Sermon For Lima

Fight Your Mind

My name is Pastor Brad and I am so exited to be here. I have a word from God that I think will help all of you.

Today I want to talk about anxiety and the thoughts that creep in your mind.

Anxiety has become a bigger deal in this generation more than any other generation.

More than any other time teenagers are isolated even in a room full of people.

In this isolation we begin to have this negative self talk. Any of you ever have that?

There are sometimes when I struggle with this as well.

I’m not good enough. I’m not smart enough

I’m too ugly, to skinny, to fat

All of these things lead to more and more anxiety.

So how in the world do we get past the fight in our own mind?

How do we beat anxiety and get our thoughts under control?

We look to God. The Apostle Paul gives us a formula to combat anxiety in His letter to the Philippians.

He writes, in Chapter 4 versus 4 through 7

4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.

5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand;

6 do not be anxious about anything,

but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving

let your requests be made known to God.

7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding,

will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

The first thing I wrote down when battling anxiety is to REJOICE

When you add RE in front of a word it means to repeat the action.

So when you rejoice you are repeating the action of being grateful

to God for your salvation and what He has done for you.

You have to be willing to worship God

Through your anxiety through your negative self talk

and know that He has your best interests at heart.

The next thing Paul says is to let your reasonableness be known

Another word for this is balance

What this means is that when one thing goes wrong

Not everything is wrong

When one thing goes bad not everything is bad.

THIS IS BALANCE and it is a mark of maturity

Then Paul begins to talk about anxiety.

Sometimes when people talk about their problems

They say I don’t want the Bible answer give me the something practical.

In the states people go to one therapist for one issue

then another therapist for another issue

and they all want some advice to deal with these issues

and they say don’t give me the spiritual answer

and they keep going because the answer they get is not working.

I believe that the Bible has all the answers that we need

So i will give you a spiritual answer for anxiety:

Paul says through Prayer and Supplication and Thanksgiving

We bring our request to God.

Supplication basically means submitting yourself

To the authority and majesty and power of Almighty God.

You see sometimes you will not have the answer

Sometimes the problem is going to seem too big.

Sometimes the issue is difficult and heartbreaking

There is one who cares above all others

God wants the best for you. He is for you. He wants you to reach your full potential.

Sometimes that means we go through things

That bring us closer to Him.

Another thing I jotted down was that peace is what we need when battling anxiety.

Paul tells us how to get that peace is through prayer and supplication.

In verse 7 he writes, “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

You won’t be able to understand it. IN the middle of trouble and storms and negative emotions

You will begin to feel the peace and comfort of God through your relationship with Jesus Christ.

You may say that is wonderful but how do I fight my mind and the negative self talk.

I would ask you do you allow those thoughts to consume your time?

Or do you shift your focus? What is winning the battle for your mind?

The last thing I wrote down was this.

What you focus your thoughts on will consume you positive or negative.

You see the enemy wants you to focus on all the negative things you can think about.

But Paul is saying focus on the positives.

8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

Whatever is true…God loves me and created me for a purpose

Whatever is honorable…Jesus paid the ultimate price for my sins

Whatever is just and pure....lovely and commendable.

Think about your salvation…the promises of God…To give you a future and a hope

To live life more abundantly

To run your race with confidence and wisdom trusting that Jesus will be with you every step of the way.

Lastly I want to leave you with the ability to fight those thoughts when they creep in your mind.

Paul writes,

3 For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh.

4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.

5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,

Our weapons of warfare have divine power to tear down negative self talk, anxiety, depression

And when we take our thoughts captive to obey Christ

We are able to control our impulses also.

Use your weapons of prayer supplication and thanksgiving

Honoring God for what He has done for you

And what He is about to do now and in the future.

Remember He is for you and wants the best for you.

Can I pray for us?