Calm My Anxious Mind

well i'm incredibly honored to be talking about the message from my newest book winning the war in your mind change your thinking change your life and uh i sincerely thank my god that this message is impacting lives and so many people are saying it's transforming the way they think what do we know about winning the war in our mind we know that most of life's battles are won or lost in the mind we know it's almost impossible to have a positive life when you have a negative mind and that can be a problem when your mind races with negative thoughts and irrational worries like mine often does i wonder how many of you can relate to irrational thoughts and and run away fears that often just consume your mind i don't know what it would be for you but maybe you worry about something something that seems normal you're a student and you're worried about making a bad grade on a test because you know if you make a bad grade then you're worried you won't get in the right college and then you won't have the right job and if you don't have the right job you won't marry the right person and if you marry the wrong person you'll have the wrong kids and because they're the wrong kids they're going to need braces and braces are expensive and you'll put braces on them but then you can't afford to send them to college because you're still paying for your own college and so your kids won't have the education and they'll resort to a life of crime and they'll go to prison which gives you a headache and speaking of a headache you might have a brain tumor and your mind races in the wrong direction i'm exaggerating but not by a whole lot right and we're just joking about maybe getting a bad grade but you watch what's on the news or you hear what happens to the life of someone that you love or you're fighting for a good marriage and you're wondering is it going to ever work you've got more bills than you know how to pay you're trying to make some kind of decision about the future and it's so easy for your mind to race and to be overwhelmed with very real feelings of anxiety and fear and that's why i want to start today's message with the word of god and if you don't mind and you're able at all of our churches would you just stand to your feet in honor of the reading of his word we'll be reading again today from philippians chapter four and the context is that the apostle paul was writing from a roman prison in house arrest or waiting awaiting potential execution and he said these powerful words under the inspiration of the holy spirit he said do not be anxious about anything but in every situation by prayer and petition with thanksgiving present your request to god and the peace of god which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and what else let's say it allowed and your minds in christ jesus finally brothers and sisters whatever is true whatever is noble whatever is right whatever is pure whatever is lovely whatever is admirable if anything is excellent or praiseworthy think about such things think about such thing think about such things and the peace of god the god of peace will be with you the title of today's message is calm my anxious mind and father we ask that you would do just that that we would take whatever is heavy on our minds and heavy on our hearts and bring it before you casting our cares upon you god because you care for us and god as we seek you renew our minds with truth god we cast all of our burdens on you believing you care for us give us peace of heart and peace of mind even beyond what the world would understand we pray this in the name of your son jesus and everybody said amen hey why don't you look at the person next to you and just say peace be with you peace be when you say that type it in the chat if you want just type it in chat peace be with you if that's if that's too formal as you're being seated you can just say get you some peace somebody said get you some peace come on type that in the chat right now get you some peace all right what i want to do is on this let's talk about worry let's talk about anxiety and let's talk about the mind if you remember a key thought from our book and truth is this that your life is always moving in the direction of your strongest thoughts which is really good news if your thoughts are good and helpful and positive but it's incredibly bad news if your thoughts are negative what do we know about the mind we've been talking about both scripture and science god is the god of science and in our mind we know there is this little almond-shaped portion of the mind known as the amygdala and the amygdala is an interesting little part of the brain that's shaped kind of like this little almond and it's the part of the brain wired for survival if you ever find yourself in a moment where you feel like i need to fight or i need to flight that's because your amygdala is actively engaged any time you're in danger this god-given little portion of the brain the amygdala it kicks in and what it does is it sends your body strong doses of adrenaline and it says be on guard be aware be alert run if you have to if you see a poisonous snake or if you're like me any kind of snake will do the amygdala says snake be careful run run run if you're driving and like what happened to me recently a driver evidently must have been texting and they weren't paying attention and they started swerving over into my lane your amygdala kicks in and says be aware be alert be careful you're in danger if you have an alarm system in your home and it goes off in the middle of the night like mine did not too long ago your amygdala kicks in and it and you panic and even to this day i have no idea what in the world caused it and i can i can i can feel the adrenaline rush even now as the amygdala says be careful be careful be careful god gave us that portion of our brain for our protection the problem is that the amygdala is not objective it's simply hardwired to protect and it's very easily triggered i'll give you an example about how the mind works when i was a little kid my family once a month or so would go to our favorite hamburger restaurant and i remember so fondly we were driving back from the restaurant and evidently my dad did something in his driving that displeased another driver and so this guy started following us home all the way to our house we got out of the car my dad didn't know what he did to offend the guy and the guy got out of his blue van and charged my dad for a fight well ah he picked the wrong guy my dad can hold his own with anybody and the guy started waylaying on my dad and so my dad just very um in a god-honoring way laid hands on him in the name of the father the son and the holy spirit all in self-defense but quickly the guy realized he was outclassed and he ran back to his van sending a one figure salute to my dad and saying very dishonoring things about his mother i went in that night and my mom set me down and my little sister down and said there's a guy out there who hates us and he knows where we live and he's obviously irrational he's probably really dangerous and so anytime you see a blue van in fact the blue van looked very similar to this anytime you see a blue van you need to come inside and lock the doors and so i was probably 17 or 18 years of age years later and if i see a blue van i'd run inside lock the doors to hide under the bed not not really but to this day if i see a blue van if i see a red van because it could have been blue and the guy painted it red i i there's something in me that's triggered that causes me to pause and hesitate because the amygdala that god gave me is hardwired to protect and that's why our amygdala it needs a little help from another thing that god gave us called the prefrontal cortex this is the logical part of the brain that tends to think logically so if there's a noise at night in the house the amygdala screams you're going to die and the prefrontal cortex steps in and says no it's probably the cat you're not going to die there's very likely a logical explanation the amygdala is all panic the prefrontal cortex is all logic the problem with the amygdala is it always responds according to the pre-programming in other words if you had my experiences you will tend to believe blue vans are dangerous and i don't know what it would be in your life but because of some hurt or some fear or some trauma or even perhaps a misunderstanding of something that happened to you my guess is that there are certain people or places or events or some type of news that triggers you with feelings of anxiety and fear and tension and without even knowing it your mind can race and run to a worst-case scenario where you find yourself sometimes short of breath and panicking and wondering and trying to control things that you can't control completely overwhelmed by a runaway mind and that's why paul said this from a roman prison he said and i want to read it again he said don't be anxious about anything don't be ashamed about anything that could be your big test that could be your job interview that could be your health situation that could be a decision about the future that could be a financial burden he said don't be anxious about anything but in every single situation in other words if it's on your mind it's on god's heart he cares about you more than you can imagine in every situation by prayer and petition with thanksgiving what do you do you present your requests to god and when you give your burdens to god scripture says the peace of god which transcends all of our understanding i want you to say it again will guard your hearts and what and your minds somebody type that in the chat his peace will guard my mind his peace the peace of god will guard my mind it's so crazy to me though how often even christians undervalue and discount the power of prayer you see it all the time uh people will be in a situation and we might be talking and someone say well oh my gosh all we can do now is pray all we can do now is pray i can almost imagine god like one and you think that's nothing the god who can move mountains the god who can raise the dead the god who can see heal the sick and open blind eyes and all you can do no prayer is powerful and as followers of jesus we have to recognize that prayer is never our last line of defense it's always our first line of offense the author to the hebrews said let us come boldly before the throne of grace we can come in prayer boldly with confidence why to find help in time of our need james said this he said you do not have why because you do not ask because you haven't prayed prayer is always powerful not only does prayer move the heart of god but prayer also changes the chemistry in your brain i want to say it again not only does prayer touch and move the heart of god but prayer also changes the chemistry in your brain which is fascinating to me because for decades neurologists believed that your brain didn't change after adolescence how many of you are glad that your brain changed after adolescence i don't know about you but i thank god in heaven my brain didn't change didn't freeze when i was 15 years old okay it it our brain continues to evolve and it continues to change and it continues to rewire itself we talked about the neural pathways when you think of thought it's easier to think that thought again and our brains are continually changing in fact the term is called neuroplasticity and that means it is constantly evolving and rewiring itself now i love the study of something called neurotheology it's the study of the mind and of god it's also known as spiritual neuroscience and what neurotheology does is fascinating it studies the relationship between the brain and a belief in god and here's what research shows research shows that prayer actually changes your brain in fact a book that i would recommend to you and author is dr carolyn leaf in fact her book switch on your brain is a fascinating book and she said um a powerful quote about the brain and prayer she said that it's been found that 12 minutes of daily focused prayer over an eight-week period can change the brain to such an extent that it can be measured on a brain scan not only does prayer touch the heart of god but prayer changes the brain and just as toxic and negative thoughts harm your brain prayer heals your brain it transforms your brain it literally renews your mind so why do we worry why do we find ourselves so anxious if we're followers of jesus and we should completely trust in god why is it that our minds often race in an irrational way well science would tell us that in many cases we're experiencing um an amygdala hijack our little amygdala that's wired to protect says you're in trouble you better take control you better work harder you better stay up at two in the morning and worry about this because if you don't it's only gonna get worse so science would say we're experiencing an amygdala hijack scripture would say that our mind is dominated by sinful thinking in fact what is definite a definition of worry a simple definition of worry would be this that worry is the sin of distrusting the promises and the power of god worry is essentially saying god i don't trust you i don't believe in your goodness in this situation i don't believe you care about what i care about i don't believe you're going to come through for me i've got to worry about this because ultimately i don't trust you and so instead of letting my sinful nature control my mind which is what can so easily happen what i want to do as a follower of jesus is i want to choose to let my spirit direct my thinking instead of letting my sinful nature run my mind in all sorts of fearful ways i'm going to choose to let the holy spirit which dwells within me direct my thinking i'm going to let the logical part of my brain choose that which is spiritual i'm going to take my prefrontal cortex and say you think on what's true you think on what's excellent you think on what's praiseworthy i'm putting my trust completely in you in fact here's how scripture says it in romans chapter 8 verses 5 and 6 again the apostle paul he says that those that are dominated by the sinful nature what happens you think about sinful things when your mind is dominated by your sinfulness your mind drifts toward things that are dishonoring to god you think about sinful things but those who are controlled by the holy spirit think about things that please the spirit so letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death but letting the spirit control your mind leads to life and peace and that's why we're going to take every thought captive and we're going to make it obedient to christ from a scientific standpoint we're going to let our prefrontal cortex grab the amygdala by the tail and say you quit being irrational we're choosing to be spiritual we're giving this to god i'm choosing god by faith to trust in you to believe in you to give you my burdens even when my irrational fears start to run wild i stop i grab that thought i take it captive i make it obedient i'm not going to let my sinful fearful dishonoring nature run my mind in the wrong direction i'm choosing intentionally to let the holy spirit direct my thoughts in fact i'll give you a visual example and perhaps this is an illustration that you could use in your own life what tends to happen all of us at some point in some way have something that we're worried about the good news is we're not on our own we serve a good and a faithful god and so what do you typically do if you're a follower of jesus and you're worried about something well you take your worry your concern your burden and you give it to god you say god i'm i pray about this god i'm giving this to you and god i trust you with my worry and you give it to god and then you wait and you get freaked out and it's been five minutes and nothing's happened so you take it back from god and you say god i don't really trust you with that symbolically whenever we worry that's essentially what we're doing we're saying god i'm going to pray about this but because i don't see what i want to see and because i'm still worried we're essentially taking back the very thing that we gave to god why do we do this the reason is is that your god is too small and your worries are too big and somebody needs a bigger god and a little smaller worry and what you're going to do at that point is you're going to take whatever it is that's weighing on you and whatever it is that's dominating your mind and scripture says we cast our cares upon god with prayer and petition we take everything and we give it to god and what i would encourage you to do perhaps even at your apartment or your house is to get your own god box it doesn't have to be as cool as mine it could be a shoebox and you may even symbolically just just put on their god and what i want you to do is anytime you find your mind racing and anytime you find yourself worried about something i want you just to take it to god and then write down that worry on a piece of paper it might be your teenager you're worried about your teenager it might be your marriage it might be your future it might be your health it might be um your job it might be um whatever anything you have and you're going to cast your cares upon god because he cares for you and then you give it to god and you trust him with it then what i want you to do is go on with your life trusting god and anytime you want to choose to worry about it symbolically what you have to do is walk over to your god box and take that which you've already given to god out of your god box to symbolically remind you that you're choosing at this moment not to put your trust in god if um if you ask me what is it that worries me i've got all sorts of different worries that um burden my heart it's a little bit embarrassing to tell you sometimes what i worry about but i love amy so so so much and sometimes when she is running late which respectfully happens regularly sometimes my mind starts to wander and i i worry is she okay does something happen to her and my mind can go in the most ridiculous direction to where if she was hurt or killed in a car wreck i would not be able to function i couldn't continue leading the church and i wouldn't want my life to go on the same is true with my children sometimes i'll send them out in a car you know how it is when you send a 16 year old son or a daughter out when they're just learning to drive and this irrational thought comes over my mind what if and and i have to i have to choose to say god you love them even more than i do i'm trusting them with you another thing that weighs on me is just the spiritual responsibility of leading the church and it's so easy in our culture today to accidentally or even unintentionally say something or do something that can create all sorts of controversy and i'm i'm always aware that i'm representing god and that what i do matters and a lot of times i just i worry i don't want to let god down i don't want to ever hurt the name of jesus and it it it's heavy on me it's heavy on me and these are my worries what do i need to do instead of just giving my worries to god what i want to do even more is i want to give my life to god so that i'm hidden with god in christ jesus my whole life belongs to him my whole life everything i trust him i believe in him he's good he's always faithful and some are going to say well that's irresponsible you're just living in denial you've got to be more responsible than that now here's my philosophy and you may adopt this into your own life three big thoughts first of all is this i want to do what i can do would you say that aloud i'm going to do what i can do you can type that in the chat those of you online come on team lc all over the world type in the channel and do what i can do in other words if you've got an exam coming up you're not just trusting god for your exam what are you doing you're studying you're you're you're studying if you want to get in better shape you're not just praying about your health you're going to eat right you're going to exercise you're going to get good advice you're going to do what you can do the second thing is we're going to give god what we can't do somebody say that i'm going to give god what i can't do if i can't do something i'm going to trust it to god i'm giving god what i can't do first i'm going to do what i can do i'm going to give god what i can't do and finally i'm going to trust god no matter what because of who he is because of his character because of his nature god i'm going to do what i can do and god i'm going to trust you casting my cares upon you and give you what i can't do and no matter what because of your goodness your promises your faithfulness i'm going to trust you no matter what and what i want you to do for a moment is i want you to imagine a heart of peace i want you to imagine a life filled with unending joy i want you to imagine peace of mind trusting god and i want to tell you it's possible and it's also a choice it's a choice dominated by sinful nature or dominated by the spirit can we review our four weeks of study if your life is moving in the direction of your strongest thoughts do you like the direction your thoughts are taking you because i didn't for so long my thoughts were dominated by by negative self-defeating thoughts you're pathetic you're not good enough you're never going to measure up you don't have what it takes i can't keep up i'm always overwhelmed well if you don't control what you think you'll never control what you do so what are we doing we're identifying the stronghold whatever is the lie that we've been believing the dominant lie where our spiritual enemy is talking us out of the truth of god and when we identify that lie we then replace it with a truth not just a practical truth but a spiritual truth from god and then what do we do with that truth well we do this we write it and then what else do we do we think it and then what else do we do we confess it until you believe it say it with me somebody we write it think it confess it until you believe it again we write it think it confess it until you believe it i need some help online type it in the chat what do we do we write it over and over and over again we write it we think it we confess it until we believe it so what do i declare in my life where does my mind need to be renewed let me tell you jesus is first in my life i exist to serve and glorify him i am disciplined christ in me is stronger than the wrong desires in me write it think it confess it believe it i am growing closer to jesus every day because of christ my family is closer my body is stronger my faith is deeper and my leadership is sharper i am creative innovative driven focused and blessed beyond measure because the holy spirit of god dwells within me declare what's true about you write it think it confess it until you believe it write it think it confess it until you believe it we're renewing our minds with truth what is true about you if you don't know what's true about you let me declare it you are not hostage to your unhealthy thoughts because the weapons you fight with are not the weapons of this world your spiritual weapons have divine power to demolish strongholds and what do you do by the power and authority of god you demolish every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge knowledge of god worry is not your master why because you trust in god his peace guards your hearts guards your mind and guards your soul in christ jesus you are not a slave to your habits you are not a prisoner to your addiction you're an overcomer by the blood of the lamb and by the words of your testimony come on somebody you have been rescued from the power of darkness and brought into the kingdom of life renew our minds renew our minds renew our minds we also know that you can't control what happens to you but you can control how you frame it you can look at life from a negative perspective and say this is bad this is hard or you can look at it from a different perspective and say god you are good you're faithful and you're true and what's so powerful as followers of jesus is this we're not interpreting god through our circumstances god where are you not good because life is bad now what we're doing is we're interpreting our circumstances through the goodness of god and then as followers of jesus we cover everything we do in prayer and we're not going to be anxious about anything but in everything with prayer and petition we take our request to god and the peace of god the peace of god not the peace of this world the world can't give it and the world can't take it away it's the peace of god which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and what else come on and your and your minds in christ jesus so as followers of jesus we're going to let god empower you to win the war in your mind and when you know the truth the truth will set you free we are stepping out of the lives of our spiritual enemy and we're stepping into the truth of god and it's the truth of god a renewed mind which will set you free so father do it we pray do it we pray god i know there are so many in our church family so many watching online that are overwhelmed with runaway thoughts fear and anxiety god help us to cast those cares upon you at all of our churches today those of you who have a real burden a fear something that uh makes you indescribably anxious what we're going to do today is kind of symbolically put it in our god box you want to give it to god today but all of our churches there's something weighing on you it might keep you awake at night it's kind of almost always there it's just ever present a burden that you want to give to god by faith today if this you would you just lift up your hand just all of our churches lift up your hand um someone in the chat you can just just type in the chat i'm giving my burden to god right now whatever it is you can even give it a name if you want to i'm trusting god with whatever just fill in the blank type it in the chat i'm giving this to god i'm trusting you god with this now father symbolically we just released this to you the relationship the health issue the fear the the financial burden the uh the indecision whatever it is god we just we release it to you we trust you to be good that you're always faithful and god just give us the wisdom to do what we can do if there's something we can do about it god give us the wisdom and the courage to just do it to do what we can do and god we're going to trust you with all the things that we cannot control and no matter what god no matter what we're going to trust in you with all of our hearts and lean not on our own understanding but in all of our ways god our mind acknowledges you believing that you oh god will make our path straight we release these burdens god i pray by faith for someone right now there's a release right now right now right now god i'm trusting you i'm trusting you right now in this moment god we're trusting you we're trusting you as you keep praying today i can only imagine how many of you feel like i did for so much of my life when i had this heavy burden and this weight and this fear of where i stood with god i remember like uh too many times to count just like making deals with god if you're there you know help me forgive me blah blah blah blah and i always had this this um this heaviness thinking i haven't been good enough for god i didn't know where i stood with god and that may be some of you right now i've got really really good news that can bring peace of mind beyond measure and that is this that god loves you i want you to hear this he loves you so much and the reality is whenever you feel like you're not good enough for god that is true none of us are good enough for god we have all sinned we've all broken god's commands and that separates us from god but here's a really good news because of god's goodness he became one of us in the person of jesus his son jesus was sinless he never sinned he was the perfect sacrifice he died in our place for the forgiveness of our sins and in the goodness the power of god jesus didn't stay dead but our god raised him from the dead so that anyone and this includes you it doesn't matter how dark your life feels it doesn't matter how much you've done wrong it doesn't matter how heavy the weight is anyone who calls on the name of jesus your sins will be forgiven and you will be brand new peace of mind peace of heart peace of soul because you're new the old is gone and the new has come online or at a physical location those who say i need his grace i want his forgiveness we're just going to step away from our old life we're going to step toward him our minds are not dominated by our sinful nature but by the spirit of god we find peace with him all of our churches and online those who say i need his grace i need his forgiveness today jesus i turn from my sin i turn toward you today i give you my life that's your prayer lift your hands high now all over the place and say yes that's my prayer as we have hands going up at all of our churches today we thank god for you in the chat right now just just type it in there i'm giving my life to jesus just type that in the chat right now i'm giving my life to jesus and as we have people all over the world heaven is rejoicing in this moment and so are we we're going to pray together nobody prays alone would you just pray aloud pray heavenly father forgive my sins jesus change me make me brand new fill me with your spirit so i could follow you live for you think on what's true and represent you and all that i do i'll do what i can do i'll trust you with what i can't do and god i'm going to trust you no matter what thank you for new life i give you all of mine i give you all my burdens and i thank you for all your peace in jesus name i pray because somebody celebrate big welcome those born into god's family

Channel: Life.Church

Views: 395,253

Rating: 4.9366641 out of 5

Keywords: Craig Groeschel, Sermon, Life.Church, Lifechurch, life church, life church sermons, craig rochelle, groeschel craig, church sermons 2021, anxiety, calm anxiety, how to calm anxiety, how to deal with anxiety, tips for dealing with anxiety, dealing with anxiety, manage anxiety, anxious mind, reduce anxiety, overcome anxiety, cope with anxiety, how to stop anxiety, living with anxiety, rewire your brain anxiety, rewire the anxious brain, relieve anxiety, coping with anxiety

Id: CGzPHT7YJ0I

Length: 36min 52sec (2212 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 07 2021