Winning the Battle of the Mind Pt 2

Glad y'all can make it out on this rainy Sunday morning. If you guys want to go ahead and stand with us, we'll pray and we'll get started.

Father God, we thank you for the day. Lord God, we just praise you for who you are, God, for how faithful you are to us, God. Lord God, we thank you that you love us regardless of our sin, God, and how far we fall short. We thank you that you loved us enough to send your son Jesus in the midst of us, in the midst of all of that. In the midst of all of our sin and our shame, our shortcomings and our rebellion, Lord.

Lord God, we lift praise to you this morning. We lift thanks to you for what you've done for us and for what you're going to do. Lord God, we ask your blessing upon this time as we raise a hallelujah.

Yes, Lord God, we lift praise to you this morning. God, we raise hallelujah to you this morning. Amen. You guys can go ahead and have a seat if you like. And we'll continue. Yes, Lord God, the battle does belong to you, God. We know that in the end, you win, Lord God. So just help us to rest in your victory.

Father God, this morning, I just pray that you would fill us with your Holy Spirit. Come and fill us afresh, fill us anew. Because the fact of the matter is, Lord, we need you. More than we realize, more than we know. We need you, Lord. As the world just begins to be more corrupt and evil and wicked, Lord God. We need you more and more now than ever. So come this morning, Holy Spirit, and just touch our lives.

Fill us with your fire. Fill us afresh and fill us anew.

Lord, this morning, God, I just pray that you would come and do your mighty work in our lives. Fill Pastor Ryan with your Holy Spirit. And give him the words to speak. And give us hearts to receive, Lord God. We love you, Father. We praise you. And we thank you. And all God's people said, amen. Let's greet one another. Grab a bulletin. We'll get ready to get going.

Calvary Chapel, I'm glad that you have joined us this morning. A few things to take note of in your bulletin. On the left-hand side, all of those things are happening as usual this week. Over in the middle section of your bulletin, tonight is our intercessory prayer night. So if you want to join us for that. In the 6 o'clock p.m. right here at the church. And then, ladies, you have a breakfast coming up this Saturday, the 11th, at Daisy Mays at 8 o'clock.

Also, Vacation Bible School. Take note of the dates. It's going to be June 19th through the 21st. More info will be coming soon about that as far as volunteer opportunities and sign-ups for that. And then also, ladies, there's a new study. For you starting up, Anita Striegel is going to be leading on Wednesdays, starting this coming Wednesday from 11 to 12 p.m.

in the Agape room. And there is a sign-up sheet out there for that. So those are the things that are going on. If you would make sure that your mobile device is silenced. And for our responsive reading this morning, we're going to be in Psalm 5. Psalm 5. Looking at the New American Standard for this part so that we sound the same if you need a copy of the New American Standard.

There should be one in the row around you. And as you are turning to Psalm 5, if you are able, please stand in the honor of the reading of God's Word. We'll read the odd verses if you will follow along with Pastor Allen and the even verses. Psalm 5, for the choir director, for flute accompaniment. And we established first service that neither one of us have a flute, so we're just going to have to roll on without it.

A Psalm of David. Give ear to my words, O Lord, and consider my grace. Heed the sound of my cry for help, my King and my God, for to you I pray. In the morning, O Lord, you will hear my voice. In the morning, I will order my prayer to you and eagerly watch. For you are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness. No evil dwells with you. The boastful shall not stand before your eyes.

You hate all who do iniquity. You destroy those who speak falsehood. The Lord abhors the man of bloodshed. The Lord abhors the man of sin and deceit. But as for me, by your abundant loving kindness, I will enter your house. At your holy temple, I will bow in reverence for you. O Lord, lead me in your righteousness. Because of my foes, make your way straight before me.

There is nothing reliable in what they say. Their inward part is destruction itself. Their throat is an open grave. They flatter with their tongue. Hold them guilty, O God. By their own devices, let them fall. In the multitude of their transgressions, thrust them out. For they are rebellious against you. But let all who take refuge in you be glad. Let them ever sing for joy.

And may you shelter them, that those who love your name may exult in you. For it is you who blesses the righteous man, O Lord. You surround him with favor as with a shield. And Father, we come to you and we praise you, Lord, that you do give ear to our words. And you consider all of our prayers. And you consider all of our prayers. And you consider all of our groanings, Father.

So, as we come to you now and even discuss, Lord, that this morning. I pray that you would give us hearts that are open to what it is that your Holy Spirit wants to speak to us through your word. Lord, hearts that are open to hear from you. And so, Lord, minister to us, we pray. In Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. And if you would open up to the book of Philippians, chapter 4.

Philippians, chapter 4. As we've said, each chapter in the book of Philippians. Each chapter in the book of Philippians, given the fact that the theme is joy, is going to teach us a different lesson about joy. And we said that as we came to chapter 4, the lesson that we are being taught is that joy comes through winning the battle of the mind. And so, last week, we saw the first part of it.

We said that there were altogether seven lessons he was going to teach us about winning the battle of the mind. And we looked at the first three last week. We said that winning the battle of the mind meant, first of all, that we would stand firm. Second of all, that we would restore relationships. And third, that we would learn to. And third, that we would learn to rejoice in the Lord.

Well, we come to two more lessons today in verses 6 through 9 of chapter 4. And so, starting in verse 6 of Philippians, chapter 4, this is what it says. Be anxious for nothing. But in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence, and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have heard, or excuse me, the things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. So, the next lesson that he's going to teach us about winning the battle of the mind is a lesson that's pretty near and dear to me because it's dealing with anxiety. And so, the next lesson is if we want to win the battle of the mind, we have to overcome anxiety.

We have to overcome anxiety. And so, he starts by saying this. He says, be anxious for nothing. That word anxious means, it can also be translated worry. It means troubled with care or distracted with care. Now, for me personally, I understand this verse a lot because I know what it's like to be anxious about things. I know what it's like to worry about things.

I know what it's like to deal with anxiety. I've shared this with you before. It's a battle I fought a lot in my life. It's a little bit of my DNA makeup. It goes along with being a Nichols. We're kind of an anxious group of people, kind of high-strung group of people. But also, it's a little bit of kind of who I am in my walk with the Lord and things that I've had to learn in giving things to Jesus.

And trusting him with these things. And so, as I think about this word, be anxious, I started thinking about what kind of things we tend to be anxious about. This is by no means an exhaustive list. But I do think it's a good handful of the things or at least categories of things that a good number of us get kind of anxious about or we kind of worry about. And so, the first one that I put on there is I put money.

And in the world that we're living in today, money seems to be one of the things that we worry a lot about. Partly because our money doesn't go as far. As it used to, right? It seems like everything costs a lot more. And yet, we're not bringing that much more home. And so, sometimes when we look at things like paying for school, paying for retirement, paying the mortgage, buying groceries at the store, that money can cause us a great deal of anxiety.

The second thing that I listed along with the things that we can tend to be anxious about are relationships. Sometimes we have anxiety in our relationships with our spouse. Maybe because there's things that aren't good there. And so, there's a lot of anxiety. As to whether or not we're going to be able to bring peace in that relationship. Sometimes our friendships are broken.

And so, there's a great deal of anxiety as to whether or not we'll ever be able to restore those friendships. Or sometimes you want to be in a relationship, some of you young people out there, and you don't know who that's going to be with. But you're hoping that's going to happen someday. And you feel a great deal of anxiety about who that's going to be. And so, relationships can sometimes cause us anxiety.

The third one that I wrote down is jobs. Sometimes we can... Have a great deal of anxiety about our job. Perhaps because you don't feel like you're measuring up to what you feel like. The pressure that's being put on by management or your boss. Or maybe even yourself. Maybe you feel anxiety because you don't know if your job's going to be there tomorrow. Maybe you feel anxiety because you don't know if someone else is going to replace you at some point in time.

Or maybe you feel anxiety because, quite frankly, you don't like your job. And you're afraid it's going to show on the outside to your boss. And so, there's anxiety when it comes to our jobs. Sometimes the future causes us anxiety. We don't know what the future holds. And sometimes that can be a very fearful thing. Because the unknown that lays before us can sometimes cause a great deal of worry inside of us.

The future for our family. The future for our life. The future for our world. All lays before us. And sometimes that can cause us a great deal of anxiety. For kids, sometimes your future plans can sometimes cause you stress. You don't know what school you're supposed to go to. You don't know what career path you're supposed to choose. And again, you don't know who you're going to be able to do those things with.

And so, the future can cause us anxiety. One for me is my walk with Christ can sometimes cause me anxiety. Because I want so badly to do things right. I want to understand God's word properly. I want to obey him in the way that he wants me to do so. I want to follow him in the way that he wants me to. And sometimes I can put so much pressure on myself that my walk with Christ ultimately can become anxiety.

Not because I'm afraid. Not because of any pressure that God is putting on me. But because of pressures that I put on myself. And perhaps you can relate with that as well. The next one that I wrote down is kids. Kids can cause anxiety, right? Because for those of you that have brand new babies, you know that you can't sleep because your kids can't sleep, right?

Well, I'm here to tell you right now, when they become teenagers, you can't sleep because they don't sleep, right? And so, the anxiety continues. It's just that you don't sleep now because you're scared of, you know, what they're awake doing. Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right?

Right? Right? And so, there's anxiety when it comes to kids. You want to see them develop into who God wants for them to be. You want to see them have a walk with Jesus Christ for themselves. And sometimes, we can hold so tightly to our kids because of what we want them to be that it can fill our hearts with anxiety. And then, the last one that I wrote down is one that I think has really overtaken our culture in the past handful of years is health.

A lot of people can deal with health anxiety. A lot of people have dealt with that even before the events of the last few years. where we're just always worried. What if I get this disease? What if this thing happens to me? Oh no, what if? And our minds are filled with all of the what ifs. Now this is just a simple handful of things that we can be anxious about. But you know, sociologists tell us that this is

the most anxious generation ever. The generation that we're living in right now is one of the most anxiety filled generations ever. And I would tell you that it's because we're not applying God's word to the things that are happening in our world today. And so Paul tells us, be anxious for nothing. Literally what it tells us is do not be anxious. It's interesting because the construction

of that Greek sentence carries with it the idea of stop doing something that you are presently doing. Stop doing something that you are doing right now. So when he addresses these Philippian people, they are filled with anxiety. So he says, stop being so anxious. And I'm here to tell you right now, since we live in the most anxious generation ever, I would tell you, stop being anxious.

Stop worrying. Literally in the Greek, it says, stop worrying about even one little thing. And so many of us are continuing on in this anxiety. And so I got to thinking about something else. Why is it so important that he gives us this command? Don't be anxious. Well, I would tell you there's three reasons why he tells us don't be anxious. The first is that, do you know

that unchecked anxiety turns into depression? Unchecked anxiety ends up turning into depression because here's what happens to us. As anxiety begins to build, we push it down because you can't deal with all that right now because you have to go to work. You can't deal with all that right now because you have to go to school. You can't deal with that right now because you still have to be a parent to your kids or you have to go to the next

social event or the next function. And so you keep pushing down the anxiety and you're so freaked out. And so you just keep pushing it down. And as you push it down, you're not going to be able to get depressed because you've never dealt with the root of the issue. You've never dealt with the problem. As a matter of fact, well, I'll get to that in just a second. It ends up causing that

depression. And so if you are battling either one of those today, I want you to know that they very much go hand in hand. So these principles that Paul's going to give us are incredibly key to dealing with these issues in our lives. The second reason why we need to deal with anxiety is because it robs you. It robs you of peace. It robs you of joy. And it robs you of rest. In times when I have dealt the

most with anxiety, I can't sleep at those points in time. And even when I can sleep, I have what I have simply termed as insomnia dreams. You ever had one of those? Let me describe it to you. Where you go to sleep, but it doesn't feel like you ever go to sleep. Where like your mind's kind of running all night long and you're going, surely I didn't sleep at all that night. And your wife

looks at you and says, no, you were snoring. You were asleep. It's just that you were dreaming that you were awake because you're kind of worked up about something in your life, right? Because that's what anxiety does to us. As a matter of fact, when carried to its fullest extent, sometimes people have anxiety attacks. And I don't know if you've ever had one of those or not. I've had them before. I actually went for about a six mile run

at two in the morning one time because I couldn't sleep and it was all building up on me. And it was robbing me of my peace. It was robbing me of my joy. And it was robbing me of my rest. This is a long time ago. I couldn't go to sleep. I couldn't go to sleep. I couldn't go to sleep. I couldn't go to sleep. I couldn't go for a six mile run at two in the morning right now. I would hit the front door,

fall down, and I'd be done, right? Just knocked out for the night. But anyway, it was a long time ago. And I thought, you know, this is what anxiety attacks are like. I was thinking, I was telling first service about this as well. Have you ever played the game Tetris, right? My mom and sister were huge fans of Tetris. I wasn't a very good Tetris player, so I know exactly what I'm about

to tell you right now very well. At the end of the game of Tetris, right, the little blocks come down. You've got to line them up. You know, you do away with the little lines in the game. And if you are doing it properly, they come down at a speed at which is normal and you can handle it, right? Okay, I can turn that in place. Okay, did away with another line. But if you are really bad

at it like me, then eventually you don't stack them very well, right? And pretty soon it starts getting to the top. And as it gets closer to the top, as your stack of blocks gets closer to the top, two things start happening. Number one, the music speeds up. You notice that? You're like, right? And so the music speeds up and then the pieces start flying down a lot faster. You're

like, and it stacks up. It's like, because you just lost the game. That's what an anxiety attack feels like. Because as it starts to pile up on you, pretty soon you can't stack the blocks very well anymore, right? All of a sudden, one block blocked everything else. So now you can't stack anything else. And all of a sudden they start coming. And then when it really hits you hard,

they start coming so fast and you can't even see straight anymore. It's like they just stack up on you. And pretty soon you hear, because you just lost the game, right? And that's what anxiety is. And that's what anxiety is. And that's what anxiety is. And that's what anxiety does to us. And that's why you have to deal with it the way that Paul's talking about, because

otherwise, as it starts to stack up, it becomes so overwhelming that you can't handle it because it robs you of your peace and your joy and your rest. But the third reason why it's important to deal with anxiety is because it takes a situation out of God's hands and it puts it into your hands because that's ultimately what it does to us, right? Is we say, no, no, God, I've got this one. And then we worry about it. It's a good thing.

I'm holding onto it now. I will worry about it until it's dealt with. And God's going, you're not going to have that taken care of, but you took it out of my hands and we hold onto it for ourselves. And so we have to deal with it. And so Paul says, do not be anxious about anything. And essentially what he says second to do is pray about everything, pray about everything.

Notice what it says in middle of verse six, he says, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, giving, let your requests be made known to God. So there's a handful of phrases I'd like to point out to you. The first one he says is in everything, the amplified Bible translates it like this in every circumstance and in every situation, the word, everything, when literally translated means all things. So in all things, you are to give them to the Lord in prayer. Now I would tell you that

we have a tendency to put our needs into three different baskets, right? One basket is this is too small for God. I don't need to take that to God because that's too small for him. There's another basket over here on the other side. We say that's too big for God. I know we're not supposed to say that as Christians, but you know, we do it right. It's the, that's not the correct Sunday school answer, but it's what we

do. Sometimes we say that's, that's too big for God. And then somewhere in the middle, we have what I call the Goldilocks basket. These are just right, right? These are, these are the things I'm willing to give to God because these are just right for him. Well, I'm here to tell you right now, what Paul just told us is that we are to give God everything. That means that in our lives,

there is nothing too big for God. Now, again, you may not out and out say God can't handle that because it's too big for him, but I'm here to tell you right now, you pray a little differently for the big things than you do the little things. You ever notice that you've got a headache? Sure. Dear Jesus, please take away their headache. Amen. You've got cancer. Lord, deliver them, right?

Because we think that's really big for God. And really there's, there's only one category of things for God and that's, it's no big deal, right? Because, because he's God. And so we put him in this category. And sometimes we think things are too big for God saying not that he can't handle it, but it's too big, meaning he won't handle it, right? Oh, that's too big. God's

not going to deal with that. God's not going to take care of that in my life. And we think that there's things that are too big for God. And so we don't take them to God because we just say, God's not going to handle that anyway. It's too big. And then over here, we've got this other thing where we're like, oh, these things are really, really small. And I'm not going to bother

God with that. I'm not going to bother him with that, right? It's kind of like kids. We sometimes view God as the really busy parent, right? We all know what it's like to be a really busy parent and your kid's holding a balloon, right? We've all been there. I've been to Red Robin. I don't know how many times, but in fact, we were at Red Robin a few months ago and my

teenage daughter wanted a balloon and I think she lost it. Same thing happened, right? So, so you go to the Red Robin and you get the balloon and the kid's holding the balloon and you're busy as a parent, right? You don't care that much about the balloon because well, it's a balloon, right? And so then all of a sudden your kid tries to switch hands with the balloon for some dumb reason, right? And the balloon goes up in

the air. You're like, I'll get you another balloon. Okay. Well, listen, I heard this equation one time. It's like, can you imagine losing your wallet? And somebody looked at, I'll get you another one. Okay. No, you don't understand. My credit cards were in that thing. My driver's license was, this is a big deal. But too many of us view God like the busy parent who says,

I don't care if you lost your balloon, I'll get you another one, right? Meanwhile, God's going, I care that you lost the balloon. Like I care about that. If it bothers you, it bothers me. We hear it all the time, right? Oh, that's a first world problem. You don't need to bother God with that. Look, if it concerns you, then God cares. Now he may do a work in your heart and show you that what you're worried

about is not that big of a deal, but it doesn't mean he doesn't care because if it's on your heart, if it's on your mind, he wants to know about it because believe it or not, little things become big things. Have you noticed that in life? In God, the thing when it's little, pretty soon it grows into something big. It's like rolling up a snowball, right? Started off that big. You start rolling that thing up pretty soon. You're standing

up like this because it got really big. Well, that's what happens in our lives. The little things become the big things. And so we can't go, that's too small for God because it could become something really big. And so he says in everything, if it causes you worry that he absolutely cares in everything. First of all, by prayer, Prayer. Prayer. The word prayer here, I love the way Kenneth Weiss put this. He said the word

prayer here means prayer whose essence is devotion and worship. It is a general term for communication with God. Now, I've heard people say, you know, you should spend 15 minutes a day at least in prayer. And I disagree with that. I think you should spend 15 minutes a day in prayer, but I think it should be much longer than that. I actually think you should spend all day in prayer.

This has always been my philosophy. You've probably heard me share it before. I think when you wake up in the morning, you should say, dear Lord. When you go to bed at night, you should say amen. And your entire day should be a conversation with God. And so as you're praying, let that be the first thing that starts your day. If you battle anxiety, you know that you wake up thinking

about it, don't you? You wake up with that on your mind. And so the best thing for you to do is to start talking to God about it the moment that you wake up. Because if it's on your mind, the moment that you wake up, then you need to start talking to God about it. The moment that you wake up. I shared with first service, I had to do this when I was in my early twenties and I was battling anxiety. But you know, when I became the pastor here,

when I took over as a senior pastor, I woke up every morning for the first six months to a year sick to my stomach because it's a big responsibility, right? And I'm kind of an idiot sometimes. And I'm not always as responsible as I should be. And so, and so I would wake up every morning and go, Oh God, I'm not as responsible as I should be. And so, and so I would wake up every morning and go,

Oh God, I'm not as responsible as I should be. And so, and so I would wake up every morning and go, Oh God, God, I don't know if I can do this. I don't, I don't know if I have what it takes to do this. And so from the word go, I would just have to start praying. And that was what I did all day long. Everything that would come up, I would have to say, Lord, you got to take it because I don't

know how to handle this right now. I do this today. I don't wake up sick like I used to anymore, but, but I start off in the morning going, Lord, you got to take this. You got to handle it. And so everything by prayer, by a lifestyle of constant communication with God, so everything, uh, don't be anxious for anything, but in everything by prayer. And then the second word is supplication. Now that's a great theological term. That's going

to make you sound really smart in front of your friends. You say, I presented supplication unto the Lord, right? It's like praying in King James automatically sound awesome, right? The word supplication means this. The word supplication, uh, simply means a cry for personal needs, a cry for personal needs. I like to call this the real work of prayer. This is where you're actually making requests of the Lord requests about the

things that you have going on in your life requests about the things that you see going on in the world requests that you have for people in their lives that they've told you about. It's making requests unto the Lord. It's actually pouring out your heart to him. And then the third thing he tells us is that we should pray about everything through prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving.

A word that doesn't really need defined. We have an entire holiday for it, but there are a handful of things that I think that we should begin to thank God for as we pour out our hearts to him. The first thing that we thank God for, and by the way, I believe that this is actually the key to this entire verse. It's the, it's the key to this entire method of dealing with anxiety.

First of all, we thank God for who he is. We thank God for the fact that, that he is the same God, like the song that we sang right there, uh, before we started the message that he is, the same God that he was when David was fighting Goliath, that he is the same God who parted the waters, that he is the same God who fed the 5,000, that he is the same God who raised the dead. We, we thank him for the fact that he is the same God who heard prayers 6,000 years ago. He's hearing prayers today, and he cares about the things today that he is the God who not only hears prayers, but he answers prayers and he longs for us to bring these things to him.

So we start off by thanking God for who he is. The second thing that we thank God, for is we thank God for what he has done for us in the past. That's why I think you should write those kinds of things down. Uh, scripture calls them Ebenezer stones, stones of remembrance, places of remembrance, where you remember what God has done for you in the past, not because we want to dwell on only those victories, but past victory reminds us of present power. And we thank God for what he's done in the past. I don't know how many times

I've said, Lord, I thank you so much that you've delivered me from so many things in the past, and you brought peace into my life, but that you have worked me through so many things, but Lord, here we are again, right? I'm kind of here again, where I've got something else I need you to work on, but Lord, I know you're the same God who did that in the past. And we thank God for what he's done in the past. But the third thing that we thank God for is we thank God for what he promises to do in the present, what God promises to do in the present.

There, there's another little section of scripture that's been really important for me in battling these things. And that's over in Psalm 42. So turn over to Psalm 42 real quick.

Nothing a pastor likes more than hearing the sound of pages turning. So Psalm 42, the verses I really want to focus on are five and six, but I feel like verses one through four create the context for it. And so start in Psalm 42 verse one, it says this as the deer pants for the water Brooks. So my soul pants for you. Oh God, my soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall, when shall I come and appear before God?

My tears have been my food day and night while they say to me all day long, where is your God? These things I remember and I pour out my soul within me for I used to go along with the throng and lead them in the procession to the house of God with the voice of joy and thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival. First of all, do those, those first four verses not sound like the psalmist is battling? Anxiety and depression. Do those words not maybe match the way that you felt when you've gone

through some of these things before? And what you notice, we says in verse five, why are you in despair? Oh my soul. And why have you become so disturbed within me? Hope in God for I shall again praise him for the help of his presence. Oh my God, my soul is in despair within me. Therefore, I remember you from the land of Jordan and the peaks of Herman and from Mount Mazar.

Now, now there's a very important lesson in this and it has to do with what we just talked about because he basically just put together everything that we just said in Philippians chapter four, verse six, right? He knew that there was an issue. He knew that there was anxiety inside of him. And so instead of being anxious, he began to pour out his heart to the Lord. And as he poured out his

heart to the Lord, he did a beautiful thing. He said, why are you in despair? Oh my soul. Now, one of the first keys to overcoming anxiety and depression is to overcome anxiety and depression. You have to talk to yourself. Don't let yourself talk to you. That's how you got in this situation, but you need to talk to yourself. They say, if you talk to yourself, you're crazy. I actually

say that's when you first begin to be in your right mind because you're talking to yourself anyway, right? I do it all the time. You do too. We talk to ourselves. First thing we need to say is how did I get here? What is really bothering me? What is the root of what's going on? This is always the hardest thing to do is to unwind things to get down to the root. Remember how we said a

lot of big problems start off really small. Well, you have to get down to the root of what's going on. You have to get down to the root of what caused it. And as you get down to the root of what caused it, as you get down to the heart of your anxious thoughts, your anxious feelings, you have to learn to hope in God. In other words, you need to find what God has to say about what it is that you're

worried about. Let's say that you're worried about your health, right? Let's say you're one of those people that deals with health anxiety and you're always scared about that. And so you need to say, Lord, I know that my greatest fear is that there's going to be something wrong with me. But father, I know that your word tells me that you are the greatest fear. I know that

you're a great physician. And I also know that your word tells me that I am kept by the power of God through faith. So nothing is going to come into my life that's not, first of all, been filtered through the hands of a loving God. And I know that you know me better than I can imagine. So Lord, I'm going to choose to trust in you. You see, that's knowing why you're in despair and then

hoping in God. And you're thanking God for his present promise for what's going on in your life now. I dealt with the fear about my walk with Jesus Christ. I dealt with all of the shame of sins that I'd done in the past and the fear of whether or not I was in the right place now. And so I began to hope in God. Lord, I know that your word says that if you confess your sin,

that you are faithful and just, that if I confess my sin, that you're faithful and just to forgive me of my sin and to cleanse me of all unrighteousness. I've done that. I'm going to believe that I am cleansed. I am going to believe that you have cleansed me by the blood of Jesus Christ. And Lord, your word tells me that the same grace that saved me is the grace that is teaching

to walk soberly, righteously, and godly in this present age. So Lord, I am going to rest in the fact that your grace is going to teach me and empower me to be who you've called me to be. You see, that's me hoping in God. And that's what we have to do is we have to start thanking God, not only for who he is, not only for what he's done in the past, but thanking him for what he promises to do today with the thing that's causing you the most stress. Amen. So we go back,

go back to Philippians chapter four. He says, be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. I'm going to give you Ryan's translation of let your requests be made known to God. Unload what you're carrying. Unload what you're carrying. Let me give you a little illustration of this. So sometimes in the middle of the day, like lunchtime,

I'm like, oh shoot, I need something from the store, right? So I'll go to the store and I go to the store for one thing. You ever been there? You go to the store for one thing and walk into the store and I pick up the one thing that I need, but I walk by, especially at the Dillon's. Dillon's kills me on this. And it's like, buy five of those and you'll save 425. And I'm like, I'm pretty sure

I need five of them then because that's how I'm going to save $4 and 25 cents today. So I've got the one thing I came in the store for, right? And then I pick up five boxes of whatever granola bar it said. I'm like, I absolutely need five boxes of these. So I'm walking, and then I see ice cream and I'm like, that's going to be pretty good later. I'm going to grab

some ice cream too. And I've got all these things in my hand. And then I get ready to head to the checkout counter. I'm like, oh man, I forgot bananas. I was supposed to get bananas. So you go back to the whole time. I didn't get a cart, right? That wouldn't have been a smart thing to do, but I only went in there for one thing, right? So I go over to the bananas and I take my pinky

and I hook, hook the bananas with, some of y'all work at Dillon's, you've seen me do this, hook the bananas with my pinky. And by the time I get to the checkout, I'm waddling, right? Because I'm losing everything. I'm like, and they get to the checkout counter. The worst thing is when there's five people in line, right? And you're like, and nobody looks at you and says, you want me to get something for you? Nope. They're just like,

should have grabbed a cart, huh? I'm like, thanks moron. So, so I'm standing there like this holding this and you get to the counter and you're just like, that was a lot that I was carrying. That's exactly what he means. When he says, let your request, be made known to God. Because a lot of you are walking around the store right now and you don't have a lot of stuff in your arms. You've got a lot of stuff in your mind.

And just like me, you're barely holding on to all of it. Matter of fact, you're kind of waddling around because you can't hold it all in. You can't hold it all together. And all you need to do is get to Jesus, put down everything that you're carrying, put it back in God's hands. Let your requests be made. Be made known to God. And then I want you to notice what he says is going to be the result

of this. Verse seven, and the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. The peace of God, that word peace literally means personal tranquility. Isn't that great? Isn't it a beautiful thought when you've had all of the stuff that you're carrying, all of the anxiousness going on in your brain, when you can finally give it to

the Lord and you just say, I'm going to give it to the Lord. And you just say, I'm going to give it to the Lord. And you just have peace, right? I like to think of it as somebody turned the radio down. You know what? They always said you'd reach that age where you got to turn the radio down so that you can see in traffic, right? I'm there. I've arrived, right? So you're driving along and

it's like the music's playing. And at first you're like, sweet tooth, like you're digging what you're listening to. And then all of a sudden everybody else is talking in the back and having a conversation. Sometimes the conversation a little more lively and spirited than you intended for the And the music's blaring really loud. And you're in really heavy traffic in downtown Kansas City.

And you're like, ah, and you turn the radio down. You're like, you guys be quiet. And the radio and everything just gets peaceful in the car. And you're like, ah, now I can focus, right? When we lay all of those things down for Jesus, it's like, it's like he turns the radio down and you're like, ah, now I can focus. He says that personal tranquility, the peace of God will guard your

hearts and your minds. We actually talked about this word guard last week. It's the exact same word from first Peter. When Peter said that you are kept by the power of God through faith, it's a military term. It means to garrison about or to Mount guard around. And the idea is this, that when you take all of those things to Jesus and really give them to him, he actually puts a guard around

you, a fence around you, a fort around you, if you will, and guards you with his peace. It's as if I'm protecting him now. And that's what takes place in our lives. And I'm here to tell you right now, as somebody who has really experienced what that's like, who knows what it's like to hear all of the noise, to carry all of the things and to finally let them down and really rest in God.

And listen, sometimes when we're laying those things out to Jesus, sometimes when we're giving them to him, we're not using all the right words, right? We're not, we're not using all of the pretty prayer language. And quite frankly, sometimes we should stop using the prayer language. The pretty prayer language and start using the real prayer language, which is you just saying what's really going on in your heart. Cause sometimes you give things to God by telling

him. Sometimes you give things to God by yelling them. Sometimes you give things to God by just going and the Holy spirit goes, this is what he meant, right? Because he intercedes for us with words that can't be understood. And after you've done all of those things and you finally give it to Jesus, you're just like, it's not mine anymore. And you can just live in peace.

As somebody who knows exactly what it's like to live on both sides of those, I can tell you the peace cannot be described. Truly it is a peace that surpasses all understanding and it guards your hearts and your minds. Brothers and sisters, if we want to win the battle of the mind, we have to first overcome anxiety. The next thing that he tells us is that if we want to win the battle of the mind, we need to take control of our thought life. Notice what it says in verse eight,

he says, finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute. If there is any excellence, if anything worthy of praise dwell on these things, I have learned some things over the years about technology. I'm not a technology guy. I'm actually an anti-technology guy, but I've learned some things about technology and that's that search engines, your phone, your computer, all those things. They work off of,

of an algorithm, right? And so the more that you input information, the more it gives you that kind of information back, right? So the more that you search for something, the more that it will give you those kinds of results on your phone or on your tablet or on your, or on your computer. That's why if you were to go on my Instagram search thing, you would find coffee, running shoes, and premium Bibles, right? Premium leather Bibles. It would be all over my Instagram search page

because that's what I look for a lot, right? I follow those types of things. And so I'm always learning more about them. Sidebar, the coffee art stuff is fascinating. If you want to really improve your algorithm search for coffee art, it's an amazing thing to watch. Anyway, that's neither here nor there. But, but the more that you put in information, the more it gives you that type of information back, right?

Like that's just the basics of it. Well, our brains are like computers and the more you put certain information in, the more you get that kind of information back because the more you pour in the search results, the more it gives you those kinds of information back. So that's why I'm so excited about that. So if you're pouring garbage into your brain all the time, then the search results that will continue to come out are garbage. If you pour good things into your brain all the time, the more the

search results that come out will be good stuff. That's why Jesus said out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. That's why I tell you, let me listen to the things that you say, and I will tell you what kind of things you're taking in. Not just me. Anybody can do it because we put out what goes in. And so Paul says, you have to reset the algorithm. You have to reset the way that you think, and you

have to take control of your thought life. And this is how he tells us to do it. He gives us a list of several things that we should dwell on. He says, finally, brother, whatever is, and there's eight things, and we'll take just a few moments to talk about them. Whatever is number one, true. True. The word true is not speaking of honesty here. What it's speaking of is having the character of truth

or being genuine. Think about the things that are, that have the character of truth or very genuine in nature. The second word that he gives us is honorable, worthy of reverence, noble or honest. Now I got to tell you, this one, this one kind of got me a little bit because growing up in the nineties, I'm, I'm a fan of irreverent humor and I have to be a little bit careful about that. Like I like

sarcasm and, and, and you have to be a little bit careful with those kinds of things. And so it's interesting because what we, introduced in the nineties has now gone and exploded in this generation because now this generation has no honor or reverence for anything. And it's probably because of my generation and our irreverent humor, right? And so the Lord really convicted me on that. Whatever things are honorable,

worthy of reverence, noble or honest. Number three, he says, whatever things are right. The word right means righteous or upright or virtuous. Feels like we're sort of pushing Netflix off of this thing. Number four, the word that he gives us pure, the word pure means clean or innocent or modest. The fifth word that he gives us is lovely. The word lovely means acceptable or pleasing,

especially to the Lord. Number six is of good repute, which literally means attractive or of good report. And the word attractive there isn't speaking of physically attractive. It's speaking of spiritually attractive, right? Something that is spiritually good for us. Number seven, he gives us pure, which literally means clean or innocent or modest. The word attractive there isn't

speaking of physically attractive, which literally means clean or modest. The word attractive there isn't speaking of spiritually attractive, which literally means clean or modest. The word attractive there isn't the word excellence. And the word excellence more clearly is moral excellence. Think about the things that are of moral excellence. And the last one that he gives us is the word praiseworthy or a

fit object of praise. Now, as I thought about this list of things, I thought about the fact that they seem to describe two major players to me or two things fit this category. The first thing that fits this category, I believe is the word of God, right? Like, like you could easily, you know, easily define the word of God as all of these things, true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, good, excellent, praiseworthy, right? So that tells me that the word of God is really important in our

lives. But I also feel like there's a person that encapsulates all of these things and perhaps is even the definition of all of these things. Matter of fact, J. Vernon McGee in his commentary says that this is a microcosm of Christ because Jesus is all of these things. He is true and honorable and right and pure and lovely and good and excellent and praiseworthy. That tells me

that if this is the list and those two things fit the list, what should I be spending a good percentage of my time focused on? Jesus and the word, right? And of course, nature is a beautiful thing because it reveals truth to us. It reveals God to us. There's a lot of really good things to pay attention to, but he tells us that whatever these things are, we should dwell on these things.

That's what he tells us at the end of the verse, dwell on these things. The word dwell can also be translated to think or to meditate. The idea is to make the subject of careful reflection, to center your mind on them and implant them in your heart, to meditate on them. Now, those are some really great definitions, but I really feel like what J. Vernon McGee has to say is the perfect picture of it,

especially given the fact that we live in an agricultural area. Now, I did not grow up on a farm. I didn't grow up around farm animals, but I knew people that did. And I've read a lot of J. Vernon McGee who also grew up on a farm. And J. Vernon McGee's description of this is beautiful. He said, now, friend, I don't do a good J. Vernon McGee. I do the best that I can, but his voice is almost un-mockable, right? Now,

friend, the cow has about eight stomachs, maybe it's seven, several different stomachs. He said, the cow always chews the cud and describes it like this. He says, a cow will begin to chew on grass or straw or hay, and they will chew and they will chew and they will chew and they will chew. Have you ever noticed that? Have you ever looked at a cow? Their mouth,

like me next to a box of donuts, right? It's just always moving the entire time. And then they'll swallow it. It'll go down in their stomach and they'll sit in that stomach and again, listen to it. And later on in the day, they'll belch that thing up and go, that's still good. And they'll chew on it some more until they get some more goodness out of it. And they'll do that multiple times throughout the day. It's called chewing the cud. And they

just keep getting more and more nutrients out of it. That's the idea of what it means to meditate on something. It means to chew on it, to muse over it. And that's what we should do with these things that he listed is we should allow them to constantly flow through our mind, just like a cow chews its cud. Now, I bet you're asking yourself right now. Well, actually, the first question you're

asking yourself right now is why did he tell us that story? The second question you're asking yourself is how do we do that? Well, I think there's two ways that we become those who dwell on these things. The first thing that we have to do is eliminate what's not on the list. You have to eliminate what's not on the list. You know why? Because if it's not on the list,

that means it's probably going to put something bad out. It's going to work in your mind. And that search result is going to keep putting bad things out of you. You can't take in all of the garbage of the world and expect to put out godly things, right? And so first of all, we have to eliminate what's not on the list. I call it turning off the noise. Right? Turn off what's around you. And you may have to make some hard decisions about that.

You may have to make some hard decisions about what should and should not go into your ear gates or into your eye gates, because the more that you take it in, the more that that is what comes out. I told this story to first service. I'll give myself away on this one, too. I think I've told it before. But one of the early things that the Lord delivered me from when I really

started walking with Jesus is he delivered me from a foul mouth, right? And so I did really, really good. Right? For a long time, it just was something the Lord delivered me from very easily. It was not a hard one for me to let go of. But when I was working construction, I was around a bunch of rough talking guys all the time, right? And so as I'm around all these rough talking guys, it usually

wasn't too big of a deal. But there was a summer where we worked seven days a week, and I'm around these guys 10 hours a day, seven days a week, more than around anybody else in the world. And I'm taking it all in constantly. I'm doing everything that I can to keep myself from allowing any of the things that are going in to come out. I mean, there was a day where a subcontractor just really burnt my baskets, right? I was just

really upset because this guy was just being a real turd. And I'm working alongside this young guy with me, and he did something. And man, I let something out of my mouth. And I just looked at the guy next to me and said, man, I'm so sorry. I did not mean to do that. I just, I got frustrated and I should not have let that out of my mouth. Of course, he looked at me and said, I decided a

long time ago. So I felt a little bit better about that. But it still wasn't right that it came out of my mouth. And it was at that point in time that I'm going, Lord, I'm around this stuff all the time. How am I supposed to cleanse myself? It's not like I'm watching a movie that's got all this stuff in it. These are people I work with. And as hard as I've tried to turn all of their

mouths off, it hasn't worked yet, right? Maybe you've tried that at your work too. And you're like, shh, they keep talking. That's just what they do. Like, Lord, what am I supposed to do about it? He said, you have to take in more of my word than you're taking in of them. I was like, whoa, that's a lot. And so I knew every night before I went to bed, I had to take in God's word

because I had to wash it. I had to wash it out of my brain, right? And so I had to, first of all, eliminate the best that you can, the things that are around you, the things that are not on this list. But the second thing that we have to do is we have to occupy our minds with what is on the list. And where did we say all of these things on the list fit? Two categories, Jesus and his word.

That means I should spend time in fellowship and I should spend time in his word. Remember, how are you doing on the reading plan? I like to point this out every now and then. How are you doing on this? Are you still with me on it? Maybe you gave up. Maybe today's the day to start again. Maybe you gave up and all you can do is make it through the book of Luke for the rest of the

year. That's okay. Spend time, read five verses a day, right? For the rest of the year. If that's all you did, it would still be a good thing because you're still taking it in. Hearing what God's word has to say, you could even, now listen, you don't want to get too freaky here, but you could even memorize it, right? People used to do this all the time. People used to memorize phone

numbers. Remember that? Remember memorizing phone numbers? I don't do that anymore. We still memorize God's word, right? There are actual apps that will help you memorize God's word. They will take away a word at a time, right? So that you can memorize verses of scripture, take it in, meditate on it, chew on it, and let that be what goes through your mind. And listen, when you do that, you will reset the algorithm. I promise, because you will

put out what goes in. He goes on from there to say, the things, verse nine, learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things and the God of peace will be with you. Paul says, it's great to take all of these things in. It's great to take in everything that I'm writing to you now, everything that I taught to you in the past, and even the example that I gave to you. But as you take these things in, as you have learned and received them,

now practice them. That word practice means a habitual practice to make it your manner of life. Let me put it to you this way. Live out what you learn. Live out what you take in. It's one thing to meditate on God's word. It's a whole other ball of wax to start putting it into practice in your life every day. But even in the midst of that, don't worry, because the God of peace, he's with you. You don't have to do it on your own.

And so brothers and sisters, as we continue on in chapter four, I want to remind you that if we are to win the battle of our life, we are going to win the battle of our life. We are going to win the battle of our life. We are going to win the battle of our mind. We have to overcome anxiety, and we need to take control of our thought lives. Amen? Well, this morning is communion Sunday. I'm looking, I don't

see any kids down there yet. Oh yeah, no, they're not going to be here. Okay, they'll be here, but I'm going to invite the worship team to come up. So as the kids are being gathered, I'll remind us what we're doing here. Inside of each of these trays are a couple of elements. They're stacked together, two cups. Bottom cup has the cracker in it. Top cup has the juice in it. And then as a

reminder, it is a declaration of the one thing that gives us hope in our lives, and that's the blood of Jesus Christ. The one place that we can put all of these things under, and that's the blood of Jesus. Because we are reminded that the thing that makes peace between us and God is the same thing that makes peace between us and each other. And that's the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. And so that bread represents the body of Christ that was broken for

us. And so that bread represents the body of Jesus Christ on the cross. And so that bread represents us. We're reminded that on that last great night of the feast, Jesus took that bread, that bread that was unleavened, meaning it was sinless. It was pierced, and it was striped. That perfect picture of Jesus Christ, he took the bread, and he broke it. He said, this is my body, which is broken for

you. Take and eat. And then he took the cup, and he said, this is the cup of the new covenant of my blood, which is shed for you. So we're told that every time we do this, we declare the death of Jesus Christ. Because he said his name. So we're told to do this in remembrance of me. So we're told to do so in a worthy manner. Our hearts need to be right with Jesus in every way possible. Our hearts need to be right with

him. And so take this time as the worship team leads us to make sure that your hearts are right with Jesus. So I'm going to invite all the kiddos to come in. If you can keep an eye on where the kiddos are coming in, in case they're looking for you. Come on in, kids. Those. And so the worship team is going to lead us in the last song. The ushers are going to come down and hand out the

elements. and as you receive your elements, if you would please stand, but also as they're singing this last song, just ask the Lord to search your heart, to know what needs to be dealt with in you, to know what needs to be given to Christ, to know what needs to be laid out on the counter. Give it all to him. Amen. Father, we come to you now and we thank you, Lord, for who you are,

that you are the God who loved us enough to take on the form of a man and die for us. Father, I thank you for your body that was broken for us. Lord, broken for the sins of humanity, bruised for our iniquities. Lord, that by your stripes we are healed. Father, I thank you for the blood of Jesus, your blood that was shed for us for the remission of sins. Lord, your blood

that is enough to take away sin for all time, your blood that's never failed us yet. So, Father, as we partake together, Lord, may we always be in mind of the great love that you have for us, the great sacrifice that you made for us. We just thank you, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen. You may partake. And if you'd bow with me one last time. Father, be with us as we go out from here.

Lord, may your Holy Spirit that began this work this morning complete it in our lives. Father, we thank you and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed. Amen.