well good evening everybody and welcome to the Divine Encounter Church uh midweek Bible study and we're just glad that uh you decided to join in to tune Us in uh on this week what a blessing it is uh to have uh God's word and to have an opportunity to look into uh his word amen we're just glad for this opportunity Divine Encounter Church our web address is www. divine encounter church.net uh and our meeting location for our Sunday service uh which is Sundays at 3M is on the campus of Wasau Community College which is in Anar Michigan 4800 East heran River Drive and that's Ann Arbor 48105 the Morris Lawrence building which is a building that sits off by itself we meet at the Morris Lawrence building on the campus of Wasa Community College room ml150 on the vast majority of Sundays room ml150 and we're glad that you joined us today my name is Pastor Benjamin Foster and we just welcome you to the Divine encounter Bible study our opening scripture will be from Philippians chapter 4 and we want to look at verses 6 through 8 Philippians chapter 4 verses 6-8 and it reads be careful for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God and the peace of God which passes all understanding shall keep your hearts and Minds through Christ Jesus finally Brethren whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any virtue and if there be any praise think on these things things and God add a blessing to the reading and the hearing of his word and so today we want to talk about the topic of subduing anxiety we want to overcome anxiety we we don't want to be the victims of anxiety but with God's help we want to overcome our anxieties we want to walk in total victory over it by the grace of God so we've got to learn uh the principles of God's word as to how to walk in victory over our anxieties and uh you know the news events can cause you if you're not careful if you're not watchful the news events can cause you to feel a sense of anxiety can cause you to feel a sense of nervousness can cause you to feel a sense of unease unrest okay nervousness unease unrest you can have a sense of anxiety just because of the news events and the things that are going on in the world and so you have to be careful that you don't meditate on the happenings of this present world too much you have to be careful that you don't allow yourself to focus on the Affairs and the events of this world too much because if you allow yourself to focus on those things and not focus on God's word then those events will seem like they're more important than God's word and those events will seem like they have greater power even than God's word you got to be careful what you meditate upon uh one way to have a lot of fear is just watch the the evening news watch the evening news consistently and just think about the events that are going on if you do it enough and look at the different negative things that are being reported it can cause you to have a sense of Doom and Gloom it can have you it can cause you to have a sense of uh nervousness and anxiety and discomfort about life you can be you can have a real sense of discomfort you can have a real sense that uh there's that things are not going to go well because you focus too much on the news uh there's so many negative things that the news reports and they never seem to focus on what is positive you know if you want positive information you don't go to the news to get it because the news stations what they're really are focused on is what's going to give them ratings that's their thrust and that's their focus what is going to give us the ratings and what gives them the ratings is negative news negative information when there's negative news and negative information it just it it causes people to watch the news and the ratings tend to sore because something bad is going on something negative is going on and so that's human nature people tend to gravitate towards negative news they want to see something that is negative and uh it's unfortunate but it's true that's where people's focus is And So It causes the ratings to go higher the ratings tend to climb and people feel uh people feel good when they can hear something negative but the cumulative effect of listening to negative information the cumulative effect is it causes you to have a sense of anxiety and unease causes you to have a sense that you know what things are not going to go well and you just have a sense that even though uh there's no reason for you to be fearful or afraid you just have a sense that things are just not going to go well something bad is gonna happen that's the nature uh of dwelling on negative information so many people have a a sense of anxiety and they wander about through life with a sense that oh things are just not going to work out things are not going to go good we can't focus on the negative and the Bible actually teaches us as we're going to uncover in this lesson today the Bible actually teaches you that you should focus on positive things that's a Biblical principle we as Believers should focus upon positive things don't allow your mind to get caught up on negative things that are happening in the world negative news it'll mess up your uh your Viewpoint it'll cause you to view the world in a false light it'll mess you up don't get allow yourself to fall into that trap and we got to focus on things that are positive there's a lot of positive things that we can focus on rather than the negative so uh it's a dangerous thing to focus on things that are negative and uh from my observation when people get overly focused on negative things negative news negative information when their focus just becomes too high on what is negative rather than what is positive and good what tends to happen is that people uh view everything in a negative light they become pessimistic they begin to view everything in a negative light and they they begin to distrust people I've seen that happen with people because they focus so much on negative information they become pessimistic and they don't trust anybody they look at it they look around at people and they say oh nobody's any good nobody can be trusted they look around at people and just have all kinds of negative thoughts and imaginations about people negative thoughts and imaginations about people people that they ought to trust people that have not done done them any harm that they ought to trust they look at them with suspicion they look at them uh with the notion that this person can't be trusted why because their focus has been too much on what is negative you got to be careful that your focus is on the right things and the Bible tells us what to focus upon we can't allow ourselves to focus on the negative and so this passage of scripture tells us to be careful for nothing be careful for nothing to be careful for nothing means to be anxious for nothing don't allow yourself to be anxious for any reason is what this verse means when the thought comes to your head to be anxious and to be full of anxiety uh just totally reject it totally ignore it totally subdue It cast down that imagination that exalts itself against the knowledge of God don't let that imagination rule you and dominate you but bring it down using the weapons of our Warfare the weapons of our Warfare are not uh carnal but they are Mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds okay and imaginations and every High thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of Christ you can pull down imaginations you a lot of times anxieties are are based on foolish erroneous imaginations when your imaginations go in the wrong direction your imaginations become foolish and erroneous uh then you are you put yourself in a position where that you can dwell on what is negative and you can become fearful that's how fear can grip your very heart that's how anxiety can uh grip you paraly you anxiety anxiety can be such a powerful force that it can cause a person to be in essence paralized they can't hardly think and function normally and make normal rational Common Sense decisions their anxiety has gotten so out of control that they just make foolish and silly decisions or they make no decisions at all they're frozen frozen in a sense of anxiety and fear so we we've got to overcome anxiety we've got to subdue it so this scripture Philippians chapter 4 and 6 tells us don't be anxious don't be careful don't be worried and full of anxiety about anything don't let yourself become anxious about anything you know um uh our former president former president Donald Trump there was an attempted assassination against him there was an assassination attempt that was very very close to succeeding he almost got taken out of here Donald Trump almost got taken out of here by an Assassin's bullet it was only by the grace of God and even Donald Trump himself had to acknowledge that he had to acknowledge that it was only by the grace of God that he survived it's only the mercy of God somebody tried to take out a president and I thought like most people that that was virtually impossible I thought that you know that's that's not even a possibility that somebody could uh take out a president have a a good shot at a president I didn't think you could have a good shot at a president I said the security would be so intense in this Modern Age I said the security would just be uh overwhelming and there's no way you could get even a good clear shot at him but we got proven wrong and Donald Trump was almost assassinated so uh if it can happen to a former president with all of the protection that he has the Secret Service will follow you the rest of your life if you're a former president they'll follow you and they'll keep you in safety to the best of their ability for the rest of your life because you're a former president of the United States they'll work to keep you in safety they'll do all they can to keep you out of Harm's Way but if it could happen to former president and how much more could it happen to you and me how much more danger is there for the average American citizen in this uh in these last days in which we're living okay these are perilous times in the last days the Bible says perilous times shall come perilous times we're living in perilous times okay uh so we shouldn't be deceived into believing that we can just keep ourselves safe but we should have enough sense to recognize we need to trust in God and that's one of the keys to you not having anxiety in a world that's so full of issues that can cause anxiety you've got to be a person that trusts God in order to overcome anxiety you got to trust God you got to relax be at rest and just trust God except the Lord keeps the city The Watchman waketh but in vain so God has to keep a city God has to keep a nation and God has to keep your individual life it takes the hand of the Lord that's the only way you're going to be safe God has to preserve you he has to keep you in safety so you got you got to be a person that just rests relaxes and just trusts God that's one of the keys to not worrying and not having anxiety just relax and trust the Lord and trust your life into his hands UST your daily care into his hands entrust it all to him you got to entrust it all into the hands of God nothing you can do is going to keep you safy I don't care how healthy your diet is good to eat a health healthy diet wise to eat a healthy diet but I don't care how healthy your diet is your diet cannot keep you here and keep your maintain your health alone it can't do it I don't care how healthy you eat Health Guru after Health Guru have died Richard Simmons who was a health gur recently died another man who was a vegan I can picture his face in my head he's he was a vegan John McDougall I believe was his name he was a vegan he went all around the world preaching about the virtues of veganism don't eat any animal products and you're going to live a long time and oh you're going to have good health and all of this but John McDougall McDougall died about the average lifespan he lived to be 77 years old here in America that's nearly that's pretty close to the average American's lifespan not much he didn't live much longer eating that vegan diet that strict strict vegan diet couldn't keep them here death comes for all of us and so we we've got to have enough sense to recognize that our lives are really not all in our hands there's an element of Our Lives that we have to just trust God with an element of your life you just got to trust God with it and say God if you don't keep me here I'm getting out of here if you don't preserve me and keep me from Evil and keep me from disease and keep me from all the trouble that could befall me I'm just I'm gone see that's the key you got to recognize that God is the one that keeps you eat a healthy diet exercise you can be all you can be all into exercise do all kinds of exercise and all of your readings when you go to the doctor's office can come back positive come back favorable they can say oh your blood pressure is perfect your pulse is perfect your A1 C3 I think that's what it's called A1 C3 is perfect your blood sugar is perfect uh your hemoglobin levels are perfect iron level is perfect everything C reactive protein is perfect everything comes back positive and you oh it looks good oh everything looks good but doesn't mean it doesn't guarantee that you're gonna live any longer than an average person doesn't guarantee you anything and the sad reality is that many people that don't take care of themselves that eat poor diets don't exercise and things like that some of them will outlive the people that are all into these things so uh we there's an element of your safety and your protection that's in God's hands and you've got to recognize that you got to recognize that it's not in your hands it's in the hands of the Lord all right so don't trust in your own abilities don't trust in what you can do and say oh if I just put in enough effort I can preserve myself no don't be deceived so this scripture tells us don't be worried about anything be careful for nothing okay but what else what should we do don't don't worry what do we we replace place the worry with you see that's one thing about God's word is God doesn't just tell you not to do something what God will do is he'll tell you don't do this but do this instead and so the question is In this passage of scripture what should we do instead of worrying well the Apostle Paul tells us what to do instead of worrying he says be careful for not nothing but instead of that instead of worrying instead of being full of anxiety instead of allowing yourself to be full of fear instead of that in everything in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving let your request be made known unto God so don't worry about anything don't have anxieties about anything but instead pray about everything have you ever tried that before have you ever tried praying about everything about every Affair of life every issue of Life pray about it and trust God for divine wisdom and help to handle the situation Trust God for divine assistance to Excel and to handle all the Affairs of life when you go to the gas pump you're about to pump your gas trust God for help at the gas pump ask him to bless you with his safety and with Grace at the gas pump go to the store and you're about to do your weekly shopping pray a prayer say God bless me to find some good deals to save money and not to waste my money by buying things that I really don't need uh bless me not to buy things that are overly priced overpriced don't bless me instead to find things that are good deals and that I really need so that I don't waste away my money that's how you should pray when you go into the grocery store you go to the mall to buy some clothing items shoes andh pants and dress shirts and whatever it is that that you need to buy neck ties if you're a woman a dress a new purse new Coach purse or if you're really sophistic ated a new Gucci purse you know uh or Chanel purse okay uh these expensive type items uh you go to the store to buy these things pray a prayer say God guide me in my shopping experience guide me at this mall to find a good deal to find good deals and to pay a fair price not to overpay God don't want you overpaying for uh for your clothing he doesn't want you to overpay he wants you to pay what is fair what is reasonable what is wise God wants you to he wants you to be blessed in your shopping experience God is concerned about every facet of your life everything he not just concerned about your spiritual well-being he's also concerned about every area of your life when you're planning a vacation okay my wife and I are looking at vacation opportunities ways places to go for a vacation well well we we and you as well should trust God for a good deal on a vacation you can get a good vacation be able to get away and take an annual vacation however off often it is that you go on vacation you can be able to enjoy yourself and not pay too much get a good deal a fair price and be able to get away and have God's protection and blessing upon you as you go away yeah that's that's a good and Noble prayer God is concerned about every Affair of your life so trust him for everything in every area of your life pray about it pray about it say God give me your help give me some insight uh concerning this specific area of my life I pray about everything if you got any doubt whatsoever if there's something that you have any concern about you just pray about it that's what this scripture is telling you to do here in Philippians 46 you pray about everything if you pray about everything then you will end living a life of prayer because you're asking God for help in every area of your life you just pray about everything you you'll end up living in communion with God living in dependency on God your dependency will be on him rather than in your own intellect sometimes we get into the era of uh trusting in our own intellect my mind what my mind can uh conceive what my mind can uh conceive and perceive that's what I trust in people can fall into that error but the Bible says in Proverbs chapter 3 trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding so we got to make sure we don't trust uh in our own reasonings our own understanding and it says in all thy ways acknowledge Him and he shall direct thy paths you want God's Direction you got to acknowledge Him you got to say God I need your help I need your wisdom I need your direction you got to make it known to God that you want him to help you and if you will do that then God will he'll honor that he'll give you some insight he'll give you some knowledge and understanding so you can make wise practical decisions so don't don't worry about anything pray about everything and he says by prayer and supplication okay uh supplication uh is just petitioning god making a definite request to God that's what supplication refers to just petitioning God saying God I need this specific thing we should be very specific with God make it clear to him what we need and what we desire from him and everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God so give God Thanksgiving after you make your petition okay when you give God supplication remember to give him Thanksgiving and what is what does that mean that means thank God in advance don't wait for the blessing to show up to give God thanks thank God in advance thank God uh before you see the blessing before you see the Breakthrough give God thanks and just trust him that's evidence of faith faith will cause you to be thankful before you see any results faith will cause you to be thankful before you see any difference in a given situation that's what we want we want uh to be able to give God thanks in faith before we see any evidence of a change 2 Corinthians 5:7 says for we walk by faith not by by sight that's where that's how we walk and live to to say we walk by faith means we live by faith that's what it means to walk your walk of faith is your life of Faith okay so and the Bible says that the just shall live by faith the righteous are going to live by faith and we walk by faith not by sight so don't go by how it appears in the natural don't go by how things seem go by what the word says faith is always based on what the word says not ever based on how natural events seem don't be deceived by natural events don't be deceived by how things appear go go instead by what the word says on everything if you go by what the word says on everything and you trust what the word says on these issues you'll never ever be wrong you'll never be wrong if you trust the word because God's word is going to tell you the right uh perspective to have on any issue in any situation God's word is going to give you accuracy it's going to give you an accurate viewpoint but the natural how things appear can can deceive you you can get tricked by how things appear in the natural things can look so bad in the natural sometimes that it can just cause you to say you know uh it looks like God has just forsaken me it looks like God has just given up on me God is nowhere to be found that's how it can appear in the natural and it can cause you to get all discouraged and distressed you say oh well looks like God just not going to come through for me you can't do that you can't go by uh how things appear you got to go by the Unseen realities and that's what faith is built upon is is built upon unseen realities these are things that you don't perceive with your senses but you know they're true so that's where our faith has to be so with Thanksgiving give God thanks because you believe and let your requests be made known unto God God that's how you uh get results with God don't worry don't ever worry and that's that's a crucial step right there because once you get over into the realm of worry what you're saying is God I don't believe you I don't believe the good things that your word has to say about this situation and uh the Troubles of the world I don't believe what your word has to say about how that you keep us in safety and how you protect us and you preserve Our Lives I don't believe it that's what fear that's what uh you worrying is basically communicating your actions indicate your faith level that's what they do your actions will indicate your faith level if your if fear is a gripping your heart anxiety is gripping your heart is it is evidence to you that you need to get into the word and you need to strengthen your faith and you need to build up your faith to overcome your anxieties if you build up your faith and your faith is strong in God your anxieties will go go down so that's one of the big keys to overcoming Anxiety is you've got uh to make sure make sure uh that uh your you don't allow your your confidence and trouble to be greater than your confidence in God's word okay you got to you got to make sure that you you destroy destroy those anxieties by having confidence in God and having confidence in his word rest in him don't worry you got to rest in God say God is God has got my back if God is for us then who can be against us uh you know there's no reason to fear when you have God working for you God is going to favor you he's going to bless you he's going to bring you through uh if you trust him so we got to rest in God faith will cause you to rest faith will cause you to have rest on the inside and genuine peace on the inside that's what you want you want genuine peace on on the inside you don't you don't want to be a person that is dominated by a sense of unrest unrest unease and anxiety all right uh your anxiety is stim at it by hidden fears that's what stimulates anxiety is hidden fears it's things that you don't even understand you you haven't even considered that uh you're fearful of sometimes you haven't even uh really thought about the fact that you're fearful of a given thing fearful of a given area you haven't even thought about it's hidden is hidden uh and these hidden fears are the very foundation for anxiety you can't have anxiety if you uh don't have hidden fear you cannot have anxiety there's no there's no foundation for anxiety when you don't have any hidden fear because anxiety it grows from hidden fears fears that are deep down in your self-conscious the subconscious mind down on the inside of you fears so you gota you gotta by the grace of God overcome these fears don't let fears become greater than your belief and your trust in God your trust in God has to be strongest it has to be the strongest thing that you have your trust in God your trust in God can cause your fears to be disintegrated your trusting God when it gets big enough when it gets strong enough and it gets built up high enough it can cause all fear all doubt it can cause it to be absolutely destroyed so what you got to learn to do by the grace of God is to feed and build up your faith you got to learn how to nourish your faith and strengthen your faith let your faith grow and get stronger ER and stronger with time your faith should not become weaker with time the problems that you used to deal with years ago the fears that you used to deal with years ago they shouldn't have the same grasp on you today they shouldn't have the same hold on you today as they had years ago because your faith is supposed to be always growing always getting bigger your faith is supposed to be always getting stronger by the grace of God so uh you got to deal with hidden fears which are the very root of anxiety uh Romans 10:17 says so then Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God okay you hear God's word consistently listen to God's word your faith is strengthened your faith level uh goes up because you've been hearing God's word your faith level grow uh and it gets a better rooting and Foundation when you hear the word of God faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God we shouldn't think that our faith is going to grow by just praying for more faith I believe it is good to pray for more faith that's a good thing to do nothing wrong with saying God increase my faith but you got to take action to cooperate with God increasing your faith you got to take some action one action that you can take that will facilitate the increase of your faith is increasing the hearing of good solid Bible teaching hearing the word meditating on the word listening to it consistently our YouTube channel with time we're gonna have a lot of videos on our YouTube channel of teachings and these different teachings will be like a library that's available to you the viewers you can come to uh our YouTube channel and you can look uh in our archives look at the different videos that have been recorded and get get some nourishing truth from the word of God that's what uh this is there for to give you some good nourishing truths things that's going to help you out help you in your journey we intend to keep putting on different content on this channel over time so that you the viewers uh have strong faith you'll have resources that can help you so you got to build up your faith uh you got to subdue fear as we spoke of earlier uh 2 Timothy 3:17 says for God hath not given us the spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind subdue your fear because it didn't come from God uh fear is a spirit that comes from our enemy this is one thing that our enemy does to cause us trouble he sends spirits of fear to torment us spirits of fear to cause us anguish and anxiety and grief and often times what you'll find is this when you go through a season where that you feel anxious and you feel worried you feel a sense of fear what you'll find is that uh this really what what it was was a demon an evil spirit was vexing you it was an evil spirit that was vexing you causing you to feel that way and then when you come through that you say you know what that fear was unreasonable and unfounded there no reason for me to be fearful like that why was I so afraid why was I so fearful of something that was just so irrational you know fear can be absolutely positively irrational so we got to be careful and we H we have to make sure that we don't allow ourselves to be caught up and uh overcome by our fears don't don't be overcome by fears but overcome fear with faith okay so uh we got to subdue it uh Proverbs 4:23 talks about how that we must guard our hearts keep our heart keep your heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life you got to keep your heart guard it that's what that verse is is telling you to do guard your heart protect your heart your heart is your spirit man protect your spirit protect your innermost being from Fear anxiety worry stress protect it okay and uh res existed one thing that I've learned to do is that when I find that fear is really attacking me and I'm being attacked by a sense of anxiety anxiety about tomorrow anxiety about the future anxiety about the Affairs of life when when I find that I'm going through a season like that anxieties what I have to do is I have to begin to speak the word I have to begin to say it with my own lips there's something about speaking the word and saying it with your own lips that has a way of strengthening and fortifying your faith so you got to speak the word you got to say things that are positive in your time of anxiety don't say oh you know what I think that it's just gonna get worse and times are going to get bad and I'm just gonna have struggles and I'm not gonna make it don't say that don't don't say that at all in your time of distress and anguish your time where you're feeling a sense of anxiety you got to say things that are going to cause your faith level to rise say things that cause your faith level to rise encourage yourself as the Bible says that David did in his time of anxiety the Bible says David encouraged himself in the Lord you got to learn to encourage yourself say things that are going to stimulate Faith don't say negative things oh as things are not going to work out times are going to be times are going to get worse oh I'm I'm not going to make it don't say that now say I'm G to make it by the grace of God I'm going to overcome by the grace of God I have the victory through the grace of God you got to call those things that be not as though they were that means you got to say things that uh may not even appear to be true at the given time it looks like you're being defeated but you got to say I got the victory it looks like you're weak you feel weak but you got to say I'm strong you you feel sick in your body but you got to say I'm Healed by the power of God you have to say these things you got to make that case you got to say things that will result in a blessing don't say I'm not going to make it and it just don't seem like things are going to work out say I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me you gota you got to say these kinds of things you got to say the Lord is the strength of my life of whom shall I be afraid you know though an host should encamp against me I'm not going to fear that's where your faith has to be yay though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me that's how you got to talk you got to say the things that that indicate that that you are in faith don't allow yourself to walk in fear fear is an Open Door anxiety is an Open Door for your enemy uh so guard your heart protect your heart one a way to protect your heart you got to say the right things don't say the wrong things and contaminate your heart say the right things so that your heart uh will be blessed your heart will be strengthened blessed and built up and so Jesus said Matthew 6:34 take no thought for the moral for tomorrow should take thought for the things of itself sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof what was Jesus saying what he was saying is that you have enough evil to deal with in your present day so don't be worrying about the troubles and the evils that might befall you in your tomorrow don't be worried about the different issues that might befall you in your tomorrow in instead uh just deal with the issues that are on the table for today you can learn that simple principle one day at a time one day at a time you know there's a song that says that old country sounding song One Day at a Time One Day at a Time Lord give me the grace give me the faith to take one day at a time you know if you can just do that that's going to give you such a superior advantage in the Affairs of Life take one day at a time don't worry about tomorrow deal with the issues that are that are confronting you today you can make it you will make it by the grace of God so let's pray a prayer as we wrap up for this week dear heavenly father in the name of Jesus Jesus we thank you for your holy word and the time that you've given unto us to study the word oh God bless us with wisdom and Grace to not be anxious to not be worried to not be fearful bless us with Grace oh God to take a stand oh God and uh just trust you bless us with your wisdom to not be people of anxiety but in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving to let our requests be made known unto you oh God In The Name of Jesus we ask these rich blessings and we believe that we receive these blessings right now amen may God bless you thank everyone for viewing may God bless you and keep you until we meet again