Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation
Speaker 1: Church and.
Speaker 2: This is our podcast.
Speaker 1: I wanted to thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 2: Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith.
Speaker 1: Hope it gives your perspective to see God is moving
Speaker 1: in your life.
Speaker 2: Enjoy the message.
Speaker 1: We want to shift gears a little bit this week
Speaker 1: and teach you a message.
Speaker 2: That I taught our staff.
Speaker 1: It's a different version of it, but I was sharing
Speaker 1: with our staff on the subject of anxiety.
Speaker 2: And the reason that I did that's.
Speaker 1: Primarily because our staff is very young. Many of our
Speaker 1: staff have never worked in another work environment than Elevation Church.
Speaker 2: It's a fast paced.
Speaker 1: Environment, growth environment, and a lot of performance pressure, and
Speaker 1: I felt like, as the under shepherd that serves to
Speaker 1: oversee our staff, I wanted to share some very practical
Speaker 1: principles on the subject of anxiety. Don't judge me for this,
Speaker 1: but sometimes I do a YouTube search of myself my
Speaker 1: own sermons.
Speaker 2: The only reason I do it.
Speaker 1: Hang with me for a second is when I want
Speaker 1: to spot check and see, you know how I can
Speaker 1: preach better, So do that. But also I want to
Speaker 1: see what people are looking for what kind of help
Speaker 1: they're looking for, what kind of subjects tend to draw
Speaker 1: people in so that we can tell them the good
Speaker 1: news about Jesus Christ. And in order to do that,
Speaker 1: sometimes I'll look and see what are the top sermons
Speaker 1: that have been watched that have been preached out of
Speaker 1: this pulpit. Because we give them all the way for
Speaker 1: free in as many different formats as we can, we
Speaker 1: kind of embrace the day that we live in. And
Speaker 1: so right now people are watching on Facebook Live and
Speaker 1: YouTube live and and the Elevation Church app and just
Speaker 1: watching you you'd be shocked, you would be so surprised
Speaker 1: how many people are up in the middle of the
Speaker 1: night in another part of the world and wanting to
Speaker 1: tune into your church. And they write me from time
Speaker 1: to time they tell me they're coming to church, like
Speaker 1: Morgan Freeman, on.
Speaker 2: A bucket list to be here.
Speaker 1: And always thought that was cool because growing up, for me,
Speaker 1: church was not a bucket list type thought what made
Speaker 1: me want to die, but it didn't make me well,
Speaker 1: I didn't want to do it before I die. So anyway,
Speaker 1: what I thought, what I thought I would do today
Speaker 1: for you to share from the top subject that I
Speaker 1: preached on because in the top three sermons that I've
Speaker 1: preached in terms of views, the subject was anxiety. And
Speaker 1: I want to share a message with you today on
Speaker 1: the subject of anxiety, and I want to do.
Speaker 2: It from Psalm one point thirty nine.
Speaker 1: So we're somewhere near the middle of this series looking
Speaker 1: at David's life and looking at the lyrics of the
Speaker 1: psalms that he wrote, and we're making comparisons. We're saying
Speaker 1: that David is the greatest rapper or MC of all time,
Speaker 1: and I stand by that.
Speaker 2: I stand by that. I would say that David's.
Speaker 1: Words in the songs are are divinely inspired to help
Speaker 1: us search within ourselves. And one song I didn't tell
Speaker 1: them this last night. The reason that I love Somealone
Speaker 1: thirty nine, where I'm going to share with you from today.
Speaker 1: The reason I love it is because the first time
Speaker 1: I tried to write a Christian song, I wrote it
Speaker 1: based on Someone thirty nine. And Holly's laughing because every
Speaker 1: once in a while we'll mention this song.
Speaker 2: It's not a very good song.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to go into it right now, but
Speaker 1: it was based on psalmone thirty nine and it had
Speaker 1: this cool little walk down in it. But other than that,
Speaker 1: the song really wasn't very good. But I was only
Speaker 1: sixteen at the time. And so it's a wonderful song
Speaker 1: because it gives us a picture of both God's all
Speaker 1: seeing I meaning that he is watching over our lives
Speaker 1: in every situation in season, and the intimacy with which
Speaker 1: God sees our lives. And so I want to pick
Speaker 1: up in verse seventeen today and bring you into the
Speaker 1: flow of the psalm a little bit. David says this
Speaker 1: someone thirty nine verse seventeen. How precious to me are
Speaker 1: your thoughts?
Speaker 2: God? How vast is the sum of them?
Speaker 1: Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains
Speaker 1: of sand.
Speaker 2: When I awake, I am still with you.
Speaker 1: If only you, God, would slay the wicked away from me,
Speaker 1: You who are blood thirsty. They speak of you with
Speaker 1: evil intent, Your adversaries misuse your name. Do I not
Speaker 1: hate those who hate you Lord? And abhor those who
Speaker 1: are in rebellion against you? I have nothing but hatred
Speaker 1: for them. I count them my enemies. Here comes the shift,
Speaker 1: because David is focusing on external fact, and all of
Speaker 1: a sudden he makes this move that we see him
Speaker 1: make over and over again in his life, from dealing
Speaker 1: with his.
Speaker 2: Enemies to the inner me.
Speaker 1: And as much as that sounds like a little preacher thing,
Speaker 1: let's see what you did there, it's really the most
Speaker 1: important life skill because David is about to take responsibility
Speaker 1: for his own anxiety. He's not going to put it
Speaker 1: on the economy.
Speaker 2: He's not going to.
Speaker 1: Put it on King Saul, who's trying to kill him.
Speaker 1: He's not going to put it on his teenagers.
Speaker 2: He didn't have kids, but you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 2: not at this point. He did have kids, and we'll
Speaker 2: talk about them in a future week.
Speaker 1: But he's not putting it on anybody but himself.
Speaker 2: Watch it.
Speaker 1: In verse twenty three, he says, search me, search me.
Speaker 1: Those two words would set you free from ninety percent
Speaker 1: of the drama because some of you borrowed trauma trying
Speaker 1: to look into.
Speaker 2: Other people's lives. Clap like it's not you. No one
Speaker 2: will know that's good, pastor tell.
Speaker 1: Them search me God and know my heart.
Speaker 2: Did you notice the shift? Kill them?
Speaker 1: He's fussing and cussing about the way things are in
Speaker 1: the world, these bloodthirsty men and all these selfish politicians
Speaker 1: and all this corruption, the systemic corruption. God do something
Speaker 1: about it. And then he shifts and says, search me.
Speaker 1: Nothing changes until I do know my heart, test me
Speaker 1: and know my anxious thoughts. That's where I want to
Speaker 1: spend some time today. And I've been asking myself the
Speaker 1: question lately. This is my sermon title, Why am I anxious?
Speaker 1: Why am I anxious? Apparently, according to my non scientific
Speaker 1: YouTube study, all of you are anxious, and so I
Speaker 1: won't ask the question have you experienced anxiety in the
Speaker 1: last week? Because we live in the age of anxiety.
Speaker 1: Let's be honest about it. I mean, it is almost
Speaker 1: marketed to us through the stations that are supposed.
Speaker 2: To be giving us our information, they actually.
Speaker 1: Engage us using fear tactics so that they can sell
Speaker 1: advertising time, often promoting the same drug and pharmaceutical companies
Speaker 1: that are owned by the same conglomerates that push out
Speaker 1: the information that is design.
Speaker 2: To make us anxious.
Speaker 1: But let's be careful because we sound like David now
Speaker 1: in verse twenty two, kill them God.
Speaker 2: But David came to a place.
Speaker 1: Where he said, you know, it's not what's happening out
Speaker 1: there that makes me anxious. It's what I allow in here.
Speaker 2: To go undetected and unchecked. It's my thought process.
Speaker 1: He uses an actual Hebrew word that means disquieting thoughts.
Speaker 1: It's translated as closely as it can be into English
Speaker 1: anxious thoughts. So David is saying, now, it is not
Speaker 1: what is happening that is creating anxiety. It is the
Speaker 1: way I am thinking about it. Look at verse twenty four.
Speaker 1: I know that David didn't know about neural pathways, but
Speaker 1: it sounds like he did, because he said, I want
Speaker 1: you to look inside God and see you got twenty four.
Speaker 1: If there is any offensive way in me? And now
Speaker 1: we know that when we think something long enough, it
Speaker 1: creates a four eighty five in our minds, a seventy
Speaker 1: seven in our minds.
Speaker 2: What's the highway in Toronto, l J the four oh one.
Speaker 1: For our Canadian friends and Drake, there's a there's a
Speaker 1: there's a process by which I get stuck in a rut.
Speaker 1: And so David is saying, see if I've been thinking
Speaker 1: in a way that has allowed the enemy to traffic
Speaker 1: in my mind where I've just been letting him in.
Speaker 1: And that's what I want to do today. I want
Speaker 1: to take you through a seven point test answering the
Speaker 1: question why am I anxious and hopefully help us to
Speaker 1: get past this point of answering that question with somebody
Speaker 1: else's name, and hopefully get us past the point of
Speaker 1: answering that question by by mentioning something that is happening
Speaker 1: that is outside of our control, and hopefully to get
Speaker 1: us to the place where we can see that not
Speaker 1: only is God watching over my life. That's what David understood,
Speaker 1: is that when Saul is trying to kill me, God
Speaker 1: is watching over me. God has this surveillance system every
Speaker 1: situation of my life.
Speaker 2: He will not suffer my foot to be moved.
Speaker 1: The Lord which keep a thie, He's got twenty four
Speaker 1: to seven surveillance on me. To somebody say you better
Speaker 1: be nice to me. God is watching how you treat me.
Speaker 1: God is watching how you talk to me. And God
Speaker 1: likes me. How do you parents like it when somebody
Speaker 1: talks about one of your kids. God feels that way
Speaker 1: about you times a thousand, and he's watching out for you.
Speaker 1: So why am I anxious? If my father knows my needs?
Speaker 1: Why am I anxious? If he's numbered the hairs on
Speaker 1: my head? Why am I anxious if he promised to
Speaker 1: supply every need and I got to get honest about it.
Speaker 1: I'm not necessarily referring to this in a medical sense.
Speaker 1: Please don't take this to mean that I'm saying that
Speaker 1: your sin or or behavioral choices are always responsible for anxiety.
Speaker 1: But what I want to show you today, regardless of
Speaker 1: where it's coming from. Because I'm not a doctor, you
Speaker 1: have to talk to Stacy if you want some help
Speaker 1: with that.
Speaker 2: But maybe there are some ways in me.
Speaker 1: That are making me vulnerable to the way that things
Speaker 1: are and allowing me to remain anxious when the Bible
Speaker 1: says do not be anxious. I don't think it means
Speaker 1: that we can never feel anxiety. It is when we
Speaker 1: stay anxious. It doesn't mean that there won't be moments
Speaker 1: and seasons.
Speaker 2: In your life where your hands are shaken.
Speaker 1: Dimi Levado couldn't sing the national anthem without her hands shaken.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you saw it. She's sanging a
Speaker 1: lot in front of a lot of people. That's not
Speaker 1: what I'm talking about. I'm talking about this pervasive sense
Speaker 1: of when things are going right, you can't even enjoy
Speaker 1: them because it probably won't last long.
Speaker 2: I mean looking around every corner for what's going to
Speaker 2: happen next.
Speaker 1: And I want to take you through something quickly today.
Speaker 1: It's kind of a sermon slash seminar from Psalm one
Speaker 1: point nine.
Speaker 2: It's a salmonar. I thought you'd like that.
Speaker 1: It's a salmonar, and pay attention and write this down.
Speaker 1: If you don't write this down, you're not going to
Speaker 1: sleep any this week. And I have horrible stomach pains
Speaker 1: while you try to sleep. But write this down, and
Speaker 1: got to bless you. Number one. When I am anxious,
Speaker 1: ask somebody next to you, why are you anxious?
Speaker 2: All right?
Speaker 1: The first thing to check is your intake. The first
Speaker 1: thing that I consider when I'm anxious is how full
Speaker 1: I am of what? Because I found out that anxiety
Speaker 1: and cellulite have one thing in common. You can't pray
Speaker 1: either one of them away.
Speaker 2: They are both about intake.
Speaker 1: They showed me this new feature on my phone the
Speaker 1: other day.
Speaker 2: Can I show you?
Speaker 1: My kids are always showing me stuff, and so they
Speaker 1: showed me a feature on my phone the other day.
Speaker 2: Oh, I got a text from Holly.
Speaker 1: Okay, she just told me this should be my next
Speaker 1: book okay, but let me show you something else. Right now,
Speaker 1: you know all these great functions on the iPhone?
Speaker 2: This is what is this? A seven?
Speaker 1: A seven that the iPhone seven has this function? And
Speaker 1: I want to show it to you if you hit
Speaker 1: this button and hold it on the side, and then.
Speaker 2: You'd be shocked. How many y'all don't want to y'all
Speaker 2: don't want to learn nowting today, you would be shocked
Speaker 2: because I'm gonna tell you a secret.
Speaker 1: There is no way that we can take it to
Speaker 1: Somebody says too much. We can't take it all in
Speaker 1: and still have room for the piece of God you're
Speaker 1: praying for the peace of God.
Speaker 2: God doesn't have anywhere to put it. Your mind is
Speaker 2: too fool.
Speaker 1: You were not designed to have the entirety of the
Speaker 1: conversation of the whole human race buzzing on your back pocket,
Speaker 1: on your butt phone, just walking around like snipers.
Speaker 2: What did they say?
Speaker 1: Where did they go on vacation? What about that press conference?
Speaker 1: It was not supposed to be this way. Of course
Speaker 1: we're freaking out. Of course we're zombies. Of Course we're
Speaker 1: numbing ourselves and drinking and smoking and popping. Of course
Speaker 1: we can't stop it would the devil's got a shock
Speaker 1: collar on our back.
Speaker 2: Pocket and we don't even know where.
Speaker 1: Now are messing up my seminar, sithown my salminar. So
Speaker 1: you want me to give you inspiration for forty five
Speaker 1: minutes every week, and you're gonna lay it over top
Speaker 1: of seventeen hours of media that is designed to hardwire
Speaker 1: the way you think, Yes, what hope?
Speaker 2: Do we have to have peace if we don't make
Speaker 2: a place for it.
Speaker 1: And they used to teach me in youth camph this
Speaker 1: saying called garbage in, garbage out, and it was basically
Speaker 1: a way of saying, don't listen to rock and roll
Speaker 1: music and watch bad movies.
Speaker 2: And there's some good to that too. I think you
Speaker 2: got to be.
Speaker 1: In tune with your conscience in terms of what creates
Speaker 1: a sense of darkness, and you have to know that,
Speaker 1: and we should make rules for each other. But say,
Speaker 1: God search me. I think that's very good. But I
Speaker 1: also think that sometimes what we don't take in is
Speaker 1: just as fatal to our faith as what we do
Speaker 1: take in. I think some of us are on a
Speaker 1: spiritual starvation diet.
Speaker 2: And we don't even know.
Speaker 1: It, and so we have faith that we don't feed,
Speaker 1: and then we cannot access strength that we actually possess
Speaker 1: if we feed it. And so you've got to get
Speaker 1: your intake levels up.
Speaker 2: You've got to buck.
Speaker 1: When he first started trying to get me to work
Speaker 1: out more, he said, the first thing I want you
Speaker 1: to do, Because he was telling me the only way
Speaker 1: for me to get the result I wanted, he said,
Speaker 1: you got to.
Speaker 2: Do two things.
Speaker 1: What was that little cheesy motivational poster you had up
Speaker 1: in your gym. You can't out train a bad diet,
Speaker 1: is that what it said? And he was like, so
Speaker 1: I want you to keep a food law and write
Speaker 1: down everything you eat. And I didn't do it, but
Speaker 1: I thought it's a good idea because before I can
Speaker 1: change what I take in, I need to know track
Speaker 1: what I take in. I wonder what it would look
Speaker 1: like if you kept a thought log of just what
Speaker 1: you let in. So if you let the enemy in
Speaker 1: and then pray for God to drive him out, it
Speaker 1: creates a cycle where you are creating your own state
Speaker 1: of mind that you're trying to pray away. So there
Speaker 1: has to be a knowledge search me God. You have
Speaker 1: to let God show you. You have to let his
Speaker 1: eye see what it is that you're taking in. And
Speaker 1: I even mean this in terms of relationships. Some of
Speaker 1: the people that you are around are draining your faith.
Speaker 1: And I know you have to be around them a
Speaker 1: little bit, but you might need to put on a
Speaker 1: little protective yeah, like UVS seventy five, seventy five spiritual
Speaker 1: protection seventy five, just to get around them. And I
Speaker 1: think it would be good sometimes for us to check
Speaker 1: our intake levels. Oh well, you know what, I didn't
Speaker 1: read a Bible verse since the last time they put
Speaker 1: one on the screen for me at Elevation Church. I
Speaker 1: got all these apps on my phone, and ninety seven
Speaker 1: percent of them are empty calories A mastered Candy Crush.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying don't play Candy Crush because Hollywood leave
Speaker 1: me if I put that out there in the universe.
Speaker 2: She loves candy Crush. But I'm pretty.
Speaker 1: Concerned sometimes that we're filling ourselves with empty calories and
Speaker 1: then so we're weak in the battle, and we wonder,
Speaker 1: why check your intake. It's good, isn't it. It's good
Speaker 1: teaching because your intake, your intake levels have to be balanced.
Speaker 1: The second thing I want you to write down is imbalance.
Speaker 2: Check for imbalance. I don't mean chemical imbalance.
Speaker 1: That's beyond my purview, but I do mean that when
Speaker 1: you don't have a sense of what's important in your life,
Speaker 1: when you don't have a sense of priority in your
Speaker 1: life and everything feels urgent, it's a sign that you
Speaker 1: haven't figured out what's really important. Now you are open
Speaker 1: to everybody's demand, and they all take up equal space.
Speaker 1: And so by saying yes to people who don't really matter,
Speaker 1: you say an automatic no to those who do. By
Speaker 1: saying yes to people who essentially are using you in
Speaker 1: order to achieve their own goals, now you find yourself
Speaker 1: unable to give because you are a limited resource to
Speaker 1: the people that God has entrusted to your care the most.
Speaker 1: So I have to have watched this a sense of balance.
Speaker 1: I could preach about balance. You know, you've got to
Speaker 1: work out and pray and eat and all of that,
Speaker 1: but this is not that kind of seminar. What I
Speaker 1: mean is you've got to be balanced in what you
Speaker 1: give weight to. That's what I mean is that sometimes
Speaker 1: we are stressed out because we are giving too much
Speaker 1: weight to the wrong words and not enough weight to
Speaker 1: the right words. And so we're out of balance because
Speaker 1: we have this feed, and everything on our feed is
Speaker 1: the same size, and because it's all the same size,
Speaker 1: we think it carries the same weight. So we live
Speaker 1: in a state of stress because we haven't learned how
Speaker 1: to weigh it out. You've got to weigh it out
Speaker 1: when someone doesn't like you. Sometimes it doesn't matter depends
Speaker 1: on who they are. Well are pulling on me. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna start telling you things I shouldn't. The other week,
Speaker 1: someone was telling me that there was somebody who hated
Speaker 1: our church and came and said it wasn't that bad.
Speaker 2: I said, I don't care. I knew it wasn't that bad.
Speaker 1: In fact, not only was it not that bad, it's
Speaker 1: freaking awesome. Tell him, I said, I didn't need them
Speaker 1: to validate something that I.
Speaker 2: See every week. Thank you very much. I already know
Speaker 2: God is in this place. I already know He is
Speaker 2: glorious in this place. I'm glad you think it's not
Speaker 2: that bad.
Speaker 1: But I wasn't really waiting for you to hand me
Speaker 1: the award for not that bad. It was not that
Speaker 1: bad before you decided it was not that bad. And
Speaker 1: so I was talking to a guy one time about
Speaker 1: something here at the church that was complicated, and I
Speaker 1: gave him a thirty minute speech asking for his advice.
Speaker 1: I got my notebook ready to hear what he would
Speaker 1: tell me. After I listed everything that was happening, and
Speaker 1: he goes, He goes, Steven.
Speaker 2: It doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: So I wrote that down, you know, point one, because
Speaker 1: I need you to tell me what to do. And
Speaker 1: do you know he didn't say another word. It just
Speaker 1: turned to the person next to you and look at
Speaker 1: him and say their name. If you know their name,
Speaker 1: say Stephen. Tell them it doesn't matter.
Speaker 2: No, you got to tell him with that a little
Speaker 2: bit of.
Speaker 1: You gotta do it from your diaphragm ready, tell them
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter.
Speaker 2: Now what you just said.
Speaker 1: Is true about ninety nine point nine nine nine nine
Speaker 1: nine nine nine nine nine nine nine seven three percent
Speaker 1: scientific number of what they're staying up worried about. And
Speaker 1: one time I was laying in my bed at night
Speaker 1: and worrying about something and God spoke to me through
Speaker 1: his spirit. You're staying awake worrying about something that I've
Speaker 1: already worked out. Now, when you give weight to that
Speaker 1: promise from God, when you give weight to the right things.
Speaker 1: When when I give weight, when I have a clear
Speaker 1: sense of priority in my life, I'm okay if people
Speaker 1: are angry if I say no, because my no is
Speaker 1: a yes to something that.
Speaker 2: I already decided was more important.
Speaker 1: Than what any given demand might require of me at
Speaker 1: any given moment. And this is the thing that that
Speaker 1: I'm coming.
Speaker 2: To realize is that Christ is the solid rock. But
Speaker 2: if you don't know how to stand on that rock.
Speaker 1: With the right balance, the devil will push you around,
Speaker 1: and you will always steel unsettled, and you will always
Speaker 1: feel tossed in turn. But when you make up your
Speaker 1: mind what does matter and what doesn't matter, let me
Speaker 1: help you out a little bit. What doesn't matter, what
Speaker 1: they think? What does matter? What God knows? Search me,
Speaker 1: God know my mind, tests me, You see you sneak
Speaker 1: to me.
Speaker 2: It doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: He was so right what he was talking about didn't matter.
Speaker 1: In fact, I thought about writing a book and calling
Speaker 1: the book it doesn't matter, And I've already got my
Speaker 1: subtitle figured out, really, and my first chapter will be
Speaker 1: called at all. I feel somebody getting their balance back,
Speaker 1: getting your equilibrium back.
Speaker 2: You're seeing it right now. For what it is, This
Speaker 2: doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: This matters that I keep my faith, that I keep
Speaker 1: a grateful attitude, that I don't let my situation contaminate
Speaker 1: my spirit.
Speaker 2: This matters, not that. This matters, not.
Speaker 1: That, because if you don't sort this out, you will
Speaker 1: live in constant imprisonment to your own indecision. Put that
Speaker 1: one down as number three. We're making terrible time. Indecision
Speaker 1: is a prison. So I want you to make three
Speaker 1: decisions before Wednesday. If you're watching this in a MIDWEK
Speaker 1: worship experience, you're running short on time. The clacus counting.
Speaker 1: I want you to set a d day. All you
Speaker 1: procrastinators and you're claiming to be thorough, I want you
Speaker 1: to make I want you to make three decisions this week.
Speaker 2: I want you to do it. I want you to
Speaker 2: set aside a day this week.
Speaker 1: Sit down, have four cups of coffee so you numb
Speaker 1: your rationale, rational thinking processes, and go in.
Speaker 2: And just make them. Just make the decisions.
Speaker 1: And if you make dumb ones, apologize, But.
Speaker 2: Make the decision.
Speaker 1: My god, fifteen minutes to decide chicken or shrimp in
Speaker 1: a restaurant.
Speaker 2: I'm serious.
Speaker 1: You've been dating her seven and a half years and
Speaker 1: you can't decide if she the one.
Speaker 2: Well, if she's not, get.
Speaker 1: Out of the way. Oh I'm prison Now I dis
Speaker 1: got somebody in Diamond.
Speaker 2: You want to name your kids Stephen, do it or
Speaker 2: go do it? Or do.
Speaker 1: Buy the house or dope sell the house or dope
Speaker 1: stay in Raleigh or dope do it or don't.
Speaker 2: You can always move back.
Speaker 1: And now we're making up more stuff to give us
Speaker 1: opportunities for anxiety, and we call it options. I don't
Speaker 1: know if it was just growing up in Monk's Corner,
Speaker 1: you didn't have to decide where to send your kids
Speaker 1: to school.
Speaker 2: There were two. I moved to Charlotte. I never saw
Speaker 2: anything like it. It's crazy. It's killing too many options.
Speaker 1: I just want gash not a surpee, not a car wash,
Speaker 1: not a pack massage, just Gashy's some many OSSes.
Speaker 2: I did it this week.
Speaker 1: I went in I was I was selling that anxiety.
Speaker 1: And I told Jess to send over my notes for
Speaker 1: my Why am I anxious?
Speaker 2: Teaching? Because I felt like I needed my own notes.
Speaker 2: And I don't keep them.
Speaker 1: After I write them, I give them a scratch them
Speaker 1: down and then give them away. But somebody else keeps them,
Speaker 1: and so I said, give me.
Speaker 2: The notes and send them over. I need them. She said,
Speaker 2: are you gonna teach it? I said, no, I need
Speaker 2: to live it. I was feeling all unsettled, and.
Speaker 1: I went through my list and I found this one.
Speaker 1: And the Holy Spirit hit me and said, you're very
Speaker 1: indecisive right now.
Speaker 2: Everything everybody asks you, you're going, hey, when do we get
Speaker 2: back to that.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go through the roo a few Then you're
Speaker 1: not going through a few things. You're not talking, you're
Speaker 1: not praying anything like that. Just wait until it comes
Speaker 1: around again. And it was because I mean the way
Speaker 1: that I was handling things, and so I just came
Speaker 1: in that day.
Speaker 2: I made three decisions. I felt I felt like.
Speaker 1: I felt like I had spent a day at a
Speaker 1: spa just by making three decisions.
Speaker 2: And they all started with and ended with oh, And
Speaker 2: it felt so good. It felt so good. No, try it,
Speaker 2: try it one, two, three.
Speaker 1: No, Now, this only works.
Speaker 2: This only works if.
Speaker 1: You are living with integrity. This only works if you
Speaker 1: are living with integrity. And sometimes my anxiety as a
Speaker 1: result of a compromise in my integrity, it's kind of
Speaker 1: hard to have a peaceful heart. When you're hiding secrets
Speaker 1: and feel like a hypocrite. It's kind of hard to
Speaker 1: have a peaceful heart when you're having to hope that
Speaker 1: your wife doesn't check your phone.
Speaker 2: To see certain text message. It's kind of hard to
Speaker 2: have a peaceful heart when.
Speaker 1: You have three snapchats and the one that your parents
Speaker 1: think is your snapchat is just a decoy.
Speaker 2: And now you're asking God.
Speaker 1: To give you peace, but your life is so many
Speaker 1: different pieces.
Speaker 2: The word integrity means whole whole.
Speaker 1: Like in math class they taught us about integers, whole numbers,
Speaker 1: whole integrity, everything all one person, all the time. And
Speaker 1: when there are three different means that I have to
Speaker 1: manage for every different situation, it's kind of hard to
Speaker 1: pray to panic away.
Speaker 2: When my own lifestyle is creating it.
Speaker 1: When I'm trying to figure out which mask to wear
Speaker 1: at church and no one will see into my situation
Speaker 1: at home, when there's work me and after work me,
Speaker 1: and Friday night me and nine thirty Sunday morning me,
Speaker 1: it's kind of hard for me to have peace when
Speaker 1: my foundation is cracked. It's kind of hard for me
Speaker 1: to manage all those different means because I might send
Speaker 1: out the wrong one at the wrong time.
Speaker 2: Have you ever done that?
Speaker 1: Oh, I'm at the same preacher me out there right now.
Speaker 1: It's kind of hard for me to ask God to
Speaker 1: bless a life that is divided in so many different directions. Now,
Speaker 1: I don't mean by this that you have to interact
Speaker 1: with everybody.
Speaker 2: On the same level. For instance, if we were to meet.
Speaker 1: At Pizza Hut, I wouldn't talk at this volume.
Speaker 2: Do you know I would modulate.
Speaker 1: People say, well, you should be the same on stage
Speaker 1: that you are out in public.
Speaker 2: Well, that would be obnoxious.
Speaker 1: Can you imagine touch three people at the baseball field?
Speaker 2: Scandalous? Touch?
Speaker 3: What what I am saying is that although you might
Speaker 3: bring a different approach to different situations, that the essential
Speaker 3: nature of who you are remains unchanged in every encounter.
Speaker 1: So it shouldn't be like that for my family to
Speaker 1: watch me preach and go like who was that? It
Speaker 1: shouldn't be like that. It should feel like a continuation.
Speaker 1: Somebody shouldn't see you on the television program and go
Speaker 1: you go to church. I heard you say hallelujah on
Speaker 1: the church service, but I hear you say some others
Speaker 1: and is costing you your peace. I'm not condemning you.
Speaker 1: I'm telling you you might be anxious sometimes because you
Speaker 1: are trying to manage so many different versions of you.
Speaker 1: And if you would bring it all together and just
Speaker 1: be honest before God and just ask God what David
Speaker 1: search me, know my heart and if the way I'm
Speaker 1: doing it is wrong.
Speaker 2: I want to be changed.
Speaker 1: I'm already accepted because of what Jesus Christ has done
Speaker 1: for me. Now, God, help me to align my life
Speaker 1: with what you made me to be so that I
Speaker 1: can be the real me. I want to be the
Speaker 1: real me, the highest version of me, that called me,
Speaker 1: that chosen me, that secure me, that stable me, that
Speaker 1: God loves me. And I don't have to prove anything
Speaker 1: to anyone.
Speaker 2: This is my child with Him, with her.
Speaker 1: I well, please, I don't have to be anybody else.
Speaker 1: And my cortisol levels just dropped just by being the
Speaker 1: real me because all that other layers of stuff.
Speaker 2: And all that anger, that's not the real you, not
Speaker 2: in Christ. That's what David is getting to the bottom of.
Speaker 1: Did you notice that all of my points are starting
Speaker 1: with the same letter, the letter I.
Speaker 2: I figure that's.
Speaker 1: A common denominator in a lot of our anxiety, search
Speaker 1: me God, your eyes can see God's eyes.
Speaker 2: God see beneath the surface of what the situation is.
Speaker 1: Anxious because of my money, and I'm anxious because of
Speaker 1: my help, and I'm anxious because my mom.
Speaker 2: No no, no, no no. That might trigger it.
Speaker 1: But the truth of God's word can enable your heart
Speaker 1: to transcend. This is what the New Testament preaches, is
Speaker 1: that the peace of God will actually pass all understanding
Speaker 1: and guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. So,
Speaker 1: no matter what triggers the anxiety in any situation, David said, search.
Speaker 2: Me and know me.
Speaker 1: And sometimes I have to fix my intention. Sometimes I
Speaker 1: can reduce my anxiety just by shifting my intention, just
Speaker 1: by going from you know, how how are people thinking
Speaker 1: about me?
Speaker 2: To realizing they're not.
Speaker 1: Maybe if I would think about others, you know, why
Speaker 1: didn't she speak to me?
Speaker 2: Why didn't you speak to her? How about that? Why
Speaker 2: didn't you? Why didn't you? When when I'm when I'm.
Speaker 1: Up here, a lot of times I can get locked
Speaker 1: into performance mode real quick, and it makes for a
Speaker 1: thirsty sermon. It's not the best sermon. It's hard to
Speaker 1: give living water when the preacher is thirsty. But when
Speaker 1: I shift my intention and go and I hope this
Speaker 1: doesn't offend you.
Speaker 2: But sometimes I make up stuff about you.
Speaker 1: I just look in your eyes and pretend like you're
Speaker 1: going through something horrible.
Speaker 2: I do. I just picture it like you, just do
Speaker 2: it on the.
Speaker 1: Verge, and just by wanting to help you rather than
Speaker 1: perform for you.
Speaker 2: When I shift my intention, it just.
Speaker 1: I just I feel something fall off when I do.
Speaker 2: You can shift your.
Speaker 1: Intention in any interaction, and immediately when you do, when
Speaker 1: you step out of the center and try to see
Speaker 1: how can I serve? I'll tell you what will go
Speaker 1: when you step out of the ciner. The burden of
Speaker 1: the weight of how you're coming across, the burden of
Speaker 1: the weight of how you're being perceived, the burden of
Speaker 1: the weight of what other people are and are not
Speaker 1: giving you. You have got to get out of the
Speaker 1: middle and see things from God's point of view. Search me, God,
Speaker 1: Am I anxious because it's just the rhythms of life?
Speaker 2: Then fine, I'll get through it.
Speaker 1: Or am I creating more waves than necessary because.
Speaker 2: My eyes are not focused on Jesus?
Speaker 1: I found out a lot of it is not even real.
Speaker 1: Have you noticed that a lot of it is in
Speaker 1: this sacred place that God has given.
Speaker 2: Us by which he shows us who he is.
Speaker 1: It's the sacred space of your imagination. I want you
Speaker 1: to reclaim your imagination.
Speaker 2: You hear me.
Speaker 1: I want you to take back your most valuable asset.
Speaker 1: I want you to tell take back that place in
Speaker 1: you that used to be playful, and now it is
Speaker 1: so it is so stressed and panicked, that that placed
Speaker 1: in you that used to just make up games as
Speaker 1: a little kid, just make up games, just would walk
Speaker 1: up to anybody. I want you to get get back
Speaker 1: that childlike faith. Just play around, just play around. See,
Speaker 1: the devil wants to turn the place that was meant
Speaker 1: to be your playground where you can enjoy God into
Speaker 1: a battleground where you can't even.
Speaker 2: Feel or experience him.
Speaker 1: When the enemy comes after your destiny, his first step
Speaker 1: is to set up a stronghold in your imagination. The
Speaker 1: enemy wants to make it where you can't stand to
Speaker 1: be alone because you've got an internal isis that has
Speaker 1: set up.
Speaker 2: Terror at cells.
Speaker 1: And every time you go to think, you worry so
Speaker 1: much about what might happen that you can't worship God.
Speaker 1: So now you can't worship because you're so worried. But
Speaker 1: God said, today we're gonna get this thing turned around
Speaker 1: and recapture your imagination.
Speaker 2: To where you feel free again, to where you.
Speaker 1: Can dream about something again, to where you can think
Speaker 1: and think, think crazy thoughts, and just write stuff down
Speaker 1: and just walk around seeing your stuff off tune, make
Speaker 1: it up.
Speaker 2: Words. You used to do that, you used to do that,
Speaker 2: you used to walk around with just anything, but now anything.
Speaker 2: I told the devil the other day, get your hands
Speaker 2: off God's property. My imagination is God's house.
Speaker 1: My imagination was purchased with the blood of Christ.
Speaker 2: You can't set up camp here.
Speaker 1: I got dreams to dream, I got visions to see.
Speaker 2: I got a future to imagine.
Speaker 1: The good news is, if you're really good at worrying,
Speaker 1: you're gonna be great at worship because all it is
Speaker 1: is the same imagination serving the opposite purpose.
Speaker 2: So what I'm doing now, y'll help me preach. I'm
Speaker 2: about the close. I'm about the close.
Speaker 1: But before I close, God said, we need to we
Speaker 1: need to reverse the cycle of the way that you're
Speaker 1: thinking about things. We need to reverse the cycle. So
Speaker 1: when you wake up in the morning, stop checking the
Speaker 1: fear casts. Stop waking up in the morning and thinking
Speaker 1: about how every possible meeting could go wrong, and you
Speaker 1: don't have anything clean, and you wore that on Tuesday.
Speaker 1: I promise you nobody has been keeping a spreadsheet.
Speaker 2: Of your shoes.
Speaker 1: Put on those same shoes you wore Tuesday, and walk
Speaker 1: into your Thursday and expect to see the goodness of
Speaker 1: the Lord where you have faith? People, Do I have
Speaker 1: any faith casts in the house, David Saidema, take the wings.
Speaker 2: Of morning, or dwelling the othermost part of the sea.
Speaker 2: Watch this. Even there, your hand will lead me.
Speaker 1: In.
Speaker 2: Your right hand will hold me.
Speaker 1: Fast because God is watching over me, and he's looking
Speaker 1: into me. I didn't check the fear cast this week.
Speaker 1: I checked the faith cast. It's corny, but I bet
Speaker 1: you it'll drive back depression if you check the faith.
Speaker 2: Cast, because God has been too good for me to
Speaker 2: stay anxious. How many did I give you? I heard
Speaker 2: a sermon one time. It said doing stuff on six
Speaker 2: So stand up. I'll tell you. Stand up. I'll tell
Speaker 2: you the last thing.
Speaker 1: When you stand up, it makes me know I'm out
Speaker 1: of time. Because the enemy wants to fight you in isolation.
Speaker 2: Why am I anxious.
Speaker 1: I think the answer to that question can often be
Speaker 1: found right in the middle of the very word itself.
Speaker 2: The word anxious.
Speaker 1: Right in the middle of the word is the letter I.
Speaker 1: I was looking at it a few weeks ago, and
Speaker 1: I was just looking at the word anxious, and I
Speaker 1: was thinking, why should I feel discouraged?
Speaker 2: Why did the shadows come? Why should my heart feel lonely?
Speaker 1: When Jesus is my portion, a constant friend is hee
Speaker 1: when his.
Speaker 2: Eye is watching over my life.
Speaker 1: David said, you were there for my conception, and you
Speaker 1: have been there for every conflict and every.
Speaker 2: Season of my life.
Speaker 1: David wrote this beautiful song, although we cannot pinpoint the occasion.
Speaker 1: Many think it was at the occasion of his coronation
Speaker 1: as the king over both the Southern and the Northern Kingdom.
Speaker 1: It really doesn't matter when he wrote it, because God
Speaker 1: was watching over every stage of his process.
Speaker 2: And David says, God.
Speaker 1: I want you to show me what's really making me anxious,
Speaker 1: so I don't spend the rest of my life waiting
Speaker 1: for my enemies to disappear before I choose to have peace.
Speaker 1: And I was looking at the very word, and I
Speaker 1: saw something.
Speaker 2: That is right in the middle of anxious. But the
Speaker 2: word ends with us, and.
Speaker 1: I was thinking about what we do in coming to church,
Speaker 1: you know, for our weekly reminder that we're not the
Speaker 1: only ones. We are not the only ones. You're not
Speaker 1: even going to be able to leave church today without
Speaker 1: having to make a decision whether to apply this message,
Speaker 1: because many of you don't have the support system that
Speaker 1: you need to walk in the peace.
Speaker 2: That you're praying for.
Speaker 1: When you walk out today, there's going to be balloons
Speaker 1: and grown men in pink T shirts and youth in
Speaker 1: white T shirts to sign you up for whatever age
Speaker 1: or stage of life that you're in for these groups
Speaker 1: that we put together within the church a place for
Speaker 1: you to come and actually take the message water. What
Speaker 1: good is the seed of the Word of God if
Speaker 1: there's no water applied during the week, dying of thirst,
Speaker 1: faith dehydrated. But it ends when I becomes us. Real
Speaker 1: change happens there when you get in and say, you
Speaker 1: know this week, man, I at this moment where I
Speaker 1: almost said.
Speaker 2: It, And then the dude over there in the corner
Speaker 2: who never speaks.
Speaker 1: Speaks up and goes, yeah, me too, And you look
Speaker 1: at him and you're so glad because.
Speaker 2: When you came in, you felt like it was just you.
Speaker 2: But somebody say, it's not just you. It's not just you.
Speaker 1: We came into the presence of God today to be
Speaker 1: surrounded by like minded people.
Speaker 2: But let me tell you something.
Speaker 1: You got to stay surrounded to say a peace. So
Speaker 1: I want to challenge you this week to take my
Speaker 1: ominar and go through it.
Speaker 2: Why do you always.
Speaker 1: Talk about Zaxby's on the way out of church and
Speaker 1: never take a moment and just digest what you heard,
Speaker 1: act on what you.
Speaker 2: Heard, and ask God what David did? In fact? Can
Speaker 2: we do it for a moment? Can we just be
Speaker 2: still for a moment and even.
Speaker 1: Lift our hands If you feel comfortable lifting your hands,
Speaker 1: it puts you in a posture where you're no longer
Speaker 1: self conscious, but you're more God conscious.
Speaker 2: And just pray this Father, show me.
Speaker 1: The ways that I'm thinking that are preventing your peace
Speaker 1: from flooding my life.
Speaker 2: Stay right there for a moment.
Speaker 1: I believe this week God is going to show you
Speaker 1: decisions that need.
Speaker 2: To be made and how to make them. I believe
Speaker 2: that when you will.
Speaker 1: Get in His presence and ingest the.
Speaker 2: Pure milk of the Word of God, the pure air
Speaker 2: of worship.
Speaker 1: Come out of the air of anxiety that the world
Speaker 1: is suffocating with, and come up to an altitude where
Speaker 1: you can breathe the breath and the grace of God,
Speaker 1: that the peace of God that transcends all understanding with
Speaker 1: God your heart and your mind. In Christ Jesus, I
Speaker 1: declare this over you today, regardless of your situation. I
Speaker 1: declare this over you today, regardless of your diagnosis. I
Speaker 1: declare this to you today in the name that is
Speaker 1: above every name, the name at which demons tremble. We
Speaker 1: don't tremble before demons. Demons tremble before the name of Jesus.
Speaker 1: And we speak peace to storms.
Speaker 2: In our soul today in the name of Jesus. Thank
Speaker 2: you for joining us.
Speaker 1: Special thanks to those of you who give generously to
Speaker 1: this ministry. Is because of you, this ministry is possible.
Speaker 1: You can click the link in the description to give
Speaker 1: now or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast.
Speaker 2: For more information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you
Speaker 2: can subscribe. You can share it with your friends.
Speaker 1: You can click the share button, take a screenshot and
Speaker 1: share it on your social stories and tag us at
Speaker 1: Elevation Church, Thanks again for listening.
Speaker 2: God bless you.