Crossing family. I am so glad that you guys are
at church today. Is everybody doing?
All right okay good to hear. Now I want to thank you all for
the incredible support encouragement after the message.
Last weekend on suicide, some of the stories that are hard coming
from our campus pastors have been incredibly moving and
Powerful Ron, who works as the campus pastor at alignment
location and also works at our multi-site offices from time to
time drives to lifts. He gave for Rides over the past
weekend and four of those rides without being prompted.
Ended up the families talked about how they were navigating
issues related to suicide and he was able to help and minister to
them. I heard stories of how our
difference makers responded to those in crisis, others of you
hugged, and comfort. Those in our midst who have lost
someone to suicide. And I'm just so thankful to be a
part of this church in the way that you guys love and led so
well. Well, last week this past week,
so many of you were the very hands and feet of Jesus to
broken people. And that's the kind of church
that I want to be a part of. Isn't that the kind of church?
You want to be a part of? I know, I love it.
I want to welcome all of you joining from all of our
different locations, online, and inside.
And to, those of you who are brand new to the crossing, we
are so thankful that you are here, perhaps you just moved
into one of our communities or you're in town visiting family,
or maybe you are brought here A friend or maybe heard about this
sermon series and you came to check us out, we believe that it
is no accident that you are here and our prayer.
Is that today when you leave, you either have begun an
intimate personal relationship with Jesus Christ or you will go
deeper in your relationship with Jesus.
And if at any point during the sermon series, you want to
connect. You can use the QR code on the
seat in front of you, at all of our different locations.
And if you were to Hop on that link.
It'll give you all kinds of opportunities for you to
connect. You can get prayer, you can get
baptized. If you have questions about how
to access more of our resources, you can do that as well.
And for those of you who come to the crossing every single week,
I want to encourage you every week when you show up, click on
that qr-code because the information is always changing
and we want to give you a chance to partner with us as we try to
make this the hardest place on planet Earth to get to help from
One thing you will notice about on the qr-code this week, is
that registration is open for Rise.
The Crossings annual Women's Conference.
And I believe that every single woman who attends this year is
going to be blessed and encouraged, and they're going to
leave closer to God and closer to God's people.
Men, I want you to make it a priority as you tried to lead
and love your wife. Well, that you make it a
priority that you make space in her world.
So that way she can come and be a Part of this, we want to love
them. Well lead them.
Well and this will be a great way for you to do it.
If you are brand new to our church, we are in a sermon
series called weeds in my garden and is a sermon series.
About being honest, about mental health.
Today we're going to be talking about worry and anxiety, several
months back. We did an internal survey here
at the church. We had almost 2,000 people
respond. And inside of that survey, this
is what We found out 82% of the people who call The Crossing
home wrestle with worry and anxiety.
Ladies, you came in at 86 percent, You know, it was
alarming to me for men whose 68% I say that because guys ladies I
want you to know you are not alone.
No matter where you're watching from right now.
Chances are there are five people within reach of you, if
you extend your hand. Only one of the people that you
would touch. Isn't wrestling with this.
It is in your marriage. It is in your home more than
likely it was in the car with you.
When you came to church today. We tend to use worry and anxiety
interchangeably. And that's not a big problem
because the Bible almost does the exact same thing that it
just kind of talks about worry and anxiety as synonyms and just
to kind of give a little bit more clarity around, worry and
anxiety. I'm talking about people who
feel a sense of nervousness and unease.
It's the suspension between hope and fear.
You don't know whether to be excited or afraid, you really
don't feel like you have a good. Good foundation to process your
emotions or to move forward in life.
But some of you you're listening to these messages or you're
watching them and you're from more of a clinical background.
And when you get into the clinical field or the medical
field, there's a greater distinction between worry and
anxiety. That emerges, for instance, from
the medical perspective, worry prods you to use natural
problem-solving skills. It can be a natural mechanism to
keep you from danger. This is where flight fight or
freeze emerges. It's the heightened awareness
that you have when you're walking into a car on a dark
night. That feeling while uncomfortable
can be very healthy to keep you safe and perhaps change some of
your behavior in the future like where you park and when you
leave, but anxiety is much deeper than that.
It's a persistent period of worried that maybe have deeper
roots in your biology, your situational challenges or past.
Trauma, Mike Maher, who's been helping with some of the
resources during this sermon series, you may have seen the
content that we've been uploading on our website or on
social. Media that gives every single
person a little bit of Hope, and a little bit of help, he talks
about anxiety, and worry on a spectrum.
So imagine all the way on this end of the spectrum, you have a
form of worry and anxiety. That's extremely manageable.
It has almost no disruption to your daily living.
And then, on the other end of the spectrum is an anxiety and a
worry that are the exact opposite.
It consumes your life. It consumes your thinking, it
consumes your ability to function, and it keeps you from
functioning the way you want to function, imagine wanting
desperately to act and respond one way.
But being incapable of it because of your worry and your
anxiety. The easiest way for me to
describe this on a spectrum is for me to talk about snakes.
For as big, an attractive as I am, I hate to tell you I hate
snakes and I mean I am deathly afraid of snakes and it is, it
is it is not good. My fear of snakes goes so deep
that sometimes I will be having a dream.
I will wake up from that dream and I will see the Ruffles in my
bed and I will think that a snake is in the bed, and I will
get out of bed in Foolproof and I'll rip all the sheets off the
bed, my wife sleeping finds herself what is going on, okay?
There when I was in college and we were you know we were parking
out the woods at a campsite or whatever.
I would open up my car from a distance, just because there
might have been a snake underneath my vehicle and I do
like the big step in if you might be thinking you'd be so
funny to prank Clayton with a snake.
I want you to know I will send you to Jesus.
Okay. I just I don't want and I don't
care who you are. I will send you to Jesus and you
like did a pastor just like threatened to hurt me, severely,
100%, And I will say something that's not appropriate for a
pastor to say and then people will be talking like was that,
was that guy pastor and that would be the appropriate tense
because I would no longer be a pastor anymore.
And if you ever want to get rid of me now, you know.
Okay. That's how you do it.
I don't, I don't, I don't handle it.
Well, now here, here's the deal. This impacts my life zero.
Because I don't spend a whole lot of time.
Deal with it. Now some of you you're hardwired
differently when it comes to snakes like you don't mind them
at all, you kind of like them, you see me?
Like let's pick it up and it is unfortunate that God put you
together that way. It really is.
But, you know, you are who you are.
So, situationally my issue with snakes is not a big deal.
I don't ever interact with snakes.
However, On the Spectrum. What if tomorrow?
We decided to buy a zoo as a church. like we And I got snake
Duty. Now what was not a big deal is
now situationally such a big deal right now.
Imagine I'm dissing to the Spectrum.
Worried every single day about every room, you enter.
Being filled. With snakes.
This is the Continuum, this is the spectrum that every single
one of us are navigating worry. We are somewhere along these
lines. This move Beyond spiritual
Beyond situational, and you find yourself in something that is
very biological and very clinical and hear me.
If you find yourself on this end of the Continuum, there are
great God-fearing people trauma-informed, medically
educated specialist that can help you chart a path forward
for you. It might not be snakes.
It might be speaking from a stage.
My brother-in-law is has it with frogs, which makes no sense to
me, but isn't that the way it is?
Sometimes with worry and anxiety?
What's not a big deal to you, is a very big deal to somebody
else. And what's not a big deal to
them is crushing. To you.
What happens when it gets deeper than that?
What happens when you're dealing with the fear of being
separated, from your family, losing your marriage rooms with
large groups of people fear of failure, upcoming test
performance reviews, losing your job, Financial pressure, social
rejection, and sinful Behavior, being exposed, unchecked worry
and anxiety, can leave us in a debilitated State.
They can drive us into isolation.
Rob us of our passion, cause us to Miss out on making precious
memories and participating. In moments of ministry, we have
talked during the sermon series about these four big buckets.
You have this spiritual bucket, you have a situational bucket,
you have a biological bucket and you have a clinical bucket.
And today I want to focus almost exclusively on the spiritual
bucket. The reason why is because
everything that you go through is spiritual everything that you
go through is spiritual, it has spiritual implications and
spiritual consequences. However, not everything that you
go through, is exclusively spiritual.
And I want to give you a framework to work through your
worry and anxiety from a spiritual perspective.
So that way as you're trying to work through, where you're at,
on the Spectrum, I want you to be able to get the spiritual
one, dialed in and then go. Okay.
Do I need to check something situationally biologically or
medically, and we're going to talk through Universal spiritual
principles. That I pray will give you a
roadmap to help you navigate moments of worry and anxiety.
However, I want to be incredibly clear.
If you find yourself going through seasons of protracted
anxiety and worry, I want you to prioritize getting professional
help. So you can chart a path forward.
Jesus knew that we would wrestle with worry and anxiety.
This did not surprise him. He knows that this is a part of
the human condition. And so when he looks at us and
our the Fallen World, he knows that we are going to wrestle
with this, these things. Ashley Wooldridge says it this
way that worry and anxiety subside when we stand in between
the two pillars of God's control and God's goodness that when you
and I place ourselves in between the pillars of God's control.
And God's goodness are worried and our Will subside?
but when we step outside of these, When we stop to doubt,
when we start doubting the goodness of God and we step
outside and all we do is clean to his control, it can create
all kinds of, worry and anxiety when we stop believing in the
control of God. And we step over here where all
we believe is that God is good, worry and anxiety can run
rampant in our lives. Let me walk you through a chunk
of scripture and see if you can't see where God's control
and God's goodness emerge, Matthew 6:25.
Therefore I tell you do not worry about your life, what you
will eat or drink or about your body, what you will wear is not
life more than food and the body more than clothes.
First thing I want to ask you, as we look at these pillars,
would God give us a command that it is not possible for us to
follow. This is a question about God's
goodness. Would God ask you to do
something knowing full well that you could not do it.
Every single one of us at times we're going to navigate these
issues of worry and anxiety. And Jesus is saying this don't
which implies that in his goodness and in his power he is
giving you the ability to rise above those moments from a
spiritual perspective. So if God is good, he wouldn't
give us a command that he doesn't expect us to be able to
walk out. Now Matthew 6:26, look at the
birds of the air. They do not sow or reap or store
away in Barns. Yet your heavenly father feeds
them. Are you not much more valuable
than they are? Think about these films again.
What happens? When you look at a guy and he's
looking down, he's going. I see you.
I value you and I care about your needs, but what happens if
you don't think he's good? All you think is that he's in
control? That means that the bad things
that are happening to you. Are coming from an evil God.
A punishing, God. An Angry God.
All you believe that God is in control, but he is putting his
thumb on you. He is causing you the pain.
He is causing you to suffer. Do you still believe in God?
Yeah, you just believe in a God. That's in control.
And what happens if you believe that God has infinite power but
is not infinitely. Good.
You know, what happened to me? I would probably be a little
worried. And a little anxious.
Conversely. What happens if you believe that
God is good. But he doesn't have any power.
oh, he cares and he loves But he can't change anything.
He can't solve it. He can't fix it.
She just says, look at the birds.
For now worried, how many of you would over locations you've ever
seen a stressed-out bird? Oh man, I got to figure this
out. Right.
Nope, never never happen. Don't even worry about where the
food is coming from. There's no.
They know there's me some old lady who's going to put bird
seed out on the porch. Like they just keep moving.
Yeah, they're putting up a new old folks home.
It's gonna be some good eating over there.
Right? That's just what they do.
Here's what I love about birds. Have you ever seen them getting
together and have liking their meetings?
Guess where they? Sit on power lines.
Like this looks like free parking nobody's ever here.
They sit on the very things that would if we touch them like this
looks like a good spot for us to talk about stuff.
It's crazy. Look at Matthew 16:27.
Can anyone of You by worrying at a single hour to your life?
How's it working for you? Yeah, I know, I've noticed that
the more, I worry the better. I feel How many of you your life
has gotten better? Since you found WebMD online?
We know what the answer is. The answer to WebMD is always
cancer. You just scroll to the bottom.
I feel like I ate too much Fruit Loops tonight.
My stomach's upset. Oh, I've got cancer.
And my tooth is really hurting. Oh, toothpaste causes cancer.
Try or how this is what we do? We We go God, you don't have
control over this so I'll take care of it and I'll put all of
this weight on me and when we start putting all of this weight
on us, what ends up happening to us?
We get a little anxious. We get a little worried this
week, Steve from our Kirksville campus sent me this quote worry
doesn't stop death. It stops life.
Worry doesn't take away. Tomorrow's troubles.
It takes away today's peace. Matthew chapter 6 verse 20,
through 30. And why do you worry about
clothes? See how the flowers of the field
grow? They do not labor or spin yet?
I tell you that. Not even Solomon, richest man
who ever lived in, all of his Splendor was dressed like one of
these. That is how God clothes if that
is, how God clothes the grass of the field, which are here today.
And tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he?
Not much more clothe you, oh, you of little faith?
You find yourself between these two pillars, asking yourself
this question. Do I believe that God is good?
That he values me more than the grasses that he cares for me,
more than he cares for the birds.
And he has the power to meet my needs.
You care for me in times of trouble, Can I trust that in his
goodness that he will supply? What I need?
Do I trust in his control that he can supply, what I need.
When I stand here in between the pillars of God's control and
God's goodness, my anxiety. My worry will decrease when I
stopped believing in one of these pillars.
And I find myself moving in the opposite direction, that is
where my worry and my anxiety. Begin to rise.
Remember when we were kids and we used to sing the song.
He's Got The Whole World in His Hands.
I've a globe in my home office, if you were to think about how
fast you and I are spinning right now.
And for one moment, if you were to stop globetrotterne us
through space, What is that? What happened?
Overtime. We We stop believing that God's
good and that he's in control. Maybe your parents, you can
relate with me for a second. My kids have almost no worries
in life. I have never heard my kids
stressed out about the mortgage. Now once in fact my kids just
the other day we were driving to Sam's pick up some food.
There's some really nice houses on this little weird road that
goes by Sam's and my kids without a care in the world.
Say Dad, we should get that house too.
Cuz we need an you know we need a north end up house.
We need to South End house in Quincy because he doesn't want
to homes in Quincy you know that way.
Depending on which IV. My wife says me too.
I'm pretty close to home. Are you home?
Yeah. Oh, wrong home.
I'll be over. My kids will be driving down the
see a car and they'll just say, Dad, we should get that one.
I'm like, oh no, we've already got this one.
They're like, no, we should get another one.
Yeah, of course, and your fantasy factory, that's
completely possible. My kids have never once worried
about saving up for a vacation, My kids not once have come up to
me and said, Mom Dad. These Rising grocery prices are
getting out of hand. I mean at this point we we buy
all the candy or the food for the week and then they just eat
it that day I'm halfway tempted, you start taking them grocery,
shopping and go just eat. Just all the samples boys just
keep going back. We're doing wardrobe changes in
the parking lot, all right, during the pandemic, my kids,
never once worried about toilet paper, they just assume that
somebody was standing in line for their ration somewhere.
Maybe it was because they weren't wiping.
As much as they should have. I don't know.
But it didn't even cross their mind.
But have you noticed that over time?
There's certain things that your kids do start worrying about New
school year. New teacher new classroom.
New friends. New activity, new sport and you
as a parent know, they're going to be okay.
And you tell them you're going to be fine because you know
what's going to happen. They're going to walk in that
class. They're going to be there for
all of five minutes and they're going to make a new best friend
and the new best friend is like they're very bestest friend,
they've ever had and all their other friends are just friends.
And you know that they're going to try the new sport and they're
going to be super worried about showing up for the first
practice and then they're going to come home telling you that
they're going pro in that sport, you know, all of this stuff.
But you can't tell him that in advance Kanya.
Because they don't. They don't think you have.
Control. and it breaks your heart as a parent when they
stopped believing that you're the strongest person ever and
that you're going to take care of every problem that arises You
have to wonder what does it do to the heart of God?
When Satan somehow gets you and I to stop believing that the one
who sent his son to die on the cross isn't good.
And the one who saved us from our sins, doesn't have control.
Matthew chapter 6. Verse 31, so do not worry,
saying, what shall we eat? Or what shall we drink?
Or what shall we wear for the pagans people who don't believe
in God, people who don't believe in Jesus, people who don't have
an intimate personal relationship with him for the
pagans run after, all these things and your heavenly father
knows that you need them. He knows that you need them.
And he has an endless supply of what you need.
He's good because he knows that he's in control because he has
an endless supply weird thing. Jesus is talking to a group of
people living in food and clothing, scarcity.
They saying don't worry about what you eat or what you will
wear. And here we are living the
American dream. Most of you had multiple choices
of what you were going to eat today and some of you know, that
you're going to overeat so much over the next couple of meals
that you didn't eat breakfast today.
And some of you ladies, you are late to church at many of our
locations. Because you opened your closet
and you had too many things to wear.
And yet our worry and anxiety continue to Skyrocket.
Maybe the American dream is not nearly as fulfilling as it was
supposed to be because we have placed our trust On a system and
not a savior. Verse 33.
But seek first, his kingdom, and his righteousness.
And all these things will be given to you as well.
Therefore do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will worry
about itself. Each day has enough everybody
say enough enough trouble of its own two things to know.
Here, one seek first, God's kingdom.
He's saying, don't worry seek God's kingdom.
I wonder how many of us are carrying a worry, or we are
anxious about something that we have not yielded.
God's will. number one, thing that people worry about our
financial pressures, Is that area of your life already
surrendered to Jesus? Are we expecting God's blessing
without us being obedient to God's purpose?
There's some of us who are worried about our marital status
but as your marriage biblically based on the solid rock of
Jesus, are we doing the things that God commands us to do in
our marriage? I wonder if we were to be doing
the things of God, therefore our worry and anxiety would
decrease, some of you are worried about your kids growing
up and having a faith but yet you don't prioritize God's
kingdom when you make your schedule. second thing is, God
says today's going to have trouble just don't add
tomorrow's trouble to it. Don't double down.
Today is going to have a problem.
Tomorrow, it's going to have problems, too.
Just don't take tomorrow's problems and put them on top of
today's problems. Now, I want to show you this
verse First Peter chapter 5, some of you guys went to Hobby
Lobby, you've got this on a cool canvas somewhere in your house.
If you don't, I'm sure there's going to be a sale soon.
You should pick one up, it's a great verse.
Let's look at this. It says humble yourselves
therefore under God's Mighty hand that he may Lift You Up In
Due Time, cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
I want to show you a couple things inside of this scripture
that I hope will bless you one. He says, humble yourself.
A humble yourself means you recognize that he's gotten.
You're not it's when you go, I don't have this, but you do I'm
not good. But you are.
You're acknowledging that he's in control and he's good, you're
not God, you don't have this. He says humble yourselves.
Therefore under God's Mighty hand, he mentions God's control
his power that he may lift you up in due time.
He's a good God. If you humble yourself
acknowledge his power, he will lift.
You up then cast, all your anxiety on him because he cares
for you again. This is God's goodness.
Now, there's something that happens in the original language
that kind of got missed in the translation and there's nothing
wrong but you can miss some of the beauty of what God is saying
here. This word cast is a verb.
It's not a command, it's a verb, it's an action.
In other words, cast sting continually casting, and this is
not really the end of a sentence in the Greek.
It's actually one big sentence. This is what it actually says.
In the Greek humble yourselves, therefore, under God's Mighty
hand that may, he may, Lift You Up In Due Time.
Casting, how do we humble ourselves?
We are by casting, all of our anxiety on him because he cares
for you. It's when you start doing this.
You start casting, you're worried, casting your anxiety on
him. You start humbling Yourself by
going, I don't have this. I don't have this.
I don't have this but you do but you do.
But you do. You're good, you're in control.
I'm not, I can't fix it. I'm not God.
Your God. I'm casting my cares on you and
part of the problem with anxiety and worry, is that it happens at
the neurological level Pathways become And and over time our
brain automatically creates these paths and then uses them
over and over and over again until they become well-worn,
highways in our mind. But since some of these past
that they make are good and some of them are bad.
My dog. For instance he didn't mind
going to the vet until we got him fixed and a pathway was
formed in his brain. Now when we're getting ready to
go to the vet he's like hey there's nothing more doc here
for him to take. I'm like, that's what you think.
Son sit means sit. Okay, I've like don't mess
around. Now, some of you you have this
neurological pathway that was formed and over time, you just
get so used to the old pathway That you don't want to do the
work to create a new one because it's so much easier to drive on
an old road than it is to build a new one.
That's why he says keep casting. So we create a better A New Path
and that with Jessica L efforts this week and I said, Jessica,
what are three things that I could just give to our church?
For those who could use a little bit of Hope people who are
dealing with worry and anxiety? What are just three principles
that we could just put out? That would help them.
Here's the first thing. She said she sees Start a
gratitude Journal. That it is hard to be anxious
and worried and grateful at the same time.
When you start going God, I'm so thankful for and the way you
have, and I'm glad you and you are an eye when you start
thanking him for all the things that he's done in your life, it
reminds you of how good he is and how in control that he is.
Second thing, she said, invite a person and avoid traveling alone
Guys, the solution to your anxiety, and worry is not
isolation. It's raising your hand and
saying, hey, I'm wrestling with this.
You are going to have to go through some tough things, but
you do not have to go through tough things alone, this
upcoming Saturday, I do the hardest thing that I do every
single year. There's a row razor that takes
place here in Quincy and you get a team of people together and
you row a marathon. And last year, my team won.
And this year, we will defend our title and we will win again.
I know we'll win. And the reason I know we'll And
is not because of me, I am the worst person on our team.
I'm horrible compared to them. They are horses.
Okay? You know why?
I know I'm going to win is because I'm surrounded with the
right kind of people And some of you, you need to surround
yourself with the right kind of people that will help you win in
your battle with worry and anxiety.
The other one is create an action plan, decide in advance,
which neurological pathway you're going to take when I feel
anxious. I will.
When I feel worried I will, I'm going to read some scripture.
I'm going to listen to a sermon. I'm going to go for a walk.
I'm going to get the sun on my face, I'm gonna call a friend.
I'm going to ask someone to pray for me decide in advance.
When I feel worried when I feel anxious, I will three tools for
those of you who want to help you care about people.
When I'm talking about this, you have somebody on your mind.
What are three things you can do to help first one validate it?
Christian's can get really bad at this where they say, hey,
this is what I'm wrestling with. And then we go.
Oh yeah, I used to wrestle with that.
And then I did this, this and this and now I'm all better.
And then that person is like, oh, so Jesus loves you.
More than me. Cool, I didn't know that, but
that makes me a little bit more worried.
Because now, I want to know why he likes you more than me. don't
just here's what you do. I'm so sorry.
I'm here for you. I'm not going anywhere.
Must be tough. They don't need your answers.
They need your presence. Second thing.
This is a tough one for Christians.
Try not to enable it. Oh, Christians love to be
fullbacks. So if you're struggling with
this, that I'm going to just wipe everything out in front of
you. Nope, no.
No, Bruno. Because listen to me, they are
going to have to go get jobs, they are going to have to sit in
interviews, they're going to have to walk into rooms with
lots of people around them. They're going to have to talk on
the phone. They are going to have to go
through life. Looking to have to be a mom, be
a deadbeat, a brother be a sister, be an employee be a boss
and you can't go before them and fullback all the problems away.
In fact, when you start doing that with your good Christian
heart you can actually make them more worried and anxious.
Let me explain. It's kind of a shame that God
only gives you kids two sets of teeth because I kind of like
pulling them. I wish you made them like sharks
because every so often you just want to gank something out of
their head, right? And when my kids were wrestling
with, you know, getting their teeth yanked out the, here's
what I would do, I would be me and then when it came time to
pull out the tooth, I would do this.
Hey boy. It's gonna be okay, you're gonna
be just fine. It's not gonna hurt that long.
You're super tough and I pull the pliers.
I get just smile real big. You'll be fine like that.
Why are you talking to us like this?
You know what I was doing? Was making them more worried and
anxious. Like why are you why are you
walking real slow and talk and real soft all the time.
Sheesh No no. Yeah if I did just walked up.
Hey man. Look up at you this.
Do you see that thing up in the gone, right.
Try not to enable it. Don't say, I'm going to solve
the problems with you. I'm just going to walk with you.
Third thing, you scripture. Share versus with them
frequently. Memorize scripture with them and
you're going to be owned by Clayton.
I don't know, scripture all that.
Well cool thing that God made a while back, he made Google and
so you can listen to whatever it is that they're wrestling with
and then just type that in and then go Bible verse, whatever
the wrestle with Bible verse and it'll give you one It may not be
the best one, but you can use it and they'll be gone.
How do you know all these scriptures?
Well, the Lord provides. You know, that's just just me
and the Lord. Actually I got 25 verses for
you. Let's start at the top top of
what top of my mind. Okay?
All right, that's what you could do now hear me.
I've been on really good behavior through the sermon
series, but there's something I wanted to say, but I didn't want
to sound trite. So I'm going to tell you, but
you're going to hear this with generous ears, please.
I cannot tell you the power that eight hours of sleep a night and
15 minutes of sun on your face and the first 15 minutes of the
day will do for you. If you could bottle that eight
hours of sleep and 15 minutes of sun on your face, no sunglasses.
In the first 15 minutes of the day, the government would make
that drug illegal, what crack heroin and meth RDU, to the
destruction of your body. Those two things are absolutely
genius for your body, life-changing for your body.
And so I'm going through this sermon series and I'm going,
okay? What are some disciplines I
could just put in my life to be healthy like even more healthy
that would just kind of make me you know how Up me out, if
things like this ever arise and so I saw that, I'm like, okay,
I'm going to make a plan and so I want time with my wife so
like, boys, you're going to bed at. 8:00, they hate it, but get
over it and because I want from 8:00 till 10:30 at night to go
to hang out with Jennifer, then I go to bed at 10:30 which is a
new thing for me because I'm a night owl.
Most of my sermons get written between like 10:30 and midnight
and so I'm like I got to make a change so I can wake up at 6:30
in the morning. And my boys have had enough
sleep that they can wake up at 6:30 in the morning.
And so since the beginning of the school year in the morning,
me and the boys are going for a mile to a mile and a half walk
in the morning, getting the sun on her face.
After eight hours of sleep were walking, the dog that I don't
like. And while we're doing it, we are
memorizing scripture and after like the second walk, they
started going. So we're going to have to get
some really warm clothes when we do this during the winter.
Mike? Yeah, your mom live will love to
go make this. Andre with you all winter long.
Okay now here's why here's here's why I'm telling you this
I don't know what battles, my boys are going to face one time
at some point in their life, but I want them to be equipped to
fight them and I'd much rather them, establish the discipline
in advance, then have to start the discipline in crisis.
And so what I've been noticing is the versus unintentionally
that we've been memorizing since the beginning of the school year
are actually the very As you would use if you were
spiritually wrestling with worry and anxiety and if you guys
would be on your best behavior, I'd like to welcome Zane and
Maddox my boys up to the stage. Okay.
Now boys, I want you to talk really slow and really clearly
and I want you to walk them through the verses that we've
been doing so far this year. So Maddox, can you tell
everybody Romans 8:1 No condemnation to those who
belong. Alms Jesus, that is exactly
right and Zane. What does that verse know?
You do a real clearly? What does that verse even mean
you could do something wrong and Satan could go to God and say
see what this person did he shoot this person did but then
God could say see what Jesus did.
That's exactly right. That's exactly what that verse
means. Now they know what is Psalm. 56
3 when I'm afraid I'll put my trust in you.
That's exactly right Maddox. This is the long one first John
4:18 Really clear. There is no fear in love for
perfect love. Casts out fear for fear has to
do with punishment. In the one who fears has not
been perfected by love. Good job, my man.
Zane Psalm 23:4, even though I walk through the valley of the
shadow of death, I will fear. No evil for you are with me,
your rod and staff. They comfort me.
Come on, boys. So proud of you.
Those verses you can see what it's doing in their hearts.
It's helping them. Refocus on God's goodness and
God's control that when you're anxious they have scriptures.
They're ready on hand for them to be able to step into those
moments and just like, you were encouraged.
Imagine what that's doing in their own heart, final thing I
want to do, when, when you start an intimate, personal
relationship with Jesus Christ, you are placed in him and worry
and anxiety. Can forget you to forget all you
have In Christ, I was talking to Tyler Mackenzie he spoke here
last year and then the year before that, he preached at our
Men's Conference, I was talking to him this week about this
message and he goes I have to share with you what I wrote
recently and he sent it to me and I was like oh that is
exactly what our church needs to hear.
Because Satan can try to get us to ignore our spiritual
advantage that you and I have in Christ.
And so I just want to take a couple minutes and remind you of
everything you have going for you in Christ in Christ, we have
freedom. Since Grace upon Grace
Redemption and the righteousness of God ours in Christ, we have a
Heavenly Father, a selfless, son, a Holy Spirit, and billions
of Brothers and Sisters in Christ in Christ.
There's no condemnation. There's a new birth.
New Life, New Creation, new clothes.
New my new heart, new nature, New Covenant, new spirit.
That raised Christ from the dead, then placed you in a new
family and sealed you with a new Destiny, and all of that is
yours in Christ. In Christ, you've been chosen
saved, accepted and adopted. In Christ, you've been
consecrated, liberated initiated supplied, anointed purified
Sanctified and justified in Christ you have love joy, peace
patience, kindness goodness, gentleness faithfulness and
self-control they are yours in Christ, you have wisdom
knowledge, Vision imagination, creativity, focus and purpose in
Christ, the mission of God, the meaning of life, and the Mystery
of the Gospel are yours in Christ.
You have been made alive, made new made, steadfast made one and
Grateful in Christ. The veil has been lifted and
torn. The distance has been narrowed,
The Ransom has been paid, trespasses have been canceled.
The chains have been broken in Christ.
You've been given power Victory, Triumph strength, every
spiritual blessing in the Heavenly realm, immeasurable
riches are yours in Christ. You've been given a promise.
That one day. You'll be consummated.
Vindicated resurrected rewarded, crowned and perfected.
In Christ, you have a new identity and a new story.
You have eternal value and worth.
You have the image of God, you have the cross-shaped love of
Jesus, a realistic assessment of the evil, but even better than
that. You have a way out in Christ.
You have a transfusion of Life, an epic Mission epic purpose,
epic ending life with life-giving, hair-raising
breathtaking love, proclaiming meaning.
In Christ in Christ, you are more than enough.
You have more than enough when you do battle with worry and
anxiety. I need you to know that they are
outmatched because all that you have going for you in Christ and
I hope you won't forget it. We're moving to a time a
decision. There are some of you listen to
me right now, whether in this room or watching online, who
have never started an intimate personal relationship with Jesus
Christ. I just want to be upfront and
clear with you. There is no decision.
That is greater and more impactful than that decision.
Everything that I just said in Christ is yours because the
Bible says, when you begin an intimate personal relationship
with Jesus Christ, when you want Jesus Christ, as your lord and
your savior when you're ready to turn over your life to him he
comes in and takes up residence in your life and he makes you in
him that when you're obedient the area of baptism.
When you demonstrate what Jesus Christ, demonstrated, when he
was Touched or when you show what happened to him when he was
buried and then raised to New Life when that happens in your
life, the Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit comes and takes
up residence in you and he seals you and he makes you in Christ
and that can be yours today. You can talk to me, or you can
talk to one of the people who be standing over by the baptistry
about what it means to start that relationship.
Maybe you don't want to talk to us.
Maybe you want to talk to a Difference Maker in the lobby or
with a friend and family member who brought you here, but you
You don't have to put it off. Second thing I tell you there
are some of you in here today that you are wrestling with
worry and anxiety and it is real and it is problematic, then it
is impacting you and the people you love and a profound way.
If you need to go and get serious help, I want to
encourage you to do that. Don't put that off Satan
convinces you that you're the only one that nobody else
wrestles with this. I want you know you're
surrounded by people who are going.
Yeah I'm in that boat too. But I want to encourage you to
always make sure you check the spiritual bucket first and maybe
just Oh wait, a humble ourselves is to come up here and get down
on our knees and just pray and cry out to God.
And your God, this is what I'm wrestle with and this is what
I'm struggling with. Maybe you want to just pray a
prayer of gratitude and talk about all the good things that
God has done in all the things that he has in control.
And what you might notice is when you start talking about all
the great things about God, you'll realize just how big he
is. And maybe when you have a bigger
God, your problems might not seem so big.
Maybe the bigger you see your God, the smaller, you'll see
your problems, your worries, your anxieties.
You can walk out of here today, carrying him by yourself.
But I would encourage you to practice during this time of
invitation casting your cares on him, believing that he is good
and that he cares for you and that he will lift you up.
I know some of you are going. I'm a little worried about
walking in front of all these people up to the steps and get
down on your knees. You know what that is called,
humbling yourself, caring less about what people think about
you and caring more about what people think about God. there's
some of you in here that you're going, man, this really isn't a
series for me, but when I was preaching, there were people on
your mind, people, you care about, I want us I think you do
too to be a church that cares that gets in the battle with
people that preys on their behalf that lifts them up and
maybe what you want to pray today is pray for specific
people that you know are wrestling or maybe pray that God
will use you to be a blessing to people who are hurting.
That God would open up doors for you to point people to his
truth. I want us to be a church like
that. I think you want us to be a
church like that but will never become a church like that.
Unless every single one of us goes on that Journey.
So what you Journey with me just and God used this moment right
now. To do a work that only you can
do God touch every life change every heart.
God you know what every person in this room is navigating and
what they're dealing with and so God I pray that during this time
we get down on our knees and pray or lift our voices and
saying that we would have a genuine encounter with you.
We gotta, you'd make an incredibly clear.
Exactly what we're supposed to do.
And that you give us the courage and the strength and the support
to do it and your name, I pray. Amen.