God Help Me With My Anxiety

So grateful for the Tenney sharing their story.

And, you know, before we jump into the message, can you do me a favor?

There are several hundred, maybe even close to a thousand people across all of our campuses

who are small group leaders who open up their homes and set the table for stories like that

to happen every single week.

So can we give it up for our small group leaders who lead, open up their homes?

I remember when Lisa and I led our first small group, we felt so unequipped.

We had been married like 10 minutes and we started a married couple small group, but

it's just the step of obedience to open up your home that sets the table for God to move

in powerful ways.

And so we're glad you're here.

I want to welcome all of our campuses.

We've got 13 locations online.

All of us gathered together today, and I want to give a shout out to McClellanville.

I know our founding pastor is visiting up there this weekend, but they went to two services

a few weeks ago, and they're running about 170 people every weekend in a town of 500.

So that's great.

That's a pretty solid percentage in terms of reaching their town and doing a great job.

But we love all of our campuses.

My name is Josh Surratt.

If I haven't met you yet, I serve as a lead pastor here at Seacoast, and it's an honor

just to be with you this weekend.

We're in a series right now of conversations that we've been having that you really helped

us with.

It's called God Help Me With My Blank.

And on Easter, we asked you to submit some topics that you would love for us to talk

about.

And it's no surprise to me that.

Topic that we're going to talk about today made the list, and it's God help me with my

anxiety.

Help me with my anxiety.

We're in church, so don't lie to me right now.

How many of you are facing some kind of a situation that you're worried about that's

bringing about some form of stress or anxiety in your life today?

That would be about all of us.

Okay.

And I know when we talk about anxiety, there are different levels that people struggle.

There are some whom I know and love.

Who are diagnosed with some kind of an anxiety disorder and are utilizing some medication.

And we are a church that believes God can bring healing in all kinds of different ways.

And I'm super grateful for our medical community and the resources that they have for that.

Some of us are just dealing with maybe some worry, some underlying feelings of worry about

something that you're facing.

I have a lot of friends who have dropped off their children at college for the very first

time in the season.

And maybe you're just kind of a little worried about that.

And there's good.

Cause for that right to just have some some tension about that.

I talked to a person this week who's walking through a divorce right now, and they're worried

about how their kids are going to do through that.

And maybe you're in a situation where there's a relationship issue and you think about the

future and it brings a little bit of stress.

I got a text last night from a friend who came home from the hospital yesterday with

her husband to hospice care, a situation they never thought they'd be dealing with a year

ago, but it's where they are right now.

And there's fear, there's worry, there's anxiety around that.

Some of you are like me, you're Clemson fans, and you're just thinking about bulldogs.

You can't help but worry about the college football season.

You know, some of us are worried about the election this fall, worried about there's

just stuff, right?

And we deal with these challenges and anxiety, and I'm not a therapist, and so I'm not here

to treat the anxiety disorder.

But I do believe that we can find some hope.

And find some peace in God's word, no matter where you are today, or what fears you might

be carrying.

And so we're going to look at two passes of scripture today, one in the New Testament

out of Philippians chapter four, and one in the Old Testament in the first Kings chapter

19.

And the first one that we're going to talk about is written by a guy named Paul.

And Paul had on his bucket list to visit Rome.

Anybody have a bucket list item to see Rome one day?

Some of you guys want to do that.

That was, he talks about it often.

I so want to go and see you one day.

And he finds himself when he pens these words that we're about to read in Rome, finally,

but not the way that he thought he would be.

He was in a prison cell in Rome.

He was chained to a Roman guard.

And it's from that place that he pens these words in Philippians says, 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 requests 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 worthy of praise.

Think about such things.

Whatever you've learned or received or heard from me or seen in me, put it into practice.

And the God of peace will be with you.

So Lord, we just ask you to bring peace today.

I thank you, Lord.

For everyone who's here.

watching online at one of our campuses, anybody who's dealing

with an area of worry or anxiety or fear, we just pray, God,

that you would speak to us out of your word and bring peace

in Jesus name.

Amen.

If you've ever really battled with anxiety, there's a good

chance that you may have seen that scripture before and been

frustrated by it.

It's like Paul comes out saying, hey, just don't be anxious

for anything.

Some versions say, be anxious for nothing.

And it's like, man, if I knew how to not be anxious, I would

not be anxious.

It can feel a little bit like a slap in the face for the Bible

to say, hey, stop doing something that you would stop doing

if you knew how to stop doing it.

Nobody wants to be anxious or worried.

And so maybe you've been frustrated by that verse.

Maybe you've had a well-meaning Christian in the middle of

your struggle.

Say, hey, what the Bible says to be anxious for nothing.

Well, thank you.

Thank you.

That's not helpful.

And I know I've read that verse in different seasons, and it's

definitely got so much truth packed into it that can be helpful

for us.

But if you're really in the middle of the battle, it can be

a little frustrating to be told to stop being afraid when you

don't know how to stop being afraid.

And as I was reading through that verse, preparing to hang

out and talk with you guys, the part that really stood out to

me was not necessarily the part that we do.

And there's some really good things that we can do to help

to help, but it's the part that God does in two different

times.

In those verses, the Bible says that God is near and that the

God of peace will be with you.

And that's where I want to focus for our time today is that

God is near.

And what I love about our church is that I can be honest with

you.

I was going to ask you if I can be real with you.

But what I know about Seacoast is that you expect that of your

leaders.

That we're not just.

Just going to pretend like we're somebody who's got it all

figured out.

We tap into our pastor superpowers and get up here and act

like we've got it all together.

But that's not the reality.

We're humans like the rest of you, and I'm getting ready to

turn 45 years old next week.

And for the first 44 years of my life, I have never really

battled with anxiety.

My wife has been honest and shared with you guys about her

struggle and has battled anxiety.

I have many friends who have battled it in real ways.

I have other battles that I fought, but I've never really

battled anxiety until January of this year.

It was a Wednesday.

I was sitting down to do something that I've done hundreds

of times before, and all of a sudden I found myself in a spot

where I felt like I couldn't even breathe.

I was so overcome with fear and anxiety that I really couldn't

feel like I could breathe.

And what's crazy is it makes no sense at all why it would have

happened to me, because what I was doing was sitting down to

write a sermon to preach to you guys.

Again, I love doing this.

I've never been afraid to get up and talk.

I've always felt like God had gifted me in a way to do it,

but I found myself sitting there, and I'm trying to write

a sermon, and I cannot even breathe.

My watch starts going off on me saying, Hey, your heart rate

is out of whack.

You need to take a break.

And I'm like, I haven't exercised in a week.

There's no reason why my heart should be doing that.

To be fair, I got sick.

I had the flu the week before.

But.

But I hadn't done anything.

I've been sedentary, but my watch, not just once, but for

the next couple of days, kept going off and saying, Hey,

something's going on with your heart.

I'm like, What is wrong with me?

And now I'm starting to have anxiety about why am I having

anxiety? And is my body doing something?

Am I having a heart attack?

All of this stuff that I never dealt with, but I find myself

right in the middle of this battle.

And so I say that to tell you that I'm talking to you and

sharing with you out of God's word for me as much as I am for

you.

This is not.

Somebody who's got it all figured out.

This is somebody who has found myself battling with anxiety.

And what we're going to do is we're going to focus on one

person from Scripture that just gives me a lot of hope that

God shows us in first Kings chapter 19 and a story of a guy

named Elijah.

Actually, Elijah.

Elisha was his successor.

But Elijah was a guy who loved God.

Like many of you that may struggle with anxiety.

He loved God.

He was a strong man of faith.

Yet still, he found himself struggling with fear and worry,

anxiety and depression.

In fact, if you look at his story, Elijah had had some pretty

incredible encounters with God up until this point.

There was one season of his life where every single day God

sent Ravens to bring him basically steak and bread.

Every single day he was fed by Ravens, like in a supernatural

way.

One time there was a child that passed away and the mom came

to Elijah and said, Would you pray over this child?

And Elijah prayed over this child and he rose from the dead.

I don't know about you.

I've never had that happen to me, but pretty amazing guy.

Strong connection with God and the verses before the ones

that we're about to read.

He actually got into a fight with 850 men and he slaughtered

all of them.

He beat all of them.

Can you imagine that?

I've been in one fight before and I barely won and I talk

about it all the time because I feel really good about it,

right?

He has this battle 850 men and he stands them down and literally

they get slaughtered in this Valley and you may know the story

of him.

And it was a battle with the prophets of Baal and Asherah on

Mount Carmel.

And he prays this simple prayer and God shows up in a powerful

way. And boom, lightning comes.

And hits and all of a sudden 850 men who were his biggest enemies

and nemesis are gone.

So this guy has a connection with God.

And then what happens?

The king was a guy named Ahab and Elijah had really been in a

battle with him for a long, long time.

And then this big moment happens and Ahab, he doesn't know what

to do.

And finally, his wife is this woman named Jezebel goes, You

know what?

What?

I'm going to do this the right way.

I'm going to get a woman involved and I'm going to take care

of this guy.

Like Ahab, you've had this problem.

I'm going to kill this guy.

And one woman shows up in Elijah's life and it sends him into

a tailspin.

I'll show you what it says in first Kings 19.

It starts with verse two and it says, So Jezebel, this is the

woman sent a messenger to Elijah to say, May the gods deal

with me.

Be it ever.

So severely, if by this time tomorrow, I do not make your life

like that of one of them, one of who one of the 850 men who

are dead now in the Valley of Jezreel, she says, I'm going to

kill him.

I'm tired of it.

I'm going to kill this guy, Elijah, and we'll see what happens.

Elijah makes some mistakes and how he responds to this that I

think are going to be helpful for some of us to see if we

don't make some of the same ones.

It says Elijah was afraid.

And he ran for his life when he came to Beersheba in Judah.

He left his servant there while he himself went another day's

journey into the wilderness.

He came to a broom bush, sat down under it, and prayed that

he might die.

Even in that moment, you can see where he's being irrational.

Why is he running?

Because he doesn't want to die.

And yet he gets to this place where he's all by himself.

And he's like, God, just take my life.

It'd be better if I died.

And he says this.

I have had enough, Lord.

You ever said that?

I'm done.

I've had enough.

Take my life.

I'm no better than my ancestors.

He gets to this point in his journey where he's like, I'm

done.

I cannot do this anymore.

He hits his breaking point.

Maybe you know what it is to hit your breaking point.

The bills are piling up, you're having financial problems,

and then all of a sudden another thing breaks, right?

And you're like, I don't know how we're going to do this.

I don't know how to keep moving forward.

Maybe you're overwhelmed with work and stress that you're

dealing with there, and you just kind of get to this point

where you're like, I'm done.

I can't do it anymore.

Maybe you're a mom and you've made a thousand meals, and it's

not a very abnormal thing for your kids not to come up and

say, Thank you, Mommy, for making such a great meal today.

You're awesome.

But on the 1001st meal that they don't say thank you, it's

like, I'm done.

I've had enough.

I don't want to do this anymore.

Just get to this breaking point in our lives.

And that's where Elijah found himself.

I'm done.

Again, man of God, seeing God move in powerful ways, but he's

also a human, and he gets to this point where he's so overwhelmed

with anxiety and depression and fear that he wants to end his

life.

What can we learn from him?

I want us to look at a couple of things that he does that I

think we do pretty often as well in our own lives.

The first thing that he did is he ran too hard, and sometimes

we just run too hard.

If you've never been to Israel, you wouldn't necessarily catch

this, but the Scripture says that he went from the Jezreel

Valley, and he ran to Beersheba.

If you look at it on a map, which I'm going to show you,

which I did bring a map to you, you'll see that the Jezreel

Valley is up there in the north of Israel.

He runs down to Beersheba.

That's where he leaves his assistant, and then he runs

another day's journey.

He ends up down here basically at the bottom where he has

nowhere else to run.

I wonder if he would have kept on running if there was anywhere

else for him to go, but he gets to the very ends of the earth

for him, and it's about 100 miles, 95 miles as the crow flies

is how far he ran.

So if you're not familiar with Israel, you do know that Aaron

Israel, you do know the area where we live.

It's basically from Columbia, and he runs nonstop from

Columbia to Charleston because he's so afraid.

It's almost four marathons that he runs.

It's no wonder that he gets to this point where he's like at

the end of his rope because he had just run way too hard for

way too long, and some of you know what it is to just run

too hard.

You're going at a pace.

It's not sustainable.

I told you about my breakdown in January.

Well, that happened in the first week of January.

When I reversed back to the month before, December was just

crazy for Lisa and I.

We were running hard with personal stuff going on our family,

our church.

In fact, we kept on telling each other, we just got to get to

Christmas Day, and we're going to get a break.

We're going to get some rest because we knew that the pace

we were running at was not sustainable.

And so we do our Christmas Eve services.

I preached eight times in a couple of days, and we get to

Christmas morning, and I wake up on Christmas morning, and I

have the flu.

And it was about ten days that I battled the flu.

And so when I look back on it, I'm like, oh, no wonder I get

to the first week of January, didn't get the rest that I

thought I needed, and it's time to get going again.

And all of a sudden, I feel overwhelmed, and sometimes it's

helpful to look and just go, hey, are you running too hard?

Are you running too hard?

Is the pace that you're running at sustainable?

Because God actually created us with rhythms in mind.

He said, hey, I want you to rest every seventh day, to take a

Sabbath because we were designed to actually work from a place

of rest, not just to work, work, work, work, work, and then

crash into the weekend.

And some of us, we've just been running too hard.

Might be something to take note of.

Do you need a break?

Maybe need a rhythm of break?

God in the Ten Commandments, one of the top ten things that

he gave his people was, hey, you need to keep a Sabbath and

keep it holy and have some time where you're refreshing in

my presence, and then you're kind of getting what you need

for the next leg of the journey.

He ran too hard.

Second thing I notice is that Elijah told his assistant to

stay while he kept on going, and sometimes we just shut people

out.

We shut people out.

We get to this place where we, maybe it's in these battles that

we face, anxiety, fear, worry.

We feel like if I shared this with somebody, they might think

something was wrong with me, or they might judge me, or they

may not understand me.

And so we just decide, I'm going to shut people out, and I'm

going to do this thing on my own.

And that's what Elijah did when he came to Beersheba.

He left his servant there.

While he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness.

Here's what I know about all of us is that the enemy of our

soul would love to do anything that he can to get us alone.

And if he can't get us alone, he'll make us think that we're

alone.

See, Elijah got to this point.

If you read your Bibles, you hear that he tells God, hey, I'm

the last one.

I'm the last prophet.

There's nobody else.

And the reality is he knew that wasn't true.

Just a chapter before in the Bible.

God told him, hey, there's several hundred prophets that I'm

preserving and protecting, and you're not alone in this.

But the enemy allowed him to get alone and then to start to

think that he was alone.

And it's such a common tactic of the enemy.

And we are having Connect Weekend this weekend.

And we do this several times a year.

And some of you, if you've been at church for a long time here,

you get tired of us talking about Connect Weekend.

But the reason that we keep doing it is because we know that

often when we're praying for a miracle, the answer that God

gives us is a person.

And that person is God.

And God has to walk alongside of us and to help us to realize,

hey, we're not alone.

About nine months ago, my family was doing family pictures.

I may be the only one here, but that's not my favorite day of

the year.

I often have to kind of check my heart and not complain when

we're doing family pictures.

But we had gone over to Daniel Island and the family is getting

ready and the photographer's trying to find places where we're

going to take pictures and Lisa's doing the girl's hair and all

of this stuff.

decided to walk over. There's some trails and walk over and catch a breath before I took the

pictures. And all of a sudden, a guy walks around the trail and he's wearing headphones and he's

carrying two bags of groceries. And he stops and looks at me and I look at him. We kind of lock

eyes with each other. That sounds kind of weird. Sorry, two guys, grown men locking eyes with each

other. But as soon as I saw him, I just knew like something's going on with him. He's dealing

with something. I don't know what it is, but this guy is struggling. And he looks at me and he takes

his headphones out and he's like, hey, it's not like me to stop and talk to you, but I cannot

believe this is happening. And I was like, I can't believe it's happening either. I don't know what

is happening, but I can't believe it's happening either. And he's like, no, I know you. I've been

to the church before.

And he's like, I'm just in a really dark place right now. And he begins to tell me that he's

listening in his headphones to a podcast about whether or not to take his life. And I would just

pause right now to tell you, if you are in that place, if you're ever contemplating that, it's

never the right time to take your life. There's always hope. I don't want to minimize your

problems, whatever you might be going through. But he was at the end of his rope. He had had

enough. And he'd been in the military.

And he'd had a successful career, but he was just overwhelmed with some things. And he was trying to

figure out, should I live or should I not? And he had prayed a prayer about 10 minutes before he was

walking on this trail, just to say, God, if there's any hope, if there's any reason for me to stay

here, would you just show up? And he's like, and now I'm standing here and you're right here on this

trail. Isn't that amazing?

Well, I talked to him.

I'm like, dude, well, obviously God knows where you are. And obviously God is hearing you. And

let me connect you to our counseling center. And let me connect you to some guys. And he took some

steps. And he met with Pastor Joel. And he's gotten involved. And I'm happy to report that

about two weeks ago at a men's worship night, this gentleman got baptized in front of a couple

of hundred men, has given his life to Christ. And he's in a much better place right now. And it just

doesn't surprise me that when we pray for a miracle,

sometimes God answers with a person and so get involved. Don't wait till you're at the end of your

Take a step. The thing that I love about small groups is that they aren't just there for the

worst of those moments. It's great to have people in your life when you need them the most. But

man, I think about Elijah, he would never run a hundred miles if it weren't for somebody running

with him. I've run the bridge run several times, about 15 times, which is a 5k or 10k. And sometimes

I've run with my small group, and sometimes I've run �يل.

alone. My scores are always better when I'm running with people. It's just you're going to run better.

You're going to run faster when you're running with people. I spent time with our small group

twice this weekend. Once on Friday night, we were celebrating a bunch of birthdays that were

happening. And then on Saturday, we watched the Clemson game and just cried together and lifted

each other up and just try to encourage each other to keep going. But we were not meant to live this

life alone. Some of you have isolated yourself and just praying that this weekend, God's not just

going to help you find a group of people to meet with for an hour every week, but find a family,

find a group of people that you're going to realize you're not the only one in this fight.

In fact, just some stats for you. There's about 40 million people right now that have been

diagnosed in the United States with an anxiety disorder. And beyond that, one in about every

four people would report that in the last two weeks,

they've had moderate or severe worry or anxiety that they've dealt with. And so if you look down

your row, chances are you're not the only one in the row that has struggled with anxiety. You're

not alone. Don't let the enemy convince you. Because when you get alone and you shut people

out, you do the next thing that Elisha did, which is we rehearse negative thoughts. He gets alone,

he's run too hard, and now he starts rehearsing negative thoughts. I'm no better than my ancestors.

That's not true. I'm the last prophet. I'm the last good person. There's nobody else.

That's not true. But he starts to rehearse it and tell himself a story that's not true. And if we

rehearse those thoughts long enough, we'll start to believe that they're true. We rehearse negative

thoughts. I think about when I was really battling anxiety at the beginning of this year. Again, I

love preaching. I love getting up here. And every time I've ever stood on this platform, God has

been with me.

God has spoken through me. He's done something more than I could do on my own. But I started to

sit down and started to envision doing this without him. It's like I have these what-if

scenarios. And it's like you just rehearse these negative thoughts. And that's why Paul says in

Philippians, hey, if you want to really battle this head-on, you're going to have to learn to

rehearse the right thoughts, the things that are true and pure and lovely. And there's a lot that

we could talk about that right now. There's an app that I use called the Pause app that John Eldred

created.

It's just a great opportunity a couple times a day just to remind myself of scripture, of things that

are true. And one of the things he says is, hey, today I give everyone and everything to you. I'm

releasing control of all the things that are stressing me out and reminding myself that, God,

I'm giving them to you. So Elijah ran too hard. He shut other people out. He rehearsed negative

thoughts. And the last thing that he did is he forgot God.

Elijah had experienced God's presence in every season of his life up to that point. But in this

moment, he forgot him. He forgot him. And if anybody should have reason not to forget God, it's

Elijah. He's seen God show up in powerful ways. But if you even look at his name, Elijah, L, literally

means my God.

Elijah, my God is John.

J-A-H was an abbreviated way that they would say the name of God, Yahweh. And they had such a reverence

for God that they wouldn't even say the whole word. They would take the vowels out, and it almost

sounded like a whisper, like a breath, like Yahweh, Yahweh. So his name is God is my God. God is my

breath. God is my source.

And yet he forgot about his God.

He got to the end of his rope.

He got to this place where he just couldn't even remember or see God in his life.

One chapter earlier, God shows up with a lightning bolt from heaven.

And a chapter later, after he'd run too hard, after he had shut other people out, rehearsed a bunch of

negative thoughts, he finds himself in a place.

Where he'd forgotten that God was even with him.

And so what does God do?

Shame on you, Elijah.

What's wrong with you?

No, no, he doesn't.

God says, hey, I'm going to show up for you.

And the first thing he does is he sends an angel and the angel doesn't pray for him.

The angel doesn't give him a spiritual response.

You know what the angel did?

He made him some food.

He made him some bread.

Cornier pastors would say that's angel food cake.

I would never say a joke like that, but literally, he took care of his physical needs.

He was like, hey, you're depleted.

Like, you don't have the resources to go on the next leg of the journey.

I'm going to give you some food.

I'm going to give you some water, and I'm going to tell you to take a nap.

And then he wakes up and the angel says, hey, I'm going to give you some more food.

I'm going to give you some more water.

And I say that just to say sometimes the solution that we need is that we've been running too hard.

Maybe you need a break.

Maybe you need.

Some rest, maybe you need some therapy, maybe you need some medicine.

I don't know what you need, but the Bible says, walk with the wise, and you'll become wise.

And so that's why we need to get around people.

We're going to help us see, hey, you need this.

You need that.

But then what he does is he says, Elijah, I want you to go out to this mountaintop, and I'm going to show up in your life.

And I want to read you the account of what happens.

The Lord said, Go out and stand in the mountain in the presence of the Lord.

For the Lord is about to pass by.

Then a great and powerful wind tore through the mountains, tore the mountains apart, shattered the rocks before the Lord.

But the Lord wasn't in the wind.

After the wind, there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.

After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire.

And after the fire.

And after the fire came a gentle whisper, and God was in the whisper.

Why would God not show up in the big thing, the fire, the earthquake, the wind?

I mean, God had just shown up in the prior chapter with fire and with wind that brought rain that they'd been praying for.

And so often when we get to the end of our rope, we're like, God, do something big in my life.

Do the miracle.

Why is it that sometimes?

God?

He doesn't answer with a big supernatural thing, but he just answers with a gentle whisper.

You know what I know about a whisper is in order to hear a whisper, you have to be close.

I want to ask my daughter Ellie to come up here to help me illustrate this last point.

We all welcome Ellie.

She comes.

She's my daughter.

She's my youngest.

And I've had these moments with all of my kids.

But Ellie, like many of us, there are times that she battles fear and anxiety.

And I don't know about you, but for us, sometimes the voice of fear and the voice of anxiety is loudest at night, right before bedtime.

And so there will be times where we're going to bed at night and Ellie's dealing with fear.

Do you have a fear face you can show us?

Yeah.

Exactly.

There are some things that are scary and we'll be talking about them.

And when she's dealing with fear, especially at night, my response to her as her father

is not to get loud.

It's not to make a big deal about it or to make her feel bad for it.

But what I'll do is I'll get in bed with her at night, tuck her in, and I'll just whisper

to her, hey, God is near.

Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.

And we'll rehearse Philippians 4, whatever things are true and pure and excellent.

We're going to think about those things.

And then we'll pray that angels will be at the front of her head and the back of her head and on each side to guard her thoughts.

And that God's going to fill her with his presence.

But you whisper because you want to remind people that you're close.

And then what do we do after that?

I'll pray for you.

And then she hands me Teddy.

And Teddy was given to her at MUSC after one of her surgeries.

And every night before we go to bed and then if we ever go out of town, we just have to snuggle Teddy, give him some kisses.

Mom will do the same thing.

And then we give you Teddy.

And Teddy is just a reminder that even though we're not in the room with her at that point, that our presence is still with her, that we're near, that we're close.

And I just want to encourage some of you.

It's not a complicated thing.

It's not a complicated thought.

It may not even be a new revelation.

But what if in the midst of your biggest fears, what you need most is to remember that your God is near.

That he would just whisper his presence.

He loves you.

He's not going to walk away from you.

Thank you, Bean, for doing that.

You're the best.

And that it would just be the presence of God that would be the thing that gives you hope.

I can't promise you that you'll never have another panic attack.

I pray that you won't.

I can't promise you that bad things won't happen to you.

We live in a fallen world.

And so often when we're trying to find our peace from the things outside of our control, that creates anxiety inside of us.

If we would just remember, hey, I can't control any of that.

But you know what I'm going to do?

I'm going to pay attention to my pace.

I'm going to get around some other people.

I'm going to remind myself of God's truth.

But then I'm just going to remember that God is near.

Really cool part about Elijah is that, you know, he's running for his life.

What is the thing that he's most afraid of?

It's dying.

Jezebel threatened to kill him.

Well, if you fast forward to the end of Elijah's life, it says that he was walking along with Elisha, his assistant.

And all of a sudden, a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them.

And Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind.

He's one of two people that we know of in Scripture.

His greatest fear is that he's going to be killed by Jezebel.

And literally, it never happened for him.

He was literally anxious for nothing.

And I found it so often true of us that the things that we worry about the most may never happen.

Some of them may, right?

I mean, I hope that I get Elijah's experience.

I don't want to die.

But chances are pretty high.

Mortality rates still hovering right around 100% here in the South Carolina area.

But often, the enemy just will paralyze us with the fear of the thing that we're afraid of.

And that thing often never even happens.

But even when it does, we can be assured of the presence of God in the midst of whatever storm we walk through.

Would you pray with me as we close?

Amen.

Thank you so much that you are the God of peace, the Prince of peace.

And I just pray, Lord, right now for anybody who's in this space that would just say,

Hey, I'm worried about some things.

I'm dealing with anxiety, dealing with some fears.

And, Lord, I love what your word says that perfect love casts out fear.

So, God, would you just reveal yourself to us today?

Would you be close?

We know that you are.

We know that you're here.

Would you remind us of how close you are?

Lord, you help us understand how much you love us.

And with that perfect love, Jesus, cast out fear in Jesus' name.

God, I pray for the person who maybe at the end of their rope, maybe they've just been running too hard.

Would you help them to see some next steps to take?

Lord, I pray for those of us that have isolated ourselves.

Would you just give us the courage to take a step to get involved in community?

Do you remind us of the truth of who you are, that you promise that you'll never leave us or forsake us?

And just remind us of your presence in this place.

And in that, while our external circumstances may not change, something would change inside of us today.

That the peace of God would rule in our hearts in a way that would give us hope for the future.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Amen.