I mean I search for. Peace.
I search for hope, I search for love and one day for release.
God give me strength to accept the things that I just cannot
know, that even when I lose control, I will not let you go.
Excuse me? It's OK, Todd, you can leave
your wallet here. I'll just give you the 5 bucks
back later. That's all right.
Say I'm Justin Emanuel and I said morning.
There we go. That's Pastor Dave.
So I served on staff here at Rez as the production director and
as part of our preaching team. You know, I felt a little cold
out in the worship when she was like, you're going to forget
everything that I'm going to say, but you're going to
remember that song. But you are going to forget
everything I say, and you are going to remember that song.
But today as we talk about sound mind where it's the intersection
of faith and mental well-being, my journey for a sound mind
where my faith and my mental well-being intersected started
eight years ago back in New York.
Picture this with me for a few moments.
It's March 21st, 2017, the start of spring to bomb me. 57°
practical heat wave in New York compared to the bitter February
temperatures. I'm in my office, but I'm not
getting any work done in the church that day because my body
is vibrating from anxiety. Why?
Because tomorrow's my birthday. Then I got the text that I've
been dreading all day. It was from my pastor.
Hey buddy, want to do anything this week for your birthday?
I stared at that text and it put me in a Free State.
I wanted to say no, but if I said no then I'm probably going
to have to explain why I want said no and why I want to want
to do it. But if I said yes, then I'd have
to go and deal with it anyway. And trying to process it put me
in this catatonic state where eventually I couldn't even sit
in the chair anymore. I slid out of my chair and
started laying on the floor of my office, bawling my eyes out
and crying out to God. Why do I hate my birthday?
After not hearing from God in the time I wanted to hear from
Him, I did what we tend to do. I went to Google.
I took on my phone. One of the responses that hit me
is that birthdays are a milestone day to time you take
stock in your life. Where was I in my life?
I was trapped in my mind, full of perfectionism and self
hatred. Any thought in my mind was
saying that I'm worthless, that I'm a failure, calling myself a
jerk to get it together. This was emotional trauma being
inflicted on me all day, every day of my life.
The harder I fought, the stronger it got.
The more I tried to silence these thoughts, the more they
spiraled in my head in what I call a misery go round of doom.
Soon I was convinced that everyone I encountered believed
that I was the failure, That I believed I was, so say, anxious.
Does it not even begin to explain the state I was in?
It was utter hopelessness. Hopelessness to the point that
many nights in my office, thoughts of suicide would be in
my head. I was already on the top floor.
All I had to do was walk to the ladder, climb up it, step up
onto the ledge, and jump. But my thoughts were so
distorted that what prevented me from jumping off of that ledge
was that I didn't think the building was tall enough.
That I would be the moron who would try to end myself and live
and become an even bigger failure at that.
So here I am, the day before my 33rd birthday, lying on the
floor asking why do I hate my birthday.
Later that night I finally started to think that this isn't
right, something's got to change that I can't keep going like
this. Anxiety was ruining my life to
the point that I almost took it. Lying on the floor crying my
eyes out. It was the darkest place I've
been, but I had no idea that God would take that moment and use
it as a catalyst for the transformation that He began in
my life that day. And He's continued in eight
years since. That gives me a hope for my
anxiety. Perhaps you're not even sure why
you're here because your anxiousness and your anxiety has
said that it's hopeless too. Maybe you're at the point I was
where suicidal thoughts are dancing in your head.
Maybe you're skeptical about this whole God thing.
But sure, at the end of your rope, the good news is that
you're in the right place today. It's the same God that took me
off that literal ledge is the same God that could bring hope
and transformation to you today. Now, if you're like me, you've
seen how the church has a tradition of distorting anxiety.
They'll take verses like if you had faith, like a mustard seed,
you could say to the mountain move and it'll move.
And they preach this myth that if you have more faith, your
anxiety will go away. But if you pray more, if you do
the Christian things, your anxiety will go away.
And that if you can't get rid of your anxiety, if you're stuck in
it, well that's a sin that you need to get rid in your life.
Or maybe you've heard my favorite Bible says don't be
anxious. So don't be anxious.
To which my brain usually reprise.
Don't be stupid. Anxiety is not a moral failure,
it's not a spiritual failure, it's not a character defect or
anything of the like. Jesus himself experienced
anxiety in the Garden of Gethsemane hours before he went
to the cross, and he lived a perfect, sinless life.
So when it comes to the mountain, it's not about moving
the mountain, it's about the work God wants to do in you on
that mountain. And this is our big idea.
Write this down. God doesn't always move the
mountain. He pulls you up it.
It could be that the mountain you so desperately want to get
off of is the mountain that God wants to transform you on if you
would persevere. And if you have anxiety, it's an
uphill climb. It takes time, it takes work,
but if you persevere, God takes your suffering and He transforms
it into hope. So I'm in the right room who
hear battles with anxiety, Who had anxiety today?
Who has anxiety right now? Who got more anxiety because I'm
asking questions about anxiety and you don't want to raise your
hands. It's safe to say anxiety affects
us all. None of us are immune.
Whether your anxiety is wrecking your life like it was for me or
it's a low simmer, that mountain that you face is the mountain
that God does his best work in. So let's keep this in mind as we
go to our passage for day first Peter 5.
We're going to start in verse 5. It says this clothe yourselves,
all of you with humility toward one another.
For God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God.
So here we see the importance of humility in our relationships
with one another. Whether you're young or old,
whether you're a guest or an elder, whether you've been in
this room for 10 minutes or you were holding the hammer when
they built this building. The same is true for us all is
that we are to have an attitude of humility towards one another
and to clothe yourself. That phrase literally means an
apron that a servant wears. So to clothe ourselves in
humility is to put on the apron of service and put others needs
above our own. Who am I wear to go people?
Our volunteers from wear to go. Red's Mania.
You guys all put on the apron of service last year for our 10
minute window and all 900 people who came right this year.
You have an opportunity right now to put on that apron and
sign up for camps and volunteer and give up of your time to
think of their salvations and their health and their needs
above your own. This is an opportunity for you.
So now this humility, it's an attitude to have.
And now Peter UPS the stakes in verse 6 because now it says be
humble. So now humility is not just an
attitude to have, it's an action to take.
You can be humble, but until you sign up for something, until you
actually be humble, you're not taking action.
This is your opportunity. And this isn't because God is a
tyrant. Look at the promise, as Proverbs
334 is quoted. Be humble, because God's grace
is found on the other side of humility.
God's grace, it's his power, His love, His compassion, His care,
His unmerited and unworthy love for you.
And it's on the other side of humility.
Now, humility sounds good in theory, right?
Let's be honest, what do we crave?
We crave honor, right? The pride inside of us, he goes,
look at me. Look what I've done.
Did. Did you see what I did when I
put it on Facebook? All right.
And sometimes in our pain and our anxiety, we still have those
same desires. But instead we call it sympathy.
Oh, man, look. Look at how horrible my life is.
You see what's going on in my life.
What do you mean? You didn't know stuff was going
on? Did you see my tweet?
Right. We want that recognition.
We want that honor. And even humility has become
distorted. Humility has become #humblebrag
and picture. It didn't happen.
You know, we can so easily turn even our own blessings into
opportunities for self promotion.
But here's the danger, especially with suffering and
with struggles, is that our anxiety can be so high that we
are drowning on the inside. But we are so busy presenting
ourselves as a selfie worthy person on the outside, we want
to look like we've got it all together even though you're
silently suffering beneath the surface.
So write this first principle down when it comes to your
anxiety. The mountain is for taking
X-rays, not selfies. Mountain is for taking X-rays,
not selfies. The mountain isn't about taking
selfies to show off how good you are when you're going through
something. The mountain is to let God take
his X-rays so that he can take what's inside of you, bring it
to the light so that he can transform it and He can heal it.
When it comes to anxiety, and as you find yourself facing that
uphill climb of the mountain, the best thing you can do is
invite God in to take his X-rays.
They, like the psalmist says in Psalm 139, cry out to God and
say, Search me, O God, and know my heart.
Try me and know my anxieties and see if there is any wicked way
in me. Know my anxieties God, because
my anxieties are signaling me that something is off and I need
you to show it to me. Reveal my wicked ways because
that phrase wicked ways, it actually means hurtful ways of a
wicked habit. We need God to reveal our sins
to us because our sins are what is hurting us and He needs to
bring it to our attention. So in that love, God will use
His X-rays to reveal what needs to be changed.
Now. Anxiety is not a punishment by
God, but God will use anxiety that gets you to look up to Him,
to signal you that it's time to look up, that there is a hurt in
your life that He needs to heal, that there is a sin in your life
that is hurting you and it needs to be dealt with.
And as anxiety signals us, if we continue to ignore the anxiety,
God may turn up that pain of the anxiety and He's going to keep
turning it up until we finally humble ourselves before Him and
say, God, I hear you, search me. Take your X-ray.
You know, if you're on the mountain and you want to ignore
anxiety signals and you want to take selfies of showing off how
good you are and all of these things despite the pain that is
ravaging you on the inside, then you're in danger of being a
statistic to death by selfie. Do you know selfie related
deaths are a thing now? 2018, they did a study.
Across six years, 250 people died in selfie related
incidents. The top cause was falling from a
Cliff or a height, followed up by fire, animals and water.
Their final moments were spent focused on how good they look to
everybody else, and they were ignoring the danger that was
about to take them out. My friends, some of you are
standing on the edge of the Cliff and your focus is on
trying to capture a selfie of your life to show off how good
you are and you're ignoring the danger that you're about to
encounter. The mountain is for taking
X-rays, not selfies. The mountain is a selfie free
zone. Put up a sign that day in my
office in 2017 was me standing on the cliffs edge but God
pulled me up the mountain enough that I cried out and said I need
help. I can't fix this on my own.
My pastor had been suggesting counseling to me for months and
I refused. I instead would answer him
here's my 10 point plan of how I'm going to fix this and when
that failed I said here's my next 10 point plan.
And when that failed I said here's my next 10 point plan.
Have you ever been there? Here's my plan, I'm going to fix
this. I'm going to work on it.
But no, now things are exploding, my own life
exploding. Everyone around me is being
covered in the shrapnel that is my anxiety that I'm trying to
fix myself. So I'm not one for taking
selfies personally, but I was working overtime to look as good
as I could, that I could handle this on my own.
My pride of I can fix this. Do you know where it got me?
The edge of suicide selfie time was over.
It was time for God's X-rays because anxiety had ripped
through me like shrapnel and I desperately needed healing.
My pastor connected me with the counseling center and for six
months, every week, I went to talk therapy.
We began to unpack my thoughts, my distorted view of God and my
fear of failure was killing me. The next step led me to get my
brain scanned and now they find attention deficit hyperactivity
disorder, they find obsessive compulsive thoughts, they find a
mood disorder and past emotional trauma.
These 4 heavy hitters were the contributing factors to my toxic
thought life for 33 years of struggling.
I finally had some answers. I wasn't crazy, I had brain
dysfunction. When I stopped trying to be
selfie worthy and I allowed God to X-ray me, that's when he
moved me further up the mountain.
How about you and your mountain? Is it X-rays or is it selfies?
Have you been trying to fix it on your own without letting
anyone in? Is it time to drop the facade
and finally tell someone I need help?
You know who that person is who's asking you how you're
doing and you keep saying fine, take out your phone, text him
right now and say I need help. You're on the mountain for a
reason. But remember this God doesn't
always move the mountain. He pulls you up it.
If you're ready to trade your selfies for X-rays, you're ready
trade them. Let's continue on.
In our text, we're going to verse 7, verse first.
Peter 57 says this, casting all your anxieties on him because he
cares for you. The word casting literally means
to throw upon the visual. We can think of as a fisherman
casting his net out into the sea to catch fish.
The detail here is that in order to cast, you have to fully let
go of the net. You can't hold onto the corner
until you can pull it back later when you get a little lazy.
And here it says to cast all your anxieties on God because he
cares for you. It's to humble ourselves before
God, taking our anxieties, our burdens, our worries, our
stresses, our addictions, and throwing them at God, fully
holding nothing back. This means there's no hiding.
This means there's no corner of your life that you do not give
to God in your prayer life. Your prayers should be a no hold
barred event where nothing is off the table.
But look, it's an active event. It's not passive.
So if you find yourself sitting in your circumstances going,
there's nothing I can do, There is everything you can do, which
is getting on your knees, humbling yourself before God.
Giving them all to Him. Because these are not your
burdens to bear. Jesus is the one who bears them.
If you continue to candle your anxieties on your own, it will
consume you. Your anxiety is not your cross
to bear. That's meant to be carried by
Jesus. Because what happens is this.
What you choose to bear alone today will become your tombstone
tomorrow. Let's be clear about what
anxiety is. So anxiety at its core, it's our
body's alarm system. It's when your brain detects
that there's danger and an alarm goes off.
But this alarm system, sometimes it can malfunction, whether it's
to a learned behaviour, A trauma, A substance abuse, a
body, or a brain dysfunction. Doctor Reed Wilson breaks this
down and he says that anxiety is either a signal or a noise.
Good anxiety is a signal. It is signaling you that
something needs your attention. It's the check engine light on
your car's dashboard. It prompts you to take action to
identify and start resolving an issue.
When good anxiety comes, this is the anxiety to listen to,
address and bring it before God. Bad anxiety is noise.
It's like static from an old TV set.
Anxiety that is bad that is noisy is anxiety that wants you
to focus on the anxiety. It's thoughts that want to get
you to focus on your thoughts. And as that continues, you now
enter the misery go round of doom in your mind.
This is the anxiety that's destructive.
Doctor Wilson would say. Of this anxiety's best strategy
is to convince you to spend most of your energy worrying about
how to protect yourself or someone else against harm.
It scores points by getting you to worry and then step back
instead of step forward into the action.
If you organize your actions against only a defensive
strategy, you will continue to lose to this skilled tactician.
Maybe you're a sports fan. What's the best defense?
It's a good offense. You got it.
So when it comes to destructive anxiety and that noise, the
offensive is to start with. Second Corinthians 10/5 says
this. Take every thought captive to
obey Christ. The first step is to capture our
thoughts and hold them accountable.
Our thoughts lie to us, and just because you think it does not
mean you have to accept it as true.
Our minds. Can default to negativity.
Doctor Daniel Ayman, he calls these automatic negative
thoughts A&T. These are the ants of your life
and some of our thought lives are Ant infested.
Are you with me on this have? You had these or am I alone?
That as you think about this, your brain goes, you start to
mind read, you start to fortune tell.
I'll never get over this. I'll always mess this up, right?
So what have you tried? Have you tried techniques?
Have you tried to work through things?
What do we really need? We need Jesus.
That's always the answer, even if you wake up in class and
you're not sure what to say. But when your ants.
Come, have you thought about breaking out your Ant eater?
Anteater eats those ants. Here's the anteater that God has
provided for us. And actually, I lied.
To you, before I even get to that, we're going to go over the
worst kind of Ant there is because it's vital to your
health. There is one Ant automatic
negative thought that will destroy you if you allow it to
pervade in your life and that is this.
This is the aunt of blame. It's a victim.
Mentality. It's blaming someone or
something else for the problems you have.
It's. My parents.
Fault they raised me this way. I can't change.
I was Born This Way. God, you let.
This happen to me. Blame.
Is the handcuffs we put on ourselves while complaining
about being restrained. This Ant.
Is deadly because it keeps us powerless by our own choosing.
So when you have this Ant, this is the Ant you break your Ant
eater out on immediately. And when those other negative
thoughts up, it comes out and here's your Ant eater.
It's Philippians 48. Whatever is true, whatever is
honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is
lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if
there is anything worthy of praise, think about these
things. This Ant eater verse eats ants
for breakfast. So you.
Take your thought, especially your blaming thoughts, and you
ask of it, is it true? Is it honorable?
Is it just? Is it pure?
Is it lovely? Is it commendable?
Is it excellent? Is it worthy of praise?
If your thoughts fail any of these tests, it's lying to you
and it's time to replace it with true and accurate thinking.
And this is how we. Start to steer our thoughts in
the right direction and starve anxiety of its power.
Now. I've just shared some anxiety
fighting tools with you, with the ants, with the verses, and
they're excellent. They're research backed.
It's from the Bible. These are tools.
But here's the raw truth. The tools weren't enough.
My counseling was from the best treatment center in New York and
across the world. I read all the books, all the
podcasts. I did the nutrition plan, the
supplement plan. I did all the mindfulness
exercises but I still couldn't do it my.
Inventory of. Mental health power tools could
stock a Home Depot and I still couldn't do it.
I know what to do. I know how to do it.
I just told you how to do it and I still couldn't do it.
And maybe. You're with me on this.
Maybe you're not in because you know exactly what I'm talking
about, that you're doing everything right and still
losing the battle. Who's with me on this one?
Doing everything right and you're still losing the battle.
You and powerlessness have become so close that your
roommates and you're the one paying all the rent, right?
So I had. Everything I needed, but I was
still drowning in anxiety. But this was the.
Place where God was waiting for me.
This was the place I needed to get to for the real
transformation to begin. My thoughts continued to lie to
me that I was a failure. You went to all the counseling,
you did all the work. You have your diagnosis and
you're still a failure. My prayer life became venting my
frustrations to God, blaming Him for everything.
God, if you've called me to serve in your church, preach the
word to your people, and do all these things, then why did you
allow me to have these brain disorders that keep me from
doing it? Why have you not taken this away
so I can have a normal brain and get things done?
Didn't happen instantly, but after many days.
Of pleading with him to take it away.
One of the passages he led me to was Second Corinthians 12, which
says this. So to keep me from becoming
proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan,
to torment me and keep me from becoming proud.
Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away.
Each time He said, My grace is all you need.
My power works best in weakness. So now I am glad to boast about
my weaknesses so that the power of Christ can work through me.
That's why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, for when I am weak,
then I am strong. What I thought.
Was the failure of having these brain disorders was actually the
fuel that God uses the power, his own power through me?
I had all the power tools to fight anxiety, but by refusing
to obey and move forward, I was disconnected from the power
source, the true power source. My false beliefs that mistakes
and failures were bad had crippled me from moving forward.
If you started believing that before, that mistakes and
failures are bad and letting that hold you back from moving
forward exactly where I was. Anxiety gains power when it gets
me to focus on believing that I was a failure who couldn't
figure it out. Anxiety increases the more you
try to do it on your own because you're working in your own
strength. You can't tap into.
The power that God has for you in your weaknesses and failures
until you bring them to Him, and you cast all of your anxieties
on Him because He loves you, and then you move forward relying on
His strength. Write this next principle.
Down the mountain is where your failures fuel your strength.
The mountain is where your failures fuel your strength.
The more failure and weakness you have, the more strength you
will find in God's power. Anxiety.
Gains power when it wants me to believe I'm a failure and try to
figure it out. Anxiety increases when I work in
my own strength. When I bring my failures.
To God, that is when I operate in strength, because it's not my
strength that God wants, it's my weaknesses.
Spurgeon says it this way. God does not need your strength.
He has more than enough power of his own.
He asks your weakness. He has none of that himself, and
He is longing therefore to take your weakness and use it as the
instrument in His own mighty hand.
Will you not leave your weakness to Him and receive His strength?
The more. Anxiety that you have, the more
fuel you have to give to God to work with.
That's how God. Works in His power in your life.
And what is the power of God? This is the power that raised
Jesus from the dead. This is the power that created
time, the universe, the power that created you.
So if this is the power. You may be asking right now,
what does one do to tap into this power source?
How do I give? My weaknesses to God so he can
demonstrate his power through them.
You might not like the answer because I don't like it either.
It looks like obedience even when it feels impossible.
It's about actually doing what God is asking you to do in your
life. Let me ask you this.
What has God been calling you to do in your life that you've
refused to obey because you don't think you can do it?
On the other side. Of that obedience.
Is God's power. For your life.
So I'm not. Saying that the tools and the
knowledge to find anxiety are fruitless.
It's the exact opposite. Counseling, treatment, care,
books, podcast techniques, nutrition, supplements,
medications, they're all on the table when it comes for treating
anxiety. They have all been vital in
treating my anxiety. Here's.
What I am? Saying is that these tools can
help you, but it's only the power of God through the work of
the Holy Spirit that can transform you.
These are power. Tools.
And when they're connected to the true power source, that's
when transformation happens. That's when they work together,
and that's when your failures that you bring to God turn your
anxieties into hope. So remember our.
Big idea. God doesn't always move the
mountain. He pulls you up it and he uses
your failures as fuel to strengthen you to climb higher.
As we head for a. Close.
Let's head back to first Peter verse 6.
Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so
that at the proper time He may exalt you.
So the scripture. Promises that at the proper time
he may exalt you. To be exalted means to be lifted
up with anxiety. It means to be freed and
released from the grip anxiety has on your life.
But. Notice the key phrase at the
proper time. How many of us want?
Exaltation right now. What does God?
Say to us in the verse. It's not about being exalted.
Right now, it's about being exalted at the right time.
We want our anxiety. To end immediately.
But God works on his timeline, not ours.
Pastor Daniels preached on this many a Sunday that we want that
microwave transformation, right? We want to push it in, push that
button that we don't have to enter 30 seconds anymore.
We push that one button and it cooks it for 30 seconds for us
and we want to come out cooked. But no.
God's that slow heat, that long lasting heat of the crockpot.
And when there's anxiety? Involved that crockpot becomes a
pressure cooker, but it doesn't speed up the cook time, it just
increases the pressure. So when?
Is God's proper time to free us from anxiety?
The answer is only he. Knows his transformative work
will continue until the purpose in it is complete.
For some. God's healing work will be
finished in this lifetime that He will guide you up the
mountain and you will reach the summit, or He will take that
mountain and move it in your life and anxiety will be healed
from you in this lifetime. For others like Paul with his
thorn in the flesh, like me asking God to take my disorders
away, His God's answer may continue to be, My grace is
sufficient. My power is made perfect in
weakness. Some of us won't.
Experience complete healing from anxiety or other burdens until
we're on the other side of heaven, which uses in eternity.
But either way, 2 constants remain. 1 Humble yourself under
God's mighty hand, because that is where the power is found, and
two is keep climbing the mountain, relying on His power
to pull you up. Write this third principle down.
As we close the mountain. Turn suffering to hope if you
persevere to the summit. The mountain turns suffering to
hope if you persevere to the summit.
Yes, there is suffering, but because of Jesus it is suffering
with hope and a purpose. As you on that.
Mountain. Keep climbing the mountain, for
it is in the mountain that you will find that hope.
Romans 5 says it this way. We also glory in our sufferings
because we know that suffering produces perseverance,
perseverance, character, and character hope.
We glory in our sufferings because it is in them that God
does His work, and in His work there is glory to be had.
We give glory to God as He does His transforming work, and then
as we are exalted, we receive glory.
And then we take that glory and we bounce it right back to God,
because He is our mighty God. Do every ounce of glory.
So as you stay on the. Mountain and let God pull you
up. That suffering will start to
transform into perseverance, and that perseverance will transform
your character. And that character
transformation is what gives you hope.
Because now you're not just hearing about the power of God.
You're not just seeing it happen in someone else's life.
You're not just theoretically now.
The power of God is happening in and through you, and that
undeniable power happening in you is lasting hope.
So reject the. Impulse to be finished now
endure on the mountain until God's proper time.
You know when I play football, the coaches hammered into us to
always keep playing until you hear the referee blow the
whistle. Because if you stop playing
early, someone else is going to come and blind side you and take
you out and you might be out for the game, you might be out for
the season, or it might end your career.
Same is true when it. Comes to being on the mountain.
Never stop climbing. Never stop letting God pull you
up, because if you slow down and stop climbing.
It is so easy to. Get taken out.
I can say this. Because somewhere along the way
I stopped bringing my weaknesses before God and allowing Him to
turn them to strength. I got blindsided.
Without even realizing it. And it took the love of the men
in my mentorship group to snap me out of it.
A. Few weeks ago.
I walked into my mentorship group and I took a seat.
Then all eyes looked to. Me and.
They said today's going to be a. Little different.
We're going to have a little intervention for me.
Somewhere. Along the way, I stopped
climbing the mountain. God's transforming.
Work in my life came to a halt. I stopped pursuing my goals.
I stopped working on personal growth.
I neglected. All my mental health care that I
needed to do to be healthy. I had become a.
Victim of my disorders. I can't do this I.
Have ADHD. I failed at this because.
Of my OCD. I became a.
Prisoner to them of my own choosing.
My speech. Became a complaint factory.
And all of this just. Intensified my anxiety.
It turned because what had happened is I turned my
conditions into my identity. I let that story.
Play on repeat in my head and I started to believe it again.
My mind and. My body recognized the danger
and started sounding the alarms of anxiety, but.
I kept hitting the. Snooze button retreating into
the comfort zone of distraction and isolation.
The more I ignored, the more. The warning signals got louder
and the more I would try to shut them down and let my victimizing
mentality silence me. But God does not relent in His
love for us, nor for me. Since I was silencing my
anxiety, He raised the anxiety of the men in my group that I
had something I needed to deal with and I wasn't dealing with
it. So as I sat down and they
confronted me on it, they looked me in the eyes and said, dude,
this is a problem. What's the plan?
For two months I've been dragging my feet.
I'm going to counseling. I realized I needed to go back,
but I didn't make the phone call.
Kept telling myself I don't want to deal with this, but I don't
want to go through a new therapist.
I went through all of this in New York and now I got to meet a
new therapist. And what if they don't work out
right and they don't understand me and all these lies I kept
telling myself, believing them is truth?
And so when I told them. That counseling was my next
step. They didn't leave it at that.
They looked me in the eyes and they said good.
Call them today and text us when you did.
That was 5. 30 in the morning on Friday 9 AMI called and they
said oh that's great, we have a 10 AM would you like it?
Yes. Please.
Within. 4 hours. God had used the men of my
mentorship group to become literal faces of anxiety that I
could not ignore. And from there the.
Transformation began again. Three years of being off the
mountain. Now my hiking boots are back on.
When you find yourself. Struggling with anxiety?
It's time to make a choice. It's decision time.
John Maxwell says adversity is a crossroads, which makes a person
choose one of two paths, character or compromise.
Anxiety itself is not a character flaw, but your
character needs to be transformed in order to
experience the hope that overcomes anxiety.
And as you weigh your. Decision.
You must determine each day if you're going to be an owner of
your life who is committed to staying on the mountain, or if
you're a victim of your life who's going to retreat to the
comfort zone of base camp and eat bon bons all day and blame
the world. Steve Chandler puts.
It this way, an owner will change his personality on the
spot in order to keep his commitment.
A victim will break any commitment to keep his
personality. I started as an.
Owner. Somehow.
I traded my commitment for the comfort zone.
I chose to be a victim. Instead, I was letting the voice
of God and His truth be drowned out by owning my limitations
instead of owning my identity in Christ as a child of God under
the care of God who has experienced the power of God.
I had all the. Tools and all the knowledge, but
I was disconnected from the power.
How about you? Are you connected or
disconnected from God's power? Are you on the mountain?
Persevering. Or have you fallen?
Back into the comfort zone are. You taking?
Ownership of your life or are you choosing to be a victim of
your life? Here's what I learned.
From Mark Clark, When you're born, you look like your
parents, but when you die, you look like your choices.
What are you choosing that's? Right, it's March 20. 1st 2017
It's spring. It's a balmy 57° outside
practical heat wave in New York compared to the bitter February
temperatures. And there I am.
Lying on the floor of my office, riddled with anxiety, days
removed from suicidal thoughts, asking why I hate my birthday.
Except this time. It's not 2017.
It's three weeks ago, and I'm not on the floor.
I'm in the chair of my apartment with my counselor on the other
side of the video call, and we're working through that
moment in my life. That moment in 20. 17 was the
darkest moment of my life, but God took that as the catalyst to
begin His transformative work in me.
And now, three weeks ago, He took that same moment, and He
began again His transformation in me because I cast my
anxieties on Him. Because He cares for you.
If you're suffering from. Anxiety.
The good news is that you can make the choice to get on the
mountain and allow God to pull you up.
If you've fallen. Off the mountain.
We're all here today to talk. To you because this is your
intervention. It's time to let go.
Of the victim mentality, of the blame the world mentality and
blame everything else. If you choose.
To persevere, then God will transform your character and
that character transformation is what will give you a lasting
hope because you are working under the care of an almighty,
all caring, all loving, all powerful God.
So today. Is the day that things can begin
to change, and that starts not just by having hope, but by
knowing hope, because hope is not a concept.
Hope is a person. That person has a name, and his
name is Jesus Christ. And he loves you.
Too much to leave you there, he says.
Cast your anxieties on him because he cares for you and he
does not want to leave you in suffering.
He wants to bring you to a place of hope.
So. Today.
It's decision time because all have sinned and the penalty of
sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus.
That while you were a Sinner, Jesus, in his love for you died
on the cross and paid the penalty for you.
That if you declare. With your mouth that Jesus is
Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the
dead, then you would be saved if this.
Is you. With every eye closed and with
every head bowed. Would you repeat this?
Prayer silently or quietly or something like it after me.
Jesus, I know I am a Sinner. I'm lost on my own and I can't
save myself. I know I'm incapable of living
perfectly. I want you.
To save me, I surrender everything to you in full
confidence. I receive your promise of
relationship, of the forgiveness of sin, of the Holy Spirit, and
of eternal life. Be my Lord and my Savior.
Please, Jesus. Now, while we keep our.
Eyes closed, if you prayed that prayer for the first time right
now, would you be brave enough to raise your hand for me to
see? Amen.
Amen.
Thank. You.
All right, everyone, let's look. Up here, if you said that prayer
and if you raised your hand, welcome to the family of God.
And this is a family, so you're not alone.
In the back are two tables that say, I raised my hand.
We want to celebrate with you. We want to help you get started.
And for all of us, anxiety was never meant to be carried alone.
As you've heard, God used the people in my life who love me to
work through them to quite literally save my life over and
over again. So here are your big practical
takeaways for today. One, it's time to have the
conversation. If anxiety or any.
Burden is crushing you in secret.
It's time to tell someone. It's time to talk to your group.
Call them, text them. And if you don't have a group,
if you don't have someone you can trust, our prayer team, our
staff, our elders, our pastors, they're coming up right now and
they're going to be up here for you to pray with.
It's for you to talk to. And for you in.
Groups. If there's someone in your
group, in your social circle, who you see suffering and they
don't want to admit it and they need help.
Time to have a conversation. With them is now.
Talk to them. And if someone sits you down and
in love tells you dude, there's a problem, what's the plan?
It's. Time to make a plan.
Secondly. Counseling, treatment, medicine,
or medical intervention might be your next step.
For some of your next step is professional help.
It's not failure. It's wisdom to seek counsel,
whether it's here at res, through res counseling, or
through a professional service. It could be you need to talk to
a psychologist or a doctor. These are all tools that
connected with God. God's power can transform your
life. Now let's all stand together.
The last thing for today is this.
Don't. Leave.
Here, with the burdens you walked in with today, the
burdens you are carrying are the burdens that will become your
tombstone if you do not release them.
So come forward. Today, talk to our prayer team.
They will pray for you. They will guide you and if you
raise your hands, head back to those tables now and we want to
celebrate your new life with you.
You move as the Lord leads church.