Let's Connect
The Official Podcast of Connect Church in Rockdale, Texas, where we want to help you live a life that matters; one that is both on mission and has a purpose to know Jesus and make disciples.
Let's Connect
Episode 24 - Faith Over Anxiety
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Anxiety affects countless people, but through faith, prayer, and community, we can find effective ways to overcome worry and experience the peace God intends for us.
• Biblical perspectives on anxiety from 1 Peter 5:7 and Matthew 6
• Prayer as an "alarm" response when anxiety strikes
• How church-related anxiety prevents people from experiencing community
• Why creating welcoming church environments helps people overcome social fears
• The danger of the "do it yourself" mentality contradicting God's design for community
• Examples of biblical figures who worked in partnerships rather than alone
• The strength that comes from Christian community, like bundled matchsticks that can't be broken
• Recognizing both spiritual and clinical approaches to addressing anxiety
Come worship with us at Connect Church! We're now meeting at the Rockdale American Legion Hall (Carlisle Post) on Highway 487. Coffee, fellowship, and donuts at 10:00 AM, worship at 10:30 AM. Children's church and nursery available.
Welcome to let's Connect, the official podcast of Connect Church in Rockdale, Texas, where we want to help you to live a life that matters, one that is both on mission and has a purpose to follow Jesus and make disciples. So let's get started.
Speaker 2All right, welcome in to let's Connect, the official podcast of Connect Church here in Rockdale, texas. I'm your host, bill Whitmire, and I'm here, as always, with our pastor, ken Ansell. Ken, how are you doing today?
Speaker 3Hey, doing good. Glad to be back in the home studio after a week off.
Speaker 2Yeah, both of us had a little thing going on and neither one of us could be here last week, so it didn't take a week, but we decided to wait until I think it's the hottest day of the year so far to sit inside in there.
Speaker 3You love it.
Speaker 2I did, I mean, I walked outside and went wow this is good yeah, the nurse and I went to the beach last weekend and kind of got away for a little bit and celebrated our anniversary and all that. It wasn't our anniversary, but we couldn't celebrate on our anniversary. But you know, when you're walking down that beach and that cool water's on your feet and you get that breeze, man, I love that. You like that?
Speaker 1yeah, then when we walk back down the beach, we walked on the far side, you know, on that roadway there in port aransas and then it was just hot, just hot it was just hot I kept trying to get it to go back to the water, but she didn't go back to the water she's like no, no, this is nice, the sweat will do us good I'm like no, no, no, the sweat does not do this ginger very much good at all so, uh, but no, it's.
Speaker 2it's a great time of the year, lots going on, obviously. Last week we had to make some arrangements so we're in a new facility starting this weekend and we should be there for quite a while, I guess. Yeah, I'm excited about that really.
Speaker 3Yeah, it's going to be really neat.
Speaker 2It's the American Legion Hall here in. Rockdale, but man, it's going to be a good environment and I think we'll all really enjoy it. This is episode 24, by the way. Yeah, 24. 24.
Speaker 2So we're just too short of having a whole half a year's worth. So I spoke to the guys at the radio station earlier this week. It is on Rockdale's KRXT at nine o'clock on Sundays and they said they're getting a lot of good reception out of it. A lot of good folks have received it really well and a lot of folks like it and they've actually got some folks that want to, you know, run their ads during that time.
Speaker 2So that's good news and I'm glad it's been so well received and hopefully we'll just keep this thing going and let God speak to you through us. So this week, some things happened in the last couple of weeks, and not me. I do have anxiety from time to time on some things, but very few. I mean, anybody that knows me knows I really don't have a problem getting up and talking in front of anybody or interacting with people, and obviously you do too, because it would be hard to—could you imagine a pastor who has severe anxiety.
Speaker 2No, I can't either. I can't either, you know. But for a lot of people and we joke about this from time to time the nurse and I being Generation X, it seems like Generation X doesn't have a huge problem with anxiety out there over life's issues.
Anxiety and Biblical Response
Speaker 2But you know it creeps into every facet of our world and you know, whether it's anxiety or OCD, the main cause is some sort of worrying, you know, and the Bible speaks on being a worried individual. And the Bible speaks on being a worried individual and it says 1 Peter 5, 7 says cast all your anxieties on him because he cares for you.
Speaker 2And it's the truth and it's hard for us to do that. When Peter says that he's talking about people that have that faith. I know people that'll get saved, they'll be baptized and join a church and they think, oh, it'll all be over, but it won't. It's that walk, that faith that you have, having Christ in your heart, that replaces those feelings.
Speaker 3Yeah, you better have prayer in your toolbox. And prayer is some would say it's a alarm to anxieties, you know, an alarm that you need to spend time in prayer. And, yeah, god welcomes us right to to cast those anxieties, cast those cares on him, because he cares for us and we, yeah, we see anxiety, worry. Right In scripture, jesus talks about it. Paul wrote to Timothy. Obviously, timothy suffered from some anxiety. Maybe you know he talks about hey, you're young, but don't let these older guys get you down. You know, don't discount your youth. I mean, God's using you. So he suffered from some things like that. Yeah, jeremiah was the weeping prophet, you know, for a variety of reasons, but you can just imagine.
Speaker 3maybe you know, did he have general anxiety disorder? You know, just dealing with the seasons that he operated in. So yeah, so God's got a way out right Right Through prayer, through faith you talk about, which is huge. Do we pray with faith and anticipate seeing God at work and then walk that faith out by choosing not to worry but to be faithful? Does that make sense? It does.
Speaker 2It does. I mean you brought up what people are worried about. And sometimes we just kind of minimize people's anxiety over various things. Yeah, we just kind of minimize people's anxiety over various things.
Speaker 3Yeah.
Speaker 2And while I, you know, anxiety was never really something that was. You know, I wasn't allowed to have anxiety. You remember I put something down the other day on my Facebook page that basically said you know, if you didn't cry sitting at the dinner table with your father doing math homework, then you really didn't have a childhood.
Speaker 3And that sounds funny.
Speaker 2But that same kind of theology with your father, your father's own theology of we don't cry in this family or get over there and do that.
Speaker 3Get over it. Quit being a scaredy cat.
Speaker 2And so I think our generation especially, just maybe we do have anxiety over things, but we just, you know, bull our way past it and others don't. But that doesn't. I'm not trying to minimize people's anxiety, because anxiety can be a debilitating aspect. But you know, we talk about this all the time. People put too much on themselves.
Speaker 2We have we talked about it Monday in Bible study. You know that we're all raised with that. You got to do it yourself. You can't rely on anybody else. But you know to a certain extent, maybe physical-wise or something, but when you're talking about anxiety, you're talking about worry, you're talking about OCD. Those are the things that, just like you said, you know that should be your. When you feel that anxiety, that should be your alarm, that, hey, I need to go to God in prayer.
Church Anxiety and Intimidation
Speaker 3Yeah, and God, you know even the things, I mean the big things, right, like what you're going to wear. Jesus addressed those in Matthew 6. You know, if you're? I know some people that aren't working right now. They want to work, they've lost their job. You know what are you going to eat. You know where are you going to sleep. And jesus is like hey, you know the birds of the air. Do you see them? Worried, concerned. I take care of them. How much more important are you to me than than them? And so we can trust the lord. Yeah, not to diminish it at all, because it can be, like you said, debilitating. I think about how many people we were kind of talking about that how many people miss out on God's plan good things because anxiety overwhelms them. And God would want them. Hey, trust me, you know, don't stop living the life that I've given you because you're afraid, right? I mean, paul tells Timothy you know we don't have the spirit of fear, right? One of power, one of love. Yeah, self-control.
Speaker 2Yeah, you brought it up earlier, before we started taping and it's the truth. So many kids, so many adults for that matter they won't go do something because of the anxiety over it and on a social scale that means they don't go to a party or they don't do this because they might have to go by themselves.
Speaker 2But if they do, or if they're forced to, they get there and they have a blast. They have a great time I think a lot of people when they come to church. First of all, I'll just say this Going to a new church can just be absolutely nerve-wracking, absolutely. What's behind those doors? That's right. Especially, you know you mentioned you know especially when you're like right on time or maybe two or three minutes late, the parking lot's full and you know there might be a door greeter there. Why not?
Speaker 2To me it's always easier you know if you're and there might be a door greeter there, why not? To me it's always easier if you're going to be a little late, and it's a new church that there's not a door greeter, so you kind of open that door, look in and slide into that back pew.
Speaker 3In my case there was always somebody in the back pew, so I had to get in front of at least one person. You had to fight somebody for it.
Speaker 2You know, drats, I couldn't be that last person. But in all seriousness, that keeps people. Maybe they don't feel like their clothing is right. Or you know, we talked a little bit about Bible studies or prayer meetings or something, and some folks are intimidated. Some folks go to your church but they're intimidated to go to that Bible study because maybe they just don't know as much as someone else. Maybe I don't read as well as someone else.
Speaker 2Am I going to have to read? Am I going to have to pray? One of the things I like about our Bible study is if you just want to come and listen, You're welcome.
Speaker 3We've got guys that just come and listen they don't you know?
Speaker 2but they're sharpening themselves.
Speaker 2They're getting more knowledgeable. They're part of that community, that brotherhood. And the same thing with the ladies' Bible study. They do the same thing. It's not going to come in here. And I think in the whole time year and a half or so that we've been doing Bible study like this, only one time have you ever kind of gone around the room and asked everybody the same question, and even then you didn't force the ones that we know don't want to really say anything to answer. But that's the only time we've ever done anything like that. But I feel like there's a lot of folks that don't want to go because they feel like, oh, they're going to think I'm an idiot because I don't know the Bible.
Speaker 3Yeah, and I think there's a lesson for those of us that to be sensitive just to people right, like, yeah, you're not going to get called on to pray, or you know, remember old school church, you know visitors would even get a name tag and we would ask them to stand up.
Speaker 3I mean like that's awful. I remember as a kid, you know we would, even on vacation. I remember going to Florida one year I was probably 10, and I mean it was good. But you know, sunday we hit a church. We're going to worship, you know, together with others, and but yeah, you know they make you. You know we had to go to Sunday school and everything you know. So you're in a class with 10 other kids You're never going to see again, except maybe in heaven, and you know it was. It was really tough, but uh, but yeah. So we don't want to. You know we're all there for the same reason. But be sensitive to people. Like, don't call someone to pray that you're not really sure or you haven't asked permission, hey, would you, would you pray, judge, if I called on you Like?
Speaker 3I like to ask that you know with people that I don't, that I'm unsure of, and because you don't want to leave anybody out either. But, man, let's be sensitive to people where they're at. Some people are introverted and shy and you know they'll head out the back door and we don't want that.
Speaker 2Yeah, I remember it's funny for a second you brought up the whole visitor thing at church and for years and years in our church growing up the visitors had to stand up.
Speaker 1If you're a visitor, please stand up and I always thought, man, that's so cool, Please stand up. And I always thought, man, that's so cool. We thought we were doing a solid huh.
Speaker 2And so when my grandfather became the head deacon at the church. He told our new pastor. He said we've done this forever and I just don't think it's comfortable. So what I'd like to do is have the visitors stay seated and everybody else get up? And all the members get up and welcome them and the first thing I had is now. You've just turned them into prey.
Speaker 1Yes, the first thing that went through my head is now. You've just turned them into prey.
Speaker 3Yes, oh, that's even worse. Right, yeah, or you're the only one sitting there. Everybody else is shaking hands because they know each other, but you and you're just like is this going?
Speaker 2to get over. Oh yeah, the moment. Hey, let's everybody shake each other's hands, and then you're in that awkward stage.
Speaker 3Yeah, no one's talking to you, you and you're like I don't think I'm coming back here Mass induced anxiety.
Speaker 2Yeah, that's tough I have a cousin and his father's a preacher and he asked him one time. He said you preach all the time, do unto others as you'd have them do unto you, and then you make the visitors all stand up. You know, but no, going back and being serious for a second, you know that kind of stuff, those anxieties going to those meetings, those anxieties just going to a church because you know maybe you don't dress as well as someone else or maybe you don't have the clothes that other people do and you're worried that that's going to make you. You know I don't have a Bible or my Bible is just tattered. You know to me a tattered Bible, you know if you're using it and it's tattered, it's a good thing you know oh yeah, one of my daughters told me a while back Dad, you need a new Bible, your Bible's getting pretty.
Speaker 2I said you know what? I can still read the Word. She said well, you've got. I mark up my Bible, I've got highlights in it, I've got marks, I've got notes in it. It's stuff that I want to remember, but there are people, though, that will not come, or their anxiety gets the better of them. It does it in the real world, for all sorts of things.
Community as Strength Against Anxiety
Speaker 2But you know, when it comes to God, you know that relationship with God get in the Bible. And I mean you said it best that anxiety should be that alarm. I need to get into my Bible and open up that index and look up. You know they've got anxiety, they've got anxious, they've got anxiousness. Well, they have anxious and anxiousness, you know. But look those passages up and read about them and use those to your benefit.
Speaker 3Yeah, stand on God's Word. And you know, I think about wow, I'm just thinking about a lot of different things. God wants us to be bold and courageous, not be afraid, not be driven by our feelings right, I mean, our emotions are good, we're wired for that. But those things aren't supposed to be leading us. We're supposed to be led by the Holy Spirit and we see, over and over and over in Scripture, men and women, both, that did things that they really couldn't do on their own. But you know, galatians 5, 16,.
Speaker 3Walk by the Spirit, be led by the Spirit, live by the Spirit. Let the Spirit, who has the same power I know we've. I think we said last time that the Spirit's power is what popped Jesus out of the grave on Easter morning. So that same strength is available to us and we can do things, you know, philippians 4.13, right through Christ, that we can't do on our own. We can go to a party, maybe that we can go and witness to people, right, we might be a witness or build relationships. I mean, you know, it just goes beyond us, right, our lives are not our own. Galatians 2.20. It's Christ who wants to live his life through us, and I don't sense Jesus really is filled up with anxiety or uptight about anything.
Speaker 2He didn't behold himself or rely on the world. He went against the world. We use that phrase all the time and it's kind of a joking thing, but it's not. You know, be weird and you know, the church of the day and the people of that day thought you know this guy from Nazareth. He's just weird.
Speaker 1Yeah, well, that's what weird is man, sign me up.
Speaker 2I want to be weird, you know, and we talk about no-transcript, which just consequently, by the way, there is no such thing as the perfect Christian. But you see that person and think, man, I can never be that.
Speaker 2And you're intimidated by that or you have anxiety by that, and so then you see that other church or that other, whatever it is, and there's 15,000 people there or 400 people over there and it's easy to go there because they make it easy and I think we do a pretty good job of making it easy ourselves. But we're not going to fall into that false religion stuff. We're going to tell you the truth and, quite honestly, part of being a Christian is that it's not the easy road. You know the easy road leads to somewhere that you know always says what do you say all the time?
Speaker 2It smells like smoke Comes from the pit of hell Comes from the pit of hell. You know, and that's what it is, you know, and so that anxiety you get through that by having that network. You know we talk all the time about the church and the church community and that's what we are, you know Our Bible study.
Speaker 2That group of guys man, that's a I think every one of us alone is probably fairly weak, but when you put us together it's like that you take that one matchstick, you break it, but you take 30 and you put them together.
Finding Support Through Prayer
Speaker 2You can't break them, yeah, and so that's part of the reason why I think our church community is so important, because you are as strong of a Christian as the people you hang out with. If you're hanging out with a lot of people that aren't living a Christian life, you know you need to be around them at some point so that you can show them that they can see that example in you.
Speaker 2But when you get around those folks and you're constantly with those folks and there's so much of that anxiety, so much of those issues, I find myself now because I'm with you guys and we all hang out together and we text each other, you know supporting stuff all the time.
Speaker 2I find it so much easier to talk to people about God and to spend more time in my Bible and spend more time praying, because I realize how big of a difference that makes over the other things of the world. You know we've talked many times about the things that make life easy, that we like, and so many things that we like that make life easier, are relatively sinful. Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 3Yeah, go ahead. I'm sorry. No, go ahead. Well, we're not dispensing medical advice, but I think we're maybe making a definition between people that have a clinical diagnosis of anxiety versus people that you know there is medication. Those aren't bad things. But yeah, I want to trace that back to what you're saying about community. Like that's where it's a living lab, right, I mean, if there's any place that ought to be safe, it's the church, it's people, it's God's people ought to be a safe environment for us to maybe overcome, learn to overcome these things that keep. If I was worshiping with 100 other people today, or or studying God's word and letting iron sharpen iron, you know this is God's plan for for people, and it's great that the father doesn't sugarcoat these issues. Right, we see him in scripture, but there's, but there's. Yeah, you started off talking about prayer. I mean, we've got tools in the toolbox and no doubt we're encouraged through the community.
Speaker 2Yeah, Well, you brought it up the other night and we talked about it a little bit. In Bible study we talk about Paul, and Paul did this and Paul did that. But Paul was always accompanied by somebody. Even Paul had people around him when the disciples went out. They didn't go out by somebody. Even Paul had people around him. When the disciples went out, they didn't go out by themselves, they went out in twos or they had their brothers that went with them and traveled with them and preached with them. And this comes back to what we talked about earlier. We are all pretty much raised with that. You've got to do it. There's no one else that's got to do it. There's no one else that's going to do it. You got to make things happen for you and while you need to be able to do things, there's nothing you can do of significance that you're going to do on your own. You got to have the Lord working through you.
Speaker 3Yeah, we were studying Acts three or four where Peter and John were going to pray and they meet the guy and silver and gold we don't have. And then Peter preaches you know that sermon at Pentecost and you just wonder. You know Peter and John were in business together and fishermen together and did Jesus together. And you know you wonder what's not there. Like did Peter say man, john, I feel like preaching, he's like dude, you got this. I mean, maybe Peter's feeling a little anxiety, right, he's like man, I feel like I need to say some hard things.
Speaker 3And he did right. He said, basically you Jews killed Jesus and he died for you. And yeah, it was scary, you know scary good but, and it was scary good but yeah, I mean, wow, what a blessing, right. But if you're letting your anxiety again just not a clinical diagnosis where it's whatever, but what a great thing to have your wingman saying let's go. I got your back and you can do this. I think the Sons of Thunder, James and John right, I'm figuring these guys could take care.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2I figure they busted a couple of pool cues over people back in the day. I think a lot of that anxiety comes from that feeling that we have to do things on our own. Mm-hmm, you know, and whether it's God there with us or it's one of our church community there with us, or it's one of our church community there with us, or in the case of you know, john and James, or you know, you have to have that support. Yeah, you know it's. God's plan it is. It says it in the Bible.
Speaker 3you know Two's better than one.
Speaker 2Always find somebody that's with you, on it and go. We've got a whole church full of them. Pretty good group. Well, what's the last word?
Speaker 3It's all you this week. Wow, put me on the spot. Yeah, anxiety is for real, but prayer is critical faith being in the Word. Right, the things we said today. We need to read those things for ourselves and absorb them and let them become part of the DNA of our life and overcome what we might call common anxiety that keeps us from going where we need to be right. Not just I mean maybe not where we want to be, but where we need to be right when God is. So I, maybe not where we want to be, but where we need to be right.
Speaker 3Where God?
Speaker 1is.
Speaker 3So I think it's your time to pray, though, yeah.
Final Thoughts and Prayer
Speaker 2Dear Lord, we thank you for all that you do for us. We thank you for this beautiful day. We, we love you, father. We we're so thankful for all the things that you do for us. And, and, father, just help those out there that you know seem to have that anxiety. Help them to overcome that. Help them to get from your word the very things that they need to be able to overcome that. Father. Help them to be able to come to you in prayer and just fill them with your love and your support. Help them to find, be able to get out there and find that church, family, find that group of people that's going to help them move on and be able to overcome that anxiety and all that worry. Father, we thank you for all that you do for us in our life and we praise your name, for it's in Christ's name we pray Amen, all right, well, that is episode 24.
Speaker 2Next week we will be back with episode 25. If you're in the Rockdale area, you're welcome to join us. We'll be out at the Rockdale American Legion Hall. That's on 487 on the north side of town. It's the Carlisle Post. So come out and join us. We'll have coffee and fellowship and donuts starting at 10 and worship starts at 1030. We do have children's church. We do have a nursery, so come join us. If not, and you're out of the area, just keep on listening. We'll be back next Thursday with a new episode. We'll see y'all later. God bless.
