Releasing Anxiety - Ben Stuart

well all throughout the Scriptures the Word of God declares over and over again that we exist for one simple beautiful purpose to know and enjoy Jesus that all things were made by him and for him that in his presence is fullness of joy that the nearness to you is my good in our text to said rejoice in the Lord always find your joy in him that every man woman and child was made to rest and delight in an intimate relationship with God that's what we're made for and I know many of us believe that to be true but we struggled to experience it your life is not this profound intimacy with God and you say why well if we have an enemy when the Bible says that we do then I would submit that for many of us this goal is not to convince you that God is real or that the Bible is not true he said if you want to read the Word of God if you want to see God go for it just make sure you look good while you're doing it and while you're at that make sure you go to the right college and pick the right major so you can get the right internship and get the right job so you can get on the right team and get the right boss so you can get the right promotions so you can take over the world but to do that you got to move to the right City and cities are expensive so you got to get a house and when you get the house that's real expensive so now I need roommates actually I need a lot of roommates now I got roommate drama coming at me and in the middle of that I meet somebody and we go on a date we go on more dates and some more dates and I meet their friends and their family they got to meet my friends and my family now are we gonna get engaged are we gonna get married oh my gosh what about our careers where are we gonna live we can stay in the city or move to the suburbs what are we gonna do do we want kids how many kids public school private school what are we gonna do and then meanwhile I got to keep up on social media Twitter Instagram Facebook Oh snaps yet and let people know how I'm doing but then there's health insurance car insurance diapers life insurance okay and it's not that anywhere in that suddenly we started thinking hey god is dead the Scriptures aren't true but we just we just lost track of them somewhere along the way and for many of us the greatest challenge in our life is that we have problems and some of you go well bin what are you advocating here I just got eliminate some of these problems you have the figures I gotta get rid of some of these kids that's the trip like is that what you're saying we're all linen live in the Hills like what are you saying well here's the reality for many of us our problems aren't the problem it's our anxiety about our problems that's the problem for many of us that's it it's not even the problems it's our anxiety about the problems that becomes the problem that's what jesus warned us about in matthew chapter 6 he talks to his disciples he says don't be anxious thinking what am I gonna eat what I'm gonna drink what am I gonna wear those things matter he says don't be anxious about it the nation's do that he said but seek first the kingdom and notice the contrast he contrasts anxiety with seeking the kingdom of God what Jesus is showing you there is that for many of us our anxiety is our biggest impediment to our fulfilling our god-given destiny let me say that again for many of us it's our anxiety about the things of life is our greatest impediment against pursuing our god-given destiny that the enemy's strategy to keep you to really live as the man you're meant to be under God or woman under God the great an enemy's greatest strategy to keep you from seeking the kingdom of God is to fill you with anxiety about the things of this present world and for many of us the reality we live in is what jesus warned us about in Luke chapter 8 he said in Luke 8 in this beautiful picture he said the Word of God is like a seed and he said I want to plant this seed deep into the soil of your heart and as you hear my words and they plant into your soul it's gonna burst forth into life and it's gonna grow and flourish and become fruit that blesses the world that's my goal for you bases but there's gonna be challenge in that garden and one of the challenges he said is that as that little seed begins to sprout and grow a weed is gonna come up and choke the life out of it and when it's disciples asked him later what's the weed that will choke out the Word of Life he says in Luke it is the worries of this life that for many of you you're not experiencing the power of God and your life why because the Word of Life is getting choked by the worries of life we don't have the life we're meant to have why because worry is choking out the Word of God God wants to do something powerful in you but worry is sabotaging the work and we need to deal with that does not only will it keep us from living our god-given destiny that anxiety in the heart creates many sinful states of mind it does the longer we live in anxiety it will begin to make you compromise anxiety about grades can lead you to cheat Rutgers did a study of 32 different universities and they found that 74% of business students and 68% of all other students admitted to some form of cheating which I don't know why the business student number is so much higher I don't know if they're cheating more over there or if they're just more honest about it they're like yeah chief that's how I get ahead I don't know but anxiety can lead you to dishonesty a lot anxiety about dating can lead you to compromise anxiety about finances can lead you to make unethical decisions anxiety about being liked will eat some of us to embellish stories and be weird at parties or persistent anxiety for many of us will leave us traveling down the world of addiction for relief just to escape it won't solve the problem but can I eject from it in a moment and then that comfort from the problem becomes a whole different problem and then here's the scary thing anxiety can quite literally kill you I remember for me when I was in college there was one day I was taking a shower and I felt this incredible pain in my chest and it felt like someone was trying to cave my chest in and I got to a moment roz like I can't breathe I'm having trouble my heart feels like it's pounding out but my ribcage is collapsing and I thought I think I'm dying and I was trying to figure out like what is going on and that was like is this heartburn maybe I'll like I've never had it was like this what this is that's like is this the barbecue cuz I've been eating off this plate of barbecue for like a week and a half in the fridge against a bit of my better judgment and I was like oh my gosh and I remember praying I was like God don't let me go out like this like look dumb way to die like I don't want my roommates to find me here in the shower and then at the funeral that I counted eco night is the barbecue he just kept eating on it way past what was appropriate and so I was like I don't want to go like that and so I survived and I went to the doctor and I remember talk to him and he's like do you drink no you smoke no he's stressed I was like I know I was I got in the fact that I'm trying to figure out what my major is cuz I got trying to figure out what I'm doing in my life and I don't know it scares me that I'm gonna be away so I'm dating a girl and I'm not sure how that's gonna work out but we should say together I'm scared of that if we break up and scared that I don't he's like whoa whoa whoa yeah that's it you just need to calm down that anxiety is affecting your heart and here's what's crazy about it a preoccupation with hypothetical situations was killing me in reality and how many of us your real life is being affected your real health is damaged because of your preoccupation with hypothetical situations that may or may not ever be so we got to deal with this for our own hearts literally physically and our own souls and our god-given purpose in this life we have to deal with anxiety and here's the crazy thing for many of us we experience this even as followers of Jesus but can I tell you this the world is not impressed when we sing about the Prince of Peace but live life of stress they're not impressed by that but here's the thing as followers of Jesus we're meant to live differently that's why Jesus told his disciples in Luke 12 he says don't be anxious he says the world cares about those things but your father knows what you need what's he saying when you really know me you know I have God as a dad and so the believer in Jesus should be characterized by a lack of anxiety that's what Jesus is saying it's interesting there was a book the cities and bishoprics of Phrygia which I know you've read but by way of review in the book it's talking about inscriptions in the ancient city of Phrygia and one of them is a guy's name titta dias Omer am nas and scholars all agree that Alma Ram Dass was not a typical name in that culture it was a baptismal name that back in the New Testament when he got baptized they gave you a new name like Barnabas I went in his original name but they named him that some encouragement cuz that's what he was like and so when you get baptized they'd give you a new name and I'mI'm nas has that that a negative on the front like we still do was osseous that's someone who doesn't believe in say ask God and so this is a marine nos he is not and Marin nas means worried about stuff so when he put his faith in Jesus I am United together with him the people who looked at his life says your name is - de Dios takes no thought of the morrow titted EOS not worried about stuff and that's who we're meant to be that's the good news of today that when we know Jesus we are rescued not just from sin not just from condemnation but from anxiety and there's some complexity to anxiety and I know there's some medical issues that are very real and some of this I'm not gonna solve and touch on every issue but I want to give you a pathway forward of how to experience more of the peace we've been given in Jesus and it comes in this text it says it in verse 6 do not be anxious about anything or I love it some trains I should be anxious for nothing and I love that because that is just proof from God you are never called to be anxious in that great that God does not require that of you now that doesn't mean you don't care it doesn't mean that you don't value some of what he's given you to steward but that chest tightening scalp in you know itching kind of shoulder clenching anxiety you live with that you think is just part of what you're supposed to do and shoulder in life you're not meant to carry your burdens that way we can carry them in a different way you're supposed to be anxious about no thing and that weren't anxious means in the to be drawn in different directions to distract I'm trying to focus on this but my mind's racing with that and so I think about that but my mind's racing with this and this preoccupation impedes good decision-making that I can't function well in life because my mind is too drawn in different places we're not meant to live like that so he says be anxious about no thing but in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God do you see the parallel be anxious about no thing but in everything pray that whenever I encounter a thing my kids my school my job my future my life when I get that thing I'm not supposed to preoccupy obsess get worried about it I am supposed to lay it before the Lord that's the same thing with everything now he's gonna unpack a little bit about how to do that as they go on but before we do that I just know there's some people in here and maybe some people in Cumberland that you started rolling your eyes you go oh that's the secret to my anxiety just pray more you're like thanks bro like that helps me a lot but before you just kind of smash on this theory let me just ask you for a second to analyze your own how are you dealing with it and how is it working for you that for some of us that this text was our text would be I be anxious about nothing but in everything just pound a lot of carbs to comfort yourself like that's some of us that's why you're working and let me tell you something I sympathize with you I do when Don and I first moved to DC some people were talking to us about our health and they asked Tana what are y'all eating and without hesitation she said our feelings and I was like that's true like we are kenta for some of us but you get anxious about things you take none of it to prayer you take a lot of it to the pantry and that's not solving any problems for you or others of us when you ever enter into something uncomfortable you don't know what to do you just escape into social media and distract yourself which often feeds your insecurities and becomes a whole different problem how's that working for you or for many of us we just try to bury the anxiety under an addiction and there's a million places that can go and it's destroying us and so before you bang on this theory you need to look at your own and say how's that working for you and here's what's fascinating as you look at secular studies all around the country over the last several years it's amazing people with no religious legions are studying people and they say you know one of the greatest remedies is for anxiety meditation and gratitude and they keep coming around these in these studies and I'm like that's so funny because you are literally tripling and stumbling onto an ancient path that's been ours for centuries in Jesus we just need to know how to walk it and so how do we do it he's gonna give us three things and the first one is in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving let your request be made known to God that's the first thing is that I deliver my anxious thoughts to him now we're gonna talk about the mechanics of how to do that but one thing I love about that is the passive voice of the verb when everything with prayer and supplication let your request be made known to God I love that that it's not an active form of the verb an active form would be make your request the amount of God he doesn't say that he says let them be made known I love that because it carries the idea that they want to be you just need to let them stop suppressing them but let them rise so I don't know how you wake up in the morning some of you maybe you wake up in the morning and your soul is ready to worship as soon as you rise a chance to glorify my Savior yes off you go that may be you for some of us our souls are not this pristine water of stillness we have all these anxieties about school about work about our kids about the unknowns about the future about our age and when we cake up they have invaded our soul and for many of us you go what am I gonna do when I wake up thinking about all these I wake up with these realities I wake up with this stuff I worry about for many of us we wake up you're like oh my gosh I'm stressed about school what am I gonna wear my kids we're what I'm gonna do that then you wake up you but there's no time I gotta go so what do I do with all this I'll tell you what I do I bury it down deep inside and you just try to suppress it push it down into your soul right and not deal with it and just function in the daily business of life many of us do that in church we got all these real concerns about our family real concern about our kid real anxiety about our death but we show up here we just shove it all down and people ask how you doing you're like great fantastic god is good blast not today Satan but meanwhile it's just all getting shoved down and what I love about this Texas says you know what it's not godly to deny what's in you these are very real realities and so don't pretend like they're not don't keep trying to shove them down deep in your soul where they're making you sick let them rise does that mean you let them rise in every conversation hey how's it going brother I'm scared about my future my parents might let you know like does that mean you start doing that to every person some relationships can't handle it but it says I let my requests be made known to God that as a concern rises up in me I'm not shoving it down I'm pulling it out and saying criticism it's killing me I show up to work and I'm so anxious because I feel like people are looking at me I feel like they're not happy with my work but they're not being direct with me and I just this is I'm carrying this and it's affecting the way I respond to my kids when I respond to my mate and I don't want to be that way and I'm gonna do something with this either push it down deep or I'm gonna pick it up and say this is real let me take it to somebody who can do something about it and I began to let it rise and I love that he says that how do you do this by prayer prayer he uses the most generic term for creating a space to be with God that I carve out of my schedule just a space to be with him and I talked to so many people when I tell them that they go man I'm too busy for that I'm like no you're not they have a saying sharp shooters in the military I was saying slow is smooth and smooth is fast then if you try to hurry too much with a weapon you're gonna drop a clip you're gonna not aim accurately you're gonna miss and so your intended goal you're actually not getting to efficiently because you're hurrying so much and for many of us that's you in life you're hurried out the door you're responsive and reactionary and conversations and you're not really advancing much as a person you need to slow down to become more efficient many of us were like an octopus on rollerskates lotta action but not necessarily moving forward so you've been successful at busy but not at efficient you need to slow down and be smooth for me the mornings have been a key part of this now when I wake up in the morning that I've started to do this I create a space for prayer and then it says in prayer with supplication that is on bringing specific requests I'm creating a space and I protect it it's an appointment in my calendar people ask me can you meet me at this time no I have an appointment it's with the Almighty I don't usually tell him that part they don't need to know but I'm not gonna bump him and so I sit in that moment and then what I do with supplication is I give free rein to my inner voice and what I mean by that is I watched a video back in high school years ago in like science class called madness and there's all different kind of mental illnesses and there was one part of the video about a guy that he was working on the railroad back in the day and the explosion went off and it drove a railroad spike through his forehead now at the back of his skull no you saw yeah and and he didn't die yeah but it it separated his frontal lobe that helps regulate what you choose to external eyes or non external eyes right and so he had no filter and so in the movie they kind of reenact him trying to get his job back and he shows up and he's like I'd like my job out in the guys like I can't you had a spike go through your head nice nice hey what's your name your and he's just kind of all over the place and that's how I pray now for me and when I wake up in the morning I don't try to control it I don't try to make it cute I just open up my journal first thing in the morning and I write at the top how are you feeling which many really do you really have to ask yourself that yes I do not all of us have great access to our emotions we have to ask ourselves how are you feeling and I'm like scared stressed anxious concerned I start writing all these words out and then as I write them out I ask myself why I do what David did in the Psalms taught us to do why are you down cast o my soul and as I start to process those emotions that were about to affect how I treat my kids now I'm doing it in front of the Lord why am I feeling this way well I'm worried about this meeting where you what about this meeting because I need this person to do X what do you need to do X because I need to get to Y what do you need to get Y so that I can succeed why do you need seats so I can be seen as a success by so I'll feel like I am somebody well man that has nothing to do with the meaning that has everything to do with your identity and this is the circle to deal with that in and in DC I talk to so many young people that they write in their journal like it's their memoir you know what I mean challenges today and yet I will rise and overcome you're like oh stop no one's gonna read it you just be honest with God let it all come out as ugly as it looks at least be real and give it to him he wants you to do that not only does he want you to do that he commands you to do that first Peter 5:7 says cast your anxieties on him why because he cares for you Psalm 55:22 it says cast your cares upon the Lord he will sustain you he will never let the righteous fall I love that because in those two texts were given the same command cast your anxieties on the Lord don't stuff him down give him to him but you're given two very different motivations as to why the first one is cast onto him why because he cares about you and the second one is casted upon him why because he will sustain you why do we cast our cares upon the Lord other than just he commanded it to be so because he's strong enough to do something about it and he's loving enough to want to that's why that's why we do it with Thanksgiving why do I thank him when I'm in the middle of the fire why do I thank him when these difficulties haven't been resolved because I get to bring my concerns to the king that I get to come to him with these that I get to rest in his harms your father knows that you need these things that's Jesus's language don't be anxious little flock I remember once it was time to go upstairs and I picked up one of my daughters and she won no no no dad like what do you mean no she said I'm too heavy daddy and I was like whoa okay one who told you that and then two I said you're not too heavy for your daddy baby and then you kind of press her a few times just so she could see what feels heavy to you is not heavy to him and he wants to carry those things and he wants to carry you and that's something worth celebrating and it's not just worth celebrating it's essential for good decision-making because the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus we needed to guard us Abraham Lincoln there was a moment where general leader of 76,000 troops into Pennsylvania and as they did that panic took hold in Washington and yet historians report in the midst of that panic Abraham leaving Abraham Lincoln possessed an OLE as he made decisions and a general who was wounded at Gettysburg Lincoln went and visited him later and he asked him how were you able to calmly function and make decisions in the middle of that chaos and what Lincoln told him was this when everyone seemed panic-stricken I went to my room got down on my knees and prayed before Almighty God soon a sweet comfort crept into my soul that God Almighty had taken the whole business into his own hands do you see that prayer does not release you from having to make decisions but it does liberate you to make good decisions anxiety is an impediment to good decisions but when I trust the Lord his peace steps in front of my heart and guards it like a garrison I love that because Paul is in prison at the time and Paul is literally like when I trust things to God his peace B becomes like Bob here Bob's not letting me go anywhere it becomes like that it's like the piece of God's a bouncer in front of my heart uncertainty about the future no you're gone weird boyfriend beat it you're out of here that he just begins to protect me so I can make rational decisions and I can function we need that we need that and not only do we need it in that moment we got to offload all this stuff to him then comes the moment where you go I have to bring back on things that can now help me for me my normal rhythm now is when I wake up in the morning I get that piece of paper out I write those things out and then I have this little monitor I clipped to my ear that measures not just your heart rate it measures the distance and time between the beats of your heart it measures coherence how focused are you and when I start it's usually not good which you can tell because the little reader is read and it makes this ominous low sound which is like you're a mess I go okay so I'm writing out my anxieties to God then I start breathing and I start thinking about who he is and I just watch it well that feels better okay here we are and then it turns green and I realized it just focuses me and I'm calm and then in that moment you don't just go oh good my mind is a complete blank that's where a lot of meditation stuff ends but that's only a part of the journey here I offload my anxiety onto him and then I hit brace his truth and to me that's the next word finally brothers whatever is true honorable just pure lovely commendable if there's any excellence anything worthy of praise think about those things that's my rhythm in the morning it's release and embrace I wake up and I release my anxiety to you I don't just do that thing where I just throw up on my devotional and read it all and then everything else is still down here know I bring my anxieties out and lay them before you and then when my slows down I get your word out and I began to replace it and get it back into me and I put your thoughts into my head your mind and my truth I release my anxiety to him and I embrace his truth to me and that liberates me to function in the way I want to as a man in this world that's the secret one of my heroes is Jeff Stricker jester Coe was an Army Ranger in 1993 and was involved in the Battle of Mogadishu the Battle of Mogadishu was famously depicted in the movie Black Hawk Down where a small group of elite soldiers was sent into Mogadishu Somalia and they were tasked with capturing two high-profile targets and escaping but while they're in the middle of that operation which was supposed to take well under an hour two of their blackhawk helicopters were shot down and crashed within the city and so suddenly what was supposed to be less than an hour dragged on through the night into the next day a small group of American troops surrounded by thousands of enemy fighters Jeff Strucker was charged at age 24 was driving the lead hum vil Humvee which was their exfil out of the city into safety and as he drove out and this situation began to devolve the first casualty in that battle happened right next to him one of his friends he was able to lead the column of Humvees out of the city successfully make it back to their base and when he got to their base he was just so thankful to be alive they unloaded the wounded and then his commanding officer came to him and said you have to go back there's men trapped in the city and as he told him that one of the other Special Forces men came out to him and said before you go back you have to wash all that blood out of your truck it'll traumatize the men you pick up for them to have to sit in that and so he had to go and wash the blood of his friend out of the truck and he said when he entered into that moment panic just filled his life he said he just began to freak out I don't want to go back I can't go back I can't go back there I can't do this I can't function and he began to lock up and he said he just kept thinking over and over again this is gonna be my blood that's gonna be my blood that's gonna be my blood and so in that moment of anxiety and panic he just started praying started saying these things but now sang him to the Lord I said as I began to talk to the God about his fears sitting there as Humvee knowing what he was about to face he said suddenly the thoughts began to enter his mind as he transitioned to thinking the Lord commands my destiny not my enemy the Lord determines whether I live or die no other soldier does if he will have me survive this day I will go home and see my wife and children if he does not I will go home to heaven and see my Savior because his faith was in Jesus had lived and died for him forgave sins gave him life in the assurance of eternal life in Christ and so as he thought about those realities the sovereignty of God and the salvation of Jesus he said no matter what happens God will let me live and I will go home into my children or God will let me die and I'll go home to see my Savior but either way I'm going home and he said when those thoughts entered his mind his mind cleared and he was able to function and he cleaned out the Humvee got in drove it into the city rescued more men and brought them out and then drove into the city again and again and again continuing to rescue his fallen wounded brothers and then later became a chaplain to comfort them emotionally and spiritually as they process what they've been through how was he able to function this very rhythm I'm giving you I cast my anxieties unto him and then I take his thoughts onto me what is true what is true is that God runs my story what is just what is the right thing to do what is honorable what would be the best way to act when I walk into the office not stooping down to the behavior of the lowest among us but rising up to the full stature of someone who knows the king and calls him father what would it look like to live a lovely life a life that's beautiful and commendable a pure life of no duplicity what would that look like what would a commendable life look like what's the kind of life I could step into that they would write a book about that I would read and say I want to see a person live like that what's an excellent and praiseworthy way to live it's the reason why I read a lot of biographies because I don't want to live a life of reaction to the world around me I want to live a life that elevates to the heroic journey of those who live by faith if I read the stories of men and women who did it well why because I want to cast my anxieties upon the Lord and then take up his thoughts into my mind so I can live differently and so I cast off my anxiety and for me I just think of the words of Jeremiah burrows he says you don't pour wine into a shaky vessel it's a bad decision he said still the vessel and then you can pour into it and he says it's the same with the blessings of God God has blessings for you in his word he has blessings for you in your life but you need to steel yourself cast your anxiety unto Him and be still and then let him fill you with the blessings of God right he said it's like a child he says when a child comes begging you for something and is anxious you make them calm down even if it's a thing you want to give them dad I want to snap that I'm gonna stack that I'm gonna snap stuff so I am going to feed you and frankly it's a little insulting that like are you gonna starve like have you starved yet it honors me for you to come to me at peace because it says a lot about who you think I am as a dad and so let's be still and then come to me cast my anxieties and embrace the truth you're my father in heaven you run this office you run this world the things that are big to me are not big to you but you know my story and you command my destiny and you step down into the chaos of this slice and you did something decisive about it so though I live in tragedy tragedy is not the end of my story because in Christ Jesus I have victory so if I'm not experiencing victory yet it's because this story's not over yet because all our stories end in victory in Christ Jesus if we're his he has paid for our sin on that cross rose from the grave and we have a future with him and I'm gonna lean into that and the certainty of that will cascade into how I live today that I will set my mind on things above I will think about these lovely things I will dwell on them and then I'll let them shape how I behave that's the last piece in verse 9 what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me practice these things don't just read about them sit here and listen to them live them practice these things and the God of peace will be with you I love that cast my anxieties onto him and the peace of God will be with me embrace his thoughts and excel at the revealed and the God of peace will be with me not just the peace of God the very God of peace will stand with me in the fire that's who you want to be someone who says I'm gonna learn your truth I'm gonna listen to your word I'm gonna sing it out loud and then I'm gonna walk into it I'm gonna excel at the revealed things I'm not gonna just react to what's around me I'm gonna step into what my God has for me I know for me stepping out of college was an anxious time got a job as a youth pastor had never had a youth pastor didn't know what one did and so I started interviewing all his youth pastors with huge churches and they were telling me all this stuff like when you get 500 kids to camp or 6,000 kids to camp I had a ministry of six kids that I had grown to one as they're telling me how to get your ministry to one hundred and 150 and I was literally doing nothing but the thought of having to do all these things I started panicking and I quit quit the job two days later I quit because I felt kind of guilty about it I've even been there like a month and I thought God you gotta help me and I remember in that moment a mentor telling me Ben you altima tante exist to be a youth pastor he said you need to know what Ben Stewart's about then I realize I exist to know God and so that'll be a priority in my schedule I'm never gonna be too busy to do the one fundamental thing I was made to do what's the greatest commandment love God heart soul mind and then love others I thought that was going to be my schedule I literally started scheduling that I am going to get deep into the Word of God and around the people of God so reading - I hadn't read the whole book in years ever so I got rid of my TV I'm gonna soak in the Word of God and let it take root in me and I'm gonna let it affect the way I treat people and back then I wasn't preached on stages didn't need a microphone in my ministry just needed everyone to scooch ahead scooch up yes and we just love these kids right where they're at and we would encounter different things and I would do the best I could to be an honorable loving person in the sphere that God had put me in I'm gonna excel at the revealed things there's so many unrevealed things I don't know but I'm not gonna panic about wondering whether or not you're doing your job I'm gonna do mine and I'm gonna excel at what you called me to do I'm gonna be good at loving people today I'm gonna be excellent at what is good and innocent of evil I want to live a beautiful commendable life and so far I look and see God provide I trust him more and stress less and I want that for you to release to embrace and then to excel what he's called you to then you can live a life that's commendable beautiful change the world that way Louie Zamperini was an Olympian who served in World War two flew a bomber shot down in the Pacific he had to exist on a life raft for 47 days became emaciated when he was finally found as a grown man he weighed less than 90 pounds but he was found by the enemy taken to a Pio wkm led by a man Watanabe that was a sadist with enjoyed torturing people and did pretty horrible things to these men Louie most of all because he was famous so he made section came out as a unique recipient of his torture a one time tying him up and having a line of men take turns just punching him in the face over 200 times just brutalized him the United States allied won the war got to go home Louie went home sweetheart got married but even though he left the war the war didn't leave him and they wrote a book about him unbroken but when he got home he broke PTSD was ripping apart inside he didn't know what to do with the flashbacks the nightmares the purse of anger yelling at his wife at one point she came home he was shaking their child so he began to do what a lot of people do in that moment try to bury it and alcohol which became a whole different set of problems and finally she had to make the healthy decision we have to get away from you realize that he was about to lose the best things in his life he consented to her last-ditch effort to help him there was a Billy Graham crusade in LA so he went with her to here.they evangelist Billy Graham as he sat there Billy Graham talked about how every person's beautiful me image of God but you're broken because of sin and you can't fix you and lo he got up and stormed out how dare you tell me I'm a bad person I'm a good person and he left I realize he still went home and had nothing but alcohol no life and kids he thought I don't have solutions here so he went back and that next night Billy was speaking out of Jesus walking on water in the midst of the storm and in the midst that he said some of you are lost adrift at sea in the storms of life and you can't navigate your way out and that got Louie's attention he said but your God rides over the storm and he has purpose for your life and he records in that moment it stunned him as he thought about his life he remembered on that raft praying to God if you saved me I will serve you and he started to think about the fact that when his ship went down he was tangled up in metal and cords but then suddenly was set free when different planes were strafing his raft out in the open ocean he was never hit when he arrived in some very precarious places at different strategic moments in his story believers in Jesus from different countries helped keep him alive and he had survived to this moment by the grace of God and he began to realize God rules my story not my enemy he'd been consumed with not just anxiety but anger and wanted to murder the man who had tortured him and yet in that moment he realized that man doesn't determine my story God does and I'm a mess I'm not good for my family but Jesus came from me he walked out into my storm that he can forgive my sin he can make me something new Lois stood up and he walked down that aisle a broken man who was made whole by the grace of Jesus he began to read the Word of God began to work with troubled youth preaching to them got to a point where he was invited to go back to Japan and preach the gospel to war criminals and he went and did it telling them about the grace of Jesus that forgave even him he found out that the guy who had tortured him was still alive asked to see him and the guy wouldn't do it so he wrote him this letter I'll close with this he said as a result of my prisoner of war experience under your unwarranted and unreasonable punishment my post-war life became a nightmare it was not so much due to the pain and suffering as it was the tension of stress and the humiliation that caused me to hate with a vengeance under your discipline my rights not only as a prisoner of war but also as a human being were stripped from me it was a struggle to maintain enough dignity and hope to live until the war's end but it was the post-war nightmares that caused my life to crumble but thanks to a confrontation with God through the evangelist Billy Graham I committed my life to Jesus and love has replaced the hate I have for you Christ said forgive your enemies and pray for them as you probably know I returned to Japan and was allowed to address the Japanese war criminals at Sugamo prison I asked them about you and they told me you had probably committed suicide and I was sad to hear it at that moment like I did with the others I forgave you and even now I would hope that you would become a Christian can you believe that a life broken by the stress of his very real pain and yet by releasing it into the hands of Christ and taking up a belief in the sovereignty of his father and the grace of the son he was able to forgive find peace to think about the words of God and then to walk them out you said to forgive so I'll forgive you said the blessing on curse then I will bless I will offer grace even to my enemy and the world marvels at a man like that New York Times bestsellers are written about a grace like that that's the life available to us in Christ that's the opportunity on the table if we will walk the path he's given us by His grace you

Channel: Passion City Church

Views: 114,524

Rating: 4.9126639 out of 5

Keywords: louie giglio, passion city church, passion church, passion city church worship, louie giglio sermons, passion city, giglio louie, louie giglio 2019, city church, passion, giglio, passion city church sermons, Ben stuart, Anxiety, releasing anxiety, stress, stress relief, why god complicates your life, ben stewart limitless, releasing, anxiety, Ben, Stuart, washington d.c., passion sermons, jesus, Worship Matters, W2O2R2S2H2I2P

Id: Xd8MOrujm3w

Length: 40min 1sec (2401 seconds)

Published: Tue May 28 2019