Soldier of Peace—Guarding Our Hearts Against Worry

Philippians 4:4-9

^4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! ^5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. ^6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. ^7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

^8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. ^9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

Watch this animation of US Airways flight 1549 landing in the Hudson River on January 15. This is the actual audio from the control tower to Captain Sullenberger. Captain Sullenberger and his flight crew have been honored as true heroes for their efforts that day. But how was Captain Sullenberger able to stay so calm? His announcement that he was landing in the Hudson River was so amazingly calm that it sounded like he was crossing the street to get a cup of coffee. If I had been the pilot, this is what it would have sounded like. “We just hit a flock of birds. Both engines are gone. We’re going down! Do you hear me, tower? We’re going down! We’re headed for the Hudson River! We’re all gonna die! Say your prayers, cuz we’re all gonna die. Aaahhhhhhhh!!!”

How can they stay so calm, so peaceful? If you know anything about this incredible story, you know that the crew credited their bravery and quick thinking to experience. Although none of them had ever landed in the Hudson River, they were prepared for such a disaster. They had trained for such a disaster. One could even say that they trained themselves to be calm and peaceful. This is a key to having peace in our own lives—it must be trained into us. Peace does not come by accident, through osmosis or automatically. Peace, and its close cousin joy, come through purposeful training. 

Let’s make sure we define the two types of peace. There is peace with God and the peace of God. Peace with God is another aspect of our salvation and is described in Romans 5:1. Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we^ have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Peace with God is our salvation and cannot increase or decrease—it just is. It is a gift from God. But the peace of God is the type described in this morning’s passage. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. This kind of peace can and does increase or decrease. This kind of peace is always accompanied by joy and is the opposite of anxiety and worry. Worry is a homicidal killer of joy and anxiety strangles peace to death. Peace and joy cannot exist at the same time as worry and anxiety. These two pairs of emotions are inversely proportional to one another—when one goes up, the other goes down, and visa versa.

Remember that joy is the theme of Philippians. Paul used the word joy or rejoice 1500% more often than he did in any other of his letters. So this is our option—either peace or anxiety. How are you doing in this area? As a nation, we are not doing so well. We are a very depressed people. The average people you talk to every day may have a smile on their face, but odds are that most of them are not experiencing joy ad peace. And you may be one of those people. 11% of women and 5% of men are taking some form of antidepressant, including a great many Christians. We are truly a Prozac nation. I am not suggesting that it is wrong to take these medications, because in some cases it is very helpful, but the problem arises when some people take this shortcut to happiness instead of taking the long road to joy and peace.

It’s important to look at peace in a holistic way. When you are dealing with fundamental emotions like peace and anxiety, the whole person should be considered. There are at least four categories to ourselves which all play a part of the picture—mental, emotional, physical and spiritual. In reality, all four areas overlap one another. If you are physically exhausted, does it affect your emotions? If you do lots of mental exercise, do you get tired? If you gain victory over sin in the spiritual realm, are you happy? We are complex creatures, which is why worry and anxiety, and especially things like depression and mental illness are still mysteries to us. In the last few weeks, I have spoken with several people who are dealing with depression themselves, or who are dealing with others who are depressed.

The subject of depression is made even more difficult when you read these verses. Paul said that we are to rejoice always. He claims that we are not to be anxious about anything. Can you imagine saying this to a chronically depressed person? “Hey, don’t you know you are supposed to rejoice all of the time? You should never be anxious about anything, let alone be so depressed.” That would be rather cruel, don’t you think?

The latest Christianity Today magazine is on the topic of depression. Listen to how one woman reveals what depression is like for her. “Depression is not just sadness or sorrow. Depression in not just negative thinking. Depression is not just being ‘down’. It’s walking barefoot on broken glass; the weight of one’s body grinds the glass in further with every movement. So, the weight of my very existence grinds the shards of grief deeper into my soul. When I am depressed, every thought, every breath, every conscious moment hurts.”[i] I have been told that the pain of depression is far worse than any physical pain.

The word depression is not in the Bible but the concept certainly is. The psalms especially speak of deep lament and heavy sorrow. Listen to one example. My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me all day long, “Where is your God?” I say to God my Rock, “Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?” My bones suffer mortal agony as my foes taunt me, saying to me all day long, “Where is your God?” This and many other Psalms sound very much like the woman’s description of grinding shards of grief into her soul. This psalm, which was not written by David, is an honest confession of a man under torment. He feels rejected and abandoned by God. His body is racked with emotional pain from head to toe. His enemies hit him where it hurts the worst—by taunting him with the phrase, “Where is your God.” It is like driving a knife deep into his soul and twisting it again and again. The Bible doesn’t attach a diagnosis to his problem, but he was experiencing depression.

Interestingly, this clear description of depression comes from the forty second Psalm; the one that begins this way. As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. You recognize it, don’t you? It is the old worship chorus called As the Deer.

As the deer panteth for the water so my soul longeth after you.

You alone are my heart’s desire and I long to worship you.

Tell me—what is this song about? The way that it is written and the way that we sing it seems to be about someone who is experiencing a deep intimacy with God; someone who is seeking God as his treasure and the apple of his eye. The tune has a nice sweet melody and it feels soft and nice. After singing this song you would have no idea that the Psalm on which it is based is about a deeply depressed man who feels abandoned by God. The person who wrote the chorus left out verse three. My tears have been my food day and night. They also left out verse nine. I say to God my Rock, “Why have you forgotten me?” We have been singing this song for almost twenty years and you probably did not know it was about clinical depression, did you? What if we put these verses into the song? Sing the well known tune with the following two verses.

My tears have been my

 food day and night.

My God, “Why have you forgotten me?”

When we insert the real meaning of Psalm 42 into this song we immediately understand that the sweet melody of the song does not come close to matching the words. A selection of music that would best match these words would be a funeral dirge or a haunting melody in a minor key. Why doesn’t anyone write songs about clinical depression? Because no one would sing them and therefore, no one would buy them. There just isn’t a good market for songs about clinical depression. Maybe the closest thing to this genre of music would be country music where the singers are constantly wailing about losing their girlfriends, their trucks and their dogs.

Taylor Swift is a rising star in country music and her first hit song was happy, rock-infused tune about finding love. Her next hit song was Teardrops on My Guitar, which was a typical sad country song about lost love. But lest her fan base get too depressed by her sad music, this sad song was immediately followed by her next hit song about a Love Story with a happy ending where her Prince comes and sweeps her off her feet. You see, even country music cannot tolerate too many sad songs.

I would like to see Chris Tomlin or Matt Redman write a worship song about clinical depression. I am serious! If it is good enough for Scripture then it’s good enough for a worship song, right? One Old Testament scholar concluded that approximately two-thirds of the Psalms are psalms of lament. In other words, the book of Lamentations is far from the only lament in Scripture. If you didn’t know better you would think that depression was a 20^th century malady created by the pharmaceutical companies. Depression did not originate with the psychotherapists and it has been described long before DSM I, II, III or IV. Do you know when clinical depression first began? It all started in Genesis three. So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. ^24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life. Depression started when Adam and Eve sinned and were cast out of the garden. Depression first reared its ugly head when the first man and woman were separated from God; when they were naked and ashamed; when they were cursed by the consequences of sin and the wrath of God.

The fact is, if you are separated from God and destined for eternal destruction, you ought to be depressed! We shouldn’t be surprised by how much depression there is, but by how little, based upon the true spiritual condition of people. Now I plan to get back to the part of Philippians where we learn how to rejoice always and never be anxious. I want us to learn about the long road to peace and joy, but before we get to peace and joy, we must understand the origin of depression. All depression has resulted from sin. This does not mean that all depression is sin, but that all depression has grown out of sin and the curse.

The passage in Philippians is about anxiety, but I am talking about depression because it is the worst kind of anxiety and worry. You can be severely, clinically depressed, which I trust would not describe too many people, or you can carry worry with you like an old friend, which probably describes most of us in this room. Whether you have great anxiety or small, you are carrying something that you don’t have to carry. But just as it is cruel to tell a depressed person to just stop being depressed, does it work to tell a worried and anxious person to stop worrying? If you are worried about losing your job, if you are anxious about the thousands or tens of thousands of dollars you have lost in the stock market, if you are worried about a health condition or the spiritual condition of someone you love, if I say to you, “Rejoice in the Lord and don’t be anxious about anything,” are you suddenly going to stop worrying and being anxious?

I have never met anyone who doesn’t worry some of the time and most people worry about something every day of their lives. To tell them to suddenly stop worrying is like pouring salt into the wound. Everyone worries but I have never met someone who enjoys worrying. If I stand up here as a preacher and tell you to stop worrying and start rejoicing, there is no inherent power in my words. Of course you want to stop worrying. Who doesn’t? But if you are a chronic worrier or even an occasional worrier, if I tell you to stop worrying because God wants you to stop, then I am only adding insult to injury. You feel badly because you are worrying and then I increase your anxiety by telling you that you don’t have to worry. But you don’t have the power to stop worrying, so you feel more guilty and anxious because you can’t seem to trust God with your worries. Do you see the vicious cycle this produces?

This is another reason why I have talked so much about depression this morning. It doesn’t make any sense to tell a clinically depressed person to stop being depressed, but most sermons on worrying simply tell people to stop worrying because God doesn’t want them to worry. Now I firmly believe that God doesn’t want us to worry, but the solution is not merely to say, “stop worrying.”

Let me leave you with three thoughts and an application.  Let’s go back to that same Psalm, Psalm 42 and see how the author dealt with depression, because if there is help for depression, then there has to be help for average worry.

Why are you downcast, O my soul?

Why so disturbed within me?

Put your hope in God,

for I will yet praise him,

my Savior and my God.

After wrangling in pain and feelings of abandonment, the psalmist writes, “Put your hope in God.” And he said it not just once or twice, but three times in twelve verses. Put your hope in God. There is hope for the severely depressed and there is hope for the chronic worrier. You can see the raw power of hope in our nation right now. Obama’s book and his campaign message was the audacity of hope, and whatever you believe about the man, he has been successful in spreading a message of hope. Despite the dire economic straits that we are in, the majority of people have truly placed their hope in President Obama. I have heard people say things like this. “We are certainly in a terrible financial crisis right now, but I really believe that Obama will turn things around.” I have never seen anything like this in my lifetime. I think it is a sadly misplaced hope, but nevertheless, you see the power of hope. But the psalmist says, “Put your hope in God.” This is not hope in hope or hope in a man or hope in a pill. This is hope in God. We will continue this topic of peace and anxiety next week, but the first thing an anxiety filled person must know is that there is hope in God.

Second, the deep pain of depression or the nagging prick of anxiety that you are feeling right now is a reminder of why Christ died for us. Both emotional pain and physical pain are living reminders of the necessity of the gospel. They remind us that our bodies and minds are cursed and are in great need. I am not saying that Christ died so you wouldn’t have to worry or stub your toe, but all of our pain, including the pain of depression and worry are all too painful reminders of our ultimate need for Christ. Don’t waste your pain. Let your pain lead you to Christ.

Third, when Jesus spoke of anxiety, one of the things he said is that we should not worry about things like food and clothing because your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. One way to summarize his point is to say that peace, and the lack of anxiety is not just a command, it is a gift. God commands us to rejoice in him and not to be anxious, but please don’t view this as an impossible, burdensome command but as a loving gift from your Father. He truly wants to bear your burdens.

We are given three ways to work toward peace and joy; three tracks to run on. This is what we will develop next week.

Praying vv. 6-7

Thinking v. 8

Doing v. 9

When you put these into practice, the peace of God and the God of peace guard your heart and mind against anxiety and worry. This is why I titled the message, Soldier of Peace. Jesus Christ is your soldier of peace. But like the crew of flight 1549, peace must be intentionally trained into our lives. Jesus can be your soldier of peace, but it will not happen by accident.

Rich Maurer

March 8, 2009