How To Overcome A Negative Mindset | Anxiety | Full Experience

What's up, everyone, welcome. So good to be here together. Let's worship today. Yeah, we worship. We sing, This is the Day. This is the day you make, so rejoice and be glad, rejoice and be glad. This is the day, this is where I believe that you are more than enough, you're more than enough for me. Cause you are faithful to your promise, you are strong and I am weak. And when I'm standing in your presence, I have everything I need. We sing, the joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength. The joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, my soul, bless this day, all that is within me say, the joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord, is my strength. Jesus, come what may, Lord, you are worthy of all, worthy of all my praise. Cause you are faithful to your promise, you are strong and I am weak. And when I'm standing in your presence, I have everything I need. The joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength. The joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength.

Oh, my soul, bless this day, all that is within me say, the joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength. So let it rise up like a river, overflowing Holy Spirit. And let it pour out with no limits, overflowing Holy Spirit. So let it rise, let it rise up like a river. Overflowing Holy Spirit. Let me pour it out, let it pour out with no limits. Overflowing Holy Spirit. The joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength. The joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, my soul, bless this day, all that is within me say. Oh, my soul, bless this day, all that is within me say. Oh, my soul, bless this day, all that is within me say. The joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength. Is my strength. My friends, we wanna read this Bible verse over you. Comes from the book of James, chapter one, verse 17. There it is. Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow. Our God is consistent and He's trustworthy. And we're gonna remember that.

So if you're in a season of anxiety, you can trust that He has faith. good things planned for you. And sometimes it's really easy. We have this plan in our heads, and we think my life is supposed to play out like this. He always has the best plan. And sometimes it doesn't match up with ours. So we're gonna remember the good things that he has by singing together. Come on. ♪♪ -♪ Peace like a river flowing freely to the sea ♪ ♪ I hear you calling, come to freedom, come to me ♪ ♪ In every breath, in every season, come on ♪ ♪ You are the song I sing, you are the air I breathe ♪ ♪ I know that all good things come from you, God ♪ ♪ So open my eyes to see your mercy in everything ♪ ♪ I know that all good things come from you, come from you, God ♪ ♪ Oh, like a sunrise every morning, you are calling me to life ♪ ♪ Come out of hiding, come out of darkness, come and step into the light ♪ ♪ New day is dawning, come see the beauty, oh, the future is alive, oh, the future is alive ♪ ♪ In every breath, in every season, you are the song I sing, you are the air I breathe ♪ ♪ I know that all good things come from you, God ♪ ♪ So open my eyes to see your mercy in everything ♪ ♪ I know that all good things come from you, come from you, God ♪ No conditions, we just tell him that he's good together. Hallelujah, let's sing. Come on. He is good, so we sing.

I've seen it in my own life. ♪ Hallelujah, you are the song, you are the reason I'm singing, you are the song I sing, you are the air I breathe ♪ ♪ I know that all good things come from you, God ♪ ♪ So open my eyes to see your mercy in everything, I know that all good things come from you, come from you, God ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, in every breath, in every season ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, in every reason I'm singing ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, in every breath, in every season ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, in every breath, in every season ♪ ♪ You are the reason, You're the reason we sing ♪ ♪ Lord, we thank You, Lord, we thank You Lord ♪ ♪ Come see His tomb, the debt that He paid ♪ ♪ It's cold and empty, folded lens where He laid ♪ ♪ Don't be alarmed, don't be afraid ♪ ♪ Jesus has risen, the stones roll away ♪ ♪ Rejoice, rejoice, death is defeated ♪ ♪ Rejoice, rejoice, He lives again ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, highest praise, there's nobody in that grave ♪ ♪ Rejoice, rejoice, the stones roll away ♪ ♪ The stones roll away, yeah ♪ ♪ He said that He'd do it, took one breath and proved it ♪ ♪ The Messiah is moving, the stones roll away ♪ ♪ Rejoice, rejoice, death is defeated ♪ ♪ Rejoice, rejoice, He lives again ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, highest praise, there's nobody in that grave ♪ ♪ Rejoice, rejoice, the stones roll away ♪ ♪ Lord, we thank You, we thank You, we thank You, Lord ♪ ♪ The stones roll away, all You do, all You do, yeah ♪ ♪ He's breathing, He's breathing, He's breathing, He's breathing ♪ ♪ I love You, Lord, He's breathing, He's breathing ♪ ♪ He's breathing, He's breathing, He lives again ♪

♪ He's breathing, He's breathing, the stones roll away ♪ ♪ The stones roll away, He's breathing, He's breathing, He lives again ♪ ♪ He's breathing, He's breathing, the stones roll away ♪ ♪ He's breathing, He's breathing, He lives again ♪ ♪ He's breathing, He's breathing, He's still rolling stones away ♪ ♪ Rejoice, rejoice, death is defeated, rejoice, rejoice, He lives again ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, highest praise, there's no one like Him, He lives again ♪ ♪ Sing it, I pray, rejoice, rejoice, the stone was thrown away, He's breathing, He's breathing, He lives again ♪ ♪ He's breathing, He's breathing, the stone was thrown away, He's breathing, He's breathing, He lives again ♪ ♪ He's breathing, He's breathing, He's still rolling stones away ♪ ♪ He's still rolling stones away, He's still rolling stones away ♪ ♪ He's still rolling stones away, He's still rolling stones away ♪ So powerful, thank you so much for singing with us, you can be seated. I want to welcome you again to CCV, my name is Travis Brown. I don't know about you, but I love that song that we just sang. For those of you that don't know, that song was written and recently released by our incredible CCV music team, and it may or may not be a part of our Easter celebration, as we're excited to celebrate Easter weekend coming up in two short weeks. And I just wanted to take a moment to give you some details so you know what to expect on Easter weekend here at CCV, because we have three unique experiences taking place that weekend. We have a Good Friday service, we have our regular Easter services, and we also have our sunrise service. Those are all unique services, and we're kicking off the weekend on Friday night

with our Good Friday service. This is taking place at all of our campuses. It's also gonna be streamed online, but this is a service where we look at what Jesus did and what he went through on that Friday. But during Good Friday service, we don't have students and kids services available. However, if you are a parent and you have a child that's 24 months or younger, if you're a parent and you have a child that's 24 months or younger, one, we're praying for you. Two, we actually have the nursery open on that Good Friday. You can come and check your kid in at all of our campuses and experience service. That's our first experience. Our second experience that weekend is our regular Easter services. Those are taking place during all of our weekend service times. Whatever campus you plan on attending, I would encourage you to go to the website and find out what services and what times they're having it, because sometimes they shift. Sometimes some campuses are adding services on Easter weekend. Like here at Peoria, we're adding a 2.30 on Saturday just to accommodate Easter weekend. But so make sure you check those times. And the third experience is our sunrise service,

and that is happening at all of our campuses. It's not being streamed online, but it's a great chance for you to make some memories and have a great experience with your family and with your friend. What better way to kick off Easter morning than at sunrise service? But listen, we know there's people who will accept an invite from you to come to Easter service. All they need to be is invited. And so we wanna give you a bunch of tools. You can invite people through our website or through text, or you can grab one of these invite cards that's in the lobby at every single one of our campuses. You can grab one of them. You can grab 500 of them. We don't really care. Just take them and get them out and invite people who should be here on Easter weekend. But one of the things that makes Easter weekend so great is baptisms. And some of you are here today and God's been stern in your life, and it's time for you to take that step of obedience and get baptized. And I wanna encourage you, if that's you, one way to get that process started is by texting the word baptism to 72020. That's baptism to 72020.

Fill out that form and we'll follow up with you. But before we hear a great message from our senior pastor, Ashley Wooldridge, I wanna show you this quick video to show us the power of baptisms. Watch this. My story is just a true testament of what God can do. You're distracted by something that was worldly when all the answers are already there, and it's just to give it to God. Let the life that you lived in sin completely fall apart down to the last lie, down to the last secret. Even if I was guilty, or even if I should be ashamed of those things, Jesus forgave me. The best thing that you can contribute is you. God always tends to use my pain for something so much greater and so much more beautiful. Any part of your story, God will use that. My faith is what gets me through every single day, no matter how difficult times are. It has brought me peace. It's the silence, the noise, and the chaos between my ears. When you have Jesus in your life, you know, no one can take a joy. He had plans for me all these times, and I just was too blind to see. I find my identity in Christ and in Christ alone. And I cried out to God. I said, God, I just want to get to know you.

And it was that prayer right there that started my life into becoming a disciple of Christ. I want to just say to someone here that there's someone God's stirring. He's been prompting you to finally go all in with your faith, to give your life to Jesus and be baptized, and if that's you, there is never a bad day to get baptized. In fact, you tell us when you want to get baptized. We're on your schedule. But man, getting baptized on Easter, that is a memory you'll never forget. Easter is the Super Bowl of the Christian faith. It's where we remember everything Jesus did for us on the cross, his resurrection. So if your next step is baptism. I would challenge you, text the word baptism to 72020, get on our app, talk to one of our pastors, any way you want to. We wanna make sure that Easter is a time that you can really make the biggest and best decision you can make with your life, which is giving your life to Jesus. So if that's you, let us serve you in that way and I hope you'll take that challenge. Well this weekend we're wrapping up our series on anxiety and has anybody else enjoyed this series so far? It's been, God's been moving and you know, I think many of us need it because again, as science catches up with what God's Word

has been telling us all along, let me just take you back to what happens in the brain because today I wanna talk to you about defeating the negativity in our mind. What we know just looking at the mind today is that, you know, what scientists tell us is the average person has about 60,000 thoughts a day. Think about that, 60,000 thoughts a day, which is amazing. What's more amazing to me is 95% of those thoughts are repetitive, it's like we're having the same thought over and over and over again, which is awesome if those were all positive thoughts. Guess how many of our thoughts, what percentage are negative we're told, the average person? 75%, 75% of the 60,000 thoughts we have a day are negative and they're on repeat all the time. We have to learn how to defeat the negativity that is flowing in our mind every single day. We know this because what you know is that your thoughts, your thoughts in your mind dictate the direction of your life, did you know that? I can show you that because think about it this way, your thoughts actually lead to your beliefs. Your beliefs actually create an identity in you based on your beliefs and those beliefs actually lead to your behaviors. So your thoughts are for sure dictating the direction of your life and the behaviors coming out of you and that is why in the book of Proverbs chapter four,

we're told this, be careful what you think because your thoughts run your life. So much of our life is won or lost on the battlefield in our mind and make no mistake, it is a battlefield. I mean I struggle on this battlefield, me personally, your pastor, I mean all the time. And for so much of my life and I've told you this, I've justified it, I've justified some of my negativity that often leads to some of my anxiety. You know my wife would tell you that I'll say, well it's because I'm driven, I'm a leader, things can always get better. And my wife is pushing back, she's like, well so you're saying that you can only focus on like what's going wrong versus like what's right? I'm like, you're part of the problem, okay, you're wrong. See, my thinking, the problem is I'm partially right. Like things can always get better but as we learned last weekend, this is a fallacy to focus all on that because what we know from last weekend is that, remember what neuroscience tells us? The state of anxiety and gratitude cannot coexist in the mind, it's impossible. So that is why gratitude is the antidote to so much of our anxiety. But what we're gonna learn today, and I'm so excited about this, is that we are told in Scripture

we have to move actually beyond just gratitude. And so many of you started a gratitude journal from last weekend, I'm so proud of you. But what we're gonna learn today is that even with all the gratitude we try to put in our life, negativity can still seep in. And we have to do something with that negativity that Scripture gives us the antidote. And so I'm gonna read you the entire verse in Philippians chapter four that we've been walking through verse by verse the past five weeks. We'll read the whole thing. And today I want you to pay particular attention to what Paul says in verse eight, this is the very last section we're gonna walk through today when he says finally, pay attention to what he says after that. And let's read this together like we have every single week if you feel comfortable with me. Would you read Philippians chapter four verse four through eight, let's start here. Rejoice in the Lord always, I say it again, rejoice. Let your gentleness be evident to all, the Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation by prayer and petition with thanksgiving present your request to God. And the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right.

Whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things. What Paul's going to tell us today is that you must, you must elevate your thoughts to lower your anxiety. We have to learn to elevate our thoughts. And this is where some of us are immediately gonna push back, right? You're gonna be like, well, what are you talking about? I don't control all the thoughts that pop in my mind. And if you're kind of in that place where you're just feeling like almost like a victim, like these anxious thoughts just pop in, I don't control those anxious thoughts. First of all, I wanna show you in a minute, I think that's crazy limited thinking. But two, I wanna tell you, you are partially right. I mean, you don't control every thought that flies in your mind, right? Like for example, if I told you right now, I said, do not, don't you, do not think about a hairless cat. Don't do it. Don't put that in your mind. Don't you dare think about a cat. What are all of us thinking about right now? What's in our mind? Well, you're like, you put it on the screen, which is why you gotta watch your screen time. You know what I'm saying?

But every single one of us is thinking about a hairless cat right now. And you're like, I don't control that I showed up to church, my pastor showed me this like nasty, I mean, like God, beautiful creation from God, you know, this hairless cat. You don't control that, but let me put it this way. You don't control every thought that flies in your mind, but you do have control over which ones you allow to land. You didn't control that hairless cat coming to your mind, but you do control if you dwell on that, think about that. If you think about the rest of the message, we got some more things to talk about, okay? So you do have more control than you think about what thoughts land in your head, in your mind, and stay there. Let me put it this way. You gotta become an air traffic controller of your mind. You know, like an air traffic controller, when I was in Bible college, I had a Bible college professor named Dr. Noful Staten, amazing professor, but before he became a Bible college professor, he actually worked as an air traffic controller at one of the busiest airports in the world, O'Hare, in Chicago, and what we learn about air traffic controllers, and you know this, is an air traffic controller doesn't control every single plane

that might fly into his airspace that he controls. He doesn't control every airplane that flies in there, but he does control which ones he allows to land, and you don't let a plane land. You divert a plane if you think it's gonna cause harm or be an issue, and I want you to know today, you have the same power that God has given you to be an air traffic controller of which thoughts you allow to land and play over and over and over again in your mind. The world will tell you different, and you are being lied to. Listen to what Paul writes. He writes Philippians chapter four, which is the blueprint for dealing with anxiety. In my Bible, it's literally eight pages earlier, in 2 Corinthians chapter 10, watch what Paul adds on this topic. Watch what he says. For though we live in the world, we don't wage war the way the world does. We don't buy into the lie that we are a slave to whatever comes into our mind. No, no, no, he says this. He says the weapons we fight with are not weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power. If you would, would you just say the word divine power with me? Divine power.

The word divine means from God, and the word power is the Greek word dunamis, which is where we get the English word dynamite. You have a power from God that allows us to do what? To demolish strongholds. Now, the word stronghold here is such a vivid image that you have to understand. See, stronghold is kind of this military term that was used in their day where you wanna build a fort or build a fortress, and how do you build a fortress? In Paul's day, in Jesus' day, if you wanted to build a fortress, you took bricks, and you took one brick, and two bricks, and three bricks, and four, five, six bricks, and then you just built more, and more, and more, and more, and more until you have a fortress, a wall that seems impenetrable. And this is the image everyone would've had with a stronghold. But Paul is not talking about an. actual fortress, he's talking about our mind. And this was written over 2,000 years ago, and what's amazing to me is neuroscience now shows us how strongholds are developed in our mind. You know how they happen? Here's what neuroscience tells us. Every single time you have a thought in your mind, it creates a neural pathway.

There's a thought that creates a chemical pathway in your mind every time you have a thought. Now, if you have one thought, it's not a strong pathway. It's not easy to think that thought again. But what we know from neural pathways is every time you have a thought, it makes the pathway stronger. Think about it this way. It takes up more real estate in your mind. So when you have a thought thousands of hundreds or thousands of times, when you have that thought, it's easier to think the thought again and again and again. What is it doing? Watch this. It's developing a stronghold. Watch what happens in your thought life. You have one thought. It's like one brick, two bricks, three bricks. That's not hard to get over. Hey, you can maybe get over that. But when you have a thought thousands and thousands and thousands of times, it develops a stronghold in your mind that feels like with anxiety, I'm never gonna get out of this. And that's how some of you feel. You feel hopeless. Is there hope with the strongholds of anxiety that have developed in our mind? More than you could ever imagine by the power God has put in you.

Watch this. We demolish arguments and every pretension. Pretension is the word thoughts here. Paul's expanding the thought after he said, hey, we have a divine power to demolish strongholds. How do we do it, Paul? We demolish every thought that sets itself up against the knowledge of God. And we take captive every thought and we make it obedient to Christ. Could you imagine a life where you could take captive every single thought that came into your mind and make it obedient to Christ? Could you become that good of an air traffic controller that you don't develop these strongholds, but you take them captive and demolish them? I'm gonna give you two big thoughts today from Scripture on how we do that. If you're taking notes, here's number one. You have to start here. You have to start, define your most consistent anxious thought. This is your stronghold. Listen, you have a lot of anxious thoughts, a lot of us do, but you have to do the work to dig and find what's your most consistent anxious thought. And what does it center around and how would you define it? And for some of you, it would be, I wrote some things, it would be around your health

or the health of someone you love. Like you're gonna get sick when your kids is gonna get sick. Someone you love is gonna get sick. Something bad is gonna happen in your life. It could be financial. You're never gonna have enough. You're never gonna be secure. There's too much debt and this job, you'll never have a great job or be able to buy a house. It could be your image. You don't like what you see in the mirror. And you constantly are comparing yourself to other people on social media and it's a constant issue with yourself that you're not enough. You're not pretty enough. You're not good enough. You're not strong enough. It could be spiritual. Some of you struggle with the anxiety around your salvation. Like something you did in the past that you feel shame for and you wonder if a God could love or save someone like you. I could go on and on and on. It could be something around failure. It could be imposter syndrome that you feel. I'll tell you very honestly, when I've struggled with that and I've shared it pretty openly with you,

and it stems from a lot of things, but I can remember even my very first job out of Bible college, I went to work for the Intel Corporation, the large tech company. And when I went there, I graduated from a podunk Bible college and I was with people that graduated from MIT, Harvard, I mean all these amazing universities. And the one consistent anxious thought I struggle with daily was this. At what point are they gonna figure out how dumb I am? At what point are they gonna figure out that I am not good enough to be here? Like massive, massive imposter syndrome. And to be honest, there's part of that that I still struggle with even to this day. The reason you have to define this, and remember what Mark said week three of the series, Mark said you gotta get to the thing beneath the thing. Sometimes we leave our anxiety so high level, I'm just anxious. No, no, no, get beneath the surface. What are you anxious about? Why do you have to do that? Because you can't defeat what you won't define. You cannot defeat what you won't define. And this is where you have to do some work. You need to surround yourself with some good people.

Because sometimes we have a hard time doing that on our own. That's why you should be in a CCV small group. This is why you should have really strong Christian friends that can help you. This is why sometimes seeing a counselor is so powerful. To help you get to define what is that thing. How would you define it? And anxiety is tricky, right? Because anxiety is different than fear. Do you remember this? Let me remind you. Fear sees a threat and moves on. It's real and we move on. But anxiety imagines and we get stuck. In other words, fear sees a snake and you move on and the fear goes away. But anxiety imagines there's snakes everywhere. And you can get stuck. When Satan wants to trap you in a stronghold, what he does is he sends a fleet of airplanes with what-ifs flying into your mind. What if this happens? What if that happens? What if this happens? And he's waiting to see which one's going to stick. And whichever one sticks that you start rummaging over, he sends that same what-if over and over and over again. And here's the problem. Almost always your what-ifs are lies. Someone's thinking, my anxiety is not a lie. Don't misunderstand. I didn't call the feelings of anxiety a lie. I said the thing that's leading to your feelings of anxiety is almost always a lie. Why? Because it's a what-if that hasn't happened yet. You're like, what if my what-if happens? You got it, boy? Huh? And what we learned week two of this series is that no matter what happens in your life,

you've got to stand between the pillars of God's goodness and God's control. And God can take anything, anything this world throws at you, and he can use it for good. Anything. Anything. So almost all your what-ifs that you're rummaging over, it's a lie from Satan himself. So how do you keep those lies from landing to become a good air traffic controller? Number two, you defeat a lie by replacing it with the truth of God's word. This has to be your source of truth, not some other source in this world. And here's why. Remember Paul tells us, he says, finally, I'm going to give you a list of things from God's word. This is the only thing I want to land in your mind and stick. And he goes through the list. Finally, brothers and sisters, hey, whatever's true, which means not imaginary, we're not talking what-ifs, only if it's absolutely true. Whatever's noble, which is worthy of thinking about, because you might think something's true, but it's not noble in your life. Whatever's right, is it consistent with God's word? Whatever's pure, is it holy? Is it set apart from this world? Whatever's lovely, I like this. Whatever's kind, are you being kind to yourself in your mind? If it's not lovely and kind, it's not from God. You have a God of compassion, of love. Whatever's admirable, and he says this, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about those things. Think about these things. That's it. That's the only thing you allow to land. And when Paul uses the word think about here, it is so strategic.

So strategic. Paul wrote this from God, inspired by God, over 2,000 years ago, and look what we now know about the mind. Because let me show you this. Watch this. When Paul said think about, you know what the Greek word is? Watch this. The Greek word is logizomai. What English word does that sound like? Logic. Logical. This was such a strategic word. Watch how your brain works. Let me show you two centers of your brain. Inside your brain, the amygdala, which is a very small part kind of in the bottom middle of your brain, this is the center of emotion and the center of anxiety. Anxiety stems from the amygdala. I like what Max Lucado said. Max Lucado says anxiety is an amygdala with a trigger finger. It's just firing shots of anxiety into your mind. Now, watch the connection. Watch this. Where does the anxiety go to? It goes to the prefrontal cortex to be processed. Do you know what the prefrontal cortex is known as? This is the logical part of your mind. What we're being told is that anxiety needs to be bounced off of. something logical, a truth that will destroy it from infiltrating your mind.

And some of you are thinking this, why isn't the logical part of my mind working right now? Because you are filling your mind with logic that is not logical. If you fill your mind with the things of this world, social media, the news cycle, just your friends' opinions about your life and what you should do, do you understand how many things in this world are completely outside the logic of what God says about you? I mean, how many times have you got on social media and you read something and you're like, someone has to be a lunatic to believe that? And guys, we fall prey to this thinking because we consume it all the time. I mean, just go back to your childhood. How many things in your childhood did you believe that were completely illogical? Like, no logic to them at all. I mean, I was thinking this last week for me, and I was thinking, I'm a candy addict, okay? I'm a recovering candy addict. I'm trying to get off of it, and I just grew up like candy, candy, candy. And I love like, do you remember the Pop Rocks? I grew up and I was told, if you eat Pop Rocks with a Coke, your stomach explodes, you die on the spot. Anybody else remember that? Like, I still haven't ate Pop Rocks with Coke to this day. It's a lie, it's stupid.

And then I was thinking about other things. You know, when I was young, I had a bunch of freckles on my face, and I was a little insecure about them. I think my mom knew that about me. And so my mom told me over and over and over again that where did freckles come from? They were angel kisses. Oh, sweetie, your freckles are, and those angels just came down, and they were just kissing all over you. I'm like, really? Oh, man, if these freckles got together, I'd have a great tan, you know what I mean? It's like, you know. And when my kids were born, my kids had freckles, what did I tell them? Angel kisses, it's not, okay? There's nothing in this book, if you were told that, there's nothing that says a freckle's an angel kiss. It's not. Now, those are all funny examples of how illogical sometimes we've been told things in this world. But guys, there's some big things you've been told, and there's some big things you've let seep into your minds that are absolutely not true. Let me give you a couple examples. And these would fall under the area of what psychologists call cognitive biases. What is a cognitive bias?

And this can happen to all of us from our childhood or from a really painful experience in our past. A cognitive bias is mistakes in reasoning based on personal experiences or preferences. Let me speak to you women for just a minute. Some of you women grew up, and you were hurt badly by a man. You were abused by a man, maybe multiple men over your life. And now you have a cognitive bias that your logic says all men are dangerous. All men may hurt me. It's not true. There are godly men that will not abuse you the way you've been abused, and yet that logic is in your mind. There's some of you that grew up and you were told something, and I'm so sorry for what you were told. You were told that you're ugly. That you'll never amount to anything. That you're worthless. And the cognitive bias has done something to the logic in your mind that you still wrestle with that today. Hey, some of you grew up being told that wealth is bad. It's crazy, but now you have a little wealth, and you actually feel anxious about it. What do you do to defeat the lies and the things that are not logical that seep into our mind and create these strongholds?

These poor logic, the only way you defeat a lie is you submit it to the truth of God's word. You have to have a higher truth than what you think or what the world around you thinks, and that's why God gave us his word as that truth. And watch what Paul tells us. He goes on in 2 Corinthians chapter 10. Remember we read this already. He says, we take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ. The word take captive here is so powerful in the original language. It means to take power over someone or something with a sword or a spear. Think about that. In fact, Jesus uses the same term in. 21 when he says they will fall by the sword and we take in prisoners so you're like man if only in the Christian life we were given a sword that could take captive these thoughts in my life that are dominating my anxiety in the Christian life what is our sword what is our sword it's God's Word can I show you so clearly watch us Ephesians chapter 6 we were given the armor of God to take on in our lives the sword of the Spirit is what it's the Word of God and the tense of Word of God here actually even means to have the Word of God spoken so some of us it's like we may read God's Word every once in a while but do you take a truth from God's Word that fights an anxious thought in your mind and do you speak it over your life speaking that declaring it is so powerful and and watch again let me show you that the image again with with with the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex which is the logical part of our mind watch this if you are not filling the prefrontal cortex with the truth of God's Word there's really I don't know how you can fight all the allies that

are coming and all the anxious thoughts coming from the amygdala in your mind this logic part of your mind must be filled with the truth not from this world not from social media not from anybody else I don't care who they are it has to be filled with the truth of God's Word that's your sword and you know what some of you are you know what some of you are fighting with right now do you remember these little plastic swords that they that they would like you know this like you put these in cupcakes and stuff like that this is what some of you are fighting your anxiety with literally it's it's a little plastic sword that is not helpful it's not doing it the things you're given the truth it's what they're not working do you know when Paul used the word sword and Jesus used the word sword do you know what everyone would have had in their mind in the first century when Jesus lived they would have what's called a Roman Gladius this is an exact replica of a Roman Gladius that I keep in my office and I'll tell you why I keep it in my office in a minute okay in Jesus's day when Paul wrote this this was the most dangerous and powerful weapon available in the world the Roman Empire used the Gladius to destroy legions and what God is trying to tell someone here today is the most powerful weapon in your life the most powerful weapon to fight anxiety and any issue you're dealing with this is it and so many of us have traded this for a piece of plastic and it's it's not it's not working how do you defeat anxiety watch this you define your most anxious thought and then you drive a sword through it you you take that connection between the amygdala sending anxiety signals to your prefrontal cortex the logic and the logical part of your mind is a sword that is filled with the Word of God that can conquer any lie Satan will try to put into your mind now why do I keep this in my office because I personally need a reminder that I need God's Word in my life that I am just as prone to anyone of having anxious thoughts in fact I love this verse out of Hebrews it hangs in my preaching office I see it almost every time before I walk on stage it says this Hebrews chapter 4 verse 12 for the Word of God is living and active it is sharper than a two-edged sword and everyone would

have been thinking about this it's sharper than this piercing the division of soul and spirit joints and marrow and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart look at that verse discerning the thoughts how do you discern which of your thoughts that are causing anxiety are actually real and true it's the Word of God and you guys my thoughts Ashley's thoughts on his own my thoughts are not all discerning all the time I need this in my life did you know I I can struggle with anxiety You do realize that I'm in an, like my profession, a preacher, public speaking, this is like an anxiety-ridden, like, profession, you know what I'm saying about? Like one of the top stressors in people's lives is public speaking. That's what I do for a living. And what some of you see is you see a very confident person on stage. And I just want you to know that is not the reality of what happens off stage all the time. In fact, I can allow anxious thoughts and lies from my enemy to begin to fly into my mind and I have to determine which of those am I letting land versus which of those are lies that need to be destroyed and pierced by the word of God. Can I tell you one of my most anxious thoughts? And this is getting pretty real but I don't even know, I don't know any other way to preach to you than just to be real. One of my most anxious thoughts is with all the messages I preach here at CCV, what if I run out of things to say? What if I run out of things where when I stand up here you're like, it used to be okay but now it's pretty rough. That's one of my most anxious thoughts. Is that from God or from my enemy?

You guys, look back at the verse, Hebrews 12. The word of God is living and active. It never becomes irrelevant. As long as I am preaching from this book, I will never run out of things to say. Are you kidding me? It's sharper than a double-edged sword. This book never gets dull. That is a lie. As long as I am submitted to the word of God and preaching the word of God to you, it will never be irrelevant. It will never become dull. In fact as this world gets darker, this book becomes brighter and becomes the way forward. That's a lie. And that's why, hey, if you come to CCV, that is why I will never ever stop preaching from God's word. And I will never ever stop challenging you to get your life into this book. Some of us, we come to church, you hear the word of God spoken over you. Which is good. But do you have a personal time in God's word yourself? Where God is taking the power of his word into your mind and heart. And using it as a sword to slice and dice and deal with the anxious thoughts and the lies coming in your mind. I'm telling you, every single one of you, you need to be in God's word daily with a Bible reading plan. And you also need to be with a group of people like a CCV group

that can help you. And if you need help with either of those things, you can go to our Next Step Center on any campus and talk to one of our pastors. We are here to help you. We preached on how to get into God's word and find a Bible and understand it a little more so you don't feel lost. And this week, by the way, on every campus we have starting point. And starting point is a class that will take you on a journey where you can be able to engage in the church and in God's word and community more deeply. Some of you have never taken starting point, that would be your next step. If you are watching this on Monday, we have many upcoming opportunities this week, even online. I just want to challenge you today the same way I'm challenging myself. You can't walk through this life without the most powerful weapon God has given you to fight the what if lies constantly flying in your mind. Some of you have a stronghold. It's like every brick that's been built. You are going to need to find a truth from God's word. And they are there. That can begin to demolish the strongholds. To take captive every thought. Every thought. And I submit it to Christ and his word. As we wrap up this series, I just feel like God is moving in

our church. And I want to do something a little different to close our service out today. I want us to take communion which reminds us of the power of God in our life. The body and blood of Jesus that was shed on a cross. And his resurrection power. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead. Is the same power that exists inside of you. That God wants to give you the power according to his word to take captive your thoughts and submit them. They will bow at the name of Jesus. And so as we take communion here in a minute, here's what I wanna do. It's gonna be a little different. I'm gonna ask our bands to come on every campus in a moment and I'm gonna ask them to sing a song over you, over us, and I don't want you to stand for this song, I just want you to be seated. Let it be sung over you. It's a song called Breathe. It's about anxiety and how God can bring you peace when you don't feel like you can breathe. And during this song, what I want you to do, just sit into your seats, is I want you to think about what's that one consistent anxious thought? Define it. And you may wrestle with that, but just whatever God brings to your mind, just let it sink in.

Let God reveal to you what that is. And then I want you to make a commitment that you'll begin to battle the lies in your mind with the truth of God's word, that you'll begin to use this book and God's word, the truth, to defeat it. And when you're ready, during this song, I want you to just take communion, thanking God for giving us the power of his son, Jesus, his resurrection power. And then when the song's done, I wanna come out and just close out our whole entire season. And this series, I wanna pray over you, pray for God's power over you. But right now, I want you to close your eyes. People of God, just close your eyes. I'm gonna read this passage of scripture from Philippians. We've been in the past five weeks. I wanna read it over you. Let God speak this into your heart. Philippians chapter four, verse four. Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again, rejoice. Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Literally, God is right next to you at this moment, speaking to you. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, that's gratitude,

present your request to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Father, when I think of how you love me, I finally can breathe, in the presence of your peace. I am where I'm meant to be. When I think of how you love me, I finally can sing, for the glory of my King. I am who I'm meant to be. When I think of how you love me, I finally can breathe. Fear of my failure, like chaos deep within. Troubled by all the things that could have been. But here in your presence, my heart can beat again. You're my foundation, beginning and the end. Father, when I think of how you love me, I finally can breathe, in the presence of your

peace. I am where I'm meant to be. When I think of how you love me, I finally can sing, for the glory of my King. I am who I'm meant to be. When I think of how you love me. me, I find a leak in me. Search me, God, and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts. Lead me, God, to where you are, for yours is the way everlasting. Yours is the way everlasting. When I think of how you love me, I finally can breathe. In the presence of your peace, I am where I'm meant to be. When I think of how you love me, I finally can sing. For the glory of my King, I am who I'm meant to be. When I think of how you love me, I finally can breathe. Hey, whatever stronghold you think you're dealing with today, I want to remind you that by the power of Jesus and his word, there's nothing he can't break in your life. He demolishes strongholds. If we will learn to take captive our thoughts, let me remind you the big idea for today is that you elevate your thoughts to lower your anxiety. You define that most consistent anxious thought. You defeat it by replacing it by the truth of God's word. I hope you're here for this whole entire series. If some of you are new, we've been on this for five weeks. There's so much to walk through on this topic. And by the way, all of our previous messages are always online, our website, on YouTube. You can go back and watch them. And I really hope you will. And I'm excited for Easter coming up here in a couple weeks. God's going to do something special on that weekend. And I pray that you don't come alone. Grab some invite cards on the way out, and we'll see you next week. Love you, CCV. Transcribed by https://otter.ai