Don’t Duck The Smoke // FEAR-LESS (Part 2) // Charles Metcalf

Welcome to Transformation Church Podcast, where we represent God to

the lost and found for transformation in Christ. We're so

glad you're here and wherever you're listening from, we believe

God will transform your life. Do today's message.

We're gonna jump into the Word Today's anybody ready for

the Word today?

All right, let's get cooking.

If you can open up your bibles to Psalm chapter

number three, Psalm chapter number.

Three, it's kind of in the middle of your Bible,

kind of sort of.

We're in week two of a series called Fearless, and

last week was the first week, and we kind of

talked around this idea last week, which is fear is

what happens when your self awareness outpaces your God awareness.

Fears what happens when your self awareness outpaces your God awareness.

And what I mean by that is when you are

thinking more about you, your capacity to handle something, your ability.

To navigate a situation.

Oftentimes you will start to experience fear because you're thinking.

About yourself more than you're thinking about God.

And this is proven in Man's first experience of fear.

The first time fear is ever mentioned in the Bible

is Genesis chapter number three and Adam says, I was

afraid because I was naked, so I hid. The catch

is Adam and Eve were always naked, but this was

the first time he was thinking more about himself and

what other people thought about him than he was thinking

about God. And when that happens, you start to experience fear.

And I started to go into a rant last week

of all the intense science that I figured out, which

I want to appreciate, there was a couple.

People who DM me. They're like, we was tracking with you,

We was with you.

Some of y'all were staring at me with like cross eye.

But it's all right, not as much science this week,

so you can calm down.

We'll be all right. But science actually proves this theory.

There's a scientist for the last forty years that has

done work on how your brain experiences two different things,

fear and danger. And to keep it very short for you,

pretty much your body experience is danger and fears, two

completely separate processes. And what that means is your body

process is danger and threat, responds to it and resolves

it before it ever decides if it's afraid. Now, we

experience this all very fast, but in short I'll explain

it to you this way. If a dangerous situation is

happening again, we'll give an example.

You're in the woods, you see a bear and you're like,

oh my gosh, your body is not afraid.

First it first goes to amen, we don't mess with bears.

So it processes, it sends all the signals.

Your body goes in to fight or flight, whatever, which

one your bent towards.

But over here is fear. And you have this thing

in your brain.

I'm not going to bore you with the scientific term,

but it's like a library of fear pretty much.

And you build this the moment you're born, from how

you're paying parents raise you, from.

The environment you grow up in, and it's the fear library.

And what your brain does is it sees danger and.

It says, okay, hold on one second, and it goes to.

The library and it says, guys, what do we know

about bears? And your brain starts going through the library.

Bears eat you, Yoga a bear, We need to pooh.

Bears eat you. Only you can prevent the forest fire.

Some of y'all know that.

But you go and your brain goes to that library

and it comes back and says, yeah, we should be terrified.

You should definitely run, and your body takes off. Now

here's where this comes into play. You experience a dangerous

situation where there's potential layoffs at your job. Your brain

goes to your library, what do we know about provision

and security? Well, your brain, some of you know, well,

we got to provide and we got to make it up.

And if we don't have money, we're nothing. So your

body goes back to and says, hey, if we don't

have money, we're nobody. So we should be terrified. Here's

a beautiful thing about scripture. The Bible says, don't conform

to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by

changing the way you think. The science of that is

your brain has neural pathways, and what you can do

is the Holy Spirit will empower you to go to

your fear library and say, Jesus is my provider, regardless

of if I have money. So when I go to

see a dangerous situation about my job, my brain goes to.

The library and says, oh, that's all right.

We got Jesus. We're gonna be all right. He's always

taken care of us. He's always provided for us. He's

always been there for us, so we don't have to

be afraid. We get the choice. So this is last week,

Week two. We're gonna take it a little bit further.

So we're gonna read a book, a whole book of

the Bible right now. Not a whole book, sorry, a

whole chapter old chapter, chapter number three of Psalms. It's

only eight verses. For some of you who got terrified,

we also are in church, so what the heck okay?

Psalms chapter number three, starting in the first verse, is

what it says, Oh Lord, I have so many enemies,

So many are against me, so many are saying God

will never rescue him.

But you, o Lord, are a shield around me.

You are my glory, the one who holds my head high.

I cried out to the Lord, and he answered me.

From his holy mountain, I lay down and slept, Yet

I woke up in safety, for the Lord was watching

over me. I am not afraid of ten thousand enemies

who surround me on every side.

Arise, O Lord, rescue me. My God. Listen to this.

This is a great prayer. This is my type of prayer.

Listen to this.

Slap all my enemies in the face God. Come on,

everybody ever want a prayer, prayer like that? Come on,

embarrass them in front of their mama.

God. That's why. Look at this nestord. Shatter their teeth

of the wicked. Come on, they got them fake denters.

Bust them out they mouth God, look like they got

fourteen front teeth.

Goodness, couldn't get it the different sizes.

Okay, you come on, y'all know those people. It's like

I got my teeth done. It's like, no, you got

one tooth multiplied by forty five. We got a whole

mouth of front teeth. Okay, don't mess with me. I'll

cut you down.

Okay.

Anyways, first number eight victory comes from you.

Oh Lord, May you bless your people.

The title of my sermon today for taking notes is

don't duck the smoke.

Don't duck the smoke. I ain't ducking no smoke. Lord.

We love you.

I pray Lord that you would meet us in this moment,

that you allow us to experience your presence and your

peace and change something about who we are, how we think,

and how we see you.

And Lord, we just love you. It's and g's same.

We pray and everybody said, amen, guys, I have some

bad news. I found out something pretty tough this week,

and that information is my wife don't think I can fight.

So somebody come up here and fight me right now

so I can.

I'll show you.

No. This happened last Sunday, and I'm still working through it.

I got counseling tomorrow.

And I'm joking.

But last Sunday, we're out to eat with some of

our friends, Brian Aaron, and we eat and we're walking

out of the restaurant after church on Sunday and I

see we're like walking across the street and I see

across the street and up the way this group of

four young men. They are probably between seventeen twenty years old.

They all look young. And I can say this because

I know and I was this. I know when people are.

Looking suspect and doing something they're supposed to be doing,

and that's how they look.

They had that look on them. So they're walking this

way and I already just flagged him, like what are

they doing? They crazy?

So we were walking across the street, they're walking this way.

Well then I see them see us, and I'm just like, okay, whatever,

and then I see him turn around and they kind

of start walking back.

Where we walking.

I'm like, all right, okay, so we just walking and

then I'm like, we about to turn this corner. And

they ain't got no business turning this corner. If they

turn this corner, I know it's on. That's just how

my brain work.

So we turn the corner. Guess what these jokers do.

They turned the corner, so right when they turn out,

just for the end of the story, I didn't fight.

No kids, calm down, but I would have.

So we turned the corner and me and Aaron. Aaron

was in the video shout out to Brian. Aaron Aaron

shout out.

To baby Ace.

We're walking and me and Aaron immediately under our breath

because this is a group of four guys walking behind

is me and Aaron right here, Abby and bring in

front of us, and we're walking. So I just slowed

down my walk and me and Aaron start talking to

each other. I said, old brother, here we go. He said, Oh,

it's about to get active. I said, absolutely.

We just it's the type of time we are on.

Ain't nothing happening yet, but we just like it can

get real active. Oh absolutely, yes, sir. Like, so we're

just walking slowing down. I'm just saying, I ain't look

back yet, but I'm just like, oh, here we go.

So we walk our cars right here.

We walked to the car and we both kind of

turn around around.

I open my door like this, ha.

I open the door and it's just open and I'm

still looking and they just keep they looking at us,

but they just keep on walking. I'm like, okay, okay,

and when ain't no problem, will be no problem. So

I get in the car. We shut the door and

immediately we start talking. We're all talking and Breed Breed

is crazy, y'all.

She's like, oh my gosh, you.

See these guys. I thought we was about to fight.

Oh my goodness, he was about to go damn. And

I'm like, oh, absolutely. Aaron was like always about to

get active up in here. And Aaron's like, Bree, what

do you talk? You don't need to be fighting nobody.

She's like, oh, I clawed her eyes out, just about

to get him like a cat. Meanwhile, which I don't

know what to say about nothing. But Abby's like, what

are y'all talking about? I didn't see nothing. I'm like, yes,

you didn't see anything. There ain't nothing to be seen.

But me and Aaron start talking about our game plan

if we.

Would have got jumped in that moment, I'm like, if

they rather have bow they hit Aaron, well, I'm coming

over there. Bang, I take him out, and then I

turn around and I look for the shortest one, just

because I know how I get down, so.

I'm gonna go for him first. Bam.

You know what I'm saying, jam, cross, slip, upper cut,

and then you know them.

Then I'm back.

Aaron has then picked up the second one. Body slammed him,

so he's out. So now it's two on one. Boom

we out of here, and then we get and then

what we do. We call the police for them because

I don't want no issues. The security came, are gonna

catch it? Hey, there were some young men. They tried

some grown men and they found out. So that was

how it went in my head. And it was at

this moment I found out my wife had all four

of my kids. Don't think I can fight.

She was like, I just don't know. I mean, it's

four of them. What are y'all gonna do? Like, I

just they do this this is what they do. I

was like, first of all, you don't know them. What

do you mean? This is what that? They just walk

around looking for people to fight. You don't ever fight.

You're drastically underestimating my crazy though. That's what you're underestimating

is my crazy. So but me and Aaron are definitely

people who fall into the category. And honestly, I love

having friends like this.

And now the truth is we.

Don't know how much I can fight. I ain't been

in a fight since eighth grade. And if you fighting

as a grown man and it's not your job to

be fighting what you're doing, come on, man, that's ridiculous.

You fighting people just and you're not getting paid to

fight people. That's insane. So now what I don't know?

My friend said this, I was like, man, I really

lock in and they take some classes to do something

because what I do, I don't know. I know my

fighting doesn't match how crazy I talk. So that's where

I would get in trouble is because I could verbally

assault you, but there's not necessarily the skill set to

match that intensity. The only places I'm looking for a

fight is in an airport because I know I ain't

nobody got a gun or a knife.

So I'm like, oh, we can get down in an airport.

It's just me and you.

It's the stuff that go through my mind. Man, like

that is smart. Yeah, you can take that one right

down down. Only fight in airports. Okay, it's crazy. Don't

fly and you want to ever be able to fly again.

But there's this term.

My friend, he'd be saying it all the time. But

it's like, I ain't afraid of no smoke. And now

if you don't know what that is, the smoke is

like if there's a fight, I ain't ducking no smoke,

like I will we can run it right now. And

for me, I generally feel that way, like, no, that

smoke where we at, Let's go, let's run it.

I don't even know if I can really fight.

And eighth grade, it was a kid shoved me, bam

hit him in the face.

The fight was broke up. So is that a fight?

May I hit him?

He didn't hit me, so we don't know. I counted

as a fight. But I got one strong punch, I

know that. So but here's what I know about smoke.

There's a difference between smoke and a fire and smoke

is not fire and fire is not smoke. Why Because

smoke possesses no power in it of itself.

You can't even technically fight smoke.

I mean, think about it like a firefighter if there's

a building that's on fire. When they run into the building,

they see the smoke, but they know the smoke is

not the issue. The smoke is not why I'm here.

The smoke is a little bit dangerous because it can

get inside my lungs and they can get me disoriented

and it can get me a little confused.

But I'm not worried about the smoke.

I need to find the fire because the fire is

where the problem is. The fire is where this thing

will keep growing. The fire is what can continue to

hurt you. And here's what I want to talk about

this morning using the analogy of smoking fire, and that

is I believe we have gravely misunderstood the relationship between

anxiety and fear. Now, before I get into it, just

by show if hands. I'm gonna ask you to be vulnerable, humble,

open and transparent. If you have dealt with any type

of anxiety or or feeling anxious about anything, can you

just raise your hand, just come on for a moment.

First thing I want you to do is look around

the room. When you anxious, it convinces you you're crazy.

Look at us, We're all crazy, everybody's But anxiety is

this feeling and worry about like, oh my gosh, what

is this gonna happen? This's gonna happen, And society tells

us that we live in the most anxious time ever.

There's a book that came out. It was called The

Anxious Generation.

They labeled a whole gener anxious generation of anxiety that

is plaguing our nation and our world. And I started

thinking about this because the truth is the world isn't

worse off than it was in other times.

Like we love to whatever generation is current.

We love to think like this is the worst time

in the world and the world is gonna end, which

is kind of a beef I have sometimes the Christians.

When Christians are like, this is the worst it's ever

been and the world's gonna end, you know, they were like, yeah,

they were feeding Christians to lions back in the day,

and there were wars where they were like grouping up

people and gasing them.

So I don't maybe, but just calm down. For a second.

But here's the idea.

The world is not worse, our capacity to handle it

has gotten worse. And there are some things that I

think are leading to our anxiety. And I did a

lot of research this past week. But there are a

couple of things that are super important to understand, which

is our access to information, the increase of our options

and choices. And I wrote it down this last one

to make sure I say it right, is our expectations.

All of these things have increased as time has gone on,

so our access to information. You grew up earlier, long,

long time ago, your tribe, your crew of people was

maybe one hundred people. Maybe that's the only people you knew,

and the only information you knew is what they knew.

And the only thing you were worried about is what

they were worried about. And the only thing you had

to pray about was what they were praying about. The

only thing you had to worry about was what they

were with. Now you can wake up on your phone

and see any and everything everywhere, And if my take

is beautiful as that is, I don't know if our

brains bodies in chemistry was set up to have access

to that much information. Our information has increased, our choices

have increased.

When you grew up, it's like what job am I

gonna have? You gonna have the job your daddy have?

This is gonna do.

Our name is Smith, We are black Smith's. That's how

it worried with Smith. We hit metal as what you did.

So now you have more options, you have more choices,

and somehow we think these more choices would make it easier.

It makes it way more difficult because you have decision.

Fatigued, so you're overwhelmed and you're anxious about it. While

all these things have gone up, our connection to community

has gone down, our resilience has gone down, and our

shared purpose has all gone down, leading to a bunch

of smoke. Here's the point for today's message that I

think will help a lot of you. Anxiety is the

smoke to the fire of fear. Anxiety is the smoke

to the fire of fear.

Here's what I mean by that.

If you are dealing with anxiety, I want you to know,

first off, it's valid, and it's a really big deal.

It's a really big deal, and you have to deal

with it. You have to address it because here's the

interesting fact, I found out seventy five percent of people

who die in a fire, they don't die from fire,

they die from the smoke. They die from breathing that

in the same way people are dying from anxiety because

it distorts your reality.

It gets in your lugs and has you thinking different.

You can't see where.

You really are, you don't know what's really going on,

and it balloons.

Into this thing.

And at the same time, you need to know that

anxiety is the smoke.

It's not the fire. It's not the actual thing.

And I can talk about this because I've dealt with anxiety,

and sometimes when you fight in anxiety, it feels like

you fight in smoke. A firefighter doesn't run into a

burning building and pour water on smoke. That doesn't do anything.

You can't contain the smoke. What you have to do

is you don't fight smoke. You follow smoke. I'm trying

to help you.

You do not fight it. You have to follow it.

Why because if I follow smoke, it'll lead me to

the actual issue. And what I want to present to

everybody this morning is your anxiety is not the issue.

There is a deeper fear that is the actual issue.

But if you spend your whole life fighting that thought,

you won't find the real fear. And underneath every anxious

thought you have, there's a fear. There's a fear there.

There's something you're worried about, something you're concerned about, a

legitimate fear, a real fear, something that is taking you out.

And I'll present to you if you've ever felt anxious

in your life, if you deal with anxiety at all.

I'm not saying it's not valid. I'm not saying it's important.

What I am saying is if you spend your whole

life trying to fight that thing, you won't find the

real thing.

And the real thing is there's some fear under there.

Now, before we get into this idea, we have to

look at our scripture.

Here.

Psalms, chapter three, David finds himself in a very anxious

and fearful place. Here's the context. His son has raised

up a who to overthrow him as king, and he's

on the run. Talk about a bad father's day, just terrible.

He sounds like, I'm gonna kill you, take a kingdom.

You're a terrible father. So he's on the run. He's terrified,

and the scripture this is where we can kind of

peer into his life. I want to read this. You

can throw that back on the screen. Verse number one

of Psalm chapter three. It says at first he starts

off and he says, I have so look at this,

Oh Lord, I have so many enemies and so many

are against me.

So this is the anxiety part of it.

He's nervous because there's so many people, and there's so many.

And that's how anxiety language works.

It works like everything's going wrong and I can't trust anybody,

and I'm worried about what job am I gonna get.

And there's no and it balloons to this big thing.

But I want to show you something he presents under

this anxiety is the actual fear. So many are saying

God will never rescue him. Then let me give you insight.

This is not just people saying, oh, he's gonna get

hurt and his son's trying to come against him and

he's gonna die. No, if you look at the Orich language,

what people are saying is the same thing they said

about Saul. If you go back and read the Bible,

there was a king named Saul. He was the first king.

He was an amazing king. And then the Bible says

that the spirit of God left Saul and there was

no salvation for Saul, meaning the spirit of God was

not with him. What people are saying about David now

is maybe what happened to Saul is happening to him.

Maybe God's not with him anymore. Maybe he's not that

special shepherd boy anymore. Maybe that oil really didn't mean anything.

Maybe he slayed Goliath, but that was just happenstance. And

here's what David is dealing with. He's dealing with the

reality of if I'm not king, who am I? Not

only if I'm not king, but if I'm not a

good dad because my son. He's dealing with the conflict

and the fear of losing all the basis of where

we find value. And whether you looking at David or not,

or you think you do this or not, we all

find value in the titles we carry.

And it's because we have a fear of not being seen.

We have a fear of our worth, we have a

fear of our value. So if I'm CEO, or I'm

some sort of c suite, or if I'm some sort

of I have this Many fathers we find value in that.

But what happens when we start taking your titles? What

happens when people don't acknowledge your titles? What happens when

you work super hard, you get the degree, you go

to the work, you're the most qualified for the new job,

and they don't give it to you. Well, then you start.

That's the real fear. The anxiety is the front. The

smoke is I don't need that, I don't care, I

don't want it anyways. The truth is you really did

want it because you've been searching for a little kid

to find out who you were, and you found out

you got applauded when you succeeded.

So you made a vow that served you when you

were eight.

But now you're thirty eight and you're still fighting, still

struggling smoke because you haven't identified. What are you actually

afraid of? What happens if you don't get that job,

What happens if you're still single? What happens if it

doesn't go your way? What happens if the business doesn't work?

See you?

He come to church and the primary promise is, Oh,

you ain't gotta worry about that, because God's gonna make

it all.

Work, and it's gonna go exactly according to plan. That's

where we hope happens.

Then you go out into your life that doesn't go

that way, and this is what you struggle with.

Oh God must not be who he said he was.

This is why people deconstruct their faith, because people promise themseling.

Well, you get God. He's gonna work it all out.

He works all things together for the good of those

who love him, a call according to his purpose.

Here's my thing with this.

Okay'm gonna I'm gonna produce you to a Bible reading idea.

This is gonna help you. This is a little sidebar theology.

Put your thinking caps on. Remember when I said that

last week? Everybody, right now, do this.

Do this. Put your hand out like this. Put your

thinking cap on.

I ain't gonna make it where it dress of the server,

but just for two minutes, put your thinking cap on.

Okay, here's the core idea. When you're reading your Bible.

The Bible cannot primarily mean to you what it did

not first mean to the people who first heard it.

It can't mean to you something that it didn't first

mean to them. All right, track with me. This is

what we do in a Bible study. Tell me if

this ever been you, It's been me a million times.

So this ain't truck question.

But if you're in a Bible study, you reading the Bible,

you read a scripture, and then there's this question that

is asked. I want us to go on a circle

and each person tell me what is that scripture? I

don't care what it.

Means to you?

Now let me let me let me see that that

shock failure. You're like, because what if it mean to you?

What it don't mean?

What it didn't mean to them? Now track with me.

Were about to take thing caps off?

But here we go. That logic, what does it mean

to me?

Is the same logic that had people enslaving people, killing

people and murdering people with the Bible. Because that's what

it meant to me. So I use this book and

I say, oh, this is what it really means, and

this is how you really What it really means is

certain people aren't important as other people.

What it really means is we have to get rid

of the Jews. What it really means.

All these same logics that we use in our small

group is a dangerous slippery slope The goal is not

to find out what it means to you. I gotta

know what the person when they was writing it, what did.

They mean to the people they.

Was talking to, And in light of that I can

draw some meaning. Okay, look, you can take your thinking

cap salt, look at that. Just throw it the throw

it under your seat. You ain't gonna need to the

rest of the service.

But this is important that you understand this because you

can get in some dangerous space.

I can do all things through Christ, who strengthen me.

And to me that really means, you know, no matter

how many people I have sex with, God good will

always redeem and he'll make all my baby mamas get

along together because He's given me the strength and I

can do all things. Charles, that is so ridiculous. That's

what you do, just with other stuff. Here's a funny one.

Here's a funny one. Now, this one's gonna get dangerous

becausebody are like, yeah, get him. I'm gonna say this one.

You'll be like, well, I hate this guy, the equal

opportunity offender.

So uh, we say things like this. There's an old scripture.

There's scripture and says.

And he and you will receive power when the Holy

goost comes upon you. And that word the original language

is dunamous, like the word dynamite, and we like to say, oh,

God's gonna give you a dynamite power.

Guess what.

They didn't have dynamite when they wrote that, so they

weren't thinking about dynamite.

So I'm not saying you.

Can't draw that inference and connected linguistically. But what I

am saying is when they thought of the Holy Spirit,

they weren't thinking blow it up. They would, they would,

it didn't exist. You try to see see that. That's

how I know offended because somebody'll didnt laugh is loud

than the second one.

Okay, we're good. So here's the idea.

It can't primarily mean to you what it didn't mean

to them originally. So when we talk about anxiety, if

you study the Old Testament, a word for word translation

of anxiety does not show up in the Old Testament.

It does show up in the New Testament. In the

Old Testament it's alluded to a ton. David uses tons

of language that shows that he's dealing with anxiety. But

we get to the New Testament and Jesus talks about it.

He says, you don't have to be anxious because your

father knows what you need.

Paul speaks to it.

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

here's the idea.

This is why we have to use this tool that

we just talked about.

When we read the scriptures, because when we hear anxiety,

we think of something specific.

It's not bad.

But to get an understanding of the scriptures, you need

to understand what were they thinking when they heard this.

So when they hear anxiety in a New Testament time,

they are not thinking what's wrong with my body or

my brain.

They thought what's wrong with my heart? Because the word the.

Greek word that is used when the word anxiety shows

up in scripture is a divided and torn apart heart

because of divided loyalty and fear. The word picture is

being in a war and your allegiance is to both armies.

The word picture is two horses runs this way, tied

a rope, running that way. The other one ties he

rope and runs that way. So when they think about anxiety,

they're not thinking, oh gosh, I'm nervous and my body's shaking.

They're thinking something's wrong in my heart, I trust two

different people, because the only way I would be worried

is if my trust is with me and with God

with me, and the business owner with men.

And so they go to their heart first. What is

it saying.

It's saying if you are anxious? Is I'm not saying

that something can't be wrong in your body? One hundred percent?

There is.

But it all tracks back. That's all the smoke. Where

it comes back to as a man thinks in his heart.

I promise you I can connect this book.

As a man thinks in his heart, so is he?

It all tracks back to the loyalty and divided fear

of your heart. And it's questions like this, in our heart?

Am I the provider? Or is God the provider? Does

my family make me secure? Or does God make me secure?

Are these my kids or are these God's kids? Do

I get my value from what they think about me?

Or what God thinks about me?

All that in your heart? It shows up on the

outside as anxiety.

But you gotta go back and figure out what's the

what's the What am I really afraid of? What am

I actually worried about? I'm not saying it didn't start

out here, but it shows up on the inside.

I want to I wanna illustrate it this way.

I have this little piece of string here and this

is gonna represent anxiety.

This is how anxiety works.

So anxiety start with a real regular moment, you know,

like you bet, you bet. You be at work and

it's like, you know, maybe it's Monday, and the ball

come up to you. It's like, hey, can I can

I meet with you? And you're like, yeah, sure, when

you want to meet, let's let's do Friday at four

forty five. For Friday at four forty five, okay, and

you just that was weird. Why do you want to

meet Friday at four forty five? It's probably nothing. It

probably ain't gonna mean nothing, but maybe well maybe I

did hear so, and so it's losing their job.

That's weird. It's probably nothing, but what if what if

I do lose my job? And what you mind?

If I get through it's all right, let me see,

it's just just hold on. Yeah, it's probably nothing. But

then but if I do lose my job, I ain't.

I ain't going to it's cool for nothing else, all right?

And then the bills is tight and I can't. There's

probably nothing. No, it's not that's nothing. Ain't got to worrybout.

I ain't got worry about. Ain't worry about. And then

you get home and you're it's time for dinner and

your kids are out, so you text them, Hey, where

you all at?

And they don't answer the phone. What in the world?

It's probably nothing, they're okay? But what if they're not okay?

And what if I wonder where they're at. I didn't

like that group of friends that had last time. It

felt weird. I just didn't. I didn't trust it. But

I didn't say nothing because I was trying to be

I was trying to be calm.

I was trying to be cool. I was trying to

be okay, Okay.

It's probably nothing. That's probably nothing. There's probably nothing. And

then the doctor called and they say, hey, we got

the report back from your test.

Could you come in? What do I need to come

in for? He's there's probably nothing, it's probably nothing. There's

probably nothing. It's not a big deal.

It's not a big deal. But what if what if

it is a big deal? What if I'm not okay?

What if I lose my spouse then and if I

lose my spouse and I lose my job, and then

how am I gonna raise these kids? And I can't

raise these kids by myself. I didn't have nobody and

I didn't have nobody there for me, and I didn't

know what I was gonna do. And so okay, no, no,

it's gonna be fine. It's gonna be fine.

It's gonna be fine. Okay, Okay, I got church on Sunday.

I got church on Sunday. Who okay, h.

Y don't matter if I get through because I like

to sit up close for worship.

So I'm just excuse me.

And I still got my anxiety and I just hide

it underneath all my nights clothes.

But the truth is, last week the power went out,

and what the power going out for? Weird? And you

find yourself had a place.

It's kind of just everywhere, And this is how you

get anxious about stuff that you weren't even thinking about

because it went past you.

It's a lot of people's social media, life is great,

life is good. Well, then you see you on Instagram,

maybe life ain't that good and maybe you do need

to be worried. If we thought about this, what's really

going on over there? Do we know what's happened?

Does anybody know what's happening? And now you got people

that are having to adjust and they're worried, and your

kids are afraid, and now your family's afraid, and now

the church is afraid. And pastors get up on stage

with this and they spend their circle around you and

stuff you was never worried about. Now you're thinking, well,

maybe I'm not reading my Bible enoughing, maybe I'm not

Christian enough, and maybe I didn't raise my kids good enough,

and maybe God is gonna leave me, and maybe and maybe,

and you find yourself.

And here's what I've.

Realized about anxiety is we will spend these circles our

whole life.

But what you gotta do is is what the firefighters do.

Is my beef is not with all this string, but

I do have to follow it back. So if I

want to find the fire, I don't fight the smoke

I put. Okay, let me see where did What was

I thinking about when I got what was that hold on?

Hold on? No it was the kids? Well no, it

wasn't the kids. It was hold on.

I was worried about the kids, and then I was

worried about my job, and then I started thinking about

the family, and then I started thinking about, Oh, I

ain't gonna make y'all get up, don't worry about it.

And then I.

Started thinking about, Okay, hold on, hold on, hold on,

I think. And this is why counseling gets tired. Is

why some of y'all elect not to deal with your

emotion because.

This feels exhausting. It be easier to just act like

it didn't happen.

It be easier just to escape it, be easier just

to doom scroll, it be easier to just ignore it.

But if you want to find where your anxiety is

coming from, you gotta follow that thing. And I don't

care how long it takes you. I don't know how

care how frustrating it is. You got to track it

down because I promise you if you will follow it

long enough. And this is why you need friends in

your life. That says, when did you see my attitude change?

When did I start acting different? When did I get snappy?

When did I get short? Well, it kind of happened

when that disappointment in your job happened, and I noticed

that you stopped talking and said.

Don't worry. I'm not gonna make y'all get up and

then you because if you will follow the smoke long enough,

it will lead you to the actual fire.

And when you find the fire, then you can fight

the actual fire instead of out here running around dealing

with stuff that you can't change.

Anyway, that's the lie about anxiety. Anxiety thinks tells you

that worrying about it is changing it.

Worrying about it can't change it, can't do anything about it.

And honestly, you're worried about stuff you can't control. You

wasn't controlling and you.

Won't be able to control.

But what you can control is you can sit down

next to this fire and you realize, Oh, the real

thing is I'm afraid my kids are gonna make mistakes

I made.

So that's why I control.

Them, and that's why I scream at them, and that's

why I over correct them, and that's why I talk

to them like they're twenty five when they're five, because

I'm terrified they're gonna have the same life I did.

And I moved us out of that state, and I

moved us out of that neighborhood, and I moved this

way to that so they wouldn't have that, And somehow

those habits have landed right back in this child, and

I don't know what to do. That's why you're running around.

Let's talk about that. Let's bring that to the altar.

But we like to come to the altar and just say,

just you know, I.

Just see you could just pray for me. Well, what

is it? It's just some things. I'm not mad at you.

I'm just saying there's a real fire we can deal with.

There's something you're actually afraid of.

The real fire is you're afraid that there's something fundamentally

broken in you.

That's why you're still single. Something I have the missing.

Piece from the puzzle, and everybody else sings that, but

I don't have it.

I guess I'm just unlovable. That's what you really feel.

You're not mad. All men aren't bad. You're not mad

at the dating apps. You're not mad. It's none of that.

We can talk about that. I'm not saying it's not real.

I'm not saying you don't have some bad experiences. What

I am saying is because your dad wasn't there, you

feel like no man is ever gonna be there. That's

what you're actually afraid of. Let's let's fight that fire.

And this is where I want to make a deviation

from traditional firefighters, because there's a saying that says you

can't fight fire with fire, but that's not how it

works in the Kingdom. The only way to fight fire

is with fire. The only way to get rid of

the fire of fear is to get a better fire.

And let me tell you the best thing about this fire,

it ain't got no smoke. Ask Moses because he walks

up to a burning bush and it's on fire, but

it's not being consumed. And the only reason you got

smoke is because something being burnt up.

But the fire of God, when nothing gets.

On the inside of you, when you get the fire

of God that knows who you are, when you get

the fire of God that knows God chose you before

you did anything, When you get the fire of God

that says God will protect me. If I make my

bed at the heights, or if I find myself in

the pit of hell, he will be there for me.

And I came to encourage some people that you can

make a decision today that.

I'm finding a better fire.

It is the only reason the early Church made a

difference because it had a better fire. It had a

fire that had them in jail bragging about it. It

had a fire that had them be chased down, and

they weren't worried a different fire. And the only way

the Church is going to make the difference it was

supposed to is if we find a better fire, fire

that purifies, the fire that leads, a fire that protects.

See.

Our problem is in Christianity we think the devil owns fire.

I say, oh, it's fiery. You think, oh, something bad

to happen. I'm going through a burning season, or the Devil's.

Gonna get me.

Oh no, no, you read this book. You'll find out

real quick who owns fire. Elijah calls down fire from heaven.

He owns fire. Moses saw fire in a burning bush.

It was God, the Holy Spirit. Tongues of fire fell

on the early Church, and then you began to speak

in a different language that was empowering them. Trust me, friend,

you ain't gotta be worried about fire because our God

owns fire. And they'll put that fire on the inside

of you. That'll have you walking in a boldness and

walking in confidence and knowing.

Who you are. So what I'm saying is you ain't

got a duck the smoke some of you.

Anxiety has tried to punk you, and I know that feeling.

I know the feeling. They'll have you running in circles

about stuff that's never happened. And that's what's even worse

about anxiety is because it's you out here fighting a

battle that hasn't even happened yet.

Prepared. Well, what if they say this and then I

say that, and then they.

Leave me that didn't happen, that doesn't happened yet. But

let's go back to the what are you actually afraid of?

Let's talk about that. What are you actually missing out on?

Let's talk about that. I want to read you a

scripture if they give me a moment. It's in the

Book of Hebrews, and this is what the Bible says.

Let me find it. I'm just off in this book

right now.

It says, as you endure a divine discipline, remember that

God is treating you as his own child.

For whoever heard of a child that was never disciplined.

If God doesn't discipline you, you're not as children for

our earthly fathers discipline us for a few times, just

doing the best they know how, but God disciplines us

in the best way.

No discipline is enjoyable.

It's painful, but afterwards there will be a peaceful Harvard

of right living right here. So take a new grip

with your tired hands. Strengthen your weak knees. Mark out

a straight path for your feet, so that those who

are weak and laying will not fall but become strong.

Here's all I want to say. It's just take a

new grip. So we've been so anxious. You've got a

decision to make, and you've been so worried, like, oh gosh,

what if I make the wrong one? What if I

do the wrong thing? What if it's not enough, what

if I'm not enough. Let's just let's just take a

deep breath. Let's follow the smoke. What's the actual fear,

and let's give that to God. Let's give our actual

fear to God. I wrote up this thing, and we'll

close with this I wrote up. I just titled it

the smoke prayer. Smoke prayer. Could you throw that up

for me, just the whole thing. I don't have it

in my notes, but I think they'll have it up there.

But the idea of this is, if you're trying to

follow the smoke, if you're trying to if you're trying

to deal with some of that, I want to give

you a template. And it's not no new template. It's

a structure of the Lord's prayer, but in a different way.

This is kind of a prayer you can pray yourself

through when you're trying to figure out what's really going on.

Here's how the prayer starts. Here's how all the prayers starts.

Father, It's how the Lord's prayer starts. That context is important.

Now depending on your experience.

Especially on a Father's Day, that feels it. But let

me tell you this is a good.

Father, a father you can trust, a father who has

what you need, a father who's waiting to listen to you.

He wants to hear from you.

So you start off understanding, there's this language in the

New Testament abba. That word abba is like the cries

a kid makes when it's learning to say the word dad. Now,

I don't ever be ripping daddy God in prayers.

There's a little too much for me. But that is.

That is a closer parallel but it's it's it's like

a kid babbling. When a kid's trying to say that.

That that of a two year old. That's what our abbah?

And what does that do? It positions you as a child.

You don't come to God as.

A grown adult talking about Hey God. Then my son

will do this. So sometimes he'll just put on this.

Deep voice, Hey dad, Uh, it's kinda when.

You come as a child. So it starts with father,

and then tell him how you really feeling. I am mad.

I'm so frustrated that this happened. I can't stand these

people at my job. They are getting on my last nerve.

I feel frustrated, and to be truthful, I feel a

little disappointed because I felt like you told me you

were gonna get me a better job than this, And

I'm frustrated. And let me tell you, God can handle

your feelings. Just because your parents can't, just because your friends.

Can't, doesn't mean God and you are not too much

for God. He can handle it. Tell him how you feel.

But once you get through those feelings, I need you

to figure out what's your actual fear. What are you

really afraid of? What's actually going on? And this is

not because God doesn't know. It's because you need to know.

You need to know. I'm actually afraid that I'm not

good enough. I'm afraid that no matter what I do,

this is a core.

This would be my core. Fore you, if I go.

Through my prayers, it would show up as God, I'm mad,

I'm frustrated, blah.

Blah blah blah.

But truthfully, I'm afraid that no matter how good I get,

it won't be good enough. And it doesn't matter how

much I practice, It doesn't matter how much I know.

It doesn't matter how good I've been before. I just

don't know if. And then you gotta dea.

Where is it? Where's Where's the lie? I put false

just for the FS, just to you know, keep it

put lie. Oh.

The lie is is that my performance determines my value.

That's the lie.

The lie is the opinions of others determine your importance.

The lie is if you have enough money, you'll have peace.

The lie is that in a different season you'll have

more space to really prioritize your family.

And just right, no, no, no, no, that's not the truth.

The truth is, and we gotta get to the truth.

Because usually I know the truth, and the truth sty'll

set you free. So you gotta go, and you gotta

replace God. Although I feel frustrated and I am afraid

that I am not enough, I have recognized that the

truth is My value is not in what I do.

But before before I was even born, you chose me,

you called me, you equipped me.

So I thank you that I have exactly.

What I need when I need it, and if I

ain't got it, that means I don't need it.

So I choose to put.

My trust in you because you've never let me down,

because you've always been there. Because you're the one who

gave me this job, and you're the one who gave

me these kids, and you're the one who put breath

in my body, and you're the one sustaining this country,

and you're the one sustaining this church. God, I remind

myself that.

You are God and I am not.

That's why the scripture says, don't be anxious for anything,

but instead pray about everything.

Standing all over this.

Room, I'm gonna read you that scripture he just quoted,

but with a little more context. Don't be anxious of

Philippians four, chapter six. Don't be anxious about anything, staid,

pray about everything, tell God what you need, thank him

for all He's done. And then here's the most beautiful

promise in the world. It doesn't say then He'll fix it.

That's not what the Bible says. It says, then you'll

experience God's peace, which exceeds anything you can understand. The

goal of you know, the goal of prayer ain't to

get an answer. Is to get peace. That is the answer.

The goal is not God do this for me. That's

a genie. God's not a genie. The goal is I

go to you because I need to be reminded I'm

not in control. And I get anxious when I think

I'm in control. I get fearful when I think I'm

in control. But when I go to You in prayer,

I remind myself, Oh, I can have peace because God's

in control.

Would you close your eyes and by your ads.

I want to take a moment and pray for everybody.

Dear God, you see your children. And the truth is

some of us have been running around so anxious, so

worried about the future, worried about things we can't control,

asking questions that it seems nobody has the answers to

but God, right now, we come to you as our father,

and we want to bring you our real fears, the

things it's hard to even talk about.

The things it's hard to even say. But I think

you can handle it. I pray for every person under

the same out of my.

Voice that has been dealing with anxiety in any way,

and I speak your truth that that smoke will not

kill you.

You will live.

I pray you would find peace that transcends your understanding.

Peace to trust God with your future, Peace, to trust

God with your children. Peace, to trust God with your

provision and your job. Peace, to trust God with every step.

In front of you.

God, we lay all these things down at your feet.

Every head, bow to every eye close. If you're in

this room and you've never accepted Jesus Christ as your

Lord and savior, you've never given up control, It's the

best decision you could ever make. It's not an easy

choice because it means you're not in the driver's seat,

but it is the best choice. In just a moment,

I want to count to three, and if you want

to accept Jesus as your Lord and savior, I'm gonna

ask you to do something that takes a lot of bravery,

It takes a lot of courage.

Might ask you to lift your hand, It's just.

You acknowledging on the outside what God's doing on the

inside of your heart. If you want to accept Jesus

as your Lord and savior, the Bible tells us that

Jesus lived the perfect life we could not. He did

what we could not so that we could become what

we couldn't without him. If you've been looking for a

better way to live, a better way to think, a

better way to exist, Jesus is that answer. He's everything

you've been looking for. I promise if you want to

accept Jesus as your lord and say, if you're one,

he loves you.

Two. Today is the day of salvation. Do not wait

another moment.

Three, All around this room and online, lift your hand,

lift your hand, lift your hand, lift your hand. So

proud of you, so proud of so many people making

this choice. I got your sister, I got your brother.

So proud of you, so proud of you. Hey, listen altogether,

as a family. I got you up there. I see

you together as a family. I want everybody out loud

in this room and online to pray this prayer together,

everybody together, say, Dear God, I admit I've made mistakes.

I need you to save me. I need you to

change me. I need you to make me new. It's

in Jesus name, I pray. Amen, Amen, Amen. Hey, can

we celebrate people who just decided to follow Jesus. Hey,

if you just prayed that prayer, We're so proud of you,

so grateful for you.

It's a big deal. If you text the word saved

to the number that's on the.

Screen eight two eight two eight two, we'll put some

resources in your hand. We've also got a team of

some of the most loving and kind people that are

directly right here in the back of the room.

There's a sign that says that you've decide to follow Jesus.

They'd love to just give you a gift, pray for you,

encourage you. Sometimes it can feel like, oh gosh, what

do I do now? These people are here to help you.

But I know it's gonna be the best decision you've

ever made. Hey, listen, we're gonna get out of here.

Our worship team is going to continue to worship. If

you need to continue to worship, feel free to stay

in this atmosphere. If you need prayer for anything, our

prayer team would love to pray with you, but I'm

gonna pray over your week that God would be with.

You and that you would walk in peace.

Lord God, we thank you for who you are, thank

you for your love, for your mercy. I thank you

that this week we walk in a peace that goes

beyond our understanding. And I thank you that the fire

of God would live on the inside of us, that

we would walk this week with boldness, with courage, and

with discernment to know who You've called us to be. God,

we love you, We thank you. It's in the beautiful

name of Jesus we pray. And everybody said, Amen, Amen,

We love you so much.