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Phil 4:1-9 // Freedom from Anxiety · FBC Boerne Youth

• 0:31
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know about you guys, but it seems that the world has gone just like a smidge crazy lately.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_01: Anybody else feel that way?
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's the elections coming up.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_01: Has anybody else gotten about 58 political texts a day?
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_01: Apparently Donald Trump's mentioned to me in like 15 different videos.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: Uh Bernie has gotten shouted out like 78 different times.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, you know, and it doesn't help that in the age of internet and social media and just all the things that are normal to us now.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_01: It seems like the world that we live in is designed and intentionally trying to make us anxious.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_01: Does anybody else feel that way?
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: Are we gonna be honest tonight?
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_01: I do.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, you can open the news and you read headlines like reusable water bottles, water water, wow, words, water bottles hold 40,000 more times bacteria than toilet seats.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_01: Or scientists discover that drinking water at the wrong time could be ruining your life.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_01: Or lack of sleep could make you go blind, new study warns.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_01: Or sleeping more than eight hours per night could increase the risk of early death.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_01: Studies show.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, another one, experts say that these five common habits could destroy your future, and number three will shock you.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_01: Uh scientists discover that sitting too much is dangerous.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_01: Standing too much may be even worse.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: Is your Stanley Cup secretly making you stupid?
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: Experts weigh in.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and then finally, experts warn that your pillow could be the reason you're still single.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know how or why, but apparently your water bottle has more bacteria than your toilet seat.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_01: Your pillowcase is even worse.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_01: Not getting enough sleep can make you go blind, and if you sleep too much, you're gonna die early.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: And sitting is the new smoking, but apparently standing up isn't good either, and your Stanley is gonna make you dumb.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: Like apparently, that's the world that we live in.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_01: And now, uh, I'll be honest, some of those headlines are real and some are made up, but the fact you can't tell which ones are which is my You just guess, right?
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_01: And so, no, not actually.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_01: Here's the point.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_01: This is this is what I'm trying to get at, right?
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_01: The world that we live in is designed to make us anxious.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: Jonathan Haidt is an author, and he wrote a book called The Anxious Generation, which talks about our generation.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: I am in your generation.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_01: Well, some of y'all are Gen Alpha, but Gen Z specifically, and moving on to Gen Alpha, is the most anxious generation in all of history.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_01: Uh where there's a 139% increase in anxiety among young adults, 134% in diagnosis or diagnoses, uh, there's a hundred and forty-five percent increase in major depression among teenage girls, and a hundred and sixty-one percent increase in teenage guys.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_01: And here's the thing I can rattle off a bunch of stats, but I don't think you guys need the stats because many of us feel this on a personal level.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_01: And it's not just the stuff in the news, it's your school, it's your sports, it's your family, it's your future, trying to find a job, trying to find enough extracurriculars to get into a college to get a degree that you're not even sure is gonna matter in five years because of AI.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_01: And it's all of this pressure, and it can feel like it's crushing you.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_01: So the question is, what do we do?
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_01: And so tonight as we continue our Philippians series, I hope that we're at least going to start to touch on the answer to that.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not gonna stand up here and pretend that I'm gonna fix all of our anxiety tonight.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I cannot give you all of those answers.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_01: But what I hope to do is to open God's word and see what it has to say.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and just like every time we open God's word, I am trusting that we're gonna find life in it.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: And so we're gonna see two things mainly.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna see how God feels about anxiety, and we're gonna see what he calls us to do with anxiety.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_01: And so we're in Philippians chapter four, starting in verse one, Philippians four, verse one.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_01: If you still have your Philippians copy that we gave out at the beginning of the series, kudos to you.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: We need to do like a turn it in for a prize at the end of the series.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_01: Noah's got it.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_01: I see it.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but it'll be on the screen as well.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_01: Verse one.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_01: Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_01: I entreat you Odia, and I entreat Suntuke to agree in the Lord.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_01: And yes, I ask you also, true companion, help these women who've labored side by side with me in the gospel, together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers whose names are in the book of life.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_01: And so let's, we're gonna walk through a few of these early verses fairly quickly, and then we're gonna camp out on the anxiety piece at the end.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_01: Verse one, right, therefore, stand firm, connects back to what was just said.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_01: Some of what was immediately just said, but also we're starting to get to the end of the letter.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_01: Last week is our last week in or next week is the last week in Philippians.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_01: And so he's saying, Hey, in light of everything I've just said, stand firm.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_01: Specifically, how he just talked about, if you remember last week, that we're aliens and strangers here, that this world is not our home, that if you feel like you're on the outside looking in, that's because as Christians, we are.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_01: And he says, in light of that, stand firm.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_01: Don't give up, be courageous.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_01: And then in verse two, he gives some personal instruction to two individuals, uh, Eodia and Suntuke, that I had to look up the pronunciation, pronunciation.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: I just can't talk tonight.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_01: And so he tells him, hey, get along.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_01: And much of this letter has been about unity, unity of the gospel, that no matter what you look like, what family you come from, what backgrounds you have, the things you've done, or the places you've been, if you are in Jesus, you are united by that above all else.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_01: None of that other stuff matters.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_01: You're home here.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_01: We're family.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_01: And he says to these two individuals, hey, you two specifically get along, which is very rare.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_01: And you might think, okay, Paul's like, what did they do to get a personal call out from Paul?
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_01: But this is actually a sign of endearment.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_01: Because in all of Paul's other letters, when he calls people out that are his enemies, he never mentions their name.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: Very rarely, if so.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_01: But here he calls these two out, and we get the clue later on in verse, uh, in verse three, uh, he says, Help these women who've labored side by side with me.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_01: So these two people he's talking to are his friends.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_01: They're his dear companions.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_01: They've worked together, they've probably been a part of planting and growing this church.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_01: And so he's encouraging them, hey, I love you guys.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: Will you please get along?
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_01: There's so much at stake here.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_01: There's so much good God's going to do through you.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_01: Let's get on the same page.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_01: Which, very side note here, uh, these two women had a very prominent role in this Philippian church.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_01: And so, girls, uh, God has a plan for you in the kingdom.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_01: This is not just a man's game.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, moving on.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_01: Verse three, Paul asks someone, hey, help these two get along.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_01: He says, My true companion, and we don't know who he's talking about.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, you do enough digging, and we kind of think that it might be Luke, the guy who wrote the book of Luke, uh or the gospel of Luke, and the guy who wrote Acts, but we're not sure.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_01: But really, the point here is it's a picture of what we would call uh resolving conflict together, communal conflict resolution.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_01: So he was saying, hey, as a family, as a group, we're gonna come, we're gonna figure this thing out together.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_01: You help them to get along.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_01: And so the charge to us is when there's conflict, how do you respond?
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_01: Do you gossip?
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_01: Do you stir the pot?
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_01: Do you poke the bear?
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_01: Do you sit back with your popcorn?
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_01: Or as Paul says, do we help make peace?
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_01: When somebody comes to you with gossip, do you feed it, do you entertain it, or do you say, hey, I don't think you should be talking to me about so-and-so when they're not here?
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_01: Or if you really want to get sharp, hey, uh, I'm gonna need you to go tell so-and-so you just said that about them, or I'm gonna tell them in 24 hours.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_01: That kills gossip quick.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_01: And again, the goal is not to hurt people or to be harsh, but it's to solve conflict together.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_01: And so let's move on to verse four.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: Rejoice in the Lord always.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_01: Again, I will say, rejoice.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_01: Let your reasonableness be known to everyone, the Lord is at hand.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_01: Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_01: And so he starts with kind of a quick fire section of commands, which is pretty normal at the end of Paul's letters.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, verse four, he says, Rejoice in the Lord, which again, we could do a whole sermon on this, but the thing about this is Paul says, believers, you should rejoice, you should be joyful.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_01: As Christians, we should be marked by our joy.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_01: Not that picture of some monk in a monastery in the dark ages with a sad frown on his face and walking around all beat up all the time.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_01: That we should be the happiest people in any room.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_01: And maybe happy is not the right word because happy can come and go, but joy is something deeper.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_01: But moving on, verse five, he says, Let your reasonableness be known to everyone.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_01: So not just be joyful, be reasonable.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_01: And that word can also be translated as either gentle or meek.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_01: And you see the words gentle and meek, and especially a lot of especially guys are like, gentle, meek, like, ugh, gross.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_01: Like that sounds weak and lame.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_01: But the reality is those words are actually talking not about weakness, but about strength under control.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and Jesus is a perfect picture of this.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_01: When Jesus hung on that cross, he could have like just lightning bolted every single person on that hill and gotten off that cross, but he didn't.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_01: Why?
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_01: Because his strength was under control.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: He was not weak, though it might have appeared that way.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_01: He was very strong, but he had it under control.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_01: And so the world we live in, when it's raging and it's angry, we are supposed to be self-controlled and patient and kind.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_01: And then it's hard to tell where the end of verse five is connected to.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's hard to tell if you look at your Bible.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_01: Uh on the ESV, there's some punctuation that helps you, but that's not the same everywhere.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_01: It says, Let your reasonableness be known to everyone.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_01: And some translations say, comma, the Lord is at hand.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_01: So is it like, hey, be reasonable because the Lord is near?
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_01: Or others say, The Lord is at hand, comma, do not be anxious about anything.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_01: So which way does it go?
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_01: Well, uh, the commentary I read and where I lean is that it says, Because the Lord is near, do not be anxious.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_01: That God is close to you, so you don't need to be afraid.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_01: But, and here's where we're going to start to camp out a little bit more tonight.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: I know we've been moving quickly.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, we need to talk about what Paul means when he says, Don't be anxious.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_01: Because a lot of us have heard that before.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_01: Or there's actually been people that have read that and interpreted it as any sort of anxiety or feeling anxious is sinful.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_01: That if you are feeling anxious, you just don't have enough faith, you need to pray more, you're you're a sinner.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and that's a real issue for those of us who have experienced clinical anxiety, clinical OCD, actual disorders.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: And so I do not believe that Paul is saying just feeling anxious or worried is sinful.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_01: And I can back that up because look what he says next.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_01: He doesn't just say, don't be anxious.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_01: He actually tells us what to do.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_01: And when he tells us what to do, he says, he doesn't say, don't feel anxious, instead feel peaceful.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_01: He says, don't be anxious, but instead bring your worries and your fears and your concerns and requests to God in prayer.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: And then God will give you peace.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_01: Do you see the difference?
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_01: It's not don't feel this, instead feel this.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_01: It's don't do this, instead do this.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_01: He's talking at the action level.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: See, Paul is not condemning people for experiencing anxiety.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_01: He's teaching you what to do when anxiety and worry come.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_01: Because here's the thing we can't always control whether we feel worried.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_01: I can't always control whether we feel anxious.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, sometimes it's a natural response.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_01: Imagine Owen uh is playing catch with his buddy uh by 1604, like on the side of the road.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know how he got next to 1604, but it's a very busy road in traffic.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and Owen throws the ball into traffic, and all of a sudden Owen says, I'm gonna go get that ball, and he sprints into 1604.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_01: Am I gonna feel anxious about that?
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_01: And that anxiousness is not a bad thing necessarily.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes those feelings are tools to keep us safe.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: Like if I'm standing on a high line over the Grand Canyon, that's gonna be some natural, healthy concern and worry that God gave me to keep me from doing something stupid.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_01: And also sometimes our anxiety and our worry, it's a product of caring, right?
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_01: Like, like if Owen were to go chase that football into 1604 and I said, Hey man, go have fun, play in traffic, what would that say about how I feel about Owen?
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_01: That I don't care about him, and that I want him to go play in traffic, which is not a nice thing to tell somebody, right?
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_01: And so sometimes when we get anxious, I mean I see this with my kids, right?
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_01: The some stuff that I would tell you guys, hey, you'll be fine, go rub some dirt in it.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_01: When my little daughter comes up to me and is like crying and has a hurt wrist, I'm like, oh sweet baby, I'm so sorry.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_01: And like, let me get you something, come here.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I worry about her because she's my kid, because I love her.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_01: I love you guys too, but it's a different thing when it's your child.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_01: Or your own family.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_01: Like, like if you're anxious or worried because they're hurting, that's not sinful.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_01: That's a product of how God has wired us.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_01: So Paul's not talking about feeling anxiety.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_01: Here's the thing: listen, if I lost you, come back.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_01: Paul is not talking about feeling anxiety, he's talking about feeding anxiety.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_01: Feeling anxiety is not a sin.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_01: Hear me again.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_01: Feeling anxious, feeling worried, that is not sinful.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_01: However, feeding it can be.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_01: Dwelling on it, constantly replaying the worst case scenario in your head, or checking that person's snap score to see if they're responding to other people because they're not responding to you, or Googling your health symptoms, or staying up until 2 a.m., doom scrolling the pages in the content that you know is gonna make you more worried.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_01: Or maybe it's avoiding anything that even makes you like a little uncomfortable.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_01: Like I'm just gonna put myself in a bubble, I'm not gonna go to that activity, I'm not gonna go to that social event, I'm not gonna go to that church function because I just people make me anxious and I don't want to.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_01: Or for some of us, if I can get really real here, and I I can say this because I was at this point in a time in my life, we can let it become our identity.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_01: We can tell everybody about it.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_01: We don't try to hide our anxiety, we put it everywhere for anybody who will listen, and we actually start to use it as a crutch or an excuse, and we let it define us.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_01: And here's the thing we run to all of that stuff trying to find peace.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_01: We try to distract ourselves or we try to gain control of our situation or we try to own it, and we think that we're gonna find peace in that.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_01: But I want you to see is that you're actually feeding the thing that's killing your peace.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_01: And look, I'm talking from experience here, guys.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_01: I've told you on my story.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_01: I've told you I was an anxious kid growing up, and I would try to respond to that anxiety by uh learning everything about what I was afraid of, trying to gain control over it.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_01: And at first it was weather.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_01: And so uh I would have to, you know, I it was because we had some close calls with weather as a kid.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_01: And so if there was any sort of rain forecast or even clouds in the sky, I constantly would have to go outside and look up at the sky.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_01: And then I'd come back and then like 15 seconds later, go back outside, look up at the sky.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_01: Or if there were storms that were coming in the area, like I would make my parents keep the weather channel on TV.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_01: And if they turned it off, I would like freak out because what if something happens and I don't see it?
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_01: And it and I thought that those things were giving me more peace, but it was actually just making me freak out even more.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_01: If I see one dark cloud, I would just lose it.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_01: Or if I saw something that was a hundred miles away on the radar and moving towards us, I would just start to panic.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_01: What I thought was giving me peace just fed my anxiety.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_01: And then after that, it was actually stuff around God.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, interestingly enough, there's something called scrupulosity OCD.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_01: I know that's a really big word, but it's basically obsessive-compulsive disorder where somebody experiences intense, recurring anxiety about whether they've sinned, whether they've done something wrong, or disappointed God, or committed an unforgivable sin.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and I'm not to say that any conviction or any guilt or shame over sin, like that's not what I'm talking about here.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_01: I'm talking about an obsessive, uncontrollable fixation on does God hate me?
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_01: And I would be terrified that I made God mad.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_01: Guys, it got so bad to a point where like if I would kill somebody on a video game, I would have to repent because it was just such an obsessive thing.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_01: And a big one, I was afraid, right?
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_01: We joke about this as a kid, but I was genuinely serious.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I thought I was gonna miss the rapture, which has a whole nother theological can of worms to open up there.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_01: And so I responded by saying, Hey, I'm gonna read, y'all just ignore them.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna read every single left behind book that they have in the library, which if you don't know what that is, it's a book about the rapture.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_01: Again, bad theology.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_01: I would not recommend reading it.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, or not bad theology, but aside.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_01: And and I would just panic.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_01: Again, I thought it was helping me, but it was feeding my anxiety.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_01: And then let's get real to one that I think might connect with a lot of y'all.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_01: As I got older, it was body image, which side note again, I talked to the girls earlier.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I'll give guys permission here.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_01: We talk a lot about pornography not just being a guy's issue, it's a girls' issue.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_01: Body image is not just a women's issue, right?
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_01: Body image is a real thing that a lot of us guys have struggled with or do struggle with, and it might look different, but if that is you, I hope you feel seen and heard and know that you are not alone.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_01: And for me, I'd gotten in shape in college and I lost a lot of weight.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and I was terrified that if I did anything different, I was gonna gain it back.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_01: So just a real unhealthy relationship with food.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and what I'd do is I would constantly check the scale first thing in the morning, before I'd eaten anything, before I drank anything.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_01: I would constantly check the mirror, see how clothes fit.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_01: And again, I thought that was gonna make me feel better.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_01: But what happened when I saw that my weight went up by 0.2, I would panic, I would change how I eat, I would punish myself.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_01: And guys, look, uh, I thought I was going to it for peace, but I was feeding my anxiety.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_01: And look, I I know that's a lot of examples, and I don't say that to try and gain pity.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_01: Hopefully it's it's a connection.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_01: And praise God, I don't struggle with that in the same way.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_01: Like I've experienced incredible freedom, but my fear in telling you that is that you would get an unrealistic picture of what freedom really looks like.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_01: You'd hear that and think, oh, it must be nice that you got over it.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think I'm ever going to be free.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_01: Well, here's the thing, guys, I still feel anxiety.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_01: Now, the anxiety around those things, not as much.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes still, but not very much anymore.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_01: But now it's all grown-up stuff.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_01: Money, kids, stock market, interest rates, a mortgage.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_01: Stay young.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_01: The adult stuff's kind of overrated.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_01: But it's just changed.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_01: But here's the thing, I don't obsess over those things anymore.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_01: Like they, they don't, they don't have the hold on me like that stuff earlier.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_01: Why?
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_01: It's not just because I got older, but because, praise be to God, he taught me how to not feed those things.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_01: The the thoughts might still be there, but they don't have a seat in my heart or mind.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_01: And the truth is, and and lock in with me for this line, maybe if you're taking notes, the truth is I learned that freedom does not always look like the complete lack of anxiety.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_01: Let me say it again.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_01: Freedom does not always look like a complete lack of anxiety, but it's that your anxiety lacks control.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_01: It might still be there, but you're not a slave to it.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_01: And so if you're here tonight and you struggle with it, let's do a little exercise.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_01: Think, close your eyes for me.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_01: When you first feel anxious, take something that might be making you feel anxious right now.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_01: What do you do?
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_01: Like imagine something came up with school, friend, family, relationship, sport, whatever.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_01: What how do you respond?
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_01: Do you open your phone?
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_01: Do you get on social media?
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_01: Do you text a friend?
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_01: Do you pull up some video games?
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_01: Now, is that action feeding that anxiety, or is it bringing it to God?
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_01: And what would it look like to bring that anxiety to the Lord?
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_01: The scripture, the passage says to bring your request with prayer and petition with thanksgiving.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_01: And so pray, God, will you help me in this area?
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_01: I'm afraid of this, I'm worried about this.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_01: Be honest with Him.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_01: He's not, you're not catching him off guard.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_01: He already knows.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_01: And then the interesting thing is gratitude.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_01: And it's crazy how gratitude and being thankful for what God's given us will change our perspective and how we view things.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_01: If you're fearful about a test coming up, giving that to God with gratitude might mean, God, I'm worried about this, I'm anxious about this, I don't know what to do.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_01: But but can I pause for a second and say, God, thank you that I get to go to school?
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you that I have opportunity to get a good career one day and provide for a family one day, and that I can go to a college and that I'm safe at school.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_01: Like, God, thank you for these things I might be taking for granted.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_01: And that doesn't belittle what you're anxious about, but it does change how you're looking at it.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_01: You bring it to the Lord with gratitude.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_01: And if you do, Scripture says you'll get a peace beyond all understanding.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_01: And that doesn't mean that your problems are going to be solved, necessarily, and it doesn't mean that you're necessarily going to get all the answers.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_01: But instead, you're actually going to have a peace that's better than getting all the answers or having all your problems solved.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_01: Because you can solve all these problems, you'll find more.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_01: But the peace that transcends understanding, the peace that will guard your heart and mind in God, is one that's based on who he is, that he's good, that he loves you, that he cares about you.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_01: And so no matter what stage of life you're in, no matter what you're going through, God hasn't changed.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_01: And so your peace can stay firm in him.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_01: But if you're like me, there's a part of you that might think, okay, so just you're telling me to pray more, like that's your fix for anxiety.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_01: Prayer is a part of it.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_01: It's not less than prayer, but there are other things that God has given us and tools that do work.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_01: And I do want to pause and say, hey, there are clinical OCD, clinical anxiety, things that you need to tell your parent about, and you need to go get help.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_01: It's not wrong to go to a doctor.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, it's not wrong to use medicine in a God-honoring way.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_01: Uh none of that is necessarily wrong, and some of that needs professional help that's further than what we're talking about tonight.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_01: And I pray for you and I hope that you find it, I hope you open up about it if this is something that's just gripping you.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_01: But even here, Paul gives some practical advice in verse eight.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_01: He says, Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_01: What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the peace of God will be with you.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_01: And so Paul just gave a list of things.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and we do, I think we can we go to the next slide?
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know why it's missing the bottom of that one.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so this is the list.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: He says, Whatever is true, whatever is pure, noble, lovely, right, and admirable, right?
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_01: You can underline those.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_01: Uh whatever is true, right?
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_01: What focus on what is actually true, what God says is true, not lies, assumptions, or fears.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_01: Noble is things that are honorable or respectable or worthy of your attention.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_01: Right is what is good and fair and just according to God's character.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_01: Pure is things that aren't corrupted by sin or evil or selfish motives.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_01: Lovely is things that are beautiful, good, and worth appreciating.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_01: Admirable as things that are commenderable or they're inspiring, they're worth celebrating.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_01: And look, I could turn each of those into a point and we'd be here all night.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_01: And we're going to hand you a handout that has more information on that.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_01: That's why I move through them quickly.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_01: Because the point here is actually a bigger picture.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_01: The bigger picture is that Paul is teaching us to be intentional about what we allow to occupy our minds.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_01: Not just avoiding bad or anxious thoughts, but actually filling your mind with what's true and good and honoring to God.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_01: And one of the best ways to fight anxiety, this is the crazy thing, is actually to stop focusing so much effort on getting rid of it, start focusing more effort on replacing it.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_01: And uh let me let me try to illustrate it this way.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_01: I won't actually do the illustration, but there's been times when I've had a cup up here, right?
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_01: And pretend this cup is empty.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and I ask, like, what's the quickest way that you can get the air out of this empty cup?
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_01: And some people say vacuum it, some people say squash it.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_01: None of those things work.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_01: The quickest way to get the air out of a cup is to fill it with water, to fill it with something else that pushes the air out.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_01: In the same way, you can try to vacuum anxiety out of your life.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_01: You can try to squash it, you can try to get rid of it, but you're just gonna end up frustrated.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_01: But if you replace it what's with what's true and what's noble, right, pure, lovely, and admirable, you'll see how that anxiety just fades to the background.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_01: And so we're gonna close with this little practice.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_01: We'll be done.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I just want to do a very practical thing.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_01: I know many of you might have heard a lot of that, and you're like, hey, that's a bunch of terms.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_01: That's not, um, that's not helping me, Garrett.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_01: Give me something I can do.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_01: Give me something I can practice.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_01: Practice.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_01: Well, first, setting your mind on God, first you just have to cancel out the noise.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_01: You have to cancel out the distraction.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_01: And one way to do that is a technique that uh the church has actually been using for a long time, and it's it's how we breathe.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_01: And we call it box breathing.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_01: And some of you might have heard of this before, you might have done it before, but all it is uh is you start by taking, and we'll do it here in a second, but you take a breath for four seconds, you hold it for four seconds, and then you exhale for four seconds, you hold that for four seconds, and then you start over again.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_01: And you can draw a box with your finger, it kind of helps you just lock in and pay attention to what is going on in the real world and not in your mind.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_01: And so do that.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: Just everybody, let's start by taking a breath, two, three, four, and hold, two, three, four, and exhale, two, three, four, and hold, two, three, four, and inhale, two, three, four, and the system or the the cycle goes on and on and on.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_01: And there's another thing you can do that's called grounding.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_01: If you're like me, and a lot of times when I felt anxious, it's my mind gets on a runaway rabbit trail, and it's like I'm not even present in the physical world.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_01: I'm in some imaginary world where everything's gone wrong.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_01: And one practice you can do is grounding, and so I don't want you to do this out loud because I want to be serious with this last part, but this is just bringing yourself back into the real world.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_01: So look around the room right now, and I want you in your mind to notice four different colors.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_01: Just four colors, doesn't matter which ones.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_01: And then I want you to notice three sounds that you can hear right now.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_01: It's a clicking of a pen, a shuffling of a foot, the fan.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_01: And then I want you to notice two things you can feel.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe your shoes on your feet or your clothes on your body, the chair that you're sitting in.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_01: And then you can notice one thing that you smell.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_01: And look, those things are just tools.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm not trying to say that that's gonna make your anxiety away or anything else, but if we're trying to hear from God, first we have to get rid of the noise.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_01: And so much of our life is just lived in constant noise.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_01: We don't even know how to exist in quiet.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_01: And so that practice just helps you kind of come back to earth.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_01: If you tend to let your mind go on a rabbit trail and you get worried, you get anxious, and you just need to, I just need to be here in the moment.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_01: Those are just two helpful tools, and we'll pass out a handout with that on there.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_01: And so once you've done that and you're in a place where you can actually think right, uh let me try one other little practice with you.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_01: Imagine that one of your best friends texts you and they leave you on red, right?
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_01: Immediately your brain is, oh, they're mad at me, I've done something wrong, uh, they must not want to be my friend anymore, they hate me.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_01: There's three things you can do when you start to feel that anxiety well up.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_01: And they all start with C, so uh you can write these down.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_01: One is you catch the thought.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_01: And so recognize what you're thinking.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_01: This isn't changing anything, this is just being aware of it.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_01: You're thinking, my friend hasn't responded, and I'm starting to believe they're mad at me.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just capturing the thought, nothing else yet.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_01: And then two, check the thought.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_01: So you catch the child catch the thought and then you check the thought.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_01: And again, we'll have a handout with this.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_01: Ask yourself, is this true or is this just something that I'm assuming?
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_01: How do you actually know?
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you know they haven't responded, and that's it.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_01: You don't know they're mad, you don't know that they hate you, you don't know anything other than the fact that they haven't responded.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_01: And so is it true that they haven't responded?
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_01: Is it true that they're mad at me?
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know that.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_01: So you catch the thought, you check the thought, and then you change the thought.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_01: And so instead of continuing down that spiral, you direct your mind towards what's true.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, I don't know that they haven't responded, but they could be busy, they could be doing homework, their phone could be dead.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_01: And even if something is wrong, I can handle that conversation.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_01: It's not the end of the world.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_01: And even if I can't handle the conversation, my worth and my value does not come from that friendship.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_01: They don't define who I am.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_01: God does, and he loves me, he cares about me, he's for me.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_01: And so do you see what you just did?
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_01: You didn't pretend the situation wasn't real or didn't exist.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_01: You didn't force yourself to be peaceful.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_01: You just stopped letting what might be true control your thoughts and started focusing on what was actually true.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what Paul's telling you you can't always control the thoughts that enter your mind, but you can be intentional about what thoughts you dwell on and what you feed.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_01: And so to summarize, feeling anxiety is not a sin, but feeding it might be.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_01: And Paul calls us to something better.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_01: Don't feed it, uh, but give it to God.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_01: Cast your cares on him, set your minds on the truth, and he will give you a peace that goes beyond all understanding, all answers, all your circumstance.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_01: And I want to close here by being realistic.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_01: This is a process.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_01: Guys, this takes time.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_01: I'm 27, have been following Jesus for you know 15-ish years now, and you know, it still feels like there I have days that I just preached a bunch of nonsense to you because I can't even do it myself.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_01: And so there's a process, and it takes time.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_01: It has ups and it downs, and some of the tools I gave you, they're just tools, but you need to use those things in community, right?
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_01: Don't just try to do this on yourself.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_01: You might need to go to a counselor, you might need to go to a parent, you might need to go to somebody who is older and wiser than you.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm not saying that because you're young.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_01: I need to go to people older and wiser than me and trust them to walk through this with me.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_01: But what I don't want you here to me to say tonight is just, hey, here's how you life hack your way out of anxiety.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_01: It doesn't work.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_01: Only the Holy Spirit of God has the power to change us.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_01: And to go back to the beginning, Paul says the Lord is near, so don't be anxious.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_01: This whole thing is grounded in who God is, that uh he is good, that he loves you, that he cares for you, that he's working all things together for your good.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_01: It's not because of your effort or your ability, but because of the gospel that Jesus died for our sins so that we can be made new, we can be saved, that we have the hope of heaven, that if I'm in Jesus, I know no matter what happens to me here on this earth, I'll spend eternity with God one day, where all the tears have been wiped away and sickness and death and pain are gone forever and ever and ever and ever.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_01: I can hold on to that and I can have peace no matter what might come tomorrow.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_01: And if you're a follower of Jesus, that is available to you.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_01: And it might take time to take hold of it.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_01: And man, if you're not a follower of Jesus, let me tell you man, like you want to get that right as soon as you possibly can, because there is nothing sweeter than the peace of God that transcends all understanding.