OPENING ILLUSTRATION:
Can I tel you a quick story, and I’m gonna be a little vulnerable here and expose myself some, is that ok, yall will treat me with kindness? So, a little over year ago Jenni and I started this journey to build a rental cabin at the gorge – we are taking out a loan and hoping to use it to try and build up a retirement. As we were doing this we started working with this builder. When he found out I was a pastor he asked me if I wanted to try and help him sell cabins and he would give me a percentage of whatever I sold. I thought, “we’re doing this for our retirement, so why not” some of you may have seen some of my posts about it… Well, thank Jesus I had someone reach out to me, a fellow believer who had done business with this guy and had been taken advantage of him. I started doing research and found out this builder had been involved in a HUGE fraud case. I’ll never forget it because it was Jenni and I’s anniversary weekend and we had this trip planned. On that trip I started calling people I had in the pipeline to buy a cabin – 100’s of thousands of dollars worth of cabins. I told the guy I was not comfortable doing business with him and we backed out of the deal.
He began leveling threats at us… He was going to sue us if we did anything to ruin his business. I remember for weeks having this sick feeling in my stomach. How did I get here?
But now I felt like I had put everything in my world on the line. My integrity was wrapped up with this guys – that’s why it’s embarrassing to share with you.
My mind started spinning with all kinds of things, what happens if this guy sues me, I knew his business partner’s dad is one of the wealthiest people in KY. What happens if these people that I sold on these cabins build and this guy takes advantage of them… My mind was spinning for weeks – I felt like an idiot and literally any time I got a text from that guy my gut would wrench and I’d get sick…
I was experiencing a level of anxiety I’d never had before…
What do you do to get yourself out of that level of anxiety?
Where does that kind of anxiety even come from?
Have you felt that before?
-Maybe for you it was you following one bad business decision after another and having to finally tell your spouse that you lost your job
-or Your car broke down and then your furnace went out and you started putting stuff on a credit card and then you foolishly bought christmas on a credit card and now you stuck every time the bill comes in you stomach drops…
I did some thinking on where Anxiety comes from and I think these are at least a few of the reasons we experience anxiety:
Where does our anxiety come from: [put up one at a time]
- Loss of controlILLUSTRATION: We’ve been teaching our son Peter to drive. He’s a super good kid and really responsible, but I have to admit, on some of those narrow back roads of KY, I’ve had more than my fair share of my back end tightening up as we go around corners or putting my foot through the floor on my imaginary brake.
The reality is for most of us who are used to controlling our worlds, when we lose control – our hands get off the steering wheel, we become anxious.
- Past experienceILLUSTRATION: Unfortunately for me, one of the ways that experience affected me was it created in me this distrust of people… I had been scammed and I found myself looking at everyone through a lens of skepticism…
Some of you have had some SERIOUS pain in the past and experiences that have shaped the way you view reality now… Your view of the world was altered. It caused you to create little t truths – things that seemed true and little s strategies to deal with the way you experienced life and now when that comes up those truths and strategies take over…
- Fear of a projected future (almost always excludes the potential for God) ILLUSTRATION: If i’m brutally honest with myself about my anxiety, the stories I’m telling myself about the future don’t include God. They don’t include, “what if God shows up?” In my projections I act as though I’m a practical atheist. “If this is all up to me, then what am I going to do…” But that’s not reality. You know the dark places this can take you to, don’t you? All the scratching and scrambling we do is tied up in this.
Can I change the question from “where does that kind of anxiety come from?” to a more ancient question the Psalmist asked?
b
Where does my help come from?
SCRIPTURE:
This is a Psalm (or song) that people would have sang as they were walking up the mountains to Jerusalem to go there for worship. Imagine, it’s a big holiday like Thanksgiving and you are on your way to the temple to worship. I find it SUPER interesting they are singing these words as reflection and worship of God on their way to this holiday…
Psalm 121
I lift up my eyes to the mountains— where does my help come from?
2 My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.
3 He will not let your foot slip— he who watches over you will not slumber;
4 indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The Lord watches over you— the Lord is your shade at your right hand;
6 the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night.
7 The Lord will keep you from all harm— he will watch over your life;
8 the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.
But what about your crops that are failing at home and you left them to come worship…
[Read the Scripture again]
But what about how your traveling right now with a spouse who wants out of this relationship, what are you going to do if it all crumbles?
[Read the Scripture again]
What if the skin graft they took last week is more than just a blemish and it’s cancer, how will I tell my family, what will my life look like, how much life do I even have left… How will my family make it without me?
[Read the Scripture again]
Look, I know you think what you need is one more list of things to do, you think you need a trick or some technique – if I just learn how to breathe or tap on myself. And I’m not doubting that stuff doesn’t work. But
What we really need is to learn what the ancients knew
b
When you seat yourself in God’s story instead of your own, the pressure valve opens – you can take on almost anything…
The apostle Paul said it this way…
Philippians 4:11b-13
I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. 12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13 I can do all this through him who gives me strength.
Paul had learned to seat himself in God’s story, and when God is the one at the wheel, you can make it through anything – even death…
b
I want to give you
Some practical suggestions of how to seat yourself in God’s story when anxiety rises up in you.
-Download/Use the One Minute Pause App https://wildatheart.org/apps/one-minute-pause/]
-Start your day with our Daily Prayer [https://www.harmonychurch.cc/daily-prayer/]
-Download the bible app and make a commitment to read the bible daily till at least Christmas [bible.com]
CLOSING ILLUSTRATION:
I can remember the day I was driving home from the Gorge after all of that had gone down. I felt like an idiot, I felt like I’d put my family in a terrible position and possibly our church. I was so embarrassed and honestly ashamed and was over run with anxiety. I was trying to place myself in God’s story, every time a thought came into my mind I was taking it to Jesus. I was reminding myself that in Jesus I could do anything. And then my phone rang. It was a close Christian friend that I have who is really wealthy. He knew about the situation and he said, “Kent, I’ve been praying and I felt like I should tell you, if this guy takes legal action against you, don’t worry. I’ve got you, and I’ve got more money than he has…” Lol. Can I tell you something, I never had to pull the trigger on that, but what it reminded me of was I don’t live in a Godless universe, I live very much in a world where God is alive and well and speaking to His people. If you struggle with anxiety, I’m inviting you to come up here and let some others pray over you. For you to seat your life in His story, some of you need to do that today!
[put this up on a screen for me to read and end with]
Psalm 121
I lift up my eyes to the mountains— where does my help come from?
2 My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.
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