Speaker 1: Well, as a kid I was terrified of storms and I've told you all this, a whole bunch.
Speaker 1: I lived in a mobile home in Dallas, so it was kind of a rational fear, to be completely honest.
Speaker 1: But there were lots of parts where it wasn't rational, in fact.
Speaker 1: Like even if it was a perfectly clear sky, like no cloud in sight, I would constantly feel the need and the compulsion to go outside and check the sky, check the weather radar, turn on the news and there was this just massive fear in my life and I told myself that if I could just live in a place where storms didn't happen, I wouldn't be so scared.
Speaker 1: And so, for some reason, in like 10-year-old Garrett's mind, north Dakota.
Speaker 1: Apparently.
Speaker 1: I thought there were no tornadoes in North Dakota, so I was convinced, like, one day I'm going to move to North Dakota and I was really disappointed to figure out they have even bigger tornadoes than we have here.
Speaker 1: And so by time, you know, time goes on and that fear kind of goes away I'm not as scared of that anymore.
Speaker 1: But the thing is it would just move.
Speaker 1: I would be scared of heights or I would be scared of judgment, right Like I got way into the left behind books at way too young of an age.
Speaker 1: Right Binge through those things really jacked me up Not great and so it would just bounce around from fear to fear, to fear, and even in college I would have these fears, and it wasn't tornadoes or heights, it was the grown up fears like student loan debt and interest rates and getting a big boy job, like those types of things.
Speaker 1: And so the reality is that what I thought was a specific fear was not so much a specific fear but rather a pattern of anxiety all throughout my life.
Speaker 1: Why do I tell you that?
Speaker 1: Well, because if I were to guess, I would say that the majority of you in this room could probably relate to that story in one way, shape or form, and maybe not the specifics.
Speaker 1: It might be different fears, different anxieties, but probably this theme of like an undercurrent of anxiety and everything you do.
Speaker 1: You don't know when it started and it's just always kind of been there with you.
Speaker 1: And that's an educated guess, because our generation, gen Z, and now Gen Alpha, has been coined the anxious generation.
Speaker 1: Over 70% of Gen Z say they struggle with anxiety and mental health, and over 82% of Gen Z worries about the future economy, climate change, violence, all those types of things.
Speaker 1: But enough about the stats.
Speaker 1: Let's just be honest and transparent for a second.
Speaker 1: Just a quick show of hands.
Speaker 1: Who in here has dealt with anxiety, fear, worry at some point in their life?
Speaker 1: Good, all right.
Speaker 1: So most of us have been there, right?
Speaker 1: That's exactly what I'm trying to say here is that it's one of the most common struggles that we deal with in our day and age, and so the question is if we all struggle with it, how do we handle it?
Speaker 1: What's the solution?
Speaker 1: What's the answer?
Speaker 1: And I'll be honest, I'm not going to pretend to have the perfect answer for you tonight.
Speaker 1: I am not a counselor.
Speaker 1: I'm a chump from Red Oak, texas, with a couple of Bible degrees, and that's all I am, and so I'm not going to pretend to be able to solve everybody's struggle with anxiety.
Speaker 1: But what I do have tonight is the Word of God, and we've been walking through the Sermon on the Mount these past few weeks, and that's where we get to.
Speaker 1: In the Sermon on the Mount, jesus is teaching his followers about worry, and their worries were far different than the worries that we deal with today, but it was still anxiety, and what we're going to see here in the text is that really the root cause is the same.
Speaker 1: And so my prayer tonight is that's where you add If you walked in here tonight and you would say, hey, I struggle with anxiety, I struggle with worry, just lock in, not because I'm going to solve all your problems, but my prayer is to give you a space tonight to actually start to deal with it, to stop just trying to bury it or run from it like it's ever going to go away.
Speaker 1: And my prayer is that, through the Word of God, you would see some sort of healing or freedom or change.
Speaker 1: That starts even tonight.
Speaker 1: And so, if you have your scripture, let's go ahead and flip open to Matthew, chapter 6.
Speaker 1: We're going to start in verse 25.
Speaker 1: And as we study the words of Jesus tonight, we're going to see him identify the problem.
Speaker 1: He's going to give us a promise and then he's going to give us a way to practice peace.
Speaker 1: So again, matthew 6, starting in verse 25.
Speaker 1: It's going to be on the screen.
Speaker 1: If you don't have your Bible, therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear.
Speaker 1: Isn't life more than food and the body more than clothes.
Speaker 1: Can any one of you, by worrying, add a single hour to your life?
Speaker 1: And so when you first read this, you might think, hey, jesus, that's not all that helpful, like you're just telling me hey, man, you ever tried not worrying, like you ever just tried not doing it.
Speaker 1: It's great, and especially food and clothing, because those are two things that we need, and that's how I viewed this passage for a while, like I always used to think, like I don't know how this is helpful, jesus, but like I trust you, I guess and it's not until you start to dig a little bit deeper into what Jesus is actually saying that you realize, oh, this is actually incredibly helpful Because later, in verse 32, he's kind of summarizing his argument he says don't worry about food and clothing, what you'll wear, because the pagans chase after all these things.
Speaker 1: And so he's not talking about just needing food and clothing, but he's talking about this intentional pursuit, this chasing.
Speaker 1: And really, at the core, I think what he's trying to get at is this idea of trying to find peace in these things of life and food and clothing, because the reality is, anxiety in our life comes when our peace is built on things that can be taken away.
Speaker 1: Anxiety comes when our peace is built on things that can be taken away.
Speaker 1: Two weeks ago I told you a story about how I would approach relationships in high school.
Speaker 1: Primarily that I had a hole in my life from my parents' divorce and a lot of just terrible things that we had gone through as kids and I tried to find peace from that in the arms of a person.
Speaker 1: But because I felt like I needed that relationship to have peace, it actually did nothing but cause me anxiety because I would be in it and I would search for it and like if that person started to give me less attention or if they didn't live up to these unrealistic expectations that I had set, I would start to feel really anxious and jealous and it would just torpedo the whole thing.
Speaker 1: But it wasn't just relationships.
Speaker 1: That would happen with sports.
Speaker 1: I would run to football to try and find peace and it would work for a little bit.
Speaker 1: But then what happens when somebody's better than you?
Speaker 1: What happens when you get hurt?
Speaker 1: What happens when coach doesn't like you as much as he used to and you start to get anxious?
Speaker 1: You start to try and hold on to it because you start to feel your grip slipping on that thing that you've tried to find peace in your entire life.
Speaker 1: It could be academic performance, right.
Speaker 1: I really saw it pop up during COVID in a totally different way.
Speaker 1: How many of y'all remember going through COVID?
Speaker 1: I don't know how many people were here born not terribly long after COVID it was only five years ago so most of you were at least middle school, right.
Speaker 1: So I remember in COVID we were in college and there was a period where food wasn't on the shelves and obviously, looking back, we chuckle and it's like, oh, you know, it was no big deal Like COVID, you know, it was all.
Speaker 1: We're back to normal.
Speaker 1: But there was a period there where me walking into Walmart and not being able to buy food whenever I want really kind of caused this shake-up in my mind of, hey, like my peace is in some way built on the fact that I can walk into a grocery store and buy food whenever I want and that's not promised, it can be taken away.
Speaker 1: And so this anxiety was always at my door because my peace was built on all these things, some stuff that we all take for granted, like food, but other things like popularity or sports or relationship, and because my anxiety or because my peace was built on things that were fragile, I felt anxiety and so you have to ask yourself what is your peace built on?
Speaker 1: Let's do a little practice.
Speaker 1: Work backwards from your fears.
Speaker 1: Think of that thing that keeps you up at night, that thing that you really struggle with if you are in that place, right, are you afraid of being left out, not being in the in crowd, having enough friends?
Speaker 1: Do you think, as long as I'm liked and as I have a group like, I'll be okay?
Speaker 1: You might be looking to popularity or status to try and find peace.
Speaker 1: And the problem is, people are fickle.
Speaker 1: Friendships shift and change.
Speaker 1: Approval is unpredictable and what it's ultimately going to do if you try to find your peace there, it's going to leave you lonely and stuck in a cycle of people pleasing where you don't even know who you are anymore.
Speaker 1: Or are you afraid of messing up, of not being good enough, of falling short of expectations?
Speaker 1: Do you find yourself thinking, well, hey, as long as I succeed, as long as I don't disappoint anyone, I'll be okay?
Speaker 1: You might be looking to achievement, school, sports, perfection, to try and find peace.
Speaker 1: The problem you're going to mess up, you're going to let people down.
Speaker 1: Achievement is this moving target?
Speaker 1: One mistake, one bad day and you're back to square one and it's going to keep you in this place where you're anxious and just trying to perform all the time and you're never really known.
Speaker 1: Or are you scared?
Speaker 1: When things feel chaotic, when you don't know what's coming next?
Speaker 1: You tell yourself, if I can just control my little circle, I don't need a big circle.
Speaker 1: But if I control the things right around me, then I'll feel safe.
Speaker 1: You might be trying to find your peace and your own control and predictability.
Speaker 1: But here's the thing control is an illusion.
Speaker 1: Life is full of unexpected things and storms and trials and we're always one phone call or one text away from all of life.
Speaker 1: Being flipped upside down on its head and trying to manage every single detail is going to leave you exhausted.
Speaker 1: Do you get anxious, thinking about the future, about what could go wrong, what might fall apart?
Speaker 1: Do you think, hey, if I can just have a plan, if everything will go according to how I want things to go, I'm going to go to this college, get this type of job, have this type of family.
Speaker 1: You might be putting your peace in your plans, but plans change.
Speaker 1: Life doesn't follow scripts.
Speaker 1: Things fall apart, and when things fall apart, so does your sense of security.
Speaker 1: Or do you worry about your home not being okay, about your parents fighting, splitting up or something going wrong behind closed doors?
Speaker 1: Do you think, hey, as long as everything at home stays stable, I'll be okay?
Speaker 1: You might be looking to your family to be your peace, but here's the thing even the best families can shake.
Speaker 1: People change.
Speaker 1: Life gets hard, and if your peace is built on this, then when things break, you're not going to know what to do.
Speaker 1: Or do you get scared?
Speaker 1: Last one, when you feel sick, or when someone talks about disease or death, or maybe a loved one, somebody that you care deeply about, gets sick or their health starts to falter, you start to notice they're getting older.
Speaker 1: Do you find yourself thinking, well, as long as I'm healthy and nothing bad happens to me, or my family, like I'll be fine, I'll be fine.
Speaker 1: Well, you might be looking to health for peace, but here's the reality health fails, bodies break, people age, even when you eat the right food, exercise, you're not ultimately in control.
Speaker 1: And so I could keep going on and on and on, but I think you get the point here.
Speaker 1: And my point is these are all valid fears.
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to downplay those fears, I'm not trying to step on that anxiety, but I'm saying, hey, because they are valid fears, because all of these things could happen, you have to find your peace somewhere else.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying that you aren't concerned about these things, but I'm saying that if you try to not be concerned because you can control everything, because you can do everything, you can make the plans, I'm telling you it's going to fail.
Speaker 1: You have to find your peace somewhere better, somewhere unshakable.
Speaker 1: And the question is where?
Speaker 1: Well, jesus tells us that in verse 26.
Speaker 1: Let's get back into the text.
Speaker 1: Look at the birds of the air.
Speaker 1: They do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Speaker 1: Are you not much more valuable than they?
Speaker 1: Can any one of you, by worrying, add a single hour to your life?
Speaker 1: And why do you worry about clothes?
Speaker 1: See how the flowers of the field grow.
Speaker 1: They don't labor or spin.
Speaker 1: And yet I tell you that not even Solomon, in all of his splendor, was dressed like one of these.
Speaker 1: If that is how God clothes, the grass of the field which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, he will not much more clothe you, you of little faith.
Speaker 1: And so in these verses, jesus uses this image of creation.
Speaker 1: He talks about birds and flowers, which at first might seem kind of cheesy, like, okay, but birds die, flowers, like what's going on here, like that doesn't speak to my situation now, but what Jesus is doing, he's actually using a strategy of arguing that was very common among Jewish rabbis.
Speaker 1: It was called and I'm going to butcher this kol wahomer, and it's basically an argument from the lesser to the greater, and so the most simple way that I can put it is they would say, they would use this rational argument and say, hey, if this lesser thing is true, then how much truer is this greater thing?
Speaker 1: So if this is true, this small thing that we can all see and observe, then how much more should this big thing be true?
Speaker 1: If this light thing is true, because call means light and Homer means heavy, if this light thing is true, because call means light and homer means heavy, if this light thing is true, how much more is this heavier one?
Speaker 1: It takes something simple and obvious and extends that logic to something more important.
Speaker 1: And so, going back into the text.
Speaker 1: Jesus says look at the birds of the air.
Speaker 1: They don't sow or reap or store away, but your father feeds them.
Speaker 1: So the light thing is the birds.
Speaker 1: They don't worry about food, god feeds them.
Speaker 1: The heavier thing humans are made in God's image.
Speaker 1: How much more is God going to provide and care for you, somebody that has value?
Speaker 1: And then, in verse 30, jesus says if that's how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and is tomorrow thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you?
Speaker 1: So the lighter thing is grass is temporary, right, it's fleeting, it's here and it's gone, but God cares for it, he clothes it, he cares for that part of creation.
Speaker 1: The heavier thing you are eternal.
Speaker 1: Whether you follow Jesus or not, you are eternal.
Speaker 1: And God, if you've placed your faith in him.
Speaker 1: God has made you his child.
Speaker 1: He's going to provide for your needs.
Speaker 1: And so the emphasis isn't about birds and flowers, it's about how God values you.
Speaker 1: And even more than how God values you, it's about him, it's about his character, it's about, hey, if God is faithful to some grass and some birds, do you not think he's going to be faithful to you, his special creation, his son or his daughter, made in his image.
Speaker 1: Even if you don't have a relationship with him, you still have value because you were made in God's image.
Speaker 1: You were made for a relationship and to reflect him, whether you're living that out or not.
Speaker 1: And so the point here is that, while food and clothing and all these other things that we can be concerned about are important, you shouldn't try to find your peace in them.
Speaker 1: Your peace comes from understanding and embodying the fact that God cares for you, and by holding onto that promise that God in heaven says you have value, he cares for you and you can have true peace.
Speaker 1: And the best example I think I could come up with this as a child.
Speaker 1: So you think about Leighton, my daughter.
Speaker 1: She's two and a half and she talks very well and a lot.
Speaker 1: She loves to talk, she loves to visit.
Speaker 1: Most of you have probably had a conversation with her at some point, and you know she doesn't come up to me and be like hey, dad, how are we going to pay the mortgage this month?
Speaker 1: Like, hey, dad, have you heard about like all the tariffs and things Like how are we going to afford like anything?
Speaker 1: Like how are we going to afford like gas prices have gone up?
Speaker 1: Like hey, dad, have you seen, like our retirement's probably not doing great right now, like the stock market's kind of like no, no-transcript meal is coming from.
Speaker 1: She knows that she's going to get it.
Speaker 1: And look, that's not a perfect example.
Speaker 1: They all break down.
Speaker 1: I know there's a big difference in a two-year-old versus an adult or a young adult or a teenager with those type of problems, but I use that illustration because I think that's the best picture I can come up with of this childlike faith that God is asking for us.
Speaker 1: And it's not to say that we don't take responsibility.
Speaker 1: It's not to say that we don't try to do our part.
Speaker 1: We still have to work, we still have to go and provide for our families.
Speaker 1: In fact, scripture is very clear about that.
Speaker 1: But what it is saying is that my peace shouldn't come from my ability to take care of myself.
Speaker 1: It should come from God's ability to take care of me.
Speaker 1: So I'm not gonna try and find peace in my own strength and getting everything together in my life, but I'm gonna trust that, even when I don't feel like I can, even when I don't know what's gonna happen next, even when I'm hurting, even in the real hard moments of life, when it doesn't feel like God cares, I'm going to look back at the faithfulness in his word and in my life in the past and I'm going to say I trust that he does and even if I don't see it right now, I believe that he's going to come through.
Speaker 1: And that's a fight.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying it's easy, but that's where it starts.
Speaker 1: And so take that and apply it to your fear.
Speaker 1: If you're afraid of being left out, find peace knowing that you're already fully accepted by the one who made you.
Speaker 1: If you're afraid of being a failure, find peace knowing that your identity is secure in the finished work of Jesus, not your performance, not your ability to succeed.
Speaker 1: If you're afraid of losing control, find peace knowing that the one who holds all things together holds you in his hands, that he cares for you.
Speaker 1: He's better at running this thing than we are.
Speaker 1: If you're afraid of being unseen or forgotten, find peace knowing that you are fully known and fully loved by the one whose eyes never leave you.
Speaker 1: If you're afraid of the future, find peace, knowing that God holds the future in his hands, afraid your family might fall apart.
Speaker 1: Find peace knowing that you have a heavenly father who will never leave you If you're afraid of getting sick or your body breaking down.
Speaker 1: Find peace knowing that death is not the end, that Jesus conquered death, he conquered the grave, and that you have access to eternal life through him.
Speaker 1: You see what I'm getting here, and I could go on and list example, example, example.
Speaker 1: If you need help, whatever your fear is like hey, you didn't say that one Find me after service and I would love to show you where scripture speaks to that.
Speaker 1: But I also want to say that information alone does not guarantee you'll have peace.
Speaker 1: Information alone has never transformed anybody.
Speaker 1: You can know a lot of things, but it does not guarantee that your experience in life is going to be any different.
Speaker 1: You have to have a way to get that information into your DNA, get it into your body, to actually live it out, and that's what Jesus says in verse 31.
Speaker 1: He says so do not worry saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear, for the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly father knows that you need them, but seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Speaker 1: And so he summarizes his argument and he tells us what we're not supposed to do, don't worry, saying what shall we eat, what shall we drink, what shall we wear?
Speaker 1: And then he tells us what to do instead, what to replace that with.
Speaker 1: He says seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you as well.
Speaker 1: And this is incredibly helpful, because so many of us think that we can just think our way out of anxiety.
Speaker 1: Right, if I can just believe the right things, if I can repeat the right things in my mind, I can just think my way out of it All to realize it doesn't work, like I was on that hamster wheel for so long, because there might be thoughts that need to be redirected, there might be beliefs that you have that you need to change, but the reality is you can't think your way out of something you didn't completely think your way into right.
Speaker 1: An example if you're afraid of being left out and you try to find peace in the approval of others, you might've thought some things that got you there, but that Instagram habit of comparison, of doom scrolling like that got you there too.
Speaker 1: Those friends you have that like to tear each other down based on their material goods that contributed.
Speaker 1: So we don't just think our way into this anxiety.
Speaker 1: There's patterns of behavior that get us to that type of person.
Speaker 1: We didn't get there overnight.
Speaker 1: I mentioned earlier that I had a lifelong struggle with anxiety and one of the ways I would try to fight is I just try to learn everything I could about whatever I was scared of.
Speaker 1: So I have a lot of really dumb, random information about tornadoes and airplanes.
Speaker 1: Don't know why, but it's all stored up here and you know it would help for that immediate struggle.
Speaker 1: But the reason I bounced around so much is because it would only help for that one thing.
Speaker 1: I was still a fearful person.
Speaker 1: I didn't think myself into being fearful.
Speaker 1: I practiced my way into it that I would fuel my fear on social media.
Speaker 1: I would overschedule myself to try and run from my fears.
Speaker 1: Maybe if I can just be busy enough, I won't actually have to sit with my thoughts and deal with it.
Speaker 1: I would try to control everything and then when I couldn't control it or I couldn't run fast enough, I would just self-medicate with social media, lust, anger, whatever it is that would try to just distract me from that fear that was underneath everything, and then I would try to deal with it all in isolation.
Speaker 1: And so all of those habits, I had also turned me into that fearful person, and that wasn't going to change overnight.
Speaker 1: But through the power of the Holy Spirit, I had to practice my way out of it.
Speaker 1: So these practices and things are not just me self-helping my way into peace, but it was creating space in my life for God to come in and change me.
Speaker 1: Things like putting limits on my media and social media, practicing Sabbath and solitude, just getting unplugged from all the noise of things that would make me even more anxious.
Speaker 1: Recently and this is a journey I'm still on practicing, fasting, building that discipline, and none of those things changed me.
Speaker 1: But they created space in my life for God to meet me there and he would change me.
Speaker 1: And so part of the solution that Jesus offers is not just to hold a set of beliefs or to think really hard about why you shouldn't be anxious, but instead to embrace those beliefs, live those beliefs out and to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.
Speaker 1: And so what would that look like for you?
Speaker 1: You might need to make that first step of getting into community, like tonight hit up two or three trustworthy followers of Jesus maybe a mentor and just open up to them.
Speaker 1: Guys, just talk to them.
Speaker 1: I got two guys in my life that I have no secrets with.
Speaker 1: When I'm anxious, when I'm angry, when I'm struggling, when I'm tempted, they know it and they hold my feet to the fire and they keep me accountable.
Speaker 1: And sometimes we just have to get together and talk.
Speaker 1: But stop trying to deal with it on your own.
Speaker 1: You're not made to do that.
Speaker 1: Talk about it, think about it.
Speaker 1: We all raised our hands in here your adult leaders, your youth pastor, your friends.
Speaker 1: We all raised our hands that we struggle with anxiety and worry.
Speaker 1: So why do we try to hide it?
Speaker 1: To save face, to pretend like everything's okay?
Speaker 1: Why Don't run?
Speaker 1: Don't try to hide.
Speaker 1: Find people you can trust and open up.
Speaker 1: Step into community.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's developing a practice of prayer and silence.
Speaker 1: Give God space in your life to speak.
Speaker 1: Sometimes we feel like God's silent, but we don't spend more than half a second a day with him, and so how do we create space in our life to be able to listen, to be able to hear from him what he might have to say to us, to remind ourselves that he's God, not us, but also to have him just meet us there with his love and his care.
Speaker 1: It might be reading and meditating on scripture, right, and I'm not just saying memorize Bible verses for the sake of memorizing them.
Speaker 1: But if so much anxiety comes from these false narratives, like we create this false narrative in my head of if I don't make this grade, then I'm not going to get into this college and then I'm going to be a failure and then I'm going to be homeless, so what we have to do is we have to fight those false narratives, those false stories, with the one true story the story of the God who made the universe and everything in it, and the story of the God who pursued us to redeem us, to give us freedom, to be his children, to give us value.
Speaker 1: We have to get that story into who we are and submit our view of the world to that, to how God views the world, because he's the one that made it.
Speaker 1: It's the truth.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's putting guardrails on your social media or your friends, or whatever it is that got you to the place you're at?
Speaker 1: Don't just keep doing that thing, expecting a different result.
Speaker 1: And just keep doing that thing expecting a different result.
Speaker 1: And I have to make a disclaimer, guys.
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to tell you that you're going to be worry-free in two weeks.
Speaker 1: You're going to leave here tonight and never be anxious, ever again.
Speaker 1: I'm 26, married, two kids and I still struggle with anxiety.
Speaker 1: Fairly frequently, your adult leaders would tell you the same thing it's not perfection that we're going to see on this side of heaven, but we can see progress, and that's what Jesus says in verse 34.
Speaker 1: Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.
Speaker 1: Each day has enough trouble of its own Peace.
Speaker 1: For tomorrow he's not saying hey, you're never going to worry again.
Speaker 1: You know you'll be perfect, you'll be great, life's going to be easy.
Speaker 1: He's saying I'll give you peace for today and we'll worry about tomorrow.
Speaker 1: Tomorrow and we'll worry about the next day.
Speaker 1: The next day he says meet me here, trust in me here, have faith in me here.
Speaker 1: You're not walking alone.
Speaker 1: Can you imagine that?
Speaker 1: Just human me for a second, close your eyes, just, everybody, put your heads down.
Speaker 1: I'm not doing an invitation, but I just want you to think about for a second what would a life where you're actually starting to get some freedom from that anxiety look like?
Speaker 1: What would it feel like to not wake up with that feeling of dread every single morning?
Speaker 1: What would it feel like to look to the future with hope and joy?
Speaker 1: What would it look like?
Speaker 1: Just imagine that for a second.
Speaker 1: Let yourself have some imagination.
Speaker 1: Some of you haven't imagined something in 10 years, but God cares about our imagination as well.
Speaker 1: Like, really, just think about that.
Speaker 1: What would your life be like if you were just even starting to experience some freedom from anxiety and worry?
Speaker 1: And I'm up here to tell you tonight I'm not selling snake oil.
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to rip you off.
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to sell you something that I don't know anything about.
Speaker 1: This is something I've experienced.
Speaker 1: That freedom is real and it's available.
Speaker 1: But it's not available by your own power.
Speaker 1: It's not available by some five-year plan.
Speaker 1: It's not available by some amount of money in your bank account.
Speaker 1: It's not available by some five-year plan.
Speaker 1: It's not available by some amount of money in your bank account.
Speaker 1: It's not available by some dream relationship.
Speaker 1: It is only available through Jesus Christ, the way, the truth and the life.
Speaker 1: There is no access to the Father except through him.
Speaker 1: But through him you can have peace, you can have healing, you can be set free from the change of anxiety and that weight that's held you down for as long as you can remember.
Speaker 1: It's real and it's available in Jesus, because we talked about this last week.
Speaker 1: Jesus was a real human being.
Speaker 1: He was God in flesh.
Speaker 1: He is God who came to our mess, came to our muck.
Speaker 1: He lived a perfect life and he walked into Jerusalem to announce himself as king, all for them, a week later, to drag him outside of the city, nail him to a cross and hang him up naked for all to see.
Speaker 1: But it wasn't a mistake, it wasn't an accident, it was on purpose, because scripture says that on that cross he became our sin, your sin, my sin, that lie, that lust, that anger.
Speaker 1: He became all of it so that when God punished him on that cross, crushed him, it was for our sins, so that your sin was paid for.
Speaker 1: God's not just sweeping it under the rug.
Speaker 1: He's not saying it's no big deal.
Speaker 1: He's saying I looked it in its face and I washed it clean.
Speaker 1: So if you would place your faith in Jesus, you make him King and Lord and you follow him for all the rest of your days.
Speaker 1: If you place your faith in him that you'd be saved, you'd be his child, and that you'd be saved, you'd be his child and that you would begin walking in peace, in freedom, one step at a time.
Speaker 1: And it all begins with a decision.
Speaker 1: So if you say that's me like, I'm there, I'm struggling, I've been scared for as long as I know.
Speaker 1: I've tried to hide it, I've tried to run from it, and it's just made me more anxious, more hopeless.
Speaker 1: My invitation for you tonight is to stop running, stop hiding, step into the light.
Speaker 1: It's good here, it's real.
Speaker 1: You can be free from it all.
Speaker 1: Just place your faith in Jesus, and it's not going to happen overnight, but step by step, foot by foot, day after day, you can become someone who is full of peace and full of joy and full of hope, not just so that you can live your best life, but you can point other people back to the God who set you free.
Speaker 1: And so, real quick, I'm not going to have anybody move around or look around If you say hey, that's me.
Speaker 1: I'm here and I am wracked with anxiety, I am desperate, I am broken, I am hurting and I have nowhere to go.
Speaker 1: But I know that I need something more and I believe that that something more is Jesus, here in just a second.
Speaker 1: I just want everybody to slip up your hand.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you when to do that, and I'm not going to have you stand up for surrender.
Speaker 1: Say, for the first time in my life, I'm going to stop trying to hold it all together, I'm going to stop trying to manufacture my own peace and I'm going to give it to the Lord.
Speaker 1: If you say that's you, for the first time tonight, I want to place my faith in Jesus, I want to make him king.
Speaker 1: So, on the count, praise God, I see you, I see you.
Speaker 1: I see you.
Speaker 1: Praise Lord, I see you.
Speaker 1: Praise God, I see you.
Speaker 1: You can go ahead and put those hands down.
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna change things up a little bit tonight.
Speaker 1: Here in a second, we're gonna stand and we're gonna sing, and the song we're gonna sing is just the words we just read.
Speaker 1: It's the Lord will provide.
Speaker 1: That's the scripture.
Speaker 1: We're just singing it over each other.
Speaker 1: And if you said, hey, I need to make this decision Before we sing this song, I'm just going to lead you through a quick prayer.
Speaker 1: There's nothing magical about the words that I'm going to say, but it's the posture of your heart.
Speaker 1: It's where you are at before the Lord.
Speaker 1: You say I'm going to bow the knee, I'm done, just acknowledging you exist, god, but I'm going to live my life like you exist.
Speaker 1: I'm going to live my life like you're my king.
Speaker 1: You'll be saved, you'll be set free.
Speaker 1: And I'd encourage you for maybe the first time, this will be the opportunity for you to sing in faith the Lord will provide and to believe that in your heart.
Speaker 1: And if that's you, and if you've made that decision for the first time, I'd love for you to go find us.
Speaker 1: I'll be in the back, we'll have some leaders in the back.
Speaker 1: Find us after the service, because we want to walk through that with you.
Speaker 1: We're not meant to do this in isolation.
Speaker 1: Anxiety thrives in isolation.
Speaker 1: You have to bring other people into the fight.
Speaker 1: So if that's you and you say, hey, I need to make that decision for Jesus for the first time tonight, I just want you to pray this in the quietness of your heart.
Speaker 1: Again, there's no magical formula, but it's something to the effect of this Lord, I come to you today and I know that I'm a sinner.
Speaker 1: I know that you made me, but I've gone my own way.
Speaker 1: I've tried to make myself God.
Speaker 1: But tonight I'm done with all that.
Speaker 1: I want to trust you, I want to place my faith in you.
Speaker 1: I want to follow you for the rest of my life.
Speaker 1: I believe that what you did for me on the cross was enough to forgive me of my sins and I pray that you would save me, make me your child.
Speaker 1: In Jesus' name, I pray amen.
Speaker 1: If you just prayed that prayer, you're free.
Speaker 1: You're saved, you're a child.
Speaker 1: You're not a slave to anxiety and worry and fear anymore and, like I said, it's not going to happen overnight.
Speaker 1: It's a step-by-step thing, but it starts there and as we stand up and sing the song, if you want to reach out to one of us so we can counsel you through that, please do that.
Speaker 1: Or maybe you just need prayer.
Speaker 1: Maybe you got saved a long time ago.
Speaker 1: You've been following the Lord and you're just like man.
Speaker 1: I need help.
Speaker 1: I'm in the middle of it.
Speaker 1: Stuff's gone wrong, someone's sick.
Speaker 1: I got a phone call last week and I just need somebody to talk to.
Speaker 1: We're here for you for that.
Speaker 1: Your small group leader's here for you, but I'm going to pray for us and then Aaron's going to lead us in the song.
Speaker 1: Lord, god, I thank you so much for tonight and I confess, lord, that I feel quite unworthy to preach this message to these wonderful men and women, lord, because we are all so quick to worry and to be anxious and to be fearful God, and none of us have it all figured out on this side of the heaven, lord.
Speaker 1: But I pray that everybody, under the sound of my voice tonight, would at least leave here tonight knowing, god, that you offer us freedom.
Speaker 1: And it's a process and it's messy, but it starts with knowing that you are good, that you care for us, that you will satisfy us in a way that nothing in this world can offer.
Speaker 1: And so, father, we love you and we praise you and we give you all the glory.
Speaker 1: I pray that you would change us from the inside out and that you give us freedom to respond in worship right now.
Speaker 1: Praise things in Jesus' name, amen.