Be Happy, Don't Worry

"Every time you are prone to worry, that is a call from God that it's time to pray." Dr. Tony Evans is our proper response to life's concerns as the power to transform anxious thoughts into an abiding peace. "He says, 'If you rejoice and if you pray, I will share with you my peace. I'll bring you calm in the midst of your chaos.'" This is the alternative broadcast featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans. Even in good times, there never seems to be a shortage of things to be anxious about. In today's New Year's message, Dr. Evans points out that worry does nothing but eat us up from the inside, and God has a better plan for us when anxiety begins to take hold of our thoughts. Let's join him as he begins. Paul says in Philippians chapter 4, verse 6, "Be anxious for nothing." Worry about nothing, and we all know that nothing from nothing needs nothing. Whatever is worrying you, Paul says is out of order, and he says you are out of order for letting it happen. He says, "Be anxious for nothing," which means whatever is messing with you is not allowed to be made an exception by you. You cannot say, "Well, you don't know what I'm going through. You don't know how bad this is. You don't know how deep it is. You don't know how long it's gone." Paul says, "Be anxious for nothing." It is not a request. It is a command. The book of Philippians is a book about joy. He says in chapter 1, for example, verse 4, "Always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all." Verse 29, "Receive Him then in the Lord with all joy." But notice the context in which He is consumed with joy. That context is given to us in chapter 1, verse 12. Now, I want you to know, brethren, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel so that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known throughout the whole parturian God and to everyone else, and that most of the brethren trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment have far more carrots to speak the word of God without fear. Some to be sure are preaching Christ even from Indian strife, but some are from good will. The latter do it. Out of love knowing I am appointed for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaimed Christ out of selfish ambition rather than from pure motives thinking to cause me distress in my imprisonment. He's not in a good situation. The circumstances are not in His favor, and He had He rights about joy. He says, "Be happy, don't worry." I want to walk you through now, step by step, how to get over your worry. The first thing He says in verse 4 of chapter 4 is to rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, in case you didn't hear me the first time, rejoice. That is worldly happiness and godly happiness. Godly happiness is called joy. From God's point of view, it's not tied to circumstances which is why Paul, who's in a bad situation, can talk about His joy and can tell these folks to be joyful because His definition of joy has nothing to do with what's happening around you. The way to get joy, even if things are not joyful right now, is in the Word. He says, "Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, rejoice." So the way, watch this, you get joy is by rejoicing. If you're not rejoicing, then don't expect to have joy because joy is in the rejoicing. Rejoicing is celebrating God. Paul and Silas were in jail at midnight, and midnight is a dark time. They're in jail and it's dark. They praise God in the midst of their problem. What the enemy wants you to do is so focused on how bad it was, how bad it is, and how bad it could be that it gets your full attention, and you never get around to building a playground in your soul, a place of celebration because you want joy while refusing to rejoice. God says, "In the middle of your pain and imprisonment, in the middle of your discomfort, I want you to make a big celebration about me." And that's something you must choose to do. It will not happen out of nowhere. So number one, if you want to get victory over wary because you've been commanded to worry about absolutely nothing, you must decide to rejoice in the Lord. Secondly, be anxious for nothing, verse six, but in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. While rejoicing, pray, every time you are prone to worry that is a call from God that is time to pray. So watch this. That means the more you're worrying, the more you're praying, instead of the more you're worrying, the less you're praying, because every time you are prone to be anxious, God is inviting you to pray. And then He says, and when you do it, watch this now, you do it with Thanksgiving. He says, "When you come to me because something is worrying you, I told you don't worry." And no matter what your problem is, it's not an exception, because you worry about nothing. But when you're prone to worry, that's an invitation to pray. I want you to be specific and while you're being specific, give thanks. What exactly am I given thanks for? One day Jesus was faced with a problem. The problem was that only had was sawdins and crackers, two fish and five barley loaves. There were 5,000 men not counting women and children, so you could have 20,000 people out there. Oh, we got as a little boy with some lunch. Jesus said, bring it to me, Jesus says, let us pray. He's praying over a problem, because he wants the people fed, but he doesn't have near enough money to feed them, that only has the sawdins and crackers, and he needs more be dick on the beach. You know, you need you, you know. The Bible says, when Jesus bowed his head over the sawdins and crackers, the two fish and five barley loaves, he gave thanks, which means, watch this, he gave thanks over not enough. He gave thanks over his problem. God, I have sawdins and crackers. There's a need out there. I have a problem, there are 20,000 people out here who are hungry. I have obligated to feed them within your will. I want to now give you thanks for the sawdins and crackers you have provided to solve this problem. How you're going to give thanks for that? What Paul is saying is, when you are tempted to be anxious, go to God in prayer about the problem, because he ends the verse by saying, let your request be made known to him. So be specific. I got a problem. I got sawdins and crackers, I got 20,000 people, and I want to just bless your name right now. I want to give you thanks that you're the provider. I want to give you thanks that you know where the solution comes from, even though I don't. I want to give you thanks, even though I have a problem. When he says, with thanksgiving, he's not talking about vague thanksgiving, he's talking about giving thanks in the midst of your request about the problem that you're bringing to him. Now we're not talking about some vague general prayer. We're talking about request and thanksgiving relating to the anxiety. And as the last time you've given him thanks in the midst of the request about the thing that's driving you nuts, he's actually telling you to give thanks, not for the problem itself, but give thanks for the God who you are inviting into that specific problem. Dr. Evans will present some practical ideas on how to express that thanks. When he continues our New Year's Day lesson in just a moment, don't go away. As we anticipate the New Year, we want to take advantage of all the opportunities that God has brought our way for the transformation of individual lives, for the building of strong, biblically based families, for strengthening churches, and that's what we're committed to do. Your generous financial support will help us to be strong because we're not going to back down, we're not going to back away, and we're not going to compromise the truth of this book to placate the secularism of the society. Stand with us, will you? Stand strong by us with your generosity and your prayers because you know we hold tightly to this word, a word that the world desperately needs today. Visit TonyEvans.org to give that's TonyEvans.org. Thank you for your generosity. Dr. Evans is often pointed out that the more people who meet Jesus, the more lives will be transformed, and that's the truth that drives everything we do here at the alternative. You can help us continue to share these live-changing messages by making a year in contribution to the ministry, and when you do, we'll say thanks by sending you TonyEvans messages from the manger and when the king came to town. Messages from the manger is a new devotional and prayer guide from Dr. Evans that invites you to pull away from distractions and rediscover the awe of Christ's birth through daily readings, scripture reflections, and guided prayers. It's a beautiful way to pause, reconnect with God, and experience the joy and hope He offers. When the king came to town, it's a nine-message compilation of Dr. Evans Christmas sermons from over the years, rich biblical teaching that extracts relevant truths for life from the familiar story of our Lord's birth. You can request both of these resources here on New Year's Day. There are gift to you, and thanks for your donation, to help continue this important outreach to a world in need of the good news of the Savior. Make your donation and request by visiting TonyEvans.org, or by calling 1-800-832-22. A team member is standing by ready to help with your request any time of the day or night. I'll repeat that contact information for you after the second part of today's message. Here's Dr. Evans. The first thing is you must choose to get your praise on. You are then to pray when the anxiety is sucking in on you, and you are to be specific with thanksgiving. You keep this peace, operating, so anxiety can't sneak up on you. He says, "You must operate or function in a praiseworthy manner." You see the end of verse 8, verse 8 summarizes the whole verse. It says, "Anything worthy of praise dwell on it." You dwell on it means stay with that. One of the reasons we don't keep peace is we go dwelling on the things that are against the peace we're asking for. Many of us kill the peace we have because we dwell on the things we shouldn't. So the question you've got to ask is, "Can I give praise for what I'm focusing on? Because if I can't get praise for it, it's killing my peace that I said the God I needed, to deal with the anxiety that I don't want to have." To get rid of your anxiety, it starts with rejoicing. When it shows up, you go to a specific prayer. You retain it by your dwelling, your mental dwelling, think on these things. And then verse 9, "The things you have heard and received, learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things and the God of peace will be with you." The things you've learned and heard from me, seen in me, practice these things and the God of peace will be with you. But wait a minute. What did he talk about? He said, "I don't know how to praise in trouble, don't know how to pray in trouble, don't know how to dwell in the right spots in trouble, and may your pussy, your running body and your girlfriend don't be surprised that your anxiety gets worse." And that better, you got to hang out with the folk who practiced this themselves. He says, "The things you've seen about how I deal with prison, the things you see, how I deal with people talking about me because I've been bugged and I've been scorned and I've been talked about, when you see me, learn from me and then use it for you, you can be praising God in here, getting peasy, I know right now, right now a lot of y'all who came in here worried feel peaceful right now, right now you feel woo, boy, it's encouraging me, I feel calm, I feel like I can float out of here this morning, boy, I feel like I got it going on right now. Who took those little tulips, you know, I'm feeling good, anybody feel better who came in a little worried this month, you know, you feel better, you feel better, you feel better. So here's what's going to happen, some of y'all going to leave here and go pick up the telephone, get on social media, talk to that friend and they're going to give you just the opposite to everything you heard here and it's going to kill the sermon, kill your peace, kill your joy and bring back your anxiety. Yeah girl, I was in that situation too, it worried me to death, let me tell you the pills, I'm going, I think you ought to go to the doctor and try these pills, these pills are working for me. You're going to talk to somebody who will not bring the spiritual, who will give you the colonel, but because you're like them, because you have the personality, because they make the same money you make, working the same career you work, drive the same car you drive, live in the same neighborhood you live in, you think they're spiritual, you better find somebody who's been through something and seeing God, leave them through something, you better find somebody who can connect with God. And that's why he writes the church because one of the purposes of the church is to connect people with other spiritual people, women who can mentor other women, men who can mentor other men, couples without a go, who can walk you through stuff because they and themselves are using it. It says practice these things, you need to talk about some general practice, an interesting thing, the thing he's telling you to practice is not so much external doing, it's internal perspective that affects external doing, because you can do the external, but if you don't have this internal straight, it becomes a performance and it won't last, but if you're changing your perspective on how you dwell and when you pray and how you rejoice and you're getting this spiritual thing situated in here, then it will bleed out into your actions which changes your reality. And then he closes with a phrase that will blow your mind. He closes verse 9 and says, "And the God of peace will be with you." Well, amen, that's different than what he said earlier. He said earlier, "When you pray, the peace of God will be with you." But he says, "When you're thinking and dwelling and you're hanging out with the right people who influence you, you don't just have the peace of God, you have the God of peace." He switches it. In the first half, you get his peace. In the last half, you get his person. The peace of God will be with you, but if you do this second half, the person who gave you the peace will be with you. Let's say that's a whole different ball game now. Dr. Tony Evans reminding us that we can replace our worry and anxiety with God's peace and joy. Here's a word right now on how to start. A lot of people exist, but don't feel like they're living. The good news of the gospel is Jesus came to give you life. That is, the experience of God's reality operating within you. That's what the Bible calls eternal life. He gives you heaven as a location, but eternal life is an experience. He gives it to you for free. That's what grace is about. It's a gift. You can't earn it. You can't buy it. You can't be religious enough to get it, but you can receive it. And so God offers the opportunity for you right now to receive the forgiveness of sins and the free gift of eternal life, which will set in motion a whole life long experience of growing in the knowledge of God. So let's get this thing started right now by you going to Jesus Christ and saying to him, Lord Jesus, I believe you died on the cross in my place for my sin. I now accept you as my personal substitute. Come into my life. I receive you now as my only savior. I receive the gift of eternal life that you promise to give me if I came to you for it. Thank you for your salvation in Jesus' name. Amen. If you prayed that prayer for the first time today, we invite you to visit TonyEvans.org and follow the link at the very top of the homepage that says Jesus. You'll find helpful videos and other resources there to help get your new life in Christ, headed in the right direction. Dr. Evans will return in just a moment to wrap up today's message, but first I wanted to encourage you to request your copy of messages from the manger. Dr. Evans' new devotional and prayer guide created to help you reclaim Christmas as a season of worship. Along with the book, you'll also receive the collection of Tony's classic Christmas messages called "When the King Came to Town." It's a compilation of nine audio messages filled with biblical insight and encouragement all centered around the birth of our Savior. These resources are our way of thanking you for your generous support of the alternative. To get the details and make your donation, stop at TonyEvans.org today or call one of our friendly team members at 1-800-832-22. That's online at TonyEvans.org or by phone at 1-800-800-3222. We tell our children again and again to take care of the things we give them. Well, tomorrow Dr. Evans points out that God expects the same of us and explains why we often don't do much better than our kids. Right now though, he's back with a final thought to close today. I was going to play one day and we hit this turbulence and this turbulence was wicked. This is wicked turbulence. This is people screaming on the plane. So we're hitting this wicked turbulence and you know, we don't know what this is. It's a plane in trouble. It's a plane in crack. I mean, people are terrified, you know what I mean? It was one of them terrifying things that was never going to end and folk were worried. In the midst of the terror, the pilot comes on the loud speaker and says, "Ladies and gentlemen, as you can see, we've hit some severe turbulence. We're hoping to get you out of this hopefully within the next 15 or 20 minutes." Now, when he said that, you could feel the peace simply because we heard his voice. See, when we didn't hear him and all we had to do was conjure up in our own mind what was going on with the plane, we increased our own anxiety. But when we heard him, he spoke peace to our situation. But then a few minutes later, homeboy come walking out the cockpit. Now, this plane is dancing all over the sky and homeboy is coming out the cockpit, walking down our touching folk, telling folk, "Do you have any questions, anything? Anything you want to know?" And homeboy is all out up in the mix of the stuff. I mean, you know, you're feeling what you better get back there and control this thing. But homeboy, homeboy was out there talking to folk. Wait a minute. When he told us over the loudspeaker, it's going to be okay. We had peace. But when he came out, we had him. When we heard his voice, we were calm on the inside. But when homeboy came out, folk are laughing and joking with him and high-fired him and bumping him and thought of a sudden because now we didn't have his voice, we had his presence. God says, "I want to give you my voice and calm you down, but I really want to give you my presence so that you can experience what it is when I am with you, along with my peace." [Music]