Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - Not Afraid: When Anxiety Attacks

Episode Date: April 4, 2020

STAY CONNECTEDEven when we can’t meet in our physical locations, we’re still doing church. Stay updated with the latest news from Life.Church at https://www.life.church/stayconnected. You can also visit https://www.life.church/updates for the latest, or download the Life.Church app (https://www.life.church/app) and enable push notifications.SUPPORT COVID-19 RESPONSE AND DIGITAL MISSIONSYou can designate a gift to Life.Church to go to coronavirus relief or to Digital Missions like the Church Online Platform! Your gift above the tithe helps meet immediate needs in your community and around the world and helps other churches to spread the Good News of Christ to people everywhere: https://www.life.church/giving DO CHURCH AT HOMEChurches in many countries are suspending regular in-person gatherings, but that doesn’t mean church is canceled. As followers of Jesus, we are the Church. Use this guide on having church at home to stay connected to your community: https://finds.life.church/church-at-home-guide/LIFE.CHURCH MIDWEEK Life.Church is hosting special midweek services with worship and a short devotional with Pastor Craig Groeschel here on YouTube Live every Wednesday. Subscribe to our channel and tap the bell icon to be notified when we’re going live!ABOUT NOT AFRAIDWhen our world is shaken, it’s easy for fear to spread. But God promises to be with us no matter what comes our way. In times of uncertainty, it’s more important than ever to trust who God is and how He says we can live—Not Afraid. More: https://www.life.church/media/messages/not-afraidNEXT 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. Right now, we meet online every week at https://www.live.life.church. Find 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 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

giving some praise today my gosh i miss you church i miss seeing you in person but i've been locked up for so long i'm ready to have some fun today so anybody ready have a little bit of fun today it is great to have you gathering with us today from every country in the world we used to be one church in 34 locations now we are one church in tens of thousands of locations welcome me 800 other churches taking this feed live as your church online. We are so thrilled to have you with us. Today, listen, I've been preaching to an empty crowd. I just can't do that anymore. I need a little help from the band, some of the best-looking, most talented people. Come on, Gabe, come on, Gabe. Come on, game. Come on game. Come on game. Up, up, up. I got to keep the distance.

Also, guess what? My auditorium is not completely empty today. I have like six amazing people. My bride, Amy, can you give me a woo-woo? Woo-woo! My assistant Lori and Stephanie and Amy Nicol and Pastor Jerry, who's not social distancing of his wife, Annette. They're sitting very close together, but that is legal. We also have Pastor Sam, and we have McKinsey and Pastor Allen. Can I get a crowd?

A little cheer from my crowd. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. It's an honor to have you guys with us today, and I'm very excited to bring to you a word from God. Let me tell you how this message came together. this message came together. It was inspired by one of my favorite Bible passages, by a phrase that I heard from a sermon about eight or nine years ago,

and by a butt-whooping that I got in the 11th grade. Is it but-whooping or but-whipping? But-wippin. Wippin. I'm from Oklahoma. It was a wippin. Sometimes it takes a lot of unusual circumstances to pull together a great message. and it took a big butt-whippen years ago to pull this one together.

What I like to do in certain times, when things feel more unsettled, I like to go to some of the more traditional, popular scriptures that really minister deeply to my soul. And I want to do that today. I go back to what's familiar. And I want to look at one of my favorite passages in all of the Bible. And it was written from a time when most people,

would have been panicking and full of anxiety. It was the Apostle Paul, who was writing from a Roman prison. Now, what was interesting about this is Paul always wanted to go to Rome to preach the gospel. He knew if he could go to Rome to preach, that could be the strategic way that he could reach the world. But his bucket list of going to Rome to preach ended up not going exactly as he had expected. Instead, he found himself in Rome as a prisoner, locked up in house arrest to a different Roman soldier every eight hours of the day. From this place, from prison, Paul pinned the words

under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to the church in Philippi, and he said this. He said, rejoice in the Lord always. Pastor Sam, could you say always rejoice in the Lord? Always. In other words, in good times, we rejoice and in more difficult times, we rejoice. We rejoice when the economy is strong. We rejoice when the economy is not strong. rejoice when we are well and healthy. We rejoice if we are battling sickness. He said, rejoice in the Lord always, I will say again, rejoice. Then he said, let your gentleness be evident to all because the Lord is near. Then Paul said, do not be anxious about anything. Pause there for a moment. Do not be anxious about anything. Don't be anxious about anything. I'm curious. Did any of

you disobey that command recently? Anybody? I know I did. Paul says, don't be anxious about anything, but I don't care who you are. I don't care how holy you are, how spiritual you are. I don't care how many Bible verses you have memorized. I don't care if you can give me a detailed, eschological discourse on the book of Revelation in the original language of Greek. Sometimes you still get a little bit worried. Sometimes we battle anxiety during normal times, like way back in the old days, like six weeks ago in February of 2020 when things were normal, if you were going to make a presentation to your team, you might have gotten nervous. Or if you had a meeting with your boss, you might have gotten nervous.

Or if you had a chemistry exam coming up, or you had your big prom-posal, and you had to get the Instagram moment just right, and now you can't even go to prom, and I'm sorry, and it stinks to be a senior in 2020. Oh, I hate that. But you would get very anxious about that. Now, anytime you open up your phone and go to a news app, or you scroll through social media, or you turn on TV, and by turning on TV, I'm not talking about the Tiger King. Is that guy from Oklahoma?

Are we from Oklahoma? I don't even know what to say. I'm not talking about the Tiger King. We'll look back at COVID-19 and remember the Tiger King. I'm talking about you look at any form of the New York. and what you've got is you're just bombarded with stress-inducing news. The world is falling apart. The economy is this.

Now we're projecting this many thousands of people could die. It's a really, really difficult season to live in. What I know is there's different levels of anxiety. For some of you, it's not that bad. Like I know a lot of people who would say, this is actually kind of a good time. We're having family time together. It started kind of good.

You were like really excited to spend time with your kids. and now you're home educating them, and now you're like, I'm going to kill these kids, and I want to trade this one for two rolls of toilet paper or whatever. What's really funny is we've got a lot of parents, because we've home-educated our kids the whole time. We've got a lot of parents calling Amy saying,

how do we do this? But what's really funny to me is we've got a lot of kids calling my kids asking, how do I deal with my parents when they're homeschooling me? There's different levels of stress. We've got some of you dealing with that. Others of you, you're worried that you might be sick, or you've got some relatives that are sick.

or you've lost a job or you have the potential of losing a job. Some of you, you're battling anxiety and depression and you're not even sure why you are. It feels like we're under attack. We're worried, we're afraid, we're anxious, and that's why I've called this message when anxiety attacks. When anxiety attacks. Father, we pray that in the name of Jesus,

that your Holy Spirit would comfort your church, and God arm us with the tools to put our trust in you, to seek you always. God, give us a peace that goes beyond our human ability to understand that we could serve you well, God, and reach out to people who need to know you. We pray this in Jesus' name, and everybody said, amen and amen. Let's go back to our text today, Philippians chapter 2,

and I want to read to you again what we looked at and then I want to dive in a bit deeper. The Apostle Paul said this. He said, don't be anxious about anything, but in every situation, in other words, no matter what you're facing right now, in every single situation, he says by prayer, somebody say by prayer.

He says, by prayer and petition, say petition. By prayer and petition with Thanksgiving. So prayer and with Thanksgiving, we could say it this way with prayer and praise, We're going to be thankful and we're going to pray. With prayer and with praise, we're going to present our request to God. When we pray and when we praise, we present our request to God. Paul said the peace of God, which transcends all understanding.

In other words, we can't necessarily explain it even in our human comprehension. That peace of God will guard. Somebody say guard. Type that in the comments, if you will, just type in, we'll guard. It will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Prayer and praise. When we pray and we praise, God gives us his peace. You could say prayer and praise proceeds peace.

What does this peace do? This peace, it guards our hearts and it minds. It guards. What is it that guards? The peace guards as we pray and as we prays. In other words, a lot of you right now, what you feel is you feel panic. You feel anxious. You feel worried.

You feel afraid. What you feel is panic. But what you want is peace. How is it that we get this peace? What is it that we do to experience the peace? The peace is preceded by the prayer and by the praise. We could say it this way. That prayer and praise are the pathway from,

panic to peace. Oh, I'm going to preach myself some. If you don't get into this, I'm going to get into this because I can just feel somebody out there saying, amen. That's a lot of peace. And if you can make something start with the same letters in a sermon, that's extra spiritual points in heaven. I learned that when I was in seminary. Prayer and praise are the pathway from panic to peace. What is peace to? Peace guards. Somebody say peace guards? Peace guards your hearts and your hearts and your minds, peace, guards. Hey, you may not know this, but this is important information. I'm actually trained in several different martial arts. I really am. I'm not any good at any of them, but I've trained in several of them. I am good at nunchucks, like really legitimately good. Have you

seen me do nunchucks? Am I good? Legitimately good. I, honest to goodness, I have nonchucks skills. computer hacking skills, bowhunting skills, all the essential skills, wherever you are. Just work with me, man. We've been locked up. It's time to have some fun. I've been trained in several different martial arts. My most experience actually came from, this was before I was a Christian, from drunk fighting in college with my friends. Like, honest of goodness, dozens of times we'd get drunk, and then me and my three little brothers in the fraternity would fight.

It would often be three against one. And honestly goodness, Pastor Sam, many times I could handle the three. I could. And we'd be bloody and black eyes and twisted nose, but we would get drunk and fight. A lot of my experience was there, but I also trained in a keto, and I trained in Taekwondo, and I had one private lesson, one 90-minute private lesson in Jiu-Jitsu, and I watched karate kid probably 30 times, okay? Sweep the leg, wax on, wax off, so that's the experience of my training. I'm trained in several martial arts, not good at any. In fact, I would be dangerous to myself.

But my very, very best, most supreme training actually came by working with a guy named Jody Nolan. He was a childhood friend. Now, before I show you pictures of Jody, let me just tell you, he's an actor, he's a stuntman. He owns his own gym. Jody actually was sparring partners and very close friends with Chuck North. Like, for real. In fact, I got a picture of Jody and Chuck. This is, obviously, they look like they both could kill you and they could.

Jody's on the left, and this is Jody modern day, but let me show you the Jody I knew. Like this is literally, that is the guy that I used to fight, and let me show you what he could do with his leg, okay? This is what he could do with his leg up on my face. And so Jody was teaching me to fight, and I think it was in the 11th grade or so, that we put on full pads everywhere, including the headgear,

and we were going at it, and I was holding my own, and I thought, I actually am pretty dang good. And Jody, I never will forget, He said, are you ready to go hard? I thought we were already going hard, but when he said it, I couldn't back down. And the moment I said, sure, all I said was bring it. And evidently, when I said it, I got afraid because I just lowered my guard for just a second. All I remember is, are you ready to go hard?

I said, bring it. And the next thing you know, I was on my back. That's it. I mean, I was on my back. Now, if you've ever seen those cartoons, where the guy gets knocked down and there's stars, that ain't no joke. Like, for real, like there were stars and birds

going around my head. And I found out later, according to my good friend Jody, that he got me with a spinning back fist, which I never ever saw coming. But I was on my back, and he was on top of me just kind of going,

you dropped your guard. I told you, don't ever drop your guard. Whatever you do, don't drop your guard. Whenever anxiety, attacks. Don't drop your guard. Don't drop your guard. Somebody say don't drop your guard. Type it in. Type it in with an exclamation point. Put two exclamation points for Amy because she loves

extra exclamation points. Don't drop your guard. What guards you? Peace guards you. What brings peace? Prayer and praise brings peace. Prayer, do it with me just for fun. Come on. Prayer and prayer. don't drop your guard. Whenever your enemy attacks, whatever you do, don't drop your guard. Peter tells us his own version of this. He was telling us how to deal with anxiety and other things, and he said this. He gave a teaching with a warning. And he says this in 1st Peter 5A. He says, cast all of your anxiety on him. If you're anxious right now, if you're afraid, if you're worried about your job, if you're worried about your health, if you don't know what's coming, what you do with that anxiety

is you cast it onto God. Now, Peter was a fisherman, and so when he's talking about casting, you can imagine. I mean, he's talking about taking this thing and just hurling it. Hurl your anxiety, your cares, your fears, your worries, your burdens on God, because he cares for you. Wherever you are, if you're in a hospital room right now, what I want you to feel is that God is near,

He is with you. He's not going to leave you. He will never forsake you. He cares for you. If you're worried about how you're going to feed your kids, he cares for you. Then Peter gives a warning, and he says, be alert. Kind of like, be on your guard. Don't drop your guard.

Be ready with prayer. Be ready with praise. Be alert and be of sober mind. Why? because you have an enemy, the devil, who prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. The devil's always coming after you. Pastor Sam, sometimes people will say, we're praying for you, Pastor Craig, because we know the devil's attacking you. I want to say, and he's going to attack you too. Be he's always coming, and the devil is always swinging, and it only hurts if you drop your guard.

Be on guard. Be alert. Your enemy is on the attack. How does he attack? Well, the devil's target is your mind and his weapon is his lies. What does he do? He'll tell you, you're not going to be able to pay your bills. You're not going to be able to make rent. Your marriage is not going to survive this. He'll tell you, you're going to get sick. You're going to be all alone. There's not going to be a ventilator for you. If God really loved you, then he wouldn't be allowing this to happen in your life? And the devil comes at you again and again. His target is your mind. His weapon is his lies. And that's why you have to tell yourself again and again. The devil is a liar. He's always swinging. Guard your mind, guard your heart, prayer and peace, don't drop your guard.

If you feel like right now you're under attack, and some of you, I know you do, you feel like you're under attack. Amy and I, I feel like we're a little bit under attack. We rarely ever have arguments. This week, or maybe the last 10 days, we had two arguments, two big ones. I call them tornado arguments because a tornado where I live, tornado blows in hard, does a lot of damage in at least fast. And they were fast, and we got over it quickly. But we just went out of each other. one of the arguments there was even a word that flew that was probably PG-13 or TVMA depending on how you rate it. Now, I'm not going to tell you who said the word and, you know, whatever, but it was just, what happened? What happened is we dropped our guard.

We dropped our guard. I had to immediately say, and Amy agreed, we need to pray and we need to be united because what happened is we just let this get to us. we dropped our guard. And to be honest with you, like as a pastor and as a leader, what I want to try to do is I want to try to lead strong with faith and believe that God is with us and God is for us. But there are times when I just feel a little bit overwhelmed, just like the rest of you.

From my perspective, it was two weeks of strict quarantine, coming back into the reality that our church cannot meet physically. And then, quite honestly, the pastoral burden of knowing all the people in our church that are in need, prayer request, a good friend of ours right now whose mom is dying in the hospital and they can't get there, the family members that have tested positive, all of the complications, the prayer needs that you all are facing. And then the reality that we're trying to help onboard thousands of churches into church online. And while other people are ramping down costs, we're ramping them

up and it is a higher cost, but we believe it's a higher calling. And we're going to do that with joy to serve these churches. And sometimes the anxiety just kind of gets to me. and I have to go to God and take it to them and take it to them in prayer and with praise. I found myself just recently with kind of a shortness of breath, like just trying to catch my breath. What do we do? We keep our guard up. We go to God with prayer and we go to God with praise. Whenever anxiety attacks, whenever you feel worried, don't drop your guard.

Prayer and praise. Keep your guard up. Prayer and praise. Let's talk about prayer and let's talk about praise. Sometimes, Pastor Sam, people will talk about prayer and they'll say like, all we can do now is pray. Sometimes I think about what God must feel like when somebody says that. All we can do now is pray. In other words, you're in big trouble.

All you've got is the power of God. Listen to me. Prayer is never, ever a last resort. Prayer is always a first line of offense. We can pray. We can go before. our God in prayer. And that's what we're going to do. We are people of prayer. We've got our guard up. We're going to an all-powerful, all-knowing, ever-present God, with whom nothing is impossible to our God.

If we have the faith of a mustard seed, and sometimes, Amy, that's the only faith I have, is a little bit of faith. We can say to a mountain, be removed, and as God hears that prayer, he will remove that mountain. We go to God. I'm going to go to God like the persistent widow in Luke 18, who comes to him again and again with this relentless type of faith and prayer. I'm not talking about the kind of like safe and polished and formal prayers that you might hear me pray over a dinner or at a church service. I'm talking about the kind of prayers that sometimes you don't want anybody else to hear. The ones that are from the heart, from the depths of the soul,

where you just cry out to God in anguish, help, send help. I need your mercy. I need your grace. We're talking about prayer, the faith. We've got the armor of God and we can pray in the spirit in all times believing that our God is with us. We pray and we praise. We praise. We thank God for who he is, not just for what we see, but we thank him for his character and for his nature. We don't just stop with the prayers about what we want, but we pray. Pray and we praise. Paul said it this way. He said, rejoice in the Lord always.

In other words, anybody can praise him when things are good. But it takes real faith to praise him in the middle of a storm. In other words, what we're going to do, church, is we're going to praise him when we feel like it, and we're going to praise him when we don't. I will bless the Lord at all times, scripture says, from the rising of the sun until the moment that it sets. Let the name of our Lord be praised.

Somebody say amen in your living room. Say amen on your sofa. Say amen on your bed. Say amen. Let the name of the Lord be praised. Paul wanted to go to Rome to preach. And he found himself instead in Rome as a prison, locked up waiting,

potential execution. He said, rejoice in the Lord. Always. I will say it again, rejoice. Take your prayers and your praise. Pray about everything. Worry about nothing. With Thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, a peace from heaven, will guard your hearts and your hearts. your minds in Christ Jesus, don't drop your guard. Don't drop your guard. How could the Apostle Paul praise God when he could have been executed? If you read in the beginning of Philippians,

it's so powerful, McKinsey Philippians 1, you can read it there if you want to, but this is what the Apostle Paul says. He says, hey, guess what? It's become clear to everyone in the Roman leadership that I'm actually in chains for Christ. In other words, he's saying, they thought I was the prisoner, but I get a new guard lock up to me every eight hours a day. Who is the real captive audience?

I'm telling them all about the grace and the goodness of Jesus. He's saying this. He said, everyone knows. Everyone in the palace guard knows. I'm in chains for Christ. And then he said, because of my chains, most of the other Christians are becoming more confident in the Lord and they're sharing their faith without fear. What I see is I see some followers of Christ that what the devil meant for evil God is going to use for good, that you're going to become more confident in your faith,

that you're going to share the gospel without fear. In fact, when I see what God could be doing, it makes me want to pray and it makes me want to praise because he is working in all things and everything, even in the bad things, to bring about good to those who love him and are called according to his purpose. If you can get your mind around this,

this weekend alone, there will be around 20,000 churches from every country, countries around the world, using the Live Church Online platform for free. This is what's crazy. When you add up all those churches, we have people that will indicate, I am choosing today to follow Jesus.

Here's what's crazy. This weekend, we will surpass maybe 110,000 or so people just since COVID-19 started spreading. 110,000 or more will have said yes to Jesus. And the last time I checked, the pace of those that are coming to Christ would be about to exceed the pace of those who are becoming sick. I have enough faith to believe that the tide would turn and we may see more people through the Life Church online platform

we come to faith in Christ that we're getting sick around the world. Somebody shout from wherever you walk. Somebody give praise to God. We're going to pray and we're going to praise. We're not going to drop our God. We're going to see God working in places that other people overlook. Don't drop your guard. Don't drop your guard.

Don't let the anxiety of this world overcome the peace that God gives you in your heart. What do you do? You pray to God about everything and you praise him in all things. wherever you are, praise him. Praise him today. I'm talking about the kind of praise that makes the devil mad. I'm talking about the kind that no one can stop, no matter what you see, let everything that has breath give him praise. What happens when you pray and when you praise, you start passing from fear to faith. You start moving from worry to his peace. You're the people of God. You're the power, of the risen Christ

dwelling within you. You're the very same spirit that raised Christ from the dead. Is this a very difficult time? Unquestionably, it's hard. Are there many, many problems to be solved? Yes, yes, yes, and yes. But if you're in Christ, remember,

you are an overcomer by the blood of the lamb and by the words of your testimony. You are more than a conqueror in Christ Jesus. The devil's always swinging. You don't drop your guard. We pray and we praise. And the peace of God will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

And that's why the apostle Paul said, do not be anxious about anything, but in everything with prayer and praise. present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. With Christ, we will get through this. Don't drop your guard.

Let's all pray together. Father, we ask that in, your presence, you would give us a peace that goes beyond our human ability to understand. Today, as you're watching from who knows where, I believe the Spirit of God wants to minister to you. For those of you that may be hurting, you feel anxious, you feel afraid. You don't know what's to come. You might be worried about your health or worried about how you're going to pay the bills, but at this moment, you want to cast your cares upon God. I want you to do this. Cast all of your on him because he cares for you. If that's you today and say, yes, I need his help. I need his

presence. I want his peace. You can just click below me. I'm casting my cares on him. You can type it. God, I need your help. Just call out on him in prayer and praise. Father, I pray for those who are hurting. I thank you, God, that you care for all of us. We cast all of our anxiety, all of our burdens on you. We thank you, God, that you're a good God. You're a God who never leaves us. You're a God comforts you, a God that always provides as we come to you with prayer and with petition and with praise, God. May your peace that goes beyond our human ability to understand, may it guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus. As you keep praying today, there may be those of you who recognize I don't even know a thing about that peace.

may I suggest to you that the very reason you're here today is because God wants to give you that peace. He wants to reveal himself to you. We talked about Jesus, the gospel. What is the gospel? The gospel simply means good news. Let me give you the best news you could ever hear. If you've ever wondered, where do I stand with God?

I feel like I've done so many things wrong. The reality is you have and so have I. And the good news is that God, sent Jesus, his only son, who was perfect and without sin, to be the innocent sacrifice for the forgiveness of our sins. He gave his life. God raised him from the dead so that anyone in this includes you, who calls on his name, the name of Jesus, God would forgive every single sin you've ever committed. He would save you not just from eternal hell, but he would save you for a life of peace and joy and ministry to make a difference in this world.

In fact, wherever you're watching from, if you know something is missing, if you're hurting, if you're afraid, if you need his forgiveness and you need his peace, call out on him today. That may be the very reason why you're here. Jesus, I need you. Jesus, forgive me. Today, I give my life to you. If that's you, just click right below me. You can raise your hand in your living room or your bedroom.

You can type it in the comments, Jesus, I'm giving my life to you. And as you're doing that today from places all. all over the world, it would be our honor as the global church of Jesus just to pray together with you wherever you might be right now. Just pray aloud, pray Heavenly Father, forgive my sins. Jesus save me, make me new. Fill me with your spirit so I could follow you.

Walk with you, live for you, show your love, and all that I do, My life is not my own. I give it all to you. In Jesus' name, I pray. Wherever you are, you can clap right now more than that. We can pray and we can praise. I want you to join your voices with me.

Can you lead us again today? We'll lift up our voices and give some praise to our God in heaven. As a church together, thank you, Pastor Craig, for that encouragement. Keep your guard up. But for those of you who just gave your life to Christ, I want you to know that as your church, church, we're here for you. So if you're online, I want you to either just let us know by clicking that form, because when you give us your name and email address, that'll allow us to get these

resources into your hands, or just go to the Life Church app and hit the connect button, because we as your church, we want to walk this walk with you. Now remember, come back next week because we're still going to have church, because we know whoever finds God finds life.