Releasing Anxiety | COMING UP FOR AIR | Ben Stuart | 5.2.21

hey church family we are so glad you're here to worship with us we're continuing in a series called coming up for air uh we've been looking at second corinthians chapter one where paul reminds us that the god of all comfort comforts us in all of our troubles so that we can comfort others with the comfort we have received from him um one of the ways we want to do that together is through what we call a midweek check-in it's on wednesdays at 7 30 on both our facebook page and our website would love to encourage you to check that out uh this weekend we are thrilled to have ben stewart back preaching uh for us we love hearing from ben i know god is gonna use him and what he has taught then about anxiety specifically to bring some comfort to you and to help you know how to comfort those around you the very first time ben preached here we went out to dinner and then on saturday night the two of us climbed up onto the roof of the sanctuary at the blankenbaker campus and it was night the moon was bright that night we were looking at the city of louisville and we just sat down on that copper roof and i remember sharing with him this was just pretty soon after our transition i just shared with him some of the anxieties i felt he shared with me some of the struggles that he'd been having as a pastor in washington dc some of the challenges that they were dealing with and we prayed for each other and in that moment we were living out what we're talking about in this series that we want to comfort each other with the comfort we have received from god that god wants to comfort us and then he wants to use us to strengthen to encourage each other along this journey i'm thankful for the way that ben has done that for me personally i know he's going to do that for you today and this sermon oh and for the record like i know ben usually wears black he usually preaches him but i haven't seen him today but for the record i uh i was the pastor that wore black first like that was my thing first anyway would you please welcome pastor ben stewart it doesn't sound right [Music] hello everybody man it is great to be back uh here with you and um let me just say at the outset all that kyle said was true we did climb on the roof of this gorgeous building and uh who knew uh for me when i said yes to him what a crazy year laid before us with kovid but um you know what god in his mercy gave me a new and very valuable and cherished friendship with your pastor so i thank god for him and just wanted to do that publicly before all of you say thank you god for your pastor kyle and what a gift he is to me and all of us and so grateful for him today yeah uh if you got a copy of your scriptures we're in philippians chapter four uh i want to read a couple verses to you uh we'll pray and then jump in uh philippians chapter 4. if you don't have a copy i'll read it out loud so you can just listen in but uh philippians 4 beginning in verse 6 says this do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to god and the peace of god which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in christ jesus finally brothers whatever is true whatever is honorable whatever is just whatever is pure whatever is lovely whatever is commendable if there's any excellence if there's anything worthy of praise think about these things and what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me practice these things and the god of peace we'll be with you i'll pray well father we just ask for that now we ask that the god of peace would be with us that even now god um just the possibility of talking about anxiety is causing some of us to just to worry about some very real issues in our life and i just pray lord that you the god of peace would open our minds to understand your word open our hearts to receive it and i pray our lives were changed by it god i prayed there would be a qualitative shift in our experience of life as a result of these few minutes i'm asking for something i can't generate we're asking you god to meet with us and i just want to invite all of you if you're willing uh take a minute and you pray and ask him say lord please teach me today and then if you would please pray for me that the lord would use me and i'd be helpful to you well father we love you and we trust you use this time we pray that in jesus name amen well several years ago some buddies of mine and i decided to hike into the grand canyon spend a few days down there and then hike out and so we spent the whole first day just getting down into the canyon and setting up camp but then the second day there was a waterfall about six miles in that i really wanted to go see kind of hike six miles in go see it hike six back to the camp and uh my buddies did not want to do that they just wanted to sit which i was a little frustrated by i was like man i don't want to do it by myself but i was like i don't know you know it was a nice day out i'm just going to start walking and see what happens and so i start walking there and and it feels good and i'm feeling good i was like you know what maybe i'm just going to make it i mean how far is six miles anyway like i'm gonna just go to this waterfall and come back so i start walking i'm feeling good about it and then after a while it dawns on me i have no idea what time it is i can't bring a watch i don't have a phone i can't gauge by the sun i'm in a canyon it's like i don't know how long i've been out here and so i'm going to start walking and like how much further is it to go what if it becomes dark and i can't see on the way back this feels bad but do i want to stop i don't want to give up the mission so i decided i'm just going to walk faster and so i start power walking and as i'm doing that i just come zooming up on this couple and i size them up real quick they're going way too slow but then they want to visit and so they're like hey what are you up to and i was like well i'm trying to make it to this waterfall and they're like that's where we're going do you want to go with us and i'm like no no i gotta go all right so i just zoom past them and i keep cranking and i'm just trying to drive to this thing and the further i go i'm like man i don't know how long this is gonna take i'm kind of getting nervous i didn't bring enough water i brought like half a granola bar this feels bad and so i just started breaking into a run and they had said it's got to be nearby and so i'm running and then after a while i realized i'm not seeing it and then i thought what if i passed it then i'm just a dude running out into the wilderness and you'll never see me again and my friends will be like i don't know it'll take days to find the body so i started freaking out like man i might have passed it i don't know where i am and then i thought i need to get perspective get to higher ground and so i start scaling the side of the cliff to try to get up to higher ground as i do that i scare a deer or more properly we scare each other because he jumped back and was like ah and i was like nah and i fell backwards tumbled down this cliff a thorn shot into my hand just right into the meat of it sees my hand up and so i finally roll back down and hit the trail i'm covered in dirt and blood and as i'm laying there trying to recover i hear the sound of a waterfall and so i turn this corner and sure enough there's the waterfall and at the base of it a lovely picnic blanket set up with that couple i had passed earlier enjoying a nice lunch [Applause] and they can't hide their surprise they were like what happened to you and i was like craziest thing man couldn't find it so i tried to get the higher ground deer attacked me and whatever and they were like you didn't see the huge sign that said waterfall and at that point i just couldn't fake it i was like no i yeah i was freaked out i just completely freaked out and we laughed about it they sat down and helped bandage my wounds but but i learned something valuable about anxiety that day anxiety can motivate activity but not necessarily improve efficiency that i could have gotten to that same place with a lot more joy and a lot less pain if i would have figured out how to manage my anxiety now why do i mention that to you for this reason i don't have to quote you the stats i think all of us know this many of us feel this that we are living in an anxious day that we are setting records in america for the amount of anxiety we experience which is wild when you think historically speaking this is the safest time for human beings to live on the globe but there's something about the modern experience that's not conducive to our internal flourishing the constant bombardment on social media and ambient anxiety through cable news is soaking into all of us and it's beginning to affect us in very negative ways and here's the reality i know for all of us in here we're dealing with real problems you've got real struggles but for many of us if i can be real our anxiety about our problems is becoming our biggest problem let me say it again our anxiety about our problems is becoming our biggest problem and we have to figure out how to deal with it because jesus said in matthew chapter 6 talking to his followers he said therefore do not be anxious saying what shall we eat what shall we drink what shall we wear he says don't do that but seek first the kingdom of god and do you see the contrast he puts there between being anxious about real issues in life and seeking his kingdom jesus is telling us today that one of your greatest impediments to fulfilling your god-given destiny is your anxiety that if we allow ourselves to stew in anxiety that may be our greatest impediment to fulfilling god's destiny for our life that one of our enemies strategies to derail you from being the man or woman you're meant to be under god is to fill your heart with anxiety and for many of us my fear today is we're living in luke chapter eight you know where jesus um told the story of the different seeds scattered in the soil and it would land and have various levels of success and he explained to his disciples later the soils are the human heart and the seed is the word of god and what he was saying is man i've got some some blessing in my word i want to plant deep in the soil of your soul and i want it to explode into life good things to come out of you for you and for others but then he warns about some dangers and one of the dangers is as the word takes root and begins to grow a weed is going to come and choke it and the disciples asked him what's the weed that's going to choke out the word of god and in luke chapter 8 jesus says the weed is the worries of this life that for many of us maybe you've been coming to church for years but the reality is you're not experiencing a lot of the blessing that god wants to give you through his word because the word of life is being choked by the worries of this life and here's the deal for many of us the scary thing is not only why we miss out on what christ wants to do in your life that anxiety is a state of heart that if we're not careful will produce many sinful states of mind like anxiety about grades can lead you to dishonesty rutgers did a study of 32 universities and they found that 74 of business students and 68 of other students admitted to some form of cheating which i don't know why the business school students are so much higher like i don't know if they just cheat more over there or if they're just more honest about it they're like of course i cheat it's how i get ahead anxiety about finances my legion make unethical business decisions anxiety about dating may make you compromise of who you're spending time with anxiety about being liked may make you embellish stories and act weird at parties that our anxiety affects our activity and if we're not careful it will affect our health like i remember for me in college there was a moment where i was taking a shower and suddenly i just felt this pain in my chest like it felt like someone's trying to cave my chest in and i thought i was dying and i remember i was like what what is happening then i thought is it the barbecue because i've been eating this leftover barbecue off the refrigerator for about 10 days and i thought what a stupid way to die and i started praying like god don't let it happen like this like my roommates are gonna find the body and then at the funeral like what happened like barbecue he just kept eating on it long after it was appropriate but i survived the shower but i went to the doctor and started talking to him man something's going wrong something didn't feel right and he was like hey do you drink no you smoke no are you stressed no like but you know i'm worried about finals i may not pass i'm going to want my majors because i don't want to do my life and i'm dating a girl i'm not sure if she's the one and i'm scared of committing to her but i'm also scared of being alone and i'm not sure where my life's going he's like whoa whoa whoa yeah that's it it's like you need to calm down and the reality is you know we laugh to keep from crying but hey let's be real i've had all kinds of different physical problems at different times in my life because of anxiety and what i've had to learn over time is hypothetical problems are literally killing me at times how many of us if we're honest that that possibilities of what may or may not occur is in real time damaging our physical bodies we have to deal with this anxiety for the glory of god and for our good and here's the crazy thing jesus tells his disciples in luke chapter 12 do not be anxious he says i want one of the attributes of my people is that we are not characterized by anxiety it's interesting there's a book called the cities and bishoprics of phrygia which i know you've read but by way of review uh it's talking about the ancient inscriptions on the walls in the city and one of them is the name of a guy titias a marimnas and most historians agree that amarimnas was not a name normal in that culture that that was a baptismal name it was common in the early church when you got baptized they would give you a nickname like barnabas wasn't his real name i mean son of encouragement it was his nickname uh and so ahmarimnas muslim think that that was a baptismal name ah is a negative prefix we still use today like ah theist is someone who does not believe in theos who's not believing god ahmarimnas means not worried about stuff that when this guy came to christ it says one of the attributes that's a gift for us from jesus is not just that we're free from our sin and condemnation he wants to liberate us from some of the most damaging effects of anxiety that we could be not worried about tomorrow and look let me be clear i know for many of us there's some real complicating factors when you talk about anxiety it can talk about a lot of different things and and i'm not in any of this negating that there is counseling that's helpful or uh medication at times it's helpful none of this is a refutation of some modern resources that can help you but what i want to do in this moment is to show you a path given to us by god that can help all of us manage the anxiety that's coming our way so we can fulfill god's destiny for our life and you see it in verse chapter six paul says do not be anxious about anything isn't that great that he's saying anxiety is never godly and by that i mean god does not obligate you to experience that and can that just be liberty for some of you today that that that chest tightening scalp drying feeling that that you think is your burden in life because you have to carry it it's not from god that doesn't mean you don't care about real things that you are given to steward but it means some of that horrible anxious feeling god does not require you to feel that about the significant things he's given you to steward the word they're used for anxiety means to be distracted to drawn in many directions at once unable to lock on anything and god says i don't want your life to be characterized by that but rather in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known to god do you see the parallel there be anxious about no thing but with everything let your request be made known to god right so whenever i encounter something i don't take it to my anxiety i take it to him right and he's going to give us three ways we're meant to do this but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known to god now we're gonna talk about how to do it in a minute but let me just say i know for some of you as soon as i say that you just start rolling your eyes you're like well that's the secret pray more thanks bud that's what you bought brought to kentucky let me say this before you knock on this rhythm let me ask you how's your own coping mechanism working for you like what would your bible verse be right do not be anxious about anything but in everything pound bunch of carbs to try to eat your feelings right is that what you do hey and i'm not judging you look when my wife and i planted passion city dc somebody asked us that first year hey what are you eating and without hesitation my wife was like our feelings and i was like yeah that's right i get it for many of us when we're stressed we take it to the pantry not to prayer right or we take it to social media and start scrolling to try to distract ourselves which actually studies are now showing us this amplifies the anxiety doesn't alleviate it or for many of us we just have a variety of addictions things we go to to distract our mind or to numb the pain and they're not working for us and yet it's interesting there's so many secular studies now of how to manage anxiety and you know what over and over again is coming up in their research some of the best ways to mitigate anxiety in our life they say are meditation and gratitude sounds a lot like prayer that what you see happen in these secular studies are they are stumbling onto an ancient path that's been ours in christ jesus and we're meant to reclaim it but here i'm not to be anxious about anything but in everything let your request be made known to god we'll talk about in a minute but what i love about that is the passive voice of the verb it's not an active command make your request known it's in the passive let your request be made known to god i love that because it carries the idea that they want to get out you just got to let them that for many of us i don't know how some of you wait some of you maybe just you wake up ready to worship that's where you wake up during the day you're just like a chance to praise my savior yes and off you go and that's the way you live your life i know for many of us that's not how it works you maybe wake up and you're like oh man how am i going to pay for this and i got to handle that i got to meet with that guy and i got to do this and what happened and all this anxiety is waiting for you but then you check the time you go but i gotta go to work what do i do with all these feelings i know i stuff him down deep inside and you're like someone trying to push a beach ball underwater i'm just shoving all these emotions down and then you show up at places like work or places like church and people go hey how's it going you're like good fantastic praise god blessed not today satan and meanwhile you're a slip away from teeing off on your kids [Applause] and what i love about this passage is it's telling you don't deny the reality of our emotional stress about the strains of life don't suppress it don't deny it let it rise now does that mean in every conversation how's it going bob well i'm scared about my this is my life my children like no like some relationships can't handle it but i bring it to god and how do i do it i do it by prayer right and prayer is the most general term for i leave space to interact with god and i know some people hear that and you go ben i'm too busy for that i don't have time for that well let me tell you there's a statement in sharpshooter communities in the military that slow is smooth and smooth is fast that if you try to rush a shot you're going to drop a clip you're not going to aim right you're going to miss your intended target right and so it's actually going to end up taking you more time if you're too hurried and some of you you're just like i don't have time for that and you're super hurried in life and you're you have a lot of activity but not much efficiency you're like a octopus on roller skates it's a lot of movement but you're not really going forward and so here paul says before i start engaging the world i'm going to create a space to interact with god and when i sit with him i'm going to make an appointment for me it's an appointment in the morning that it's on my calendar that if someone's like hey can we meet for breakfast no because i have an appointment and i don't tell them with the almighty but i'm not going to bump god for them because i need this for me and for me i create a space like he's talking about here by prayer and supplication that word supplication is to get specific that i bring my specific needs to him for me i get a journal out and i write at the top of it how are you feeling which some people laugh at they're like you have to ask yourself that yes i do some of us don't have immediate access to all of our emotions we're unsure how do i feel today and then i just start writing it out anxious afraid uncertain insecure and i start writing out all these emotions right and then i do what david taught us to do in the psalms he asked why are you downcast o my soul he starts querying the emotional state of his own soul why are you feeling like that and i've discovered as i create space to do that with god i'm feeling anxious why it's interesting what comes to the surface because i'm worried about this meeting why because i needed to go well why so people can see that i've got it put together why so i'll feel like a success why so i'll know that i'm somebody whoa that's not about a meeting that's about your identity and you need to take that to the king not to your co-workers and and i'm able to process a lot of what's happening that's about to affect my decisions in the day that's about to directly impact how i talk to my kids and my wife i'm processing with the lord and i encourage for me it helps to write it down to externalize it i joke with a lot of our young people in washington dc like your journals are like you're writing your memoirs you're like challenges abound today and yet i shall overcome it's like oh stop like no one's gonna read this you just process ugly with god get it out right he's telling you to do that right and to do it with thanksgiving why would thanksgiving why be happy when you're telling them all your problems because you're getting to unload them to god that's what first peter says he says cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you and psalm 55 says cast your cares on the lord he will sustain you he will never let the righteous fall i love those two verbs verses because they have the same actions cast your anxieties on the lord it's telling you hand them to me but it gives you two different motivations one of them is cast your anxiety on him why because he will sustain you and the other one is cast your anxieties on him because he cares for you i am meant to take what's burdening me and hand it to him why because he's strong enough to do something about it and loving enough to want to and so i come with gratitude because when i have my problems i don't have to eat him i don't have to stuff him down i get to bring him to the king and that he really cares and he really wants to know and when i begin to do that verse 7 says the peace of god which surpasses understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in christ jesus i was carrying um one of my daughters i was going to take her up the stairs a while back and i picked her up and she said no no no i'm too heavy daddy i was like what like who told you that and then i looked at her and i said you're not too heavy for daddy baby and then i had to press her a few times just so she'd see like see your dad's still got it there are things in our life that are too heavy for us it's just too heavy they're not too heavy for him and he wants you he's commanding you give them to me trust me i'm strong enough to deal with it and i'm loving enough to want to and when you talk to me when you acknowledge the almighty in the midst of your anxiety you have the possibility now of the peace of god that surpasses understanding setting up a garrison in your heart protecting you against the terror in the night abraham lincoln when general lee led 76 000 troops into philadelphia panic took hold in washington and yet many reported that abraham lincoln had an eerie calm as he was able to function and make decisions and so later a soldier asked him who was wounded at gettysburg how did you do that how were you able to function in the midst of that crushing anxiety and here's what abraham lincoln said he said when everyone seemed panic stricken i went to my room i got down on my knees before almighty god and i prayed soon a sweet comfort crept into my soul that god almighty had taken the whole business into his hands now did that liberate him from making decisions no he had to make a lot of decisions what it did was it liberated him to make good ones that our anxiety is an impediment to good decision making and look we have real problems in this room that we really have to make a plan to execute your anxiety is an impediment to the executing of good decisions so i offload the anxiety so i can function in this world and yet just on flowing anxiety is not sufficient that's where a lot of meditation practices in the secular world works you just try to meditate and get it off you but the bible's not done there that's just step one i release my worry to the lord but step two is that i embrace something else that's what you get in verse eight finally brothers whatever is true whatever is honorable whatever is just whatever's pure whatever is lovely whatever is commendable if there's any excellence if there's anything worthy of praise think about these things that i release my worries to him and then i embrace his word in my mind there's an exchange happening that if for me when i just try to sit and many of you maybe do this i would try to do a devotional time where i'd read the bible before really processing my own stress and what would i do i would just pick it up read it and be like okay i guess i did that i don't know and still be stressed during the day but jeremiah burroughs the puritans said it this way and i love the illustration he says you don't pour wine into a shaky bottle it's a bad choice he says you still the bottle and then you pour wine in and he says god has blessings for you but he wants you to be still so he can pour them in uh it's like me with my kids right there are things they want that i intend to give them but i want them to calm down first i want a snack i want to snack i want to snack i want to stop stop stop you gonna starve has anyone ever starved in this house it honors me when you calm down because it shows that you trust me to be a sufficient provider and to care enough to want to do so and for many of us it's when we calm ourselves we're able to even hear and receive the blessing god has for us the wisdom in his word the value and the problem solving we might have as a community of faith when we calm down we're able to function even in these moments of stress for me uh i got a heart monitor that i attached to my ear it measures coherence which is not just beats per minute but space between beats i won't get into the science the whole idea though is it measures how able you are to function and think clearly based on measuring your heart rate variability all you need to know is that whenever i first start the day and turn it on the little app is bright red and makes an ominous sound as soon as i turn it on don't like you're dying i'm like that's how it feels and as i offload stress to the lord and pray kind of goes up a little bit and when i'm calm and reading his word i really experience it that i can think clear my heart rate slows down this thing hits green and i'm like wow there's something to this rhythm that's helping me function in the world and i'm watching it in real time in my body uh jeff strucker was an army ranger in 1993 and was part of the community that was tasked to go into mogadishu somalia to try to capture two high-value targets and pull them out it was recorded in the book that later became the movie black hawk down jeff strucker's job was to drive the lead humvee that was in charge of the ex-fill to get the men out after the mission that was supposed to last well under an hour and yet two blackhawk helicopters went down and it changed the game and now there were u.s soldiers surrounded by enemy fire in the middle of the city throughout the day and then through the night and in the midst of that conflict the first casualty was the man sitting next to strucker in the humvee his friend he watched lose his life but jeff was able to drive through the hail of bullets get everybody out of the city back to base safely and they survived it and he got out there and as soon as he got there his commanding officers ran to them and said hey there are still men injured and pinned down in the city you have to go back and when they told them that another operator came up to him and said hey you've got to wash the blood out of the back of your humvee first it'll traumatize those men have to sit in the blood of their friend go wash the blood out of the truck and then drive back so if he went to go wash the blood of his friend out of his truck he had a full-on panic attack he just ceased to be able to function he just kept thinking i'm going to die i'm going to die i'm going to die and he said the idea kept rolling through his mind this is going to be my blood this is going to be my blood this would be my blood and he just couldn't even function and so he stopped to sit and just have this experience before god and just began to pray and as he did that he told his story that suddenly the thought landed on his mind no god works all things according to the council of his will he commands my destiny my fate will not be decided by any other human being it's decided by god he is sovereign over my days and then as a believer he thought and i've put my faith in jesus my guilt my shame my condemnation was buried with him it rose i have a future in heaven because jesus commands my destiny and he started just these thoughts coming to mind from the word of god about the sovereignty of god and the salvation of jesus he said and then it just landed clearly in my head if god wills for me to survive today i will go home and see my wife and kids if he wills for me to die today i will go home and see my savior but either way i'm going home and he said as soon as that landed on him his mind cleared he was able to function got in the humvee drove it back in loaded it up with men and drove it back out and then he did it again and again and again and then he became a chaplain and counseled men through the very real emotional damage that comes from traumatic experiences like that but what he found was this rhythm can work even in the most extreme of circumstances and again it doesn't solve every problem i'm not saying here i'm trying to solve all the issues that you particularly deal with that's where community of faith can help us navigate but the reality is the rhythm is true that i cast my cares upon him i release my worry to him and then i embrace his word to me of how am i meant to think how am i meant to live what is the most true thing i can believe about god in this reality what can i acknowledge about who god is in the midst of this tragedy what's the most pure motivation i can have as i enter this meeting what's something lovely i can fixate on about the character of jesus in the midst of this difficult circumstance what's something worthy of praise i can set my mind on complaint is easy praise takes discipline what can i set my mind on and then the last step is in verse 9 and what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me practice these things and the god of peace will be with you that i don't just read his word and walk away i engage in his work that i'm going to release my anxiety to you i'm going to take your word into me and then i'm going to walk in the way you've called me to walk and i'm going to watch and i love the parallels in this passage not only will the peace of god be with me but the god of peace will be with me that as i step out into the very real problems i have to solve i know god is walking with me there's something powerful to that there's the possibility of that today as we excel at the revealed things live simply by faith god may just show up in your life in some pretty powerful supernatural ways louis zamparini was an olympian who served in world war ii and his bomber went down in the pacific and he was out on a little life raft in the middle of the ocean for 47 days this former olympian reduced to 90 pounds thought he's gonna die out there he was finally rescued but it was by the enemy and so he was taken to a pow camp and the man who ran the pow camp was the sadist just enjoyed torturing people and he singled out louis because louis was the successful athlete and famous for unique torture i mean he did all kinds of terrible things at one moment he just let all the guards line up in a line and take turns punching louie in the face he was punched in the face over 200 times in a moment and yet he survived till the end of the war and he was able to get out and yet like so many men and women he got out of the war but the war did not get out of him and he wrestled with ptsd severely and had trouble functioning in that environment and he would wake up with night terrors uh he would find himself shaking his wife and not know why he so he tried to do what a lot of people do with their stress he tried to medicate it himself with alcohol which led to even further problems and he became quite frankly a danger to his wife and to his child and so she came home one day and he was shaking the kid and she was like we're not safe with you we're going to go and it dawned on him i'm gonna lose everything and so in a last-ditch effort she invited him to go hear the evangelist billy graham who was speaking in their town and so he went to hear billy graham and billy graham said all of you are beautiful because you're in the image of god but you're broken because of sin and you can't fix you and you need jesus to live a perfect life for you die the death you deserve to bear your condemnation bury your shame and rise to give you a new life and it offended louis zamprini how dare you tell me i'm not good enough that i need him and he stormed out but he stormed out and went home to all his same problems and he realized i still don't have any solutions so he went back the next night and billy graham used the illustration of being lost adrift at sea he said some of you are lost in a drift in the storms of life and jesus christ wants to walk out under the waves and meet you there and he said as soon as he said that he remembered being tangled up in his downed plane and crying out god save me and he got out and he didn't know how he did it he remembered praying and promising god i'll serve you if you rescue me when he was on that boat and god rescued him then he started remembering it key moments where he thought he was going to die all through this traumatic story christians believers in jesus would randomly show up to take care of him and he realized though i have real pain and real problems in this world jesus commands my destiny god has been doing something in me and he took his real sin and real shame he was really aware of and laid it at the feet of jesus and took back the peace of god available because of the finished work of christ and god changed him and he began to get involved in church began to read the word of god began to work with troubled youth and then years later he was invited to go back to japan and to speak to his former captors and as he preached the good news of jesus to them he asked about where was the man who ran the pow camp they said we don't know where he is and so he wrote him a letter and i'll close with this he wrote 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 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 wars end but the post-war nightmares caused my life to crumble but thanks to a confrontation with god through the evangelist billy graham i have committed my life to christ love replaced the hate i had for you christ said forgive your enemies and pray for them as you probably know i returned to japan and was graciously allowed to address all the japanese war criminals at sagamo prison i asked about you and was told you'd probably committed suicide and i was sad to hear it at that moment like the others i also forgave you and now would hope that you also would become a christian that amazing from broken under the stress to now fulfilling the very words of god to to pray for your enemies to pray for those who persecute you to invite them to receive the free gift that you even received that's a supernatural life they write books about lives like that that win new york times bestsellers it's pretty powerful to acknowledge i'm in a broken place but then to understand but there's a peace available in god that surpasses understanding that might empower me to live not just to survive but a supernatural kind of life that's what's available to us today the peace of god in christ jesus the god of peace with us even in the midst of the storm so father god we come to you confessing we need you and god i just wonder if there's some people here now that maybe we could not get too far into the rest of this day before we just try it maybe just try that first point of releasing my worries to god not sanitizing them not praying the answer already or trying to pump myself up with a little amen at the end just saying to god i'm scared about this i'm worried about this i'm uncertain about this believing and maybe hoping with just the tiniest shred of hope that you care and you want to do something about it i just wonder if some of us even now while i'm praying would be willing to do that maybe you can just whisper it to him god i need to offload this onto you you tell me to cast your anxieties onto you well here they are for others of us we need to acknowledge the average american spends over seven hours looking at a screen [Music] less than half an hour looking at the word of god on a daily basis the rhythms and patterns of our life and thinking are being completely discipled by an anxious world what would it look like to embrace his word that when i think about the size of my problems i also immediately think about the size of my god that when i face stress like jesus of course the first thing i'm going to do is go to the garden of gethsemane and sweat and pray to you and trust you and your will ask him to give you a vision of what it would look like to be a woman or a man who embraces his word to set your mind to think on these things [Music] and then god would you show us what it is to walk them out to be a supernatural community that yes we have real problems and i didn't touch all the myriad ways we may have to solve them yes go to counseling and get good counsel on how to handle the different stress and traumas of our life and our backgrounds yes potentially have a medical intervention if we're having some some serious physical effects get involved in a church where i can get a support group to love me and help me navigate the stickiness of relationships but god made this process help us begin offloading anxiety unto you so we can take your wisdom and truth into us might this be a rhythm that marks our days and then finally god i pray for those who have never put their faith in you that today could be the day that they say yes to jesus that you lived for me you died for me you rose for me so i trust you i cast my cares upon you and i cast myself i'm yours trust him today he is worthy of that trust and god be glorified in your people as we rest in your unfailing arms

Channel: Southeast Christian Church

Views: 4,079

Rating: 4.826087 out of 5

Keywords: Southeast Christian Church, Dave Stone, Kyle Idleman, creative church, sermon series, worship, Jesus, God, Louisville, Kentucky

Id: dVVICFcYIeE

Length: 42min 43sec (2563 seconds)

Published: Sun May 02 2021