5 Ways To Fight Anxiety Pastor Steven Furtick

Five ways we create our own storms sometimes. See, some

waves are God-ordained in our lives, but some waves are

waves we make, and sometimes we create our own anxiety,

and then we ask God for peace. But how can

he give you peace in a situation that you're currently creating?

And so I got five things for you. Just real quick,

I won't take.

Long on them, but number one, often we create anxiety

and waves in our lives with the words that we speak.

Just write that down, words.

Words.

Words.

Have you ever made unnecessary waves with your words?

Words that you.

Speak out of anger that you then have to go

back and fix.

It takes a week, two weeks, three weeks. Words of doubt.

Words of some of you, just you frame your day

with the wrong words. And then you're disappointed with the

world that you've built. But your world is created by

your words.

And sometimes we make waves.

You know, we create choppy conditions in the morning just

by the way we get up talking.

And then one thing is another.

My grandmother used to say this phrase all the time.

She'd say, y'all about to worry me to death. And

she'd say it about anything. You know, the TV's too loud.

Turn that TV down. Y'all about to worry me to death.

About to worry me to death. And she was a

wonderful lady.

But you know what?

As a result of her saying all the time, you're

about to worry me to death, she was worried a lot.

Because she said she wanted to be worried.

We read a teaching one time in a book that said,

after anything you say in your life, don't say it

if you can't follow it with this phrase, and that's

just the way I want it. And that's just the

way I want it.

So try it out on the things you say.

You're about to worry me to death, and that's just

the way I want it. And I'm just running around

like chicken with my head cut off.

I'm so stressed out. And that's just the way I

want it. You've got your own phrases.

But the words we speak create waves of anxiety. Check

your words. Number two, your approach. Sometimes it's not what

we're going through. It's the way we're going through what

we're going through. Some of us live with no margin,

and so we're always nervous.

It's our approach.

Anxious about money because we spend too much and don't

make enough.

No margin. It's your approach.

You start your morning frustrated with people in traffic. You

know there's going to be traffic. You've never adjusted the

time that you get up and leave your house. Now

you're wondering why your job is so stressful. Your job

is not stressful. The way you got to your job

was stressful.

Because of your approach. I'm going to help a student.

Your class is not stressful.

The fact that you knew about the assignment for three

weeks before you thought to look it up is the

approach that made it stressful.

She's just so mean. She's not mean. You're just a procrastinator.

You're making your own waves. Can I get a parent?

Back me up in the.

House.

That's the second one. The wrong voices.

The wrong voices can create unnecessary and needless waves and anxiety.

In our lives, can't they?

Man, if you check the news or your Twitter feed

on your phone before even getting up to use the

bathroom in the morning, And you wonder why the outlook

on life that you have is so dark. I think

24-7 news stations and news is one of the worst

things that ever happened to our peace of mind as people.

No offense to the media. No offense to a journalist.

But I mean, I was reading through just some headlines

the other day. Do you really need to understand the

dynamics of every disease?

Like every disease?

Do you really need to understand the dynamics of every

conflict in all these countries that you can't pronounce? Need

to meditate? No wonder you're marinate-ed. You're marinating in the

wrong reports. The wrong voices. They'll come in and tell

me from time to time about a problem in the church.

And when they get to a certain point, I'll say, thanks,

that's all I need to know.

What am I doing?

I need good information to make a good decision. But

I don't need so much information that.

It clouds my outlook, so I can't.

Let the wrong voices just keep on playing, keep on going,

and then they said this, and then they did that,

and they might do that, and it could be that.

You know, at some point you just got to say,

I'm creating waves by all the voices I'm listening to.

I listen to depression. I watch depression. The people I

hang around are depressing. I'm making my own waves. Hello.

Hello. Hello. Hello. Our expectations can create waves.

Sometimes you go out in your life and the anxiety

that you feel is the result of the expectations of

others that you created by not being willing to manage

your own energy. Sometimes the anxiety we feel is because

we get up in the morning and we don't expect

any battles that day. And so we feel like it's

a surprise attack when something hits us wrong. Why are

you surprised? He said, put on the full armor of God.

That suggests you're going to be in a fight. He said,

take up the helmet. He said, take up the shield.

He said, take up the sword. He said, you got

to get dressed for battle when you get up in

the morning. Don't be surprised. You need to learn to

expect some storms. I think the fact that it's unexpected.

is often the reason it's so difficult. And then there's

the master wave maker in our souls.

It's called shame. Shame.

Shame.

You walk around anxious because you're hiding stuff.

And you wonder, when are they going to find out

about my secret? Or maybe because you're tormented by something

that God already forgave.

See, there's a difference.

Between conviction and shame. Conviction is good. It shows you

what to fix. And it gives you God's power to

help fix it. Shame tells you that because of what

you did, who you are is now fundamentally changed. And

it makes you walk around paranoid. And it makes you

walk around feeling helpless. And it makes you walk around

feeling like people don't love you who do love you.

And people are judging you that aren't judging you.

And you've got to learn where to take your shame

or it will just rock you. Waves. And they wake

Jesus up and they say, don't you see the waves?

Don't you care if we die?

So verse 39, Jesus got up, rebuked the wind and

said to the waves, quiet, be still.

We got up and he said, quiet, be still. Three words.

Three words.

Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.

And he said to his disciples, why are.

You so afraid?

Don't you know that when I tell you we're going

to the other side, we're going to.

Get to the other side? Don't you know that I

command the wind and the waves?

And see, they didn't yet. They hadn't seen enough yet.

They haven't experienced enough yet. After you've been through a

few storms, it's interesting what you learn. Do you still,

look at it, have no faith? And then verse 41,

it says, they were terrified and asked each other, who

is this?

Even the wind and the waves obey him. If you

thought they were scared of the storm, they really freaked.

Out when they found out that with three words, he

could shut it off like a showerhead. Whoa. Whoa. So

I want to suggest something to you today about the

storms of anxiety in your life and the waves and

the winds that are blowing in your life.

Because, man, the winds will blow. They will blow. Absolutely.

And the waves will break and they will crash. No

doubt about it.

And in those times when Jesus is sleeping in the

stern and he doesn't take action and he doesn't fix

your situation, it can be easy to deduce what the

disciples deduced. We're going to die and God doesn't even care.

Start playing it out all the way to the end. Man,

this is how I'm going to die right here. This

is how it's going to end right here. I'm never

going to get another job. I'm never going to have

any belts on me.

I'm never going to... Anxious for nothing.

Because they eventually got to the other side. Yeah.

And see, I wonder.

All week, why would Jesus send them into a storm?

Just like we wonder in our lives, why doesn't God

do more about the chaos in our world? Why doesn't

he fix situations before they get that bad? We celebrate

when God heals somebody of cancer, but silently we wonder,

why did they have to have cancer to begin with?

We celebrate when somebody's kid comes back to God, but

we wonder then, why did God let the kid wander

away to begin with? We celebrate that somebody went to heaven,

but we wonder why did God have to make it

so that people die and we feel pain and sorrow.

Don't you care?

And Jesus was upset about that. You know what?

I don't think he was upset that they woke him up.

I think they were supposed to wake him up. I

think he wanted them to go wake him up.

I do.

I think it's the way they woke him up that

bothered him. See, because they.

Woke him up thinking you must not care.

You don't care.

He said in Philippians 4, 6, didn't he? In everything,

make your requests known to God. You're supposed to ask God.

You're supposed to go down to the stern and say.

Lord, I need a little help right now. Lord, this

doesn't feel good. God is pushing against me.

God is getting cloudy and I don't know what to think.

And the sky's growing black. Would you help me, Lord?

Would you come, Lord? But don't assume he doesn't care.

Don't assume that. See, because I believe, you don't have

to take this view if you don't want to. I

believe that Jesus put them in the storm not to

test them, but to teach them.

I can explain.

See, Jesus wasn't going to be with them forever. We

don't have Jesus in physical form. We have the spirit

of God inside of us as believers, but we don't

have Jesus in our boat. What a cool picture. Just

like Jesus was in the stern, the spirit is inside

of you, but we don't have Jesus.

Anymore in physical form in our boat.

And so I think Jesus, when he stood up and

he said, quiet, be still, and the wind and the

waves died down.

You know what I think he was doing? I think

he was.

Using the wind and the waves like a whiteboard to

draw a lesson plan.

For the disciples. Follow me, follow me, follow me.

Because the real waves that take you down in your

life are not the ones out there. They're the ones

in here. And see, you think it's the circumstances making

you anxious.

It's not. You think it's the other person's reaction. How

do I know this? James chapter 1 verse 6. James

James 1:6 James 1:6

chapter 1 verse 6.

He says, when you ask God, you must believe and

not doubt.

Now watch what doubt does. Watch what doubt does. Because

the one who doubts is like a... You see it?

Like a wave of the sea. Blown and tossed by the...

When that's.

Why God lets me experience winds and waves in my

life so he can teach me to calm the wind

and the waves within. See, the real waves are within

and you'll never have peace until you learn how to

speak peace to.

The waves within. So Jesus said, watch this.

He said, be still.

And the waves shut up. And he said, now it's

your turn.

What I just did to the sea, I want you

to do to your anxious heart. And the next time

the winds of what if start blowing and the winds

of imaginary scenarios and negative emotions start blowing, I want

you to get up and wake up your faith from

the stern of the ship and get out and hold

up your hand and.

Say, quiet, be still. The waves within.

Come on. I'm preaching about the waves within. Because if

you learn how to calm the waves within, you can

ride the waves without. I found out that if you

learn how to calm the waves within, it's.

About the atmosphere of your heart. The waves within. The

waves within.

You think the problem is that God won't calm the

waves without. The real problem is you haven't learned to calm.

The waves within.

And we learn how to be peace speakers to our

own souls. I thought it was random when the order

of this stuff. Because Jesus, Mark chapter 4, he's talking

Mark 4 · chapter mention

about the sower and the soils. And then we go

straight into the storm. And I couldn't figure out why

Mark edited those two together. But I realized that both

are about atmosphere.

Atmosphere.

Every heart has an atmosphere. I wonder today, what is

the atmosphere of your heart? Can I tell you that

nothing good develops in an atmosphere of anxiety?

Nothing.

And Jesus said, whether you're thinking about a farmer and

a soil, that's the atmosphere of the earth or a

storm in the sky. You've got to learn how to

take command of the atmosphere of your heart because.

Here's what's happening.

You're creating an atmosphere of anxiety all around you because

there's an atmosphere of anxiety within you.

You're taking it.

Out on people and you're frustrated with people and you're

short with people and you're withdrawn from people and you're

blaming people.

But you've got to get up and wake up your faith, Peter.

Jesus said, you see what I did? Now you do it. Speak. Speak.

Speak.

Awaken your brave within. So here's what I do. You

want to know what I do? You want to know

what I do? Check this out. When the waves start

in my life, first thing I do, I breathe. Physically.

Some of y'all are like, yes, the breath of God. No, no,

just I physically breathe.

Do it now. You feel it? Do it again. Do

it again.

They've suggested that the reason the Hebrew name of God

is Yahweh is because the very name sounds like a breath.

Yahweh. So that when you breathe, every breath is a

prayer reminding you.

That he's inside of you sustaining. Here comes the waves,

but I know how to Breathe.

Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. So I

breathe in his grace and then I can breathe out. Breathe. Breathe, dog. Breathe.

Breathe.

And then I remember.

Yeah.

I remember that he told me we're going to the

other side.

I remember that like he started this.

I tell God all the time that you started this.

And so I remember, oh, like David did when he

was standing before Goliath. Wait a minute, just like the

lion and the bear, God's about to take this joker

down too. Breathe. And then remember, trigger something in your

mind that reminds you of the faithfulness of God.

Watch the waves die down. And then I.

Ask. He said, make your request known to God. Lord,

will you help me here? I'm up on a choppy sea.

I just got a report about my mother's health.

Lord, they just did that thing again that you know

sends me off in that direction.

Help, Lord. You don't have to say a lot sometimes.

Just help, Lord. He'll hear you. With thanksgiving, though. Thank you, Lord.

Now help, please. Thank you, please. Thank you, please. Get

in that rhythm of asking, asking. It'll be given to you. Seeking,

you'll find. Knock and the door will be open. I

ask and I.

Visualize because the storms can wreck your visibility, can't they?

It can cause you to lose sight of everything God's

put around you and.

You can't see anything but what's flashing right in front

of you. So I ask, And then I open the

eyes of my heart.

And I try to get an awareness of, hey, look,

God is here. Hey, look, there is strength. Hey, look,

I am standing. Hey, look, there is help. Hey, I

see you now, Lord. I have opened the eyes of

my heart. And then you got to elevate. You got

to elevate. I found out that you're going to love

this if you're a nerd. atmospheric pressure gets less as

elevation increases. Think about that spiritually speaking. Think about that

spiritually speaking. Something hangs heavy over your life, and you

can't make what's hanging over you less heavy, but you

can get up higher in your perspective if you will

elevate and worship God and lift your hands and begin

to praise him.

In the storm.

So so when the waves come I gotta what's that

I got a cheat sheet.

Did y'all see this I got oh the words and the.

Approach and the voices remember we talked about these just

like 25.

Minutes ago and the Expectations and the shame. That's the waves.

When the waves come, you didn't know I was smelling anything.

I snuck it in. I'm tricky.

When the waves come up, I need to check this

wave and.

See if I made it or if God made it.

Here comes the wave, but watch this.

Just as soon as the wave comes, breathe.

Breathe. Remember, ask, visualize, elevate. Oh, that's the brave.

Also, come here. Come here, Dewey. Hold my mind.

So so so here it is in the series when

the waves come because they will get your brave stirred

up In your spirit. And wake up your faith. In

the stern of the ship. And when the waves come.

Because they will. Here comes fear. Here comes panic. Here

comes dread. Here comes embarrassment. Here come words. Here come actions.

Here come voices. Here come expectations. Here comes faith.

But here comes brave. And my God has given me

the breath of life. And his spirit is stronger than

any storm.

I'm pushing back waves.

Come on.

Lift your hands.

Lift your hands.

Worship. Push it. Hey, thanks for watching. Make sure to

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