Psalms For Your Summer: The Anxious Heart by Rev. Terence Gray

Good morning. Good to see everybody today. Good morning to our friends online. It's so good to see the sky, it's so good just to see the sun. It's the little things, I'll tell you.

We're gonna get into the word today and continue our series through the Psalms, so let's go before the Lord together. Oh Father, we come before you in the mighty and the matchless name of Jesus Christ, asking you to be with us at this time, God. Speak to our hearts. I pray that you would move me out of the way, that I would decrease, and that you would increase and be made much of in the lives of your people. God, pray that your spirit would permeate this place.

That you would open up our hearts, and that our hearts would be fertile soil for the seed of your word, and that we would bear fruit. And it's in the name of Jesus Christ that we pray together, amen. In the 1998 blockbuster film, Waterboy, Bobby Boucher is played by Adam Sandler. And in the movie, Bobby is sitting in this Louisiana classroom being lectured about brain science. He's learning about neuroscience.

And this isn't really Bobby's cup of tea, and the professor is saying some things that he's not really jiving with. The professor asks the class a question. He says, Is there anybody here who can tell me why most alligators are abnormally aggressive? Anybody. Anyone.

And people are not raising their hands, but Bobby raises his hands, Oh, I know this one, I know this one. The professor sees Bobby Boucher and he acknowledges him by saying, Yes sir, you sir. Bobby replies, Mama said alligators are so angry because they got all them teeth but no toothbrush. The professor laughs and replies, Yo mama say alligators are ornery because they got all the dim teeth, but no toothbrush. Wow.

That's what the professor says. Another student raises his hand and replies to the question, giving textbook answer. He he says, alligators are aggressive because of a large medulla oblongata. It's the sector of the brain which controls aggressive behavior. The professor says, correct.

Bobby tries to interrupt, but mama said, and the professor cuts him off and says, medulla oblongata. And they go back and forth, and Bobby says I mean, the professor who looks like Colonel Sanders says, well, I guess mama's wrong again. Bobby doesn't like that. Bobby confidently replies, no Colonel Sanders, you're wrong, mama's right. The professor laughs and tells the class, well something must be wrong with his medulla oblongata.

After which, Bobby Boucher gets up from his seat and tackles his professor. Where do these big emotions come from? We all have these big emotions. Why are we able to feel such big feelings? Is it what mama said, or is it what the professor said?

Today I want to look at what God has to say about our inner life, about our emotions. As we look into the Psalms and as we continue to go through the Psalms, we see David experiencing many different emotions, very deep emotions, very real emotions. Some light emotions, some heavy emotions, deep joy, deep satisfaction. But today we're seeing him experiencing deep anxiety. As we look to our text, we see a man battling anxiety today.

He says, listen to my prayer, oh God. Do not ignore my plea. Hear me and answer me. Hear the anxiety here. My thoughts trouble me and I am distraught.

He says, my thoughts trouble me. The things that are going on in his head are troubling him. He's experiencing anxiety. The New Testament explains anxiety this way. It's the word, marena.

It says, anxiety denotes the mental preoccupation that pulls the heart in different directions. To be anxious is to be pulled in multiple directions. It's kind of like a Stretch Armstrong toy. I don't know if you guys remember those from the nineties. It was the toy, you just could stretch it in a bunch of different directions.

I wanted to use one of those as a sermon prop today, but because of all of the the cloud and the smoke from Canada, my Stretch Armstrong got stuck in delivery, so I can't have it for you today. It's coming Tuesday, not helpful to me, not helpful to me. But it's stretched in multiple directions. This is what it means to be anxious. And why is this?

Because often multiple things have our attention all at once. Multiple opinions, multiple tasks at work, multiple responsibilities at home, the multiple hats that we all wear. And sometimes we're stretched so far, and we're stretched so thin. And maybe this is where David is in our text today. But this is David that we're talking about.

Not David. Not David anxious and having anxiety, which begs the question, how does a man after God's own heart end up here? I mean, hadn't he read the Psalms? I mean, can somebody point him to Psalm 23? Doesn't he know that the Lord is his shepherd?

Hasn't he been to Bible study? Isn't he showing up for Sunday worship? How is this man, after God's own heart, in this place of anxiety, how did he end up here? I think the text will help us to understand that. When we're looking at David, we're looking at a person who is hearing a lot of different voices and a lot of different faces.

Let's go to that first part of the Psalms. This is how he gets here. He says, because of what my enemy is saying, because of the threats of the wicked. This is how he gets here. He's getting pulled in different directions.

He he's getting irritated and agitated by different voices. There are some very real, very real threats in his life. So how does this man of faith, this man of devotion, end up in such deep anxiety? I wanna I wanna answer that question two ways today. I wanna answer that theologically, and I wanna answer that scientifically.

I wanna start theologically. First, theologically. Theologically speaking, you and I are made for what theologists call, Coram Deo. That's a Latin phrase, Coram Deo. And Coram Deo means to live before the face of God.

It means it means to do all of life before the face of God in His presence. All that we do, every decision that we make, every trial that we go through, good days and bad days, ordinary things, extraordinary things. Karam Deo means, to live life with intimacy before the face of God. That means that we're always consciously aware of his presence. You and I were designed for a face, and our souls find rest when we encounter that face.

When we are consciously aware of his love and his approval and his affection for us, there's something in us that begins to quiet and still. This is the essence of the gospel. The essence of the gospel is this, that you and I were created for fellowship with God. And at the beginning in the Garden of Eden, that's what Adam and Eve had. They had this fellowship, face to face relationship and connection with God.

But in our text, as we saw, David begins to focus on other faces. He's no longer just hearing what God has to say, he's no longer just focused on God's face. He says, because of what my enemy is saying, because of the threats of the wicked the wicked, I'm in turmoil. For they bring down suffering on me and assail me in their anger. David is distracted by all of the faces.

But David is not alone. If we're being honest, know what David is going through. God says, look at me, look at me, look at me. But we get distracted. And we begin to focus on other faces.

And maybe we begin to focus on someone else's acceptance. Maybe we begin to focus on someone else's admiration and approval. Maybe we get focused on what someone else has to think about us. And when it's going good, it goes good. And sometimes we can become approval addicts and people pleasers because we so want to see that look of acceptance on someone else's face.

But here's what I learned a while ago. Someone told me this. They said, if you live for human approval, then you will die from human rejection. If you live for human approval, you will indeed die from human rejection. So here's what happens.

That face that once was acceptance and admiration, let's say that's now displeasure. Let's say this is now disappointment. Let's say this is now a face that's disagreeing. If we're not anchored and steady on the face of God, the other faces will crush us. And here's what we'll do sometimes because we so want that human approval and acceptance, we'll even put on another mask and just be whatever we have to be to receive the acceptance from humans.

And God is saying, you can try that, you can do some of that, but none of that will fulfill you. None of that will bring the healing that you ultimately need. The medicine is not to wear a mask. The medicine is not to perform in order in order to impress those faces. The medicine is to spend time in the presence of God, focusing on His face, focusing on what He desires.

Here's our big idea for today. When the heart is pulled in many directions, it experiences anxiety. When the heart is centered on Christ, it finds peace. When the heart is pulled in many directions, all of the directions, we feel ourselves beginning to split, disintegrate, divide, a heart gets troubled. But when the heart is centered on Christ, it finds peace.

When we set our attention on God's face, and we meditate on what He thinks of us. The words and the whispers of others don't control us. The words and whispers of others don't define us. God says, look at me, look at me, look at me. I tell you who you are.

Look at me, look at me. I tell you what you're worth, not them, not the other faces. And sometimes, we just need to sit with that. We need to take our eyes off of all of the other faces, whether they are approval or disapproval, whether they are faces of acceptance or displeasure. Sometimes we just need to regularly sit with God and what He says of us.

David is going through this inner turmoil, and he begins to respond. David wants to run. That's what we're gonna see in our text. David wants to get out of here. Because of the whispers, because of the threats, David gets to a point where he just wants to go away.

He says, oh that I had the wings of a dove, I would fly away and be at rest. His imagination is taking over. And he says, I just wanna get out of here. I I want to fly away. But then the emotions begin to swing.

He he's at this place of wanting to fly away, but then he gets to a point of wanting to fight. He said, let death take my enemies by surprise. Let them go down alive to the realm of the dead, for evil finds lodging among them. And so he goes from flight, I want wings to fly away like a dove, to fight. Let them go down alive.

Take my enemies by surprise. Let death take my enemies by surprise. He's going back and forth. He's having these emotional mood swings. And if we're being honest, we know what that's like to feel all of the emotions.

Maybe you feel all of them in the same day, maybe you feel all of them in the same minute, maybe you know what it's like to go back and forth. So why do we respond like this sometimes? Why do we respond like this? To understand this, I think we have to go back to talk about brain science again. And I wanna say this, we never have to fear science as Christians.

I like to think that science is just explaining what God has created. So let's talk about how God has designed our bodies, and this may not be what mama said, but this is scientifically true and bible supported. You have a part of your brain called the amygdala. The amygdala is your brain's security alarm system. When you encounter a threat, the amygdala sends a warning sign to the rest of your body, danger, danger, danger.

And it sends an alert to the rest of your body. And when your body gets that signal, without even thinking about it, you and I naturally respond in one of four ways. You either fight, meaning you defend yourself and you take the threat on. Flight, you avoid and run away. You freeze, you may find yourself stuck and unable to act.

Or you fawn, you try to negotiate and appease the threat. It's kind of like this. If a full grown silverback gorilla were to walk in this sanctuary right now, most of us would act in one of four ways. I dare say all of us would act in one of four ways. You have those who are gonna go into fight mode.

Meaning there are some of us here who might try to fight the gorilla, hands on. You might grab a bible, you might grab a hymnal, you know, grab the TV throw it at them, but some of us are fighters. Where where are the fighter people at? Who are the people that are gonna fight the gorilla? I have one in the oh, we got a fighter back there.

Alright. Some and we got a fighter back there that said they're gonna take the gorilla on. Thank you to you gentlemen. Alright. Then you have the flee crowd.

There's some people that are gonna see that gorilla, and they're gonna flee, and they're gonna run, and they're gonna get out of here as fast as they can. Where are my runners, my flea people? We got quite all of us can't get away. Alright? So we got quite a few fleers.

You don't have to be fastest, you just gotta be faster than whoever the slowest person is. So you got the flea crowd. Some of us are going to freeze. We're just going to close our eyes and hope that he eats the person next to us. And so some of you guys are the free where's the freeze crowd?

We got some freezers in here. Okay. We're just going to like, Lord, just let them get them, not me. And some of you will fawn, meaning you're gonna try to appease the the gorilla, you might offer him a banana, you might sing him a song and try to negotiate, don't eat me. Any of the fawn people in here, he's just gonna be nice to him and hope that he's nice to you.

Alright. See these things happen without us even thinking about it. These are normal responses to a threat. This is the way God designed the human brain, it's it's important, it's helpful, we need we need that. And our and our song today, David's mental alarm system, his amygdala, it is going off.

His brain's security system is absolutely overwhelmed. He's got enemies and he's overwhelmed and he's on high alert. So what happens when the security system in the brain gets broken? What if the brain begins to detect threats where there are no threats? And what if you're always on high alert?

And sometimes that can happen. Let's go down that road. If you're if you're consistently fighting, fleeing, freezing, and fawning, your body can get stuck in survival mode. If your environment never feels safe, if you're constantly under pressure and stressed, if you're constantly, every day, pulled in multiple directions, and then what will happen is the security system in the brain will not turn off, because it will not know when it is safe enough to turn off, and you can get stuck in this chronic state of anxiety. And over time, this takes a toll on both your body and your soul.

Even a safe place will feel unsafe. And this is often a sign that your body has been carrying too much. So, how does anxiety manifest in real life? In case you're wondering, sometimes it shows up like this, a need to control, because you've got so much going in so many different directions, you just gotta gotta control something, control people, control outcomes, and that's one way that anxiety shows up in us. We we gotta control, we gotta stop this whirlwind.

Sometimes it shows up in worry that won't quiet down. You just keep thinking about it. Can't go to sleep at night, it's it's it's it's constant in your head. Sometimes it's a preoccupation with the future, you're just thinking about the future all the time, you're always out there forecasting about what's gonna happen. I kinda struggle with that.

I can be one of those people that's always thinking about what's coming ahead and I gotta get pulled back down to reality. It can show up in irritability and fits of anger because you're anxious. You can get a little frustrated and throw a little fit of anger. This one is the most sad to me. Physical symptoms.

This can show up in your body. Tension, exhaustion, sickness, because all of that anxiety is going in multiple directions. Some people let it out through anger, some people let it out through trying to control, but some people just hold it in, and if you do that, that can really do some damage on you internally. It's a serious stuff. I've I've shared before with this congregation that anxiety is something that I have dealt with in my own life, and I'm okay to share that.

I've heard people say that that's been helpful to them when I've shared that. Some of you have come up to me and said, Terence, I'm looking for a therapist, I'm looking for a counselor, I might need to process this with a doctor, and so I'll keep sharing that because I've it'd be helpful to you. But back in 2016, my anxiety had become so severe that I could not drive a car, I couldn't walk up the street without having a panic attack, I could not sit long and watch a TV show, like a thirty minute TV show, because my mind was racing so much and my alarm system and my brain wouldn't shut off. I couldn't sit through a TV show or a game. The alarm on my body was broken.

And why was that? Well, 2015, 2016, I lived in survival mode for a very long time and my brain could not rest. I was at work all of the time, I was constantly on the go, on the expressway heading somewhere, I was a workaholic and an approval addict, I I wanted everybody to be happy with me, and I was trying to manage all of the expectations, and I didn't know how to set boundaries, and all of that took its toll on my body and my soul. And it left me chronically anxious, the alarm would not shut off. Ten years later, anxiety does not rule my life anymore, by the grace of God, but it is something that I still have to manage, treat, and remain aware of.

I'm a big fan of therapy. I still show up for those appointments because those are helpful for me to process. And so this is something I'm familiar with, but enough about me. The question is, how are you? How are you doing?

How are you going to move forward if you find yourself pulled in a dozen directions? All of the hats that you wear, all of the responsibilities at work and at home. What are you gonna do so that your brain can rest at night? There are lot of things that you can try to do to numb that. I don't recommend just numbing it, that's not good.

But naturally what we try to do is numb and medicate ourselves, but that ends up being more destructive than helpful. I would say that the only way that we can really heal is to get before the face of God. My experience, for what I've been through in my own life, that that's what allows my soul to rest, to get before the face of God. And we see that in David's example as well. He says, as for me, I call to God and the Lord saves me.

Evening, morning, and noon, I cry out in distress and he hears my voice. I want you to pay attention to this. This man of God, this man after God's own heart, is coming to the Lord with his anxiety. And he says he's doing it all day long. Evening, morning, and noon, he's calling out to God.

And guess what? God isn't tired of him. God isn't saying, David again? Tell him, I'm busy. Tell him I'm booked this hour.

No. He he's he's saying, come into my presence. God isn't tired of David, he's not tired of you. If you're having to consistently come before his face and plead your case and bare your soul. He's not tired of you, he he welcomes it.

David says, I I come before him evening, morning, and noon, I cry out in distress, hear this, and he hears my voice. David feels heard. He's not like, I went to see him and he just was looking at his watch the whole time. No, he hears my voice. He hears me.

He sees me. God says, I'm not tired of you. Come into my presence. Can I ask you to do something? Have you ever imagined what God's facial expression would be if if He were looking at you right now?

You ever imagine what that could be like to experience God's facial expression? If you're a follower of Jesus Christ, I want you to picture a face of complete acceptance. I want you to picture a face of utter love and approval for who you are, all of who you are. Some days after a long day, I like to hold my eight month old daughter in my hands and I just like to I just like to look into her face. When I stare into Liberty's face, she's so innocent, no agenda, no judgment, and just utter peace.

And sometimes I just love to just stare into her little face. I think there's a reason that moments like that provide so much healing. Moments like that quiet something on the inside of us. And church, that's what it's like with God. When you come to Him through Christ, you're looking into a face of utter love, utter acceptance.

And when your heart learns to rest in front of that face, you begin to find the peace that you've been searching for. And one day in heaven, we will be in front of that face forever. And everything that was broken and fractured on the inside of us will be made whole again. I wanna leave you with some practical tools. If this is something that you're working through, these are some things that have been helpful for me.

First and foremost, prayer. That sounds simple, but that's the hardest thing. Because if you're pulled in multiple directions, you might feel like that's the last thing that I have time to do is to stop and talk to God. And like that's where the battle is. When everything else is pulling for the attention, sometimes half of the battle is just to find five minutes, if you if that's all you got, And center and begin to talk to God.

That's what we see David doing in our passage. He's coming before the face of God in prayer. Meditation on scripture. Allow the word of God to wash over your mind. Allow the word word of God to remind you who you are.

Allow the word of God to remind you who God is. Allow it to remind you who's in charge of the world after all when the world seems chaotic. But meditate on the scripture and allow it to just wash wash the lies of the enemy out of your head. Physical movement and exercise. Sometimes you just gotta get up and go and do something with with your body.

So physical movement, processing verbally with a friend, a trusted person. Journaling, I found that very helpful helpful. Sometimes I can be all jumbled up in my head and I write it out, I'm like, so bad after all. So sometimes journaling is good. What else do we have here?

Grounding, breathing techniques are helpful. Self differentiation, meaning just setting boundaries. This is where your emotional life ends and this is where my emotional life ends and we try not to overlap too much. You have to set boundaries. Talk therapy, counseling, medication when appropriate, and lastly, just centering your heart on Christ.

As we've already acknowledged today, our our big idea for today is this, when the heart is pulled in many directions, it experiences anxiety. When the heart is centered on Christ, it finds peace. I just wanna encourage you to center yourself on Christ, my friend. The world can wait. The phone call can wait.

The scrolling on social media can wait. The job can wait. Even the kids can wait. Find some time for you in the Lord to center on him and and get before his face. Let's pray.

Oh, Father, we come before you in the mighty and the matchless name of Jesus Christ. God, praying that you would help us to center ourselves on you. For those of us who are busy and crowded and just full of busyness, God, help us to find your face in the crowd. And may everything else grow dim as your face illuminates and lights up. And may that smile of acceptance and love and approval and adoption weigh far more than any other faith, God.

For it's in the name of Jesus Christ that we pray together. Amen. Amen. I invite you to stand with me as we sing this final song together.