Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - Battling Anxiety

Episode Date: July 25, 2021

When you’ve had enough of being anxious, you might make some mistakes. Learn from the biblical figure Elijah how to avoid running yourself into the ground, shutting people out, focusing on the negative, and forgetting God in your anxiety. God speaks in the whispers: don’t be anxious for nothing when you’ve had enough!This message was originally presented as a part of a series called Anxious for Nothing. Find out more about the series here: https://www.life.church/anxiousOur current series, At the Movies can only be seen at a Life.Church location or at Life.Church Online. Each week on YouTube, we’re highlighting one of your favorite messages—but you can head to https://www.life.church/atthemovies to find a location or visit https://live.life.church to attend Life.Church Online anytime. See you At the Movies!NEXT STEPSHave you made a decision to follow Jesus? You may be wondering what’s next on your journey. We want to help! Let us guide you to your next steps in your walk with Christ: https://www.life.church/nextABOUT LIFE.CHURCHWherever you are in life, you have a purpose. Life.Church wants to help you find your next step. Our hope is that your journey will include joining us at a Life.Church location throughout the United States or globally online at https://www.live.life.church. Find locations, videos, and more info about us at https://www.life.church or download the Life.Church app at https://www.life.church/app. FIND US ON SOCIAL MEDIAFacebook: http://www.facebook.com/life.churchInstagram: http://www.instagram.com/life.churchTwitter: http://www.twitter.com/lifechurchCONNECT WITH PASTOR CRAIGYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIIdiIO-Y20hRW9niR0CA8AFacebook: http://www.facebook.com/craiggroeschelInstagram: http://www.instagram.com/craiggroeschelTwitter: http://www.twitter.com/craiggroeschel#lifechurch #craiggroeschel #battlinganxiety Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Well, I know this is a really difficult season for so many people, and that's why I'm honored to try to bring spiritual encouragement every week, and would encourage you to subscribe or follow wherever you consume the content, so you'll be the first to get new content. On the weekends at Life Church, we're doing something different, and we can only show it live there. So I've chosen a message, especially for those of you that are hurting, it's called When I've Had Enough.

One of the many things I love about our church family is you all, let me be a real person. is it okay if I'm a real person today? Most of the time I am a pastor who glows in the dark, not really. All of the time I'm a regular person. And I want to tell you the story behind this message series. It started the first week of June, and I flew to see a friend of mine, Pastor Stephen Ferdick,

about twice a year or so. I'll fly to see him or he'll fly to see me, and we spend one day together. We always fast. We pray. We search scriptures together. We seek God. Actually, everything I told you is a lie.

What we do is we watched Wimbledon last time. We worked out and we ate a lot. But it felt holy. You know what I'm saying? Okay. And so the truth is this last visit, almost everyone is a highlight for both of us because it's two friends getting together

and encouraging each other. But it was a particularly rough season for me. And immediately he's like, Rochelle was wrong. And I told him, I just, I'm having a hard time breathing. This is incredibly unusual for me. I don't battle with a lot of anxiety, but I could barely even breathe full breaths. And I was overwhelmed with this sense of anxiety. And what I'm about to tell you was causing it.

You're going to say, well, that doesn't make any sense, which is exactly what anxiety is. It doesn't make any sense so often. I was stressed about the message series that I'm teaching right now because I have to name the series a couple of months of advance because of our programming and such and I couldn't come up with another idea. For decades, I've done this,

and I just hit the end of my rope. There was nothing, no idea, no insight into scripture, no revelation, nothing I wanted to say. I just was empty. and it scared me beyond description. The walls felt like they were closing in. I felt like maybe I need to hang it up. Massive heart-wrenching anxiety.

And Pastor Steven said, well, here's what you're going to preach on. You're going to preach on anxiety. And we're going to call it Anxious for Nothing. He just pulled that title, and that's a good title. And he said, because you know your best preaching comes out of your personal experience as you dive into God's word and he works in your life.

So, this message series is not born out of my strength. Here I am, Pastor to Save the Day. No, no, no. This is born out of a very scary, unusually dark season of real deep anxiety for me. Are we okay? Can I be human? Paul said, be anxious for nothing.

I'm asking myself, is that even possible? in the world that we live in with all this going on, be anxious for nothing, mass shooting, followed by tragic mass shooting? Can I be anxious for nothing? I read a book about Gen Z recently. I love the book about those of you who are like high school age and college age, and there's so many promising things about your generation. One of the biggest challenges they say is that you're the most stressed generation in recent history.

worried about everything. Should I go to college? If I do, am I having to take out student loans? And then if I graduate, will I get a job good enough to pay off the loans? And am I going to get married? If I do, am I going to marry someone's psycho? Because I've seen a lot of psychos, you know, and how am I going to pay the bills? And then there are people that are married.

Like, I did marry psycho, and I think I'm psycho because she's making me psycho. And I don't know about my job and my car is going into the shop. And my teenagers are driving me crazy and my parents are aging. And there's so much uncertainty in the world. Is it even possible to be able to be. anxious for nothing. What I want to do in this particular message is I want to show you an Old Testament prophet that may be like some of you all. He really loved God. And yet, even though he had seen the faithfulness, the power, the provision of God, he still struggled massively with

anxiety. His name is Elijah. If you don't know the context of Elijah, Elijah actually confronted a very evil king named King Ahab. He called him on his sin and he prophesied a drought that was significantly impact King Ahab's kingdom. And so the king came after the prophet Elijah with all the forces of his army saying, we're going to destroy you essentially, we're going to kill you. And so for three years, Elijah was on the run. He was hiding out and yet God was faithful. God fed him with bread and and ravens and meat from heaven and Elijah raised the dead. There was one time, this is so cool. Elijah stood down 850 false prophets.

One man stood down 850. That's cocky in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I loved that. There was a time, one of my favorite moments in life where I actually stood down three men. I did. they were harassing a woman and being very inappropriate to her. And so I stood them down. Your pastor single-handedly ran off three men.

I just told them. I'll introduce you to two of my friends. It'll be even. There's me. There's grace. And there's truth. And truth will set you free. I ran off three.

True story, but that's not the point of this message. But I am proud to tell you that I ran off three men. I just stood down. 850. He called fire from heaven, made him crispy critters. Then, after all the power of God, miracle, after miracle,

one grumpy woman gets up into his grill. And he falls completely. Apart. If you don't know the story, Ahab was bad. But oh, he had a wife that made him look like Mother Teresa. This woman, his wife was named Jezebel, and she got in a picture and essentially she said, honey, if you can't get the job done and let a woman do it right, I'm going to kill Elijah. And Elijah completely falls apart. You'll see him spiral into deep depression and anxiety that some of you might be able to relate to. I want to show you the story,

and when we do look at the story, I want you to notice four different mistakes that Elijah made when he had had too much, and you might see yourself making one, two, three, or four of these mistakes as I did in my season of significant struggle. Let me show you the text in First Kings chapter 19. We'll start in verse three. See if you can find the mistakes that he made.

Scripture says this. Elijah was afraid. He's freaking out. He's experiencing deep and very real anxiety, and so he ran for his life. When he came to Bersheba in Judah, watched for the mistakes. He left his servant there while he himself went on a day's journey into the wilderness. Now he's by himself and wandering in the wilderness. He came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die.

Notice how irrational he is. His biggest fear is that she's going to be. going to kill him. Now he wants to die. He's struggling. What does he say? He said the same thing that some of you might have said. I've had enough. I can't take anymore. He has this Popeye moment. That's all I can stand. I've had enough. He says, take my life. I'm no better than my ancestors. Some of you, about right now, you might be in that, I can't take it anymore. I've done everything I can. I'm trying to pay the bills. One more thing broke. I can't take it anymore. Some of you are in the relationship. You're trying. You're trying. You're trying. You're trying.

You're trying. You're trying. I can't take it anymore. Some of you, it's your schedule. You work and you work and you're trying to work and everything and you're maybe a single parent. You're trying to juggle. You're working your tail off. I just cannot take it anymore. It could be something simple. You've made dinner 9,000 times and they haven't said, thank you 9,000 times. And they've walked away 9,000 times. But on 9,000 and one, I'm going to kill you in the name of the Father, Son, the Holy Spirit, and God's going to be pleased about that because your sin has taken you out. I can't take it anymore.

For me, it was naming a sermon series. One sermon series. I've done hundreds upon hundreds. And I could not catch my breath or finished sentences. Elijah couldn't take it. he made four mistakes I've made these and perhaps you have as well

let's look at his mistakes the first thing we tend to do when we've had enough is this we run ourselves into the ground we run ourselves into the ground this is what he did the text says he was afraid he ran for his life he ran to Bersheba which if you don't know

the geography of it he ran about a hundred miles he ran as far as it was human possibly possible to run had he run anymore he had to run into the water. He couldn't have run anymore. He ran four marathons. He ran. He ran. He was so exhausted. He wore himself out. I told you part of the story. I told you I had deep anxiety. I told you about the first week of June. What I didn't tell you about was what led up to the

first week of June. And that was May. And probably April and March and February and January and December. And the list goes on and on. But May in particular was different. It was once I was processing this with someone who was helping me who said your problem wasn't June, your problem was May. Let me tell you what I did in May. I'm not complaining, nor my bragging. This is just what I did in May. I taught four weekends of chasing carrots, and that's, along with leaving the church, is a full month for me, just doing the normal stuff. I also wrote and pre-produced the good work four weeks on Nehemiah. I did it on a Monday and Tuesday, and the reason I do that, almost every May is so I can have the weekends off for one month a year with my family in the month of June.

Thank God for June. So essentially I did May's messages and June in May. And at the movies has to go into production early. So I wrote, shot, and edited at the movies in May as well as a good work, as well as other. That's three months worth in one month. That's a lot. And I did two months of leadership podcasts. And on top of that, in that one month,

to Amy and I did an international trip to London to do a leadership conference with multiple talks every day, landed on a Thursday, preached on Saturday during the message my daughter Katie gave birth early to her daughter with significant health scares of being okay. Then I preached on Sunday. Then on Sunday night I did the rehearsal dinner for my daughter's Anna's wedding. On Monday, I gave her away and officiated the service. I fell apart in June, but I ran myself into the ground in May. some of you are there right now. You're in a real season of anxiety, and you don't recognize you've been going way too hard for way too long. Elijah ran himself into the ground. The second big mistake that he made, many of us do, is we shut people out. We shut people out.

Did he notice it? He left his servant. He said to his trusted friend, I don't need you anymore, and he went off on his own. This is a little bit of what I did in the month of May, which is, hey, I'm the pastor, and I'm not going to tell anybody I'm hurting, and I'm just going to push through this on my own and didn't let anybody in. This is one of the reasons why life groups, they are the heartbeat of our church.

Can I get an amen? This is the heartbeat of who we are. Without the body of Christ, we are incomplete. In the month of September, we're launching new life groups. Many of you that you're not in one, this is going to be a turning point in your life. We've got a message series called I'm in. Oh, did I just tell you the name of the upcoming message series that's already named and already working? It's coming up and we're going to launch some life groups because we know that life is better together and we are incomplete without the family of God.

And we're not going to do what Elijah did when he shut the most trusted people out. The third mistake that he made and we often make is we focus on the negative. Here's what he said. He said, I've had enough. I'm no better than my fathers. I'm no better than my ancestors. And this is the very thing that we often do. We focus on the negative.

My life is so hard. I can never get it all done. There's just too much. I can't stand these people. I don't like my job. I don't like where I'm going. I'm always going to suffer. I'm always going to struggle.

I'm always going to be broke. We're never going to be happy. We're always going to be hurting. And we focus on the negative. And that's kind of what I did. I got, all these sermons do and nobody understands. And number four, perhaps the biggest mistake is we forget God.

We forget God. What's crazy is every step of the way through Elijah's life. Every moment of time, God was present, God was faithful, God's power was visible, God's provision was real, and even though God had been faithful,

Elijah did what so many of us do, He was facing his problems while forgetting his God. For over two decades I've preached and preached and God has been present. And yet I was facing my fears and forgetting my God. The crazy thing is Elijah's name alone should have been enough to comfort him in the middle of his anxiety. His name alone, Elijah, L, E-L-I-J-A-8. E-L stands for Elohim. It's short for Elohim, which is God.

I, L-E-L-I is I or my. J-A-Jah is short for Yahweh, which, to a devout believer, they would not even put the vowels in the word Yahweh, because that would be disrespectful. Who are we? and they wouldn't even say the name Yahweh because they would say it like this without the vowels would be

like because of the holiness of God. Essentially what he's saying is this. My God is my my God is my breath. My God is my my God is my my God is my

sort. My God is my sustainer. My God is my strength. My God is my breath. And yet knowing that His God is near, he falls apart. What do God do when he did that? Well, he of little faith, no, no, no, no, no, no. God met Elijah in his need.

And I want to show you how God revealed himself to him. Scripture says this. The Lord God said to Elijah, Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord. For the Lord is about to pass by. Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountain apart. shattered the rocks below. But the Lord was not in the wind.

After the wind was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake came a fire. But the Lord was not in the fire. After the fire came, a gentle whistle. a gentle breath. The Lord is my breath. Earth shook. The Lord wasn't in the earthquake. The wind. How? The Lord wasn't in the wind. The fire raged. But the Lord was not in the fire.

Earth. Wind. Fire. Just a little nod from my older buddies in the crowd. But the Lord, was in the Lord was in the, I want to show honor to my bride, Amy, who walked me through what was a dark season and is an ongoing process in healing through real anxiety. In fact, Amy, would you just mind joining me up here real quick and you guys can clap for her if you don't mind? This is my favorite part of the message just because I get to stand close to my best friend and my bride. So you, we're going to do a sermon illustration and you can look stressed.

Okay. Pretend like you're anxious. And what I want to do is help illustrate this. God was not in the remarkable. God was in the ordinary. When we're hurting, when we're afraid, when we're overwhelmed, why doesn't God sometimes speak in the loud ways? Why does God whisper?

Oh, God. On the other hand, shouts his eyes, his voices of condemnation, his accusation, you'll never be enough. You'll never make it true. You'll all because the Lord is near.

He whispers because, I'm going to turn my microphone off because I don't want you to hear the smack. I'm back on now. So I called a counselor. Your pastor's in counseling. Are pastors in counseling? Yes.

It's wise to get help from the wise. You said again, it's wise to get help from the wise. Walk with the wise. You grow wise. Walk with a bunch of turkeys. You become a turkey. That's the new Craig translation of that version. Anxiety is a complex issue.

For some people, it might be a change of diets. we need help from dietitian. For some, it might be a chemical imbalance, so we need help from doctors. For some, we not need to process and things. We need to help from counselors. I chose a counselor. I hired a performance psychologist,

and he helped me come up with. This is my phrase based on our time together, but essentially, as I was going into a very heavy summer of preaching, this phrase is what I'm living on. My experience, meaning I've done this for a long time, my experience plus God's presence is enough. That's my breath. My experience plus God's presence, he's with me, he's near, it is enough.

So I'll tell you about what happened this summer. And again, this isn't to complain, nor is it to brag, but it's way cheaper than this guy I talk to all the time. And so I feel better to tell you for free. Amy and I did events in New Zealand and in Australia, and during that time, our house was under construction. We found significant and dangerous mold in five rooms, so five rooms were being ripped out while we're gone. Our kids were at home, and while we were gone and our house was under construction, somehow a raccoon got to the house, which that's just a side story, which is fun. And a rat got into Pastor Charlie, an intern who's living into his car, ate out in his car so it wouldn't start.

son's car wouldn't start. The air conditioner had to be replaced because it was faulty, so there was no air conditioner for about 10 days. The water was down for seven days. My credit card got compromised, which is the one that my kids at home used. So if you can imagine, we're traveling internationally, no heat, no, no air condition, no water with a raccoon, no transportation, and no money. And I preached 25 different messages in eight days and five different cities in two different countries and in the middle of feeling anxiety going into it and we walked through it with the grace of God because my experience plus his presence is enough the Lord is near my God is my breath my God is my breath here's what's funny about Elijah if you don't know the

end of his story is pretty funny. What was his greatest fear? His greatest fear was, I'm going to die. But if you don't know the end of his story, later on, he's walking along with his protege Elisha, and God sends a chariot from heaven, like this horse and stuff from heaven, that sweeps Elijah off the face of the earth. And he never tasted physical death like we will. He never died. The thing he feared the most never happened. We could say, get ready for it, I've been leading toward it the whole time, we could say he was anxious for nothing. I came to tell somebody here that the vast majority of what you worry about is not going to happen. Most of it never ever does. The vast majority never happens and therefore we are anxious for nothing.

The vast majority doesn't happen. Sometimes it does happen, and it's not as bad as we thought. We were anxious for nothing. And sometimes it does happen, and it is bad, and it's worse than we ever thought. But the goodness of God always carries us through. He's always faithful. He never leaves us. He'll never forsake us because he is our breath.

He is our strength. He is our sword. And that's why the Apostle Paul shamed up to a Roman god, not knowing his future can say, do not be anxious about anything. He said this, we can rejoice in the Lord always. I'll say it again, rejoice. Let your gentleness be evident to all. Why?

Because our God is near. Because he's near. Why does he whisper? Because he is close. Don't be anxious about anything, but in everything with prayer and petition. Bring your request to God. And the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds and your souls in Christ Jesus. Why does he whisper?

is our God. Father, we ask that by the power of the name that is above every name, that even in the midst of severe trials and significant anxiety, worry, fears, doubts, insecurity, God, that we could experience a peace from heaven. It goes beyond our human ability to understand. All of our churches today, I've been about as transparent as I know how to be with you. Those of you who may, may have a burden, a weight, you feel crushed, you feel overwhelmed, you feel anxious, you feel worried that there's something weighing on you, and you want to take it to God today. Would you lift up your hands right now? All of our different churches, just lift up your hands, reaching out to God. Father, we thank you for your presence and for your goodness. And God, I thank you that you know

every single need of every person with a lifted hand toward you, God. I pray, Father, that you would be actively engaged and involved. And more than anything else, God, that we would sense your presence now. Emmanuel, God, with us. God, even in your own way, would you just whisper? That you know, that you care, that you're involved. That you're working even when we don't sense it.

That you're active, God, even when we don't see it. God, we thank you. for your presence. And as we cast our cares on you because you care for us, may your peace, God, from heaven, guard our hearts and our minds and our souls in Christ Jesus. As you keep praying today at all of our different churches, there may be those of you that you're in a really low point right now.

And you would recognize if we sat down and talked to each other, and I said, hey, where's God involved in all this? You might say, I don't know. And you may come to recognize. recognize that you don't really know God personally. You might believe in God kind of sort of. You might even been a church person, but you're not walking with God. You don't sense his presence. I'm convinced there may be times when God allows us to get so low that the only place we have to look is up. Look toward him. Look toward heaven. And when we look toward him, let me tell you about who he sent to show us his goodness and his love.

He sent his only son, Jesus, God in the flesh. Jesus hung out with those that. Those that religion rejected. He hung out with those who were messed up, those who were dysfunctional, those who were grossly sinning, and he loved them exactly where they were. Then Jesus went to the cross. Why did he go? He went to become sin for us. He shed his innocent blood in place of ours. He died in our place. God raised him from the dead so that anyone, and this includes you, doesn't matter who you are, doesn't matter what you've done, doesn't matter how dark your life is Anyone who calls on the name of Jesus would be saved, would be forgiven. I'm convinced that there are those of you.

You're about to experience the goodness of God. He is near. He is here. And you are watching. You are listening. You're on the other side of the computer. You're present in the room because our God is reaching out to you. He's showing you his love.

He's drawing you close. You're not here by accident. You're here because of the goodness of God. What do you do? You recognize your need. You call on the name of Jesus. when you call on his name, he forgives every sin. He makes you brand new.

He takes up residency in your life. You will never be alone. The Lord will always be near. All of our churches, those who say, yes, I need his grace. Yes, I turn from my sin. Yes, I give my life to Jesus. That's your prayer. Lift your hands high.

Now, all over the place. Lift them up and say, yes, Jesus, that's my prayer. Oh, my goodness. All three, four of you right up here, praise God for you. Others of you say, yes, Jesus. I surrender. I give you my life. I trust you, Lord.

Church online, you guys click right below me. And as we have people in all of our churches surrendering to Jesus, would you mind just standing to your feet in prayer? We're going to pray. Nobody prays alone. Join your heart, your voices, and your faith with those around.

You just pray aloud. Pray Heavenly Father, I give you my life. Jesus save me. forgive all my sins, make me brand new. Fill me with your spirit so I could follow you and live for you. Thank you, God, that you're near, that you'll never leave me. You'll always be with me.

My life is not my own. Today I give it to you. In Jesus' name, I pray. And everybody said, Amen. Can you guys celebrate big? Can you worship our God? Welcome those more into God's family.