Peace/Anxiety | Part 1

Wow, If you didn't have anxiety before you walked in. Just the base at the end. It's like now it's ominous. Now that I've created anxiety in you, now let's talk about it. Hey. How's it going? Good morning. It's good to be back. Fun to be here. Hey, if you're new here, you just found an amazing church.

And the reason you'll know it's amazing is just look around at the people that are here. They're they're awesome. And and it's great. I'm glad you're here. If you're watching online, we're glad you're here. And if you're watching online and you've never actually been here in person, I'd encourage you to come by in person. We don't bite or at least most of us don't. So it'll be a good thing. So it's good to be here. But hey, we're talking about anxiety

and and how to pursue peace in this for the next few weeks. And I just wanted to share I I wanted to share one of the things that gives me an anxiety. And I really thought come in that this is gonna sound dumb because what I get anxiety over

is gonna be like if you really struggle from anxiety, you're gonna think this guy's an idiot. And some of you thought that before I opened my mouth but that's okay. But but the reality is and I thought about it and I think with a lot of us when we have anxiety,

some of it is we feel like we're the only one that feels this way and this anxiety people think is dumb and I have anxiety because I shouldn't have anxiety and now I feel bad about that. So here we go. Here's one thing that causes me anxiety. I love movies. I

love to be there opening night especially if it's a big superhero movie or something. But up until they started to have that ability to buy your actual seat, going on opening night caused me great anxiety.

I I I didn't like going. And maybe you're there with me. But and you know what, as I thought about it, it was deeper than just if you're gonna go opening night and and have a decent seat, you gotta get there way early, sit behind that little rope line and and wait. And then I did. And you know, that even caused me anxiety because then I get about, hey, where am I going to get my, know, this

crowd. And then people come in and the person that's up in front of you, all of sudden their six friends come and go into the rope and you start going, this is pushing me back. You know, and then you get all mad at that. I have a very similar anxiety compared to it, is is is like flying Southwest Airlines. I love Southwest. I think it's the greatest airline on the planet. I can't handle their boarding procedure.

I I I can't handle it. And it's not because you gotta get there early, you gotta stand in line, you gotta you gotta do all of those kind of things. It's it's it's it's more than that. And it's more than just the lack of control. I realized what is I am not comfortable in those scenarios till I have my seat.

I don't mind being early. I don't mind waiting around especially if I'm with friends. You talk a lot. So you think while you're standing in line, I'll relax. We'll just talk and have a good time. I can't relax.

I want my seat. In an airplane, I want to get on that plane as quickly as possible. Then once I'm on, I'm like, when am I gonna get off this thing? And and and so so the I realized when I looked at this weird anxiety, it only it was it was actually something deeper. That that's just another symptom of where it pops out.

And the more I thought I realized where does that really come from? And that anxiety is not about the time. It's not about the crowds. I like crowds of people. It's it was simply this. I get anxiety over what ifs. It's all the what ifs.

It's all the what ifs that come at you. Like in a movie, it's like, well, if I don't use it? What if what if 17 more people have five friends coming and I'm gonna get pushed back and I'm gonna end up at the terrible seat even though I came here two hours early. Know, what if this happens? What if that doesn't happen? What if and and and and then, you know, and I realized that's where a lot of anxiety came to me as a parent. I get anxious as a parent because kids bring a whole new set of what ifs. And then I didn't realize no one ever told me this. Two of my three have moved out. You think you get them to that end? I could check off the list. Right. One, two less two two thirds of my what ifs aren't on what ifs anymore. What they don't tell you is the what ifs get worse when they move out. I'm just telling you. You got a toddler and you think it's like the most terrifying thing in your world. Wait till they move out. You know why? Once they move out, you know it's a 100% did I do my job or not? And

if you're honest, one of our biggest what ifs is I don't think I was a very good parent. And now I'm gonna pay the price because I don't trust them out there on their own because I know what kind of a parent I was. Know? You get all those what ifs. Right? And so I realized that when I get too many what ifs going on,

it snaps me into what I call my anxiety depression loop. It's this loop. And I wanna describe it to you. But first, I wanna give a little bit of a disclaimer before you go any further. Because we're about to go into this, how do you get peace? And how do you deal with anxiety?

And the reality is a lot of sermons, and when you come to church, you they might not directly say this, but whenever they're dealing with something that might involve mental health, you get some version of feeling like you're told, if you just love Jesus enough, you don't need the counseling. If you just love Jesus enough,

you don't need to take any medication. Well, what we've discovered with a lot of mental health stuff is there is very physical cause, almost like an actual disease. You can have brain chemistry issues. You can have a lot of things where you need to be on that medication.

And I want to say I'm sorry if you've ever been in you're in that scenario and you're like, here it comes again. You're going to be getting anxiety over being told that and feeling like you're a failure because you have to use the medication because you don't love Jesus enough. And that's that's just as ridiculous as I grew up as an asthmatic. There's an actual physical thing. Now, what my mom taught me when I was little was that when you start to have an asthma attack, you're in trouble, you're breathing, or you're sick. She taught me how to calm myself.

And you know what? It helped out. I would be as a seven year old, six year old. I'd be in like the ER because in the end, and there'd be other asthmatic kids and they would get so panicky that they would that would make it worse. And they'd literally pass out and sometimes die.

So what my mom taught me helped me cope with it and manage through it. But that doesn't mean it cured my asthma. That doesn't mean I didn't need my asthma medication. So I'm just telling you, don't hear what I'm not saying in this series. But what we are going to talk about

is the very heart of what we should be doing with anxiety And how can we manage it? And for some of us, if we just apply these principles, we don't need medication.

We don't need this stuff. This is going to fix our anxiety struggle if we apply what we're talking about. But what I'm gonna tell you right now, spoiler alert, is if you're looking to get to a place in your life where you never feel anxiety, that place doesn't exist. That's

not what we're looking for. So what happens to me with anxiety? Maybe you can relate so we can understand what we're talking about before I wanna jump into a passage that addresses our big idea for the day. And that is this. What's this loop?

Well, to totally oversimplify, because I'm a preacher. I am not a psychologist, a doctor, or whatever. So I'm paid to put the cookies on the bottom shelf. So by way of way oversimplification,

I know what it means to me and when you talk technical, here's what I think. Anxiety can be summed up super basically as this, an overactive brain. Whereas depression is kind of the flip side. It's the opposite end. And I think depression could be summarized as an underactive brain. So what I mean by that is anxiety

tells me to get up.

It tells me to get up. To get up and do something. Because when you get anxiety you get all these what ifs. You get this list and you know and you're just thinking what if this happens. I better do this. If do I this, I'm gonna look like loser. I do that, I'm gonna let them down. If this doesn't happen, what if they think that? What if they think? And and you start getting that list. And the reason I say it tells you get up, it wakes your brain, and it tells you get up and just go react. Go do. Go do. Go do. And here's the problem. When I act out of anxiety, it's acting out of fearfulness.

And usually the decisions I make and the way I act and treat people is only gonna put me in a scenario to create more anxiety. It's not gonna be good decisions. People usually make terrible decisions in great moments of anxiety.

And and and so anxiety says get up. The other reason I say anxiety says get up is because if you're anything like me, when does anxiety usually hit you the worst? In the middle of the night.

It not only I say get up because it gets you all active, it literally gets you up. Doesn't it? I don't why you know, when when I get hit with any kind of anxiety, I'll pop my eyes wide awake at 3AM for no reason. And I am wide awake. And the first thing I think is, why can I never be this wide awake the instant my alarm goes off? Never.

But anxiety, you know, because anxiety started taking over about 02:45AM. It just started kicking you awake at 3AM. And then you wake up and then and then gets your brain. And what you're doing is you're like, what about this? What about this? What about this? And it won't stop.

Even if you know what you're thinking about, you have this side of your brain that knows this is over exaggerated. I know it. You know it. And and my daughter who struggles with this a bit said, I asked her about this. I go, how do you deal with with these things? She goes, well it's like I have a war in my brain all the time.

Any of you relate to that?

And so you're just boom boom boom boom boom boom boom all the what ifs. Well then for me, all the cortisol, all the stress, all the tiredness, all the weight of trying to run around and make all these things work and happen, and just carrying the weight of all these things in my head, it finally becomes too much.

And then I snap the other direction into depression. Whereas anxiety says get up, depression says give up. Depression's the other end. It's like if this is trying to fix everything myself, my own way, and worry, worry, worry, worry, The other one is I can't handle this weight anymore, so I just shut down.

I don't want to think about anything. And in that cycle there is where I run to unhealthy coping mechanisms.

In the recovery world is like this is when you would relapse. This is when you go after where you form addictions. Where you where you like can drink too much, take drugs, have a sexual addiction. Because what happens is in the process of wanting to shut down. If I just shut down and go into a depressive mood, I want to shut that off and I will grab anything

that just makes me forget for a minute. And then my action there to try to help me cope creates all new issues.

And then as you do see depressed for a while, the new issues I create and the guilt that comes from them and the frustrations. And then I get enough sleep. I just don't literally just like get up, anxiety makes you wake up in the night. Depression makes you literally wanna stay in bed if you get to the extreme of it.

And then all a sudden that, you recover enough to get some energy or whatever. And all of a sudden, all the anxiety floods in over what was already there and all the new what ifs I just created. It's a it's like a ping pong match. And I'm willing to guess, hopefully,

some of you can relate. Can can you relate to what I just said? Just give me some encouragement. Otherwise, I'm gonna get really anxiety riddled and walk off the stage. Go home. Eat a lot of food. Fall asleep on my couch and try to forget I was ever here. So that's the cycle. So if anxiety says get up,

depression says give up, what do we need to do about it? We need to pursue peace. Because peace says look up.

Peace says look up. And I know he's saying, some of you that struggle with this go, that's your answer. Pursue peace. That's exactly what I've always been pursuing. That's my problem. I want to get past the anxiety, past the depression. I just want peace. But you know what we usually say? We never say peace alone. We usually say I just want some peace and You

realize by saying that, that kinda lets us know that we probably have a very distinct definition of peace in mind. Peace and quiet usually means that peace and quiet means peace to me is the absence of problems. Peace to me is I got past all of these issues and I'm at a place where it's my life is quiet now.

So I want peace and quiet. But I but that's the problem. I think our wrong definition of peace actually just gives us more anxiety. And if you've done this long enough, especially as a Christian, you get in this cycle of of of trying to run to Jesus for peace with the wrong definition.

Running after that definition is probably at the very heart of all of your anxiety at some point. Because we need to learn how to have peace without quiet.

Because here's the deal. Here's the big idea we're gonna unpack here. I'm gonna turn to a bible passage that's gonna show us this. Is this. Peace isn't a place. It's a person. Peace is not about where you're at. It's about who you're with. Peace is not getting past. In other words, peace isn't the absence of problems.

It's the presence of Jesus. You're like, well, wait. That doesn't help me. And here's the thing. If you think peace is quiet, peace is getting past problems, peace is not having the boat being rocked, peace is avoiding the storms, then that creates an incredible problem. Because because until you get there

and you're trying to be a Christian, you either think, well I'm never getting there. So there's either something wrong with my love of God or God's love of me. And then that creates a whole anxiety. I guess this Jesus thing doesn't work for me because I'm still in these problems.

So what does that mean? If if peace is a person, how do I pursue peace? How do I even do that? Well, we're gonna be in a couple of passes today. But the first one, we're gonna be in Philippians chapter four.

And I wanna show this to you. Philippians chapter four.

And as we get to these verses, the verse I'm gonna read you probably quoted, especially if you've been someone who's ever struggled with anxiety. You've probably memorized a couple of these verses. I don't know if you've ever taken the time to know the context in which these verses are written.

Because you just rip Bible verses out. You could they can sometimes mean something you don't mean them to mean. You know what I mean? And and so so what's happening is the book of Philippians written to this church in Philippi. It's all your classic like how to be the church, how to and the basic thrust leading up to chapter four has been pursue Jesus.

You really need to and in chapter three even ends with pressing on towards this goal of to mature and really know Jesus in in your life. Well then chapter four, he jumps into some really day to day things that this church is struggling with. And what he's trying to bring to bear is this idea of pursuing Jesus,

of how does that work in in the emotional, relational, and spiritual issues they were having.

And it actually starts off with he's talking about a fight that two people are having in this church. And he goes, you gotta work it out. And they've been great leaders. They've served with them. They've they've gone the distance. They are they're not just a bunch of troublemakers.

And that's causing anxiety. That's causing stress. It's actually affecting the entire church now. And so in the context of trying to deal with real world relations, what he's saying is this is a good church but you're having people problems. That never happens. Right? Churches never have problems because of people.

Actually, I think church would be great if it didn't have people. Right? And so so in that context, he says, you need to work it out. You need to have joy. You need to be considerate. And it's in the context of him trying to apply this to everyday stressful situations. This is where these words are written.

It says, verse six, don't worry about anything. Now, some translations say, be anxious for nothing. I like the clarity of this, but this is one of those moments where I like to be anxious for nothing. Because in our world, when you hear worry, that doesn't sound as as as deep or scary as anxiety.

But you think, I'm worried. If you say I'm worried about something that doesn't sound the same as like, dude, I have anxiety over this. Well, they're both worried and they came from the same Greek word, which literally means don't have anxiety.

So here's here's something that'll get you your anxiety up if you deal with it. We were just commanded to not do that. So does that mean if we're commanded to not have anxiety and you feel anxiety, you're a failure? You're you're actually sinning. Right? To feel anxiety means you you've blown it.

Fortunately, gonna give you a spoiler alert. That's not what it means. But what it does mean, because you can't help feeling anxiety. What it means is you can feel it, but don't follow it. Don't follow the path of anxiety. Because like I already said, when we get filled with anxiety,

we start listing off things and we start thinking about certain things we don't need to. And we start making decisions out of fearfulness, not out of faithfulness. And in the midst of anxiety and worry, we often will choose the path that God says this is the way you need to live your life. But because of the anxiety,

I try to solve it as fast as I can. And I run to what I think is the easiest, most logical answer. And that's why when I have financial troubles, I don't honor God with my money. When I have relational troubles, I run away from community. When when I have see what I mean? It's like when I get in the midst of all of this, I I give up. When I when I have a parenting issue, I stop parenting in a biblical manner. I just I run away from the truth because of all the what ifs make me forget the what ifs.

And and I have that war in my brain. Does that make sense? So he's saying, hey, you can feel anxiety. The feeling's not the problem. It's the path you choose to take with that. That's the problem. And you know why it's a problem? Because if if you think

that that meant you should never worry, and you think you can get to this point where you don't feel anxiety, I don't know what planet you think you're on. But we live in a world that I think it's impossible to escape ever feeling anxiety. Especially because the world we live in now.

I believe very strongly as do many, many, many, many experts

that we live in a world that's part of the reason we have more and more anxiety. Part of the reason why there's more depression in teenagers. And part of the reason is because we live in a world now that we are not only dealing with our own what ifs, we now live in a culture that we have so much information coming at us and so much access to stuff and social media platforms and digital and news and all this stuff that we are getting

so many what ifs from everywhere else laid upon our own soul. And I don't think our human souls were created to handle that many stories. They just weren't. And yet, we have now gotten so used to it that the very thing that crushes us, we are now addicted to. We can't look away,

but it's sucking us in. Here's what I mean by this. I got a few stats. You're gonna be blown away by this. Every two days, the human race is now generating as much data, information, new stories, new stuff. Every two days, we're generating as much data that was generated from the dawn of humanity until 2003. Every two days.

Another way to put it is, we are exposed to as much information in a day as our fifteenth century ancestors. Now I'll do the math for you. Fifteenth century means it's the 14 hundreds. I know that's weird. But I was born in the twentieth century, which was the 19.

Not earlier twentieth century like most people think. A little bit later on. But but so this is in the 14. So we are exposed to as much information, stories, data, everything in one day as they were in an entire lifetime.

And us Americans, the average American spends more than four hundred ninety minutes of their day. That's a little over eight hours. I did the math. I don't know why researchers put it in minutes. It's a little over eight hours. Eight hours, a little over eight hours a day consuming some sort of digital media.

We spent eight hours a day adding more stories and more data. And if you're a teenager, you know, if you're you're my age, my my generation, the the the Gen X, We were I remember when computers weren't a thing. They existed, but they weren't an everyday thing until they became a thing. Same with the phones.

I'll come from a generation where our generation is tech savvy. But the younger gen the younger millennials and this new Gen Z, you are tech dependent. You can't exist without tech. I mean, I still have been an age that when I go on vacation, I actually want to leave my phone somewhere.

I'm at the tail end of that. Everyone younger than me goes into a panic attack if they left their phone back at the beach house when we're at the beach.

Like literally, I gotta go back and get it. I gotta go. That's the world we live in.

And why do you think younger people have more depression? There is so much more anxiety. Because not only do you have the stories of your own school has bullied. This is that. All these elements that have always existed, you're now getting it happen in on a social media platform. You're seeing the whole world. You're carrying too many

what ifs. So there's no way to avoid dealing with this. And the idea is peace isn't a place, it's a person. It's not the absence of problems. It's not the absence of this. It's it's it's it's the presence of Jesus is the only way we can deal with this.

And so he says, don't worry about anything. Instead, here we go. He gives us an answer here. Instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank him for all he has done. Then you'll experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. Some translations, a peace that surpasses all understanding.

That should be the first clue that God's peace is not getting you away from problems. Because if you had no problems, how is the peace you have defying all understanding?

If you were able to retire at age 32, sip Mai Tais on a beach somewhere, all your kids are amazing, they all belong, you know, they look like they're the Von Trapp family and all that stuff. That's a really old reference by the way. It's The Sound of Music. Okay? Old man with his cane. And and and and and sorry.

You you if your life seemed perfect and you're like, man, I really have peace. Would anyone be surprised by that? What it's saying is, God's peace, the peace of Jesus. It's this peace that makes no sense because it's in the middle of the problems. In the middle of the anxiety filled moments. You can have a peace.

That's what it's saying. He says his peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in him, as you pursue him. He can guard your heart and mind from all those stories, from all the what ifs. And you can have a peace that, yeah, I feel anxious, but somehow in the midst of all of this trouble, I have a sense of peace.

And he says one more thing you gotta do. And now dear brothers and sisters, verse eight, one final thing. Fix your thought on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent, and worthy of praise. And then he goes on to say, and keep putting into practice all you've learned and received me. Everything you heard from me and saw me doing, Then the God of peace will be with you. So this last thing is you gotta fix your thoughts

on what's true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, admirable, things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Now that's all of God's word. What he's really saying is stop looking at your problems and start looking to the answers. But in a deeper way,

when you hear this, you think, okay, fix my eyes on happy thoughts, good thoughts, biblical thoughts, all that. But you realize what it's literally saying. If you take that list, what or who exists that is absolutely true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and worthy of our worship and praise? Jesus.

You realize what it's saying is not just have this fake it till you make it, think happy thoughts. It's saying, look to Jesus. Period.

And that's really what's so there's this so in this this passage, it basically gives us three things, how to's. Three things of what to do. Three things of what to do. And they're they're simple. It's first says pray about everything. Ask God for help. So the first step when you start to feel anxiety or depression

is you need to talk to God about it. You need to ask him for help. And I go, well, sounds incredibly simple and I've done that before. But ask yourself this question. At what point in the process did you talk to God about it? Did you do what I do often?

The the path of anxiety says, my gosh, try to run out, spin every plate yourself, fix every problem, do everything you could possibly think of. And then when that collapses in on you, at the very end you're like, well, I might as well throw the Hail Mary pass, the desperation

move of all desperation moves, I'll pray about it. What he's saying is you pray first not last.

And then as you pray, you you tell him what's honestly going on and what you think you need and all this stuff. And then it says, not only do you ask God for help, you you need to acknowledge God's goodness and thank him for all of his goodness. And you think this seems I know some of you are struggling and you're like, this seems dumb.

But think about it. You you talk to him first. And then as you pray, you acknowledge his goodness. That shifts your thoughts. Because here's the thing. The way God works his ways aren't our ways. And sometimes, like the song we just sang, he's always up to something good. We're gonna look at this next week a little bit. How what does it mean when it doesn't feel like anything good is happening? Is God up to something good? So you gotta thank him for his goodness that you've always seen in your own life and in the Bible stories. You can see this goodness because it helps you refocus back on the fact that what doesn't feel like good, I gotta trust God has my best interest. That what he's gonna do in the end will lead to good. I have to look at that's one of the reasons we gather as church. The younger generation, a lot of people are starting to talk like, I need is a Bible, a couple friends. I don't need a church. I don't need to go to church. You realize why we come here and gather is to hear the God's word preached, but also to sing. To sing songs like he's always up to something good. It's our rally cry. It's our chance to reposition our thoughts. To refocus our thoughts because otherwise, we got that battle in our brain. If we try to do it on our own, we can we have the most incredible power of self deception.

Humans are really great at self deception. So we need each other to come here and look back to God's goodness. That's the whole like, look at read the Psalms. A lot of the Psalms David's Psalms especially. I mean, they're prayers. They start out. And if you look, most of his Psalms have a pattern. They start off with them talking to God very, very honestly in ways that I almost feel like I can

are we allowed to talk to you like that? Like, you'll go, God, how long are you gonna sit out there and leave me alone? And you know what? Come to think of it, I'm left alone because the enemies, the scumbags,

these these guys, he uses some language in the Hebrew. It's like, can you say that in church? They hate you. They're attacking me and you're letting them live.

He's calling down the lightning on these people. And he starts there, very discouraged, very upset. Here's what I need from you God. But then in the middle he goes, but you know what?

I remember the time you saved me from the lion. I remember the time you saved me from the giant. I remember the time you you I remember that time that you saved Israel. I remember the time that you walked up through the Dead Sea. I remember the time that you got Gilligan off the island. I remember all the times that you were good.

And there's something about that that repositions your thoughts and gives you a hope in that moment. So then by the end, he's declaring the awesomeness of God. And now I am okay now because I am in your presence. And I know I will be in the house of the Lord forever.

So you need to ask God first. Then you need to acknowledge his goodness. And here's the hard thing. You know what the way anxiety says? If you are really in a fire right now.

You're like, how can I tell God he's good with the way I'm feeling right now? Can I tell you something? How is being mad at him helping you any?

Being a Christian, you got to learn. The only way we win is by surrendering. It's the only way we win. So we ask, we acknowledge, and then that fix your thoughts. You adjust what you focus on. Because if I, the way of anxiety,

says I can't look at these other things. I can't follow God these other things. I have to retreat from this because I'm dealing with this mess. I have to reject what is the truth of what God says. Here's how life works. Here's how I'm with you. And and we just stare at the problem. And when you stare at the problem, you did we we learn over and over. You're gonna discover, I like riding bikes. And I have still yet to learn that the idea of where you look, your bike eventually goes.

So I have crashed more times than known to man. And it's because I'm like squirrel. And I drive around and you know how many times I've been looking? I don't even do it on a mountain bike. That is a dangerous place to do that. I'll be like, is that a Gila monster?

And then bam. I go right off the trail and I wipe out. Now I'm laying in a cactus. And I go, yep, that's definitely cactus. I know what that is because it's sticking in me everywhere. And then I gotta get up. And then the idea is when you just stare at your anxiety and try to fix it yourself and your own problems,

you're gonna crash. And when you crash, that's when depression sets in. That's when unhealthy coping mechanism set in. That's when I couldn't fix it, so I'm just gonna run to the thing that makes me forget everything

until the guilt comes running back in, until the anxiety comes back in. So then I run to more of it. That's the problem with unhealthy coping mechanisms. They don't last, and it takes more and more to get less and less. That's the problem. It's a way that seems right to man, but the end it leads to death.

So that's really what he's saying. You gotta ask God, acknowledge, adjust, basically bring all your what ifs to the who is. So how does that work? I wanna look before we close down here. Wanna look at one more story that's it's it's in the Bible.

Because I I I believe that this this story is an Old Testament story. And I believe all these Old Testament that literally happened, we see this incredible moment that God does something great. But now we have the New Testament, we can look at the Old Testament. These are foreshadowing

that what happens in this story very physically, in a very physical, is actually this process working out for us. And we have very physical things, but very spiritual, very emotional things. But it's the same concept

that can be applied and it's found in Daniel chapter three. And if you've ever been in church, you've probably heard the stories about three guys named Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and a fiery furnace incident. How many have heard the story before? Good. You're gonna be shocked at the way we apply it here. So

if you know the story, Israel has been given a time out by another nation has overrun them. Their king is named Nebuchadnezzar.

And what this nation does when they overrun someone and take over, they're pretty smart. They take the best, brightest young leaders, put them in their own training program, send them to Chick fil A u where they can say my pleasure and all those things. And then they put them back in leadership positions in their own land. So it usually placates the people they've just dominated because it's their own people telling them what to do. Well, here's the problem. Historically, that has never worked with Israel.

Because they have some very strong beliefs in who God is and culture is always saying, your one mind thinking about this one God and his word and all that doesn't fit with the rest of us cause we're all eclectic and we're open to every idea except your idea, which is self contradictory.

See how times don't change much? And so they they they have these stances. Well, three guys have actually become pretty successful. There's some jealousy to that. Well, the king Nebuchadnezzar

decides I'm gonna build a giant 90 foot statue in honor of me. It's my statue of himself. And then everyone's gonna worship that too. Well, Jews are like, we're not gonna worship that. But then he declares, you'll be put to death.

You'll be thrown into a fiery furnace. I'm gonna kill you. I'm gonna till you a horribly painful way. Well, think about how anxiety started to rise in these guys. No one talks about that. We just think they're bible guys that have it all together. But think about the anxiety like, great. We're in this position.

We've done well. God's been good despite us being in this land that doesn't think the same way as us. We have a good life now. But if we don't do this, we're gonna lose our job. Not only our job, we're gonna live our life.

I mean, what's worse? What can be the what's the end of all anxiety? What's the worst again? You die. But did you die? You know, that's kind of the the, you know, the final line. Because no matter how bad it gets, you can always say, but did you die? Well, this story, that's where it ends.

You know what? It would be easy to take the way of anxiety, the path. You can feel it, but not follow it. If you follow it, you know what the first obvious thing they could have done? We'll bow down and and everyone will think we're worshiping the statue, but we'll just pray to God. We'll get our own solution.

But then they felt like, no, God put us in this position for a reason. We're not gonna take we're not gonna follow the anxiety. We're gonna be faithful.

So that's where we pick it up, the story. Verse 15, it says, Nebuchadnezzar must have liked him because he gave him another chance. I'll give you one more chance because they wouldn't do it. To bow down and worship the statue I've made when you hear the sound of the musical instruments.

But if you refuse, you will be thrown immediately into the blazing furnace. And then what God will be able to rescue you from my power? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied, oh Nebuchadnezzar, we don't need to defend ourselves before you. If we're thrown into the blazing

furnace, the God whom we serve is able to save us. He will rescue us from your power, your majesty. Now there you go. Well, they're bible guys. Of course, they got that answer. It's almost like you think the old testament, these bible guys, they have some bat phone to heaven and it rings. Like what are gonna do? Should we bow down? I don't know. I don't know what to do. Ring. Oh, hey.

Yo, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. How's it going? Because that's how God talked in the Old Testament. And they're like they're like, yeah, what's up God? How's it going? Like, yeah, we're a little bit stressed out here. We're trying to follow you and now we're gonna die.

And he's like, oh man, don't worry about that, bruh. It's like, don't worry, man. I got it all. That guy, he's so arrogant. He said, who can what God can save you from my power? Wow. He's gonna learn. Don't worry, you're fine. Hangs up.

That's what we think. We think that some magically way they're not like you and I. They don't have what ifs. But look at what the next verse says. But even if he doesn't.

You realize they had to make a decision to trust God. And they had already decided that even if following God means this is the end of the road, then that's God's plan. And this is the end of the road. They had no idea what was gonna happen next. You don't think these guys were filled with all kinds of what ifs?

And then they boldly looked at the king and said, we want to make it clear to you, your majesty. We will never serve your gods or worship the gold statue you have set up. That's feeling anxiety without following anxiety. That's choosing faithfulness over fear.

And then look what happens. Nebuchadnezzar was so furious that his face became distorted with rage. I don't even know, how does your face get distorted with rage? I don't know, but it did.

He commanded that the furnace be heated seven times hotter than usual. Then he ordered some of the strongest men of his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego and throw them into the blazing furnace. Now right about now, this time of year is probably not the best time to share this story for us in Arizona

because we're like, big deal. In about fifteen minutes, you're gonna walk right out into a blazing furnace. Actually, it's not as hot today. You're like, I do this multiple times a day. And you know what? It's a dry eat. Right? Anyways, sorry.

So they tied them up and threw them into the furnace, fully dressed in their pants, turbans, robes, and other garments. And because the king is in anger and demanded such a hot fire in the furnace, the flames killed the soldiers as they threw the three men in. So think about that as they get ready to go. It says they bound them.

Then he brings three he brings guys that are bigger than them. Stronger, more rugged human beings. People that can take more than they can take. And they're thinking, alright, we got our hands tied. Okay, God. Little bit anxiety filled. Be good time to make this stop.

And then these huge guys come and start dragging them up there. And it says they fell in. So I think it they had stairs. There was there was a type of the way the furniture going in like it's like Joe versus the volcano or something. So so they're lead leading them to this thing and think of the anxiety. Alright. We got bound. Big huge scary guys are dragging us towards this thing. Now would be a good time. Step one. Step two. Step now they're up on the top and they get so close to just thank God this would be a good time that they start watching the other guys die

from the heat. People are dropping. And they're still thinking, alright God, this is pretty pretty anxious filled. Some of you are there. Some of you are at that point where you're you see the fire maybe, the what if of it coming. Or maybe you've been bound and you're like, alright, it's getting closer. I feel trapped.

Or now people in your life are dragging you into this fire and now you're watching people go down left and right and still nothing.

And then it says, verse 23, so Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, securely tied, fell into the roaring flames.

God didn't stop it. He did not keep them from the fire.

If your view of peace is coming to a God that's gonna take you away from all the fires, you're gonna have even more anxiety than before. Because you're gonna add all your what ifs to this, God, what the heck on top of it. Because you're going to wonder why is he allowing you to even get close to the fire.

And why on earth is he letting me actually fall into it? Some of you are right now already in a fire. It is a blazing furnace and it's causing all kinds of anxiety, depression looping you.

I know what I know how it feels. Thursday night. Thursday night at 3AM. Anxiety kicked me in the head and said wake up. Eyes popped open. I could not get back to sleep. My brain just kept going. You know what it started with? I had anxiety over this series. Preaching this message. And the voices started saying the,

what if you really don't under

anxiety? What if there's people in this room that listen that really deal with anxiety? And they're gonna look at you and you, that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. What if, what if, and I kept going through the way, and then at first I just started, well, here's I'll say this, I'm gonna answer this. I I thought, hey, I'm dealing with this. I'm coming with the answers. Well then as I had all the answers, mean, go, good. I think I know what I'm gonna do now. I think I've clear, I didn't plan my sermon on Thursday night by the way. Already had it planned. This is more of the the other stuff. And and and so as I was thinking it through, I was sitting there and I get like, okay, I should be fine now. Go to sleep.

Still, kept going.

Wouldn't go. Wouldn't go. Went for and it was 04:30. I went till 04:30 in the morning still dealing with all this. And matter of fact, I realized it got deeper than I thought. I realized it wasn't just about the sermon. I thought, why am I so anxious about talking about anxiety? Because I feel like, you know what? I have deeper anxieties. It's not just this sermon. I have this huge anxiety being built right here behind us. And and you know what the voice starts saying? It's funny. It's like the truth says there was a lot of anxiety even trying to get this off the ground. But our church stepped up. You guys were super generous. You're honoring God and now we've started building. You'd think I should have less anxiety. It's getting built. But now I have this anxiety says, well now it's getting built. What if people that were given decide to go, yeah, don't wanna give anymore. What if the new people that you're coming decide, don't wanna I don't wanna jump on board and be financially generous in this church because it won't work.

If if more people don't join in. I mean, if that does? I started making all these what ifs and even in the middle of actually having success and I realized that's one of my biggest problems with anxiety. I have anxiety. The worst anxiety is sometimes when everything's going good. That's the problem with anxiety.

Is if you think it's the absence of problems then all of sudden you don't have any problems, you still have problems. Because your problem is what happens when this ends? What happens when the next problem comes? I'm more worried about or the other shoe's gonna fall. Then I finally at about, you know, about 04:30, you know, in the morning, I started to realize at a deeper level, I go the reason I'm anxious over an anxiety series is I feel at some point I'm gonna be found out to be the fraud that I am.

That I'm just an idiot. That I really don't know all this. And I I don't deserve this. I don't really know what I'm doing. And the other shoe's gonna drop. And everyone's gonna walk away. And my life's gonna just be destroyed because I really don't know anything. And then the other side of me, the what is.

This still small voice spoke to me after an hour and a half of giving into anxiety. And God whispered something so deep, I probably need another half an hour to explain it to you. He said this, Bill, you are an idiot.

And so is everyone else.

He goes, why don't you try this? Why don't you try actually doing the thing you're gonna tell everybody to do this weekend? Why don't you apply Philippians four six through nine and see what happens? And that's where the brain, the war in my brain.

That was so true and I knew it. I believed in what I was gonna say, but somehow I can both believe what I'm gonna say and believe it's not going to work for me. You ever been there? That's the heart of the anxiety. Even when you hear an answer, you think you're the exception. So I did something crazy.

I decided to say, okay, God, I'll try it your way. And I asked. I was very honest about what I was struggling with.

I then decided to acknowledge his goodness and say, know, every other time I've been here, you've been faithful. Every other time, faithful. And all since then, I started to sing. And then I ended with just focusing, you know what Jesus? I'm only doing what you asked me to do. All I wanna do in my calling is give me a front row seat of what you're doing. And I started looking to Jesus. Instead of looking at my anxiety, I just looked to I took my what ifs and I started looking at the who is.

And I fell asleep like that. I fell asleep like that.

You know what? The alarm still went off three hours later and I didn't have enough sleep and I was tired. He didn't take me out of that fire. He didn't magically it's funny. He didn't magically let me wake up as easy as I did at six that I did at three. But here's the point.

What he whispered into my head, the passage I went to as a bite before I fell asleep was Psalms 23. Behold, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, fear no evil. Because I know you're gonna take me around that valley and I'm never gonna experience it in the first place. Doesn't say that.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I'll fear no evil. Why? Because you are with me. It's not about where you're at. It's about who's with you. So with that said, let me end the story and end the sermon. So they actually fell into the fire. But it says in verse 24, suddenly Nebuchadnezzar

jumped up in amazement and exclaimed to his advisors, didn't we tie up three men and throw them into the furnace? Yes, your majesty. You certainly did, they replied. Look, Nebuchadnezzar shouted. I see four men unbound now, walking around in the fire unharmed, and the fourth looks like a god.

I don't have time to go into all the theology behind it, but that fourth was Jesus. We know theologically it was a pre incarnate Jesus.

So they fell into the fire. God didn't keep him from the fire. They didn't fall in the fire. But as they fell in the fire, guess what? There was another one in the fire with them. There was another in the fire.

And that actually helped them be protected

through the flames. They didn't go around it, they went right through it because they had Jesus with them. It wasn't about where they're at. It wasn't about did they avoid the fire. It's about who was with them. There was another in the fire. And when Nebuchadnezzar says, look, he was so shocked. Why? Because that, my friends, is a peace that surpasses all understanding.

That's a peace that says, you could be sitting in a fire in your life and not burned up. You can feel anxiety and you don't have to follow it. You can be down by depression, but not defeated if you keep your eyes fixed on the another one that's in the fire with you. Does that make sense?

So what would happen if no matter where you're at right now, especially if you are in a fire, and you think all of that anxiety will only be fixed by the fire going away? What if you decided to put the what ifs down and fix your eyes on who is? What if you just looked for the another, the other in the fire. Amen.

Every bow because I know that's where you'll be. I count the joy come every bow because I know that's where you'll be. I count the joy come every bound because I know that's where you'll be. Amen, church. As our god who is with us,

No matter what we're going through, he is with us and he is faithful. Will you pray with me? God, we give you all the glory, all the praise, and we thank you. That even when we're cast into the fire, you are with us and you keep us. God, I thank you for this hope and this joy

and that our peace is found in Jesus. Lord, and as we go through this week, God, I pray that you would help us to take our eyes off the what ifs and to look to the who is. That we may know the peace that surpasses all understanding. We love you, Lord.

Guide us, direct us, and be glorified in us and through us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.