Stretched Thin Part 2 | Is Your Anxiety Killing Your Mental Health? with Chris Schlotterbeck

You can have all of me

And face in the little things

You can have it all

Welcome to Hub City Vineyard.

To get connected or to give online,

go to hcv.church or give.htv.church.

If at any point during this message

you feel called to make a change in your life,

text change me to 970-00.

Thank you and enjoy the message.

Good morning everyone!

How's everybody doing today?

Good, good. Has it reached 80 degrees yet?

Not yet. We're getting there though, right?

We're all going to take a walk later this afternoon.

Get out and experience the wonderful warm weather.

If you're joining us from home, thank you for welcoming us into your space.

So I want to rewind and tell you a little story from my past.

I was a young pastor.

I'd recently moved my family to Syracuse, New York,

where I'd just become the kids, youth, and young adult pastor.

My other two job responsibilities at the church were

tech team oversight, which I never did in my life,

and building maintenance.

Of course, when taking the position,

I just assumed that I could handle it.

All of those responsibilities may have been hard,

but look, I learn quickly and I get things done.

It was late winter, early spring of 2003,

and if you know anything about Syracuse, New York,

you know winters are a winter wonderland of snow.

There was a record year of snowfall that year,

somewhere in the neighborhood of 160 inches or so of snow.

The building that was owned by the Syracuse Vineyard

had a flat roof, and if you know anything about flat roofs,

they hold a lot of snow, and after a staff meeting on Tuesday,

John and I noticed several ceiling tiles in the main auditorium that were wet.

Upon further inspection, which means I was climbing up a ladder,

I discovered with the warming temperatures,

the snow on the roof had begun to melt,

and apparently there were a few holes in the roof

because John took and bought the cheapest option available to repair the roof.

As the week went on and the temperatures went up,

more water began to leak from the roof to the point

where the drips weren't drips anymore,

but it was a flood that was going into the buckets

that I set out underneath to catch the water.

This was not a week of pastoring.

This would be a week of engineering excellence.

During the day, I was on the roof,

shoveling snow off of the flat roof and onto the parking lot below,

and during the evenings, I was hanging tarps from the metal drop ceiling frame

that would catch the water, angle the flow of the water into large trash cans,

where I had a pump and a hose that was pumping the water into the mop sinks.

Just to let you know, we had all of our Sunday gatherings on that Sunday morning.

John, the pastor, that's right, even used an umbrella

and sang Singing in the Rain during his sermon intro

because guess what?

All the water was still coming down into the tarps,

into the trash cans being pumped out while worship was taking place.

After the gatherings, I grabbed my family, threw them in the car,

and we left town for a week because I was exhausted.

When I got back to Syracuse, I now had two weeks' worth of work to catch up on,

and I noticed something strange about my left eye.

It daily began to twitch.

This was throwing off my equilibrium,

and being honest, it just began to freak me out.

I quickly scheduled a doctor's appointment.

Well, I actually didn't quickly do it, just made me do it,

only to discover this was my body's response to anxiety and stress,

meaning my mind was being overloaded,

and the physical result was an eye twitch or a signal that I needed to slow down.

Has anyone ever felt that way before by a show of hands?

Yeah.

I mean, let's be honest. I don't know what you're dealing with,

but I can only imagine the financial pressure of the world today.

You have bills to pay, kids to raise, and family to care for.

There's relational issues. There's health challenges. There's job stress.

There's inflation. I mean, has anyone seen the price of a dozen eggs?

Really? Are the chickens on strike?

I mean, is it possible not to be anxious in this world that we live in?

Right? You open up a news app and you discover that the whole world is falling apart,

and nobody likes each other.

If you ever felt like you're battling with anxiety,

and there's plenty to be anxious about, you're not alone.

Listen to these numbers.

In a study done in 2019, this is 2019,

two out of three Americans said they were anxious or extremely anxious.

That's two out of three in 2019 before the world got crazy.

Since the pandemic, those numbers have only gotten worse,

and the frequency and intensity of people dealing with anxiety

is hitting record levels somewhere around 75% of our population.

But it's challenging our younger generations.

In fact, one study shows that 91% of those of you that have high school

or college-age students, or you're here this morning,

and you're in high school or going to college,

91% of your age group report consistent and significant levels of anxiety associated with stress.

And perhaps one of the most common and prolific mental issues of the day is anxiety.

And if it's not stress, it's worry.

The ongoing weight, a burden, someone you love, something you care about,

something that you want to change, but you can't figure out how to change it.

This never-ending weight, something that's always present within you,

and according to the World Health Organization,

Americans have a bigger problem with this issue than any other people in the world.

If you can imagine, the most affluent society in the world

is actually the most worry-filled society in the world.

So for those of you that are Americans, congratulations, we win!

A category that we don't want to win at all.

So if over half, two out of three adults struggle with anxiety and worry,

and we here gathered are in the normal percentages,

that means that more than half of this room, look around,

more than half of this room, and watching online,

find yourself struggling to focus on this message.

Because your mind is being consumed with a burden, a concern,

someone you love, something you want to change, that's there, present,

and you just live in that state of anxiety and worry.

Why is it that so many of us find ourselves battling with this issue?

So this morning, I want to try to unpack it for you,

and I first want to tell you that at its core, it's because of our sin nature.

Because we're born as sinners, we tend to default or lean toward fear,

instead of defaulting toward faith.

I mean, I can prove this to you.

If you're awake some night at 2 a.m., I can almost promise you

you're not trying to figure out how to manage the peace and joy that's in your life.

If you're awake at 2 a.m., you're probably worried about your kids,

a health issue, or somebody you love, job stress,

or how you're going to take care of your parents in the years to come.

Or you're worried about the big things, terrorism, wars, racism.

Oh, it's a political year where we're going to vote for a new president.

I mean, we live in a culture where anxiety and worry is just a commonly accepted part of life.

And for the month of April here at HTV, we're doing a message series on mental health called Stretched Thin.

Last week, I kicked off this series discussing the mental health myths that we find within the church.

And today, we're going to be tackling anxiety and worry, and I want to encourage all of you that, listen,

if you know someone that's struggling in their mental health, share these messages online.

Go to our YouTube channel, subscribe, find last week's message, find this week's message, share it with your friends,

because I tell you, it's life-changing for those that are struggling.

Now, some of you might be thinking, Chris, why are we talking about anxiety and worry? Aren't they the same things?

First, I want to say they're not.

Second, I want to say they're related, they're close, but they're not the same.

And their differences answer that question, which leads us to our first thought.

Worry is experienced in our minds while anxiety is felt in our bodies.

See, when we think about worry, we tend to experience worry in our minds.

It's something that we think about over and over and over again.

We literally rehearse the thoughts within our minds.

Anxiety is different.

See, we tend to experience worry in our minds, but we generally experience anxiety in our bodies.

Think about my eye twitch.

When my eye was twitching, it was a way for my body to tell me that,

Houston, you've got a problem. You need to fix it.

It's a little bit more holistic, where we worry, and when we worry, it's very specific.

Anxiety is general.

For example, we might worry that you're going to miss a flight that you have scheduled.

I don't want to miss that flight. Hurry, hurry, we're going to be late.

But we may feel anxious about traveling.

Are my kids going to be okay? Do I have enough stuff? Pat.

If you're a young person in high school or college, you may worry about an upcoming test.

I want to do well on this exam while you feel stress over the course load that you're currently taking this semester.

See, worry is more specific.

And no matter what we call it, with all the problems in the world today,

it feels like somebody needs to worry about them.

It seems like we have to think about them. Stress, again, is more general.

I'm overwhelmed at the rising cost of health care, food, gas.

Am I going to survive in my current income?

Paul, when writing to the church in Philippi, writes these words in Philippians 4, 4-6.

Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again, rejoice.

Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do. Remember, the Lord is coming soon.

Don't worry about anything. Now, some translations use the word anxious.

Don't be anxious about anything. Instead, pray about everything.

Tell God what you need and thank him for all he's done.

Again, an amazing verse that we read in the Bible, an amazing verse that many people memorize.

But when you hear those words, don't worry about anything.

If you're anything like me, sometimes I kind of want to have a conversation with God and be like,

is that even possible? How do I worry about nothing, God?

Have you ever felt that way? It's like, God, what do you mean worry about nothing?

Again, I don't know what you're facing or struggling with today,

but I do want to encourage you that the most important thing you can do is identify the issue.

Is it anxiety over the current pace of your life or the pressure that you're feeling on the job?

Are you worried about an upcoming doctor visit or a situation that your child is struggling with?

Where Paul tells us not to worry or be anxious about anything very general,

Jesus gets more specific, which leads us to our next thought.

See, Jesus says, don't worry about finances, food, fitness, fashion, and your future.

So we're going to go to Matthew chapter six, verses 24 to 25 and verse 34.

When we read, no one can serve two masters for you will hate one and love the other.

You will be devoted to one and despise the other.

You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money. What is Jesus saying?

And he starts off these verses by saying, hey, don't worry so much about your finances.

You can't love both God and money. So don't overly focus.

Don't be obsessed about your money. Let's continue.

That is why I tell you not to worry about your everyday life, whether you have enough food and drink,

there's food or enough clothes to wear. There's fashion.

Isn't life more than food in your body? There's fitness more than clothing.

So notice Jesus said, don't worry about food.

And we must remember when Jesus is speaking to this crowd of people that are gathered,

they probably would have been worried about food because they were poor.

And their thought pattern was, where am I going to get my next meal?

When in reality, for many of us, we worry about food on a whole different level.

We just worry about where we're going to eat and we fight about the place that we're going to.

And then when we get there, when we do eat, we realize that we ate too much or we ate the wrong kind of food.

Jesus says what? Let's not obsess about that which is temporary.

We must learn to focus on what's eternal. And don't worry about your body, he says. Why?

Because we can obsess over our health. I believe in taking care of yourself.

Yes, you should take care of yourself. In fact, next month, the month of May,

we're going to be discussing that very topic in our series Physically Fit.

But Jesus is reminding us the body is temporary. We also have to focus on our spirit.

He focuses and challenges us as Americans. Don't worry about what you're going to wear.

Do you realize that for many people, they worry so much about what other people think

that they obsess over their image or over their social media posts, worried about what they're wearing?

Do you like this outfit or is it this outfit? What about these shoes? Do these shoes match?

Oh, does my hair look right?

What if I was to say to some of you, if you spend as much time thinking about God as you think about what you wear,

you might just change the trajectory of your life.

Jesus says, don't worry so much about those things because they do not last.

And then he says, don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries.

Today, trouble is enough for today. In other words, don't obsess about the future.

Don't freak out about something you can't control, where you're going to go to school.

Are you going to find the perfect job? Is Mr. Right or Mrs. Right going to come along?

Don't worry if a loved one is going to get sick or obsess over the fact that your hair might be turning gray.

Jesus says, don't worry.

And then what I love about Jesus is he doesn't just tell us what to do, but he gets very practical

and he shows us how not to worry, which leads us to our next thought.

See, what we worry about reveals where we trust God the least.

Jesus tells us, you want to know what to do?

Here's your plan, Matthew 6 33.

Seek the kingdom of God above all else, live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.

See, whenever you're worried, whenever you're freaked out, whenever you're panicked,

whenever you don't know what to do, whenever there's too much to handle, what do you do?

You seek first God's kingdom.

You live righteously. You seek first his presence. You seek first his goodness that we were singing about.

And then you will be giving everything you need.

So I want to ask you a question. Is God first in your life?

Is God first in your life this morning?

Is he first in your day when you wake up in the morning

or does your mind drift to all the things you have to do in the day?

Does your mind drift towards the things of God as you're working

or are you focused on all of the assignments you have to get done?

When you think about financial pressures, do you tend to put him first,

whatever he blesses you with, or do you put him last, or do you even consider him at all?

Where does your mind go when it drifts?

Does it go to the worst case scenario?

And here's what could happen.

For example, well, I sent a text to a person I'm attracted to, I'm interested in.

We've gone out a few times. I saw the bubbles that he or she was texting back only to receive no response.

I've been ghosted. They're not interested in me.

Or is the response, oh, they must be busy at work.

I am sure he or she will respond when they have time.

See, does your mind drift toward the goodness of God, the presence of God, his power, his love, his grace?

Do you put God first in your relationship so they centered around him in every single way

or do you choose to play house with your boyfriend or girlfriend?

See, some of you, you may have just come to the realization that maybe for some reason,

I'm so often burdened, worried, and full of anxiety is because I'm just not putting him first.

See, what we worry about most reveals where we trust God the least.

And this is good news because you have an incredible opportunity to simply put your cares and concerns before God.

Because Jesus gets real practical in the verses just before verse 33,

when we read Matthew 6, 26 to 27.

Look at the birds. They don't plant or harvest or store food in their barns, for your heavenly father feeds them.

And aren't you far more valuable to him than they are?

Can all your worries at a single moment to your life?

So Jesus is showing us that God loves us way more than the birds.

And newsflash, birds don't worry.

Now to be clear, if a bird's hungry, the bird's going to do something about it.

True or false?

True or false?

And this illustrates a very important difference between concern and worry.

What's the difference between concern and worry?

Very simply.

Concern focuses on a challenge and then moves you to action.

It focuses on what might be a problem and then moves you to fix it.

You might think your marriage is struggling.

You're concerned about it.

So you think about going to your husband or your wife and saying, hey, let's get some counseling or let's join a growth group.

You may be concerned, well, I've gained 12 pounds in the last month.

I better cut out dessert or soda or change the way I'm eating.

See, concern focuses on challenges and moves you to action.

Worry focuses on what's out of your control and results in inaction.

Causes you to do nothing.

And that's why Jesus asked the question, can any one of you by worrying at a single hour or moment to your life?

In other words, you worry, but is anything ever gotten better because of your worry?

Has anything ever changed because you sat there and did absolutely nothing?

Jesus says, what? Don't do it.

It's not helpful. It's not worth it.

It changes nothing.

When you worry, nothing gets better, but your mental health gets worse.

Birds don't worry, but they don't sit around doing nothing either.

They don't wait for God to drop worms in their nests.

I've never seen that happen.

Like, what does a bird do if a bird's hungry?

He gets up, he flies around, he finds a nice golf course green.

He gets a worm and he eats it.

I don't know about you, but I've never heard a bird chirping at two in the morning, wide awake,

thinking that the supply chain problem is going to result in a shortage of worms.

You don't see that because the bird knows God's going to provide for that bird,

but God loves us more than the birds.

And if God's going to take care of the birds, how much more is he going to take care of you?

So when you're worrying, when you're stressed out, essentially we're saying, God, I just don't trust you.

I don't believe you're for me. I don't believe you're good.

And if you think I'm judging you, I might have been awake at 2 a.m. two nights ago,

and I wasn't thinking about how to manage all my blessings.

I'm just like you, and I'm just as vulnerable.

We have to realize what we worry about the most reveals where we trust God the least.

The very thing that's keeping us awake, that's weighing us down so heavily, it may never happen.

In fact, listen to this.

In a recent study by researchers done at Penn State University,

they asked people to document what they were worried about

and how many of their fears actually came to pass in the next 30 days.

According to their research, 91% of their worries never came true.

Friends, that's nine out of 10 things they were worried about never ever happened.

And I want you to think about this, that very likely less than 10% of what you're worried about right now,

what you're stressed out about, it's never going to happen.

But our worry, our anxiety, you know what it does?

It robs us of God's peace 100% of the time, which leads us to our final thought.

Anxiety and worry aren't sin, they're signals.

Anxiety and worry aren't sin.

Now I just got sent an email this week simply asking me,

Chris, you're doing a series on mental health and you mentioned last week

that most pastors or churches very rarely speak on the topic.

Why is that so?

You know, I never responded to that email, but I felt it was for all of us to hear.

I believe, as I prayed about it this week,

that pastors and churches don't like to share about mental health

because it means that pastors actually have to work and do something.

I believe that when you begin speaking about mental health

and you begin challenging people to get healthy mentally and physically

and see change in their lives, that results in pastors needing to meet with,

counsel with, pray for, and encourage their congregations like we're called to do.

And there's a lot of pastors that simply don't like to do that.

They like to read the Bible, they like to prepare for a message,

but they don't like to get their hands dirty doing the stuff.

I believe in doing the stuff.

I believe in getting my hands dirty.

Therefore, at HCV, we're going to talk about mental health

and we're going to talk about physical health

and we're going to talk about being in community

and we're going to talk about becoming better people

because that's what God wants for us.

Anxiety and worry is not a sin.

How do I know that?

Just look at Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Before he was going to give his life on the cross,

he knelt down and begged God,

is there any other way, God?

He knew the suffering that was coming and he said,

if there's any other way, may this cross of suffering,

may this cup of suffering be removed from me.

And he cried out, I am in agony, a deep agony.

And he literally began to sweat drops of blood

as he submitted to the will of God, not my will.

In other words, I don't want this.

I don't want this.

But may your will be done.

See, anxiety isn't a sin.

It's actually a symptom or what we might call a signal.

For example, if you know anything about your car,

you may be driving around in your car

and suddenly a little light goes off

that looks like a little engine.

Right, your car didn't do something wrong.

It's a signal indicating that there's something wrong in the car.

It's a symptom, it's an issue that needs to be discovered and fixed.

So what do you do?

You take your car to the junkyard, right?

You just trash it.

When that little light goes off, is that what you do?

No, you take your car to a mechanic

so the mechanic can fix the car.

Or some of you try to do it yourself.

God bless you, high five for Jesus.

I don't.

In the same way, if you find yourself battling with anxiety and worry,

this isn't a sin, it's a signal alerting you

to identify the issue and invite God to what?

Fix it.

That's why Paul wrote in, again, Philippians 4, 6 through 7,

don't worry about anything.

Notice what he says.

Pray about everything.

Tell God what you need.

Thank Him for all He's done.

Then you experience God's peace,

which exceeds anything we can understand.

His peace will guard our hearts and minds

as you live in Christ Jesus.

He invites us to come to a place of experiencing God's peace.

So this morning for our action steps,

we're going to do it a little different.

We're going to dive into the Old Testament.

We're going to look at 2 Chronicles chapter 20,

2 Chronicles 20 · chapter mention

and we're going to look at one of the best kings of Israel.

So as you're reading through the Old Testament,

you'll quickly discover there were some really good kings of Israel,

and there were some really bad kings in Israel.

This was a good king.

His name was Jehoshaphat.

Everyone say Jehoshaphat.

Jehoshaphat.

Excellent.

Isn't that just fun?

Like there's just some names in the Bible.

They're just fun to say.

Jehoshaphat was the fourth king of Judah

in the southern kingdom of Israel.

And at this point, Judah had some enemies that were about to attack them.

And if you can picture this in your mind, there was a godly king.

He was leading a good kingdom,

and all of a sudden the Moabites are attacking.

But it wasn't just the Moabites,

but it was the Ammonites, the Moabites, and the Mennonites.

And they're all attacking at the same time.

Three different enemies joined forces

to attack King Jehoshaphat and the people of his kingdom.

And this illustrates, friends,

the very reason why many of us are battling with anxiety, worry, and stress today.

We can handle one enemy force attacking us, right?

But we can't handle several.

For example, we can handle one difficult boss at work.

But suddenly, when you add in to a difficult boss,

a car that breaks down, financial issues,

stress and a stressful marriage,

you just started a diet,

and in starting the diet, you went to work on Monday morning,

and it was Crumpies Monday.

And suddenly, you're presented with an opportunity to have donuts

on the day you started your diet.

It's just too much to handle.

Anxiety and worry from a spiritual perspective.

Remember, I'm not a doctor.

I'm not a counselor.

From a spiritual perspective are simply signals alerting us to,

number one, it's time to pray.

It's time to pray.

And this is exactly what Jehoshaphat did in 2 Chronicles 20,

2 Chronicles 20:3

verse 3, 6, and 9.

Jehoshaphat was terrified by this news, and he begged the Lord for guidance.

He also ordered everyone in Judah to begin fasting.

So notice what the king did.

He prayed.

He fasted, and then he told the entire people in the land to do the same.

You need to pray.

You need to fast, verse 6.

He prayed, O Lord, God of our ancestors,

you alone are the God who is in heaven.

You are ruler of all the kings of the earth.

You are powerful and mighty.

No one can stand against you, verse 9.

They said, whenever we are faced with any calamities such as war or plague or famine,

we can come to stand in your presence before this temple where your name is honored.

We can cry out to you to save us, and you will hear us and rescue us.

In other words, God, we can trust you.

Our faith is in you.

We call on you, God.

We believe that you will save us.

And listen, friends, you can pray like that when you feel anxious,

when you feel overwhelmed, when you don't know what to do.

You can cry out like to God just like that.

You can be all fancy.

You can use Christianese, O God, Lord of our ancestors.

You can do it.

You can do anything.

Or you can be like Chris, and you can just say, help.

God, I need help.

You can just get brutally honest.

God, why is this happening?

I don't understand it.

I don't know how to deal with it.

I don't know where it's going to end.

I feel alone.

I'm desperate.

I am frustrated.

I can't get out, God.

Will you change this situation?

See, you can just cry out to God in honesty and have faith

that will hear the cries of your heart.

And he will save you.

He will free you.

He will provide for you.

Now, Dr. Carolyn Leath is a communication pathologist

and cognitive neuroscientist.

I'm not sure what that means other than she's very smart.

And she authored the book, Switch On Your Brain.

In the book, we learn that she discovered, now listen to this,

it's been found that in 12 minutes of daily focused prayer

over an eight-week period, you can change the brain

to an extent where it can be measured on a brain scan.

12 minutes of daily focused prayer over an eight-week period.

12 minutes a day, done consistently over time,

can change your brain.

Here's the power.

Not only does prayer touch the heart of God,

invite him to act, but it changes the chemistry of your brain.

And this is incredibly exciting because remember,

we learned last week our brain is not fixed, right?

And this is good news because sometimes our brain goes to

all the wrong places and stays there.

We live in an era where science has now shown that the brain can change

and we can actually direct and change our brains.

The term is called neuroplasticity.

And last week we talked about, if you missed it,

the more and more you think about a thought,

the more that thought becomes easier to become a part of your life

because you're creating millions and millions of neural pathways

through your brain that God designed.

He can renew and change your brain by reading the Bible as you focus on it.

And prayer can not only touch the heart of God,

but can change the chemistry in your head.

In fact, the word in Scripture most often translated as anxiety

is the Hebrew word, marina.

And this word literally means dwelling or pondering on fearful or anxious thoughts.

It literally is an image of meditating on the negative.

In other words, some of us, we're training our brains to be anxious.

We're rehearsing what could go wrong.

There's this, there's that.

Everything's falling apart.

And we're training our neural pathways in our brain

to focus on the negative rather than the positive.

And it may be natural to think about what could go wrong,

but friends, prayer is not natural.

Prayer is supernatural.

And while we may be natural to think about what could go wrong,

prayer supernaturally breaks the cycle, right?

You're normal if you feel anxious, if you feel stressed out, but it's what?

It's a...

Thank you.

People, come on.

My bachelor's degrees in elementary education, you guys just failed.

Okay?

Class participation, you just failed miserably.

Okay?

Can I say that again?

Miserably.

Whew.

You're normal if you feel anxious.

It's a...

Thank you.

Take it to God.

Right?

Take it to God.

That's what Jehoshaphat did.

Second Chronicles, 2012.

Oh, our God, won't you stop them?

We are powerless against this mighty army that is about to attack us.

We do not know what to do, but we are looking for your help.

And for many of us, we don't know what to do.

There's too much.

I can't handle it all.

I'm freaking out.

I can't hold it all together.

I don't know where to turn.

And listen, I want to encourage you, no human being can handle it.

You weren't designed to handle it on your own.

You were designed to be in relationship with your Creator.

Right?

Anxiety is not a...

Oh my gosh.

Okay.

We're going to go back to the chalkboard.

Okay?

So you can just picture that just gruesome noise of a piece of chalk.

You know, as a kid, you're just shuddering.

Man, the way we were brought up as kids.

Okay.

I want you to take something away from here this morning.

Okay?

Anxiety and worry is not a sin.

Thank you.

It's not a sin.

It's not a sin.

It is a...

Sign.

There we go.

You got something.

Your life is forever changed.

It is April 14th, 2024.

We are at the Hub City Vineyard and you learn something new.

All right?

It's a signal that we need God.

Right?

I don't know where to turn, but we can turn to God.

That's why we read in 1 Peter 5, 6 through 7, humble yourselves under the mighty power of God.

At the right time, He will lift you up in honor.

Give all your worries and cares to God, for He cares about you.

Now, the NIV translation reads, cast all your anxieties on God because He cares about you.

We must remember, Peter was a fisherman, so he uses the term cast as a way to remind us in casting a line,

when you have anxiety and worry, when you identify the issue, what are we to do with that issue?

We cast it to God.

We give it to God.

God, I'm hurting.

I'm desperate.

Because of my marriage, I'm giving it to you.

I'm believing you are going to change.

I feel alone.

My heart is racing.

I'm sweating.

I'm freaking out about my kids, but God, I'm giving my kids back to you.

I'm freaking out about money, but God, I'm giving you my budget.

I'm tithing.

I'm putting you first.

I can't handle all the tension in the world, God.

I'm turning off my news app and focusing on your truth.

Does that make sense?

You cast your cares onto Him.

In other words, if it's in your mind, it's on God's heart, and it's big enough for Him to handle.

We give it to Him.

We pray about it.

Then what do we do?

Well, if you're anything like me, we pray about it, and then we listen for 32 seconds,

and we look around for another minute, and if nothing changes, we pick it back up and take control.

Because we think we have to fix it, and we think that we can manipulate God.

But that's just not what we're called to do.

Anxiety is a signal, right?

Worry is a signal alerting us it's time to pray, leading us to our next stop.

It's time to pause.

It's time to pause.

After the prayer, Jehoshaphat did this in 2 Chronicles 20, 12 to 13.

We do not know what to do, but we are looking to you for help.

As all the men of Judah stood before the Lord with their little ones, wives, and children.

Notice they stood.

And I don't want to be critical, right?

But I'm a doer.

I'm a motivator.

I'm an activator.

I get things done.

And it's hard for me to pause.

Because when I feel like I'm standing here, I feel like there's something I could be doing.

But sometimes God tells us to do nothing.

To just stand there.

There are times where God will tell you to be still.

How do I know that?

Psalm 46, 10.

Be still and know that I am God.

I will be honored by every nation.

I will be honored throughout the world.

God, I don't know what to do.

I don't have the power.

My eyes are on you.

Be still and know that he cares about you and he loves you.

So in doing nothing, you're telling me, Chris, that God heals anxiety?

Sometimes.

Did you know why?

Sometimes we're too busy and our mind is racing and by being still, anxiety is removed.

But sometimes it's a process.

Sometimes God directs you to read a portion of the Bible and that verse begins to renew your mind.

Sometimes God will lead you to read an article about your diet and about what you're eating

and make you realize the chemistry of your body is all in a whack

because you are eating too many processed foods.

Or maybe God will lead you to go and see a doctor and that doctor will recognize that the chemicals in your brain

are just out of whack and give you a prescription that can normalize your thoughts.

Or maybe you need to go do ministry with someone who looks at some of the trauma from your past

and your family life so that you can face it, get forgiveness and healing from it.

You take it to God.

And so while they waited, the Spirit of the Lord came over a man named Jehysiel

and he says this in 2 Chronicles 20, 15 and 17.

He said, listen, all you people of Judah and Jerusalem, listen, King Jehoshaphat, this is what the Lord says.

Don't be afraid.

Don't be discouraged by this mighty army for the battle is not yours but God's.

But you will not even need to fight.

Take your positions and stand still and watch the Lord's victory.

He is with you, O people of Judah and Jerusalem.

Do not be afraid or discouraged.

Go out against them tomorrow for the Lord is with you.

And that's truth.

God is with you.

If you are in a relationship with Jesus, he's for you.

He loves you.

He cares about you.

And his power is real.

He will never leave you.

He'll never forsake you.

Anxiety is not a sin.

It's a signal alerting you it's time to pray.

It's time to pause.

And finally, leading to our final step, it's time to praise.

2 Chronicles 2, 20 to 22, early the next morning, the army of Judah went out into the wilderness of Tokoa

on the way to Jehoshaphat.

On the way Jehoshaphat stopped and said, listen to me, all you people of Judah and Jerusalem,

believe in the Lord your God and you will be able to stand firm, believe in the prophets and you will succeed.

And then before I continue, I did something really weird.

In my limited understanding of warfare, I wouldn't have made this decision.

Now please understand I was never in the armed forces.

Okay.

But what he does is he sends out his worship team on the front lines.

Right.

They're weapons that Jehoshaphat sends out, right.

He sends out a lady with a tambourine, an acoustic guitar, a drummer.

And of course, there's this big funky horn that they're just blowing on the front lines.

Right.

And you're reading this, you're reading the scripture to think, wait a minute, if that's me,

I'm sending the few, the proud, the Marines to lead the way.

Right.

And the general is Dwayne the Rock Johnson, destroying the armies that are up front in front of him.

Right.

My man Jehoshaphat, right.

Jehoshaphat goes, hey, Brandon, Brandon Lake, get up there.

Chris Brown, Kerry Jobe, we need you on the front lines.

Go tell the enemies that they're blessed and sing your songs of praise back to them.

And you think I'm making it up.

Look, after consulting the people, the king appointed singers to walk ahead of the army,

singing to the Lord and praising him for his splendor.

This is what they sang.

Give thanks to the Lord, his faithful love endures forever.

At the very moment they began to sing and give praise, the Lord calls the armies to start fighting amongst themselves.

And see, it takes faith in this moment when you're hurting right now, when you're full of anxiety,

when you don't know what to do, when you're stressed out beyond belief about decisions that you need to make.

It takes faith to praise before the blessing, before the anxiety ever leaves.

It takes faith to praise.

And after Jehoshaphat prayed, after he paused and waited, and after he praised, before he saw anything,

God worked and God fought the battle for him.

The Bible says in 2 Chronicles 20, when all the surrounding kingdoms heard that the Lord himself had fought against the enemies of Israel,

the fear of God came over them.

So Jehoshaphat's kingdom was at peace for his God had given him rest on every side.

God fought the battle and God gave them rest.

Earlier in my opening, I shared about my left eye twitch.

To this day, I continue to experience that eye twitch.

Just a few weeks ago, many of you learned last week when I opened this series that Easter Sunday was coming.

I was trying to figure out parking issues, how to find more parking, how to get a bigger building,

how to get more chairs in this room because we need more chairs in this room, how to reach more people, how to baptize 47 people.

And guess what happened to my left eye?

It began to twitch because I was taking control.

When I lay awake at night thinking about all the places I need to be, Thursday night I was up at 2 a.m.

I'm in the middle of my crazy spring schedule. I'm coaching several teams. I'm pastoring a church.

I'm a father. I'm a husband. Right?

Oh, did I mention I'm supposed to go to Kenya? And two weeks ago, I lost my passport.

I have no idea where it is. We've lost it.

And suddenly, I couldn't sleep.

But friends, this is how I fight my battles. I pray. I take it to God.

I don't know what to do. The enemy's pressing in on every side, but I'm keeping my eyes on Him.

This is how I fight my battles.

By nature, I'm tempted to do something, to act.

But sometimes God says, no, Chris, you've got to wait. You've got to pause.

You've got to sit in my presence and let Him do what only He can do.

And then what do I do? I thank Him. I worship Him. I give Him praise. I pray. I pause. I praise.

This is how I fight my battles.

Because Ephesians 6 tells us, if you don't know this, we're not fighting against flesh and blood,

but against evil rulers and authorities and the sun-seeing world, against mighty powers in the dark world, and against evil spirits.

Don't be discouraged. The battle is not yours. God is with you.

So what do we do? We pray. We pause. We praise.

And then that's when Philippians 4 comes to life. You'll experience God's peace, which exceeds anything you can understand.

His peace will guard your hearts and minds.

And many of you right now, you say, Chris, this one hit home.

I'm sitting here. I'm struggling. I'm feeling surrounded. I'm overwhelmed.

And you know what we're going to do? We're going to pray, pause, and pray.

I pray. I pause. I praise.