Winning the Battle of the Mind Pt 2

Good to see everybody. Glad you can make it. If you guys want to go ahead and stand with us, we'll pray and we'll get started.

We thank you for the day and we just want to take a moment and just give you praise. Lord God, you are just so good to us. Lord, you are always faithful. Lord, your promises are true. You've always kept your promises. Lord God, you are just, you are wise, and you are a powerful God. You are loving, and you are kind, and you are good. But God, we just, we praise you this morning, God. We raise a hallelujah.

You guys can go ahead and have a seat if you like, and we'll continue on.

Yes, Lord God. In the end, Lord God, no matter how many times we fail, we know that you will never fail, for the battle belongs to you. Amen? My love is raging. It's my eyes, guys. I know it seems like evil is winning in a lot of areas right now, Lord. But we know that in the end, Lord God, and the devil is defeated. Amen?

Father God, you are unchanging. God, you are the same today as you were back then. God, you are the God who led your people through an ocean to freedom from captivity, God. You are that same God today. God, you've never changed. You never will.

You are the God that we need. We need you so much. We need you so much. We need you so much. We need you so desperately in our lives right now, Lord God, with everything that's going on. God, we may not even realize it, God, how deeply and how much we need you, Lord.

Lord, just come and invade our lives this morning. Lord, have your way in our hearts. As Pastor Ryan comes up to bring the word, speak mightily through him. Lord, overflow him with your Holy Spirit and your gift of teaching. Give him the words to speak for our hearts to receive it. We love you, Lord God, and we praise you, and we thank you. All God's people said, amen.

Let's have some fellowship.

Grab your bulletin. We'll get ready to go over some announcements.

Welcome to Calvary Chapel. I'm glad that you joined us this morning. A few things to take note of. Everything on the left-hand side is happening as usual, so take note of that. In the middle section of your bulletin tonight, since it's the first Sunday of the month, will be our night of intercessory prayer at 6 o'clock. Right here at the church. Ladies, you have a ladies' breakfast coming up this Saturday, May the 11th,

at 8 a.m. over at Daisy Mays. A reminder that Vacation Bible School is coming soon, June 19th through the 21st. I think there's more meetings taking place today, so they should have some sign-up sheets out for those that want to help in the very near future. And then also sign-ups for getting people to come to the church. Getting kids involved. So if you know kids that might want to come to VBS, it's always a great time, so check that out as well.

And then ladies, just a reminder that Anita is beginning a study this Wednesday from 11 to noon down in the Agape room. And I think the sign-up sheet is still out there. And if you have any questions, you can visit with her. So those are the things that are going on. If you would make sure that your mobile device is silenced 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 all sound the same. If you need a copy of the New American Standard, it should be one in the row around you. And as you are turning to Psalm 5, if you would please stand in the honor of the reading of God's Word, if you are able.

I will 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. I don't know. I don't have a flute. Do you have a flute? No, sir. Well, just have to pretend. A Psalm of David. Give ear to my words, O Lord, and consider my groaning. 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 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 in your rightness because of my foes. Make your way straight before me. There is nothing reliable in what they say. Their inward part is destruction. 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. You are a righteous man, O Lord. You surround him with favor as with a shield.

And Father, we come before you, and I thank you, Lord, that you do give ear to our words. And Lord, you consider our meditations and our groanings, and you care about everything, Lord, that bothers us. And so, Father, I pray that as we take time in your word this morning, I just ask that you administer to us by your Holy Spirit. Open up the eyes of our understanding, Lord, to take in exactly what it is that your Holy Spirit wants to say.

Speak to us, in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. And if you would, open up in your Bibles to the book of Philippians, chapter 4.

Philippians, chapter 4. Well, as has been mentioned, we said that every chapter in Philippians has taught us a lesson about joy. And the lesson that we're learning in chapter 4 is that joy comes from winning the battle of the mind. Last week, we opened up by saying, that so many of the issues that we deal with, so many of the battles that we face, they all start in our mind.

They all start with a thought. They all start with entertaining a thought, or thoughts that sometimes overwhelm us, or distract us, or can overtake our lives. And so, if we want to have joy, we need to win the battle of the mind. And so, in Philippians, chapter 4, we said he was going to give us several different lessons on what that looks like. And so, last week, we covered three of them.

We said that winning the battle of the mind means that we... stand firm, means that we will restore relationships, and means that we will rejoice in the Lord. Well, today, we come to two more lessons that he gives to us on winning the battle of the mind. And so, starting in verse 6 of 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 learned and received... and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

Now, there's two lessons that we'll learn from this. The first lesson that we'll cover, which is ultimately our fourth lesson in winning the battle of the mind, is that if we are going to win the battle of the mind, we need to overcome anxiety. Overcome anxiety. Let me read verse 6 to us again. It says, Be anxious for nothing, but in everything... by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

Now, the battle of anxiety is one that I am particularly familiar with. I've dealt with it a lot. It's a little bit of my DNA. It's a little bit of my makeup. I tend to be a little bit of an anxious person because I tend to overthink. I get caught up in my own mind sometimes. I get caught up in my own head. But that anxiety is something that I've dealt with quite a bit in my life.

And so this verse, these verses are really, really important to me because God has used these verses in my life quite a bit. And so let's kind of break down what he tells us to do. The first thing he says is, Don't be anxious about anything. That word anxious can mean worry, troubled with care, or distracted with care. Now, I don't know about you, but we live in a little bit of a culture that deals with this a lot.

This is actually known as the anxious generation. Because this particular time that we're living in right now, particularly those that are young people, although I don't think this is exclusive to people under the age of 35, particularly young people deal with a lot of anxiety right now. And quite frankly, given the world that we live in, it's not overly difficult to figure out why anxiety tends to rule us. And so as I was thinking about this, I thought, what are some of the things that cause us to be anxious?

What are some of the things that cause us anxiety in our culture today? And I didn't have to look much. That's my own life. Because I deal with these things too. So these are some of the things that we get anxious about. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but some that not only I, but other people that I deal with are dealing with when it comes to anxiety.

The first thing that we deal with anxiety about is we deal with it with money, right? I don't know how many times every meme that comes across any kind of social media talks about the fact that your money doesn't go as far as it used to, right? Buying groceries costs more than it used to. Buying gas. Gasoline costs more than it used to. Breathing air costs more than it used to, right?

I mean, everything's just more expensive than it used to be. And sometimes we worry about money because all of a sudden what we used to be able to buy, we can't buy for that anymore. And so money becomes a source of stress. Money becomes a source of anxiety. And sometimes that source of anxiety is not only what occupies our minds, but oftentimes what destroys our relationships

because that anxiety over money becomes something that spills over into us. To us and our spouse discussing money. And so the first thing is that that causes us anxiousness is money. Sometimes relationships cause us anxiousness, whether they be the relationships with our spouse and things aren't working out the way that we thought they were going to. And so there's, there's angst,

whether it be a relationship with a friend that's in a broken sort of a spot. And now we're anxious about how that's going to work out. Whether it be a relationship that we hope to be in someday that we're not, sometimes causes us anxiety, but sometimes those relationships cause, cause us anxiety. Number three is jobs. You worry about whether or not you can perform in your job the way that you're supposed to.

You worry about whether or not that job is going to be there tomorrow, right? And so sometimes jobs cause us anxiety. The, the future just in general, what is the future going to hold for us? I don't know how many young people that I talk to right now, that they are so stressed out about the future, either because they don't know who they're going to, marry someday or they don't know what career they're supposed to move into, what type of job they're supposed to move into, what school they're supposed to go to, what kind of future there is even going to be.

And whether you agree with, with the environmental movement or not, there are a certain number of people who see the way things are going and they get concerned about the future. And it causes anxiety for people. The next one that I've put is one that I particularly deal with a lot. And it's sometimes we can have anxiety in our walk with Jesus Christ because we, we want so badly to do the right thing.

We want so badly to be who God calls for us to be that we take all of that into our own hands. And we find ourselves getting anxious about it because we try too hard to be who God wants us to be instead of resting in what God's Holy Spirit can do for us. Sometimes kids cause us anxiety. Sometimes your kids cause you anxiety because you have them right? And gosh darn it.

They're fun little people, but man, can they cause a lot of stress, right? When my kids were tiny, they caused me stress because they didn't sleep at night. And, and now they cause me stress because they don't sleep at night, right? I mean, it's a different thing when they're teenagers, but it's the same stress, right? Like I can't sleep because they're not asleep.

And kids cause us a great deal of anxiety because we want the best for them because maybe we get concerned about whether or not they're really going to follow Jesus with all of their hearts. And sometimes we can hold so tightly to our kids because we want them to be who God has called for them to be. And it can cause us a great deal of anxiety. And I've saved the best for last.

And that's our health. I think if there's anything, this caused people anxiety over the past few years, it's, it's been their health, right? Um, am I going to be able to remain healthy? I don't know how many people I have dealt with here lately that are, they're facing cancer diagnoses. You know, I mean, my own dad, we're dealing with this with us. And sometimes there's anxiety when it comes to our health because we don't know what's going to come next.

We, we don't know what is in store for us with what's going on with our health. I list all of these things because I guarantee I hit some, somebody at some point in time with that list that I gave where there's some sort of anxiousness that you deal with about those things. And so Paul and addressing these Philippian people says, be anxious for nothing. In other words, do not be anxious.

And interestingly enough, it is a command in the Greek structure of the sentence that you could read it like this. Stop being anxious about anything. The idea is to stop something that you are presently doing. And, in other words, these people were living anxious lives, just like in our culture today, people are living anxious lives. You're worried about things.

And so God has a message for you. Stop worrying, stop worrying about all these things that you're holding onto. Stop allowing the anxious thoughts and feelings to overtake you. Stop. He's going to give us the cure for it in just a moment. But I think sometimes the first thing that you have to do is just go, whoa, right? Have you ever, you ever been in the middle of an anxiety attack?

I don't need a show of hands. If you've ever had an anxiety attack, you know that the first thing that you have to do is you just have to just think for a minute, right? Because usually what happens is your brain races fast and you can't keep track of all of the thoughts and they start to build up. And pretty soon it's like one stacks on top of the other. It's like the end of the Tetris game,

right? If you've ever played Tetris, you know that the little blocks come down and you want to eliminate the lines and the block. And, and the beginning of the game, you're like, Oh, this is so great. I'm just stack these things up, right? Deals. But pretty soon the blocks start stacking up higher and you can't get them lined up properly. And you ever noticed at the end of your round of Tetris,

I say the end because I've never been very good at Tetris. At the end of your round of Tetris, the music speeds up, the block speed up, and pretty soon it stacks up to the top. That's the best way that I can put an anxiety attack. Is that it starts moving so fast and all of a sudden it hits the top and you're like, ah, and sometimes you've got to go, and just stop for a minute and then think rationally.

Now, why do we need to stop being anxious? Why do we need to deal with this area of our lives? Well, I'm going to give you a handful of reasons here. First of all, because unchecked anxiety leads to depression. Unchecked anxiety leads to depression. What, what happens is when you start to worry about something, you start to feel anxious about something. What you start to push it down,

right? Because that anxiety causes you stress and you have to go to work or you have to go to school or you have this social function that you have to be a part of. And there's not time for you to be anxiety field. So you kind of push it down. And as you push it down and continue to push that anxiety down, pretty soon you start to feel depressed because you've never dealt with your

worry. You've never dealt with that anxiousness. And now all of a sudden you find yourself where nothing really makes you happy anymore because you never dealt with the root of the problem. And that the root of the problem is the worry and the anxiety that you could not let go of. And so as you begin to unstack all those Tetris blocks, you go, that's what started the whole thing.

Now I need to deal with the root of the problem. So first of all, unchecked anxiety leads to depression. The second reason why you need to deal with it is because anxiety robs you. It robs you of peace. It robs you of joy. It robs you of joy. It robs you of rest. It robs you of all of those things. As a matter of fact, I would tell you if you're somebody that deals with anxiety,

you probably don't sleep very well at night. Matter of fact, you probably find yourself up multiple times in the night thinking about that exact same thing or having what I have simply termed insomnia dreams. I don't know how else to put that. Have you ever had one of those where like you dream that you're awake and you can't sleep and it's like you've slept, but you didn't feel like you slept and you wake up and you go, wow, I don't even know if I slept.

I don't even know if I slept. I slept at all that night. And then your wife looks at you and says, you snore. And so I know that you slept. So, you know, you slept that night, but, but not very well because it has robbed you of all of your rest. And then the third reason why you have to deal with anxiety is because anxiety takes the situation out of God's hands and puts it in your hands.

Anxiety takes all of the things out of God's hands. It's okay, God, I've got this. I'll handle this. And you put it in your hands, which is why it causes you so much. Anxiety. And so Paul says, don't be anxious about anything. And then he gives us the cure. He says instead to pray about everything, pray about everything. Notice what it says. Middle of verse six,

but in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. The first thing he says, he says this in everything. Literally that can be translated in every circumstance and every situation. The word literally means in all things. That means that there is nothing that you should not take to God in prayer. And usually we put our prayers into three categories,

right? We put the things that bother us into three categories. These things are too small for God. These things are too big for God. These things are just right, right? It's some of our prayers are the Goldilocks of, of prayers. These are just right. But what I want us to understand is first of all, there is nothing too big for God. Now, if you're a Bible believing Christian at all,

you know that the thing that you never say is that's too big for God, because that means you don't have any faith and everybody's going to look at you and go, well, you just need more faith. But we all in our minds, whether we want to admit it or not, sometimes think that something is too big for God. Maybe it's not too big for him to handle. Because we don't think he can.

We think it's too big to handle because we think he won't. Right? And we put things in a category of this is too big for God, not because he can't, because we know that as we sang in the song, he's the same God, but he's probably not going to do it for me. It's too big for him to do for me. And I want to tell us right now that there is zero. That's too big for God.

Everything is in God's wheelhouse, right? He's the God who parted the waters. He's the God who, who raised the dead. I don't know that there's much else that needs to be said beyond those two things, right? He's the God that fed the 5,000. He's the God who walked on water. He's the God who set the Israelites free from the Egyptians. He's the God who brought them into the land and helped them defeat all of

their enemies inside of the land. He's the God that helped David defeat Goliath. He's the God who helped Gideon, the scariest guy in all of the old Testament, overcome all of the army of the Midianites with only 300 guys. Right? He's the same God. And there's nothing that's too big for him. And don't just think there's nothing too big for him to handle. There's nothing too big that he doesn't want to handle.

So you take your thing to God because there's nothing too big, but you see, then there's the other end of the spectrum. We think some things are too small for God. I don't want to bother God with that, right? It's, it's like God is a really busy parent who is working two full-time jobs. And, and you know, he doesn't need to hear that you're out of graham crackers,

right? Even, even though you're a little stressed that you're out of graham crackers right now, right? It's always funny. The things that, that stress little kids out, if you ever, little kids do get stressed. I don't know if you ever paid attention to this or not, but, but the things that stress little kids out are just really not big things in, in the big scheme of life,

right? Like, have you ever heard the whole, if a kid loses a balloon, it's the same as if you lost your wallet, right? Like in their mind, that's the same thing. But have you ever, you ever seen a little kid, lose a balloon and they're like, I lost a balloon. You're like, dude, it's a balloon. We'll get you another one. But if you lost your wallet and you're crying about it and,

and someone's like, it's okay, we'll get you another one. No, no, we can't just do that, right? Because now I got to deal with a million different things. Well, when a little kid is stressed out, they lose the balloon. And sometimes as busy parents, we don't care. You know what? God cares. God cares that it stressed that little kid out that he just lost his

balloon. And you go, Oh Ryan, don't be silly. I'm not trying. I'm not trying to be silly. Look, if it concerns you, then he cares about it. If it's causing you anxiety, then he cares about it. Even if the entire rest of the world goes, those are first world problems. They're still your problems. And God still cares that it concerns you. Now he may tell you to suck it up a little bit,

but he still cares. And there's nothing that's too small that we can't take to God. And we have to stop thinking that because you know what happens to small things, small things become big things. Have you ever noticed that it starts as something really small, but you never took it to God. And so the small thing starts building and it keeps building and it keeps

building. And pretty soon it became something big because it can snowball fast. And so we have to take all of the little things to God too. There's nothing too big for God and there's nothing too small for God. He says, but in everything, he says by prayer and supplication, supplication with Thanksgiving. So there's three things he tells us. The first one is by prayer.

Now this is a general term for prayer. I love the Kenneth Weiss translation of this because it says by prayer, whose essence is devotion and worship. In other words, this is just the form of prayer in your life that is simply your worship to the Lord. And so you know what? I have thought about this. Do you know what the first place to start in giving your cares to God is start

by taking time to worship. Just worship the Lord, worship him through just talking to him, worship him by praising him for who he is, worship him by praising God for the great creation that he's given to us. But the first thing that you do is you start off with a prayer. There's a type of worship unto the Lord, a communication with God brings me to a really good question.

What's your prayer life like? How long do you pray every day? I heard somebody say, well, you should pray 15 minutes a day. And I disagree with that. I think you should pray 24 hours a day. You know why? Because in my opinion, when you wake up in the morning, you should say, dear Lord, when you go to bed at night, you should say, amen, because your entire day should be prayer to God.

That's one of the big things I learned. Uh, when I, when I really battled anxiety is I would wake up in the morning and I would wake up with anxious thoughts when, before I could get out of bed, I dream about it at night. And then when I'd wake up, I'd go, and you just have that pit in your gut. You know what I'm talking about? When you wake up, you're like,

Oh man, it's still there. Shoot. That's not what I'm talking about. That's not good. Right? And so the first thing you have to say is, Lord, I don't even know how to get out of bed right now because sometimes that just feels like a little bit too much for me. And so, Lord, you're just going to have to deal with this. And, and I'm, I start giving things to God.

The, the moment that I get out of bed, right? I had to do this when I became the pastor here. Um, the, the first six months to a year, I was just sick every morning when I woke up, I would wake up and I would go, Ooh, I don't think they knew what they were talking about. Right? I don't think God knew what he was doing. And I'd wake up and I just feel sick in the morning.

And it took me back to that time in my early twenties when I battled anxiety. And I would, I would just have to say, Lord, you're bigger than this. So you're going to have to take it because I have no idea how to do what I'm supposed to do today. I have no idea how to be who I'm supposed to be today. And so you wake up in the morning with that worshipful prayer,

pouring out your heart to the Lord. He says, first of all, by prayer, the general act of you constantly being in communication with God. And number two, he says supplication supplication is a great theological term, right? And it makes you sound really smart. If you, if you say my, my prayer was full of supplication, but nobody really knows what that means.

The word supplication. I love this means a cry for personal needs, a cry for personal needs. Listen, I call this the real work of prayer. Okay. This is where you start getting down to the nitty gritty of prayer, where you've started. Off worshiping God for who he is. Listen, you can't get to supplication unless you first start with worship, right? Unless there is communication.

It's really hard to get down to the nitty gritty work of prayer, but then you start to get down to the nitty gritty stuff and you start telling God your personal needs, things that are going on in your life, things that are going on in other people's lives, things that are occupying your mind, the things that you think are too big for God, the things that you think are too small for God. And the Goldilocks of prayer, the ones that are just right. All of those things you're laying out to God through supplication, through giving him all of your requests. And so with prayer and supplication, and did you notice the last part he added with Thanksgiving?

I think that that phrase right there is actually the key to the entire verse. And I want to explain to you why, of course, you know what Thanksgiving is. I don't feel like we need any sort of definition of that. It's simply the giving of thanks, right? And so when we come to God through prayer and supplication, one of the most important things we can do is apply also with it Thanksgiving.

So what are we thanking God for? Three things. Number one, we're going to thank God for who he is. We're just going to thank God for who he is. We thank him that he's the God who hears and answers prayers. We thank him that he is the God who is the same God that took care of all those big things in the Bible. We think of that. He's the God who's always patient with us,

that he's the God who cares about everything. We just, we just thank him for who he is. But the second thing that we do is we start thanking God for what he has done in the past. Thank him for what he's done for you in the past. Lord, you've delivered me from so many things. I've seen you be so faithful in the past. Why? Because past faithfulness reminds us of present power,

right? And so we, we thank God for all of the things that he's done for us in the past. But there's a third thing that we thank God for. We thank God for what he promises to do in the present. And even in the future, we thank God for what he has promised us to do. We thank God that he is the God who always keeps his promises, but also that he has promised to overcome these things.

Lord, I'm so stressed about my health right now, but father, your word tells me that you are the great physician and that my life is in your hands. And so, Lord, I know that there's nothing that's going to come into my life that has not already been filtered through the hands of your loving hands. And so I'm going to rest in that. Whatever happens, in my health, it's ultimately for my best because you are the one who is in charge.

And pretty soon, whatever happens with my health, not nearly as big of a deal because I know that I'm being held by the creator of the heavens and the earth. The one who loves me more than I can ever imagine. See how that works. There's actually another verse that's really, really important to me in my life. I want you to go there and it goes along these same lines.

Go over to Psalm 42,

Psalm 42. I actually, I actually want us to start in verse one. The verses I want to get to are down in verses five and six, but I feel like the buildup is in verses one through four. Psalm 42, verse one says this as the deer pants for the water brook. So my soul pants for you. Oh God, my soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?

My tears have been my food all day and all night while they say to me all day long, where's 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 procession to the house of God with the voice of joy and thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival. Does that sort of sound like anxiety and depression that he just described to us there?

Would you guys agree with that? Notice what he says. Why are you in despair? Oh, my soul. And why have you become 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 from the peaks of Herman and from Mount Mazar. You see,

see what David did there. He explained how depressed he was. He just explained how anxious he was. And then he began to talk to himself. Now, most people would tell you that if you talk to yourself, that makes you crazy. I tell you, if you talk to yourself, it makes you normal because we all have conversations in our head, right? Anxiety is a, it's a conversation with ourself,

right? And so you have to start talking to yourself about something. Positive self. Why, why are you in despair? Oh yeah. I remember why I'm in despair. And sometimes that's the hardest part is unraveling all of the things that get you down to the root of the problem. This is why I'm really in despair. And now that I know where I'm in despair, now that I know what's causing my issue.

Now I need to hope in God. You see, as I get to the root of the issue, I then need to learn to apologize. I need to apply God's word to that situation. I need to apply a truth of what God has to say to the thing that is causing me so much despair. Lord, I'm struggling in my walk with you. I keep falling into sin, but Lord, your word tells me that if I confess my sins,

that you are faithful and just to forgive me of my sins and to cleanse me from all unrighteousness. And all of a sudden my anxiety and my guilt start to go away. And Lord, your word also tells me that the same God, the same grace that saved me is the same grace that teaches me to, to live soberly, righteously and godly in this present age. So Lord, I am hoping in your grace by your grace, teach me how to live according to you.

And I just took all of that out of my hands and I put it into God's hands. See what I did there. See, I took my despair and I then gave it to God and trusted in what his word had to say. That's what it means to by prayer and supplication. Listen with Thanksgiving to let your requests, be made known to God. Have you noticed that the cure to anxiety is Jesus and knowing him and his word so much better?

Pray about everything. Go back to Philippians.

He says, be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving. This is the last phrase I want to cover here. Let your requests be made known to God. I put it like this. Unload what you're carrying. Let me give you a little illustration. I'm the king. I'm the king of doing this, right? I'll run to the store in the middle of the day because I needed one thing,

right? I go to the grocery store. I need one thing. Now I, I try to be efficient and everything that I do. I don't want to waste steps. I don't want to waste time. I don't take the time to grab the shopping cart because I don't need the shopping cart. I just need one thing, but I go and I grab that one thing and I'm like, Ooh, that's on sale. Buy five, save $5.

Absolutely. I will. Right? And so then I grabbed these five things. I still have my one thing and I just grabbed five more things. And then I look and I'm like, Ooh, ice cream. And that'll be good later. I need some of that too. And I put the ice cream on top of it and I'm still going and I'm like, Oh, I forgot bananas. I didn't even write bananas down. I'll go back and get bananas.

And pretty soon I like 12 things in my arm, right? Like one's under here, one's under here, the rest of it's here. And I'm walking through the store like this. And you know what they say to me every time? Probably should have gotten a cart. I'm like, thanks genius. Right? I couldn't come up with that myself. And so I get to the counter. What do I do when I get to the counter?

I unload everything that I'm carrying. Now I say that because that's what we do with our anxiety is we go, I just have this one thing. Oh, and then there's these other five things. Oh, and then there's this, and then there's this. And pretty soon we are walking around with our arms loaded down with so much stuff, not physically, but mentally. You know what the biggest kicker is when you're dealing with anxiety or

depression? You can't focus on anything. You ever notice that? You know why? Because your arms are full of so much stuff. And so when you come to God through prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving, you let your requests be made known to God. You lay down everything that you've been carrying. Sometimes you can do it in really pretty, in prayer language. Sometimes you do it by yelling at the top of your lungs.

I've done both. Sometimes you just got to pour it out the best that you can. And sometimes it's not using all the right words. And sometimes it's a little bit angry. And sometimes it's a little bit frustrated. And sometimes it's just, because that's all you've got, right? That's okay. That's when the Holy Spirit's like, this is what he meant, right? Because that intercedes for us through groanings that can't be uttered.

We let our requests be made known to God. And sometimes it's just, and then what happens? This is the result of following verse six and the peace of God. Verse seven, which surpasses all comprehension will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. The peace of God, that word peace just simply means personal tranquility. I got to tell you, the peace of God is one of the things that has meant more to me than just

about anything else in the world. Because when you live enough time full of anxiety, and having no peace in your life, when you start to experience that peace, man, it's the most beautiful thing. It's like somebody turned the volume down, right? You know, I'm at that age now where, where when you're driving in heavy traffic, if the volume on the stereo is really loud, you can't see where you're going, right?

I did not think that age was going to come for me, but it's here. It's arrived. And so, so if you ever, I just, and I'm really auditory. I'm an auditory person anyway. I've already told you guys that, but, but sometimes it's like kids are talking, radios blaring, and there's just tons of things going on. And you're just like, sometimes the best thing you can do is to go,

right? And you're like, stop talking at the back, right? And the whole car gets quiet. You're just like, this is what I'm talking about right here. This is, this is home base. Let's live here. Right? That's kind of how it is when you can finally give those things to God is all of a sudden it's like somebody turned the stereo down. And you're like, and you just experienced this peace.

And it almost doesn't make sense. You're like, but nothing's changed. Nothing's changed about this situation. I just know it's not mine to worry about anymore. I just know it's not mine to carry anymore. And the peace of God, listen, which passes all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds through Christ Jesus. That word guard is the same word we talked about at a first Peter last week.

It's a military term. Remember when Peter said that we are kept by the power of God through faith, it garrisoned about it's a military term. It's the exact same Greek word. It's used here. Literally what it says is God's peace will put up a guard around your heart. Isn't that great? It's as if God starts putting up a fence. Nope, you can't get in. He's at peace right now and no one else can come in.

You all have to stay out. And that's what God's peace does for us is peace mounts guard all around our heart because of the work, of Jesus Christ. Friends, if you want to win the battle of the mind, you have to overcome anxiety. The only way that you can overcome anxiety. So not be anxious about anything, but instead pray about everything. Amen. The next thing that we look at with winning the battle of the mind is that if

you're going to win the battle of the mind, you have to take control of your thought life. You have to take control of your thought life. Notice what it says in verse eight. 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, I'm always kind of fascinated with something. And that's the, the search algorithms on computers and phones. Have you ever noticed that you're, uh, you're, uh, you're, you're, you're phone works off of this algorithm where the more that you search for something, the more it will give you those things. That's why on all of my social media, you will see running shoes, coffee and premium Bibles, right?

Because I'm always searching for running shoes and coffee and premium leather Bibles. And so, so if I went to my search thing on my Instagram right now, it would, it would be all those things, right? Because I search for that stuff a lot. Now, the only way that it knows to pull those things up for you is because that's what you're looking for. That's what you are putting in the most.

Therefore, that's what it is giving you the most. And so whatever you put in to that algorithm is what it's going to spit back out at you, right? And those are the ads that you get, uh, on your, um, on your computer and all those kinds of things. Those ads are all built by the algorithm of the fact that you inputted this information a lot. Therefore, we are going to give you more of it because it seems like that's what you

want the most of. Our brains are like a, a computer in that way. There's an algorithm, right? And so the more that you put certain things in, the more you're going to get those things out. That's why Jesus told us out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks because that's what's constantly on our minds. That's why if I were to give you a song lyric of a song that everybody knows,

you would be singing it for the rest of the day, right? Because I put it in. Therefore, that's what's going to come out and it pulls from a search category you had way back in here. And all of a sudden it, it enlightened that algorithm. And now you think about it all the time. For instance, if I were to say matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match, right? I did this a couple of Wednesdays ago.

Somebody texted me and said, thanks. I've been singing that for two days now. And I'm like, you're welcome, right? I don't mind doing that to people. I love doing that to people actually. And so later, don't text me. I'm just going to know you're thankful that I put that in your brain. I'll come up with some other ones later. Well, Paul tells us here that if we want to take control of our thought life,

that we have to, we have to change what we think about, because the only way that you can change that algorithm is by inputting new information, right? You have to keep putting new information into it. So Paul says, change your algorithm, take control of your thought life. So he says, finally, brethren, and he gives us a list of eight things. And so I'd like to go through this list of eight things.

He says, whatever is number one, true, whatever is true. The word true means having character of truth. Or genuineness having the character of truth or genuineness. And so what kind of things occupy your mind? Are they things that have that character of truth? Or are you off in fantasy land all the time? Because he says, whatever things are true. Number two,

he says, whatever things are honorable, things that are worthy of reverence are noble or honest. Now I have to tell you this, this one was a little bit convicting, convicting to me because I like irreverent humor. Sometimes I know that's probably not good, but it's just, it's the way I am. It's the generation I grew up in, right? I like sarcastic, irreverent humor,

but I'm reminded of the fact that if I want to think about the things that are honorable, they need to be things that are worthy of reverence. Because have you noticed that my generation has now screwed up this generation because now nothing is honorable in our culture anymore. Everything is irreverent in our culture today. And it's because nobody thinks about that.

We don't think about the things that are honorable. We all think about the things that are irreverent. Number three, he tells us that we are to think about the things that are right. The word right means righteous or upright or virtuous. So nothing on Netflix, right? Because it's right, upright and virtuous. Number four, he tells us that we are to think about things that are pure.

The word pure means clean or innocent. Innocent or modest. These are all going to attack the culture. I'm just going to be really honest with you. They're all going to attack all the things that we see on social media, on TV and movies today, music that we listen to today. It's going to attack all of those things because all of those things are none of these things,

right? And so he says, whatever things are pure, clean, innocent, or modest. Number five, whatever things are lovely. In other words, acceptable or pleasing. Right? Especially to the Lord, whatever things are of good repute, good repute could also be good report. And the idea is those things that are attractive, not attractive in that physical base sort of way,

but attractive in that spiritual sort of a way, whatever things are of excellence. Number seven, and that word excellence literally means moral excellence. In other words, put your mind on things that are morally excellent, and then number eight is whatever things are praiseworthy or a fit object of praise, something that could be praised. Now it's interesting to think about this list of eight things because in this list of eight things, there's two things that come to mind that bear the characteristics of these eight things.

The first thing that comes to mind that bear the characteristics of these eight things is the word of God, right? I think we could put the word of God in the category of being all of these things, right? We should think about these things, but ultimately there's one thing that really, really encapsulates these or these encapsulate. And that's none other than Jesus Christ himself, right?

Like if you think about it, Jesus is the definition of what is true and what is honorable and what is right and what is pure and what is lovely and what is good and what is excellent and what is praiseworthy. So ultimately what he tells us to do once again is to put your eyes on Jesus and think about the things of Christ. Now, when he tells us to do this, he says, whatever these eight things are, he tells us what to do with them. He says, dwell on these things, dwell on these things.

That word dwell means to think or to meditate on these things. Amplified Bible translates it, center your mind on them and implant them in your heart. Uh, the Weiss translation says, make them the subject of careful reflection. But my favorite image is always that of J. Vernon McGee's favorite image on this. And that's a cow chewing its cut, right? So if you're now,

I did not grow up on a farm. I did not grow up around farm animals, but I am told this by people that did grow up on farms and did grow up around farm animals is that cows have multiple stomachs. And so what they do is they would chew on some grass or some hay or something like that. And they'll just, you ever noticed a cow just always, it's like me around a dozen donuts, right?

It's just like constantly chewing. It is just constantly chewing. And so what, what a cow does, they choose, it gets as much nutrients out of it as it can. And then it swallows it and goes down into its stomach later on down in the day. And I love listening to J. Vernon McGee teach on this. That old cow belches up that cud. That's how he says it. That Southern accent,

that Texas accent. And he chews on it some more. You know why? Because there's more nutrients to be gotten out of it. And he chews on it a little bit more and swallows it. He does that multiple times until he gets every bit of goodness out of it that he possibly can. That's the idea behind the word meditate. It should be something that is constantly taking place in our lives.

We make it a, a subject of careful search. We chew it over and over and over again and take as much in as we possibly can. Well, if we are to dwell on these things, if we are to allow them to, uh, to do their work in our lives, how do we become people who dwell on this and change the algorithm? Well, I think there's two things that we need to do. Number one,

you have to eliminate what's not on the list. I call it turning off the noise, right? You have to turn off what's going on in the world around you. If, if you want to begin to think properly, you have to get rid of the things that are keeping you from thinking properly. I think that that means you got to start asking yourselves about questions about the shows.

That you watch about the music that you listen to about the thing that's things that you think about all the time. Paul says we're to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, because these are the things that we're to think about all the time. And so number one, you have to start eliminating the things that you listen to all the time. The things that you're constantly taking in your eye gates and your ear gates.

I've always shared. The Lord delivered me from, from foul language a long, long, long, long time ago. Not long after I really started walking with Jesus at a pretty foul mouth before that I was a wrestler. I was around a bunch of rough guys all the time and we didn't always talk the way that we were supposed to. And, and so that was one of the first things that the Lord eliminated from me.

But the summer, uh, not too long before I moved down here, I was working construction and I was working seven days a week, seven days a week, 10 hours a day around nothing but guys that said all of the worst things in the world, right? Half of them had been in prison at some point in time. And they swore in ways I didn't even know you could, right? I heard things I never even heard before.

And it was constantly in my brain and, and, and it was constantly running through my mind. And I remember one time I got really, really mad and I let something go out of my mouth. And I mean, the kid that worked with me, I thought he was going to fall off the scaffolding, right? Because he just wasn't used to hearing that from me. And I looked at him and said,

man, I am really, really sorry. I did not mean for that to come out of my mouth. Please forgive me. He, he looked at me and he said, I just said it a long time ago, right? So, I mean, I felt a little bit better about that at that point in time, but, but I still was like, what happened? And at that point in time, the Lord said, you have to put in more of God's word than you're taking in of the world.

You have to start blocking some things out and take in the right things. Now, listen, you can't turn off the mouths of the people that you work with as hard as you, as bad as you want to, right? As hard as you try. Sometimes you just can't turn off their mouths, but the things that you can control, control, turn off the noise. The second thing that we have to do is we have to occupy our minds with what's on the list.

You have to constantly occupy yourself with what is on this list. And again, there's only two places. I know that these things can be found. Number one is God's word. Number two is Jesus himself, right? So occupy yourself with the things of God constantly put God's word in your brain. And I'll remind you, here we are. How are we doing? Maybe you fell off the wagon,

but here we are. And if you, you can't keep up with all of it, keep up with whatever you can, but, but there's a reading plan being it every day. And when you're in it every day, meditate on it. Think about it. Think about what it has to say. And then you could go another step and you can start to memorize it. I'm actually praying about starting to put a verse in,

uh, in the bulletin every week as like our, our memory verse for the week. I'm not, I'm not going to make everybody get up here and say it, although I've thought about it. I'm not going to make everybody get up here and say your memory verse for the week, but, but I think it would be really good if we were to start memorizing those, things put in what is on this list because he says, dwell on these things. And then he closes up this section in verse nine, the section on taking control of your thought life with this, the things you have learned, the things you have received, the things you have heard, and the things you have seen in me practice these things.

And the God of peace will be with you. So if you want to take control of your thought life, you can't just think about it. You, you also have to put it into practice. You have to practice what you learn. You have to practice what you take in all the time. That word practice means to habitually practice or to make it your manner of life. In other words, live out the things that you're putting in,

because if you're putting in the bad things, I promise you'll automatically live out the bad things, but put in the good things so that you can live out the good things. And he says, and the God of peace will be with you because we don't do it on our own. God is with us through it all. Amen. Well, this morning is communion Sunday. So I'm gonna invite the worship team to come up and I'm going to talk for just a couple of minutes about communion.

As we gather as the body of Christ, we are reminded that the one thing that unites all of us is the body and blood of Jesus Christ is the fact that we have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus. And so we are told to celebrate this often. And as often as we do so, we are to do so in remembrance of Christ. And so in each of these trays, there's some elements. There's two cups that are stacked together.

The cup on the bottom has the cracker. The cup on the top has the juice. And in and of themselves, they're just a cracker and juice. It's what they symbolized that carries the power with it. Because on that last great night of the feast, Jesus took that bread, that unleavened bread, that striped and pierced unleavened bread, that pure unleavened bread, and he broke it.

He said, this is my body which is broken for you. Take and eat. And then he took that cup and he said, this is the cup of the new covenant of my blood that is shed for you. And they took and they drank. And so we know that as often as we eat of the bread and drink of the cup that we are declaring the body and the blood of Jesus Christ, we are declaring the fact that the one thing that makes us right with God,

the one thing that unifies us as the body of Christ is his body and his blood. And so, as we do that, we're told to do so in a worthy manner. So if you're here this morning and you don't know Jesus, then today should be your day of salvation. But if you're here this morning and you do know Jesus, it means you've got to clear out your heart. All those anxiousness,

all those anxious thoughts, all the stuff that we have filled our minds with that are not of the Lord. And it's time to confess them to him. It's time to take them to Jesus and really leave them in his hands. It's time to dump it all out on the counter and say, Lord, it's yours. And so as the ushers come down, these guys are going to sing one last song. And I would encourage you to allow the Lord to search your heart and see what you're holding on to.

That just needs to get dumped on the counter. If you receive your elements, please stand with us and then we'll partake together. Would you bow with me? Father, we come to you. I'm going to thank you for your body that was broken for us. Lord, broken for our sins, bruised for our iniquity. And Lord, we're told that by your stripes, we are healed. So Father,

I thank you for your body that was broken for us. Father, I thank you for your blood that was shed. Lord, your your blood that was for the remission of sins. Would your blood that is able to cover our sins and to make us brand new in your eyes. And Lord, I thank you for the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. And so Father, keep us ever in mind of it.

And Lord, may we rest in the truth. Of who you are and what you've done for us in Jesus name. Amen. Let's partake.

And if you'd bow with me one last time, Father, we come to you and I thank you that you have given us this time in your word this morning. And Lord, I pray that as we go out from here, that your Holy Spirit would continue the work that you've done in our hearts. Father, we thank you. We praise you in Jesus name. Amen. Be blessed.