If I'm Sad or Anxious
Will God Still Love Me If... • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Stress, Sadness, and Worry
Stress, Sadness, and Worry
Anyone dealing with any of those today?
Probably all of us are to some extent.
The National Institute of Mental Health says, “Nearly 1 in 5 US adults live with a mental illness.” Whether is be anxiety, depression, or something else, lots of people struggle with mental health.
And it is common to feel like we are broken and messed up when we have struggles like that.
We can also feel like weak or bad Christians when we are dealing with struggles in life.
So is God mad at us or disappointed in us when we are sad, overwhelmed, or anxious?
The short answer is no, but let me show you why in John 11.
Jesus Loves Them
Jesus Loves Them
John 11 starts with Jesus being told that His friend Lazarus is very sick and may die if He doesn’t come to Bethany.
Jesus responds to the news in verse 4:
4 When Jesus heard it, he said, “This sickness will not end in death but is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” 5 Now Jesus loved Martha, her sister, and Lazarus. 6 So when he heard that he was sick, he stayed two more days in the place where he was. 7 Then after that, he said to the disciples, “Let’s go to Judea again.”
Notice what John tells us about Jesus and Lazarus’s family, He LOVED them.
But then he says “SO, he stayed two more days...”
He let Lazarus die! BUT WHY!
Well, vs 4 “So people will see God’s glory and so I will be glorified through it.”
Jesus knew what He was going to do when He got to Bethany, He was going to raise Lazarus from the dead.
So he had to die if he was going to be raised (that is science).
Tough Martha
Tough Martha
Now, when Jesus gets to Bethany, Martha is the first one to come up to Jesus.
17 When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. 18 Bethany was near Jerusalem (less than two miles away). 19 Many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them about their brother. 20 As soon as Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him, but Mary remained seated in the house.
21 Then Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother wouldn’t have died. 22 Yet even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.”
23 “Your brother will rise again,” Jesus told her.
24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me, even if he dies, will live. 26 Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
27 “Yes, Lord,” she told him, “I believe you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who comes into the world.”
Martha and Mary show there sadness in different ways don’t they.
Martha here seems to be questioning and maybe a bit frustrated about the whole situation.
“Why didn’t you come earlier Jesus? If you had, then Lazarus would still be alive.”
But then she quickly fixes what might have seemed a bit irreverent
“Of course I known you are powerful and good, I’m just sad...”
Even though Martha’s brother has died, she seems to be swallowing her emotions and hiding behind spiritual words.
But Jesus isn’t mad at her, He is just guiding her toward trusting Him.
If Martha was right to be sad, even frustrated, but she didn’t feel like she was allowed to.
That is a hard and dangerous place to be and it is a misunderstanding of God’s heart for us.
He doesn’t want us to put on a stiff upper lip and act like we aren’t struggling.
Emotional Mary
Emotional Mary
Then Mary finally comes to Jesus,
28 Having said this, she went back and called her sister Mary, saying in private, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.”
29 As soon as Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. 30 Jesus had not yet come into the village but was still in the place where Martha had met him. 31 The Jews who were with her in the house consoling her saw that Mary got up quickly and went out. They followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to cry there.
32 As soon as Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and told him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother wouldn’t have died!”
33 When Jesus saw her crying, and the Jews who had come with her crying, he was deeply moved in his spirit and troubled. 34 “Where have you put him?” he asked.
“Lord,” they told him, “come and see.”
35 Jesus wept.
36 So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” 37 But some of them said, “Couldn’t he who opened the blind man’s eyes also have kept this man from dying?”
When Mary finally comes to Jesus it is very different than her sister.
She falls at His feet and begins to weep, and then says the same thing Martha said, without the qualifying statement at the end.
She was sad and she wasn’t holding back.
I can imagine Martha rolling her eyes or looking cautiously at her sister wandering how Jesus was going to take her accusation.
And that is when we see how Jesus really feels about our sadness, anxiety and frustration.
He was deeply moved and troubled.
He was sad for Mary and angered by the pain that death had brought to her and the others.
He wasn’t mad at Mary, He was moved by her.
When Jesus is brought to the tomb of Lazarus John says “He wept.”
The God-Man cried. He felt sadness and frustration.
In other places we are told that Jesus worried.
Lessons to Learn
Lessons to Learn
We can learn from Martha and Mary
They both brought their struggles to Jesus.
Inviting Jesus into our mess or stress—or taking our mess or stress to Jesus—are appropriate says to seek God’s participation and power in things that are tough for us to handle.
Our mental health suffers when we attempt to handle it alone or hide it from God.
Mary was honest with Jesus about her pain and frustration, and we can be to.
Matthew 11:28-30 is one of the greatest promises from Jesus and can be a huge source of comfort for us in our struggles.
28 “Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, because I am lowly and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
He is inviting us to stop letting worry, sadness, frustration, bitterness, anger, or stress overwhelm us.
He isn’t mad at us, He a is gentle, humble, and caring Savior who desires to comfort our chaotic hearts.
So come to Him, but also find someone who can help you walk through your struggles with.
A counselor, a pastor, or a trusted adult that can give you direction.
Does God still love you if you are sad? ABSOLUTELY!
