Beyond a Refuge: Finding Peace in the Person of Christ

[00:11:06] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:11:06] He is a God who always follows through He has always said He will never leave nor forsake us and He has fulfilled that And guess what? There is nothing that our God can't do So come on, let's with our faith alive and well and our voices, let's cry out Sing just one word Just one word Just one word Let's call upon our souls, our emotions, our hearts
[00:13:39] Sing this out together.
[00:13:40] I will believe.

[00:13:47] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]
[00:13:47] Greater things.
[00:13:49] There's no power like the love of Jesus.
[00:13:53] Let faith arise.
[00:13:56] All agree.
[00:13:57] There's no power like the love of Jesus.

[00:14:01] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:14:01] Our God can't do.

[00:16:01] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:16:01] Nothing is impossible.
[00:16:03] There's no fear that's greater than our God.
[00:16:05] There's no anxiety that's stronger than our God.
[00:16:09] So let's continue to worship him.

[00:16:22] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]
[00:16:22] Stories of the Savior.
[00:16:24] You're a treasure for a traitor.
[00:16:37] Their anxiety.

[00:22:09] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:22:09] And put it before you.
[00:22:12] Because you are in charge of all of it.
[00:22:15] You are in control.
[00:22:17] And we can come directly to you.
[00:22:20] Because you sent your son Jesus to die on the cross for us.
[00:22:24] So now we can have a direct communication with you, God.
[00:22:29] We thank you so much because you are so powerful.
[00:22:35] So worthy.
[00:22:36] so amazing and we thank you because you are in control of our lives thank you because today we can be together praising your name glorifying you as one church in the name of Jesus we pray amen
[00:22:54] go ahead greet someone and take your seats good morning buenos dias my name is Aracelis and I have the pleasure of serving in the Spanish interpreting team.
[00:23:16] I am so glad you're here.
[00:23:19] It's so beautiful to see so many smiling faces this morning and we are so joyful that you are joining us today.
[00:23:27] If this is your first time here, I want to invite you to scan the QR code in front of you because we would love to meet you.
[00:23:36] You can also go to the Next Steps area.
[00:23:39] there's team members there that are ready to answer any questions you may have to put a small gift in your hands and just tell you thank you for being here welcome to the cove and hopefully
[00:23:51] you can make this your home church too i am so excited to share that today is baptism day yes let's celebrate that we are celebrating baptism and i remember the day that i decided to give that step of faith of just publicly acknowledge the decision that I had made
[00:24:17] to accept Jesus in my heart and just be public in my faith it was not anymore about oh yes I grew up in church my parents are Christians I am involved in all of the things no it was a
[00:24:30] determination of now I am going to follow Jesus but also show others what he's doing in my life so if you had felt that nudge if you think that Jesus have put that in your heart and you're ready
[00:24:44] to take that step today go ahead to our next steps area because there you are going to have more information any questions that you may have we even have shorts or a towel if you need it
[00:24:55] so if today you are ready to go ahead and make that choice we are ready for you too and one of the things that I absolutely love about our church is that we find many ways to plug in with our
[00:25:08] community and stay connected. I love that we have many opportunities to impact people, not only locally, but also globally. So if you would like to be part of what God is doing through the Cove,
[00:25:22] you can use the silver boxes in our atrium or go to covechurch.org slash give. Now let's get ready for Salisbury Campus, Tim Beal, who is going to be sharing, wrapping up this series about emotions.

[00:25:45] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_09]
[00:25:45] All right, well, happy Sunday, Cove Church.
[00:25:48] I wanna acknowledge that we're being joined right now by all of our campuses.
[00:25:53] And so those in Denver and Statesville and my home of Salisbury, we're excited to have you as well as those online.
[00:26:01] And of course, we can get rowdy here in Mooresville as well.
[00:26:04] Yes, let's get excited to be one church gathered together.
[00:26:10] My name is Tim and I have the honor of leading our Salisbury campus.
[00:26:16] And for the past few weeks, we've been exploring our emotions and talking about what does it look like to navigate these emotions that we have inside of us and feel in very big and strong ways.
[00:26:30] What does it look like to honor God in each of these emotions?
[00:26:35] And today we're wrapping up the series by talking about a group of emotions that every single one of us deals with on a regular basis, but also the group of emotions that I would say many of us despise the most.
[00:26:52] And that would be, we're talking all things worry, anxiety, we're talking about stress today. In fact, I can see it on some of our faces. Here and we're talking about stress, just stress somebody out, right? Man, we don't like stress. It's no fun. And I get that.
[00:27:14] Now, I was thinking about with this topic, I was reminded about one of the most anxious moments of my life, and that revolved around when I was getting ready to propose to my wife, all right? I want you to, those who are married, I want, guys, I want to take you back to that
[00:27:35] moment where you're about to pop the question, and I want you to remember what that feeling felt like.
[00:27:42] Now, to clarify, for me, the nerve-wracking part was not asking Alyssa to marry me, right that felt like the easy part because how is she gonna say no to all this scrawniness right here if you know what I'm saying all right I felt like I had it in the bag no the part that terrified
[00:28:03] me was asking her parents permission right that part had me so anxious and so scared in fact I'll never forget, I'd set up for the three of us to go to dinner one night. And I wrote out exactly
[00:28:23] what I was going to say. I got to the restaurant like an hour ahead of time so I could rehearse and practice over and over again. I even set up the mustard and ketchup bottles at the end of the
[00:28:35] table and pretended that was Dale and Holly that I was, you know, giving this spiel to. And I wanted to just be so ready. I did not want to goof this up. Well, eventually her parents get there. We
[00:28:49] get through all the small talk and like, listen, they know what's going on here, right? They're not dumb. I mean, the context clues lead you to one place. I'd been dating their daughter for about a year. We're now at dinner together, but she's nowhere to be found. It doesn't take a
[00:29:09] rocket scientist to figure out what's going on here. You know, they knew. And so by all accounts, it should have been a pretty easy, straightforward conversation, but it was not. This became the hardest conversation of my life because every time I was getting ready to just have the talk, Tim,
[00:29:31] tell them what you're here for, I just froze. I couldn't make myself have this conversation.
[00:29:37] and so I froze and by froze I mean that we ended up sitting in a Chili's restaurant having awkward small talk for 45 minutes because I just couldn't say the thing I needed to say.
[00:29:54] I could talk about lots of stuff. I could talk about the weather. I could talk about work. I could talk about how in the world do they make the chips and salsa so good? What's their secret? Oh
[00:30:04] my goodness. And I could talk about everything except the one thing I was there to talk about, which is, hey, I love your daughter. I want to marry your daughter, right? You see, anxiety turned what should have been an easy task, and all of a sudden, it became an impossible task.
[00:30:26] And so I'll share this story with us today because this is what anxiety does, right?
[00:30:31] All right, that anxiety has a way of making life feel so heavy, so difficult, and as we navigate this topic today, I think it's important we acknowledge a couple things on the front end.
[00:30:47] First, I want to acknowledge that anxiety, it means different things to different people, right?
[00:30:54] Like for a group of us, for some of us, anxiety is something that shows up in seasons of life.
[00:31:01] It's circumstantial.
[00:31:02] you know it's you got a job interview or you're you're taking a big test or it's a busy season at work and and you just really need it to go well like anxiety shows up and then it leaves
[00:31:17] all right that's how some of us experience anxiety but there's another group of us who experience it a whole different way there's another group of us who for us anxiety it's an everyday battle. It's all consuming. It's something that we head into the day knowing it's going to be
[00:31:36] there. In some cases, you may even have a diagnosis around anxiety. That for you, anxiety isn't something that comes and goes. It's just an everyday battle. And so no matter which group you relate to though, the common ground we have is this, is that anxiety paralyzes all of us.
[00:32:01] No matter when it shows up or how often you deal with it, anxiety is paralyzing, right?
[00:32:06] It's a hijacker.
[00:32:08] It leaves us not knowing when it shows up, what do we do in that moment?
[00:32:15] And so the good news on this is that the Word of God has a lot to say on this topic, right?
[00:32:24] Did you know that Scripture speaks about worry and fear more than 350 times?
[00:32:31] You see, God knew this would be an emotion that we would wrestle with, and so he wants us to be equipped to do so, which is why today we're talking about battling anxiety God's way.
[00:32:48] Now, I want to be clear, we're talking about a battle here.
[00:32:55] That wording we chose was very intentional because anxiety, it's a battle.
[00:32:59] understand the goal of this message today is not to give you three things and if you do these three things one time you'll never experience anxiety or stress the rest of your life no that's not the
[00:33:14] goal of today's message and it's also just not realistic right because let's let's understand we're going to experience stress and and anxiety and fear it's going to pop up it's going to happen Even scripture tells us that as Jesus was about to go to the cross,
[00:33:32] he was in the garden of Gethsemane.
[00:33:34] And he's talking to God the Father about the cross and he's asking, Lord, if there's any other way that we can take care of sin and death permanently besides the cross, can we go that route?
[00:33:50] Scripture says that Jesus experienced so much agony in his spirit at knowing the cross was up ahead, it caused him to sweat blood. And so this matters because here's what it tells us is that I think for some of us, we've experienced feeling like anytime I
[00:34:10] have anxiety, it means my faith is weak. Or it means I'm not a strong Christian because why am I so fearful? Shouldn't I be able to trust God in this? But let's understand the goal is not
[00:34:22] no anxiety the rest of my life. The goal is when it pops up, how do we handle that God's way?
[00:34:31] And so this message is about the disciplines we see in scripture that are going to allow you and I to combat anxiety and stress and worry. And so if you have your Bible, we're going to be in
[00:34:44] Philippians chapter four for most of this message. And here we have the apostle Paul and he gives us a game plan to battle anxiety the Lord's way. And we pick up in verse six. It'll be on the screen.
[00:35:01] Paul says this. He says, don't worry about anything. Instead, pray about everything.
[00:35:11] All right, look at that again. Don't worry about anything. Instead, pray about everything.
[00:35:19] Now, I just want to call out that for some of us, we read a verse like this, and if we're being honest, we would say that doesn't seem that helpful because on the surface, this can feel like just shallow Christian cliche,
[00:35:36] just pray more, rub some prayer on it, why don't you, and just move on.
[00:35:42] And it can just feel like you're being Jesus-juked a little bit, like, oh, just pray.
[00:35:47] But I want us to understand Paul is getting at something so much deeper here than that.
[00:35:55] You see, what Paul is getting at is something that is so crucial for spiritual maturity, and it's this discipline of learning how to be comforted by God.
[00:36:08] Can I tell you today, if you're here and you're really wanting to grow spiritually, right a huge part of that spiritual growth is you got to learn this discipline of how to allow your heart and your soul to be comforted by God that's not something that you just learn or that happens
[00:36:32] after you pray a prayer it's learned it's a discipline and that's what Paul's talking about when he says hey don't don't worry about anything instead pray about everything talk to God allow God to be the comforter of your soul. And so if we're going to battle anxiety God's way, that
[00:36:50] means we must set God as our refuge. Now, refuge, it's not a word that we tend to use in our everyday vocabulary, but scripture uses this word a ton, right? A refuge, it's a safe place. It's a hiding
[00:37:12] place. It's a shelter where we can escape and find security during life's turbulent moments.
[00:37:21] And all over scripture, specifically in the Psalms, we see God wants to be our refuge.
[00:37:28] Check it out. See for yourself. Psalms 46.1. God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble. Psalms 94, 19, when my anxious thoughts multiply within me, your comfort delights my soul. Psalm 62, 8, all my people trust in him at all times.
[00:37:54] Pour out your heart to him for God is our refuge. You see, it's undeniable God wants to be the place you and I turn for comfort, for security.
[00:38:09] God wants to be our refuge.
[00:38:13] And I was thinking about this.
[00:38:15] It reminded me of the time I was in this building in the middle of the week.
[00:38:19] I was getting some work done, about to head home for the day.
[00:38:23] And my five-year-old son was in a Cove Kids room directly across from where I was working at.
[00:38:31] and he specifically picked the room that had this mini one-person trampoline, those that you can have indoors and he's just on this trampoline and he's jumping up and down, just having the time of his life.
[00:38:47] But in classic kid fashion, he decided, you know, let's take this to the next level because the trampoline indoors isn't good enough.
[00:38:58] Let's ramp it up a notch.
[00:39:00] And so he decides, you know what I'm going to do?
[00:39:04] I'm going to do a front flip off this trampoline onto that beanbag there.
[00:39:11] Because what could go wrong?
[00:39:14] And the answer, as we would find out, is lots of things could go wrong.
[00:39:19] You see, unfortunately, he misjudged his landing spot by about a lot.
[00:39:27] and instead of hitting the nice, cozy, safe beanbag cushion, he ended up hitting the back of his head on a metal spring from the trampoline.
[00:39:39] He punctured his head and now his head is bleeding.
[00:39:44] He's got blood on the back of his head, on his hands, on his face, and anywhere his hands touch, there's now blood.
[00:39:51] There's blood everywhere and he's panicking.
[00:39:55] He's freaking out.
[00:39:57] he's just in a state of shock. And in this panicked moment, he had one instinct.
[00:40:07] I got to find my dad. And so he runs to me. He tells me what happened. He's an absolute mess.
[00:40:16] He's inconsolable, just weeping and in shock. It was the scaredest I've ever seen my son in his life. And if I'm being honest, it's the scariest I've been in my life, seeing my child like that.
[00:40:32] Now understand, as his dad, there's nothing I can do to undo the damage, right? Damage is done.
[00:40:39] The wound is there, right? But all I could really do as his dad was I held him close.
[00:40:48] I just reassured him hey man like it's gonna be okay we're gonna get this taken care of and really I was just present with him in that moment I've refused to let go of him I reminded him dude
[00:41:00] dad's here we're gonna figure this thing out and eventually over time he began to calm down right now he's his head still hurts he's still bleeding we still got a lot of things to figure
[00:41:13] out. His situation hasn't changed a whole lot, but his peace level of his heart had. He was more calm. He was peaceful. You see, for the hurting child, there's nothing like the comfort of a
[00:41:28] mother or a father. And in that same way, for the hurting heavy soul, there's nothing like the comfort of our heavenly father. You see, God wants to be our refuge, the comforter of our soul.
[00:41:47] The problem is, is that so often we tend to look to other things besides God for comfort.
[00:41:56] Can I ask, where do you find yourself running for comfort?
[00:41:59] We turn to distraction.
[00:42:02] We run to our phones.
[00:42:03] We just want to forget about that thing that's stressing us out.
[00:42:07] Or we turn to our finances.
[00:42:10] There's something in us that says, if I can just throw some money at this problem, it'll go away.
[00:42:15] We turn to knowledge.
[00:42:17] We think if I can just know all there is to know about what's going on, I can come up with a plan or I can feel better. And so we go to Google, we go to AI for information. For some, we turn to
[00:42:31] things like alcohol when we're overwhelmed and we don't know what to do. We feel like I just need a drink to help me get through this moment. All right, would you right now have a moment of
[00:42:43] just honest reflection, and would you identify where am I tempted to turn to something other than Christ as my safe place, as the comforter of my soul? Because understand, those are the things that are getting in the way of God being a refuge in your life. And it's also getting in
[00:43:09] the way of you being able to battle anxiety God's way. And so this week, right, when things begin to get a little heavy, when you feel scared, anxious, I want to encourage you to let that be a
[00:43:27] trigger in your mind. This is an opportunity for me to learn how to let God comfort me, right? Because understand that's the only moments you learn that. It's not when things are great, And when everything's, you know, awesome and you got nothing that's weighing on, you know,
[00:43:47] the moments that teach us to allow God to comfort us are these very moments.
[00:43:52] And so the question is, have you learned how to let God be your refuge, the comforter of your soul?
[00:43:59] It's a huge part of battling this anxiety the Lord's way.
[00:44:04] Now, for many of us, maybe you're in the spot of you're saying, hey, Tim, I love that idea.
[00:44:12] I want God to be my refuge, I really do.
[00:44:17] But you would say where you're struggling is how do I make that a reality in my life?
[00:44:24] Like I love the concept.
[00:44:26] How do I practically see, set God as my refuge?
[00:44:32] And it's almost like Paul knew we were gonna ask that question because he speaks to it in the very next line.
[00:44:39] Look at this, second half of verse six.
[00:44:41] Paul says, tell God what you need and thank him for all he's done, right? Tell God what you need and thank him for what he's done. Here, Paul gives you and I two very clear, unmistakable,
[00:44:58] specific things to do. And these are things that are going to help us establish God as our refuge.
[00:45:09] Let's break them down, right?
[00:45:12] The first thing Paul says is we gotta learn this discipline of telling God what we need, right?
[00:45:20] Now, what I love about this is notice Paul didn't say, hey, tell God about just the big stuff, right?
[00:45:30] Tell God about the really big, important moments, right?
[00:45:36] He didn't say that.
[00:45:38] No, he said, just tell God what you need, right?
[00:45:42] That's important because sometimes we get in this mindset that just begins to believe that my problems are too minuscule for God.
[00:45:53] You ever felt that way before, right?
[00:45:56] Like God is so big and he's got the world on his hands and surely he doesn't have time for my silly problems.
[00:46:05] Surely he's just got bigger fish to fry.
[00:46:08] He doesn't have time to hear about what's going on with Tim in Mooresville.
[00:46:11] He doesn't have time.
[00:46:13] Have you ever felt that way?
[00:46:15] Now, we may feel this way at times, but let's understand, nothing could be further from the truth.
[00:46:22] Peter says as much.
[00:46:23] He combats this line of thinking.
[00:46:25] 1 Peter 5, 7, Peter says, Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.
[00:46:33] So I want to just take a pause on this because someone today needs this reminder, right?
[00:46:43] That God deeply cares about you, right?
[00:46:48] Not just in a generic way.
[00:46:51] You know, sometimes we can hear that God loves you, right?
[00:46:53] We've all heard that before.
[00:46:55] God loves you.
[00:46:56] And it can be really easy just to kind of let that go in one ear and out the other because we've heard it a lot or it feels like, well, he loves everybody.
[00:47:04] so even that means I'm not special because he loves everybody, right?
[00:47:09] But no, understand, you are precious to God, right?
[00:47:14] There's nothing that is too small for you to bring to him, right?
[00:47:19] Peter, notice he calls that out.
[00:47:22] That's why he says, tell God all your worries.
[00:47:26] Give him all your worries, the big things, the little things, the in-between things.
[00:47:32] Give it all to him.
[00:47:33] He wants to know about it.
[00:47:34] He wants you to talk to him about it.
[00:47:38] And so a very practical way that we can live this out is when you find yourself stressed, when you're anxious, when just life is beginning to overtake you, get in the habit of asking yourself this key question.
[00:47:57] What do I need right now?
[00:48:03] What do I need?
[00:48:05] All right, like life's heavy, I'm overwhelmed, I'm afraid.
[00:48:08] what do I need in this moment at the most simplistic level, right? Do I need peace?
[00:48:15] Do I need wisdom of some kind for a decision? Do I need provision somehow? Like identify what you need in that situation. And as soon as you see it, talk to God about it. Ask God to provide that
[00:48:32] thing. All right, now perhaps you're saying, but Tim, my problem is so often it's hard for me to identify what I need. Oh, that's okay. You can talk to God about that too, right? Again, remember
[00:48:48] the point here is just going to God. And so for you, you may need to get in the habit of going to God with God. I'm anxious right now. I don't know what I need. Would you help me identify
[00:49:00] what's going on here, right?
[00:49:03] However you do it, the point is going to God, right?
[00:49:07] And this is so important for many reasons.
[00:49:10] One, scripture tells us that prayer is powerful, that there's something powerful about prayer that even maybe we can't fully comprehend this side of heaven, but prayer is powerful.
[00:49:21] But also because prayer, when we tell God what we need, it gives us this greater awareness for when God does come through.
[00:49:34] A prime example, I saw this this week.
[00:49:37] You heard about my five-year-old.
[00:49:39] I also have a four-month-old who's been battling a nasty cold last part of last week into the early part of this week.
[00:49:47] And she's just a mess.
[00:49:49] Nasty cough, her nose is just all kinds of just grossness going on.
[00:49:55] And I believe the proper medical term for what's going on with her nose is it's become a snot faucet.
[00:50:03] You're welcome for that visual there.
[00:50:05] Just all kinds of, she's a mess.
[00:50:08] And so my wife and I specifically have been praying for healing, right?
[00:50:13] Praying that her nose would stop running, praying that her cough would get better, praying that she'd be able to just feel better.
[00:50:22] And by Wednesday of this past week, she turned a corner, right?
[00:50:26] She was doing better.
[00:50:27] Nose wasn't running so much.
[00:50:28] Thursday, same thing, a little bit better.
[00:50:32] Now understand, my wife and I were not under the illusion that this cold was gonna last forever.
[00:50:38] We knew eventually she's gonna kick this thing and be better.
[00:50:43] But because the Lord is our refuge, because he's our provider, because we believe prayer and we know prayer is powerful, we sought the Lord on that and we asked very specifically, God, would you do these things?
[00:50:55] And so when that moment came, whether it was this week or if it was going to be next week or a month from now, when God provided the healing, that was not just, oh cool, the cold passed. That was, oh my goodness, God came through.
[00:51:09] God answered prayer. God moved in some way. You see, we are way more likely to recognize God's provision when it's something we've already been talking to him about, right? That's not just a happy accident. That's my God moved. And so this ties directly into the second thing Paul tells us
[00:51:32] to do, which is after you tell God what you need, next is thank God for what he's done, right?
[00:51:41] This is so huge when it comes to battling anxiety the Lord's way for the simple fact that one of the best ways to find comfort when you're in an uncertain situation is to remind yourself how
[00:51:59] God came through in the past. Psalms talks about this. 77 verse 11 says, I will remember the deeds of the Lord. Yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago. Now, I think for so many of us,
[00:52:18] we have a desire to remember what God has done.
[00:52:23] Then we look at a verse like this and go, yes, I see value in that.
[00:52:26] I want that to be something I live out in my life.
[00:52:31] But the problem is we massively underestimate how forgetful we can be as humans.
[00:52:38] Have you seen this in your life?
[00:52:40] Right, that again, in the moment that God comes through, God did something big, our heart and mind says things like, I'll never forget this moment oh my goodness this is a a big just faith moment for me I'll never
[00:52:55] forget what God did on this day and again that's a sincere thought and reality that that's the way we feel in the moment but what we miss is what happens next life speeds up new problems show up
[00:53:12] The details that made what God did in that moment so special, they begin to get a little blurry the more time goes on, and suddenly what God did is now buried in the past.
[00:53:27] And not because God wasn't faithful to us, we just stopped remembering it.
[00:53:35] No, this was something God's been really talking to our family about, is being better at really remembering the acts of God in our life. And so for that reason, we started doing something in our family. We started keeping a God jar. Now, I want you to know something you're going to learn
[00:53:58] about me really quickly is there's certain areas of life that I'm just extra on. If I have a say so, my shoes will always match my shirt. And when it comes to things like God says a God jar,
[00:54:12] I got to create a fancy label. This is not just a stage prop. This is what is in our home on our countertop. God said, Tim, you need a God jar. And so the way this works is whenever we see
[00:54:26] God come through in some way, right? We see God work a miracle. We see God provide a blessing.
[00:54:35] We see God answer a prayer in our life, in our family, in the life of someone else.
[00:54:42] We just see, oh, that was God doing something.
[00:54:46] We write it down and we put it in the jar.
[00:54:50] Now, this week, as I was preparing for this message, studying this passage, I went back and I read some of the older entries on this thing.
[00:55:00] I'd written just some things down I saw God do.
[00:55:03] from years ago. And as I read over each moment, the details of each moment came rushing back to me.
[00:55:13] I remembered what was going on in that moment. Just the fear that kind of weighed down on us.
[00:55:22] But I also got to remember the relief that rushed in when God showed up.
[00:55:27] Right? It really filled my heart with joy. It really just built up my faith even more to remember how faithful God has been over the years.
[00:55:37] Now, understand, this is biblical, right?
[00:55:40] Because when you read the Old Testament, one of the things you see is God's people were constantly building monuments, right?
[00:55:49] Pillars of stone, altars, markers in the ground.
[00:55:55] These things were meant to be physical reminders for themselves, but also for future generations.
[00:56:03] that God met us here. God showed up. God did something that only he could do. God was faithful in some way. And so they created physical reminders that would remind them, okay, God was good. God
[00:56:20] showed up. And that same way, church, we need monuments in our life as well. It doesn't have to be a God jar. It doesn't have to be pillars of stone, but you need a way to memorialize God's
[00:56:37] acts in your life. Whether that's a note section in your phone, a journal that you keep, maybe that's having a baptism picture or other key spiritual moments in your life just on your wall somewhere, front and center, where you can see and be reminded what God did in that moment, right?
[00:56:57] You choose what it looks like, but really adapt this attitude that says in your heart as well as in your family that understands that the acts of God are not something to be casual with, right?
[00:57:14] There's something to cherish in a major way.
[00:57:16] There's something to preserve.
[00:57:19] And what you'll find as you grow in this discipline of thanking God for what he's done, right, as that becomes to be a habit in your life, well, that has a way of making life's current anxieties
[00:57:32] feel a little less heavy. Paul speaks to that in verse 7 as he really begins to land the plane here. Look at what Paul says. Verse 7 says, then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you
[00:57:55] live in Christ Jesus. I want to encourage you this week, just go back and pick through this chapter again, specifically verse seven. There's so much depth and nuance and goodness here that we just don't have time to fully unpack today. But I want to encourage you,
[00:58:16] go deeper on your own. What we're going to talk about here is this first word he uses, right he says then right meaning after we've done some things right after we've taken our worries and turn them into prayers after we tell god what we need after we thank god for what he's done
[00:58:42] then we will experience god's peace you see what paul is presenting to us is that prayer plus thankfulness positions our heart to experience the peace of God in a way that just few other things can.
[00:59:06] Now, maybe you're wondering, well, why is that?
[00:59:09] Why does it have to be this?
[00:59:11] And I believe that's because prayer and thankfulness remind us of something that we tend to forget about in the anxious moments of life.
[00:59:20] and that's the simple truth that our God is trustworthy, right? What prayer and thankfulness do is they remind us we can trust God, right? That's a big deal because what anxiety does is it distorts that truth, right? It makes God feel distant or uncertain that when you get all the
[00:59:45] what-ifs going through your head, you begin to feel so alone. You begin to see all the worst case scenarios. And it's heavy. And it's unsure. And it feels like this is going to be the end of
[00:59:57] me. Right? Right? But here's the thing. Here's what's going on. Is that we begin to be unsure about, can God be trusted? But here's the thing. When we remind ourselves, wait a minute. Yes, he can when we do what Paul's just told us to do. We thank God for what he's done.
[01:00:18] and how we remember how God was good even in the hard seasons of life.
[01:00:23] He showed up, he was present, he was there.
[01:00:27] Well, you can't help but come to one conclusion and that's that my God can be trusted.
[01:00:36] And so if you're gonna battle anxiety God's way, that means understanding this key truth that anxiety flees when trust is affirmed, right?
[01:00:50] anxiety flees when trust is affirmed. I don't want us to miss this because I think it's so easy for us to, you know, in those anxious moments, stressed out, worrisome moments, it feels like our head can
[01:01:08] just be so frazzled that we begin to really miss what's going on in that moment. And you see at the center of every anxious moment for you and me is the million dollar question our heart is asking
[01:01:25] which is can God be trusted here? Can I trust God in this moment? You know I want to. I'd like to hope I can but can I? I'm not sure. When we remind ourselves the answer to that question is yes he
[01:01:42] can be trusted. When we affirm our trust you'll see the grip of anxiety begin to weaken. You begin to see your focus is less on that problem and everything that could go wrong. And now it's on
[01:01:56] your God and how big he is and how even in your worst case scenario, he was there previously and he'll be there again. David understood this, which is why David said this. He says, but when I'm
[01:02:08] afraid, I'll put my trust in you. Read that again. But when I'm afraid, I'll put my trust in you.
[01:02:18] and so on that note let me ask you and at every campus what area of your life do you need to be reminded I can trust God here now like where have you forgotten that God's trustworthy
[01:02:37] right is it in your future is it in your family your finances maybe it's a recent failure you had and it feels like this is going to be the end of me there's no recovering from this
[01:02:55] right would you just get real about what has you stressed what what's the heavy thing what's maybe the thing you're trying to avoid thinking about all right because what i want us to know today
[01:03:10] is that peace is attainable but it's not going to come as a result of our planning by me just having a better plan it's not going to come as a result of of our power like if i can just be in
[01:03:25] control and manipulate the situation, then I don't have to be afraid. No. No. The peace we're searching for is going to be found when we remind our heart, I can trust God. Either for some of us
[01:03:40] today, that just needs to be an anthem for us, a reminder, I can trust God. Isaiah said it beautifully. Isaiah 26, 3. You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are
[01:04:00] fixed on you. We can trust our God. Peace comes when we remind our heart of that truth. You see, I feel like what God's been teaching our church during this whole series is that emotions, no
[01:04:17] matter which one you want to talk about or look at, right, they have something in common. And that's that they can either be the thing that pushes away from God, or they can be the very thing that draws
[01:04:29] us near to God and draws us into his presence, right? And anxiety is no different, right? Your anxiety can be the thing that puts a gap between you and God, or anxiety can be the thing that
[01:04:45] causes you to run to the Lord. And so this week, right, when anxiety, fear, worry, whatever it looks like in your life, when it creeps up, right? And it will at some point. Let's see that moment
[01:04:59] for what it is, right? An opportunity to remind our soul, my God can be trusted. Would you pray with me right now? Let's go to God. He's a faithful God. Or we come to you right now,
[01:05:15] and God, we just declare this. God, my God can be trusted. Would you say that in your heart and your soul right now, God. You're trustworthy. Thank you for that truth. Father, would you begin
[01:05:29] to talk to us today about what it looks like to just better honor you in this emotion of stress and anxiety, fear? Would you begin to show us what it looks like to allow you to be the comforter
[01:05:45] of our soul, God. All right, for you today, you're here, and God wants to call out the other things you've placed as your comforter, as your refuge, the things you're running to ahead of Him.
[01:06:01] All right, now it doesn't necessarily mean those are bad things, and they shouldn't be in your life, but what it does mean is they're not your refuge. They're not the answer. They're not the thing you run to. Jesus is saying, I'm the thing you run to because I'm where true security
[01:06:16] and peace is found. And so would you just make this your commitment today? God, I want you to be the comforter of my soul. God, show me how to do that this week. Would you begin to show me?
[01:06:28] Would you grow me in this, Lord? And there's another group listening in. And as we talk about battling anxiety God's way, as we talk about God being the comforter of your soul, um you the step one of this is you got to receive a relationship with jesus you got to receive jesus
[01:06:49] as lord and savior of your life right that's that that's that's the key part of allowing him to be your comforter and so for you maybe you've grown up in church maybe you've know the stories you
[01:07:02] know the songs you've heard jesus on the cross but it's been up until this point a head knowledge thing for you, something you know, but not something that you've experienced in your heart, not something that's been dictating the way you live your life. And today you're hearing this
[01:07:20] message here in Mooresville or at another campus, Denver, Salisbury, Statesville, you're hearing this message because today's the day the Lord wants to draw you near. And today's the day for you to say yes to the Lord. And so, uh, you can receive the gift of salvation. You can receive
[01:07:39] this relationship with Christ by just making this prayer your own. You pray, God, thank you for loving me. God, I admit that I'm a sinner in need of a savior, right? I can't save myself, but Jesus
[01:07:56] can. Today I see you as that savior. I believe you died on the cross for my sin. And I believe you rose again for me, Lord. And from this day forward, I'm committing to follow you all the days of my
[01:08:10] life. All right. You know, you pray that prayer in all your heart. You mean it. The Lord's going to come into your heart. He'll save you and he'll change you. Thank you, Father. In Jesus' name we
[01:08:24] pray. Amen. Hey, can we celebrate what the Lord's doing today? Yes. Two things for us. We're going to be on our way. If you prayed that prayer, do not leave without letting someone know about that.
[01:08:36] We'd love to encourage you in that decision as you walk with the Lord.
[01:08:41] Also, baptism is the immediate next step.
[01:08:44] And so whether you prayed that prayer today or you prayed it a while ago, but you've not yet been baptized, I want to encourage you.
[01:08:50] Baptism is your next step.
[01:08:51] We have everything you need today to take that step.
[01:08:54] Or if nothing else, just have that conversation to plan for you to take that step.
[01:08:59] We'd love to do that.
[01:09:01] Hey, next Sunday is Vision Sunday.
[01:09:04] It's a huge one for our church.
[01:09:05] if the Cove is your home church I want to encourage you do not miss next Sunday it's going to really set the tone for the rest of 2026 and you're going to want to be there
[01:09:14] hey we love you guys we'll see you at the pool to celebrate baptisms or we'll see you next Sunday bye everybody