Sermon Tone Analysis

A great percentage of our illnesses is in some way related to worry and anxiety and stress.

In fact, the #1 killer in America is heart disease.

• 38% of all deaths are heart related and many of those are related to hypertension, high blood pressure and anxiety.

• Worry has been linked to cancer, gastrointestinal illness and suicide.

• 3/4 of all visits to primary care physicians are stress-related complaints or disorders.

Dr. Charles Mayo, of the famous Mayo Clinic, wrote, "Worry affects the circulation, the heart, the glands and the whole nervous system.

I have never met a man or known a man to die of overwork, but I have known a lot who died of worry."

You can literally worry yourself to death.

Question- If we know that worry is a killer- then why do we do it?

Anxiety.

Uneasy feeling of uncertainty, agitation, dread, or fear.

Older English versions of the Bible often render these words as “thought,” “worry,” or “care.”

In the Bible anxiety is frequently depicted as the common human reaction to stressful circumstances.

The psalmist confesses that anxiety is “great” within him (Ps.

94:19).

Anxiety is portrayed in the Scripture as being inconsistent with trust in God.

David prays: “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thought” (Ps.

139:23).

What Causes us to become so anxieties and worrisome?

(Two Things)

1. Being world-centred

Anxiety frequently manifests itself in ungodly concern about provision, performance, or reputation, and appears to be rooted in incomplete knowledge, lack of control over circumstances, or failure to take an “eternal” perspective on things (Matt.

6:25–34; 10:19; Mark 13:11; Luke 12:11–12, 22–34)

2. Lacking confidence in God

A lack of confidence in God is simply allowing your worries and anxieties to dominate your thoughts and fears.

Imagine your worries and anxieties are a result of someone or something in particular.

A person or situation that has caused you to have much stress should tell you something.

What it should tell you is this, that you have put more trust into the person or situation causing you to stress than you have in the God who is faithful in His promises.

Your confidence needs to be in God’s Word, who just happens to be the person of Jesus Christ.

What does one do when facing anxiety and worry?

(Matthew 6)

1. Cultivate a growing understanding of God’s power and fatherly disposition.

(Matt.

6:26)

2. Recognize the futility of worry (Matthew 6:27)

3. Entrust to God the things that you cannot control (1 Peter 5:7)

4. Increase your viewing of things in an eternal perspective (Matt.

6:32-34)

Jesus did not prohibit genuine concern about food or shelter, but He did teach that we should keep things in their proper perspective.

We should make God’s kingdom our first priority; everything else will fall in line after we do that (Matt.

6:33).

5. Substitute Prayer for Worry (Phil.

4:6)