If you would turn back with me please to that portion of scripture that we read in Philippians 4. Philippians chapter 4 on page 1181 and we're going to read the verses 4 to 7 again. Verse 4. To verse seven, 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 known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. In a nutshell, Paul is telling the Philippians, and Paul, by the power of the Holy Spirit, is telling us here this morning, do not be anxious, but prayer brings peace. Somebody said, why worry when you can trust? It's like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do, but it doesn't get you anywhere. Somebody else said, worry is wasting today's time to clutter up tomorrow's opportunities with yesterday's troubles. If I was to ask you, are you a worrier? Do you worry? Of course we all worry. You see, the Lord does not want you to be anxious. Verse six, what does it say? Do not be anxious about anything. Do not be anxious about anything. So what is anxiety from a biblical perspective? Well, anxiety came into the world when Adam and Eve sinned. in the Garden of Eden and they would have experienced anxiety when they hid themselves from God. Do you remember they hid themselves from God after realising their nakedness? And you can imagine this vague sense that something was wrong and circumstances had changed. Circumstances had changed and it was not pleasing to God. One can picture them naively sewing the fig leaves together in anxious nervousness. So this is the first time in history that a sense of vulnerability and apprehension was felt by humanity. All the way back to the fall of man in the garden. We must also remember that anxiety is a state of emotional experience that is contrary to what God wants for us. God does not want us to be anxious. Isaiah says, oh, that you had paid attention to my commandments, then your peace would have been like a river, he says, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea. Proverbs says anxiety in a man's heart, it weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad. Do you remember Hannah when she expressed her experience of anxiety? in 1st Samuel, and Eli the priest thought she was drunk. She was anxious. It was of course her dispute with Penaniah which caused her anxiety. And the Bible is full of stories of God's people feeling anxious or worried at one time or another. And you can think probably of many, many more yourselves. Elijah? Mount Carmel, Moses, David. So anxiety is nothing new in God's people, and yet God does not want his people to be anxious. So from a scientific perspective, what is anxiety? Well, anxiety, they tell us, is a sense of fear, an apprehension that puts you on high alert. It puts you on edge. Biologically, it's meant to put us into a heightened sense of awareness, so that we are prepared for potential threats that come our way. So yes, it's part of sin, because at the fall, anxiety came in, but in a sense, it is natural. You think of a policeman in a threatening situation. He would need to be on his toes. So he'd be anxious, adrenaline-throwing, or a soldier, say, in battle. However, the thing is, when we feel excessive anxiety, when we're too anxious, And when we live in a constant state of anxiety, that is where we find problems. We're in trouble. Our bodies never turn off this flight or fight. Will we run or will we fight mentality? That tense sensation in your stomach, you know the one I mean, that heightened sense of awareness, the slight fear and the sense of dread, that is anxiety. It is anxiety. And before your body feels the effects, your brain is already at work, anxious. We've all been there. We've all been anxious at one or two or many times in our lives. It's good to be anxious at times. Like I said, you think of a policeman in a threatening situation. Paul did not want the Philippians to be anxious in any way. The apostle has already touched on issues they may have been anxious about. They might have been anxious about their assurance of salvation. Did they belong to Jesus in chapter 1 and verse 6? And Paul reassures them and he says, listen, do not be anxious. I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. Do not be anxious about your salvation. Just trust in Christ. What else could they have been anxious about the Philippians? Well, they could have been anxious about the false teachers. In chapter 3, verse 2, the ones Paul calls dogs, the ones who are coming into the church and causing trouble, they might have been anxious about that. They could have been anxious about Syntyche and Iodia falling out. We saw that last week. Perhaps the Philippians are anxious that they will not live lives worthy of the gospel. as Paul exhorts them to do all the way back in chapter 1 and verse 27. So the Philippians had many reasons to be anxious. And Paul tells them, please do not be anxious. Do not be anxious. Jesus was also aware of anxiety among his own followers. In the Sermon on the Mount, he tells them, do not be anxious about your life. Jesus is saying to them, relax, do not be anxious about your life, about what you will eat or what you will wear. Do not worry about these things. Don't worry about your body, what you will put on. What does he say? His life not more than food and the body not more than clothing. He says, look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly father feeds them. So he says, do not be anxious. And he also says to them, are you not more valuable than these birds? Of course you are. Does the sparrow worry? No. And yet we are of more value than the sparrow. He says, do not be anxious, do not worry. What does he say? Do you remember? He says, seek first the kingdom of God. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. God first and everything else will follow. So do not be anxious. You remember he also said, man does not live on bread alone. We're spiritual animals. We're spiritual. And we must watch our spiritual lives. We must put God first. Somebody said, worry pulls tomorrow's clouds over today's sunshine. And so it does. So it does. An anxious mind, what does it do? It tells us many things that are not real. It's what it does. A real need in times of anxiety, we need to focus on the Lord. Even more so when we're anxious and when we're worried. But how often the case is that we move further away from the Lord. And we should be moving closer to the Lord. What does an anxious mind do? It'll blow minor things. into mountains. Minor worries will turn into mountains that paralyze us. That's what anxiety does to us. And that is not God's intention for his people. He doesn't want us to be anxious. This is not the mindset you are to have as a child of God. The Lord wants you to focus on Him. And the Lord also wants you to be filled with Him. Not worry, not anxiety, but filled with Him. And to be obedient to Him. Ephesians 5.18, do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, he says, addressing one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all of your heart, to be filled with God. That is what the Lord wants us to be filled with Him, to be focused on Him. And everything else will follow. what we wear, what we eat, all these things will follow. Do not be anxious. You see, rejoicing and gentleness are not fruits of anxiety. They are fruits of the spirit. Rejoicing and joy. What does he say in verses 4 to 5? Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say rejoice like a reasonable has been known to everyone. The Lord is at hand. Do not be anxious. So rejoicing and joy. They are one of the main themes that permeate this little letter. The joy of God. The joy of knowing God. rejoicing in God. He commands them to rejoice in any circumstance, and he says it twice to get his point across. After all, do you remember Paul and Silas? They were in a Philippian jail, locked up. What did they do? They sit around sulking. No, they sang psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to the glory of God, and all the prisoners joined in. You'll see that in Acts 16.25. So even in the circumstance of being locked in a dungeon, Paul and Silas were rejoicing in God. Rejoicing in God because they were filled with God. Did they have reason to be anxious and worry? Absolutely they did. could have cost them their lives being there, but yet they rejoiced. And this is the third time in the letter Paul tells them to rejoice. He says, they belong to Jesus. You should rejoice. He has died, he has rose again, he has gone to be with his father for them, for you. We ought to rejoice in Christ. Paul has already reminded them of this Jesus who took the form of a servant and humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross for them, for them, for you, for me, if we believe in Jesus. What else are we to do? Are we going to worry about what we're going to have for dinner later? Are we gonna worry about our clothes? What are we gonna wear tomorrow? No, we want to rejoice in that. Rejoice. And he's already told them that their names as fellow workers are in the book of life. If you are in Christ and you believe in Jesus, your name is in a book in heaven. It's in a book in heaven. In the book of life. Rejoice. Rejoice. Do you remember what Jesus said to the disciples? Do you remember Jesus sent them out, preaching the gospel, and after the return from their missionary endeavors, you'll see it in Luke 10, verse 20, and they came back and they were full of, even the spirits are submitting to us. They were casting out demons, and people were being converted, and there was all sorts going on, and they were like, whoa, this is amazing. What did Jesus say to them? He says, do not rejoice in this. that the spirits are subject to you, but he says, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven. Rejoice in that, that your names are written in heaven. Paul also says, what else does he say to them? He says, let your reasonableness be known to everyone. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. They, as children of God and they are citizens of heaven, as we've already said a number of times, they are to have a quiet, gentle disposition. A quiet, gentle disposition. They are to be known, these Philippians are commanded to be known for a balanced, intelligent, decent outlook on life. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. They are to stand out wherever they live. They are to be reasonable. They are to be quiet. They are to live godly lives. an outlook that is completely contrary to the world around them and to the world around us. And Paul has been driving home the need for this all the way through this letter, that the church, to keep its integrity and its witness in any place in the world, the people within the church are to have this reasonableness as part of their disposition and their makeup. He approaches the Corinthians, Paul does. He says, I Paul myself entreat you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ. That's how he puts himself across to the Corinthians. With meekness and the gentleness of Christ. And see when you read Corinthians, either of the letters, 1st or 2nd Corinthians, Paul is very strong in what he says, but he does it in a special way. He does it, he comes across in a Christ-like way, because he's rebuking them a lot of the time. He's not shouting at the top of his voice at them. He's rebuking them in a gentle and a meek way. And Jesus himself says, I am gentle and lowly, in heart. Yet both the Lord and Paul, they possessed a resilience, an inner strength, a resilience within them. And they possessed a single-mindedness when it came to being obedient to God. Single-minded, resilient, strong, yet meek and gentle. Paul has already commanded them to have this mind among yourselves, which is you are in Christ Jesus. Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped. He's talking about Jesus, the Son of God, humbling himself and coming down. They are to show the world the fruit of the Spirit in their lives. That is what they're commanded to do. Does anyone know the fruit of the Spirit of Hand? I know the ladies have had it in their Bible study. Love, joy and peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness or reasonableness, and self-control. Galatians 5.22, of course. This gentleness or reasonableness that the Christian is to have, you see, it goes against the grain of our macho culture. It really does. Goes against the grain of our macho culture. We're accustomed to thinking of the strength as opposite to gentleness. Is strength opposite to gentleness? No. Is strength opposite to softness and tenderness? No. You know that during World War I, British fighter pilots, they came across a marvellous discovery. You know what they did when they went out on their planes? They would get thick layers of silk and they understood that this would stop shrapnel and they would wrap it They would wrap the silk around their heads and then they would wear leather riding helmets on top of the silk. And do you know that the silk wrapped around them managed to keep the shrapnel out when the steel didn't? It was stronger than steel. That's what they did. Scientists, they tell me, still aren't sure what gives silk its strength. But it's true that in certain situations, soft, gentle, tender silk can prove far stronger than cold, hard steel. That's what they did. They would wrap their heads with silk, and the silk would protect them, even more so than steel. Isn't that incredible? And Jesus shows us the same holds true for human character, does he not? Some people try to make themselves impenetrable to the people around them. Jesus, what does he do? He shows us gentleness. meekness, loneliness, but yet with a strong inner strength and resilience for the glory of God. For the glory of God. Anxiety quenches the fruit of the spirit and it robs us of our reasonableness and our gentleness. That's what anxiety will do to us if we don't nip it in the bud. That's what it'll do, it'll rob us of that gentleness that we ought to have. The psalmist, he asks his own soul, he says, why are you cast down, O my soul? And he says, why are you in turmoil within me? He's talking to his own soul, the psalmist. And he is saying, why are you cast down? Why are you anxious? Why are you low? And then he speaks to himself, doesn't he? He says, hope in God, for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. Martin Lloyd-Jones wrote a book about depression and anxiety about 30, 40 years ago, and it's still used today. Even with all the scientific discoveries, Lloyd-Jones' book on anxiety and depression is still used today. It's a marvellous book, a wonderful book. And he says this, have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Can I say that again? Listen to what he says. Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? He says, take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake in the morning. You know when you wake up in the morning and you open your eyes and all these thoughts flood? That's what he's talking about. You have not originated them, he says. But they are talking to you and they bring back the problems of yesterday. Don't they? He's right. Somebody is talking. Who is talking to you, he's asking. He says, yourself. S-E-L-F. Your self is talking to you. Now this man's treatment, that he talks about Psalm 42, why are you cast down? Was this, instead of allowing the self to talk to him, he started talking to himself? Why are you cast down, O my soul, he asks. The soul has been depressing him, crushing him. So he stands up and he says, self, you listen for a moment. You listen for a moment. I will speak to you. You see, anxiety is not a fruit of the spirit. Ask God to fill you with the fruit of his spirit. There are just some times in our lives where we just need to get a grip. and we have all these thoughts and negative thoughts passing through our minds and we lose focus on Jesus, we lose focus on the gospel. God doesn't want us to be that way, anxious and worried. He wants us to be rejoicing, to be gentle, to be reasonable, to be reasonable. Another reason to rejoice and be gentle. Filled with the Spirit it is, Paul tells us, the Lord is at hand. And I am out of time and I'm only halfway through my sermon. So I'm going to have to finish it tonight. He says, the Lord is near. The Lord is near. What does he mean, the Lord is near? Well, there are two ways to look at it. The Lord is at hand. Does it mean that the Lord is about to return? We've talked about this a few times over the last few weeks. Or is he talking about the Lord's presence with his people? Let's look at the Lord's return first. Let's stretch it out here a wee bit, the Lord's return. Paul, he's already spoken about the return of Jesus a couple of times already, referring to it as the day of Christ. The day of Christ is the day where Christ will return. In 1.6, he refers to the completion of their salvation, that this little Philippian church, the day where Jesus returns is the day that their salvation will be complete. they will be the finished product because they're in the ground and when Jesus comes he will raise them. If Jesus comes when we're here we will be raised already, we will be transformed But I think that he means two things here. Yes, the Lord is at hand and he's coming. But I also think, and we can look at it this way as well, is that the Lord is always with his people. Wherever you are, wherever you go, when you're waiting in the doctor's surgery, waiting for these results, and you are anxious, the Lord is with you. The Lord is with you. When you are woken by a phone call at four o'clock in the morning, and you know that phone call is not going to be good, but you go and answer the phone, the Lord is with you then too. And when you wake up in the morning, and you open your eyes, And all these thoughts, sometimes negative, come to you about all yesterday's worries. The ones Martin Lloyd-Jones was talking about. The Lord is with you then too. Then too. The Lord is with his people wherever they go. Wherever they go. My time is up. I have to complete this this evening. So if you want part two, you have to come back tonight. Do not be anxious, is the point of the text. And I think in this day and age, we hear all kinds of statistics about anxiety and depression, and it's on the rise, even amongst Christians, and it is, it is. There's an absolute epidemic of it in our land today. And even Christians suffer from it. And yet there is an answer. And that is the peace of Jesus Christ is the answer. Do not be anxious. And I'll give you a wee heads up about tonight. It's not a secret. Prayer brings this peace. Prayer brings this peace. And we'll look at prayer tonight. What does he say? Do not be anxious. about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be known to God, and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Even if your prayers are not answered, you will get peace in prayer. So let us pray now. Gracious Lord, we thank you indeed for your word. And we thank you, Lord, that Your love for us and your command to us is not to be anxious and not to worry excessively, but to seek first your kingdom and your righteousness and all other things shall be added unto us. Lord, may each and every one of us in this church this day know the peace that surpasses all understanding. Lord, help us. To know, as the Psalmist did, where he says, I will hope in God yet. Lord, give us, we pray, that peace of mind and that stillness within our hearts. Fill us with your Spirit, O God, and take away our sin. For we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.