How to Stop Anxious Thoughts | Anxiety | Full Experience

Holy Spirit of God lift up your voice, let's help churches move with you. Wow, Lord I have heard that. I've been prepared to watch. You're watching this all day and all day. Now I want to come forward here to make sure that we get the word, we get the word of God that God departed him from me. And I tried with all my might and I just can't win the fight. I'm slowly drifting a wreck of heart. And just when I ran out of hope, I met a man I didn't know and he told me that I was not alone. He picked me up, he turned me around, he placed my feet on solid ground. I thank the Master, I thank the Savior because he healed my heart, he changed my name, forever free. I'm not the same, I thank the Master, I thank the Savior, I thank God. I cannot deny what I see. Got no choice but to believe. My doubts are burning like ashes in the wind. So, so long to my old friends. To burden and bitterness, you can't just keep them moving.

No, you ain't worth me, no. From now till I walk the streets of gold, I'll sing aloud, you saved my soul. This wayward son has found his way back home. He picked me up, he turned me around, he placed my feet on solid ground. I thank the Master, I thank the Savior because he healed my heart, he changed my name, forever free. I'm not the same, I thank the Master, I thank the Savior, I thank God. Tell us another one, are you free? We're free. Are you free, oh, are you free? Tell us another one, are you free? Yes, I am free, oh. We know it's true. Go. Tell us another one, are you free? I am free, oh, I am free. Tell us another one, are you free? Yes, I am free, yeah. He picked me up, he turned me around, he placed my feet on solid ground. I thank the Master, I thank the Savior because he healed my heart, he changed my name, forever free. I'm not the same, I thank the Master, I thank the Savior, I thank God. I thank God.

I thank God. Amen. ♪ The Lord is my shepherd ♪ ♪ And he is everything I need ♪ ♪ So I will not worry ♪ ♪ I will not fear the enemy ♪ ♪ He says that he loves me ♪ ♪ He says that he's with me, you know ♪ ♪ I walk through the valley of shadow and death and still ♪ ♪ I know he has good plans, he has good plans for me ♪ ♪ He has good plans for me ♪ ♪ So I will take heart in deserts and gardens ♪ ♪ He has good plans, he has good plans for me ♪ for me. If I know my Father, I know my Father has a good plans. Yes, He does. The Lord is my Savior, so why should I doubt my belief? And why would I question the rod and the staff that conquers me? He quiets the waters. He quiets the storm inside of me. So what could be better than walking with Him when I believe He has good plans? He has good plans for me. So I will take heart in deserts and gardens, cause He has good plans. He has good plans for me. If I know my Father, I know my Father has good plans. Yes, He has good plans. Let's sing this scripture today in this room. Surely He's with us. Come on, sing. Surely your goodness and mercy will follow after me. So fear will not find me, cause I'll be dwelling in the house of God. Surely your goodness and mercy will follow after me. So fear will not find me, cause I'll be dwelling in the house of God. Surely your goodness and mercy will follow after me. So fear will not find me, cause I'll be dwelling in the house of God. Surely your goodness and mercy will follow after me. So

fear will not find me, cause I'll be dwelling in the house of God. He has good plans. He has good plans for me. So I will take heart in deserts and gardens, cause He has good plans. He has good plans for me. If I know my Father, I know my Father has good plans. I know He has good plans. If I know my Father, I know my Father has good plans. Oh, I want to take heart in deserts and gardens, cause I know my Father has good plans. I know my Father has good plans. I know my Father has good plans. I know my Father has good plans. Oh, I want to take heart in deserts and gardens, cause I know my Father has good plans. I know my Father has good plans. Oh, I want to take heart in deserts and gardens, cause I know my Father has good plans. I know my Father has good plans. Oh, I want to take heart in deserts and gardens, cause I know my Father has good plans. I know my Father has good plans. Oh, I want to take heart in deserts and gardens, cause I know my Father has good plans. I know my Father has good plans. ♪ I just wanna speak the name of Jesus ♪ ♪ Over fear and all anxiety ♪ ♪ Till every soul I'm captive by depression ♪ ♪ I speak Jesus ♪ ♪ If your name is power, your name is healing ♪ ♪ Your name is life, we know ♪ ♪ You break every stronghold, shine through the shadows ♪ ♪ Burn like the fire ♪ ♪ We shout Jesus from the mountains, Jesus in the streams ♪ ♪ Jesus in the darkness over every enemy ♪ ♪ Jesus for my failure, I speak the holy name, Jesus ♪ Come on, let's sing it out. ♪ We shout Jesus from the mountains, Jesus in the streams ♪

♪ Jesus in the darkness over every enemy ♪ ♪ Jesus for my failure, I speak the holy name, Jesus ♪ ♪ We shout Jesus from the mountains, Jesus in the streams ♪ ♪ Jesus in the darkness over every enemy ♪ ♪ Jesus for my failure, I speak the holy name, Jesus ♪ ♪ Jesus for my failure, I speak the holy name, Jesus ♪ ♪ Your name is power, Your name is healing, goodness come ♪ ♪ Your name is power, Your name is healing, goodness come ♪ ♪ Break every stronghold, shine through the shadows ♪ ♪ From right to wrong ♪ Lord, we need You now, we need You in this moment. We speak Your holy miracle working name over every circumstance in our life, God. ♪ And I just wanna speak the name of Jesus ♪ ♪ Over every heart and every mind ♪ ♪ Yes, I know there is peace within Your presence ♪ ♪ I speak Jesus, amen ♪ And then we need Him. Church, thank you so much for singing with us. You can take your seats. Well, I wanna welcome you all again to CCV, whether you're physically here on campus or you're tuning in online. My name is Travis Brown. I get to serve as the campus pastor here at our Peoria campus. And just a couple of weeks ago, the world was captivated by two people, Butch Wilmore and Sonny Williams. These were the NASA astronauts

who took off last June for space for a one-week mission. And that one-week mission turned into nine months and they just came back to earth just a couple of weeks ago. And how do you do that? How do you spend 280 extra days in space? After they came back, I saw an interview with a NASA official and he said something that struck me. He said this, and I quote, he said, every astronaut that launches into space, we teach them, don't think about when you're coming home. Think about how well your mission's going. And if you're lucky, you might get to stay longer. It really is a gift when you get to stay longer in space. When I read that, I thought, man, what great perspective and what great advice, not just for astronauts in space, but also for believers in Jesus here on earth. Because when Jesus was on this earth, he wasn't just focused about getting back to heaven. No, Jesus was locked in on his mission. And his mission was to seek and save the lost. His mission was to save the lost. to save you. And while he was on that mission, he had to endure betrayal. He had to endure suffering.

But part of completing that mission is he had to die an excruciating death on a cross. And every week when we take communion together, we're reminded of that sacrifice that Jesus made on that cross so that he could accomplish his mission of saving us. But communion also reminds us that he saved us for a purpose. See, he didn't save us just so that we would play it safe. He saved us so that we would make an eternal impact with our lives today. So let me ask you a question. How's your mission going? Do you find yourself more focused on the end or are you taking advantage of where God has you today and making an impact for his kingdom? Listen, maybe we should think less about the finish line and focus more on the mission that God has for our lives today. When we take communion, we remember the sacrifice that he made on the cross, but let's also use this time to refocus on the mission that he has for us. Let's pray. Father, we're so grateful that we get to come to this moment of our week where we remember the sacrifice that you made for us. Thank you for thinking of us as you went to the cross and help us understand what you desire to do through our lives.

Bless this time. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ It is expected to be cut in half. Now... ♪♪ According to multiple aviation experts, the split-second loss... Schools are closed. The power is... Market on fire. For Kansas... ♪♪ We're in week four of a series on anxiety, and I thought I'd start with a question. What do you think most people focus on in their lives most of the time? Do you think they focus on what they have or what's missing? What do you think? Let's make it personal. What do you focus on?

What if I told you your answer to that question, more than you could ever imagine, would get to the root of how much you wrestle or struggle with anxiety? We'll get to that more in a moment, but I think in our world today, most people are so consumed or fixated on what they're missing. They're missing. They're just not focused on what they have, That's not a trait, by the way, of people that have failed or people that maybe aren't successful in life. That's a trait of people that are utterly successful, the most successful people. Because of three things, one, no matter how much you have, there's always someone with what? More. And no matter how much you have, you can still get caught up in the what ifs of what if I lose it? What if my health goes down? What if my finances crater? What if my future becomes uncertain? And then three, some of us, and when I say some of us, I mean me, have a sickness where no matter how good things are going, we are consumed that they can always get better, right? That's not a bad trait all the time, but it can be if it makes us focus all the time, not on what we have, but on what we lack. In fact, I'll tell you a pretty transparent story

from my childhood. I don't think I've ever told this to the church before, but when I was in high school, my life was dominated with sports. That was just kind of our family culture. We were always on a sports field, and my dad was a coach. I played basketball and football. I'm sorry, I didn't play football. My dad was a football coach. Never asked me to play football, okay? I was like a buck 35 soaking wet when I was in high school, but basketball, baseball, and golf, and then went to college on a volleyball scholarship. Out of all the sports I played, basketball was the one I struggled with the most to excel. But my freshman year of high school, my very first basketball game is probably the greatest performance I've had on a sports field. It was like I just had one of those games where I just couldn't miss. I wasn't even supposed to start, but the starter actually missed a practice, so I got to start, and I just kind of went off that game, just made three-pointers, just had a great game. I mean, at one point in the game, I'm so fired up. I'm just gonna tell you what I did. I literally, after making a three-pointer, I slapped the ground, get up, and I'm like, yeah, I was that guy, you know?

And I get up, and I get done with the game. I was a high scorer of the game out of our team. We won the game. It was an awesome game. I get done, I'm going up to my parents. I'm so excited to just, and my mom, you know moms? She's like, Hercules, Hercules, you're the best. I turned to my dad, and I don't fault him for this. My dad was a hard-charging football coach, and he's had one of those dad moments that I've had personally, and he looked at me, and he said, pretty good game, but you missed these couple shots. You missed this defensive assignment. I think you could've done this a little bit better, and it was like I went from so grateful for what I had to just focused on everything I was missing, and it wasn't like a conscious thing at the time, but I really think I began to wonder in my mind, maybe that's how life works. Maybe you should focus your life not being grateful for all the things you have, but maybe you should just focus on all the things you missed. Anybody struggle with that out there? You don't have to raise your hands, but my guess is a lot of us struggle with just not being grateful for what we have, but always focused on what we're missing, and your reasons may be different than mine, but what we're gonna do today in our series on anxieties,

I wanna take you to the passage we've been in the whole entire time in this series, Philippians chapter 4, and today we're gonna laser in on one word that God gives us and now neuroscience now confirms is maybe the number one tool you have at your disposal as an antidote to anxiety. Before we get there, let's do what we've done every week in this series. I wanna read the whole entire passage of scripture that we've been walking through in this series. I would love for you to read it along with me if you feel comfortable. Philippians chapter 4, it's gonna be on the screen starting in verse 4. Let's read together. Rejoice in the Lord always. I will 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 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. I wanna laser in on verse 6 today,

and we were in this verse last weekend, if you were here, and Mark talked to us about these three underlined words, prayer, petition, and request. Those are all Greek words for prayer, and Mark gave a really powerful message, if you missed it, I'd go back and watch it, on the power of prayer, and how we can pray in a way that we can really help with our anxiety. But did you notice in the midst of Paul talking about these bringing our requests to God, that he inserts. this line to do it with Thanksgiving. When I read that, it just seems so odd to me. It kind of seems almost out of place. Like, why did you insert that in this verse on our anxiety that we should bring everything with Thanksgiving? It's like, if you take that away, the verse still works. I mean, do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation by prayer and petition, just present your request to God. That's good. Why add with Thanksgiving? Was that just an accident? This was not a casual add by God to us. This was a strategic addition by a God who knows exactly how our minds work and how to deal with anxiety. With gratitude is the word Thanksgiving, or Thanksgiving is the word gratitude. And when you see this with Thanksgiving,

it is literally, you might as well just say with gratitude. It is the same exact word. And what God knew 2,000 years ago when this was written by the Apostle Paul for us is now what neuroscience has just now caught up with. And here's the whole message in one sentence, if you're taking notes today. Gratitude is the antidote to anxiety. Now, when Paul wrote this 2,000 years ago, there was no brain science. There was no neurosurgeon, like neuroscientists that can do brain scans on us. But what we know today from science and the leading research scientifically on gratitude and the link with anxiety is actually out of UC Berkeley. And if you know anything about UC Berkeley, it's not really a place that's like promoting Christianity, if you know that. This isn't like a Bible-like positive place. But what they have confirmed, what science has confirmed now is this. If gratitude could be put in pill form, it would become literally the magic drug for anxiety. It would be a drug that could get almost rid of anxiety. Did you know that? Let me read you some things about this miracle drug, gratitude. Gratitude not only lowers blood pressure, it boosts your immune system,

it improves sleep quality, those that are grateful. At a cellular level, it has been proven that gratitude lowers stress levels by 23%. But the most important thing I wanna talk to you about today with gratitude is science now confirms that gratitude is the one thing that could almost eliminate anxiety from our lives. This may be the most important point that I give you today. And here it is. The state of gratitude and anxiety cannot coexist in the mind. This is a scientific fact. This isn't just something from the Bible. What we now know from neuroscience is in your mind, gratitude and anxiety, the state of gratitude and the state of anxiety cannot coexist in your mind at the same time. Let me read you a quote from an actual doctor, Dr. Dan Baker in his groundbreaking book, What Happy People Know, says this. When you have gratitude, a state of thankfulness or appreciation, the messages in the amygdala, which is the center of the brain that really is driving anxiety, those centers of the amygdala are cut off suddenly and surely from access to the brain's neocortex where they replicate themselves and turn into a state of panic. What he's saying is this. Where the brain center, the amygdala,

that processes anxiety, that sends it to the rest of your brain, that sends you in a state of panic, when you are grateful, the anxiety's cut off completely and surely. Let me read it to you this way. This is a direct quote from him. It is a fact of neurology that the brain cannot be in a state of appreciation, that's gratitude, and a state of fear and anxiety at the same time. Let that sink in. And this is why all throughout scripture we are told over and over again to be thankful, to have gratitude in our lives. Let me just rattle off a few verses for you. Psalm 100 says this. Enter his gates with thanksgiving. Like we should come every single day with thanksgiving. Psalm 136, give thanks to the Lord for he is good. His love endures forever. That goes back to week one. He's so good, we stand every day between the pillars of God's goodness and God's control. 1 Thessalonians 5.18, we'll come back to this several times in the message. Give thanks in all circumstances. This mirrors exactly what Paul told us in Philippians chapter four, why? For this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus to be thankful.

Hebrews chapter 12, therefore since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. Let us be thankful. I'll be honest, I'm studying this in my office this week, writing this message, and here's what's coming to my mind, just very, very honestly. This is not a skillset, being thankful and being grateful, that I was ever taught to have. I don't know about you, but I was never, I feel very ill-prepared to have a skillset to just wake up every day and be grateful. In fact, it's almost counterintuitive to a lot of the way I live life. I almost operate the exact opposite, and I think a lot of us do. We operate in a way in which we're not focusing on all the things we have to be grateful for. We're focusing on all the things we're lacking in this world. Now, neuroscience, by the way, should blow your mind how science is now catching up with what God said in Scripture all along. But how do we practically think about, in our minds, gratitude eliminating anxiety? And here's how you can think about it, point number two. Gratitude changes your focus from what you lack to what you have. Very practically, that's what it does. And here's what all of us know. All of us have times in life,

and we will for the rest of our lives, where we lack something, and when we lack something, we begin to get into the what if game. Well, what if this happens? What if that happens? What if this happens? What if I never have that? For example, let's say you're single here today, and you would really like to have someone in your life. You would love to have a boyfriend. You'd love to have a girlfriend, but you don't, and so you begin to think about all these what ifs. Why is that? Well, what if it's because I'm not thin enough? What if it's because I'm not pretty enough? What if it's because I'm not smart enough? What if it's because I'm not successful enough? What if it's because I'm not tan enough? What if it's because I'm too nerdy? I'm a nerd. That's why I don't have a boyfriend or girlfriend. You know, you start going to all these, I'm never gonna get married now. That means I'm never gonna get married, which means if I never get married, like maybe I'll never have kids, and I'll never get over my mental health, and I'll just struggle the rest of my life, and I'll lose my house. I'll lose my home.

I'll lose my car. I'll be homeless, and if you know the SNL skit, that means you're gonna live in a van down by where? The river. So you're like, what's that? Yeah, Chris Farley, come on. You're like, I'm gonna live in a van down by the river all alone. You just what if yourself like crazy. See, anxiety lives in the land of what if. Watch this. Where gratitude gives you the peace of already. What you already have, and when you focus on what you've been blessed with already, and you become grateful, anxiety runs for the hills. But that's so hard to do. But we know scientifically that, man, if we could just become grateful, gratitude and anxiety, those states can't coexist in the mind. Let me put it this way. Where gratitude decreases, anxiety increases. And that's why some of the least grateful people are often the most anxious. But the opposite is true, and this is the hope for many of us, that where gratitude increases, anxiety decreases, it runs. Now, I'm gonna tell you why I think this is one of the most critical skill sets

for any of us to develop in our world today. The skill set of developing a grateful life. Because as I've studied anxiety, and I've studied it so much, preparing for this series and just over the years, because it's such a issue plaguing our world today, and specifically our country. Do you know when anxiety spiked in America? Can I show you the chart? This is a chart that's from extensive research done in a book called The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt. I'd highly recommend this book if you wanna understand anxiety, and especially why it's affecting the next generation so much. But when you look at this chart, watch where did anxiety spike, what year? Between the years of 2010 and 2012, anxiety shot up like a hockey stick, especially with the younger generation. Now, what historically was being introduced into our country during these years when anxiety spiked like a hockey stick? Two things. The iPhone was introduced in 2007 and became mainstream in 2010, which led to you having access to social media, which then was introduced a little bit before this by Facebook, but Instagram was introduced in 2010,

and now we have social. Social media at our fingertips at all times. Now please understand something about social media. Social media is driven by advertising. If you look at all the revenue streams from social media, it's the revenue is primarily all advertising. Is advertising's goal in your life to get you to focus on what you have or what you're missing? They can't sell you and get you to consume more if you're grateful for what you have. The whole goal is to get you focused on what you're missing. And this is the world and the land that we live in on social media, most of us every single day. And listen, you cannot, you cannot separate what's happening with social media and with the anxiety we're experiencing. They've been proven to be linked. Why? Because as one pastor put it, when you're on social media, you're in the land of er, is what he put it. Let me say what, he said what? He said, there's always someone that you see that's richer, skinnier, funnier, smarter, prettier, happier, hipper, and talented-er, right? This is where you land all the time on social media. And when you're on social media, you're watching someone else's highlight reels

and comparing them to your reality. And how's that going for you? And their highlight reels are mostly edited, you realize that, right? And driven so much by advertising. And we wonder why we're struggling so much with gratitude today. If you struggle with anxiety, my guess is you know, you know, you know in your heart of hearts that when you're on social media, hours and hours a day, it compounds the issue, it doesn't help. Listen, I'm not, I'm not poo-pooing on social media. I think there's a lot of, like anything else, there can be good and bad. What I'm saying is this, is that if you struggle with anxiety, look at me, this is one of the first places I would start. To significantly either get off social media or to really, really limit your consumption. And some of you have an addiction to it and it's that addiction that is driving the anxiety in your life and you have to make a change if you wanna see a change in the gratitude in your life. Now if you got off social media for a while and you had hours in a day, what would you do with those hours? I mean, what could you do? I don't know, like maybe you'd get

into this book a little more. And do you think this book could help your anxiety more than what you see on social media? Can I show you the root word for gratitude? So when you see the word gratitude or thankfulness in the New Testament, can I show you the New Testament Greek word? Watch this, this is the New Testament Greek word. Now it's not pronounced Eucharista, that's not how it's actually pronounced. It's actually a very difficult pronunciation. But when you see that word, do you see any other word in that that you might recognize? Can I point it out? Do you see the word Eucharist? Eucharist is what we did earlier in the service, that's when we take communion. That's the Lord's Supper, it's the Eucharist. Which means at the heart of being grateful is a heart that is focused on the gospel work of Jesus in our life. And letting this consume us, not the things of this world. And yet Satan will do anything he can to pull you out of God's word and into this world. As you continue to struggle more and more with anxiety. What does gratitude do? Gratitude, listen, gratitude doesn't change what you have, it changes what you notice. It doesn't change what you have, but it sure changes what you notice.

And what gratitude does is it helps you live in a world where you don't miss the small things, which are actually very, very big things that we miss being grateful for. For example, I wrote some things down for me, the simple things, a warm meal, a sunset, coffee in the morning, anybody else? Like praise God for hot coffee in the morning. A roof over our heads. Most of us have a roof over our heads and yet we gloss right past that, where there's so many people in our world that don't. Friends and family, air conditioning, sun, the stars, everything we get, a dog that loves you. And a cat that you love. And only loves you when you feed it, you know what I'm saying. We just miss all the things we are grateful for. More importantly, gratitude allows you not to miss the big things in life. You have a God who loves you. His son Jesus to die for you, to save you. And you don't have to be good enough to be saved. Like how good is that? We should be wrecked by the gospel all the time. Every morning we should wake up wrecked by the fact that God would save a sinner like me. I mean, are we missing things like that you have air in your lungs? Are you missing the fact that if some of you have kids, you're like, my kids are driving me crazy.

Do you understand there's someone in the auditorium where you're at right now or online that they can't have kids? And they would do anything to have a child that would drive them crazy like your kids are doing. Do you understand how we can so live in a world where all we're focused on is what we lack, not what we have. So let me ask you, what are you more focused on? What are you more focused on? We've got to change something. Brene Brown, I thought put it beautifully, she said, gratitude is how we acknowledge that there's enough and that we are enough. Anxiety and fear are about scarcity and gratitude brings us back to abundance. Let me say it again, gratitude is the antidote to anxiety. And what some of us are thinking today, that sounds awesome. I mean, I would love to be grateful. I would love to have a more grateful heart. But how do you do it? It's one thing to want it. And some of us are like, we have goals to be grateful. James Clear said, you don't rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems. And most of us don't have a system in our life to actually feed gratitude in us. We're living off our intentions. And living off of your intentions is where dreams go to die. You actually have to have a system. And do you know all the research shows that there's one system that will help you develop a more grateful life?

Again, UC Berkeley, one of the best researchers on this in the world today, they actually did a study. Here's what they did. They took 300 people that were struggling with their mental health and anxiety, and they divided them into three groups. One group, they had them take a journal out and just write down every day something they were grateful for. The next group, they told them to take a journal and just write down whatever they wanted to. This is like a neutral group. Just write whatever you want. And the third group, they had them write down what they were anxious about. After four weeks, and it proved out over 12 weeks and on, the only group that improved their mental health and their anxiety was the first group that focused on one thing every day that they should be grateful for. And what I'm going to challenge you to do today is to develop a system in which you can be grateful for something every day, small or big. And listen, it doesn't have to be, you know, a journal. It can be anything you want it to be. It could be, hey, you could come up with something. You could come up with something, you take a dry erase marker and write on your mirror every morning in your bathroom, something I'm grateful for. It could be a gratitude jar that you put gratitude into every single day. It could be a gratitude walk. Every night you take a gratitude walk and just say, God, I want to thank you for something today. Small. Water. Clean water. Can you believe this?

I mean, it could be something big. You could have a text exchange with a friend or a family member where you say every day we're going to text each other something that we're grateful for because we're going to develop gratitude in our lives. And I have met so many people that have put this in place, a system to be grateful, a gratitude journal per se, and they would say it's changed their lives. In fact, I just want you to see a few of them from our church right now. My name is Sheree Jawansky. I have been attending CCB for 28 years. Where I have struggled is I'm an overthinker and I just cannot turn it off at times. And I will start with anxiety and I will get so worked up that it turns into depression. And then I'm so worked up with that that it increases my anxiety and then increases. It's just a vicious cycle. It was actually five years ago. It was in the very beginning of COVID. And I had just started, just made the decision that every day I was going to start just writing down one thing that I was thankful for. I've done that every day since. Writing down my one thing is super simple. And it might be over simplistic. However, it's how I feel. I've chosen to stop some spiraling of anxiety in my life, in my heart, and in my mind. It is a simple notebook that I buy, like it's a 99-cent notebook, and I just add to it every day. I date it, and it is so simple, and for me, I try not to be like, oh, it has to be three things. It is one thing.

What I have found, there's going to be different seasons. There's going to be different hard in life, but I have found that when I go to write that, it's simple, but when I go to write it, if I'm struggling, and something doesn't immediately come to mind, that that might be my smoke alarm, that I need to maybe dig a little deeper, maybe stop those anxious thoughts before I start spiraling. My name is Leela, and I'm a sophomore at Boulder Creek High School. 2024 threw a lot of curveballs at me, and I definitely felt more anxious than I ever have in my life. I made the varsity soccer team at my high school as a freshman. During that season, I only had one friend on the team, and I didn't get much playing time. I got a little bit at the beginning of the season, but then after that, I didn't really get any at all. It was a perfect opportunity for me to just mope around. I noticed I was being negative, and I noticed I was dreading practices, so I was like, okay, this isn't doing me any good. So I kind of stopped, and I remember reflecting and praying to God, change my heart posture towards the whole thing. So after I did that, I saw playing time as a blessing instead of something that I deserved, and I became happier for my teammates. Practicing gratitude has really made me a happier person in general. It's made me get a much more positive outlook on things. Taking a moment, just pausing, kind of like stop and smell the roses, that sort of thing, it just helps me have a more positive outlook and be more excited for what I'm about to do. It helps me take my focus off of the negativity and really be more thankful for everything around me, which in turn helps me talk to God more. My name's Tim Hamm, and I'm born and raised in Arizona. I currently live in Peoria. I'm a father of four, an awesome wife, and I'm a full-time artist.

It's funny how I fell into art and the world of creativity. I was a college athlete, and in the pursuit of pursuing athletics in college, unfortunately getting injured, I kind of fell into creativity just as a form of either boredom or grieving the loss of something that I loved so much, and it really just kind of took on its own life, and I ended up really falling in love with creativity. It just so happened that the medium I used was art. I selfishly used gratitude. I think when I started, I used it just because I knew it would lessen my stress. I didn't even care about being grateful. I was just like, oh, this is so much pressure. How can I alleviate it? I would cut out photos and put them in journals of things. Every time God would come through in my life with a job or with something really cool in the family, or I was super stressed, I couldn't sleep one night, and I wake up to a text of a new gig or a new buyer, I would screenshot that because I know I'm going to need it later. And then through the years of just seeing a pattern of God always coming through, gratitude started to actually work on me, I feel like. And so a lot of the things I've been grateful for, it's time with friends. It's being able to go out for a run. And so a lot of the images that I'm putting are just things that I capture throughout the day to remind myself how blessed I am that I get to do art, even if finances are tight one year, whatever it is, I'm still living my dream. Now it's like in these moments, I have chapters and chapters of gratitude, whether it's on my phone, in video journals, or photos, or actual physical books. I have 10, 12 years of evidence to be grateful for everything that I already have, everything I need, and I can just keep moving forward. I learned pretty quickly that it can just be super simple. Today I'm thankful for, and there's some days that it's from my iced coffee. Some days it's deeply spiritual that I'm thankful of God's forgiveness, and God's grace, and other people's forgiveness, and their grace in my life.

Isn't that good? I love the variety of people, from a 99-cent notebook, to writing on a soccer ball, to keeping a photo journal on your phone, or in a book. By the way, Cherie, who you saw in that video, is my assistant. I asked her once, I was like, what drives your anxiety? You, she said you, that's like, I don't know if that's true, but you know, what I've been doing in my own life for the past seven years is I use something called the five-year journal. If you've ever seen this before, you could just, you know, Google five-year journal. What I love about it is it's just a really quick hit where over time you actually get five years on the same page so you just write a little bit one year on the same day and a little bit the next, you know, same year the next day and what you can do is just write things that you're grateful for, things that are going on in life. What I loved is over time, you get to look back over the years of, I get to look back over what was going on in 23, what was going on in 22 in my life and I get to see things I can be grateful for back then that I was maybe praying about that God's now answered. Whatever you do, the challenge is just develop a system so that you can have gratitude in your life. Some of you might push back though, you might say, what if you're going through something so bad, your circumstances are so bad, you just, I just can't be grateful.

I mean, what if you have a terminal illness? What if you have a marriage that's terminal? What if your kids or your job or your finances are just at a point where they're imploding? I wanna take you back to Philippians chapter four verse six and remind you of what Paul said. He says, do not be anxious about anything, but say this, but in what? In every situation. That includes your situation, your worst situation. In every situation by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, bring all of it, all your requests to God. Paul says a few verses later in Philippians chapter four, this is so powerful. He says this, I know what it is to be in need. I know what it is to have plenty. I've been in both situations, the best and the worst of worst, and I have learned the secret. He wouldn't say this is a secret if everybody knew it. This is what most people are missing in our world. I know the secret, he said, of being content in any and every situation. What is the secret, Paul, of being content, having gratitude? He goes on in verse 13, one of the most famous verses in scripture and says, I can do all things through Christ, him who gives me strength. Some of you are like, that's the context of one of the most famous verses in scripture?

Yeah, the context of Philippians chapter four verse 13 isn't how to win on a sports field, it's how to pick yourself up off a bathroom floor. It's not your greatest moments, it's sometimes when you're at your worst that you rely on the strength of God to continue to be content and grateful in any and every situation. First Thessalonians 5.18, same thing, give thanks in all circumstances. It's God's will for you. What did Paul use to deal with some of his anxiety? Because remember, this isn't theoretical for Paul. Remember where Paul's at? Paul's in prison, he's not in the day spa. He has every reason to be anxious, what helped him? Go back to Philippians chapter one. Paul starts writing a gratitude journal. You know how he starts Philippians? The book of Philippians, Philippians chapter one verse three. I thank God every time I remember you. And he just keeps going. A little bit later he goes, guys, you won't believe this. They put me in prison, they thought I was gonna stop the spread of Jesus, they were dead wrong. Now Jesus is being spread everywhere. In fact, the whole entire Roman imperial guard knows about Jesus, because I'm in prison. Woo! I mean, he's got a gratitude journal. You ever get annoyed by people

that are grateful in all situations? What would you rather have? Someone who's grateful? Who someone's all they're focused on is what they lack. This is our command and our opportunity to deal with our anxiety. And we have to do the same. And I know some of you are in some really tough situations right now. And what I would challenge you to do is just begin to look and say, God, would you give me a different perspective? Because remember, gratitude doesn't, this doesn't give you something new. Gratitude makes you notice what you may be missing in life. And I would bet if some of you dug into your situation, the worst situation you're in right now, my guess is God is up to something so much more than you could ever imagine. And you know this looking back on your life. I mean, some of you, you had a child that was born with a disability or a really big challenge. You know what you know now? That child is one of the greatest pictures in your life of God's love and his grace. Some of you lost a job, and that job led you to your calling. Some of you had a terrible, bad breakup, and it saved you from someone that you could have married. Or it saved you to be able to go on and do what you love.

and to marry someone that you really now have something really special. Some of you failed. It's all you focus on. As you know, if you allow God to use your failure, you can learn so much more from failure than you ever can from success. But you may not be looking at it the right way. This past week, I heard about a story on our East Mesa campus about a woman who's on her second treatment for brain cancer. I mean, just extreme treatment in her life, a lot of pain. You know what she said? It brought my daughter back to Christ. And because of that, I am so grateful for my brain cancer. I wouldn't change it. What is it in your life that you need to, in all circumstances, let God allow you to see what you should be grateful for? There's a very famous, famous story of Corrie ten Boom that happened back in the 40s during World War II. Her and her sister Betsy were unfortunately captured and put in a Nazi concentration camp. And in this concentration camp, she writes in a book that you can read this story yourself. She writes about the horrific conditions in the Nazi concentration camp. She said it was horrible. You know, we were starving. We were literally dying.

It was filth all around us. People, you could smell death in the air. But the worst thing of all, Corrie ten Boom says, is she says that the worst thing of all was we were covered in these nasty fleas all over our body all the time. One day, her sister Betsy came to Corrie and said, I think the only way we're gonna be able to get through this. And she quoted to her sister, First Thessalonians chapter five, verse 18. She said, Corrie, we need to give thanks in all circumstances, including this circumstance, because it's God's will for our lives. So you know what they agreed to do? To start creating their own gratitude journal. Now picture having a gratitude journal in a Nazi concentration camp. And Corrie was a little bit, didn't wanna do it. And Betsy convinced her. So Corrie finally agreed. She says, okay, fine, fine. I'll be grateful for, I will be grateful for everything as God commanded, but I will not, I will not be grateful for these fleas. I will not, and she's kept saying over and over again to Betsy, I'll be thankful for everything else, but I refuse to give God any thanks for these fleas all over me. I will not be grateful for the fleas.

It was sometime later that Corrie was rescued and she realized that the only reason that the Nazi guards didn't come into their barracks to abuse them and beat them, and often that they killed so many people, and the only reason they were able to have a Bible study in peace, you wanna know why? The fleas. The guards were disgusted by the fleas all over them and they wouldn't enter their barracks. And the one thing Corrie ten Boom told God, I will not be thankful for this, is the one thing she became most thankful for. What's your one thing? What are you refusing to let God give you the strength and the power by His Holy Spirit to begin to let gratitude boil up in your life instead of just focusing on what you don't have? It's your number one tool. It is the antidote to anxiety. So if you wanna take out your phones right now, I would challenge you to take a picture of this. Gratitude is the antidote to anxiety, why? Number one, a state of gratitude and anxiety cannot coexist in the mind, it's impossible. Number two, gratitude changes your focus from what you lack to what you have, which is what we all need in today's world. And lastly, you know you don't need

good circumstances to be grateful? You don't need good circumstances to be grateful. You can be grateful in all circumstances. Now listen, that list will do you nothing if you do nothing with it. I'm gonna challenge you, challenge you, just look you in the eyes and just say, listen, what you have to do is to have an intentional gratitude journal plan. I don't care how you do it. It could be a text message, it could be writing it down every day. Put it on your mirror, put it somewhere where you see it, but all of us have to begin to focus on what we're grateful for, not what we lack. so we can live the life God has for us. So I'm gonna challenge you to create some sort of gratitude journal between now and Easter. That's three weeks. And you just watch God begin to transform your life. To do what one person said, they said, make it the goal of your life to focus on the donut, not the hole. Can we do that? Can we begin to be grateful, UN? I wanna pray that you are. I just wanna pray over you right now. Father, I wanna pray for every person here. That man that feels like they got a hole in their life. It feels like all they can see is what they lack.

And yet, God, you have blessed every single one of us in more ways than we could imagine. And I know personally, God, I struggle. I struggle so much with what I should be grateful for. And I just confess that to you. I just pray that even in my own life, I begin to let gratitude reign so I can be the man that you want me to be. I pray for the man or woman here today that's struggling, that you would just let gratitude reign in their life, that they would begin to develop a system, not intention, a system to have a grateful life. And as you do that, Father, would you begin to change us to be the kind of people this world needs so that we can shine Jesus in our workplaces, our families, at home, and especially that we can have peace in our hearts. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Hey, before you leave, let me let you know one of the greatest ways to be grateful is worship. That we worship God through singing and worship is a weapon in your life to be more and more grateful and to release anxiety. This Sunday night, this weekend, we have a night of worship, 6.30 p.m. on every campus, every campus across the state of Arizona, that we have a CCV, he's gonna have a night of worship. I wanna challenge you to be there to worship. And CCV, until then, let's go out and be grateful. Have a great week.

Woo! Woo! Woo!