Anxiety and stress seem to be everywhere we look in today's world. How do we manage our anxiety in a biblical way?
The Remnant Church
Distractions - Todd Blanton
God, thank you so much for this day. Thank you for the chance to get together. Lord, thank you for, man, amazing team of media and worship and lights and all that cool stuff that just help us to get into a position and focus on worshiping you. Father, I pray for everyone in this room. God, we say this a lot here, but it's true. This is a divine appointment. People, you know, you set our course and there's a reason they're here today. I don't know what that is. It may be the only time they ever come here, but I know you have a purpose and I pray that that purpose would be made so evident in their lives that they wouldn't even have to wonder or guess. And God, I pray that you would help me to preach your word, to preach it well, and I wouldn't get in the way. Protect us from anything that is in a view. Lord, now I'll just give you all the glory and praise. And Jesus Christ, let me pray, amen. How you guys doing today? (congregation cheering) That's pretty good. Well, hey, welcome to the Renaissance Todd. I'm a pastor here. If you've been visiting the past month, you probably don't know that because I haven't been here. But I am here sometimes. So I'm very excited to be back. Got a little teary-eyed or allergies worked up back there 'cause I just miss worshiping with you guys. So it was really, really awesome. It has genuinely been a long time since I've preached. And the last time that I preached, I believe, was sort of our soft ending to our "For the Kingdom" series, which is really about the sermon on the Mount. And I say soft because I know I'm gonna come back to it someday. So you can't say, "Why are you doing this again?" 'Cause it didn't really end. It only paused. But that's that. And can you guys, even if you weren't here, give a hand to all the people that preached while I was gone. It's such a great job. (congregation clapping) So I'm very, very excited. That being said, I'm going to do the thing where you put your heads down. And I know some of you aren't gonna listen 'cause your rebels will pretend I don't see you. What you had done, I'm gonna ask you to raise your hand for something 'cause you'll be more honest. Raise your hand if in this room you have been, you struggle with anxiety in general. Okay, put their hands down. Those you didn't. Raise your hand if you have had the thought. I have been anxious this week, even if you see, 'cause that might be some of you that don't struggle with anxiety. Okay, put your hands down. Raise your hand if you're seeing, honestly, I struggled with anxiety this morning. Yeah, put your hands down. Thank you. All right, you can put your heads up. That fits kind of actually a little more than the percentage of them about to give you. That was almost, I would probably say it was 85, 90, probably 85% of the room raised their hands. Anxiety, right? What is anxiety? Well, before we get onto that, the reason I asked that question, and I have these statistics to back me up in case you guys didn't raise your hand to prove that I'm not completely wrong. Anxiety is a word that we all are very familiar with. We hear about all the time, we talk about all the time, we're very familiar with. When someone says I'm anxious today, we don't have to ask for a definition. We know what it means. In this country, particularly in society nowadays, anxiety is even, I don't know. I guess I didn't live during every era, but even when I was a kid, I don't remember the word anxiety. I didn't know what that necessarily was, but every kid, I would imagine even, I'd be curious, even elementary kids know the word. They've heard this word. So, some statistics for you. You got this for me, guys? You ready? That was no smooth way to do it. Over 40% of, I'm sorry, over 40 million adults, which is 19.1%. This was, by the way, this is up to date in October of 2023. Over 40 million adults, 19.1% of the population have an anxiety disorder. What does that mean? Well, psychologists, I'm not a psychologist, so if you are, bear with me. But essentially what that means is their life has been, anytime you say disorder, their life is disrupted on a daily, probably daily basis by anxiety. Makes sense, it affects their ability to live their life in a way they want to. Makes sense? Yeah, I know I haven't been here in a while. You know, I'm gonna be like, "Make sense, give me something," right? 'Cause you got, you'll yell out random times. See, it's already happening. You'll yell out random times. But when I ask, we don't get anything, okay, yeah. According to the US Census Bureau Household Pulse Survey, nearly one third of adults, okay? Now we're up to 32.3% reported anxiety and depression symptoms in 2023. What's that mean? They don't have a disorder, but they've been anxious. Kind of like you guys did, you would be in that percentage. I bet it's higher based on the percentage in this room. So that means that they feel anxious enough that it comes to their mind and they would raise their proverbial hand. That's a third, right? Generalized anxiety disorder, GAD. What is that? Again, not a psychologist, but the gist of it is, some of you in this room might be you. If you feel like you're anxious now and when someone asks what you're anxious about, you can't even say why. You're to the point that you're always in fight or flight. They say you have generalized anxiety disorder. They've given it a name. Is the most common anxiety disorder in the US. That means people that can't even put a cost to their anxiety. That is the number one anxiety disorder in the US. 6.8 million people. Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the world. Remember, disorder, if you're anxious, it doesn't mean you have a mental disorder here, right? What it's saying is mental disorder, again, it's affecting your ability to even function. Roughly 301 million people, which is 4% of the global population have an anxiety disorder. That's a lot. What they call a disorder. The reason I brought that up really was to back me on the vacationers, your hands, but it's a common thing. It's a common thing. In this room, I know a lot of you. I don't know all of you. And you struggle with anxiety. Now guys, you ready? I'm gonna help you out 'cause you're like, you're not anxious. Okay, are you grumpy? Are you a grumpy? Because you're anxious. How do I know? Hi, Todd, when I'm anxious, sometimes without even knowing, right? I have one of those faces in general, punchable, but also grumpy looking. I got a lot of out of that one. Everyone's like, yeah, that is punchable. Yeah, I know. I can be that way. And guys, for some of us in the room, some of us guys, we don't necessarily know we're anxious, like for me. This has become a pattern in my life and it's embarrassing to tell you I recognize a pattern and can't stop it. Three to six months pass, everyone's like, are you stressed? 'Cause you should be stressed. I'm like, what are you talking about? And then everything falls apart on month three, four, five or six, and I'm like sitting in a heap and I'm like, I wonder how this happened. Right? Things pile up. Because I'm the guy and some of you are the same way who just says, I'll just keep pushing through. I can fight through it. It can't stop me, right? Respect, I get it. But it doesn't work long term. That's a good segue. Why is this coming up? This week, I finally went and got a haircut. Don't study it, okay? We had a mess up two times ago, we're trying to fix our way back. But I got a haircut this week. I think it was earlier this week. And it was such a crazy thing. I walk in and I sit down. And the moment I sit down, I had checked in early. And it was one of those ones where I'm like, oh cool, it says 10 minutes and I get there and it's 40. You know what I mean by the time I drive there, but I wait a little bit. My 15 minute checking comes in. I get up, I walk in. And as I'm in there, I'm sitting and I see a lady. I can't even, 'cause normally you gotta go up and check in at the computer. There's a lady sitting there with a kid. She's probably in her, I don't wanna guess to offend a lady, but an adult lady and she's got a kid. And he's probably 10 to 12. And as I come in, I sit down and she's kind of got her. I knew there's something up, 'cause there's two ladies up front and she's kind of messing with his hair. And the gist of the story is she's saying, I come in at this exact moment, it's like coming in the middle of an episode, right? I missed the lead in, but it doesn't take long to get caught up. She essentially says, the lady that works there, one of the style says, well, I did thin his hair, she goes, you did not thin his hair, he doesn't lie. And she starts grabbing his hair and the lady's like, oh, it doesn't say anything. And then she goes, and also, you've been incredibly rude the last time I was here and you didn't talk to me at all. You didn't talk at all. So by the way, that didn't come up. All of a sudden it turned to, you didn't thin his hair. Also, you're a very rude person and I don't like you. And then she said, I don't want to talk to you anymore. This is loud. I don't want to talk to you anymore. You ever have that moment where you feel like, I feel like I need to get in the corner, right? Like I'm feeling kind of like I want to shrink, that's what it was. And I look at this lady and the lady wasn't arguing back, the stylist, I'll say, the stylist wasn't arguing back, but this lady just kept coming. Eventually, the other lady who she would speak to comes up, the other stylist and says, okay, we'll get you in here as soon as we can. There's like six people in front of her. I'm going, are you going to cut in front of me, lady? Just my own selfishness. Ironically, the stylist ended up taking me was the stylist who she was yelling at. So I get taken back. Now here's the weird part about this stylist. Like the whole story is very bizarre. She's also the one I wasn't joking that two times ago messed my hair up. She admitted that. She went up too high on the fade. So it was kind of just an interesting story. So I sit down and she's very usually, usually very bubbly, very talkative. She's just quiet. So I'm sitting there and I essentially just kind of say, this is not all in order, but she was pretty deflated, pretty crushed, right, hurt. But you can't show that in public. And I was like, hey, you handled that pretty well. 'Cause what else are you going to say? And then she, and this is just so interesting. She goes, hey, she cuts my hair. I don't bring anything up. And at the end she goes, hey, because I messed your hair up, it's going to take another time probably for it to grow up long enough to be able to, out long enough to fix it. Why am I telling you that? Because she was fully aware that she made a mistake on my hair, right? She owned that, I didn't complain. She just brought it up. So my point is I get the feeling, and from what I've gotten to know with this lady the few times she come here, she wasn't arguing, she wasn't fighting this lady, but this lady came in expecting a fight. And she went on the attack, even though no one was attacking her. Why is that? And that, let's be honest, that's some of you in the room. See, anxiety is not always hiding in fear and quiet. Why did the lady, as I set the set, and it's kind of bothering me all week, I got in the car, and I was like, why did the lady react this way? Because the truth is, I'm not saying she didn't have a right to be upset, maybe I could have said it the same way differently, hey, his hair, because the lady said, I did thin it, then guess what you say, there you go, yeah, I just need it thinned a little more. They have a policy, they fix your hair, right? It happened in 24 hours, that's it. But this lady was ready for a fight. Why? Because anxiety, she was anxious. It was very obvious, I remember seeing her looking at her and she's like all tough and in charge, but I could see her foot stomping up and down and her hands moving and shaking, and I'm going, you're just anxious. And you've decided to hand your anxiety by taking control of the situation, just in case it goes away, you don't want it to go. Anxiety, right, stress puts us in a state of what? Fight or flight. And this lady went full fight. And then I thought about myself, I do the same thing. Sometimes like I will pick between two pass, I'll be like, I will fight, or I will cut you out. That's the alternative, and neither one is good. So I started thinking about myself, and again, guys in the room, I'm going to call you out so I don't feel alone. I don't want to admit to you I'm anxious. I don't feel like, hey, you know what I'm anxious, but that's what it is in those moments. And I've even used the excuse some of you use when something goes wrong. You're getting a fight with your spouse, you're mean to your kid. And again, there's a difference between excuses and reasons. Excuses say you can't be upset because of this. Reasons are here's what started it. Make sense? So if I say to you, hey, sorry, I snapped and yelled at you. I've just been really anxious. There's a shield there. You can't be upset at me. It wasn't really me. It was my anxiety. Anxiety's a word that's very clear. It's clearly very prevalent and popular in our culture and society day. And by popular, I mean, it's popular and relatable in a culture as a whole. And here's a little clue. It's not the whole point, but it's also become a very acceptable cultural shield to be self-protective, to be aggressive, to hide, to not do what you're supposed to do. And I'm not talking about just morally at work, in church. And it's come to this thing now that if you were to even question it, you're being hateful, right? Because the thing is if I question somebody that's anxious, well, you're making me what? More anxious. And for those in the room, I'm not seeing anxiety is not real. Clearly, I just admitted to you. I feel it. But what I am saying to you is where's the line of when anxiety is an acceptable excuse to behave in a certain way? Is it okay as long as I don't punch you physically? Is it okay as long as I don't cuss at you? Is it okay as long as I don't call you names? Is it okay for me to drop all of my responsibilities? Is it okay to sin? Is it okay to hate? Is it, where's the line? The dictionary definition, and it's something, guys, listen, that's before I give you the dictionary definition, we should, like, let's be honest. If you're not a Christian in the room, welcome, okay? And we'll talk to you, like the whole thing you're welcome to listen to me, not get this part, but the Christian's in the room, here's the bottom line. You do the same thing, and we don't get the excuse to say, well, I'm just anxious. Anxiety is not something you can control. You're gonna feel it. You're gonna feel it. Stress, it causes that in us. But just like everything else, right, that God that Jesus tells us is, you're going to naturally feel this way, but you're going to have to choose to not live out of what's natural to follow me to a better way. The dictionary definition is a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease, that's all right, Sid? Nervousness, worry, unease. Typically, about an imminent event, or something with an uncertain outcome. That's a fancy way to say, typically about something that's coming that we don't know what's gonna happen. But I'm gonna change it. It's not about whether we, we're not nervous 'cause we don't know what's gonna happen. We're nervous that what's gonna happen is not gonna be what we want to happen. Because we all experience it, because it's a human thing, and particularly in American culture, where we have deified humanity. It's a fancy word to say, we have made the person God. We have made ourselves God, and what we feel is God, and what we think it makes the most sense. And you will not know why we have so much division, because here's the crazy thing. When you have a bunch of little gods running around, saying that what they think and feel is reality, guess what happens? They're gonna be collisions 'cause which God wins. Which in turn creates what? Anxiety. But because we all experience it, and because it's become so, I don't know, acceptable to say whatever you feel, is the most important thing. No longer do we say what you do is the most important thing. We say what you feel. But here's the crazy thing. Can you actually control what you feel? No, you can't control what you feel. You can't, trust me, I've tried. You can't control what you feel, but you can control what you do, so you're ready for something deep. How interesting that the culture wants to say, make what you feel the most important thing, because at the end of the day, rely on the thing you have no control over. And then it becomes a loop. While I put all my faith in the thing, I don't have any control over it. Which in turn creates anxiety. Remember, imminent event coming, I don't know what's gonna happen, right, Jacob? You get it. For new people, if I say your name, I like you, I'm not like one of the old school pastors, is like pay attention, right? I'm not good at that. I mean, I have said that, but I'll just say that to all of you. (laughs) Just defend everyone at once. Because, and it's understandable, because I can feel for Jacob when he's anxious, because I know what anxiety is. And so sometimes, it's not wrong to give grace, it's not what I'm seeing here. But it's become this weird shield for someone's actions, because we're all aware that when anxiety is at its strongest, listen, it can make us behave in ways we typically don't behave, and act in ways that aren't the real me. So, I come and I punch Jacob, and then later you all come to me, and I have two options. I can own and say what I did was wrong, and I can say, I was just really anxious, I know I should have done it, but I was really anxious. What have I really said there? It wasn't really me that punched him, it was my anxiety. Now, here's the thing, it is a powerful force, it is real, it does affect our biochemistry, it does make us feel shaky, right? All of those things, you can't control that. But here's the question, guys, and as I've been gone for a while, I come back with this even more, because I've decided, and I've been seeing this for a long time, but I guess I gotta say it again, is this real or not? 'Cause I put a lot of eggs in this basket, and if it's not real, I don't really wanna do that. And if it is real, I'm tired of living like it's not, or picking and choosing the ways in which I think it's real or it's not. So the question is, right, that as the world says, well, anxiety, it's a good excuse because it makes us behave in ways that we don't really, not the real us, well, as a Christian, should that be true for us? Should it be true that anxiety is such a powerful force that it controls our actions to such a degree that it becomes our Get Out of Jail free card? You mean to call out the remnant? 'Cause I know the remnant always thinks I'm calling out you guests, right? How many times can't you serve because you're just too anxious that day? So then you force someone, your anxiety, your absence then allows somebody else to be anxious because they carry extra weight. You get it? Again, I have sympathy for anxiety and so does God. But I'm just asking questions and I'm asking myself, it's become this thing, anxiety, has become this thing that because so many of us feel it and because we're told that it's normal, even the actions out of it, that we've accepted its hold on us, we've accepted this feeling, we've accepted that this emotion, this force, 'cause that's what it is, right? What is force? It's something that moves something else, right? We've now given a feeling, a force because we allow it to move us, we've accepted its hold on us to such a degree that it's standard practice to include it in any explanation, even in the church, as an excuse. Sorry, Lord, I didn't feed those people, I was too anxious today. Sorry, Lord, I didn't tell them about Jesus when they're on their deathbed, I was too nervous about what they would say. I'm sorry, Lord, because what? Anxiety, even though it's real. This is the trick, it makes the focus what? Does it make it other people? Does it make it God even? No, it makes it me. Sorry, I was just too anxious, I can't handle this. I'm too anxious to deal with this conflict, I'm too anxious to make this right, I'm too anxious to do what God told me to do. And this isn't meant to shame anyone, but let's just face the reality, Christians. Where in scripture does it give that, that out? So the truth is, I'm not shaming because, okay, hey, Jill, don't feel something everyone in the world feels, that's not what I'm saying. What I am saying, if I'm a Christian, this is me, and I've already told you that I openly, I've had my own issues with it, and mine's kind of weird, like I will tell myself I'm not grumpy, if I don't start the grumpiness, okay? What do I mean by that? Like, it's okay to be a porcupine, because I didn't ask you to touch me. You know what I mean? That's what I'll tell myself, but that's not the reality. The reality is, I'm choosing to be that. I become this guy that I'm not, I become even at my best when I am racked in anxiety, at my best, I'm distracted, I'm uncaring, and I'm unfocused, but that's just a lie. I'm really in focus on somebody. I'm just focused on me. What I don't have, what I might not have, what's gonna happen tomorrow, and for me, I'm kind of weird. I'm what's gonna happen today? What's gonna happen two hours from now? So after my experience in the hair salon, I was gonna say barber, but it wasn't a barber. I found myself really thinking about anxiety, and then, of course, connected it to my own life in the moments when I crash. Whenever I crash in my anxiety, I spill onto a lot of other people. Do you? So what does God really say about it? I've been asking, what do we do with that? Does the gospel, and this is real? Listen, I know, you're gonna get your 15-minute fast food in the sermons here soon, right? I can't wait for that series. I'm telling you right now, I'm gonna have a timer, 15 and now, right? Does the gospel have any real power over anxiety? Or is it just something, like, I don't have to explain, or is it just the great master grade? You're just pretending. We all come together and go, "I'm not anxious, I trust in the Lord." (congregation laughing) But you don't, do you? And neither do I, because we say fluffy things, like, "Hey, you really worried about this health scare?" Hey man, rain falls in the just and the unjust alike. What does that mean in this context? Hey, I'm having marriage issues. Hey, Lord loves you. Yeah? (congregation laughing) What's the connection? And that is a part of it, but like, we avoid these things that are prickly because they don't give us an immediate answer. 'Cause here's the truth, we want a magic pill. I do, give me the pill that makes me not anxious. Give me the drink, give me the way to not feel this. Well, you can do that in society to a degree, but it's gonna come with costs. Does the gospel have any real power over anxiety? Or is it something we just ignore because deep down, we honestly don't believe God's presence in our life. Really, can or does do anything with this feeling of anxiety beyond pretend it's okay. I don't accept that. I read in the Gospels, Jesus Christ made a blind man see made a lame man walk and was raised from the dead, but at the end of the day, he can't handle your busyness or my busyness. P.S., I like to say this, if you're angry at me already, that's a hint because I'm not talking to you and don't even know most of you. So that's a clue that there's an enemy and it's real. We don't, we'll talk about that later. You need to accept that distractions are all part of it. Even distractions are like this guy's anger in me because he's telling me the truth, right? How did he know I'm anxious? He read my diary. No, I didn't. Why did I say diary? I got pretty warm of flowers. Anyway, interesting. So that led me to a scripture and that led me to wanna study anxiety again and I've talked about it a lot. And interestingly, something that's gonna surprise you, guess how many times Blake throw it out. Blake, Mr. Fancy Dresser, with your khaki pants. Hey, you look good. Hey, how many times do you think the Bible mentions anxiety? 124, it's a good guess. Eli, you gotta give a number Eli. You know I'm not gonna quit. There you go, see? This is good for him. He was anxious, we fought through it. That's a guy. Listen, here's the thing, David, you're never anxious. What number, how many times? He said one, huh? He said, Blake said what, 124? It was a strange, specific number. 200, what do you got? Nice, smart. You're all wrong. You ready for this? This is shocking, I'm serious. Seven to eight times at most. In the entire Bible, ooh, I got you. It only mentions anxiety seven to eight times. And in the New King James version, which some of you all, New King Jamesers, which is fine, you're gonna be immediately like, I knew it. It doesn't mention anxiety once. That doesn't mean it's not real. What that means is, let me tell you what the Bible tends to use instead, right? The Bible, New Testament, the Bible right now, most translations only use the word anxiety seven to eight times in the whole Bible. But how many times have you talked about it this week? Instead it uses words like weariness, heaviness, cares, concerns, right? I love it because God's focused on the cause, not the result. What is anxiety? Well, anxiety's what happens when I'm walking around with too many concerns. God's not concerned with the outcome, right? Like, he's concerned with the outcome, that's not true. But what I'm saying is he's not concerned with the state that it puts you in. He's always concerned about what? Lifting a finger to get it off your back. Seven to eight times, that was just shocking to me. (clears throat) So as I went in and studied some of these seven to eight times, we've got some Greek today. I know you'll have Greek, Jill, right? I normally don't do that 'cause, yeah, I won't get into that, trying to stay focused. It led me back to the Sermon on the Mount, how ironic is that? And I wasn't meaning to you, which means kind of in a weird way, here's our soft moving forward from the kingdom series. That mean the Sermon on the Mount. Right after, and this is a little bonus too, Crystal, you'll like this. Right after talking about money, where he says you can't serve both God and money, can't serve two masters. Right after, he talks about what? One of the seven times he talks about anxiety, that's interesting 'cause remember, Jesus didn't go end of chapter one, right? He's just talking. So in the same sentence, the same conversation, look at my shoes, the same conversation, right? The same sermon, he shifts into this thing about anxiety. That's interesting, we'll come back to you. But we get perhaps the most famous section on anxiety and worrying the entire Bible. As Jesus talks to us from the Sermon on the Mount, in the Gospel of Matthew chapter six, starting in verse 25. Tell me if you heard this before, you ready? Zeke, are you? Yeah, I didn't think so. Here we go. Therefore, I tell you, I'm reading from the CSB. Therefore, I tell you, don't worry about your life, what you would eat, or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Isn't life more than food and the body more than clothing? Now, stop, 'cause some of the dudes, I'm gonna assume it's the dudes again, 'cause this is what we do, you're like, I ain't got no worries about what I wear. My bills are paid for, right? That's how you talk, right? Because you got a good job and you're a hard worker, but here's the thing, he's not just talking about that. God, Jesus speaks often in parables and analogies to get to the heart of something. It's all the things that you need, and before you say you don't need that, really? Well, why are you worried about how fast you're gonna play that mortgage off? How are you worried about how, you know, whether you got enough savings to retire? And I'm not talking about being responsible, I'm talking about worry. Why, so Jesus tells us here, right off the bat, and that's like, immediately, let me tell you what you do, Jill, you're the only somewhat friendly face I can see right now, shame the rest of you, right? She's even over here going, I'm even that friendly. I know, Jill, what does that tell you? Right off the bat, he says something that if you're honest, you immediately go, sure, Jesus, okay. Don't worry, all right, I'll do that. No, he means it. Jesus says, and it should shock you, the crowd would be too, you're like, huh, don't worry about life, or what you'll eat, or what you'll drink, or what about your body, or what you'll wear isn't life more than food, and the body more than clothing. He jumps right after that in verse 26, he says, he makes this analogy, consider the birds of the sky, look at them, they don't sew, which means work really, right? Or reap, or gather into their barns, yet your heavenly father feeds them. Aren't they worth more than you? He's saying the birds don't walk around worrying about it, they're gonna find a worm today. And yet, you worry about whether you're gonna have your needs taken care of, are you worth more than a bird? Well, we know that, right? He says right after 27, he says, can any of you, this right here can punch you in the face, 'cause this is such truth. Jacob, you'll like this, philosopher. Can any of you add one moment to his lifespan by worrying? And why do you worry about clothes? Observe how the wildflowers of the field grow, they don't labor or spin thread, yet I tell you that not even Solomon, and all his splendor was adorned like one of these. Jesus makes the connection here that if God can take care of birds and flowers, they still exist, our birds still around, that means birds got fed. Not every bird died immediately, not every bird was struck by lightning, birds exist, flowers exist, and he says what? You are worth so much more than that. And then he says, because right in verse 27, he makes this connection by saying, aren't you worth more than that? And he ends it with this line in 27. You have little faith. God, I take care of the birds. I take care of the flowers. By the way, gravity's still working. I know, you probably didn't worry about that, I got it. You're worth, don't you think you're worth more than a bird? You have little faith. When we say it like he's mad, you have little faith, you fool. No, like a child, why would you ever think I won't take care of you? He goes on to 31 by saying, so don't worry, here it is again. He says it over and over by saying, what will we eat, or what we drink, or what we wear, or what's gonna happen tomorrow? Or will my wife ever love me, and my husband will ever find a spouse? Will I, am I gonna get that big project done? Again, some of you guys in the room, you controlling many gods, your issue is you do what I tend to do and you go, well, he's saying not to be responsible. You're not listening. Jesus knew what he was saying. He didn't say stop being responsible. He said, stop worrying. So we've got to define what that means. What we drink, what we wear for the Gentiles, Gentiles means non-believers, people that don't believe. For they eagerly seek, chase all these things, and your heavenly Father knows you need them. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you. Amen. Let me tell you this though, that is not a direct, that's not like an investment line. Right, what that means is, I know some of you are terrified by Greg, that's okay, he's a very nice guy. He hasn't given one of those in a while, so he must have really believed it. Listen, listen, we can get scared because we're saying, okay, so if I don't seek after the kingdom, then I'm not gonna get fed, right? You can read it that way, but that's not the context here. The context is this, he's saying, seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness. All that other stuff's gonna be taken care of. Follow me, you think I'm gonna lead you to the things you don't need? And then he says, listen, this thing that some of you take as a subtle suggestion, he's just suggesting this. Jesus doesn't really do suggestions, he does commands. Therefore, don't worry about tomorrow because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Now then, if you're like me, you're the good way to say it is I'm a thinker, the bad way to say it is I'm a bit of, I'm always trying to like prove things wrong, right? My mind goes, oh, so you don't need to think about tomorrow at all, well that's ridiculous, it's impossible, I'm not even gonna try. No, worry, worry is an action here. Now, can we cut through the chase, can we be real? 'Cause I was real with myself, I had to look into me and say this, Todd, he didn't say don't think about it, he didn't say it's not gonna come to your mind, he's saying don't do with that concern what you tend to do, which is idolize, focus, obsess over to the point that what? It takes away from today. Today's got enough worries, concerns of its own, it doesn't need any for tomorrow. Now, before we go on, the word hurry here, this word I've told you about that is anxiety, et cetera, the Greek is, and I'm not a great Greek scholar, but it's, and I don't, word study's kind of annoying me, 'cause I don't know if you guys have ever met the snooty pastors are like, you could never truly understand this if you don't know Greek, right? And then why do we have translations, right? That's how I feel, but that's not what we're talking about. Listen, this is kind of a cool one, 'cause it's seven or eight times, let's look at it. It's Merrim now, the Greek is Merrim now. You know what that means? So worry here, Merrim now, they translate it that way. It means, to be anxious, we get that. I am over anxious, the word. It is a part as opposed to the whole, now that part's interesting. It actually means a part as opposed to the whole. Well, what does that mean? Pulled in opposite directions divided into parts. Pulled apart in different directions by the force of sinful worry. So the concept is, when you are in this worry, this Merrim now, it will pull you apart because you're here in today, right? And it's ripping you to tomorrow. It's ripping you over here. It's ripping you over there. And guess what happens when you have tons of worries? You're ripped apart. You ever feel ripped apart by anxiety? You ever feel torn apart? You ever feel like you can't function in day-to-day life? That's because you're being ripped apart by it. The other definition of it, this is big too. So pull apart all of these things, right? It's like a whirlwind distracted. Isn't that wild? That one seems, I put it in all caps. That one seems kind of weird, right, Chris? Chris, is that your first time? Saying Chris, second, third. I say that to you every time. Okay, heaven. All right, anyway. She doesn't like it. All right, moving on. Distracted, I think that's such a powerful word because when you're being pulled apart, if I'm being pulled over here and pulled over there, am I paying attention to you? Am I paying attention to where I'm at? Am I paying attention to the needs of the people around me if I'm being ripped apart? No, because I'm too distracted by the fact that I'm being pulled apart. Marim now, so the question should be, Kelsey, where's it pop up again, right? You want to know where it pops up again? She let it go down. Yes, I don't worry. Yeah, I do. Philippians 4, chapter four through seven. I mean, Philippians chapter four versus four through seven. I love this section. Philippians is sometimes called the joy book, the happy book, by the way. You know, pick me up, go read that one. Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again, rejoice. Now, the guy writing this is actually in prison. He's in prison writing to this church. And he's like, hey, you imagine that? The guy on death row is going, hey, rejoice. Rejoice in the Lord always. I'll say it again, rejoice. Let your graciousness, that's kindness, be known to everyone, the Lord is near. Don't worry, there's Marim now, about anything, but in everything through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your request to God and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds. And Christ Jesus, I love that verse because I'm a guy that wants to understand. And what the promise is is that, guess what? It may not make sense, but if you do this thing, you're gonna have a peace that the world doesn't get. You ever met someone like that? Have you ever met someone in your life that has a peace and a situation that you're going, how in the world are they at peace right now? Nine times out of 10, what? They knew the Lord. So Paul here, why from prison is writing to this group and he's talking about how there's these false teachers coming and in the section before this too, he's kind of talking about, hey, I know some hard times are here and he actually talks about himself. He goes, I found the secret to contentment. He goes, even in the middle of my distress, right? I trust in the Lord, here we go again, that sounds corny until you realize this guy's in prison. So it must be true, right? It's working for him. And then he says, I found that, what's the secret? I rejoice, how can you rejoice? Don't worry, worry is an action. Worry is giving power to a situation you have no control over. I'll say it again, worry is giving power and force. Remember, force moves us to a situation, a scenario that we have no control over. So when I put these two verses together, they kind of have the same message, don't they? Jesus says, seek first the kingdom of God. For those of you in the room, should have been here for the kingdom series, you go back, you can listen. But for simplify purposes, like follow me, trust me, go where I go, do what I tell you to do, stay away from what I don't, but do what I tell you to do. And if you do that, your worry will fade because I will take care of your needs. What does Paul say? The Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul says, "Don't worry about anything, stop giving it worry. "Come to the only one who has real control. "Give it to him through your prayers, ask him," right? Not because you have to beg, but because you're acknowledging. And in that action saying, Lord, take this, help me. And then let it go and a peace will come over you that you can't fathom. Faith. It's the big answer and it's not the one you wanna hear, Jack. Jack thinks I'm picking him, no, but, right? It's not the, I gotta quit doing that. Guests are never gonna come back and be like, when he learns my name, he's gonna say my name, I'm not gonna do it anymore, I'm done right now. Here's the truth, fate, we want an answer that's different, but faith is more beautiful than we make it. Faith is not wishful thinking. Faith is a deep trust and the only one that's fully trustworthy because he's the only one that loves us and has the power to control the uncontrollable. And I was talking about this this week, and I'm giving this analogy a lot, but it's important to bring up again. Whether you have kids or not, okay? You can use a girlfriend, your dog, whatever, but for me, my daughter, I love my daughter a lot, and anyone in the room knows that. If you haven't been here a lot, you'll get to know her. My daughter, Daisy, I want to make her happy all the time, and I do a lot of things to make her happy all the time, but I also make her very angry sometimes. And it's typically, in her mind, I'm telling you right now, not allowing her to color on the wall with a marker, or I'm serious, or put her finger in a light socket, or drink out of the dog's bowl like she loves washing her hands, like clean, clean, clean, and the dog, not allowing her to do that is the most heart-crushing thing that's ever happened to her. She can't fathom her limited knowledge why her dad, who she thought she could trust, is not letting her have the thing that she wanted, but she is what? She doesn't see the whole picture. And we understand that with children, we understand what a good father does. So when I say needs people, you need to understand what Jesus meant when he used the word need, and I think that's why he said, eating, right? And clothing, those are things that are necessities. Humans need those to some degree to survive. He's saying, I will provide your needs. I am not always gonna give you your wants. The truth to get rid of worry is to say, let go of my wants being my need. Using my analogy again, I will give Daisy anything, right? That doesn't harm her. That I have the capability to give her, I will. So that means that God, who is a much better father than me, because I can be selfish and grumpy and all those things, is going to give me the vast majority of things that I want. And now things that, you ready? Let's think it through. What he doesn't give me that I want is probably not a need. It's not good for me. That's hard to see sometimes. And some pastors will be like, yeah, I've said this many times. I would never trade what I went through to be here. I would trade what I went through many times, but I wouldn't trade where I'm at if it meant I didn't have to go through what I had to go through. Makes sense? But yeah, I would like to go, Lord, I believe you, but I mean, there had to be an easier way. But faith is saying that there wasn't. And some of those situations, knowing my stubbornness, knowing my fear, knowing how trapped I was, all those things, there wasn't another way. It was gonna hurt a little bit, right? It actually reminds me this week. Actually, it's a great example. My daughter had this little owl, something she wanted. It's actually a bread, like a bread tie, but it like pinches the bread bag anyway. It's an owl and she loves owls. So she's playing with this owl and we're about to take her outside. And then she goes, ow, ow, ow. And I look down and she has jammed her fingers somehow between like what would be the skin of the owl and the hard plastic part. She's like, ow, ow, she's pinched, right? I'm grabbing it. There's no, I have to, like it hurts a little for me to pull that off. She had gotten herself into a situation that was causing her pain that to get her out of was gonna cause a little pain. We just don't wanna believe sometimes that we've gotten ourselves in a situation that's so painful that it might be a little painful to get out. Faith is that trust. Worry leads to another kind of emotion. Anxiety leads to what? What is it? Starts with an F. Fear, yeah. We're afraid. Anxiety's just enough. Anxiety, what my definition anxiety is? Anxiety is just a sustained period of fear. It's a long-term fear or long-term period of fear. Listen to this, first John 4, 18 and 19 says this, "There is no fear in love. "Instead, perfect love drives out fear "because fear involves punishment. "So the one who fears is not complete in love." And I added this 'cause it's important. We love because he first loved us. Some of y'all in this room say, "Man, I love people. "I love this reminder because it says any knowledge "you have of love that's even been tainted "by the way we are sometimes in this world "is because he loved you first." We fear because what? We think something bad is gonna happen because we don't deserve better. We've done this, right? You ever have that happen in your life? You go, "Something terrible happens, "your mind naturally goes to, well, I deserve this?" Fear, right? There is no fear in love. So if we can trust God's love, we would never have fear. Why? Daisy, as far as my power is concerned, and I'm flawed, right? When it comes to me, she'd never have fear because I will never do anything, right? To intentionally harm her. Now God is perfect. He has perfect vision, perfect intention, perfect power. So if he loves me, what can I say about what I'm going through? There's good in it somehow. I don't, before you get all mad at me and say, "How can I be good at an XYZ?" I don't know. But just like my daughter doesn't understand the good in not letting her play in the dogwater and drink it, I have to accept that God might have a little more knowledge than me as comparable to my knowledge that I have over Daisy. We fear. Anxiety is a worry. It's sustained. It's a worry. And it's a fear about something outside of our control. Let me tell you how subtle control is. Here's a trap a lot of Christians get into. You think that because you do it right, and you've done it right, and you're following God and doing the right thing, and you do that over and over and over, and the people around you aren't, then what's the point? Because doing the right thing just gets you hurt anyway. You're already twisted in your head. See, you're worried about what? At the end of the day, subtly you're still worried about what's outside of your control. My husband's a big fat jerk, no matter how good I am to him, so I'm going to stop doing what the Bible tells me to do. What have you already done? You're worrying. You've given it to worry because you said, "What if I keep doing this and it never gets better?" Your wife is mean to you. Your wife is this. I use marriage because that gets some of your attention. Your wife's mean to you. Your wife's this. So I'm going to stop agapeing her, loving her, and serving her, and being gentle with her because it doesn't matter anyway. She doesn't respect me ever, so what's the point? You have to understand that Christianity, we've got this weird trap that like, if I rub the lamp the right way, then I can't control everything. Right? If I follow God right, and this is such a weird trap, if I do all the right things, then life will work out for me. Is that the promise? Because that verse I brought up the beginning from Ecclesiastes, the rain falls on the just and the unjust alike, is, weirdly, none of my notes, applicable. Being a Christian doesn't mean protection from all of the sin and brokenness of this world. What it means is that we will be empowered to walk through it and have a joy and a peace that what transcends understanding. There are times as well, and I would be remiss to not mention this. You want to know one of the biggest, not the biggest causes of anxiety, sin. What do I mean by that? You do something stupid, and then you're worried about whether it's going to catch up to you. You know what I'm talking about. Whether it's God, right, striking you with a bolt of lightning, or whether it's they're going to find out, or whether I pushed my spouse too far, so this time they might not ever love me again, or whether I cut this corner at work, so I'm going to hide it instead of address it, because if I don't, they might fire me. You know what I mean? So, weirdly, sometimes anxiety comes from what? From things we can't control, and it's still tied to what God said, because anxiety comes because we didn't follow the kingdom. So say I sin, right, which means in a moment I took my eyes off for following God and doing what He wanted, and God gives His way out. What does He say to do? Go make it right. If I wrong Jacob, I can sit around and go, does He hate me? Does He not like me? I guess I'll just ignore Him and see if we're okay, or I can go up to Him and go, "Hey, Jacob, are you mad at me? What do I do to do to make this right?" One is harder than the other, but one is the way of God. The world tells you to ignore it. The world says that's causing problems. The world says that's pouring gasoline on fire. God says it's what? Making peace, reconciling. How many of you in the room have given up following God, because life didn't go the way you wanted, and that's heartbreaking. Because He loves you as much as I love Daisy, and I think to myself, if Daisy just sat in the room and gave up because she said, "My father doesn't like me. My father doesn't love me because He didn't let me play in the dog water." Because He didn't give me that new car yet. Can you imagine if she was like, you know, she sees a car on TV. She goes, "Why you don't get me Corvette?" You know? I'm like, "You can't even drive yet, so let me put in words. Why don't I have that spouse I wanted?" I followed for 10 years. Why isn't He giving me what I want? Because sometimes your motive is wrong. Which one shows real love? Well, see, you'll reward me if I do good, or you love me regardless. Anxiety, worry, is a distraction that distracts us from many things. What does it do? It distracts us from the voice and truth of God and tries to get us to listen to a different voice. The voice of the liar, right? The enemy, the voice of our own traitor inside of us, the one that tells us to worry, to doubt. It makes us doubt God's promises. It makes us want to do things our way, which becomes the loop because we try to control things we can't control. And here we are again. It distracts us from serving. It distracts us from carrying others' burdens and helping. It distracts us from hope and joy. It distracts us from loving people. It distracts us from purpose. Life is meaningless. Sustained period of worrying and fear is going to lead you to a place of like, "I can't get out of this." And the truth is you probably can't. What if you let go of that and focus on what he's told you to? You already already stopped listening because you think it's Christianese, but it's not. You know how I know? Because you didn't do that this week. Neither did I. It's not earning God's favor. It's not earning God's love. It's resting in God's love, resting in God's favor enough to just follow him and not worry about the things outside of our control. It's really the opposite. I'm not going to serve so that God gives me what I want. I'm going to serve because I know God always will give me what I need. It distracts us. He's out. He distracts us from the world's attempts to deceive us. You know what happens when we don't follow the kingdom of God? Well, when that Instagram reel comes up that tells you, "That man ain't no good." He's a narcissist. Well, I'll tell you what, according to a social media, 99% of the world's a narcissist. That's a fact. You know what's really... You know who's happy about that? The narcissist. Because they're like, "Everybody's a narcissist, right?" Stop going around calling everyone. It's just a pet peeve of mine. You know how rare it is to be an actual narcissist? Stop it. Just 'cause somebody makes you upset, lied to you, hurt your feelings one time, doesn't mean they're a narcissist. 'Cause guess what? You're one too, then, by that definition. It's like calling everyone a snake, right? Calling all the animals a snake and treat them all like snakes. Guess who's the only one happy about that? Actual snakes. 'Cause we're like, "Oh, cool. We're all snakes, right?" Anxiety, the number one thing anxiety distracts us from. Listen, I love you grumpies, man, 'cause you're me. I'm talking to the grumpies in the room 'cause you're me. It distracts you from your blessings. It distracts you from the good in your life. It does me. When I'm stressed, anxious, worried, I stop seeing the good in my life and I focus on all the things that aren't going the way I want them to go. You know what? I'm struck lately by the brevity of life that means the shortness. How short life is, and we all say it, but I don't want to scare you, but you think about that for a minute. How many people would trade places with you in your situation right now? You miserable person, right? In an instant, because you're still breathing. And I don't do this, so I'm not, "Hey, I'm caught calling the kettle black here." You're so blessed. Don't let worry and anxiety and fear rob you of the beautiful things in your life. So, I would be remiss 'cause part of this is to tell you, "I don't want to just leave you with fluff." Because all of that's good, right? And it is true. Everything I've said is true, but I want to leave you with two keys. Keys to managing your anxiety. They're not going to be on the screen. You know what I've learned? I don't know if you pay attention as much. Kelsey. That's for this earlier. The key to managing anxiety is not to pretend it isn't there and it isn't to numb it and it isn't to shut down. The key to managing anxiety is two things. Number one, let go of things that are outside of our control by putting our faith and trust in the only one who has control. Get it? Makes sense? I'm trying to think, if I told you to walk across this building across the street on a tightrope that big, are you going to feel anxious? Some of you weird lunatics in here are like, "No, I love it," right? But you don't even have one of those balancing sticks. You just got to walk across it. Are you hesitant to do it? Yeah, why? Because we don't trust that little thing is going to hold me up. What if I literally had a solid empire state building brick that you saw semi-drive across? Would you walk across it then? Some of you are like, "No, I still wouldn't." That's fine. That's fine. Here's my point. You're standing right now on something that you've put your trust in faith and you believe the ground is stable enough to hold you up. So you're just relaxed sitting in your chair. This isn't a fluffy thing. Letting go is a true choice. It is saying, "God, I give it up." Does that mean that thoughts aren't going to come back to your head? Sydney, of course it's going to come back. But every time it starts to make the anxious nurse, you say, "I'm letting go because I trust you, God." Why? Because he's the only one with the power, and the perspective to take care of the things that are outside of our control. And part of that, this is all number one. Let go of the things that are outside of our control but putting our trust in the one who has control. So another example is, "Say I sin and mess up. This has happened to me. I sin and mess up. I can do two things. I can sit around and wait. Oh, my good gosh. Let's say it's one of the ones we're afraid of. That's why God says so important to confess our sins. It's not about some weird ritual. Confess your sins to one another and you will be healed. Why is it say that? Because there's a freedom in finally saying, "I'm going to quit worrying about if someone catches me or guys, you know what I mean here, ladies too, but guys particularly, can they see the sin on me? Can they see what I did yesterday? Can they see what I did last night? And coming up and confessing and letting it go. That is letting go of the control by doing what we can control, by trusting God. So let go of the things that are outside of control, by putting our trust in the one who asks control and accepting that he loves us. What would you do if you knew that the Creator of the universe, and it's a choice, not a feeling if you walked like the Creator of the universe loves you. How would it change the rest of your day, just today? Number two, focus on what we can focus on and what we can control. Because isn't that cool, there is something you can control. Guess what that is, you. I've said this, you've probably heard of other places. I wish I created it, but apparently it's been around for a while. But when I'm focused on other people, when I'm focused on loving you, serving you, doing what the Bible says, carrying each other's burdens, reading the Bible, living life, enjoying life, being with other believers, all of these beautiful things, when I serve and I love, guess what there's not a lot of time left to do? Worry. So seeking the Kingdom of God is not some mystical, magical, spell ritual. It is just doing what God told you to do. And you know how I know everyone in this room isn't doing that, for the most part? That's the crazy thing about not being God. There's always another area that we can say, "You know what? This is something that I could do more of." Being in community? Well, I'm an introvert. I'm an INFP. Remember this joke? When you're resting, being an introvert, and so you don't love people, guess what that makes you? A J-E-R-K. All right? My personality type. I'm an introverted... You're a J-E-R-K, right? I'm a jerk, for sure. I'm an E jerk. I'm out there in the open, but you're a secret one. Right? My point is we've got... Let go of the things that are outside of control and control the things that are inside your control. Oh, babe, do what God tells you. Stop letting the world and churches in your own mind tell you it's hard. It's not that hard. That's the beauty of God. He says, "Hey, do the best you can. The best. I want the best that you have, and I'll make up the rest." So the question is... Is Sydney, are you the one today? Please come on. She's going to play some music. And I want to ask you a question. This is altar time. And this time is a chance, a brief chance for you to respond to God in whatever way you feel like God wants you to respond. The question I have for you... Listen, are you distracted? Have you thought about your blessings as much as you thought about your worries this week? If the answer is no, gotcha. Do you live in anxiety? Have you let the force of anxiety control how you act and make you behave in a way that you don't want to behave? That's not the real you, and you've sat in it for so long that guess what? The longer you sit in it, the longer you give something power, you're ready for another Christian. These words will make sense now. The more that you get to build a what? A stronghold. It's got a stronger hold on you. The longer you sit in something, the more it solidifies around you, and it builds around you before what? You have created a prison of your own design. Are you distracted? Are you anxious? Are you worried? Be honest. Are you your life characterized by that? Guess what? I tricked you. You raised your hand already. I'm not saying this to shame you. You've got to not let the enemy do that either. This isn't like, oh, my goodness, because I feel anxious. God hates me. No, it's the opposite. Because he loves you, you don't have to sit in that anxiety. God is so little concerned with anxiety. He only mentions this seven times. Instead, he's concerned with the things that bring you anxiety. You're worries, right? You're concerns. You're burdens. And what did Jesus say? He said, come to me, all who are weary, and what? Burdened. And I will give you rest because my yoke is easy. My weight is right. My work is easy. My burden is light. Give me what you can't hold, and I will give you something that's light and free. And you're in the room and you're like, I'm 12. I'm 14. I'm 16. You're the most anxious people in the world. And sometimes the church makes it seem like you're not important, right? So you get 18 and you can do all the things in the church that everybody wants you to do. You're only important when you can be seen. God loves you so much. And he's building you up right now. And he cares about your anxieties and worries. And even though your mom and dad sometimes try to make it seem like they're not very important, right? You'll get over it and you're going, okay. Guess what? When they were your age, they're in the room crying into a pillow, too. God cares about those worries, those anxieties, those fears. And some of you've went through things, and this is kids and adults, that it makes sense that you're in that state, right? You ever seen a pit bull, right? It's been in fights at the pound during the corner shaking and hiding because their life has been characterized by battle. You can't control whether you shake, but you can control whether you come out of the cage. Are you worried? Are you anxious? Are you tired? Do you want to live free? Do you want to stop being cruel and mean and grumpy? Because the God of the Bible, and those of you who are in there put their faith in that, if that's you, you can be free of that. We serve a real and tangible and powerful God, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, the God of David and Solomon, the God of all of those people, the God of Peter and Paul, that God is your God, and you think he stopped moving, you think he took a nap. He's still here, and he's still moving in your life, and we have to live like that's true. So you have an opportunity today in this altar time to respond to God. However, he's calling you to respond. Maybe it's repentance. Lord, forgive me for the sins that I've committed that I'm letting hang over me. Lord, forgive me for living out of ways that I don't want to live out of because sometimes we beat ourselves up because we know we've been living out of anxiety and we're acting crazy, right? We're acting a fool, you ever heard that phrase? I act a fool sometimes, do you? God loves you. We don't come and say sorry, so he loves us again. We come and say sorry, so we're not burdened. Maybe you've been carrying something for so long, you just need to tell someone. There's going to be people up here willing to pray with you. This place is an altar for you to pray to God. God is here, Jesus himself said, we're two or three, you're gathered in my name. There I am with you. Don't. Are you willing to let go of the illusion of control? Because it's just an illusion. And are you willing to truly listen? Some of you in this room have come to this service for three, four, seven, eight years and you say it every single week, but you never actually do it. You never actually let go. You never actually come for it and say, "Lord, forgive me for my bitterness." That has come from sitting in this prison of my own dashed hopes and dreams. I trust you. If you're in the room and you don't know Jesus, and you've come up with all the reasons why everything I said is stupid. You've come up with all the reasons why everything I said is sounds good, but isn't realistic. I'm going to tell you this right now. It doesn't matter what I say and it doesn't matter what you say. There is a God. God created everything. He made it perfect. And he had one rule in that garden. He had one rule for us at the beginning and that is, "I'm God and you're not." Don't we have focus on the tree and the fruit that was, "I'm God, you're not." You listen to me. I will tell you what right and wrong is. And we rejected that. We chose to be God. And because of that sin entered the world, we were separated from God like a branch broken off a tree and we are dying. A disease entered us. It doesn't matter how much you try to fix all your actions because every time you try to be good in this area, something bad pops up over here because we are infected with a disease, the natural outcome of being separated from the Creator. A branch broken off an apple tree has some apples and they might be healthy for a little while, but eventually they shrivel up and die because they are not connected to the source of their life. That is us with God. And in this room, you are separated from him. And because of that, we have sinned against a holy God. And thousands of years of human existence shows us what happens when the branch is broken off the tree. And because God is a just God. And because you have hurt his children. You know that? Because of your hate and my hate, because of things even one time. The Bible says that the wages of sin is death. It's the death of our hopes, joys, dreams, it's anxiety. But also there will come a time when you take your last breath. That is not the end of your existence. It will stand before a holy God. The wages of sin is death. And all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. That is bad news. The good news comes after it. We have been separated from him. We're dying. We know it. And we're going to face him again someday. And he'll give us what we want, which is separation for him forever. That's hell. You don't want to be with him. You don't want to be in life. Then you can have it. No amount of pleading. No amount of good deeds will measure up to perfection. When the standard is holy and good and perfectly loving, you and I fall short. And before you say that isn't fair, okay. Well, I've been good for 364 days, but I'm going to come in and shoot your loved ones. And I'll go before the judge and say, forgive me, judge. I was good every day, but one. And the judge says, okay, go home. Your good deeds outweigh your bad. Is that the way justice works? And you think if we as humans know that, that God Almighty doesn't know what justice is? Here's the good news. When we couldn't save ourselves in the midst of our sin, the Bible tells us that when we couldn't get to God, God came to us. He invaded this search. Jesus of Nazareth, God made flesh, born of a virgin. It's a fact. He existed. No historian would tell you he didn't. And this God-man was raised, grew up, taught us what the kingdom was like, taught us what it was like to be with God, and then did something incredible. When we couldn't pay our debt, he paid it. On the cross, Jesus died of terrible physical death, but of spiritual death as well. He took your sins upon him. He died. Three days later, he rose from the dead, proving that he is God. And here's the beauty. Here's the beauty. Listen. Well, I've done all these terrible things. That's okay, because he took all of your sin and mine on him on the cross. And when he's raised from the dead, he defeated death, he defeated sin, and he offers you a chance today. You might have had it 57,000 times in your life, but today's the one that matters, because tomorrow's not promised. What do you do? The Bible says if you confess with your lips and believe in your heart that Jesus Christ is Lord and was raised from the dead, you will be saved. Are you willing to say, "I'm sorry for what I've done. I put my faith in you. I trust you. I don't understand it all, but I believe you, Lord." If you do that, you'll be saved, and your eternity is secure forever. If you haven't done that, it doesn't matter that you like Jesus. It doesn't matter that you think he's cool. If you haven't done that, then you're in danger. It's a hard thing, because if you're not willing to say it, you probably don't mean it. Right? Whatever you do today, there's going to be people willing to pray with you. Whatever you do, don't leave the same as you came in. God loves you so much. Don't leave the same as you came in, because if you do, you're choosing too. [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING]