Don’t Duck The Smoke // FEAR-LESS (Part 2) // Pastor Charles Metcalf

What is up, friend? I hope you're doing good. Hey, listen, I don't know if you've got a friend like this. Maybe you are a friend like this. But I have some friends who are never ducking smoke. And some of you know what I mean. But they're always ready to fight. They're always ready to go. And you're about to hear a sermon I preach called Don't Duck the Smoke. And here's the idea. Anxiety is often the smoke to the real fire of fear. What do I mean by that? Many of us, if you deal with anxiety in any way, you feel nervous. You feel overwhelmed. But what it usually tells me is we don't fight that smoke. We follow it to a real fear. And the truth is we've all got real fears that are on the inside of us that we need to give to God. In this message, I walk you through practically how to do that. I want you to get ready. Prepare your notes. Prepare your heart. And I actually want to take a moment and pray for you. That your heart will be open. That God will be able to speak to the real fears of your life. And you can walk out of anxiety. Would you pray with me right now? Lord God, I thank you for my friend. I thank you regardless of where they are right now. You see them. You care about them. You love them. I pray that whatever fears they may feel, whatever anxiety shows up on the surface, that you, Lord Jesus, would allow them and equip them to walk out of that,

to surrender their fear to you and find peace in your presence. In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen. We love you so much. And let's jump into this week's message. We're going to jump into the Word today. Is anybody ready for the Word today? All right. Let's get cooking. If you can open up your Bibles to Psalm chapter number 3. Psalm chapter number 3. It's kind of in the middle of your Bible. Kind of, sort of. We're in week 2 of a series called Fearless. And last week was the first week. And we kind of talked around this idea last week. Which is fear is what happens when your self-awareness outpaces your God-awareness. Fear is what happens when your self-awareness outpaces your God-awareness. And what I mean by that is, when you are thinking more about you, your capacity to handle something, your ability to navigate a situation, oftentimes you will start to experience

fear because you're thinking about yourself more than you're thinking about God. And this is proven in man's first experience of fear. The first time fear is ever mentioned in the Bible is Genesis chapter number 3. And Adam says, I was afraid because I was naked so I hid. The catch is, Adam and Eve were always naked. But this was the first time he was thinking more about himself and what other people thought about him than he was thinking about God. And when that happens, you start to experience fear. And I started to go into a rant last week of all the intense science that I figured out, which I want to appreciate. There was a couple people who DM'd me. They're like, we was tracking with you. We was with you. Some of y'all were staring at me with, like, cross-eyed, but it's all right. Not as much science this week, so you can calm down. We'll be all right. But science actually proves this theory. There's a scientist for the last 40 years that has done work on how your brain experiences two different things, fear and

danger. And to keep it very short for you, pretty much your body experiences danger and fear as two completely separate processes. And what that means is your body processes danger and threat, responds to it, and resolves it before it ever decides if it's afraid. Now, we experience this all very fast, but in short, I'll explain it to you this way. If a dangerous situation is happening, again, we'll give the example, you're in the woods, you see a bear, and you're like, oh my gosh. Your body is not afraid first. It first goes to, hey man, we don't mess with bears. So it processes it, it sends all the signals. Your body goes into fight or flight, whatever, which one you're bent towards. But over here is fear. You have this thing in your brain, I'm not going to bore you with the scientific term, but it's like a library of fear, pretty much. And you build this the moment you're born, from how your parents raise you, from the environment you grow up in, and it's the fear library. And what your brain does is it sees danger, and it says, okay, hold on

one second. And it goes to the library and it says, guys, what do we know about bears? And your brain starts going through the library. Bears eat you. Yogi the bear. Winnie the Pooh. Bears eat you. Only you can prevent a forest fire. Some of y'all know that. And your brain goes to that library, and it comes back and says, yeah, we should be terrified. You should definitely run. And your body takes off. Now, here's where this comes into play. You experience a dangerous situation where there's potential layoffs at your job. Your brain goes to your library. What do we know about provision and security? Well, your brain, some of you know, well, we gotta provide, and we gotta make it up, and if we don't have money, we're nothing. So your body goes back to it and says, hey, if we don't I have money, we're nobody, so we should be terrified. Here's the beautiful thing about Scripture. The Bible says, don't conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by changing the way you think. The science of that is your brain has neural pathways,

and what you can do is the Holy Spirit will empower you to go to your fear library and say, Jesus is my provider, regardless of if I have money. So when I go to see a dangerous situation about my job, my brain goes to the library and says, oh, it's all right, we got Jesus, we gonna be all right. He's always taking care of us. He's always provided for us. He's always been there for us. So we don't have to be afraid. We get the choice. So this is last week. Week two, we're gonna take it a little bit further. So we're gonna read a book, a whole book of the Bible right now. Not a whole book, sorry, a whole chapter. Whole chapter, chapter number three of Psalms. It's only eight verses for some of you who got terrified. We also are in church, so what the heck, okay. Psalms chapter number three, starting in the first verse is what it says. Oh Lord, I have so many enemies. So many are against me. So many are saying God will never rescue him. But you, oh Lord, are a shield around me. You are my glory, the one who holds my head high. I cried out to the Lord and he answered me from his holy mountain. I lay down and slept, yet I woke up in safety for the Lord was watching over me.

I am not afraid of 10,000 enemies who surround me on every side. Arise, oh Lord, rescue me, my God. Listen to this, this is a great prayer. This is my type of prayer. Listen to this. Slap all my enemies in the face, God. Come on, everybody ever wanna pray a prayer like that? Come on, embarrass them in front of they mama, God. That's what, look at this next one. Shatter their teeth of the wicked. Come on, they got them fake dentures. Bust them out they mouth, God. Look like they got 14 front teeth. Goodness, couldn't get the different sizes. Okay. Come on, y'all know those people. It's like, I got my teeth done. It's like, no, you got one tooth multiplied by 45. You got a whole mouth of front teeth. Okay. Don't mess with me, I'll cut you down. Okay, anyways. Verse number eight, victory comes from you, oh Lord. May you bless your people. The title of my sermon today, if you're taking notes, is Don't Duck the Smoke. Don't duck the smoke. I ain't ducking no smoke. Lord, we love you.

I pray, Lord, that you would meet us in this moment, that you allow us to experience your presence and your peace and change something about who we are, how we think, and how we see you. And Lord, we just love you. It's in Jesus' name we pray. And everybody said? Amen. Guys, I have some bad news. I found out something pretty tough this week. And that information is, my wife don't think I can fight. So somebody come up here and fight me right now so I can, no, I'm joking. I'll show you. No, this happened last Sunday. And I'm still working through it. I got counseling tomorrow, no, I'm joking. But last Sunday, we're out to eat with some of our friends, Bree and Aaron. And we eat, and we're walking out of the restaurant after church on Sunday. And I see, we're like walking across the street, and I see across the street and up the way, this group of four young men. They were probably between 17 to 20 years old. They all look young. And I can say this because I know, and I was this, I know when people are looking suspect and doing something they ain't supposed to be doing. And that's how they look.

They had that look on them. So they're walking this way, and I already just flagged them like, what are they doing? They crazy. So we're walking across the street. They're walking this way. Well, then I see them see us. And I'm just like, okay, whatever. And then I see them turn around. And they kind of start walking back where we walking. I'm like, all right, okay. So we just walk in. And then I'm like, we about to turn this corner. And they ain't got no business turning this corner. If they turn this corner, I know it's on. That's just how my brain worked. So we turn the corner. Guess what these jokers do? They turn the corner. So right when they turn, now, just for the end of the story, I didn't fight no kids, calm down. But I would've. So we turn the corner, and me and Aaron. Aaron was in the video. Shout out to Bree and Aaron. Aaron, shout out to baby Ace. We're walking, and me and Aaron, immediately under our breath, because this is a group of four guys walking behind, is me and Aaron right here,

Abby and Bree in front of us. And we're walking. Okay, so I just slowed down my walk, and me and Aaron started talking to each other. I said, oh brother, here we go. He said, oh, it's about to get active. I said, absolutely. We just, it's the type of time we are on. Ain't nothing happened yet, but we just like, it can get real active. Oh, absolutely. Yes, sir, like, so we're just walking, slowing down. I'm just saying, I ain't look back yet, but I'm just like, oh, here we go. So we walk, our car's right here, we walk to the car, and we both kind of turn around. I open my door like this. Ha, I open the door, and it's just open, and I'm still looking, and they just keep, they looking at us, but they just keep on walking. And I'm like, okay, okay. And I don't know when, ain't no problem, won't be no problem. So I get in the car, we shut the door, and immediately we start talking, we're all talking. And Bree, Bree is crazy, y'all. She's like, oh my gosh, did you see those guys? I thought we was about to fight. Oh my goodness, we was about to go, damn. And I'm like, oh, absolutely.

Aaron was like, oh, it's about to get active up in here. And Aaron's like, Bree, what are you talking, you don't need to be fighting nobody. She's like, oh, I clawed her eyes out. I was just about to get him like a cat, just, ah. Meanwhile, which I don't know what to say about nothing, but Abby's like, what are y'all talking about? I didn't see nothing. I'm like, yes, you didn't see anything? There ain't nothing to be seen. But me and Aaron started talking about our game plan if we would've got jumped in that moment. I'm like, if they run up and have, bow, they hit Aaron. Well, I'm coming over there, bam, I take him out, and then I turn around and I look for the shortest one just because I know how I get down. So I'm gonna go for him first, bam. You know what I'm saying, jab, cross, slip, uppercut. And then, you know, then I'm back. Aaron has then picked up the second one, body slammed him, so he's out. So now it's two on one, boom, we out of here. And then we get, and then what we do? We call the police for them, because I don't want no issues. The security camera gonna catch it. Hey, there was some young men, they tried some grown men and they found out. So that was how it went in my head. And it was at this moment I found out

my wife had all four of my kids don't think I can fight. She was like, I just don't know. I mean, it's four of them, what are y'all gonna do? Like, I just, I was like, they do this. This is what they do. I was like, first of all, you don't know them. What do you mean, this is what they, she's like, they just walk around looking for people to fight. You don't ever fight. You have drastically underestimated my crazy though. That's what you're underestimating, is my crazy. So, but me and Aaron are definitely people who fall into the category. And honestly, I love having friends like this. And now the truth is, we don't know how much I can fight. I ain't been in a fight since eighth grade. And if you fighting as a grown man and it's not your job to be fighting, what you doing? Come on, man, that's ridiculous. You fighting people just, and you're not getting paid to fight people? That's insane. So now what I don't know, my friend said this. I was like, man, I really need to lock in. I need to take some classes, do something. Cause what I don't know, I know my fighting doesn't match how crazy I talk. So that's where I would get in trouble. It's because I could verbally assault you,

but there's not necessarily the skillset to match that intensity. The only places I'm looking for a fight is in an airport. Cause I know anybody, nobody got a gun or a knife. So I'm like, oh, we can get down in the airport. It's just me and you. This is stuff that go through my mind. I'm like, that is smart. Yeah, you can take that one, write that one down. Only fight in airports. Okay, it's crazy. Don't fly, you won't ever be able to fly again. But there's this term, my friend, he'd be saying it all the time, but it's like, I ain't afraid of no smoke. And if you don't know what that is, the smoke is like, if there's a fight, I ain't ducking no smoke. Like we can run it right now. And for me, I generally feel that way. Like, no, is there smoke? Where are we at? Let's go, let's run it. I don't even know if I can really fight. In eighth grade, it was a kid shoved me, bam, hit him in the face. The fight was broke up. So is that a fight? I hit him, he didn't hit me. So we don't know.

I count it as a fight, but I got one strong punch. I know that. So, but here's what I know about smoke. There's a difference between smoke and a fire. And smoke is not fire and fire is not smoke. Why? Because smoke possesses no power in and of itself. You can't even technically fight smoke. I mean, think about it. Like a firefighter, if there's a building that's on fire, when they run into the building, they see the smoke, but they know the smoke is not the issue. The smoke is not why I'm here. The smoke is a little bit dangerous because it can get inside of my lungs and it can get me disoriented and it can get me a little confused, but I'm not worried. Worried about the smoke, I need to find the fire. Because the fire is where the problem is. The fire is where this thing will keep growing. The fire is what can continue to hurt you. And here's what I want to talk about this morning using the analogy of smoke and fire. And that is, I believe we have gravely misunderstood the relationship between anxiety and fear. Now, before I get into it, just by a show of hands, I'm gonna ask you to be vulnerable, humble, open, and transparent. If you have dealt with any type of anxiety

or feeling anxious about anything, can you just raise your hand? Just, come on, for a moment. First thing I want you to do is look around the room. When you're anxious, it convinces you you're crazy. Look at us, we're all crazy. Everybody's. But anxiety is this feeling and worry about like, oh my gosh, what is this gonna happen? This is gonna happen. And society tells us that we live in the most anxious time ever. There's a book that came out, it was called The Anxious Generation. They labeled a whole generation of anxiety that is plaguing our nation and our world. And I started thinking about this because the truth is the world isn't worse off than it was in other times. Like we love to, whatever generation is current, we love to think like this is the worst time in the world and the world is gonna end, which is kind of a beef I have sometimes with Christians, when Christians are like, this is the worst it's ever been and the world's gonna end. You know they were like, yeah, they were feeding Christians to lions back in the day and there were wars where they were like grouping up people and gassing them, so maybe,

but just calm down for a second. But here's the idea, the world is not worse, our capacity to handle it has gotten worse. And there are some things that I think are leading to our anxiety and I did a lot of research this past week, but there are a couple of things that are super important to understand, which is our access to information, the increase of our options and choices, and I wrote it down this last one, I'll make sure I say it right, is our expectations. All of these things have increased as time has gone on. So our access to information, you grew up earlier, long, long time ago, your tribe, your crew of people was maybe 100 people, maybe. That's the only people you knew. And the only information you knew is what they knew. And the only thing you were worried about is what they were worried about. And the only thing you had to pray about was what they were praying about. The only thing you had to worry about was what they were worried about. Now you can wake up on your phone and see any and everything everywhere. And if my take is beautiful as it is, I don't know if our brains, bodies, and chemistry was set up to have access to that much information.

Our information has increased, our choices have increased. When you grew up, it was like, what job am I gonna have? You're gonna have the job your daddy have. This is what you're gonna do. Our name is Smith, we are black Smiths. That's how it worked with Smith. We hit metal, that's what you did, what your daddy did. So now you have more options. You have more choices. And somehow we think these more choices would make it easier, it makes it way more difficult. Because you have decision fatigue. So you're overwhelmed and you're anxious about it. While all these things have gone up, our connection to community has gone down. Our resilience has gone down and our shared purpose has all gone down, leading to a bunch of smoke. Here's the point for today's message that I think will help a lot of you. Anxiety is the smoke to the fire of fear. Anxiety is the smoke to the fire of fear. Here's what I mean by that. If you are dealing with anxiety, I want you to know first of all, it's valid and it's a really big deal. It's a really big deal and you have to deal with it. You have to address it. Because here's the interesting fact I found out. 75% of people who die in a fire, they don't die from fire, they die from the smoke.

They die from breathing that in. In the same way, people are dying from anxiety because it distorts your reality, it gets in your lungs and has you thinking different. You can't see where you really are. You don't know what's really going on and it balloons into this thing. And at the same time, you need to know that anxiety is the smoke, it's not the fire. It's not the actual thing. And I can talk about this because I've dealt with anxiety. And sometimes when you fight an anxiety, it feels like you're fighting smoke. A firefighter doesn't run into a burning building and pour water on smoke. That doesn't do anything. You can't contain the smoke. What you have to do is you don't fight smoke, you follow smoke. I'm trying to help you. You do not fight it. I have to follow it. Why? Because if I follow the smoke, it'll lead me to the actual issue. And what I wanna present to everybody this morning is your anxiety is not the issue. There is a deeper fear that is the actual issue. But if you spend your whole life fighting that thought, you won't find the real fear.

And underneath every anxious thought you have, there's a fear. There's a fear there. There's something you're worried about, something you're concerned about. A legitimate fear, a real fear, something that is taking you out. And I'll present to you, if you've ever felt anxious in your life, if you deal with anxiety at all, I'm not saying it's not valid. I'm not saying it's important. What I am saying is if you spend your whole life trying to fight that thing, you won't find the real thing. And the real thing is there's some fear under there. Now, before we get into this idea, we have to look at our scripture here. Psalms chapter three, David finds himself in a very anxious and fearful place. Here's the context. His son has raised up a coup to overthrow him as king and he's on the run. Talk about a bad father's day, just terrible. He sounds like, I'm gonna kill you, take your kingdom. You're a terrible father. So he's on the run. He's terrified. And the scripture, this is where we can kind of peer into his life. I wanna read this.

Can you throw that back on the screen? Verse number one of Psalm chapter three. It says, at first he starts off and he says, I have so, look at this. Oh Lord, I have so many enemies and so many are against me. So this is the anxiety part of it. He's nervous because there's so many people and there's so many, and that's how anxiety language works. It works like everything's going wrong and I can't trust anybody and I'm worried about what job am I gonna get? And there's no, and it balloons to this big thing. But I wanna show you something. He presents under this anxiety is the actual fear. So many are saying God will never rescue him. And let me give you insight. This is not just people saying, oh, he's gonna get hurt and his son's trying to come against him and he's gonna die. No, if you look at the original language, what people are saying is the same thing they said about Saul. If you go back and read the Bible, there was a king named Saul. He was the first king. He was an amazing king. And then the Bible says that the spirit of God left Saul and there was no salvation for Saul,

meaning the spirit of God was not with him. What people are saying about David now is maybe what happened to Saul is happening to him. Maybe God's not with him anymore. Maybe he's not that special shepherd boy anymore. Maybe that oil really didn't mean anything. Maybe he slayed Goliath, but that was just happenstance. And here's what David is dealing with. He's dealing with the reality of if I'm not king, who am I? Not only if I'm not king, but if I'm not a good dad. He's dealing with the conflict and the fear of losing all the basis of where we find value. And whether you look into David or not, or you think you do this or not, we all find value in the titles we carry. And it's because we have a fear of not being seen. We have a fear of our worth. We have a fear of our value. So if I'm CEO, or I'm some sort of C-suite, or if I'm some sort of, I have this many files, we find value in that. But what happens when we start taking your titles? What happens when people don't acknowledge your titles? What happens when you work super hard, you get the degree, you go to work, you're the most qualified for the new job, and they don't give it to you? Well, then you start, that's the real fear. The anxiety is, the front, the smoke is, I don't need that, I don't care, I don't want it anyways.

The truth is, you really did want it. Because you've been searching for a little kid to find out who you were. And you found out, you got applauded when you succeeded. So you made a vow that served you when you were eight. But now you're 38, and you're still fighting, still struggling, smoke. Because you haven't identified, what are you actually afraid of? What happens if you don't get that job? What happens if you're still single? What happens if it doesn't go your way? What happens if the business doesn't work? See, you come to church, and the primary promise is, oh, you ain't gotta worry about that, because God's gonna make it all work, and it's gonna go exactly according to plan. That's what we hope happens. Then you go out into your life that doesn't go that way, and this is what you struggle with. Oh, God must not be who he said he was. This is why people deconstruct their faith, because people promise them something, well, you get God, he's gonna work it all out. He works all things together for the good of those who love him and call according to his purpose. Here's my thing with this. Okay, I'm gonna introduce you to a Bible reading idea. This is gonna help you. This is a little sidebar theology.

Put your thinking caps on remember when I said that last week everybody right now do this do this put your hand out like this Put your thinking cap on I ain't gonna make you wear a dress and serve but just for two minutes put your thinking cap on. Okay Here's the core idea When you're reading your bible the bible cannot primarily Mean to you What it did not first mean to the people who first heard it It can't mean to you Something that it didn't first mean to them All right track with me this is what we do in a bible study Tell me if this has ever been you it's been me a million times So this ain't a trick question, but if you're in a bible study you read in the bible You read a scripture And then there's this question that is asked I want us to go in a circle and each person tell me What does that scripture? I don't care what it mean to you Now, let me let me let me see that's that shock value like Oh Because what if it mean to you what it don't mean what it didn't mean to them Now track with me we're about to take thinking caps off, but here we go that logic What does it mean to me is the same logic that had people enslaving people Killing people and murdering people with the bible Because that's what it meant to me So I use this book and I say oh this is what it really means And this is how you real what it really means is certain people aren't important as other people What it really means is we have to get rid of the jews what it really means all these same logics That we use in our small group is a dangerous slippery slope The goal is not to find out what it means to you I gotta know what the person when they was writing it. What did they mean to the people they was talking to?

And in light of that I can draw some meaning Okay, look you can take your thinking caps off look at that just throw this throw it under your seat You ain't gonna need the rest of the service But this is important that you understand this because you can get in some dangerous space I can do all things through christ who strengthened me and to me that really means you know No matter how many people I have sex with god will always redeem and he'll make all my baby Mamas get along together because he's given me the strength And I can do all things Charles that is so ridiculous. That's what you do. Just with other stuff Here's a funny one here's a funny one now this one's gonna get dangerous because some of y'all like yeah get him i'm gonna say this one you'll Be like, oh, I hate this guy equal opportunity offender so uh We say things like this There's an old scripture There's a scripture that says uh and he and you will receive power When the holy ghost comes upon you and that word the original language is dunamis like the word dynamite and we like to say Oh god's gonna give you a dynamite power. Guess what? They didn't have dynamite when they wrote that So they weren't thinking about dynamite So i'm not saying you can't draw that inference and connect it linguistically But what I am saying is when they thought of the holy spirit, they weren't thinking blow it up They would they would it didn't exist You try you see see that's how I know I offended because some of y'all didn't laugh as loud as the second one Okay, we're good So here's the idea It can't primarily mean to you what it didn't mean to them originally So when we talk about anxiety if you study the old testament a word-for-word translation of anxiety does not show up in the old testament It does show up in the new testament in the old testament. It's alluded to a ton David uses tons of language that shows that he's dealing with anxiety, but we get to the new testament and jesus talks about it

He says you don't have to be anxious because your father knows what you need paul speaks to it Don't be anxious about anything instead pray about everything But here's the idea This is why we have to use this tool that we just talked about when we read the scriptures because when we hear anxiety We think of something specific. It's not bad But you to get an understanding of the scriptures you need to understand what were they thinking when they heard this So when they hear anxiety in a new testament time, they are not thinking what's wrong with my body or my brain They thought what's wrong with my heart Because the word the greek word that is used when the word anxiety shows up in scripture Is a divided and torn apart heart because of divided loyalty and fear The word picture is being in a war and your allegiance is to both armies The word picture is two horses one's this way tied a rope running that way the other one ties a rope and runs that way So when they think about anxiety, they're not thinking. Oh gosh, i'm nervous and my body's shaking. They're thinking something's wrong in my heart I trust two different people because the only way I would be worried is if my trust is with me And with god with me and the business owner with me and so they go to their heart first What is it saying? It's saying if you are anxious is not i'm not saying that something can't be wrong in your body 100 there is but it all tracks back. That's all the smoke where it comes back to As a man thinks in his heart I promise you Connect this book. As a man thinks in his heart, so is he. It all tracks back to the loyalty and divided fear of your heart. And it's questions like this in our heart. Am I the provider or is God the provider? Does my family make me secure or does God make me secure? Are these my kids or are these God's kids? Do I get my value from what they think about me or what God thinks about me? All that's in your heart.

It shows up on the outside as anxiety. But you gotta go back and figure out what's the, what's that, what am I really afraid of? What am I actually worried about? I'm not saying it didn't start out here but it shows up on the inside. I wanna illustrate it this way. I have this little piece of string here and this is gonna represent anxiety. This is how anxiety works. So anxiety, start with a real regular moment. You know, like you be at work and it's like, you know, maybe it's Monday and the boss come up to you and he's like, hey, can I meet with you? And you're like, yeah, sure, when you wanna meet? Let's do Friday at 4.45. Four Friday at 4.45, okay. And you just, that was weird. Why do you wanna meet? Friday at 4.45, it's probably nothing. It probably ain't gonna mean nothing. But maybe, well, maybe I did hear so-and-so was losing their job. That's weird, it's probably nothing. But what if, what if I do lose my job? And what, you mind if I get through? It's all right, let me see, it's just, just, hold on. Yeah, it's probably nothing, but then, but if I do lose my job, I ain't go to school for nothing else, all right?

And then the bills is tight and I can't, it's probably nothing, it's nothing, it's nothing. I ain't gotta worry about it, I ain't gotta worry about it, I ain't gotta worry about it. And then you get home and it's time for dinner and your kids are out, so you text them. Hey, where y'all at? And they don't answer the phone. What in the world? It's probably nothing, they're okay. But what if they're not okay? And what if I wonder where they're at? I didn't like that group of friends they had last time. It felt weird, I just didn't, I didn't trust it, but I didn't say nothing, because I was trying to be, I was trying to be calm, I was trying to be cool, I was trying to be okay, okay, it's probably nothing, it's probably nothing, it's probably nothing. And then the doctor called and they say, hey, we got the report back from your test, could you come in? What do I need to come in for? It's probably nothing, it's probably nothing, it's probably nothing, it's not a big deal, it's not a big deal, but what if it is a big deal? What if I'm not okay, what if I lose my spouse? And if I lose my spouse and I lose my job, and then how am I gonna raise these kids? And I can't raise these kids by myself, I don't have nobody, and I didn't have nobody there for me,

and I didn't know what I was gonna do, and so, okay, no, no, it's gonna be fine, it's gonna be fine, it's gonna be fine. Okay, okay, at least I got church on Sunday, I got church on Sunday, whoo! Okay. It don't matter if I get through. It don't matter if I get through. It don't matter if I get through. It don't matter if I get through. Because I like to sit up close for worship, so, I might just, excuse me. And I still got my anxiety, and I just hide it underneath all my nice clothes. But the truth is, last week, the power went out. And what the power going out for? A little weird. And you find yourself at a place, and it's kinda just everywhere. And this is how you get anxious about stuff that you weren't even thinking about because it went past you. This is a lot of people's social media. Life is great, life is good. Well, then you see on Instagram, maybe life ain't that good. And maybe you do need to be worried. Have we thought about this? What's really going on over there? Do we know what's happening?

Does anybody know what's happening? And now you got people that having to adjust, and they're worried, and your kids are afraid, and now your family's afraid, and now the church is afraid, and pastors get up on stage with this, and they spin their circle around you, and stuff you was never worried about, now you're thinking, well, maybe I'm not reading my Bible enough, and maybe I'm not Christian enough, and maybe I didn't raise my kids good enough, and maybe God is gonna leave me, and maybe, and maybe, and you find yourself... And here's what I've realized about anxiety is we will spin these circles our whole life. But what you got to do is, is what the firefighters do, is my beef is not with all this string. But I do have to follow it back. So if I want to find the fire, I don't fight the smoke, I put, okay, let me see, where did, what was I thinking about when I got, what was that? Hold on. No, it was the kids. Well, no, it wasn't the kids. It was, hold on. I was worried about the kids. And then I was worried about my job. And then I started thinking about the family. And then I started thinking about, oh, I ain't gonna make y'all get up. Don't worry about it. And then I started thinking about, okay, hold on, hold on, hold on. I think, and this is why counseling gets tired, is why some of y'all elect not to deal

with your emotions, because this feels exhausting. It'd be easier to just act like it didn't happen. It'd be easier just to escape. It'd be easier just to doom scroll. It'd be easier to just ignore it. But if you want to find where your anxiety is coming from, you got to follow that thing. And I don't care how long it takes you. I don't care how frustrating it is. You got to track it down, because I promise you, if you will follow it long enough, and this is why you need friends in your life that says, when did you see my attitude change? When did I start acting different? When did I get snappy? When did I get short? Well, it kind of happened when that disappointment in your job happened, and I noticed that you stopped talking and said, don't worry, I'm not gonna make y'all get up. And then you... Because if you will follow the smoke long enough, it will lead you to the actual fire. And when you find the fire, then you can fight the actual fire, instead of out here running around dealing with stuff that you can't change anyway. That's the lie about anxiety. Anxiety tells you that worrying about it is changing it. Worrying about it can't change it. Can't do anything about it. And honestly, you're worried about stuff you can't control, you wasn't controlling, and you won't be able to control. But what you can control is you can sit down next to this fire, and you realize, oh, the real thing is, I'm afraid my kids are gonna make mistakes I made. So that's why I control them. And that's why I scream at them. And that's why I overcorrect them.

And that's why I talk to them like they're 25 when they're 5, because I'm terrified they're gonna have the same life I did. And I moved us out of that state, and I moved us out of that neighborhood, and I moved this way, so they wouldn't have that. And somehow, those habits have landed right back in this child, and I don't know what to do. That's why you're running around. Let's talk about that. Let's bring that to the altar. But we like to come to the altar and just say, just, you know, I just, you can just pray for me. Well, what is it? It's just some things. I'm not mad at you, I'm just saying there's a real fire we can deal with. There's something you're actually afraid of. The real fire is you're afraid that there's something fundamentally broken in you. That's why you're still single. Something I have the missing piece from the puzzle, and everybody else seems to have it, but I don't have it. I guess I'm just unlovable. That's what you really feel. You're not mad. All men aren't bad. You're not mad at the dating apps. You're not mad. It's none of that. We can talk about that. I'm not saying it's not real. I'm not saying you don't have some bad experiences. What I am saying is because your dad wasn't there, you feel like no man is ever going

to be there. That's what you're actually afraid of. Let's fight that fire. And this is where I want to make a deviation from traditional firefighters, because there's a saying that says you can't fight fire with fire. But that's not how it works in the kingdom. The only way to fight fire is with fire. The only way to get rid... of the fire of fear is to get a better fire and let me tell you the best thing about this fire it ain't got no smoke ask moses as he walks up to a burning bush and it's on fire but it's not being consumed and the only reason you got smoke is because something being burnt up but the fire of god when that thing gets on the inside of you when you get the fire of god that knows who you are when you get the fire of god that knows god chose you before you did anything when you get the fire of god that says god will protect me if i make my bed at the heights or if i find myself in the pit of hell he will be there for me and i came to encourage some people that you can make a decision today that i'm finding a better fire is the only reason the early church made a difference because it had a better fire it had a fire that had them in jail bragging about it it had a fire that had them being chased down and they weren't worried a different fire and the only way the church is going to make the difference it was supposed to is if we find a better fire fire that purifies a fire that leads a fire that protects see our problem is in christianity we think the devil owns fire i say oh it's fiery you think oh something bad to happen i'm going through a burning season or the devil's gonna get me oh no no you read this book you'll find out real quick who owns fire fire elijah calls down fire from heaven he owns fire moses saw a fire in a burning bush it was god the holy spirit tongues of fire fell on the early church and they began to speak in a different language that was empowering them trust me friend you ain't got to be worried about fire because our god owns fire and he'll put that fire on the inside of you that'll have you walking in a boldness and walking in confidence and knowing who you are so what i'm saying is you ain't gotta duck the smoke

some of you anxiety has tried to punk you and i know that feeling i know the feeling it'll have you running in circles about stuff that's never happened and that's what's even worse about anxiety is because it's you out here fighting a battle that hasn't even happened yet prepare well what if they say this and then i say that and then they leave me that didn't happen that hasn't happened yet but let's go back to the what are you actually afraid what are you actually afraid of let's talk about that what are you actually missing out on let's talk about that i want to read you a scripture you have to give me a moment it's in the book of hebrews and uh this is what the bible says let me find it i'm just off in this book right now it says as you endure divine discipline remember that god is treating you as his own child for whoever heard of a child that was never disciplined if god doesn't discipline you you're not his children for our earthly fathers discipline us for a few times just doing the best they know how but god disciplines us in the best way no discipline is enjoyable it's painful but afterwards there will be a peaceful harvard of right living right here so take a new grip with your tired hands strengthen your weak knees mark out a straight path for your feet so that those who are weak and lame will not fall but become strong here's all i want to say is just take a new grip some of you've been so anxious you've got a decision to make and you've been so worried like oh gosh what if i make the wrong one what if i do the wrong thing what if it's not enough what if i'm not enough what let's just let's just take a deep breath let's follow the smoke what's the actual fear and let's give that to god let's give our actual fear to god i wrote up this thing and we'll close with this i wrote up uh i just titled this The smoke prayer. The smoke prayer. Could you throw that up for me, just the whole thing? I don't have it in my notes, but I think they'll have it up there.

But the idea of this is if you're trying to follow the smoke, if you're trying to, if you're trying to deal with some of that, I wanna give you a template, and it's not no new template, it's a structure of the Lord's prayer, but in a different way. This is kind of a prayer you can pray yourself through when you're trying to figure out what's really going on. Here's how the prayer starts. Here's how all the prayers start. Father. It's how the Lord's prayer starts. That context is important. Now, depending on your experience, especially on a Father's Day, that feels, but let me tell you, this is a good father, a father you can trust, a father who has what you need, a father who's waiting to listen to you. He wants to hear from you. So you start off understanding, there's this language in the New Testament, Abba. That word Abba is like the cries a kid makes when it's learning to say the word dad. Now, I don't ever be ripping Daddy God in prayers, it's a little too much for me, but that is a closer parallel. But it's like a kid babbling when a kid's trying to say, dad, dad, dad, dad, that of a two-year-old, that's what our Abba.

And what does that do? It positions you as a child. You don't come to God as a grown adult, talking about, oh, hey, God. My son will do this, and sometimes he'll just put on this deep voice. Hey, Dad. It's kinda, you come as a child. So it starts with father, and then tell him how you're really feeling. I am mad. I'm so frustrated that this happened. I can't stand these people at my job. They are getting on my last nerve. I feel frustrated, and to be truthful, I feel a little disappointed because I felt like you told me you were gonna get me a better job than this. And I'm frustrated. And let me tell you, God can handle your feelings. Just because your parents can't, just because your friends can't, doesn't mean God can. You are not too much for God. He can handle it. Tell him how you feel. But once you get through those feelings, I need you to figure out what's your actual fear. What are you really afraid of? What's actually going on? And this is not because God doesn't know.

It's because you need to know. You need to know. I'm actually afraid that I'm not good enough. I'm afraid that no matter what I do, this is the core, this would be my core fear. If I go through my prayers, it would show up as, God, I'm mad. I'm frustrated, blah, blah, blah, blah. But truthfully, I'm afraid that no matter how good I get, it won't be good enough. And it doesn't matter how much I practice. It doesn't matter how much I know. It doesn't matter how good I've been before. I just don't know if. And then you got an idea, where is it? Where's the lie? I put false just for the Fs, just to, you know, keep it, but lie. Oh, the lie is, is that my performance determines my value. That's the lie. The lie is the opinions of others determine your importance. The lie is if you have enough money, you'll have peace. The lie is that in a different season, you'll have more space to really prioritize your family and just write, no, no, no, no, that's not the truth. The truth is, and we got to get to the truth. Because usually I know the truth and the truth shall set you free. So you got to go and you got to replace. God, although I feel frustrated

and I'm afraid that I am not enough, I have recognized that the truth is, my value is not in what I do. But before I was even born, you chose me, you called me, you equipped me. So I thank you that I have exactly what I need when I need it. And if I ain't got it, that means I don't need it. So I choose to put my trust in you because you've never let me down, because you've always been there, because you're the one who gave me this job and you're the one who gave me these kids and you're the one who put breath in my body and you're the one sustaining this country and you're the one sustaining this church. God, I remind myself that you are God and I am not. That's why the scripture says, don't be anxious for anything, but instead pray about everything. Standing all over this room. I'm gonna read you that scripture that we just quoted, but with a little more context. Don't be anxious, Philippians four, chapter six, don't be anxious about anything. Instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, thank him for all he's done, and then here's the most beautiful promise in the world. It doesn't say, then he'll fix it. That's not what the Bible says.

It says, then you'll experience God's peace, which exceeds anything you can understand. The goal of, you know, the goal of prayer ain't to get an answer, it's to get peace. That is the answer. The goal is not, God, do this for me. That's a genie, God's not a genie. The goal is I go to you because I need to be reminded I'm not in control, and I get anxious when I think I'm in control. I get fearful when I think I'm in control, but when I go to you in prayer, I remind myself, oh, I can have peace because God's in control. Would you close your eyes and bow your heads? I wanna take a moment and pray for everybody. Dear God, you see your children, and the truth is some of us have been running around so anxious, so worried about the future, worried about things we can't control, asking questions that it seems nobody has the answers to, but God, right now, we come to you as our Father, and we wanna bring you our real fears, the things that's hard to even talk about, the things that's hard to even say, but I thank you, you can handle it. I pray for every person under the sound of my voice that has been dealing with anxiety in any way, and I speak your truth, that that smoke will not kill you. You will live. I pray you would find peace

that transcends your understanding. Peace to trust God with your future. Peace to trust God with your children. Peace to trust God with your provision and your job. Peace to trust God with every step in front of you. God, we lay all these things down at your feet, every head bowed, every eye closed. If you're in this room, and you've never accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you've never given up on your faith, you've never given up control. It's the best decision you could ever make. It's not an easy choice, because it means you're not in the driver's seat, but it is the best choice. In just a moment, I'm gonna count to three, and if you wanna accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, I'm gonna ask you to do something that takes a lot of bravery, it takes a lot of courage. I'm gonna ask you to lift your hand, and it's just you acknowledging on the outside what God's doing on the inside of your heart. If you wanna accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, the Bible tells us that Jesus lived the perfect life, we could not. He did what we could not, so that we could become what we couldn't without him. If you've been looking for a better way to live,

a better way to think, a better way to exist, Jesus is that answer. He's everything you've been looking for, I promise. If you wanna accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, one, he loves you. Two, today is the day of salvation. Do not wait another moment. Three, all around this room and online, lift your hand. Lift your hand, lift your hand, lift your hand. So proud of you. So proud of so many people making this choice. I got you, sister, I got you, brother, so proud of you. So proud of you. Hey, listen, all together as a family, I got you up there, I see you. All together as a family, I want everybody out loud in this room and online to pray this prayer together. Everybody together, say, dear God, I admit I've made mistakes. I need you to save me. I need you to change me. I need you to make me new. It's in Jesus' name I pray. Amen, amen, amen. Hey, can we celebrate people who just decided to follow Jesus? Hey, if you just prayed that prayer, we're so proud of you. So grateful for you, it's a big deal. If you text the word saved

to the number that's on the screen, 828282, we'll put some resources in your hand. We're gonna have a team of some of the most loving and kind people that are directly right here in the back of the room. There's a sign that says that you've decided to follow Jesus. They'd love to just give you a gift, pray for you, encourage you. Sometimes it can feel like, oh gosh, what do I do now? These people are here to help you, but I know it's gonna be the best decision you've ever made. Hey, listen, we're gonna get out of here. Our worship team is gonna continue to worship. If you need to continue to worship, feel free to stay in this atmosphere. If you need prayer for anything, our prayer team would love to pray with you. But I'm gonna pray over your week that God will be with you and that you would walk in peace. Lord God, we thank you for who you are. Thank you for your love, for your mercy. I thank you that this week we walk in a peace that goes beyond our understanding. And I thank you that the fire of God would live on the inside of us, that we would walk this week with boldness, with courage, and with discernment to know who you've called us to be. God, we love you, we thank you. It's in the beautiful name of Jesus we pray.

And everybody said? Amen, amen, we love you so much.