a word completely out of order
to make his point. So notice, just when I lay
it, the first command is nothing be anxious about.
If you have a pen, put a little arrow and write
negative command in your notes. In other words,
we're commanded, literally, it's stop being anxious.
Stop worrying. It's not just a little thing.
It eats up your soul. It ruins your emotions.
It thwarts your relationships. It chokes the
life out of you. Stop worrying. And if it's a
command, that means there's got to be power and
a way to obey this command. Notice the positive
command. But in everything, He's going to give
us four specific words for prayer. After the
everything, put an arrow and put positive command.
In everything, by prayer, petition, with thanksgiving,
the request of you be made known unto God. There
are four words in the New Testament for prayer.
All four of them are right here. Here's what
I want you to know. When anxiety knocks on the
door of your heart, let prayer answer it, but
not just any kind of prayer. He's going to give
you a very clear, using all four words, there's
a specific way to pray that when you're anxious.
When you're fearful, when the stomach acid starts,
when you are awake and can't fall back to sleep,
when you have these scenarios where you're projecting
into the future how terrible and what's going
to happen, and that's your job, and your kids
aren't going to turn out right, and this is going
to happen, and your marriage will never get better,
and this thing at work is never going to change,
and the health issue is always going to go from
bad to worse. Once you start down that track,
there's a kind and there's a way to pray that
the Spirit of God will go. Hush. In fact, notice
what the promise is. The promise is that when
you pray, petition with thanksgiving, and you
make your request known to God, the peace of
God that's beyond human understanding will guard
your heart and your thoughts or literally your
minds. Circle the word guard. If you've ever
seen the little commercial, I like this commercial.
It's the one where the guy's in the bank. And
the robbers come in and everyone's on the floor.
And the lady looks up and says, do something.
He goes, oh, I'm not a security guard. I'm a
security monitor. I'm just monitoring. There's
a problem here. That's this word. He says, when
you pray like this, the spirit of God that gives
you a sense of peace and calm will literally
guard the deepest parts of your life and your
thinking. And in fact, what we're going to learn
is there's times when you lose your peace, when
you realize there's something wrong, that actually
it's like the red light on the dashboard of the
car. And what it tells you is that there's something
wrong under the hood. When you lose your peace,
there's something about your abiding in Christ,
your focus, your mind, your trust is off of Christ
and onto something else. And your loss of peace
is like, and it says he'll act as like an arbitrator.
a monitor, so that you can get back in line.
You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip
Ingram. We'll get back to today's message in
just a minute. But first, if you're wanting to
do a deeper study of Philippians chapter 4 with
Chip, check out his popular book, I Choose Peace.
You'll discover how to willfully and purposely
choose the peace that only God can offer. Stick
around after the broadcast to learn more. Well,
with that, here again is Chip. With that, let's
get to the application. Negatively, there's a
command. We've looked at them negatively and
positively. You'll notice there's four key words,
but it's the how and there's the promise, which
is the why. In your notes where it says negatively,
I would like you to write, stop worrying about
anything. Part of how our minds work, we see
it, we say it, we write it, it sticks. I just
saw a study by Harvard University recently that
talked about those graduates that actually wrote
down their goals were 80 % more likely to succeed.
I want you to write down, stop worrying. Don't
just sit here and listen. You're not passive.
This is about your life today in this moment.
Second, where it says positive command, I want
you to write, pray about everything. Because
we're going to, here's the thing. Some of us
have practiced being anxious most of our lives.
We learned it from our parents. Almost everyone
does it. We think that what you do, you know,
when you worry is you take a pill for this, a
pill for that. When you feel uptight, we'll turn
on the TV. For others, when you lose your peace,
you go shopping. For others, you know, it's been
really tough and you're uptight about things
and you're wondering. So, you know, one glass
of wine made you feel a little bit better and
about three makes you feel a lot better. Some
of you had a prescription for some back pain.
And when you get uptight now, you actually take
some of those pills, even though your back pain
was months ago gone and better. For others, some
of us, it's maybe a little bit more healthy.
You just work. The moment you feel anxious, you
just start working because you feel like you're
in control. At the heart of anxiety is life is
out of control and I can't handle this. So you
do something that gives you pseudo peace. For
many of us. It's just a trip to the refrigerator
when we're not really in need of calories. But
there's something about a bag of chips, a bag
of popcorn, some chocolate that just makes you
feel better for what? Right? 15 to 30 minutes.
There's all kind of ways that we address our
anxiety. Most of them aren't very helpful. And
then when we do a lot of those things, some of
you log on and surf. Some of you spend mindless
hours, not because you want to or need to. Because
it's just a distraction. Is there something wrong
inherently with doing some of those things? Absolutely
not. But when I'm doing that, because what I'm
really trying to do is get my mind off of this
gnawing anxiety, you're not letting the peace
of Christ rule in your heart and in your mind.
I mean, my confession is, my anxiety, you know,
ESPN. Somehow watching other people play games
makes me feel better for a half hour or get into
my work or go work out. Bad? Evil? I don't think
so. But when I do it, instead of letting prayer
answer the door and let God work in my life,
my heart, neither wise nor profitable. Now, what
I want you to see is that prayer answers the
door, but it's a very specific kind of prayer.
Like you, I have lots of challenges with anxiety.
I think we all do. And I think God would say,
okay, I want to teach you a way to pray. Because
I felt very anxious and, oh God, help, help,
help. God, God, God. And then I just pick up
the backpack and put the burdens right back on.
So I want to walk through these four specific
words. You practice this. And you do not have
to be anxious. The first word is prayer. It's
the most common word of the New Testament in
prayer. It has the idea of turning in the moment
you feel anxious, it's turning my thoughts and
my feelings upward. It's getting an upward focus.
It's adoration. It's pausing and recognizing,
wait a second, in the midst of these struggles
right now, I want to get my focus on who is God?
Worship. I actually have more than a few struggles
with anxiety. I tend to juggle a few more balls
than I can really juggle, trying to accomplish
more than I'm really capable of. And as a result
of that, you know, I don't know about you, but
you can wake up. And if you wake up, and as you're
waking up, the first thoughts in your mind is,
what about this? And what about that meeting?
And what about this? And what are my kids over
here? And then if you get up out of bed, watch
your face, and if you pick up your phone, oh
my gosh. It dials down 77 points, and I'll just
check my email while I'm walking to make coffee.
Oh, my gosh. You know what you're setting yourself
up for? Disaster. The first thing you need to
do in the morning, every morning, either Psalm
23 or the Lord's Prayer, before I get out of
bed, I realize, God, if I don't see life through
your lens, I'm going to be in trouble because
I know this life is going to bring more challenges.
Just the ones I know about, they're more than
I can handle. And it's interesting, when Jesus
taught his disciples to pray, what did he say?
When you pray, say, our Father. Oh. So in the
midst of all the craziness of the world, the
one who created all that there is, the one who
sent his son to die for you and rise from the
dead, the one who's the sovereign king, who's
all -wise, all -powerful, and all -knowing of
every circumstance, real, possible, and potential,
he's your Papa. And say to him, who art in heaven?
You're not pulled into this or that. You're the
creator. You're in control. Holy is your name.
I can know 100 % of the time that God will never
lie to me. God's always going to be pure. His
intentions. So it's this moment where you pause
and you get a high, clear view of God. When anxiety
knocks at the door of your heart, let prayer
answer it. And the first prayer is, Worship and
adoration. This is Living on the Edge with Chip
Ingram, and you've been listening to part one
of Chip's message in anxious moments from our
series, I Choose Peace. Chip will be back shortly
to share some helpful application for us to think
about. What's weighing on your mind right now?
Financial uncertainty? A tense relationship?
Or is it just the grind of everyday life? Whatever
it is that's robbing you of your peace, let me
tell you there's an antidote. Through this practical
study in Philippians chapter 4, Chip will teach
us how to access the peace of God, which can
restore, calm, and encourage your soul, no matter
what may be happening around you. You're not
going to want to miss a single program of this
series. Well, Chip's back with me in studio.
And Chip, we've all experienced seasons of turmoil
and discouragement. So if you would, take a minute
and talk about a time you struggled to hold on
to peace and maybe give a word of encouragement
to those who are struggling right now. Be glad
today for me, and I'm sure for many of our listeners,
when I really think of a super challenging time
that I lost my peace, it was during the pandemic.
Right. The isolation. And being distanced from
family was difficult. But the bigger problem
was I was filling my mind with how broad is this
pandemic and what do we do and what are the scientists
saying? And I was glued to the television. And
I usually am very, very careful about what I
put in my mind. But during that season, I watched
more news and I took in more negative information.
And all of a sudden, I found myself getting discouraged.
And then I got downright depressed. And as I
got depressed, I realized, wait a minute, Chip,
you wrote a book about peace and you don't have
any right now. Even though I was reading the
Bible in the morning, my diet was like so overwhelmingly
negative. And it's not that we need to shut our
minds off, Dave, but I needed to detox. And so
I went on a media fast. I took a couple passages
that were near and dear to me and I reviewed
them and memorized them. And as I did, I really
begin to experience that peace that dwells within
me by the Holy Spirit. And what I tell people
is that just because you write a book or just
because you know something, that doesn't mean
you're always practicing it. And so what I would
say for those that are struggling with peace,
this book, I Choose Peace, has really helped
me personally, and I think it'll be a great value
to you. Good word, Chip. Well, to learn more
about this practical and insightful resource,
visit livingontheedge .org or call 888 -333 -6003.
If you're desperate to quiet the worries of your
heart and the anxieties of this world and experience
genuine peace, you got to check out this book.
So go to livingontheedge .org or call 888 -333
-6003 to get your copy of I Choose Peace. special
offers. Well, with that, here again is Chip.
As we close today's program, I want to ask you
a question. Is it well with your soul? And what
I mean by that, are you at peace? Or are you
filled with anxiety and worry? And I know sometimes
we reframe it. Oh, I'm not worried. I'm just
a little frustrated. Or I'm not worried. I'm
just upset. I'm just really, really concerned.
Could you just back off for just a minute right
now and ask the Holy Spirit to give you a level
of transparency and honesty? And then let me
ask you some questions that I think might really
help. If you don't recognize where you're anxious,
you certainly can't deal with it. I mean, this
is a great passage. I mean, this is great truth.
But what's causing the anxiety in your life?
I mean, is it a subtle or not -so -subtle fear
of the future? Is it a relational conflict, you
know, like we talked about the last few days?
Is it money? I mean, you're just worried about
money. Or is it a biopsy report? Or like in my
case, you know, now and then it just flashes
through my mind. Is the cancer going to come
back that my wife beat? Or is it a regret? Is
there something that keeps coming to your mind?
You think, oh, if I wouldn't have done that or
if I would have done something else. Or maybe
it's just a big decision you made and you're
living with the consequences and somehow you're
living in this emotional turmoil of wanting to
turn back the clock, but you just can't do it.
Here's what I want you to know. When worry and
anxiety knocks at the door of your heart, let
prayer answer it. and there's just a certain
kind of prayer. In fact, I'm going to talk very,
very specifically in our next broadcast how to
take this passage from, oh, that's a nice verse
in the Bible, to a very action -oriented process
so that when you begin to worry, how you can
literally stop worrying, and God will use it
by the power of His Spirit and His Word to really
help you develop over time the habit. of not
worrying and not being anxious. Until then, however,
this is what I'd like you to do. I'd like you
to go to the website and get the message notes.
I think you need to see how I've laid out this
passage. Second, get out a 3x5 card or open your
phone and click where it says notes, and I want
you to actually write out or type out Philippians
4, verses 6 and 7, whatever version you want.
And then when you start feeling anxious and worrying,
just open it up and read it slowly. And that
will kind of help you start to make progress
until our next time together. And I'll give you
some very practical ways to absolutely stop worrying.
Looking forward to that second half of this message,
Chip. As we close, if you're looking for good
Bible content, check out the Chip Ingram app.
You can listen to our most recent series or sign
up for Daily Discipleship with Chip, a great
resource to help you study God's Word at a deeper
level. We want you to grow in your walk with
Jesus, and the Chip Ingram app will help you
do just that. We'll listen in next time as Chip
picks up in his series, I Choose Peace. Until
then, this is Dave Drewy saying thanks for joining
us for this edition of Living on the Edge.