Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2: I'm the pastor of Elevation Church, and this is our podcast.
Speaker 2: I wanted to thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 1: Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith.
Speaker 2: Hope it gives your perspective to see God is moving
Speaker 2: in your life.
Speaker 1: Enjoy the message. So honored to be here today.
Speaker 3: I want to just first of all, pause and just
Speaker 3: say what's up to everybody at every locations, to the
Speaker 3: people on a location in Mars, the people on the
Speaker 3: location in Jupiter. But if you are just blessed by
Speaker 3: and grateful for all that God's doing in your church,
Speaker 3: come on, thank God for that. And certainly we just
Speaker 3: recognize and just express public appreciation to one of by
Speaker 3: far the greatest leaders and greatest teachers of scripture in
Speaker 3: the universe, my friend and my brother, Pastor Steven Ferdieckt.
Speaker 1: Come on, let's thank God for him.
Speaker 3: Everybody man, so honored to be here. If it's okay,
Speaker 3: I want to get right into our lesson and our
Speaker 3: time together on today, and I want to share something
Speaker 3: with you that really got starred in my heart. Late summer,
Speaker 3: I was attending an event. It's a father son dinner
Speaker 3: that my son's school has every year that.
Speaker 1: The football coach hosts just for dads.
Speaker 3: And while we were there and my son's last year,
Speaker 3: he's this son's a high school senior and it was
Speaker 3: a last one, and so.
Speaker 1: Shout out. He's committed to play football next year.
Speaker 3: Syracuse. They got a big win last night. Shout out
Speaker 3: to Syracuse. But there's a point in the dinner where
Speaker 3: the coach acts the son to leave, and it talks
Speaker 3: to the dads, and it talks to us about trends
Speaker 3: he's seeing in our well in our and people who
Speaker 3: are on the team, to give us some insight on
Speaker 3: areas we might need to lean into as parents.
Speaker 1: And one of the things that he said.
Speaker 3: To me stuck out, it leaped in my heart, if
Speaker 3: you will, And he said, he is seeing this trend
Speaker 3: of anxiousness. He said, they're saying it so much in
Speaker 3: schools that the head of the school made.
Speaker 1: A specific book required reading.
Speaker 3: It was called the Anxiest Generation or something like that,
Speaker 3: made it require reading for every faculty member of the school.
Speaker 3: And I sat back and I just didn't hear it. Parentally,
Speaker 3: I heard it pastorally. I said, that's not happening in
Speaker 3: the schoolhouse, that's happening in our houses. And how many
Speaker 3: know God's Word has an answer to address any and
Speaker 3: every issue we may find ourselves face. And so I
Speaker 3: went on this journey to search the scriptures to see
Speaker 3: what God's Word had to say about this issue, and
Speaker 3: have just finished walking our church through a journey found
Speaker 3: right in this one passage I'm going to be sharing
Speaker 3: with you today. It is a brief portion of the
Speaker 3: Apostle Paul's letter to believers in Philippi the Book of Philippians,
Speaker 3: chapter four, and here's what he says. In beginning at
Speaker 3: verse four, he says, rejoice in the Lord always.
Speaker 1: I will say it.
Speaker 3: Again, Rejoice, Let your gentleness be evident to all. The
Speaker 3: Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything. I'm
Speaker 3: gonna read that one more time. I thought I was
Speaker 3: at elevation. Do not be anxious about anything, but in
Speaker 3: every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your
Speaker 3: recques us to God. Here's the promise attached to that principle,
Speaker 3: and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding.
Speaker 1: What will it do?
Speaker 3: It will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Speaker 3: Now after you've done that, he says, finally, brothers and sisters,
Speaker 3: whatever's true, whatever's noble, whatever's right, whatever's pure, whatever's lovely,
Speaker 3: whatever's admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about
Speaker 3: such things. I want to stop the reading of Scripture there,
Speaker 3: and I want to talk from this subject in our
Speaker 3: time together. Very simply, I want to talk from the
Speaker 3: subject arresting anxiousness. Arresting anxiousness, family. I want to start
Speaker 3: this teaching with a question. It's a simple question for
Speaker 3: your reflection, and the question is simply this. If you
Speaker 3: were to barricade yourself in a room with the Bible
Speaker 3: and explore and examine all the instructions that God offers
Speaker 3: from Genesis to Revelation, what would you see that God
Speaker 3: says more more than anything else in Scripture? In other words,
Speaker 3: what is the most common command given to humans from
Speaker 3: God all throughout the pages of Holy Scripture. The answer
Speaker 3: to this question is revealed in two simple, yet significant words.
Speaker 3: The thing that God says more than anything else in
Speaker 3: Scripture is two words fear not. Some iteration or some
Speaker 3: variation of this command is found over three hundred times
Speaker 3: in Scripture over three hundred times. In some way, in
Speaker 3: some iteration, God says, fear not, don't be afraid, calm down,
Speaker 3: chill out, breathe, drink some water, drink some coffee, take
Speaker 3: a walk. Over three hundred times, God in some way
Speaker 3: communicates to his people to fear not. And the frequency
Speaker 3: of this instruction is an indication and a revelation of something.
Speaker 3: If God says something a lot, it's not because he
Speaker 3: needs to say it a lot. It's because we need
Speaker 3: to hear it a lot. And so the fact that
Speaker 3: this command is communicated so frequently isn't necessarily saying something
Speaker 3: about God. It is saying something about us. It is
Speaker 3: an indication and a revelation of the human orientation toward anxiousness.
Speaker 3: Anxiousness a feeling of inner unrest and worried that is
Speaker 3: fueled by the fear of outcomes we may never experience.
Speaker 3: It is an emotional thief that robs us of today's
Speaker 3: peace in anticipation of tomorrow's problems. Can I read that
Speaker 3: one more time? Anxiousness? It is a feeling of inner
Speaker 3: unrest and worry that is fueled by the fear of
Speaker 3: outcomes we may never experience.
Speaker 1: It is an emotional.
Speaker 3: Thief that robs us of today's peace in anticipation of
Speaker 3: tomorrow's problems. Let me reframe this. Not just rephrase this,
Speaker 3: Let me reframe this.
Speaker 1: It is an.
Speaker 3: Emotional thief that is significant to some of us because
Speaker 3: you're familiar with the state that Jesus made in John
Speaker 3: ten ten when he talks about the part of his
Speaker 3: mission when he says, the thief comes to steal, kill,
Speaker 3: and destroy, But I've come that you may.
Speaker 1: Have life and have it to the full.
Speaker 3: The thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy.
Speaker 1: The thief comes only to steal.
Speaker 3: And so the thief has instruments that he uses to
Speaker 3: steal and to.
Speaker 1: Rob believers of that which.
Speaker 3: God wants them to possess. And what is one spiritual
Speaker 3: asset and emotional asset that God wants every believer to possess.
Speaker 3: It is the asset of peace. And whatever God gives,
Speaker 3: the enemy wants to steal. And one of the ways
Speaker 3: he steals this emotional and spiritual.
Speaker 1: Asset of peace is by using a weapon called anxiousness.
Speaker 3: It is a feeling of inner unrest and worry that
Speaker 3: is fueled by the fear of outcomes. We may never experience.
Speaker 3: It's wasted worry. It's losing sleep over something that might happen.
Speaker 3: It's losing joy over something that might happen, and more
Speaker 3: often than not, doesn't even happen. A feeling of inner
Speaker 3: unrest and worry that's fueled by the fear of outcomes
Speaker 3: we may never experience. It's an emotional thief that robs
Speaker 3: us of today's peace and anticipation of tomorrow's problems. And
Speaker 3: this family, if we're understand objective, is an emotional epidemic
Speaker 3: that has become a social norm.
Speaker 1: And although it is normal for.
Speaker 3: Those in culture, it does not have to be normal
Speaker 3: for those of us in the Kingdom. I'm not saying
Speaker 3: those of us in the Kingdom won't have anxiousness. I'm
Speaker 3: saying those of us in the Kingdom can live in
Speaker 3: a way where anxiousness doesn't have us pastor how can
Speaker 3: you say this? I can say this with confidence because
Speaker 3: I eavedrop on a conversation. Eavedropped on a conversation that
Speaker 3: the apostle Paul was having with a group of believers
Speaker 3: in northern Greece in a place called Philippi. And as
Speaker 3: I was eavesdropping on this conversation. I read something Paul
Speaker 3: said in verse six. He tells believers be anxious for nothing.
Speaker 3: In other words, don't be anxious about anything. Watch what
Speaker 3: he's saying here, because remember, he's writing two believers. Now,
Speaker 3: he's writing two believers. Now, he's writing two believers.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 3: He loves everybody, but he's writing this to believers. This
Speaker 3: is a letter that was circulated among believers. This is
Speaker 3: a promise he's making to believers. Watch what he says
Speaker 3: to them. He says, don't be anxious about anything. He's
Speaker 3: not saying that there is nothing to fear. He's saying
Speaker 3: that you don't have to be afraid. Did you hear
Speaker 3: what I just said. Okay, he's not saying that there's
Speaker 3: nothing to be anxious about, but he's saying you, as
Speaker 3: a believer, don't have to be anxious.
Speaker 1: Yes.
Speaker 3: This is an indication of the principle of exceptions.
Speaker 1: And the principle of exception simply.
Speaker 3: Suggests that what happens with them does not dictate and
Speaker 3: determine what happens with me. I'm gonna say that one
Speaker 3: more time. What happens with them does not dictate and
Speaker 3: determine what happens with me. This is not exceptionalism. He's
Speaker 3: not saying you're better than This is exceptionism. He's saying
Speaker 3: you're different from. So in other words, don't look at
Speaker 3: what has happened with others and come to a conclusion
Speaker 3: of what can happen with you, because what happened with
Speaker 3: them does not dictate and determine what happens with me.
Speaker 3: Because all throughout Scripture we see examples of God making
Speaker 3: his people exceptions. People do not go in a fiery
Speaker 3: furnace and come out of it and not smell like smoke.
Speaker 1: But with the Hebrew boys, God made an exception.
Speaker 3: People don't go in a lions then with hungry lions
Speaker 3: and come out not chewed up and consume. But with
Speaker 3: Daniel God made an exception. People do not walk around
Speaker 3: a wall once a day for seven days and then
Speaker 3: seven times on the seventh day.
Speaker 1: Scream at a wall and a wall fall.
Speaker 3: But with Joshua and the walls of Jericho, God made
Speaker 3: an exception. A shepherd boy who writes poems does not
Speaker 3: take a slingshot with a rock and defeat a nine
Speaker 3: foot tall Philistine giant named Goliath, But with David, God
Speaker 3: made an exception, and dead men don't go in a grave,
Speaker 3: stay there three days and early Sunday morning, get up
Speaker 3: out of the grave. But with Jesus, God made an exception.
Speaker 3: And if he can do it for Daniel, if he
Speaker 3: can do it for the Hebrew boys, if he can
Speaker 3: do it for David, if he can do it for Jesus,
Speaker 3: he can do it for you. Do I have any
Speaker 3: exceptions in the house today?
Speaker 1: It's the principle of exception.
Speaker 3: He's saying, what happens with others doesn't have to dictate
Speaker 3: and determine what happens for you. He's not telling them
Speaker 3: to deny their circumstances, but he is saying, as a believer,
Speaker 3: you can deny its influence because anxiousness isn't just a
Speaker 3: result of what you're in. Anxiousness is a result of
Speaker 3: how we allow what we're in to influence us. And
Speaker 3: so Paul I love this because Paul is practical.
Speaker 1: He's a practitioner. He teach. He teaches in a way
Speaker 1: that you're familiar.
Speaker 3: With at a church like this, where you have a
Speaker 3: pastor who teaches biblical truth but then builds a bridge
Speaker 3: from biblical truth to everyday life.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you used to this.
Speaker 3: You don't just get Sunday messages here, you get Monday
Speaker 3: messages here, pastor what's a Monday message? It's a message
Speaker 3: out here on Sunday that I can use on Monday.
Speaker 1: Yeah. This is the kind of practitioner Paul was.
Speaker 3: So he doesn't just tell them they don't have to
Speaker 3: be arrested by anxiousness. He tells them how to actually
Speaker 3: put anxiousness under arrest. It's one thing to hear that
Speaker 3: it's possible to arrest anxiousness. It's another thing to be
Speaker 3: taught on how to arrest anxiousness. And in this letter,
Speaker 3: Paul doesn't just tell them what's possible. Paul offers them
Speaker 3: a pathway. And I just want to know, is it
Speaker 3: okay if I share with you what Paul shared with them,
Speaker 3: so that we too can have a pathway to arrest anxiousness.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say that.
Speaker 3: Do you want me to share with you what Paul
Speaker 3: shared with them on.
Speaker 1: How to arrest?
Speaker 3: Do you want me to share with you now what
Speaker 3: Paul shared with Okay? It's it's interesting here because when
Speaker 3: you read the letter, there seems to be four areas
Speaker 3: in the text where Paul shows them where they have
Speaker 3: to make adjustments if they want to put anxiousness under arrest.
Speaker 3: That arresting anxiousness requires making adjustments. And I see four
Speaker 3: areas here that Paul gives them instruction in that if
Speaker 3: we lean into that can aid and assist us in
Speaker 3: this as well.
Speaker 1: Here's number one.
Speaker 3: If they're going to arrest their anxiousness, they have to
Speaker 3: adjust their perception.
Speaker 1: What do I mean by that?
Speaker 3: Anxiousness doesn't come from what we see, but anxiousness comes
Speaker 3: from how we see Here? Did you hear what I
Speaker 3: just said? It's not what we see, it's how we
Speaker 3: see it. Anxiousness isn't necessarily tied.
Speaker 1: To an event or an experience.
Speaker 3: Anxiousness is tied to our interpretation of what it means.
Speaker 3: And I see the importance of this not just in
Speaker 3: what Paul says, but where Paul was when he said it.
Speaker 3: I told you who he wrote this letter to, did
Speaker 3: or not? He wrote this letter to a group of
Speaker 3: believers in northern Greece in a place called Philippi, But
Speaker 3: I didn't tell you where he was when he wrote it.
Speaker 3: He was actually in prison in Rome. This is a
Speaker 3: prison epistle.
Speaker 1: So here is here we have a man who.
Speaker 3: Is locked up practically, who's writing to other people helping
Speaker 3: them get free. Emotionally, he is in prison. His future
Speaker 3: is unclear. He is unsure yet at the same time
Speaker 3: he's experiencing this event of imprisonment. But the fact that
Speaker 3: he's writing this letter lets us know he's not interpreting
Speaker 3: this event the way.
Speaker 1: Others would interpret it.
Speaker 3: Because if anxiousness had him, he would only be able
Speaker 3: to think about him.
Speaker 1: He wouldn't be able to think about others.
Speaker 3: So even if he had some anxiousness, the anxiousness didn't
Speaker 3: have him.
Speaker 1: It didn't arrest him. He arrested it.
Speaker 3: And we know that because he's able to think about
Speaker 3: setting other people free when he himself was in this
Speaker 3: prison predicament why he's not unaccustomed to being in prison,
Speaker 3: which means he has enough experience to say, I'm in
Speaker 3: what I'm in, but it doesn't mean what other people
Speaker 3: think it means. I'm gonna say that one more time.
Speaker 3: I'm in what I'm in, but it doesn't mean what
Speaker 3: other people think it means. See, sometimes an anxiousness doesn't
Speaker 3: come from what we're in.
Speaker 1: It comes from what we think it means.
Speaker 3: But I want to tell you, no matter what you're in,
Speaker 3: it may not mean what you think it means. You
Speaker 3: may be facing a red sea and you may think
Speaker 3: it means it's the end. But what looks like a
Speaker 3: breakdown is getting ready to become a breakthrough. Just because
Speaker 3: you're in what you're in doesn't mean it means what
Speaker 3: you think it means. Get In was facing an army
Speaker 3: of thousands, and he only had an army of three hundred,
Speaker 3: but it didn't mean what other people thought it would mean.
Speaker 3: And I want to tell you that sometimes anxiousness isn't
Speaker 3: the event. Anxiousness comes as a result of our interpretation
Speaker 3: of what we think it means. So if I want
Speaker 3: to arrest anxiousness, I gotta adjust my perception because it's
Speaker 3: not just what I see, it's how I see it.
Speaker 3: Did you hear what I just said? It's not just
Speaker 3: what I see, it's how I see. And sometimes we're
Speaker 3: coming to conclusions about what we think a crisis means.
Speaker 1: When God is a god that redeems the meaning.
Speaker 3: Have you ever been in a season in the present
Speaker 3: where you were crying tears of pain and then you
Speaker 3: live and you move into the future, and you look
Speaker 3: back on that thing, and the thing that you were
Speaker 3: crying tears of pain about are now things you are
Speaker 3: crying tears of joy about. Because cure car God says
Speaker 3: life is lived forward, but understood backwards, because.
Speaker 1: God can change the meaning.
Speaker 3: Is this not possibly what Paul meant when he wrote
Speaker 3: in Romans eighth, chapter number twenty eight, and God will
Speaker 3: work all things together for our good.
Speaker 1: It's not just what you see, it's how you see it.
Speaker 3: And Charles Spurgeon says, every physical miracle can be seen
Speaker 3: as a metaphor for a spiritual miracle. And maybe the
Speaker 3: miracle we need spiritually to address our anxiousness is for
Speaker 3: God to heal our blind eyes. Maybe the issue is
Speaker 3: not what I'm seeing, but how I see. But that's
Speaker 3: not the only thing I see. In the text, Paul
Speaker 3: doesn't just share with them that if they want to
Speaker 3: arrest their anxiousness, they need to adjust their perception.
Speaker 1: Paul also shares.
Speaker 3: If they want to arrest their anxiousness, they need to
Speaker 3: adjust their praise.
Speaker 1: Pastor way you see.
Speaker 3: It's in the text, he says in verse seven, Here
Speaker 3: watch what he excuse me, he says in verse four,
Speaker 3: he says, rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say,
Speaker 3: or say it again, rejoice. Paul is encouraging them. Watch this,
Speaker 3: rejoicing the Lord always and again I say rejoice. He
Speaker 3: is encouraging them to engage in a spiritual discipline, the
Speaker 3: practice of gratitude. Did you hear what I just said? There,
Speaker 3: rejoice in the Lord and again I say rejoice. And
Speaker 3: he didn't just say rejoice periodically. He didn't just say
Speaker 3: rejoice sometimes. He didn't just say rejoice on Thanksgiving. He says,
Speaker 3: rejoice in the Lord always.
Speaker 1: Rejoice.
Speaker 3: He didn't say rejoice when God gives you what you are.
Speaker 3: He didn't say rejoice when God comes through at the
Speaker 3: timeline that you've set for God to come through. But
Speaker 3: he says, rejoice in the Lord always. He's encouraging them
Speaker 3: to make this a practice, a spiritual discipline, and spiritual
Speaker 3: disciplines of what we call means of grace.
Speaker 1: What does that Passadarius?
Speaker 3: God chooses what God uses to give us what we
Speaker 3: don't deserve.
Speaker 1: That's a means of grace.
Speaker 3: Grace is unearned, unmerited right, undeserved. Favor is when God
Speaker 3: gives us what we don't deserve. Does that make sense?
Speaker 3: I say, does that make sense, okay. So a means
Speaker 3: of grace is something that God chooses to use to
Speaker 3: give us what we don't deserve, and God chooses what
Speaker 3: God uses to give us what we don't deserve. What's
Speaker 3: an example of a spiritual discipline. It means of grace, prayer.
Speaker 3: God says, there's some things I won't do if you
Speaker 3: don't ask. Now, whatever I do for you, it's grace.
Speaker 3: You don't deserve it, but I choose what I use
Speaker 3: to give you what you don't deserve. And some people
Speaker 3: miss grace because they won't follow the means. And gratitude
Speaker 3: or what the Bible calls praise is a means of grace.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna say that one more time. Gratitude or what
Speaker 3: the Bible calls praise is a means of grace.
Speaker 1: So when we see books of the Bible, like.
Speaker 3: Songs dedicated to saying praise the Lord, Praise the Lord,
Speaker 3: and then we see contained in the book we see
Speaker 3: instruction that addresses internal objections. What's an internal objection? It's
Speaker 3: an objection you have internally in church that you don't vocalize.
Speaker 1: So some people say things like it's not my personality.
Speaker 3: So David says, okay, since some people are going to
Speaker 3: say it's not my personality, let.
Speaker 1: Me give you all these ways to do it.
Speaker 3: Clap your hands, I'm not a clapper. Lift your hands,
Speaker 3: I'm not a lifter. Lay prostrate, I'm not a layer.
Speaker 3: Praise them in a dance. I'm not a dancer. And
Speaker 3: then the bid believer says, the Lord's in this holy tipo,
Speaker 3: let all the earth keeps silent before him. Everybody's not
Speaker 3: gonna do the same thing, but everybody should do something,
Speaker 3: because there's something for everybody to do in the scriptures.
Speaker 3: So this is not it is not like a warm
Speaker 3: up in church for the sermon.
Speaker 1: Is It is not some some this.
Speaker 3: Spiritual discipline reserve for a specific stream of Christianity.
Speaker 1: It is something that God has mandated.
Speaker 3: It is actually the only spiritual discipline that will exist
Speaker 3: in eternity, the only oh mynd that you won't need
Speaker 3: to pray in heaven. Come on, you don't need to
Speaker 3: study the scripture in heaven, but there will be worshiped
Speaker 3: in heaven. There will be praise in heaven. So it's
Speaker 3: not some emotional exercise. It's not some anti intellectual exercise.
Speaker 3: It's a means of grace. God says, this is something
Speaker 3: I choose to use to give you what you don't deserve.
Speaker 3: What does praise give me? Praise doesn't get me things
Speaker 3: from him. Praise gets me him. Praise doesn't just get
Speaker 3: me gifts from God. Praise gets me God the gift.
Speaker 3: It gets me him. I said, it gets me him.
Speaker 3: David says he dwells some twenty two three, he dwells,
Speaker 3: or he tabernacles in the midst of my prayer.
Speaker 1: What is he saying here?
Speaker 3: He's not coming against or he's not contradicting this idea
Speaker 3: of God being everywhere.
Speaker 1: At the same time.
Speaker 3: Yes, God is omnipresent, He's everywhere at the same time.
Speaker 3: But praise takes God from omnipresent to manifest presence. Okay,
Speaker 3: what does that mean you? We just had Thanksgiving, right,
Speaker 3: and it was great for all of y'all extroverts, but
Speaker 3: for some of us ambi averts and introverts. After a
Speaker 3: while it got a lot, so we had to duck
Speaker 3: off for a minute. Right, We had to go upstairs
Speaker 3: for a minute, get some a long time to recharge
Speaker 3: so we could go back out and engage. Come on, now, if.
Speaker 1: I did that. I didn't. Yeah, I did. But I
Speaker 1: was in my house the whole time.
Speaker 3: So if everybody was in the living and I was
Speaker 3: in the living room, right and then I leave and
Speaker 3: I go to my bedroom, I'm still in the house.
Speaker 3: I'm just not manifest. And there are certain things you
Speaker 3: don't get unless I'm manifest. If you want to know
Speaker 3: where something in the house is, and I'm the only
Speaker 3: one that has the answer, you don't get that answer
Speaker 3: just by me being in the house. You only get
Speaker 3: that answer when I'm manifest, when I show up, when
Speaker 3: I come in the room. And what praise does is
Speaker 3: praise He causes God. It's an invitation for God to
Speaker 3: show up, to come in the room to manifest. And
Speaker 3: I want to know, am I talking to anybody that
Speaker 3: needs God to show up to come in the room
Speaker 3: to manifest. Praise praise is an invitation for the manifest.
Speaker 1: Presence of God. What does this have to do with anxiousness?
Speaker 1: A lot?
Speaker 3: Because God's presence is an automatic eviction of anything that's
Speaker 3: not like him.
Speaker 1: When he come in.
Speaker 3: The room, whatever is not like him has to automatically
Speaker 3: go out.
Speaker 1: The presence pushes it out. I said, the presence pushes
Speaker 1: it out. I said, the.
Speaker 3: Presence will push anxiousness out, the presence will push fear out,
Speaker 3: the presence will push despair out. The presence of God
Speaker 3: is an automatic eviction of anything that's not like him.
Speaker 3: David put it this way. David said in Psalms sixteen eleven,
Speaker 3: you make known to me the path of life, you
Speaker 3: will fill me with joy. Where in your presence it
Speaker 3: is a temporary eviction of whatever it is not liking.
Speaker 3: Have you noticed, when you're in the presence, you're not
Speaker 3: in worry. Have you noticed when you're in the presence,
Speaker 3: you're not in anxiousness?
Speaker 1: So now it makes sense.
Speaker 3: While Paul told believers in PHILIPPI, don't just do this
Speaker 3: on Sunday, because if you only do this on Sunday,
Speaker 3: the only relief you'll have is Sunday.
Speaker 1: And God won't just show up. Watch this.
Speaker 3: God shows up not to spaces. He shows up in
Speaker 3: response to sounds. So wherever you release the sound, he'll
Speaker 3: show up. If you release it in the kitchen, he'll
Speaker 3: come in there. If you release it in your car,
Speaker 3: he'll come in there. If you release it in the closet,
Speaker 3: he'll come in there. If you release it in the bedroom,
Speaker 3: he'll come in there. If you walk in the breakroom
Speaker 3: at the office, he'll come in there.
Speaker 1: If you go to the restroom, he'll come in there,
Speaker 1: he'll show up.
Speaker 3: Whatever the sound of praise is released.
Speaker 1: It's a spiritual discipline. Am I making sense?
Speaker 3: See people who are wired like me, who are not
Speaker 3: necessarily expressive or emotive.
Speaker 1: I had to see this this.
Speaker 3: Way because if not, it just felt like people who
Speaker 3: had certain personalities, where people who practice the spiritual discipline.
Speaker 3: When everybody's supposed to practice this spiritual discipline, regardless of
Speaker 3: your personality, and there are ways in scripture that give
Speaker 3: everybody a way to practice this, everybody won't do it
Speaker 3: the same way. So all of those ways in scripture
Speaker 3: that cause spiritual temperaments, all of these ways to worship
Speaker 3: in scripture are not because everybody's supposed to do everything
Speaker 3: is because there's something for everybody.
Speaker 1: Because what I need is the presence.
Speaker 3: And Paul's just saying this like conceptually, he's saying this
Speaker 3: experientially because in the Book of Acts he's on a
Speaker 3: missionary journey and one of the places he ends up
Speaker 3: is in Philippi. He takes a partner in ministry with
Speaker 3: him named Silas, and they began to engage in ministry,
Speaker 3: and as a result of engaging in ministry, they free
Speaker 3: They performed this exercise of spiritual liberation, and they free
Speaker 3: this young lady from this evil spirit. And as a
Speaker 3: result of that, him and Silas end up in prison. Now,
Speaker 3: I grew up in Kill Michael, Mississippi, the Mount Alive
Speaker 3: Missionary Baptist Church. We had Sunday school vacation. Some of
Speaker 3: you're too young for that vacation. Bible school is just
Speaker 3: Bible store's Bible Store. And I remember this one because
Speaker 3: the Sunday school teacher would always start with this phrase.
Speaker 1: And at midnight, Paul and Silas.
Speaker 3: Prayed and saying praise this unto God and the Bible says,
Speaker 3: And suddenly when they were praising, that was a great
Speaker 3: earthquake and the prison doors were opened, and immediately everyone's
Speaker 3: bands were loose.
Speaker 1: So they got free physically.
Speaker 3: But the metaphor applies to us spiritually and emotionally. Just
Speaker 3: like their chains fell off because of the presence, there
Speaker 3: are some chains on us that will fall off because
Speaker 3: of the presence.
Speaker 1: And I want to know, is there anybody in the
Speaker 1: room today.
Speaker 3: That's got some things you need to fall off. You
Speaker 3: need fear to fall off, you need anxiousness to fall off.
Speaker 1: Well, let's just take thirteen.
Speaker 3: Seconds and in your own way, let's offer up the
Speaker 3: spiritual exercise of praise.
Speaker 1: Yes, where the spirit of the Lord is there's.
Speaker 3: So it brings his presence, But praise also shifts our perspective.
Speaker 3: There's this phrase in songs, what David says, magnify the
Speaker 3: Lord with me magnifying something. If you use a magnifying glass,
Speaker 3: it doesn't make the thing larger, does it not? In reality,
Speaker 3: it doesn't make it larger. It makes it larger to you,
Speaker 3: did you hear what I just said? If you put
Speaker 3: an ant under a magnifying glass, the ant is the
Speaker 3: ant right, so it doesn't necessarily make it large.
Speaker 1: So I can't make God larger. He's already as large
Speaker 1: as large can be.
Speaker 3: But when I magnify him, it right sizes God in
Speaker 3: my perspective. And sometimes we're struggling with anxiousness, not because
Speaker 3: the problem is too big, your God's too small. Praise
Speaker 3: reminds me of his largeness, of his faithfulness, of his power.
Speaker 3: It requires mindfulness, It requires filling.
Speaker 1: My mind with the goodness of God.
Speaker 3: It requires me going back into my history and reminding
Speaker 3: my soul of his faithfulness. Of how he's never lost
Speaker 3: a battle.
Speaker 1: I thought y'all would be familiar with that one.
Speaker 3: I said, And he's never lost a battle. I want
Speaker 3: you to think about every battle you've been in, and
Speaker 3: every time your back was against the wall, and every
Speaker 3: time you couldn't see your way through and you were
Speaker 3: worried and stressed and anxious.
Speaker 1: But somehow, some way.
Speaker 3: Every single time, God came through and he didn't bring.
Speaker 1: You this far to leave you.
Speaker 3: Now, he never lost the battle, and he never will.
Speaker 1: I said that he never will.
Speaker 3: I said, and he never will.
Speaker 1: I got two more points. But I'm done here. They are.
Speaker 1: I'm done here. They are adjust my prayers, my perception.
Speaker 3: I'm done, adjust my praise, and then three adjust my prayers.
Speaker 1: Where's that at. It's verse six and seven.
Speaker 3: Do not be anxious for anything, but in every situation
Speaker 3: by prayer and petition.
Speaker 1: The word prayer here is a word supplication. That's what
Speaker 1: it means.
Speaker 3: So different types of prayers, right this, prayers of intercession
Speaker 3: where I'm standing in the gap for someone else, Their
Speaker 3: prayers of thanksgiving, I'm not requesting anything.
Speaker 1: I'm just thinking God for what he's done.
Speaker 3: Right, then the prayers of supplication while making a specific request. Now,
Speaker 3: I want you to hear me. It's so important because
Speaker 3: this is an area where for many of us there's
Speaker 3: an unconscious struggle. It's a struggle and we don't even
Speaker 3: know it's a struggle.
Speaker 1: Listen to me.
Speaker 3: The purpose of prayer is not to notify God of
Speaker 3: a need. God's not like I didn't know that. Bible
Speaker 3: says He knows what we need before we ask. So
Speaker 3: why then does the text tell us to make a
Speaker 3: request known to God. The purpose of prayers not to
Speaker 3: notif I God of a need. The purpose of prayer
Speaker 3: is to express our dependency and to remind you that
Speaker 3: you don't have control. I'm done every time I pray.
Speaker 3: Every time I pray, I'm not reminding God of anything.
Speaker 1: I'm reminding me I'm actually not in control.
Speaker 3: And even when I think I'm in control and I
Speaker 3: get comfort from being in control, I'm comforted by an
Speaker 3: illusion because even when I think I'm in.
Speaker 1: Control, I'm not. So prayer frees me from the illusion
Speaker 1: that I can control what I can't do. It's God
Speaker 1: you're God.
Speaker 3: I'm not, and some of my anxiousness it's because I'm
Speaker 3: trying to play your role. I want to control. I
Speaker 3: want to control my destiny. I want to control my family.
Speaker 3: I want to control my kids. I want to control
Speaker 3: the economy. I want to control business and prayers away.
Speaker 1: Of reminding me.
Speaker 3: I have controlled of my actions, but you control outcomes.
Speaker 3: I can till the garden, I can plant the seed,
Speaker 3: but only you can make it ray.
Speaker 1: So why am I anxious about the weather when I
Speaker 1: can't control it.
Speaker 3: Some of the weight we're caring is not weight God
Speaker 3: gave us. It's weight we assumed, and your shoulders aren't
Speaker 3: broad enough to handle God's weight. But the question I
Speaker 3: think the Father wants to ask us today is do
Speaker 3: you and I have any logical reason to believe that
Speaker 3: He will not act in our best interest when you
Speaker 3: really think about it. Well, let me talk about me.
Speaker 3: I've lived long enough not to trust my decision making
Speaker 3: that much.
Speaker 1: I'm just being logical, right.
Speaker 3: No, I'm not talking about what people have said about
Speaker 3: some of my decisions.
Speaker 1: I'm talking about what I have said about some of
Speaker 1: my decisions.
Speaker 3: When I have stepped back outside of me looked at
Speaker 3: me and said, Daris, what were you thinking?
Speaker 1: It's one thing when somebody you ask yourself.
Speaker 3: That you know you just what were you thinking? So
Speaker 3: why do I want control? I don't know enough to
Speaker 3: have it. I'm not strong enough to have it. Time
Speaker 3: is not in my hands, it is in his, which
Speaker 3: leads me to my fourth and final point.
Speaker 1: We not only have.
Speaker 3: To adjust our prayer where we are really specific. We're
Speaker 3: offering supplication very specifically, not about anxiousness itself, but the
Speaker 3: things that we're actually anxious about, doing enough digging to say,
Speaker 3: I actually want control, Lord, I need to bring this
Speaker 3: before you. I'm actually trying to control the way I'm perceived.
Speaker 3: I'm anxious about that. Let me bring that before you.
Speaker 3: I'm actually trying to control my children. I don't want
Speaker 3: them to make some of the mistakes that I made,
Speaker 3: but you helped me survive mine, and why do I
Speaker 3: not believe that you will help them survive theirs? I
Speaker 3: need to bring this before you. And then finally it's
Speaker 3: for I've got to adjust my practices and Paul like
Speaker 3: he talks to them about their perception that praise their prayer,
Speaker 3: and then in verse eight he says finally like, hey,
Speaker 3: this is the final ingredient in the recipe that you
Speaker 3: can do all the other things that I just told
Speaker 3: you to do, but if you don't do what I'm
Speaker 3: about to say, you won't get this result of arresting anxiousness.
Speaker 3: You have to include this after you get through praising
Speaker 3: and praying. You have to adjust your practice when you're done,
Speaker 3: when you're saying Amen, talking to God. When you're done
Speaker 3: praying and saying Amen, what are you thinking about? He's
Speaker 3: warning them against an undisciplined imagination where my thoughts are
Speaker 3: just going wild. Oh my god. The company say they
Speaker 3: laying off. They're probably gonna come to my department. My
Speaker 3: supervisor don't like me. They probably gonna lay me off.
Speaker 3: If I get laid off, we're not gonna be able
Speaker 3: to keep the house. If we can't keep the house,
Speaker 3: I gotta go live with my parents, my in laws.
Speaker 3: I don't know if I want to live with my
Speaker 3: in laws. We're gonna be on the street, my kids
Speaker 3: gonna be.
Speaker 1: In the car.
Speaker 3: Spirally, it's an undisciplined imagination. So Paul says, Hey, here's
Speaker 3: what you gotta think about, and he literally has a
Speaker 3: conversation with believers in Corinth. Literally, and this is kind
Speaker 3: of the essence. It's not the only part, but it's
Speaker 3: the essence of what we would call spiritual warfare. He
Speaker 3: tells him in second Crincis, Chapter teen. He was like,
Speaker 3: you have to take every thought captive and make it
Speaker 3: obedient to Christ. Like, don't allow those thoughts to accumulate,
Speaker 3: because the accumulation of those thoughts actually becomes strongholds.
Speaker 1: So he says, throw it away.
Speaker 3: When it's a brick instead of trying to knock it
Speaker 3: down when it becomes a wall. So he says, Hey,
Speaker 3: whatever's true, whatever's noble, whatever's right, whatever's pure, whatever's lovely,
Speaker 3: whatever's admirable, if anything is excellent, or find something praiseworthy,
Speaker 3: what's worthy of praise.
Speaker 1: He says, think on these things and watch what he says.
Speaker 3: I know this is in my notes, but I want
Speaker 3: you to see this in verse nine, because early in
Speaker 3: the text he says the peace of God. But in
Speaker 3: verse nine he says this and the God of Peace,
Speaker 3: the peace of God. And then he says, if you
Speaker 3: do these things, and the God of Peace.
Speaker 1: Will be with.
Speaker 3: You whenever you get anxious. I want you to connect
Speaker 3: point four to point three. I want you to think.
Speaker 4: About, has God ever not come through even if you cried?
Speaker 4: Was he faithful to his promise that those who's so
Speaker 4: in tears.
Speaker 1: Will we've been joy?
Speaker 3: Even if you walk through grief the valley of the
Speaker 3: shadow of death?
Speaker 1: Has He been with you? Has that ever been a
Speaker 1: time not that God didn't give you what you wanted?
Speaker 3: Because it doesn't always give us a war, but this
Speaker 3: has there ever been a time where He didn't give
Speaker 3: you what you needed? He's never lost the battle, and
Speaker 3: he never will.
Speaker 1: We're human.
Speaker 3: We will have anxiousness, but anxiousness does not have to
Speaker 3: have us. We can put anxiousness.
Speaker 1: Under arrest. Father, Today, as we prepare to celebrate.
Speaker 3: The coming of the Prince of Peace in this advent season,
Speaker 3: I pray for your people everywhere that we would have
Speaker 3: unprecedented experiences with the.
Speaker 1: Peace of God. Father, Would you assist us in arresting anxiousness? Yes?
Speaker 3: And may peace enjoy be our portion both now and forever.
Speaker 3: We ask it all in Jesus' name, Amen.
Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us.
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Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening.
Speaker 2: God bless you.