Mind Games | Week 4 | Peace Of Mind

All right, next week, everybody, I'm excited to bring a new series for the life of Elisha.

But it's really about calling and about purpose and about finding the direction that God wants for your life to go and how to follow it.

And it's gonna be incredible.

For four weeks, we're gonna unpack um one of the greatest prophets to ever live.

And it's gonna be challenging, it's gonna be inspiring, but today, today we get to jump right into week number four, which is the the final in a series that I know it's been challenging you because you've been telling me, you've been um complaining a little bit, I think, about how challenging it is.

But that's a good thing.

For me, that's a good thing.

Computer locked, weird.

All right.

I want to say real quick that uh if you don't know, my name is Pastor Sean, and um about eight years ago, Angela and I, my wife, my lovely wife, which by the way, she traveled from Dallas this morning so she could be here in the second service.

So I told her you don't want to be here, but she said, I want to be here.

And so I'm so glad you came to church this morning that the she had the longest drive.

And um, if you're new or new-ish, then uh looking forward to getting to know you.

And uh, of course, it's a pleasure for us that you're here.

I know it takes a lot to to break out of the comfort zone and go into a new place, sometimes even pulling into the parking lot.

It's weird because this is not the parking lot you're used to being in, and it's uh you don't know these people, but just take a look around and would you just wave at someone, tell them they're glad that you're glad they're here.

Come on.

That's good.

And then I'll take a minute also and look right into the camera and look at everyone who's joining us, either streaming on Sunday or some other time on demand.

It it means a lot to us that you chose to worship and to dig into God's word with us this morning.

We value you, and sometimes it can feel like you're alone and separate and distant, but I promise you, you mean a lot to us.

So if you're in the room today, can you just give it up for everybody who's online?

Let them know.

I hope you can hear that.

I hope you can hear a little bit of love in the in the audience for you as well.

We're praying for you, believing God for you.

And I'm excited.

Today is um we get to talk about something that I love.

This whole series has actually been incredible in looking at not just what we think, but how we think what we think and the process of our uh thoughts and how we either get connected to faith or get disconnected from faith and the mind games that we play with ourselves.

And I hope today, as I I'm gonna be a little bit as transparent as I can with you to kind of share where where I'm at and how I struggle in this.

This is not anything that any of us have overcome.

This is the challenge of being a person who walks by faith, a person who follows the Spirit of God.

So, week number one uh in this series, we talked about the battlefield and how it takes place right here.

And the fight that you're in is not one that's physical, carnal, something that you can see.

It's some the biggest battle of your life happens right here.

And if you win here, you win everywhere.

If you lose here, then you lose you lose the battle.

Uh, week number two, we talked about how we fix our thoughts.

And um really the difference between emptying your mind for meditation and biblical Christian meditation is really filling your mind with the thoughts that God has given us, with faith, with keeping our eyes on Him, putting His word, His truth, and that's the thing that we ruminate on, and not the problem, not the worry, not the anxiety.

Um, and so we continue to, even if it's a repetitive process, we're gonna write it, think it, say it out loud, speak it out loud, confess it, and till we believe it.

And so I gave you guys some things to take with you on your notes at that time.

You can also find all the notes back in your um in the in the church app.

Then last week, how many guys were here last week?

Pastor Angela brought us a message on the filters that we pick up, the way we see life, the thing.

It really is a lens that you see everything through.

How to reframe our thoughts with faith?

How to how do you reposition and build the perspective that God see things the way God sees them?

And if you can do that, everything changes.

Amen.

This week, today I want to look at something that I know that all of us struggle with, and I think it will put the perfect little bow on this series and help us to walk out of this week, walk out of this series, winning the battle, winning the fight, winning the struggle.

And I'll tell you that my struggle is that sometimes have you ever had a train of thought, a train of thought that you hit a little bump, and then all of a sudden it's like the train comes off the tracks, and then that thought just continue.

Just every train car on the train of thought after that moment just ends up in a big pile up.

That's for me uh a daily process, it's a it's a daily situation.

And I I I wrote down a couple of examples, and I think it goes like this I could send a text to someone that maybe I just met or that I've known for a long time, and uh it doesn't seem to matter, but I could send a text, and then all of a sudden, uh, hey, they haven't texted me back yet.

It's been a little while.

What happened?

And then that thought leads to, I bet they're upset about something.

Uh, and then that leads to, I probably said something they didn't like.

I probably said something that is they're they're getting me back now.

They're they're trying to pay me back for the time that I didn't respond to them quick.

And then that thought turns into, I noticed that they've been acting different lately anyway.

I remember last week they said something, it must, it's all tied together.

And that thought turns into maybe they just don't value my friendship anymore.

I think that makes sense because people leave anyway.

Everybody's gonna leave eventually.

And ultimately my thoughts just land in a big pile with I can't trust anybody.

It all starts with this one little seemingly insignificant thing, but that thing spirals me into how did I get here?

Maybe it's not a relational thing, maybe it's something in myself, something inward, where I wake up in the morning and all of a sudden I just have like a little crick in my neck or my shoulders, just it's not feeling like it usually does.

I wonder what that that's that's weird.

That has kind of been feeling weird lately, though.

And I've been last week I was tired, and I don't know what this is about.

This is maybe it's stress.

I wonder what's causing this.

Maybe I didn't eat enough protein, maybe, and I started re-evaluating my entire meal plan for the week.

And did I work out too hard?

And did I sleep wrong?

Is it my age?

Am I something's probably brewing though?

I mean, it's probably something that's just like it's just starting to come out.

I bet it's the symptom of something much worse than what I can actually feel.

And I actually have a little bit of a headache too.

So uh, if I take like the tired fatigue and shoulder pain and the headache, and I put all those together, let me just put it into Google and see what that says.

And now all of a sudden, I'm probably gonna die next week.

So I'm gonna go ahead and put my will in order.

And this one little thing that just doesn't just it's a question in my head turns into a long series of thoughts that really turn into a train wreck.

Does that happen in your mind?

I know it happens in my mind all the time.

I think that's part of the human condition, and I think our thoughts are moving at a faster pace than they ever have before because there's we're processing so much stuff.

And so now when I have a thought about my shoulder, I think about every ask your doctor about if you need this product.

Or I remember what so-and-so said, or I saw 20 posts ago on my social media, we got all of this extra information and data that's just piling up, and it's hard to we it's impossible to process it all.

I want to show you what Paul says in Philippians.

This seems like an impossible task, but in in light of what I just talked about, I want you to hear this verse.

Do not be anxious about anything, impossible, right?

With my thoughts and my mind and the way I think, that sounds impossible.

Watch this.

He says, but in every situation, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

Right here, there's a process.

There's a he says, here's anxiety, here's the stress, the worry, here's the thing that's sitting on you.

Don't do that.

Do this.

Approach God petition with prayer and petition with thanksgiving, like being thankful.

It's a different mindset.

So, how do we get to that mindset?

Let's keep reading.

It says, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts.

It says, and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

I want you to just imagine right now, what would it be like if instead of you being controlled and run and derailed in your own thoughts by all the anxious and worrisome thoughts and the weight of all that pressure?

What if your mind was set on guard that the peace of God was guarding your heart and your mind and your thoughts?

What if your thoughts were protected by the peace of God?

That for some of us that doesn't compute because it it's not a reality that we've ever lived in.

It's not it's not something that fits into our mind.

But what have we been talking about the last few weeks?

We've been talking about the the neural pathways that we've created.

When you think a thought and you think it again, it becomes easier to think it.

Every time you think a thought, it becomes easier to think it.

And when you start thinking, well, I can't do that, you've already thought that 50 times, so it's very easy to just rest and settle in with that can't be me.

I can't do that.

God, that's not how my brain works.

Wait, it is how your brain works.

It is how God created us.

And so he says, and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever's true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things.

To me, the the just this is for free.

I'm telling you, this here's a secret.

If your mind is occupied with other things, just turn on some worship music.

Because then your mind, we sang a song this morning, talked about praiseworthy.

You're the only one.

If my mind is repeating those things, and I'm confessing that over and over, even if it's just a song that I just learned.

Oh, that's just a song.

Wait.

If you say it enough and you think it enough, and you write it down, you'll start to believe it.

And then all of a sudden your thoughts start going in a different direction.

You start thinking different thoughts.

And the last line says, And the God of peace will be with you.

So today, pull out your notes.

We are note-taking church.

The title of the message today is Peace of Mind.

An alternate title could be the God of Peace.

I think that we don't give God enough credit.

We make anxiety and stress and worry such a big thing, such a powerful thing, it's like a monster that we can't conquer.

And yet God says, I've got peace for you.

I'll protect your mind.

I'll protect your thoughts.

And so I want to get a little bit in the weeds just for a minute.

I want to talk about the science of anxiety and the science of our brains.

And so the first thing I want to talk to you about is this there's a small little maybe almond-shaped, almond-sized part of your brain called the amygdala.

And I'm going to move this out of the way because I got a little diagram for you.

Yep.

The amygdala.

It's tiny, but it has a lot of uh control or influence over your mind and what happens in your thought process.

So, what does the amygdala do?

It does this.

It's responsible for the part of your brain that's wired for survival, that keeps you alive in dangerous situations.

Whenever something uh threatens your life or something scary happens, it dumps adrenaline into your brain and says, Wake up, you're in danger.

It's time to save your life.

And so if you're walking uh down a path and all of a sudden you hear a little rattle or see something slithering in the grass, something in your brain says, Wake up, get away from this snake.

Or it's the same thing that when you're walking through the woods and you hear like a crack in the woods behind you or around you, you think it's a bear and not a bunny.

Oh, something scary in the woods out there.

Did y'all hear that?

No, no, listen.

It's like your brain goes on to high alert.

It's the amygdala.

And if you're a woman in the room, I'll just say this, then you are riding as a passenger in the car, and your husband's driving, he taps the brakes gently, and you just look up from your phone, and all of a sudden the amygdala says, You're gonna die.

That happens to me like every day.

So I Angela, I try to tell her, you're fine.

It's like a um, you don't get to decide.

It's like a natural reaction that just flares up in you, and all of a sudden you're on high alert.

You're you you're anxious for a moment, but that's meant to save your life.

It's it's built into you, born into you.

Like my dog is old.

He's an elderly dog, he moves around like this, he's like barely moves.

But if there's something in front of our house, if the if uh headlights shine across the window, and then he sees any movement outside the house, he loses his mind for about five minutes, vicious, like foaming at the mouth, like he has to protect the house.

And we could say all day, Harvey, calm down.

Shh, you're okay.

He's still, he just something in his brain says, danger, protect.

So when I'm talking about not being anxious and not what we're fighting against is something that is natural in a way, but it's also something that has kind of like a train wreck, it's just derailed, it's gone off the rails, and it happens way too often when we're not in danger.

And so we chew our fingernails down and we we're worried about everything, and the amygdala, it needs a fail, it needs a uh a safety check.

Like there's another part of your brain, I'm gonna show you a diagram of it.

It's called the prefrontal cortex, and it's the part of your brain that's responsible for logic.

In other words, it says, uh, wait a second, that might not be a bear in the woods.

It's just a bunny.

You're fine.

Or when you're laying in your bed at night, it's pretty dark all around, and you look over in the corner and you realize that there is a shadow person there that has come to kill you in your sleep because your amygdala says it's there, it's a demon.

Your house is possessed.

And then your prefrontal cortex says, wait, wait, that's just uh a coat hanging on a rack.

That's just it's just everything's fine, you're okay, nothing, nothing, you're not gonna die.

You're not in mortal danger.

Just you just felt like that for a moment.

Calm down.

I um we're conditioned to carry that danger sense with us.

And I remember when I was about five years old, my mom was driving.

My brother and I, he's four years younger than me, so uh he would have been just one or two years old at that point.

And so my mom is telling this story.

We're she's driving, and we pull up behind like a school bus that's stopping letting kids out.

She starts to tell us the story.

And remember, I'm very young and impressionable, and she starts telling this story about the school bus and how dangerous when she was a teenager.

Her cousin was killed and hit by uh coming out of a school bus, and there was a terrible, terrible, gruesome, brutal accident.

And she's telling me this, and it is like imprinting on my mind.

And so from that point, I'm like, school buses are dangerous.

This is I there's flashing lights, and it's yellow, and it's dangerous.

And I never rode a school bus until I was in fifth grade, fourth grade.

And so, all there was a long time before I realized, okay, this is okay, but I was still kind of like nervous about school.

And still, when I learned to drive, I'm driving, everything's good, it's good.

We gotta protect these kids though, because this is so dangerous.

We gotta watch out.

Anything could happen around a school bus.

It's like the thought, she passed on a thought to me.

She passed, she impressed me with a danger sense and a an almost like an injury that she she took with her because her cousin was killed.

And so, even when my kids were learning to drive, I try to tell them, hey guys, the school bus right there is dangerous.

When my mom was little, I start telling this whole story.

It didn't impress them the same way it did me because it was like third person, fourth person.

But it's amazing how we carry those things, and all of a sudden now we're impressed because it might be an event or person or situation or something you see or hear, and it just makes you anxious.

And let me tell you something: there are there are products and people and brands and influencers that want you to be on edge because then you follow, because then you're influenceable, you're impressionable.

All these things designed to ask your doctor if you need this.

All these things that are built to put you on edge so that you're paying attention.

And we just go for it.

We just have all these triggers around us, and everything we hear, we say, we go this way, we look that way, and all of a sudden we're just constantly in a state of worry and stress and anxiety.

That's not how we should live.

So Paul from a prison cell gives us Philippians 4.

He says, Don't be anxious about anything.

A guy who's literally could be killed tomorrow says, Hey, I need you to know that there's a way for you to not be anxious.

I need you to know that the weight of whatever situation that's on you can be dispelled.

And he says, But in every situation by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your request to God.

Take it to God, inject some logic, some, in other words, there's all this worry, stress, anxiety, the enemy, the world, the people, the voices around you, and you can go straight and hear the voice of the Spirit say, Hey, be at peace.

And it will guard your hearts and your minds.

But prayer is not one of those things that you should just be, well, I guess all we can do now is pray.

We've done that's what the doctor said.

Oh, there's nothing else I can do, so we just the la that's all we can do, is we can pray.

Listen, if you're saving prayer for the last thing, you're way wrong.

Prayer should be our first action, our first step.

We wear the bracelets during our um during our seasons of prayer.

Pray first.

When I wake up in the morning, I should pray first.

When I hear bad news, let's pray about it.

Prayer can change your life, but prayer can also rewire your brain and change the way your thinking goes.

Change stop the stop the derail.

So for decades, neurologists believe that your brain was kind of set at adolescence.

You grow and it learns and it gets, and then at a certain point it gets set.

And now they don't they don't believe that.

Now they're seeing that brain are your brain is continually changing and rewiring, and new neural pathways are being created.

And when one gets stopped, you can create a new one.

You can think differently.

And the old saying about you can't keep teaching old dog new tricks, you can.

You just have to want to learn a new way of thinking.

You have to retrain your brain and reframe your thought processes as a believer and filled with the Spirit of God and trusting in God's truth, not the old way I thought thing.

I can't do that.

It might feel right to you to think a certain way, or it might feel right for you to think, oh well, I know the truth, but that's just the way you've always thought it doesn't mean it's true.

There's a book by Dr.

Carolyn Leith that says that's called Switch on Your Brain.

And she writes this it has been found that 12 minutes of daily focused prayer over an eight week period can change the brain to such an extent that it can be measured on a brain scan.

You praying for just 12 minutes a day is effective enough to change the way your brain thinks, that the change can be seen.

By a machine.

So why do we worry?

Why do we how do we have panic and anxiety?

Science would probably tell you that it's your amygdala hijacking you, but I would also tell you that there's an element of sin here.

And I'm not trying to make anybody feel bad.

I'm not trying to make you um I'm not trying to step on anybody's toes or make you feel ashamed or guilty.

What I want to show you is that worry, even though it's a natural feeling, staying in worry is also you saying, God, I don't trust you.

That is um worry is the sin of distrusting the promises and power of God.

God, I want to trust you, but I I've been conditioned to believe.

I've seen I've seen how this goes.

I know that this bad report, this is phase four.

You don't get out of this.

This is um this is not gonna end well.

I don't, I I can't, I can't break this kind of addiction because my dad and his dad, or my mom and her mom, and my whole family deals with this.

This is just the way we talk, this is the way we act, this is the way we treat people.

I can't control my emotions.

All the things we think must be the way they are, they don't have to be that way.

And the moment you give that thing more control and more power over your life than God has is a sin because you are not trusting God to say, God, you made me, you know me, you can recreate me and mold me and shape me the way you want me to be.

Romans chapter 8, verse 5.

Romans 8:5

Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things.

But those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about the things that please the Spirit.

So, what is your mind and your thought process controlled by?

This is the spirit or the flesh?

Although this is a totally different conversation, it's actually the same conversation.

We finished the series before this series was called the Holy Spirit.

And we talked about where what's what's leading you?

What are your eyes focused on?

And although it's a different context, it's really fundamentally the same conversation.

So instead of letting my sinful nature control my mind, I'm gonna choose to let my spirit direct my thinking and stop the train wreck before it ever happens.

And when I feel that that little bump, when I feel that little interruption in my thought, when I feel my amygdala saying, hey, you're in trouble, you better watch out because I know where this goes.

No, I'm gonna say the spirit of God in me.

God, I need your help.

I need your peace right here to stop this train from derailing.

I got life to live, I have a purpose to walk in, I have people's lives to touch.

So we give it to God.

So let me bring my get in the light.

All right, real quick.

This is gonna be short and sweet, but I need you to just see this.

So all of us have this little box.

This is my box.

God box.

This is my view of God, this is how I see God, how I perceive God, He's right there.

And when I have things in my life that pop up that I don't quite understand, or that I need God, I need you.

We walk down, we we hand it to God at the prayer line, we we get down on our knees, we have our prayer requests, we have our prayer prayer list, and then all of a sudden the things that I'm worried about, all my worries, the Bible says, cast your burdens on him because he cares for you, right?

Here's what we do.

So, what am I to do?

What am I worried about?

Um, all the normal things, money, if it's red in the box there, and my kids and my marriage.

It fits kind of keep adding things because the list is like a hundred things of things.

I'm responsible things, things things I care about.

I got my uh let's see, my neighbors.

I have terrible handwriting here, but my neighbors, I have um my job, I have the church, I can't quite fit it in here.

Oh I have my small group.

Oh, it's way out here.

I have everyone's favorite thing that I'm dealing with right now, and that is my HOA.

It fits right over here.

It doesn't quite fit inside there.

I have a uh my friend who I'm really really worried about, so I'm gonna put uh a friend over here.

All of a sudden you start to see that the things don't fit in the box.

All of a sudden, I have all these other things.

Then something hits me blind, something hits me out of left field, and all of a sudden I have a new worry, a new money worry over here.

It doesn't fit anywhere near the box, and I can't get it in the box.

Here's the problem.

If your worries and your prayer requests and the issues that are pressing on you don't fit into your God box and into your view of God, you know what the problem is?

The box is too small.

Your God box is so small that all the things that need to go in that box are they don't fit.

So why do I go to God's word?

Why am I continually reprogramming my mind and my thought process to try and fit into his word?

Why do I open God's word over and over and over again?

Because every time I do, it's expanding my view of God and helping me to fit myself into it.

I'm not trying to fit God into my life.

I'm not trying to fit God into all the things, I'm trying to put everything, and so I have to expand this box to hold everything.

My God box.

Your God box and your view of God, not not to say that God's too small, because God never gets small.

But your view of God is too small.

So here's what we're gonna do real quick.

Write this down.

Number one, if I'm if I'm struggling to let go of the anxiety and trust God, I'm gonna do, I'm gonna do this.

I am going to physically I'm gonna do what I can.

Because I can only do what I can do.

And realize that I have limits and realize that I can only go so far and that I'm just a person with limitations.

So I'm gonna do what I uh I can do.

That's if I if I don't do anything, and I just say, Well, I'm just gonna trust God with everything, I become super religious, and I'm just the perfect church person, and I just say, Hey, just give it to God, he'll he'll take care of it.

That would be like me saying, Hey, I'm I need to lose about 20 pounds and I'm trying to get in shape, but God, I'm gonna eat about 5,000 calories a day, and I'm just gonna trust you with the rest.

I'm not gonna make any changes, I'm not gonna work out, I'm not gonna, I'm just God, I trust you.

I gotta do what I can do.

If I have to pass a test or pass a class, I gotta go study.

I gotta do what I actually can do, and then I can, number two, I can trust God with the rest.

I don't go blow all my money and then rack up credit card debt and then expect God to help me.

I have to do what I can do.

So we're gonna cover everything in prayer.

And as we get ready to wrap it up, I mean I want you to hear a couple things.

Jesus covered everything in prayer.

Jesus trusted God, but then it also says that he went off alone, spent time by himself, spent time with um the disciples, and they prayed.

Jesus had to teach the disciples when everything was coming apart at the end, and everything seemed like it was going off the rails.

Jesus said, Hey, can you not pray for one hour?

Prayer is such a powerful weapon to fight your negative thoughts and the train wreck and the anxiety and the worry and the pressure that is on you.

Prayer is an answer.

It's the answer.

But you're not going to God in prayer.

You're going to your friend, and they're saying, you know what, you're right.

I don't know what you're gonna do.

So go to God.

The second thing I want you to walk out of here today with is this that not only did Jesus walk in prayer full of the Spirit of God, but also he had people around him that didn't always have negative thoughts going on.

He had people around him that were a support, not just for him, but he was for them.

We start small groups this week, and the small groups aren't just so that you can have something to do to participate in the church.

The small groups are there for this reason, exactly for this reason, that you need people in your life.

I'm gonna give you another practical tool here.

This is my thoughts.

This is an example of journaling, just writing down the way you feel.

This might be too touchy-feely for some of the guys in the room you're thinking, I'm not doing that.

That's not manly, that's not tough.

You don't have to show it to anybody, you can burn it when you're done.

But just trust me, there's some things that you can do.

If you are overwhelmed in your thoughts and you know, if you're like me, sometimes I just know I'm not thinking good right now.

I don't need to give you advice.

I can pray with you.

Let I gotta get myself right, and I need to take it to God.

You know when you're not thinking good.

Write down the thoughts because you thinking the thoughts is not it's not a sin.

You can have, uh you can struggle.

Watch this.

If I if I'm if I'm feeling this and I just straight write my feelings, I'm not doing enough.

I should be further along by now.

Like I'm 47 years old.

If I would have started relate not eight years ago, but 12 years ago, where would we be?

Where would we be if I'd have started relate 20 years ago?

What if I would have started raising money and building my house?

And what if my what if I was further along here, there?

Other people are handling life better than I am.

I saw them on social media.

I saw uh my friend this last week on Wednesday.

Some of you guys came with me and uh we celebrated at Union Houston their 10-year anniversary, they're two years ahead of us.

It's amazing.

We love celebrating with them.

It's also a thought process.

Other people are handling life better than I am.

Maybe I'm just not very good at this.

I keep disappointing people.

Ultimately, I'm not enough.

I know that I'm not the only one who who lands on that thought, but when I write it down, I can ask the Holy Spirit to help me go back and edit this.

And now I can look at it and say, okay, wait, I'm not enough.

What does God say about that?

What does the word of God say?

How does God see me and I'm not doing enough?

What would his answer to this be?

And it would, I think, I just draw a line through it.

I have limits.

I can't expect something from myself that God doesn't expect from me.

I should be further along by now.

How about this?

God is God's working on me.

I'm a I'm I'm in process right now.

And I I can give myself a little bit of grace because I'm exactly where God is leading me because every day I'm following.

I can't look at the past and say, I wish I would have.

Or what if what if I would have done this?

Or what if this happens, or what?

No, God's God's working on me.

Other people are handling life better than me.

How about this?

Comparison is a thief.

It steals my joy, it's it steals the truth from me because I'm just looking at them and not where God has me.

Maybe I'm just not good at this.

Maybe when I'm so focused on what I am, I have to realize that God is giving me grace.

The reason I'm going through this process is because I think you need to take the time and slow down and write down your thoughts and then ask the Holy Spirit, God, what do you think about this?

What do you think about these thoughts?

This is my reality, but wait a second.

What's your reality?

I keep disappointing people.

How about this?

I need to please one person.

I don't need to please everybody.

I can look around the room and say, I gotta keep everybody happy.

I have to I have to preach a certain way.

I have to make sure that everybody gets that.

I have to make sure you're in a small group and you're in a small group, and I have to make sure all these things, and my kids, and my wife, and my marriage, and my money, and my my dog.

But really, I only have to please one person.

An audience of one we should be living for.

And I'm not enough.

Watch this.

God says, I'm enough.

Because God is enough, His grace is enough, it's sufficient for me, but the the fail-safe in my own brain, the prefrontal cortex, the the spirit of God in me has to say, wait a second, that's not true.

You are enough.

Because God is enough.

So I'm going to take it back to the second thing we talked about, and that is the people around you.

You have to pray, you have to take your thoughts to God, take your prayer and your petition and take it straight to the Lord, but also you need some people around you that you can trust enough.

Jesus had Jesus had a small group.

If he had to have a small group, then you need a small group.

I need a small group.

Watch this.

Look, I see a very full row here on the fourth row.

One, two, three, four.

You guys, the whole row stand up.

You don't have to you don't have to come anywhere.

I just see that it's a full row.

Let's just say, uh Martin.

I'm gonna use you because I know you.

Martin is in a crowd of people here.

You're in a crowd, you're doing awesome.

Like the bandana.

But Martin has to do life with some people.

If you're off alone somewhere all by yourself, and nobody can talk to you, nobody can support you, and you are frustrated and broken and struggling, and you're just all by yourself, that's that's a big problem.

But Jesus had 12 people.

Where's your 12?

You need some people out beside you you're doing life with.

And watch this.

I want everybody but like the last four people to sit down.

So four stand up, everybody else sit down.

Martin, Jesus not only had 12, but Jesus also had three people that he took off alone.

He took the three off, and the crowd saw him.

The 12 did life with him, but the three knew him.

Y'all can be seated, thank you.

I just try to prove a point.

They knew him, they knew his thoughts, they knew his process, they knew what he would say about certain things.

Who in your life knows you well enough to know this about you?

Knows this going on in your head because not everybody in the church or your small group or the people who are doing life with you, they don't all have to know this.

Somebody needs to know you well enough to know and be able to walk through this with you.

Not maybe not all the gruesome details, but if you're saying, Oh, I don't trust anybody enough to do this.

Nope, no, that they'll that that will hurt.

That they'll abandon, they'll walk away.

I've tried that before, it didn't work.

New pathways in your brain.

Relationships.

So this week I got homework for you, and that's you may have zero people in your life that you trust enough to take the mask off and say, hey, this is what I'm really struggling with.

I know you don't know me very well, but you know what?

That thing you were talking about, I I also have that issue.

Like I have trust issues, I have uh shopping issues, or I have eating issues, or I have pornography issues, or I have marriage issues, or I struggle with this, or I struggle like somebody in your life needs to be able to talk you with talk through this with you and give you faith.

So your homework is to go find a small group and not just to go find a small group, but to start looking for that person that you can trust.

Because if the person you trust is, oh, I got my my homegirl Becky, we're tight.

She knows everything about me, we're ride or die, she'll never leave me.

But oh yeah, we get into some trouble sometimes because oh man, she's with me always, but we're gonna get in trouble.

She's not the one, she's not gonna help you edit your your your struggle with faith.

She's not gonna pray with you.

He's not gonna pray with you.

That one that influences you the wrong way.

You need to start looking for who are my two or my three.

You're thinking I gotta get into a small girl.

This is like so intimidating.

I got 25 people that I gotta share.

I gotta stand up in front of everybody and say, hello everybody, my name is Sean, and I have a problem.

That's not this.

I'm saying you need to get some people in your life that you trust enough and that you're walking by faith with.

It's not an impossible task that you can pray with, that you can take your prayer, your petition.

So I've said it.

You need to find them, and we're gonna start believing God together for overcoming anxiety.

I want to pray with you.

We're gonna close.

I know I'm gone a little bit over time, but I need you to hear this as we close this series.

You do not have to walk with anxiety, be ruled by worry, let your thoughts be derailed by stress and all the pressure that life, the world and the enemy, all the things.

You can have your mind protected and guarded, have your heart protected by peace.

You don't have to build up walls so big that no one can get near you.

You can be filled and walk in peace.

Imagine being able to live and love the way, but also know that I'm protected by peace, the Spirit of God living in me and leading my thoughts and protecting my heart.

So I want you to, I want to pray with you, and then we're gonna close.

The first thing that you have to have and I have to have is a relationship with Jesus.

And if you've never surrendered your life to him, how can he bring peace?

How can the Prince of Peace bring peace into your life and rule your heart and your mind, protect your heart and your mind if he's not your Lord and Savior?

So before we do anything else, I want to offer you.

Would you say this prayer with me?

And confess this out of your mouth, and take a step of faith and let him today surrender your life to Jesus, and everything changes.

So maybe you've never said that prayer before, maybe you have, and it's time to say it again and recommit your life to Jesus.

Would you say this prayer with me?

Would you say these words out loud?

God, today I give you my life.

I don't want to be by fear, I don't want to be ruled by anxiety, controlled by stress and worry.

Today I give you my heart.

I give you my thoughts.

I give you all my life.

So forgive me of my sin.

I put my life in your hands.

So breathe life into me.

And from this day forward, I choose to follow you in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Put your hands together for everybody who said that prayer.

I'm gonna invite you to stand up on your feet.

And before you go, I would like to invite the prayer team to join me at the front.

If you want to pray with somebody before you go, you can come on up to the front and just say a 30-45-second prayer with them before you leave.

If you want to stick around and worship with us, that's good too.

Wise, I love you, and I believe God for great things in your life this week.

God bless you.

You dismiss