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Powerful Sermon GOD HELP YOU FLIGHT HIGH- Minister Max Lucado · Max Lucado Daily Sermons

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: In your life, just waiting to be written, in which fret.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: Will become a thing of the past, in which peace
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: will be increasing, anxiety daily diminishing.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: God has a prescription.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: With which we can deal with worry, and that prescription
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: reads like this, Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say, rejoice,
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: Let your gentleness be known.
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  Speaker 1: To all men. The Lord is at hand.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: So be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: and supplication, with thanksgiving. Let your requests be made known
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  Speaker 2: to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding,
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: will guard your hearts and your minds. In Christ Jesus Finally, Brethren,
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things
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  Speaker 2: are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely,
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  Speaker 2: whatever things are of good report, if there's any virtue,
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: if there's anything praiseworthy, meditate.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: On these things. Before I offer a prayer.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: Let me proudly announce that Delon and I have just
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: entered the world of grandparenthood.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: But I don't want you to be anxious.
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: I'm not going to be one of those grandparents who
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: shows you picture after picture. I'm not going to endlessly
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: bore you with details and trivia about little Rose, Margaret Bishop.
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: I'm not gonna belay were you with cute little details
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  Speaker 2: like her fingernails that are already long, and how she
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: winked when she saw me, and how she mouthed the
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: words Papa Max on the very first day.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: I'm not going to get into all that.
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  Speaker 2: Please don't think for a moment that I'll ever use
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  Speaker 2: our big screens at church and our microphones to project
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  Speaker 2: image after image and tell story. I'd never do anything
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  Speaker 2: like that. Don't be anxious. We do thank you Lord
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  Speaker 2: for new life.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: We do. We're grateful for fresh starts.
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  Speaker 2: And those of us who've been around this world now
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  Speaker 2: for a few years are aware that it can grow
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: on us, and we can grow weary and anxious. Grant us, Father,
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  Speaker 2: a childlike faith, a trust in You. Please give our
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: speaker his sins are many, and help us to see Christ,
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: just Jesus through Christ. We pray, and all who agreed
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: with the prayer said, well, I grew up in a
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  Speaker 2: camping family. My dad's idea of a family vacation involved
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  Speaker 2: a tents and sleeping bags and camping gear and Coleman
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  Speaker 2: stoves and lanterns. I tried to carry that tradition into
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  Speaker 2: my family. I didn't succeed roughing it for us as
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  Speaker 2: a motel six.
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  Speaker 1: That's about us. We do like.
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  Speaker 2: Campfires as somebody else builds them and then somebody serves
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  Speaker 2: room service afterwards. We're not big on camping, but my
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  Speaker 2: dad was. And boy, he loved not just camping, he
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: loved the camping gear. His favorite place to hang out
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: was one of those old Army Navy surplus stores. And
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  Speaker 2: I remember one summer he came home just a couple
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  Speaker 2: of weeks before summer vacation with a new tent. I
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: was about nine years of age, and we were preparing
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: to join my father. And I'm say my father and
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  Speaker 2: our family was preparing to join all of his siblings
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: at a family reunion in Estes Park, Colorado. Now, my
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  Speaker 2: dad came from a family of nine kids, so I
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  Speaker 2: mean they took over the campground. Well, he was so
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  Speaker 2: proud because he had purchased a new tent, and this
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  Speaker 2: tent came from the Army Navy Cirple Asore. It looked
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  Speaker 2: like something that come right out of the Korean War.
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  Speaker 2: It was huge, it could hold twelve cots.
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  Speaker 1: It was huge. It wasn't fancy but it was big.
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  Speaker 2: And to support it, he had two cast iron.
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  Speaker 1: Poles, two of them.
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  Speaker 2: Now we think tents, we usually think those aluminum retractable poles.
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  Speaker 1: This was solid cast.
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  Speaker 2: Iron pole as thick as my big bice apps. I
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  Speaker 2: mean they were big.
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: Why are you laughing?
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: He had built these two by four braces foundations upon
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  Speaker 2: into which he could place those two poles, and then
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  Speaker 2: we would set up that tent. We would often set
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  Speaker 2: that tent up around a picnic table. It was that
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  Speaker 2: big and still have room to sleep, and it was stable.
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  Speaker 2: Nothing was going to blow that tent over. Let the
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  Speaker 2: Colorado wind blow, let the rain fall, let the hail
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  Speaker 2: pulmult the ground, but it's not going to knock that
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  Speaker 2: tent over. In fact, on one day, one afternoon, Colorado
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  Speaker 2: sky got real black, and all my dad's siblings started
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  Speaker 2: running to their different tents and cabins and trailers.
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  Speaker 1: And I mean that.
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  Speaker 2: Storm just kept blowing in, just kept wailing like it's
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  Speaker 2: been doing here in South Texas over the last few days,
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  Speaker 2: and all of a sudden, everybody was out of their
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  Speaker 2: tent in our tent and ours was standing firm, And
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  Speaker 2: my dad was so proud, and I can remember and
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  Speaker 2: touching those two cast iron poles to make sure.
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  Speaker 1: That they were steady.
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  Speaker 2: I've been thinking that we could all use some cast
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  Speaker 2: iron poles like that, not in our tents, but in
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  Speaker 2: our lives. Winds blow still, and if only our winds
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  Speaker 2: brought just rain or even hail, our winds tend to
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  Speaker 2: bring those big d's death and divorce or debt and disease.
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  Speaker 2: And some of you are passing through hard times and
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  Speaker 2: it's stirring up some winds and emotions of anxiety, and
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  Speaker 2: you're very worried. And your question is is there a
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  Speaker 2: place where I can find safe shelter. Well, the Apostle
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  Speaker 2: Paul would answer that question with a resounding yes. He
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  Speaker 2: believed that there are some truths that can serve like
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  Speaker 2: those tent poles serve. That we can establish some convictions
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  Speaker 2: in our lives that will do for our souls what
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  Speaker 2: those cast iron pipes did. From my father's tint, Remember,
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  Speaker 2: the Apostle Paul wrote this prescription for peace in a
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  Speaker 2: Roman prison. We pointed this out last week. Nero had
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  Speaker 2: realized he could curry favor with people by killing Christians.
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  Speaker 2: What better known Christian was there than the Apostle Paul.
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  Speaker 2: So Paul was under house arrest. He was chained to
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  Speaker 2: a Roman guard twenty four hours a day. So he
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  Speaker 2: had a problem with Rome. He also had problems with
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  Speaker 2: his churches. The very churches that he began were beginning
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  Speaker 2: to call him an impostor. There were false preachers who
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  Speaker 2: were accusing the apostle Paul of prophiteering or self promoting.
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  Speaker 2: So the apostle had problems on the out, problems on
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  Speaker 2: the end, problems with Rome, problems in the church. On
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  Speaker 2: top of that, the guy was sixty years old. He
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  Speaker 2: was worn out. His back was covered with scars from
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  Speaker 2: the Roman whips and sticks. He had been left for
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  Speaker 2: dead twice. He was weary from all that travel. He
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  Speaker 2: was a mess. You would think he would write a
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  Speaker 2: letter of complaint to God, but he didn't. One of
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  Speaker 2: the reasons we cherished this brief four chapter epistle is
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  Speaker 2: because though Paul had every reason to write a letter
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  Speaker 2: of complaint, he wrote a letter calling for unbridled joy,
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  Speaker 2: and he spoke of a joy that was independent of
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  Speaker 2: any circumstance. He promoted a joy that would lead a
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  Speaker 2: person to discover an anxiety free life.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, beginning in.
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  Speaker 2: The fourth chapter, after three chapters of teaching, beginning in
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  Speaker 2: the fourth chapter, that's when he said, now be anxious
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  Speaker 2: for nothing, be anxious for nothing. And we read that
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  Speaker 2: phrase and say, is that possible or is that hyperbole?
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  Speaker 2: Is it really possible to get to the point in
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  Speaker 2: a person's life where they're not anxious, where they're able
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  Speaker 2: to deal with anxieties quickly and put them aside, and
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  Speaker 2: they don't live in that perpetual state of anxiety. As
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  Speaker 2: we pointed out last week, anxiety serves a helpful purpose.
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  Speaker 2: It alerts us to potential dangers. It calls us to react.
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  Speaker 2: What the apostles wanting to protect us from is a
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  Speaker 2: state of life in which we inhale anxiety, which we
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: live in a state of worry. And the Apostle said
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  Speaker 2: we could do this because he had reached two wonderful discoveries. Now, remember,
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  Speaker 2: by the time the Apostle says in Philippians four, be
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  Speaker 2: anxious for nothing, he has spent three chapters telling us
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  Speaker 2: why we can be anxious for nothing. And so we
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  Speaker 2: would be wise to reach back and get the context
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  Speaker 2: of Philippians and try to understand exactly why we can
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  Speaker 2: be anxious for nothing.
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  Speaker 1: When you read the first three.
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  Speaker 2: Chapters of the Book of Philippians, you find that the
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  Speaker 2: Apostle Paul had, like my father, two polls, two convictions,
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  Speaker 2: two deep seated beliefs around which he built his life.
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  Speaker 2: We call these a belief system.
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  Speaker 1: You have one, you do.
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  Speaker 2: If we could somehow flip back the flap of the
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  Speaker 2: tint of your soul, we would see some convictions. These
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  Speaker 2: convictions lead to decisions. Belief always creates behavior. So if
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  Speaker 2: your belief is right, your behavior is going to be healthy.
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  Speaker 1: If your beliefs are.
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  Speaker 2: Wrong, they are going to manifest themselves in unhealthy behavior.
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  Speaker 2: For that reason, anytime you read one of the epistles,
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  Speaker 2: the Apostle Paul spends the first section of that epistle,
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  Speaker 2: whether it be Ephesians or Romans or Philippians, talking about beliefs.
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  Speaker 2: He establishes beliefs. The most important thing about you, my friend,
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  Speaker 2: It's not the car you drive, or the amount of
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  Speaker 2: hair on your head, or your looks or your age.
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  Speaker 2: The most important thing about any human being is what
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  Speaker 2: we find when we look into their soul, the belief system.
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  Speaker 1: When you look into.
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  Speaker 2: The soul of the Apostle Paul in the Book of Philippians,
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  Speaker 2: as well as in any.
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  Speaker 1: Of the epistles.
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  Speaker 2: There are two solid beliefs around which he has built
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  Speaker 2: his life. This is his belief system. We're going to
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  Speaker 2: look at one of those beliefs this week, a second
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  Speaker 2: belief next week. But the reason the apostle could say
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  Speaker 2: be anxious for nothing is because these.
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  Speaker 1: Two cast iron poles were holding up his tent. You
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  Speaker 1: want to know what they are.
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  Speaker 2: Belief number one is simply this God is in control.
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  Speaker 2: God is in control. The word for that in the
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  Speaker 2: Bible is sovereign te, sovereign te. You'll look in the
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  Speaker 2: middle of the word sovereignty and there's the word rain
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  Speaker 2: re ig n rain. God's reigning, He's over everything, Solvereigin
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  Speaker 2: t the apostle Paul firmly.
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  Speaker 1: Believed that God is in control.
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  Speaker 2: I mean he has scarcely placed pin to parchment and
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  Speaker 2: he is talking about the sovereignty of God. In chapter
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  Speaker 2: one he says, God began doing a good work in you,
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  Speaker 2: and I am sure that he will continue it until
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  Speaker 2: it is finished when Jesus Christ comes again. We're not
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  Speaker 2: victims of fate. God is doing a good work in us.
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  Speaker 2: We're children of God, beneficiaries of a perfect plan, and
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  Speaker 2: even when things go wrong, they're going to turn out
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  Speaker 2: right because of God's sovereignty. The things which have happened
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  Speaker 2: to me have actually turned out for the further into
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  Speaker 2: the Gospel. So it has become evident to the Palace
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  Speaker 2: Guard and to all the rest that my chains are
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  Speaker 2: in Christ. Well, sure Paul didn't want to be in prison,
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  Speaker 2: but as Paul considers this through the sovereignty of God,
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  Speaker 2: he says, Oh, okay, God is using my time in
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  Speaker 2: prison to give me an opportunity to talk about Jesus
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  Speaker 2: to this soldier from the Palace Guard who has chained
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  Speaker 2: next to me. I have a captive audience. And so
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  Speaker 2: it turned out for something good. It wasn't exactly what
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  Speaker 2: Paul wanted, but it was good. And those troublemakers in
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  Speaker 2: the church, Paul says in Philippians one point fifteen, that
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  Speaker 2: they preached out of envy and strife, Well, that's no problem,
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  Speaker 2: because if Paul envisioned a sovereign God, and whether their
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  Speaker 2: motives are false or genuine, the message about Christ is
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  Speaker 2: being preached either way.
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  Speaker 1: So I rejoice and I'll continue to rejoice.
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  Speaker 2: He was not worried about false preachers, because high above
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  Speaker 2: it all is a God who works in you both
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  Speaker 2: to will and to do for his good pleasure. So
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  Speaker 2: take a good look inside the tint of the soul
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  Speaker 2: of the Apostle Paul, and you'll see two polls, one
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  Speaker 2: of which says the sovereignty of God in the treatment
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  Speaker 2: of anxiety. Sovereignty is essential. Here's why anxiety is at
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  Speaker 2: its core a perceived loss of control. Anxiety is the
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  Speaker 2: perceived loss of control. Oh, that's what anxiety is. Control
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  Speaker 2: creates a sense of calm. The lack of control creates
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  Speaker 2: a sense of fear. If we're certain about the outcome,
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  Speaker 2: then we feel better. If we're uncertain about the outcome,
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  Speaker 2: then we feel restless, we feel troubled. You don't need
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  Speaker 2: me to convince you of that, But there are many
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  Speaker 2: research studies that unveil this truth. One of the most
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  Speaker 2: interesting is an ancient one comparatively came out of World
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  Speaker 2: War Two, in which psychologists looked at the emotional impact,
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  Speaker 2: or the impact that combat would have upon the emotions
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  Speaker 2: of soldiers.
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  Speaker 1: It won't surprise.
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  Speaker 2: You at all to hear that living in a state
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: of attack in combat on the battle field.
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  Speaker 1: Just does a guy.
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: In sixty days is what the psychologists determined. After sixty
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  Speaker 2: days of combat, soldiers tend to be emotionally exhausted. They've
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: lost their capacity to cope, and they need to be restored.
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  Speaker 2: Find some type of encouragement, Find some type of treatment
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  Speaker 2: that's understandable. They were victims of carpet bombs, they were
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  Speaker 2: victims of tear gas, they were victims of mustard gas fits,
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  Speaker 2: victims of snipers and attacks. They didn't even know what
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  Speaker 2: was coming next. They didn't know whether to run, or
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: whether to hide, or where to hide. That level of
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  Speaker 2: anxiety doesn't surprise anybody. What surprised the psychologists, however, was
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: the comparative level of calm found among fighter pilots. Fighter
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  Speaker 2: pilots were the most calm soldiers of any of those
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: in the military forces. Unlike the soldiers on the ground,
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  Speaker 2: the fighter pilots registered a high level of calm, and
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  Speaker 2: ninety three percent of them registered a high level of
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  Speaker 2: job satisfaction. Even though one out of every two fighter
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  Speaker 2: pilots was killed in combat during World War Two, ninety
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  Speaker 2: three percent of them said they would re enlist immediately.
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  Speaker 2: What was the difference, Well, the fighter pilots had a
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  Speaker 2: sense of control. They could keep their hands on the controls.
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: Where the soldiers on the ground felt like they were vulnerable,
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: they were exposed, they didn't know what was going to
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  Speaker 2: happen next, the pilots felt like they at least could control.
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  Speaker 2: They had a perceived sense of control over their own destiny,
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: and that created a sense of calm.
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  Speaker 1: That's interesting, isn't it. Now.
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  Speaker 2: You don't have to go to war to discover that
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  Speaker 2: a traffic jam will do just fine. German psychology just
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: recently shared with us that one hour spent in intense
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: traffic increases the odds.
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  Speaker 1: Of a heart attack by threefold.
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: One hour spent in intense traffic increases the odds of
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: a heart attack by threefold. This traffic's going to kill us,
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: and we understand why, right. I mean, you can be
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  Speaker 2: the best driver since Mario Andretti. You can be alert,
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  Speaker 2: you can have your hands on the wheel and your
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: eyes on the road, But you can't control that jerk
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: in the lane who keeps checking his text messages while
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: he's driving.
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  Speaker 1: You can't control.
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  Speaker 2: What that lady's doing, who's coming in your direction, and
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  Speaker 2: there is a sense of loss of control. Anxiety is
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  Speaker 2: the perceived loss of control. So sense anxiety is the
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: perceived loss of control. How do we respond to ancient
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: moments or how do we respond to anxiety? Well, one
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  Speaker 2: way is to take control. To take control, to stalkpile
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: cans in case of can goods in case of nuclear fallout.
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  Speaker 2: To wrap our children in bubble wraps so they won't
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: fall off of a bicycle and get hurt. To never
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: give our heart to anyone for fear of having our
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: heart broken. To never step on a crack so we
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: won't break our mother's you've heard that, I guess. We
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  Speaker 2: try our best to take control. Ironically, we discover we
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: can't take control because control is not ours to be taken.
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  Speaker 1: No matter how.
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: Many nuts and veggies you eat, you can still be
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: diagnosed with cancer. No matter how much money you save,
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: you could still lose it all in a face financial collapse.
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: And no matter if you take a parachute on the
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: airplane with you, the plane could still go down. You
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: cannot control every event. For this reason, the most anxious
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: people on earth are control freaks. Ironic isn't it that
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: the people who are trying to stave all anxiety by
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: controlling everything end up becoming more anxious because they realize
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: they cannot do the very thing that they want to do.
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: The only certainty in life is the lack of certainty,
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: and a control freak is a certainty addict addicted to certainty,
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: attempting to create a system that is fail proof and
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: safeguarded and anticipates every possible collapse, but then collapses always happened,
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  Speaker 2: leading that person on a downward spiral of anxiety failure,
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: anxietnxiety failure, anxiety failure. The apostle Paul has a better idea.
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: Rather than try to control everything, he suggests that we
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  Speaker 2: do this, that we surrender control to God, that we
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: turn everything over to God and trust the sovereignty of
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  Speaker 2: God to control everything. We simply trust God to take control,
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  Speaker 2: and our focus shifts from managing and hyper controlling our
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: world to pondering the strength and the.
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: Majesty of God and what he has done.
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: Peace is within reach, not for absence of problems, but
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: for the presence of a sovereign God. Passages abound in
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: scripture reminding us of God's sovereignty. Here's one from the
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: Book of Proverbs. There is no wisdom, no insight, no
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: plan that can say, exceed against the Lord. Here's one
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  Speaker 2: from the Book of Daniel. He does as he pleases
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  Speaker 2: with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth.
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: No one can hold back his hand or say to him,
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: what have you done? Hebrews one three says he sustains
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  Speaker 2: all things, all things. He knows the name of the stars,
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  Speaker 2: and he knows the sparrows great and small.
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  Speaker 1: He knows every detail.
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  Speaker 2: The Book of Lamentations, Jeremiah asks, can anything happen without
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: the Lord's permission? Is it not the most High who
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: helps one and harms the other? So the Bible reveals
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  Speaker 2: a sovereign God, a God of wonders, a God with
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: a robust plan that will not be derailed. So God
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: is on the throne. He's in charge of everything. That's
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: what Paul has been saying so far in the Book
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: of Philippians. He who has begun a good work, and
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: you will complete it. There is no doubt this imprisonment
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: will turn out from my deliverance, no doubt.
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: To live is Christ. To die is even better? To
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: die is game?
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: Or God is working in you to help you want
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: to do and be able to do what pleases him.
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: See to read the words of Paulus, to read the
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: words of a man who, in the innermost part of
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: his being, believed in God's great sovereignty. He was protected
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: by God's strength, he was preserved by God's love.
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: He lived beneath the shadow of God's wing. How about you?
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: How firm are your polls? What's holding up your tent?
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: Do you believe in the sovereignty of God?
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: If your answer is I'm not sure, or your answer
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: is no, with all due respect, I think we've just
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: stumbled upon the cause of your anxiety. Think of it
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: this way. Imagine three passengers on a commercial flight. They
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: share a row on the airplane. There's passenger A, there's
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: passenger B, and there's passenger C. They have a conversation
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: as a plane is taking off about the pilot of
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: the plane. Passenger A acknowledges something that passenger B and
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: C think is very odd. Passenger A says, you know,
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: I don't think that there's a pilot in the cockpit.
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: I mean, why should I. I got on the plane,
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: the door was closed. I've never seen him. I don't
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: think there's a pilot in the cockpit. I think we're
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: on a big drone this thing is being flown by
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: somewhere in some headquarters underground. Well, passenger B says, well,
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: that's kind of a whack o. I think there's a pilot,
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: but I just don't think he's awake. I know what
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: these pilots do, how they get the plane up in
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: the air and they set it on autopilot, and they
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: sit back with a good book or bring a pillow,
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: and they take a nap. He has no idea. They
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: wake him up right before we land. Well, passenger SEE
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: cannot believe what she is hearing. She looks at Passenger A,
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: and she looks at passenger BEING, and she says, let
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: me tell you something. We are in a plane that
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: is piloted by a good pilot. He's alert, he's experienced,
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: and he cares. I know because I had breakfast with
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: him this morning. He is my husband. And so you
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: have three different views of the airplane's pilot. One person
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: says there is no pilot. The other person says, there
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: isn't a pilot, but he's disengaged. The other said, he
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: is a careful, skillful pilot, and I know him well.
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: Fast forward ten or fifteen minutes. Turbulence strikes and the
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: plane starts bouncing around in the air like popcorn inside
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: a paper sack.
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: What is going to be the reaction of the.
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: Three passengers to the sudden arrival of turbulence.
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: What's going to be the reactor? Are they going to
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: react the same way?
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: Passenger A and Passenger B are prone to get sucked
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: into the sinkhole of anxiety, right, I mean, they don't
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: have anyone to talk to. They think the thing is
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: out of control. They wonder if anybody's awakened. The pilot
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: Passenger C she doesn't really enjoy the turbulence, but if
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: anyone's peaceful, she is why because she has a relationship,
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: She has experience with the pilot, and she trusts him.
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: Who flies your plane? Who flies your plane? I know
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: it sounds like an oversimplification, but there really are three
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: views of God in the world. There is no God.
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: There is a God who started everything and then backed away.
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: And then there is the God discovered by the apostle
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: Paul and millions upon millions of us. A God who cares,
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: who's in control, who knows his passengers, and who is
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: determined to get them home safely. Who flies your plane?
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: The Bible never promises a lack of turbulence, just the opposite.
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: We will have trouble, But the Bible always promises the
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: presence of a loving and caring God to get us
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: home safely. That's where the cure for a gold anxiety
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: begins in your understanding, in your belief system about who
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: God is. The most important thing about you and about
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: me is the way we answer the question who is God?
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: Who is God?
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: And the way you answer that question would give an
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: onlooker the ability to forecast your level of anxiety. The
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: more you understand the sovereignty of God, the greater the
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: odds that you'll have a peaceful life. The less you
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: understand the sovereignty of God, the more greater the odds
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: you'll be an anxious person. Many years ago, when we
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: as a church were studying the sovereignty of God, I
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: wrote a prayer, and I've used this prayer many times
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: in my own devotions. Never did need to share it
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: with the church, and I dug it out of the
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: files and I thought i'd share it with us today.
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: It's printed on your Sunday hand out. I'm hoping maybe
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: you'll take it home and use it as a way
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: to activate in your own devotions and deeper understanding of
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: the sovereignty the perfect will of God. The prayer goes
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: like this, Dear Lord, you are perfect. You could not
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: be better than you are. You are self created. You
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: exist because you chose to exist. You are self sustaining.
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: No one helps you, No one gives you strength. You
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: are self governing. Who can question your deeds? Who dares
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: advise you? You are correct in every way, in every choice.
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: You regret no decision. You have never failed, never you
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: cannot fail. You are God. You will accomplish your plan.
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: You are happy, eternally joyful, endlessly content. You are the King,
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: supreme Ruler, absolute, monarch, over lord and Rajah of all history,
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: and arch of your eyebrow, and a million angels will
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: pivot and salute. Every throne is a footstool to yours.
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: Every crown is paper machet to yours. No limitations, hesitations, questions,
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: second thoughts or backward glances. You consult no clock, you
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: keep no calendar. You report to no one. You are
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: in charge, and I trust you. Anxiety passes as trust increases.
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: So rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice in the Lord's sovereignty,
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: and see if you soon aren't discovering what the apostle
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: was telling us when he said be anxious for nothing.
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: Amen.
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: Thank you, Lord for your grade and mighty hand. Thank
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: you that you oversee all the affairs of the world.
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: Thank you that there is nothing happening anywhere on the
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: planet right now that has you troubled, surprised, or upset.
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: There has never been a moment that someone has asked
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: you a question and you said, I don't know what
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: to do. And there's never been a situation in which
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: you've been presented a problem and you thought, I don't
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: know how to respond.
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: You always know what to do, and you always do
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: what is right. Your plan is.
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: Perfect, and you are worthy of praise because you are
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: a perfect God. We're in your hands, Father, and that
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: makes us very happy. That makes us very happy. I
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: would like to resign from the role of trying to
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: run the world. We voluntarily resign from being king of
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: the universe. We're not going to try to control everything anymore.
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: We're going to leave that job to you. You take
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: the throne. Will be your follower and your worshiper. May
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: we know your place and may we know ours. This
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: is our prayer through Jesus Christ, and all who agreed.
• 32:03
  Speaker 3: With it said, amen, m.
• 35:08
  Speaker 4: Keep at it, keeping keep acting people. Don't you know.
• 38:14
  Speaker 5: You don't have to stay close. As long as you're
• 38:21
  Speaker 5: somewhere out there. That's enough for me.
• 38:30
  Speaker 6: I don't need to hold you near me, don't need
• 38:34
  Speaker 6: promises to keep.
• 38:37
  Speaker 4: Just the thought that.
• 38:38
  Speaker 5: You are breathing somewhere in this world less see.
• 38:44
  Speaker 6: Even if I'm not beside you, even if you never know,
• 38:50
  Speaker 6: there's a quiet kind of comfort just.
• 38:53
  Speaker 4: In knowing you still glow.
• 38:58
  Speaker 5: I don't need forever, I just.
• 39:04
  Speaker 6: Need you to exist.
• 39:09
  Speaker 7: You don't have to stay with me.
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: You don't have to be the same, just as long as.
• 39:16
  Speaker 6: You're still out there, calling softly through my days.
• 39:22
  Speaker 5: You don't have to look my way.
• 39:25
  Speaker 4: You don't have.
• 39:26
  Speaker 5: To be my home.
• 39:29
  Speaker 6: It's enough to know where you're living in the world.
• 39:34
  Speaker 4: I'm not alone.
• 39:39
  Speaker 6: I won't chase it through the distance, won't disturb your
• 39:43
  Speaker 6: chosen life. I'll just keep you in my silence, like
• 39:48
  Speaker 6: a star that shines at night through the darkened, through
• 39:54
  Speaker 6: the blue, I still think of you.
• 40:04
  Speaker 7: You don't have to stay with me, you don't have
• 40:08
  Speaker 7: to feel the same, just as long as you're still
• 40:13
  Speaker 7: out there, calling softly through my days. You don't have
• 40:18
  Speaker 7: to look my way.
• 40:21
  Speaker 8: You don't have to be in my home. It's enough
• 40:26
  Speaker 8: to know you're living in a world. I'm not alone.
• 40:46
  Speaker 5: I don't need to be your late.
• 40:50
  Speaker 6: I don't need to cross your mind. All I need
• 40:53
  Speaker 6: is just the truth that you're somewhere, still alive.
• 41:02
  Speaker 4: You don't have to stay with me, you don't.
• 41:06
  Speaker 7: Have to feel the same, just as long as you're
• 41:10
  Speaker 7: still after, calling softly.
• 41:13
  Speaker 4: Through my days.
• 41:15
  Speaker 7: You don't have to look my way, you don't have
• 41:20
  Speaker 7: to be my home.
• 41:22
  Speaker 4: It's enough to know you're living.
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: In a world. Are not alone.