Let's Talk Anxiety || Pastor Adam Mesa

We're gonna jump into the word and the message today. If you have your

Bible, you can open and hold it at Philippians chapter four. That's where

we're gonna open, and then we're gonna spend the day in Psalms fifty five.

What we're talking about today is we're in a series that we're calling you

asked for it. During the Easter season, we asked many people to fill

out a s survey and say, hey, what are you interested in in

hearing from the Bible? What things do you have questions mom or what things

do you want clarity on? And so four things resonated as the top.

The number one by far was people wanted a conversation on anxiety and depression,

which we're gonna talk about today. The second thing people wanted to learn about

was in times, and so we'll have a conversation at the end of the

month about that. People also wanted to know how to pray, not just

the importance of prayer, but how do I take a step towards prayer,

and so we got to share about that next week. And then the fourth

thing people wanted was the person of the Holy Spirit. They want to learn

more about the Holy Spirit, and so we're gonna talk about that. Also

throughout the rest of the year, we're gonna have some series that break down

some of these more like in October, we have planned that we're gonna do

all four weeks on the Holy Spirit, but not only teaching about the Holy

Spirit in October, but us in our service actively seeking the Holy Spirit and

so and the gifts of the Spirit. And so we're gonna talk about that

in the month of October. But this month we're gonna do like a thirty

thousand foot overview of these four topics that people are most interested in. So

today we'll tackle together a conversation on anxiety and depression. And we see it

shared in Philippians chapter four, verses four to seven. So if you have

your passage with us, or you simply want to follow on on the screen,

would you give me a favor and stand for the honor of reading God's

word today as we honor God with our full attention as we read his word

today, just a few verses we're gonna read at first, and then we're

gonna dig in. It says this, Rejoice in the Lord always. I

will say it again, Rejoice your gentleness be evident to all the Lord is

near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by

prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the

peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your

minds. In Christ Jesus, Amen, you may be seated. Let's talk

about that a little bit. It's quite interesting that the apostle Paul would write

this in the Letter of Philippians, and he is absolutely well aware about what

anxiety and anxiousness gets you. For most part, we often treat mental health

issues or mental health obstacles as somewhat of a modern conversation, but it's really

not. This month of May starts mental health Awareness Month, where you'll see

a lot of areas outside the church and in culture where they're talking about mental

health. But when you read the Word of God, the Word of God,

and many individuals in the Word of God knew about mental health and talked

about mental health many, many times, and so this isn't a new conversation.

Elijah struggled with mental health, Hannah struggled with mental health, Moses struggled

with anger and mental health. So the idea of anxiety and depression and mental

health. It's all over the Bible, but as we understand it today,

I just want to share some modern statistics and the modern definition of what anxiety

and depression is, and then we'll see what God's word has to say about

it. Here's some stats that are only about two to three years old,

and so they're pretty recent. So in the past two to three years,

divorce filings have gone up twenty five percent, antidepressant medication is up three hundred

percent, mental health hotline went up by nine hundred percent. D He says,

one out of five students have considered suicide. Additionally, one out of

ten adults as ten percent have also considered suicide. And so we see these

inhibitions of mental health are on the rise right now. Many of us can

say that maybe it's because of COVID, maybe it's because of economy, maybe

it's because of society. The reality is many of those things have a part

to play with it, but also many of our families and our upbringing can

have a part to play with it. Here's the modern definition of anxiety and

depression. It says anxiety may be defined as apprehension, tension, or uneasiness

that stems from anticipation of danger, maybe internal or external in necessity. In

necessity, depression is a mood disorder that causes a persistent feeling of sadness and

loss of interest. Also called major depressive disorder or clinical depression, It affects

how you feel, how you think, how you behave, and can lead

to a variety of emotional and physical problems. You may have trouble doing normal

day to day activities, and sometimes you feel as if life isn't worth living.

Here's the thing when it comes to four types of aspects of depression,

the four types of aspects of depression as seen by most psychologists as this number

one. Depression can be led or seen as a biochemical disorder. And so

there are chemical imbalances that are naturally occurring to us, but for us,

for some of us, they're just completely displaced. They don't work the way

they normally should work, in a way that most chemicals. So, in

other words, someone who gets around ten puppies, you may produce dopamine or

serotonin because they're cute and they're playful, and so you just you get ten

puppies jumping on you, and you're so happy and you're so joyful. But

what happens is for someone who's chemicals may be off, it doesn't matter how

many puppies you put around them, it doesn't matter what environment you put them

around. There's no dopamine being created, there's no serotonin being created. So

therefore they feel like they are in a paused state where their chemicals are not

working. So there's no happiness, there's no joy, there's no idea of

purpose, and so that is a chemical displacement. The second thing is there

is a genetic aspect to depression as well. Depression can run in families.

For example, if one identical twin has depression, the other has a seventy

percent chance of having the illness sometime in their life. In other words,

in theology and in Bible school, we would also maybe ascribe that to a

generational curse or something that's passed down in generations. But here's what we know

according to the Word of God, that if there is something that is passed

down through generations, whether it be anxiety, depression, addiction, we know

that by Jesus stripes we are healed and there is victory in the blood of

Jesus. So though we may have an effect of what has genetically happened or

what is happening through generations, there is absolute freedom and deliverance that can occur

through Jesus, also through handling it and getting help and walking through it,

potentially with a counselor or a psychologist. Most of us if we need counseling.

If you have health care, a lot of your health care providers it's

actually covered to go to counseling. There are many biblical counselors where your health

insurance may cover it as well, and so there are opportunities that you can

also sit down and work through it. We always pray God for a miracle,

but as Pastor Diego had said for many years when he had cancer and

he has ate in healthy, he says, I'm gonna do my part and

I'm gonna let God do his. And so seeking help and working with community

and confessing and going and seeking somebody is it's not you admitting that you're broking.

It's you admitting that you need help, to confessing that you need help.

So sometimes and many times, we will need that. The third aspect

of depression is personality. People sometimes have low self esteem, they're easily overwhelmed

by stress, or who are generally pessimistic by more likely to experience depression.

The fourth one is this your environment can cause depression. Continue exposure to violence,

neglect, abuse, poverty can also put a risk to developing depression.

How you raised, what's been said about you, what's been said to you

or not to you, those aspects can cause depression. It can cause low

self esteem. And so we see that naturally there are aspects where anxiety and

depression is a very real thing, so much so that God's Word talks about

it many times. And we're going to see in a few moments what God's

Word has to say about it. But here's what I want to do first.

It's important that before we talk about that, we understand the difference between

the stress of anxiety and the stress of depression, because there is a difference

between being stressed and in distress. These are two totally different things, and

sometimes we confuse anxiety and depression as distress when it really is just stress.

Here's what I mean by that. I grew up and we used to have

all types of versions of stretch, arm strongs, you guys. Ever,

you guys, remember one of these and so you had a stretch arm song.

And the point of a stretch arm strong is you can stretch them and

in time he goes right back to the way he was before. That's what

he does. So you apply a little stress on him and then he goes

back to the way that he wants before. A lot of times we say

that we're in distress when actually we are just experiencing the stretch or the stress

of life. Okay, so I'll tell you this, getting married is going

to be stressful doing life with someone else that's not you. That. They

have the capacity to make mistakes. They have the capacity to be selfish,

they have the capacity to be angry, they have the capacity to be imperfect.

I'll tell you this right now. You are gonna be stressed. There

are days you're gonna be stressed. The days you're gonna be stretched, and

you're gonna be stretched. I'll tell you this. When you decide to have

kids and you start having children, there are gonna be days you're gonna be

stressed. Okay, they're gonna do this. They're gonna stretch you. They

are that that is part of the game, it's part of life. Comes

with stress, especially when you start having teenage daughters. Trust me, it's

gonna be the moms know this. It's gonna be a stretch. It's gonna

be stressed. That happens. You go get a job, you're working for

somebody else. You have crazy hours, you got early mornings. You gotta

get the kids ready. You gotta get them some breakfast. You gotta get

them they're lunch made. You gotta get them to the car. You gotta

box up your you gotta pack up the car, and you gotta get on

the road. And you go to work, and you don't get bank us

and you don't get appreciation. You may not get a promotion, you may

not get a right Guess what, it's stress. It's gonna stretch you.

It's gonna stretch you. That's what happens in life. And a lot of

times will think that this stress is something that's gonna be permanent, but regular

stress of life. Most of the time, in a week, in a

couple of days, it goes back to normal. That's why some of us

just say, oh, I'm so stressed right now, I feel like I

just need a mental health day. In other words, what you're saying is

if I just go to Glenn Ivy and get a massage. If I could

just go get my nails done, fellas, you're like, if I could

just go hunting or shoot a gun or go go on my motorcycle. You

say, I'll come back and I'll be good. Well, then guess what

if a couple hours of rest or a day of rest going to San Diego

or something like that, if that's enough to get you back regular, then

that's just stress. That's just and that's natural and that comes with the game.

But a lot of times we act like it's complete distress, Like it's

said, oh, it's complete distress. So there's a difference. And here's

what often could be the difference. You have the stretch. But here's an

example of distress. This right here, this is distress. Okay, we're

not getting the arm back, y'all. The arm is gone now. That's

distressed. That's losing a loved one. That's someone you care about being terminal

or you being terminal. That's a marriage that's on the verge of divorce or

going through divorce. That's a that's a relationship that has seen an affair.

That's a child that's going through a suicide, attempt. That is distress.

That is Lord going to San Diego for two days, getting a massage at

Glenn Ivy. It ain't gonna fix this. God go going out to the

bar and having a couple of beers. It's not fixing this God. So

we have to know what is the difference between stress and distress. Stress,

you can get yourself back in line. Distress, you need something bigger than

a massage. You need something bigger than the night off from being a parent.

You need something different than seven days off of your work. You need

something more than that. And the beauty about the Lord is God has something

to offer more than that. That's what we're gonna see today on how God

sees this and views this. God, God cares about your distress. Oh,

he cares about your stress. But he really cares about your distress.

And He is wanting to walk alongside of you through your distress. He wants

to walk alongside of you through your anxiety. He wants to walk alongside of

you through your depression. He does not want to leave you where you're at.

He doesn't want to isolate you. Got God actually cares about your distress.

How do I know? Or we're gonna look at Psalm's fifty five.

Here's what Psalm's fifty five, and you're taking notes today, There're gonna be

three simple notes. Here's the first note I want to share with you that

we're gonna see right now. In the first fifteen verses of Psalms fifty five,

first thing we have to recognize is shame is a sham. Shame is

a sham. Shame is a falsehood. The devil would love to keep you

in your shame. There's a difference between guilt and shame. When you experience,

guilt will lead you to repentance. It'll lead you to say I'm sorry,

It'll lead you to seek forgiveness, It'll lead you to admit that you

fall in short, shame becomes your identity. It becomes who you are,

and it's something that you live in every single day. And the enemy would

love to keep you in shame because that is who you begin to personify and

believe you are. So a lot of us will experience anxiety and depression because

we have accepted shame for our life. What we saw when we were younger,

what we are around, what we've gone through, who we've been with,

what we've been addicted to, and we start to say that is who

I am and that is what I deserve, and so then we live in

shame. But David rejects the notion of shame, and he believes that's a

sham, that is a lie. And here's how he begins to reconcile it.

Look at this, He says, this, Listen to my prayer.

Oh God, do not ignore my plea. Hear me and answer me.

My thoughts trouble me. There's the anxiety, his thoughts. He is in

his thoughts, he's in his brain. And he says, I'm distraught because

of what my enemy is saying, because of the threats of the wicked.

For they bring down suffering on me, and they sell me in their anger.

My heart is in anguish within me. The terrors of death have fallen

on me. Fear and treveling has beset mer has overwhelmed me. I said,

Oh that I would have wings of a dove. I would fly away.

He's saying, God, if you'll allow me, I'll be a runner.

I want to be a runner. I want to run from circumstance.

I want to run for situation. I want to run from you. Think

about this three versus prior Psalms fifty one. He's confessing his air of having

an adultery with a married woman named Bathsheba. He has a child with her

that now leads to a misconception. He has killed the woman he had an

adultery with her husband. His son Absalom is trying to kill him for the

throne. He's got Philistine's and canaan knits all around him, trying to fight

him. Every single day. This dude can't catch a break. He's causing

his own issues. People are causing his issues. Enemies are calling his issues.

He is having a bad day, a bad week, and a bad

year. And so what does he say, God, if you'll allow me

to grow wings, I'm out of here. God, let me get some

wings. I'm out of this marriage. God, let me get some wings.

I can't do these kids no more. God, let me get some

wings. Give me a better job. I'm done with this place and where

I'm working. God. He's saying, God, give me some wings and

I'll leave. And then he tells God, if you let me leave,

this is what I'll do. He says, I'll fly away and I'll be

good. I'll be at rest. I won't have to deal with none of

these human beings no more, he says. I would flee far away,

and I'll stay in the desert. I would hurry to a place of shelter,

far from the storm, far from the tempest. And then he says,

now, Lord, confuse the wicked confound their words, for I see

violence and strife in the city day and night. They prowl about on its

walls. Malice and abuse are within it. Destructive forces aren't working the city.

Threats and lies never leave its city. If an enemy were insulting me,

I could endure it. If a foe were rising against me, I

could hide. But it is you, a man like myself, my companion,

my close friend with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship at the House of

God as we walked about among the worshipers. Let death take my enemies by

surprise. Let them go down the lid to the realm of the dead,

for evil finds lodging among them. You see his statement there, Let death

take my enemies by surprise. That's not meant for you to apply and start

saying about your coworker. Okay, David's an actual king and he's known as

the war King. He does a lot of war. That's what he's known.

His son Solomon was not defined by war, but David is defined by

war because he's expanding the israel kingdom, and so what he's asking about is

a literal kingdom. There's a fight, battle that's going there. But in

the same way, we can believe God that he could put to death the

negative, the brokenness of a relationship, the hurt of a relationship, the

pain of a relationship. But what happens is is David is speaking aloud what

he starts to do, and we'll see in the next verse sixteen he has

confessed it all. He basically what he did is he's right now, he's

word vomiting. He's like, God, my heart hurts, my head hurts,

my soul hurts. I don't like that person. I don't like that

person. I don't like that person. I want to fly away. I

want to go to Palm Springs. I just want to go to I just

man, I'll live in the desert, or if he let me live in

the desert, I'll go there. He just word vomiting because what he's doing,

he's starting as he's as he's computing and conversating with God. He's starting

to find God as a safe space to move to the next level. So

he's throwing it all out. He's putting it all out there. He's giving

God everything he's processing and going through. Sometimes we do that on the phone

with a friend. Sometimes we do that over coffee. God wants you to

do that with them. There was an old mother in the church that I

used to know, and she said, don't go to the phone, go

to the throne when you have a problem. And so a lot of times

will word vomit with a friend, with a coworker, with a neighbor,

and man, my wife is driving me crazy. This is what's going on.

And in the right environment that may be healthy. In the wrong environment

as very unhealthy. But I'll tell you this, God is always the perfect

environment that you can begin to process with the Lord out loud. That's what

David is doing right now. And he's starting to come to the realization that

this shame he's feeling, it's a sham because now he starts to lean into

God deeper. Look what he says now on at verse sixteen, he says

this, He says, as for me, so he said a bunch of

things. But he said, as for me, I call to God,

and the Lord saves me. Evening, morning and noon. I cry out

in distress, and he hears my voice. He rescues me, unharmed from

battle waged against me, even though many opposed me. God, who is

enthroned of all, who does not change, he will hear them and humble

them. He says, I'm matter of fact, God, I am worried

about them. You humble them. I went from do something, do them

God, to no, matter of fact, God, I just leave them

alone. I'm gonna leave them alone and you can humble them. You do

it for you. And he goes, because why God, I've realized they

have no fear of you. And he goes, My companion, check this

out. My companion attacks his friends. He a violates his covenant. Ooh,

his talk is smooth ass, butter, you know that talk. We're

family. I wouldn't hurt you. What are you talking about? I want

to talk him? What do you mean I didn't say that about you.

You're hearing things that's not coming from us. What do you mean we're frank,

we have history. And so there's this smooth talk that you know that

something is wrong. But the lips are like butter. As David would say,

we know, we've heard it before. And he says this, He

says, his talk is smooth as butter, and he says, what,

But yet war is in their heart. The lips say one thing, but

the heart and when you turn around, it says another thing. And so

David says, man, I'm starting to recognize. I'm starting to recognize who's

in my corner. I'm starting to recognize who's not in my corner. God's

starting to reveal these things to him. And then he says, his words

are soothing, more soothing than oil. Yet they draw out swords, they

draw out shords. Here's what David begins to recognize and begin to see.

Here's what we have to realize is ships sink not from water around them,

but from water within them. And a lot of times we will start to

drown, and a lot of times we will start to get into a place

of isolation, not because of what's around us. It's because what we've allowed

in us. And so wherefore you and I have to be really conscious of

who and what we have around because it does have the capacity to get in

you. And so what David begins to recognize and you're taking no second point

is he's realizing that Sabbath takes a surrender. Rest Sabbath is rest. Rest

takes surrender. We have to surrender things over to God and truly begin to

rest. When God created the heavens and the earth, or he did it

for six days and on the seventh day he rested. So so in order

to rest well, you have to surrender. And that's what David's doing when

he says, matter of fact, God eraced what I just said a couple

seconds before, say you know what, never mind, never mind, never

mind, never mind, never mind. I'm gonna trust you and I'm gonna

trust you'll humble them. I'm not worried about them. I'm not watching them.

I'm not leaving in a Google review on them. I'm not calling their

family member, I'm not calling their spouse. God, you you will handle

this, he says. But I he starts to recognize, God, I

will trust you. I will recognize what's going on on the outside. But

more than that, I will honor you, and I will be careful of

what I surround myself with, because whatever I surround myself with has the capacity

to get in me. Yes. And so as we start to recognize what

it means to surrender to God, it also means to get to a place

that says, as for me, I call to God and the Lord saves

me. So David starts to recognize why does he say that? He says

evening, morning and noon, I cry out and distress, and you hear

my voice. He's talking about God. I'm spending time with you now,

and I know that you're hearing me. I know that you see me.

So we have to have times of rest where we spend time with God so

that God can fill you up, so that God can be louder than anything

else that surrounds you any pain, any trauma, any past. If we

recognize I'm gonna release that shame and I'm gonna surrender to God and I'm gonna

get some rest, we can see that there's freedom in approaching God evening,

morning and noon. And then the third point is this is as we begin

to approach God with rest and surrender, we start to see that there is

safety for your soul. Safety for your soul one of us that most of

us would never doubt or never deny is that we are made up of mind,

body, and soul, my body and soul, and a lot of

times when we're in distress or stress, we just think that in order to

fix it is that we're trying to tackle just mind and body. And so

a lot of times we'll just say, oh, I'm just I'm just in

my head and I just I just need a few days of disconnect. And

I've just been battling in my mind and my mind feels frantic in my mind,

or I got all these worries and I got all these stress, It's

all in my mind. It's all in my mind. Or we say,

oh, it's just my body, it's just my body. I've been eating

healthy. I feel like if I just go on a juice cleanse, or

I feel like if I just start jumping on the treadmill, I'll be okay.

So we always process our stress and we think it's just, oh,

I just need a little rest, I just need a little this. But

we never seem to think that maybe my soul is tired, Maybe my soul

maybe maybe some things are affecting my spirit. Maybe maybe my spirit man is

just getting beat up right now. And so instead of realizing and recognizing that

you and I need soul care. And guess what, there are a lot

of things you can do to work on your mind and your body. And

a lot of times we're in distress and we're we are sometimes over spiritually think

a spiritualizing thing, and all you need is one day where you just get

some good sleep, or maybe you just need one day without your kids and

you're gonna bounce back, or maybe if you're married, you just you were

like, oh, I just need sex. I'm just stressed. They're just

natural things. I woke some people up. Welcome to church. He just

say the S word. But that's natural. Those are natural, they're necessary,

they're needed, They're how God created you. And so we just naturally

think, oh, it's it's a mind and body situation. But then the

reason why we don't approach the soul situation is because we don't know who can

fix that. Society doesn't know how to fix that, society doesn't know how

to dress that. But the Bible says that Jesus is the great physician,

and so God, our creator, is the only one who has actually qualified

to do soul care. He's the only one that can give you rest for

your soul. But we never visit that doctor. We never approach that physician.

We'll go to Kaiser all day, We'll go to Loma Linda all day,

We'll go to the gym all day. But we'll never spend time with

the great physician. We'll never let God do soul care because in order to

get soult care, you gotta open it all to him. You ever lied

to a doctor before you smoke anything? No? I don't smoke. I

don't smoke nothing. I've never smoked anything in my life. Are you?

Are you been eating anything unhealthy? No? No, I've just been shopping

at sprouts every day. You know you. But we go to the dock.

We just start because all we say is it's back. My back pain

has nothing to do with the questions they're asking. We we think, so

we hide. But when you go to God with soul care, he can't

when he when he says, what's been going on behind the curtain? Nothing?

God, I've been above the I've been above the bar. You know,

really, what's your what's your personal life? Belot? What's what words

have you been using? Who have you been surrounding yourself with? What trauma

have you been holding on to you? You won't give to me? What

pain have you been holding on it? You won't give me? But oh,

I don't know, Lord, I don't know. Lord. Here's what

David says in Psalm's fifty five, in the last part of the verse.

As he's talking about it, I'll have it up on the screen, he

says, cat. So here's the last part. So he went through everything.

He's processing the pain, the shame, all that stuff like that.

He's starting to see surrender. Okay, I need a rest in the Lord.

Now he gets to the greatest point. He sees safety for his soul.

What does safety look like? He says, Cast your cares on the

Lord, and he will sustain you. He will never let the righteous be

forsaken, but you, God will bring down the wicked into the pit of

decay. The bloodthirsty, and the deceitful will not live out half their days.

But as for me, I will trust you. So now he's gone

to the point where he says, you know what my soul care. Right

now, Lord, I'm gonna cast it all on you. It's all yours,

Lord, because you're the only one that can do soul care on my

spirit. So he says, Lord, I will give you all of the

burdens, I will give you all of my fears, I will give you

all of my brokenness. Why because it's nothing I can fix on my own.

He can't fix it. And so a lot of times what we're doing

is we're thinking about ban dating situations. And so we have our life and

then we place our life here in this bucket. So this is everything that

exhibits our life. This is our relationships, these are our bills, this

is what we're experiencing. And so what happens is in order just to make

it to tomorrow, what we try to do is just press it down.

So you say, oh, I just got a bill in the mail,

and we may be going through foreclosure, or man, we haven't been able

to make our car payment, or my daughter's just been absolutely going through it,

or my son's been going through my marriage has been going through it.

But then we say, okay, well, you know, we know that

Aaron is going to be graduating at the end of this year, and so

let you tell your spouse. Let's just fake it until he graduates, because

when he goes off to college, then we can deal with it. I

hear that stuff all the time. We're just, oh, we're just we're

just in. We're just we're just faking as best as we can until our

kids get a little bit more older. And so what are you doing.

You're just you're just pressing it down. But when you press this down and

you let up, guess what just rises back to the top. Say,

oh, I could feel like I could barely breathe because of the finances and

the life and the situation. And so in order to make it tomorrow,

you just press it down, or you say, oh, I'm so stressed,

I'm so going through it. And so you go under the bed and

you just grab a little bit of weed and you go in the garage and

you just go, I just need something to give me to tomorrow. That's

it. So you just push it down like this, you're just trying to

get it tomorrow. Just try to make it till tomorrow. But guess what,

when tomorrow comes, you gotta deal with it tomorrow. You gotta deal

with it the next day, and you gotta deal with it the next day.

That's not what God's word says. Well, we write in Psalms fifty

five, he says, cast your cares on God. He doesn't say pressed

your cares on God, or position your cares. He says, cast your

cares. So what do you do when you cast your cares? You say,

Lord, here it is. I cast it. It's yours. So

God, here's my marriage God, here's my job God. Here's my kids,

God. Here's my hurts God. Here's my past God. Here's my

childhood God. Here are my parents they need you, Lord God. Here's

my grandchildren. God. And so then you start get a place, and

you're going, God, I cast it, I cast it. I cast

it, God, I cast it. It's yours. I cast it.

And you swe you're doing is slowly, but surely, as you rest in

God, you'll see that the burden you start to Oh, I could breathe

a little more. I could breathe a little more. Oh. So that's

not my fault. Oh. Oh I don't have to be defined by that.

Oh I don't need to be addicted to that anymore. Oh I don't

need that in order to make it till tomorrow. Oh I can breathe again.

Why, because you are casting these things on the Lord, you give

them to God. Jesus tells us in Matthew eleven, the same thing.

He tells us what Psalms fifty five says. Jesus says, come to me,

all who are weary, all who are burdened, and I'll give you

rest. He says, Take my yoke upon me and learn from me,

for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for

your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Jesus

says, come to me. What if you're weary and you're burdened. Jesus

says, his yoke is easy and his burden is like. He says,

give me it, give me it. In other words, he says,

Psalm video, cast it to me, Cast it to me. And here's

the thing. If you've ever noticed before, if you ever sold a car

before and you owned the title to it, when you sign a title over

and you give it to someone else, guess what you can't can ever ask

for that back that title signed over? You can't. The moment you sign

it and pass it, you can say, oh, I change my mind.

It's up to that person whether they want to give it back, because

it is their vehicle now. And so when you cast your burdens on God,

and you cast your cares on God, and you give God your shame,

and you give God your past, and you give God your distress,

and you give God your trump, You give God your depression, you give

God your anxiety. Guess what, when you sign that title away and you

give that to the Lord, you best not ask for it back. When

God gives you those knights of peace, when God give you those knights of

rest the next day, you can't say, God, can you give me

that anxiety back? But sometimes we do we ask for it, because then

we start looking for things because we miss the rush, miss the rush of

the anger of the emotions, and all this and this and that. I've

heard from many people before. People who have healthy relationships with no drama in

their relationship, they actually have a tough time if they've come from broken relationships,

because they think a calmness in a relationship with no drama means there's no

passion, in no love because they come from distress for so long that health

doesn't feel normal. So a lot of times in our relationship with our Lord,

we think that it's not normal. We think that it's undeserved, we

think that it shouldn't happen. You're saying, God, just give me a

little drama, because this doesn't seem right. I must not be doing it

right. But when you are in a season where God is giving you peace

and God is giving you rest, that is his normal, that is his

pleasure, that is his joy, and that is his desire to give you

freedom. And so pray for those seasons. Desire those seasons, and when

you are in seasons of stress or distress, just know that God can be

around the corner if we would seek him, and if we would see the

great physician as the one who can tend for your soul. There's a lot

of great natural things you can do for mind stress, there's a lot of

things you can do for body stress, but there is nothing you can do

for soul distressed outside of God. Anything else is a band aid. So

I don't care if your friend has told you to go to Costa Rica weeka

with them and do ayahuasca or come over to their house and smoke something or

eat a mushroom or something like that. That is not fixing your soul.

It's going to cause your soul more distress. And so what happens is someone

may put a band aid on their mind and their body, but you can't

put a band aid on your soul. That's something we need to let God

have surgery. On four weeks ago, I had appendicitis and I had to

have surgery and they had to take out my appendix. And when they saw

that it had to be taken out, the surgeon came to me and he

said, you know, he showed me the X ray, the CT scan,

and he showed me why it needed to come out, and this and

that, and he said, do you have any questions? I said no,

and he said why not? He said because I don't. I said,

because I don't understand what you just said. That's why, till the

day that it hurt, I didn't even know what appendix was. And then

I did research and it turns out like we don't even need it. So

I have some conversations with God why he would give me something I don't need.

But anyways, that I needed surgery to take out. But other than

that, I said, in my head, I'm thinking to him, I

have questions, but it's for the big Man, not you. Why do

I Why do I have this? But otherwise I looked at him and I

said, it says doctor on your name, badge, And so that's all

I needed. Help. You're in the hospital. Your name, badge said

surgical doctor. You're saying I need surgery. Now, call me foolish,

call me whatever, but I but I feel a lot better today. My

stomach don't hurt like it did four weeks ago. And so when it comes

to God, Jesus is the one with physician on his name. Jesus is

the one with shepherd on his name. Jesus is the one with healer on

his name. Jesus is the one with forgiver on his name. Jesus is

the one with love on his name. And so when Jesus approaches you and

says, hey, you got something that's off. Hey you're hurting right here,

Hey you're broken right here. You mind if I take you into surgery,

don't go Oh no, Jesus, not there. Say no, you're

you're the doctor. You work on me, and trust me. Recovery was

was painful, and that happens sometimes. Recovery from the surgery was five days

that I oh every time I got oh. But now, oh, my

goodness, the pain that's not there anymore. And that's what it means to

lean into God. So I courage you today. If you've never met Jesus

Christ, or never confessed him as your actual healer, actual healer that can

do surgery on your soul, that the step to the physician is to receive

him as your great physician. That's the step. First step is to visit

his hospital and say, Jesus, I do have a problem. I do

want you in my life. I do want you to operate on my life.

The Bible says that step is confessing him as Lord and Savior, believing

that he died and rose again. It's believing he is everything he said he

is. And Jesus says, I could give you rest if you give me

your burdens, give you your trauma, if you give me your pain.

And So there was a time in my life where when I was twenty one,

I was in a four year relationship and me and this girl we had

gotten engaged, and I was so excited that I met someone that I thought

I loved and that I was gonna marry. And at one point I went

on one week trip with my brother Nathan, and when I came back,

I'm calling my fiancee wanna tell her everything that I saw, everything I did,

and she not picking up. Three weeks go by, I'm trying to

call her, she not picking up. I get a hold of her friends

and said, oh, she just busy with finals. Okay to later,

my other brother Caleb runs into her holding hands with another guy at Disneyland,

and so at that point she's caught. She calls me or texts me rather

and just says, hey, I thought this would be easier just to ignore

you, because I decided I don't want to be married to a pastor.

I don't I don't want that future of ministry or anything like that. She

grew up in church, and it's not that she wasn't a Christian, it

was just the fact that she was like, I don't want to I don't

want that. I don't want people in my business. I don't want that.

I don't want that. You know, She's had all these reasons,

so she said, instead of just having a conversation about it, I just

decided that I would just move on. And so I'm like, wow,

that thanks for finally telling me. You know, I got money on a

ring right now, and you know, like what's going on? And so

I'm heartbroken, I'm in pain, and it's connected to what I felt was

my calling. So it wasn't just that, hey, I don't have feelings

anymore. It's the I don't like what you what God has called you to

it is man Phil. I felt broken, I felt shame, and so

a couple of years later, i'd start dating my wife, and I tell

my wife in our early days, I said, hey, if we make

it to twelve months, I'll date you for twelve months, and if I

love you and you love me, I'm gonna propose to you. My wife

early on, who was my girlfriend at the time, she said that sounds

good to me. I said, I was in a four year relationship.

I did a long relationship. I did a long engagement, and I saw

how it went. And so if I find out that you and I connect,

we love each other and we feel like God's in it, I'm gonna

propose to you after twelve months, okay deal. We hit month eleven and

I'm smitten and she's smitten, and so we're sitting at a wood ranch in

Dos Lagos where we're gonna be launching the Corona campus. We're sitting there in

Dos Lagos, and you know how you are men with you just in love

and you just you just pepped up. And so I looked at her across

the table and I said, you know, we're almost at month twelve of

dating. You know, we remember eleven months ago what we talked about.

And so I said, what you know, what do you think, how

do you feel? You know, where are you at? She takes a

drink of her water and she just takes a deep breath and she says,

I'm just struggling. I just I love you, but I don't know that

I want to be married to a pastor. Oh oh, I didn't realize.

I never dealt with the trauma from three years earlier. And so by

the same words that were repeated from what was said three years earlier from someone

else, it just rushed over me like a bullet wound. And so I

told her, would you excuse me? I got to go to the bathroom,

and so I got up and I ran in the bathroom and I just

wept profusely. I said, no, God, not again, not again,

not again. I felt like the enemy was like, this is gonna

be your future, This is gonna be your future. You will never find

someone that wants to deal with what you want to do or what God has

called you do. And I'm just sitting on Britain. I'm splashing water on

my face because I know I have to go back out to her. And

then I felt like God said, just rest in me, just resting me,

because the last time I did it that last girl. You guys know

this, we'd be turned come stalkers. So I'm texting that last girl every

day. I'm calling her every day. I'm you know, sending flowers.

I was stupid. I met with her parents. I cause your francy.

I just gotta control this. I just need I can fix it. I

can fix it. That's what you're thinking. I can do this. So

this time felt like God just said this hang for you, Adam, this

is for me. So I said, okay. I went back to the

table. The waiter came with the food. I said, can you take

it back? And can you box it up? My wife looks at me

and she's like my girlfriend, but she's looking at me and she's like,

what's wrong. I said, oh, nothing, nothing, We'll just take

it to go take it. I'm wanna go back to your house. She's

like Okay, so we box it, I pay the bill. We hadn't

even taken a bite of food yet we sitting in the car for twenty minutes.

I'm not saying a word. She knows something's wrong. I'm not saying

anything. I'm just saying it. And I'm just praying, saying, God,

you gotta help me, God, you gotta help because I'm about to

lose it on this girl. She wasted eleven months of my life. She

could have told me a month one she didn't want to be with a pastor.

So I'm I'm sitting there and I'm like, I'm like, I'm I'm

not only hurt, but I'm fuming. And so I pulled up to her

her house, put it in a cart, and I looked at her.

I said, here's the deal. I'm gonna fast for thirty days and I'm

gonna seek God. And I said, and I encourage you to fast for

thirty days and seek God. And I said, at the end of that

thirty days, I'm gonna need a yes or no from you. And I

said, because what you're saying doesn't have anything to do with my character,

doesn't have anything to do with whether I can provide for you. It's nothing

natural, it's you don't know if you want to be married to a pastor.

I told her, I can't give you peace for that. I can't

reassure you. Only the Lord can. So I told her, you seek

God for thirty days, I'll see God for thirtys when we come back together.

If you say no, then I am guarding my heart from you,

and this relationship isn't moving forward. But if you say yes, then we

will take the next step in our relationship. She starts crying. She doesn't

know what's going on. She's like, ok oh, okay, yeah,

let's do it. And so over that thirty days, she and I individually

sought God. Because what God taught me is to say, Adam, you

got to surrender this to me. Adam, don't live in your shame,

don't live in your past, don't live in your brokenness, he said.

Because I like to control, I like to be with my words. I

like to be he said, just let it go, let me handle it,

let me handle it. So we went through thirty days. We made

it all thirty days without talking, except for one day. On day fourteen,

she texted me and she said, this is really hard, and I

text back, don't text me, text God see you. On day thirty

one, listen, I would you ain't gonna do me, you ain't gonna

play me, I said, thirty days. I'm a man of my word.

I lead So thirty days, Day thirty one, Day thirty one,

we sit down and she says, I love you. I want to marry

you. I said, I love you and I want to marry you too.

Forty five days later, I asked her to be my wife. And

that was ten years ago, and this year we'll celebrate nine years with two

beautiful boys. But here's what happened this time. I wasn't going to be

defined by my distress. I wasn't gonna be defined by my brokenness. I

was gonna be defined by God. Sometimes what we got to do is back

up, got to rest on God. And the first step of resting on

God is asking Jesus to be your physician, ask him to be your healer,

ask him to be there because he'll never leave you, He'll never forsake

you. And at that the end of the thirty days, I didn't know

if she said yes or no. But here's what I did know. At

that end of the thirty days. If she wasn't there for me, God

was, and that's all I needed. That's all I needed. I was

prepared on day thirty one that my relationship with God would be better than it

was thirty days prior. And that's what the Lord can do with you and

I. So, if you're in this place, could we all bow our

heads and close our eyes as we leave here together? Many of you are

here, and you never give me your life to Christ, We're gonna say

a prayer out loud. The prayer is not the thing that saves you by

any means. All we're doing is confessing what God has already doing in your

life. So would you join me in saying this today? Dear Lord Jesus,

in this moment, I confess you as Lord and Savior. I give

you my guilt, I give you my shame, I give you my sin

because you have risen from the grave. And from this day forward I commit

to following you for the rest of my days. In Jesus name. Amen.