The Truth About Anxiety: What the Bible Says and What Actually Helps | Pastor Linn Winters

But just so that you know, next week, we've got an expert coming in by the name of Mike Foster. He's gonna talk about the idea of how mental health affects our addictions. And then the week after that, we're gonna talk about depression, and then following that, we're gonna talk about suicide. So,

on, we got a lot of ground to cover together. So, anxiety, and you understand what anxiety is. Anxiety is worry ramped up. It's I I start by worrying, but then I I start playing a soundtrack in my mind. I start I start thinking, oh, this is too hard and it's bigger than and and I can just imagine

the outcome and how bad it's gonna be and how wrong And then then I play it again and I play it again and I play it again, and each time it gets a little darker, it gets a little worse, and suddenly I find myself in anxiety and sometimes even paralyzing type of anxiety. Let let me read you some statistics

about anxiety and our culture. This is from the World Health Organization, and if you want to get this, you can just go online, Google, and you just type in, hey, three stats on anxiety, and this will immediately come up. Anxiety disorder. In other words, this is a level of anxiety that almost becomes paralyzing

in your life. It says, I was anxious about something. This is paralyzing type anxiety. Anxiety disorder affects nineteen percent of US adults. So stop and think about that. That's like one in five US adults deal lies deals with paralyzing type anxiety. Statistics say that at some point, thirty one percent

of US adults will experience that kind of anxiety for a season, for a period of time. Women are two times more likely to struggle with anxiety than men. But here's the thing I find most interesting. If you take the stats globally and you say, okay, worldwide, what percentage of people deal with anxiety? Anybody want to guess?

Four percent. So, think about this for a minute. You take our nineteen percent, factor it in to the rest of the world and it's still only four percent for the rest of the world, which simply means this. You you and I are more educated. You and I have more financial resources, and you and I are more greatly affected.

It's not even a conversation about the fact that we're broken. There's something going on in our culture that absolutely is broken and it's robbing us of experiencing the life that we are supposed to have. I think I know why. We talked about this, last week.

We talked about this idea that within mental health, there are two buckets that most everyone recognizes and accepts. The struggle is there are some struggles in mental health that don't fit the buckets. So, quick review. So, we talked about this idea last week that some of our struggles truly are mental.

We need to be with somebody who's been trained, who can counsel us, can give us some insight, can help us understand and see our life differently, understand that we're not forever victims, and suddenly, we get that new perspective, because we receive good counsel,

all of a sudden, we're released. We find help. And so, I'm just gonna suggest this is a real bucket and some of us need to go find a really good Christian counselor and say, hey, can you help me with this? One of the other buckets is physical. It's possible that hormones are off, that things

are out of balance and I need a prescription. I need a pill that's going to help me bring back into balance with that. And again, it's a legitimate box. It's a real box and that's where some of us are going to find some hope. The dilemma is this, that within our mental health struggle, there's two boxes which we ignore.

And because of that, we don't find solution because one of the things we said to each other is this, if your struggle is physical, then you're going to find solution in the physical box. If your struggle is mental, then you're gonna find solution in the mental box.

But what if my struggle is a different box, and we talked about this idea that sometimes it's life skills. Sometimes I just have never done that before, no one's helped me learn how to do that before. I've been coddled all my life and now I'm applying for a job and it terrifies me. I find myself

filled with anxiety. The reality is that's just a life skill that I've not developed and the good news is, you can go to someone who's good at it and say, hey, would you coach me? Would you help me develop a life skill? The final one and the one I think that our culture ignores the most is that it's a spiritual issue.

And I believe that we're gonna be surprised to find out how much of mental health actually comes down to a spiritual issue in people's lives and that there's an answer there and we haven't even thought about checking that out and so, we're in trouble. And guys, realize anxiety, if it goes unchecked, will steal your life.

Here's the deal, most of us would say, hey, anxiety is normal, right? I mean, doesn't everybody have anxiety at some point? I mean, isn't it just like part of the human condition that we're gonna be anxious at some point? It's kind of like breathing, right? If you're human, you're gonna be anxious. And scripture says,

it doesn't have to be that way. Matter of fact, one day Jesus is having a sermon, you ready, about anxiety.

And then he says, guys, are you worried so much? Why are you even doing that? That's not what you were created to do. And then he literally takes, like he takes a pin and he pops the bubble of anxiety. Here's the verse in scripture, it says, can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? He said, when's

the last time you worried and it helped? When's the last time you're like, oh man, I am so glad I worried about that. It would have never turned out okay if I had worried and worried and worried and worried and that's what tipped the scale and that's why it's okay now. And you know what the answer is? Never, never. There has

never been a moment that your anxiety, that your worry has solved anything. So then the question is why do we hang on to it so tight? Why do we act like it's our best friend and refuse to let it go? And what if, what if you and I could live without anxiety? Wouldn't that be better? Jesus is about to teach a master class

about anxiety. He's gonna invite his disciples to get into a boat with him and it's gonna be a day that they will never, never, never, never, never forget. And you and I right now have the opportunity to get in the boat too and hear the master teach about anxiety. Here we go. It's Mark chapter four.

Mark chapter four. If you're not familiar, if you go to the back of your bible, work to the left, you're you're gonna find this book of Mark.

Mark chapter four, we're gonna begin in verse 35. Let let let me set up the moment.

So Jesus, it's fairly early in his ministry. He's becoming wildly popular. People are just coming to him in droves

day after day after day. They they wanna hear him teach because his teaching is so insightful. They they they want him to heal their loved ones. They wanna have healing for themselves, and and it's it's just never ending. And this has been going on for weeks, and Jesus is exhausted.

And so, turns to his disciples, he says, hey, I'll tell you what, let's hop in a boat, we'll sail across the Sea Of Galilee and even if the people wanna follow us, well then, they'll have to walk around, so we'll get a couple days of rest, it'll be like a vacation. The disciples are thrilled. They hop into the boat.

They think it's a harbor cruise at Newport Beach. They're they're they're like, hey, pass the shrimp cocktail. I'll have another camel colada. Matter of fact, Peter turns rest aside, so we should have brought our wives. We were burned so many points. Here we go. Mark chapter four starting in verse 35 says the day,

when the day when evening came, he, Jesus, says to his disciples, let us go over to the other side. Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along. Isn't it interesting? Apparently, Jesus is so excited. They're having to help him into the boat. That's how tired he is. They took him along and just as he was

into the boat and there were other boats with him. So remember the plan? We're gonna sail across, the people are gonna have to walk, we'll have a break, but people kind of outsmarted and they they jumped into their own boats and now they're following the disciples and Jesus across and hang on to that.

Remember that there are other boats.

Verse 37, a furious wall came up and waves broke over the boat so that it was nearly swamped. So you get what's happening? The waves are higher than the side of the boat and so now water is coming into the boat and it's starting to fill up and if there ever gets a moment that the water in the boat is as high as the water else, they're sunk. They're they're done.

A furious squall came up. The waves broke over the boat so they were nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern sleeping on a cushion, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him up and they said, teacher, don't you care that we drown? Now get the moment,

the disciples think, hey, this is gonna be a good thing, it's there's no problems and suddenly there comes a storm and this storm is bigger than they've ever had to face before.

So here's what you need. This is home field. Matter of fact, we know that at least four of the disciples are fishermen and they were fishermen on the Sea Of Galilee. This is home field. And yet,

now there's a storm like they've never seen before. This is a struggle they've never encountered before and you could just imagine the scene. So, someone's going, hey, raise the sails and they raise the sails and all of a sudden the sails rip and like, no, lower the sails and this one says well hey throw out the anchor and they throw out the anchor and the cord snaps and someone says pass me a Dixie cup.

I mean they're panicked.

You and I felt that way, right? There's a problem. I mean, this is this is bigger. This this problem doesn't have any apparent answers. I I don't have the skill, I don't have the capacity, I don't have the knowledge

to get to the other side of my problem and that's the moment in which you and I are just scrambling on the deck right, we're filled with anxiety.

I'm convinced that there were two things the disciples missed that day that caused them to live that moment anxiously. It's the same two things that you and I miss when the storm comes. Number one, I believe they forgot Jesus was in the boat.

See, here's the deal, I mean, they're sailors, right? So, you know, they see the clouds come in, the waves start getting a little bit, they do what sailors do. They're just managing the problem, right? And then it gets a little bigger and they try to manage them,

right? And so their entire focus is on them solving their own problem. I believe they are so focused on the problem, they forget that Jesus is in the boat with them.

I got a friend, his name is Dave. Dave, got invited by another friend of his to go paintball. Any any of you paintballed before? Three of us. Okay. Good. This would be a great illustration. It used to be popular till everyone figured out it hurt a lot. So, Dave gets invited to go paintballing.

He's a newbie, he doesn't have any of his own equipment, so they give him, you know, couple of shin guards stuff to put on and then they give him a paintball pistol.

Now, here's what you need to know about a paintball pistol. It has a small c o two cartridge in it, so that when you squeeze the trigger, the paintball goes, boo.

He's standing there with his little paintball pistol. He looks around and realizes all the other players have paintball assault rifles.

I mean, these things have got canisters of c o two on them. You know, it's fisting you have to squeeze trigger sign. Well, on the assault rifle, do too, but they got these extra long triggers and you go, it's like a machine gun. He's standing there in panic and fear and

you're gonna play, you're gonna try to take out the opponent's players till you can get to the far end of the field where they've got their flag and then you'll grab their flag, you'll win the game. So, they go out to start playing and the horn goes off and Dave is sitting there, he's behind a log and he's going

Paintball guy is going gotcha. Gotcha. They they move their way about halfway down the field. And now a paintball guy turns to Dave and he says, all right, when I count three, you're gonna jump up, run through this opening toward the flag. To which Dave says,

if I run through the opening, doesn't that mean the other guys will all jump up and shoot me? He goes, yeah, one, two, three. And Dave jumps up, starts running through the opening, sure enough, four guys jump up and a paintball guy goes, gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. Dave, unscathed gets to the flag, lifts it up. Yeah.

Now, all gather together, gonna play game number two. And they're picking up teams again and they come to Dave, they say, which team do wanna be on? He goes, that guy's. That guy's team.

Do you realize the day you became a Christian? You said I want to be on Jesus's team And from that day on, your membership was secured.

Matter of fact, the scripture says this, that the moment you invited Christ into your life, into your heart, the holy spirit came to live and reside in you, and he will never leave you, he will never forsake you. Which means, you ready for this? There is not a single moment of your life that God is not right there

with you. Why do we get so focused? Oh, it's a problem. Oh, raise the sails. Turn around. Jesus is right there with you. I think the second thing they forgot that day.

I wonder if Jesus cares. Isn't it interesting when they finally think, wait, wait, wait, Jesus is they run up to him and they go, don't you care? Don't you care that we're all about to don't you care?

It isn't it true there's been moments in the midst of our struggle, in the midst of the problems and we're filled with anxiety and that's what we want to say to God. God, don't you care and isn't it true that that's usually a part of timing?

Because we went, hey God there's a storm, could you take it away right now? Right now, yeah just take it away now. And then when he doesn't, we freak out. We're like, don't you care? And you know what the answer is? He cares. He cares. He cares every single time. Matter of fact, here's what the bible says about God caring

for you and me. Surely,

your goodness and love will follow me the days of my life. My entire life, God, you care and you're gonna be good to me.

Okay. You're still doubting. It's inspired scripture, but okay. You're still doubting. Alright. Here's another one. For I know the plans that I have for you declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you plans to give you a hope and a future You're still pausing is your name doubting Thomas

Alright. Let me give you another one. Every good, ready? Every good and perfect gift is from above coming down from the father of heaven of lights, heavenly lights who does not change

like shifting. You know why it's good that doesn't change? Because he loves you today and even if you screw up, even if you mess up, he still loves you tomorrow. His love never fades. He cares. Here's another one. And we know that in how many things? All things.

You mean the thing that I'm freaked out about right now? You mean the thing that I'm anxious out of my mind right now? In all things, God works for those who love him who are called according to his purpose and guys God

parents ever been a time you had to say to your kid no Every time you had to say to your kid okay, you're on time out Ever had a time you had to say to kid not now and you did that because you're mean. No, you did that because you love your child and even in the decisions that were confusing for them,

you were basing it in love and here's what you need to know. Your love for your child, it is a shadow, it is minute compared to the love of God for you.

Guys, there's never been a moment that he didn't care. Which means, you ready for this? There is absolutely no reason for the disciples to be freaked out. Jesus is with him and Jesus cares about them. You know what it also means? There is absolutely no reason for you to be anxious because God is with you and God cares about

you.

Back to the passage. Verse 39, he got up and he rebuked the wind and he said to the waves, quiet, be still. See, it seems it seems like, does it seem like Jesus should have gone up and go, stop it. Hey, you. Isn't it interesting? He says, he said. It's like a dad that went, hey, stop it. Peace. Be still. And creation

has so much respect for his authority that instantly, the huge waves that have been battering the boat, wind that sounded like the backside of a jet engine, silence. And the water is completely still.

There was never a moment that Jesus wasn't in control. There was never a moment on that sailing trip that Jesus couldn't stand up and do exactly what he did.

Stop it. Peace be still.

Which means this for you and me. There is not a single problem that you and I have that he is not greater than. He is greater than your struggling marriage. He is greater than your employer. He is greater than the financial issue that you have got going on right now. He is greater than your addiction.

There is not one thing that you and I are encountering that he is not greater than.

So, why are we freaked out? Why are we scrambling across the deck filled with anxiety?

Who invited the disciples to take a boat trip? You guys think I'm who invited them to take a boat trip? This is the easiest question you're ever gonna answer in your life. Who invited them to get in the boat? Jesus. Go back to verse 35. That day when evening came, he said to the disciples, let's go for a boat ride.

It is literally Jesus who invites them into the storm, which is also what Jesus does. Sometimes he invites you and I into the storm because you're ready for this? There are things that you and I can only learn in the storm.

Jesus is omniscient. He knew before he said, let's get in. He knew the storm was coming. And I'm telling you that before anything has ever touched you, Jesus knew it was coming. And the only reason that he allowed it, the only reason he invited is there are things in your life that you will not learn

unless you've been with Jesus in the storm. And the disciples, you ready for this? The disciples are gonna see Jesus when this is all done in a completely different way than they've ever seen him before. Matter of fact, jump with me down to verse 41. It's kind of the end of the story and here's what it says.

They, the disciples, were terrified. They're like, oh my. And they asked each other, who is this? You get, they're seeing Jesus in a different light than they've ever, who is this?

That even the wind and the waves obey him?

See here, the disciples figured out, hey, Jesus is in the boat with us. They figured out

that he was able to do incredible things. I mean, remember, they've been with him in his ministry. They've they've seen him. Right? They've seen him go to a leper whose flesh is rotted away and his and the bones are receding on him, and Jesus touches that hand and it's instantly full and whole. They they've watched Jesus

take the hand of a lame man and pick him up and he starts to dance. They've seen Jesus take a boy who was demon possessed and literally just free him. They know that Jesus is powerful. They know that he's with them. They know that he's powerful. But there's a difference between believing something and actually knowing it.

There's an amazing Greek word, it's ginosko. And ginosko simply means knowing because I've experienced it.

If you would have come to me ten years ago and you would have said, hey, Lynn, do you believe that God can heal? I would have said, of course, I believe God can heal. I mean, it's all over scripture, right? All over.

And I've had moments when people came to me for prayer and I prayed for them and they were miraculously healed. I've had moments when they went to the elder board and we prayed for them and they were healed. Of course, I believe that God can heal. And then eight year old years ago, I got a phone call.

It was my brother-in-law. And he said, Lynn, your sister Michelle is in the hospital. It's cancer. Lisa and I jumped on a plane, we flew to San Antonio and we got in the room and we just said, what are the doctors saying? The doctors are saying it's everywhere. Matter of fact,

it was in her brain, it was in her lungs, it was in her liver, it was in her bones, it was in her female parts, and it was also spread through the rest of her abdomen.

Man, I started praying.

Can I be honest, man, my prayers were shaky? See, it's different. It's different when it's other people's problems. It's different when it's you and yours. I was a lot like the father in scripture who came to Jesus with a son that was demon possessed and he said to Jesus, if you are able and Jesus said, am able.

He said, matter of fact, if you believe all things are possible. To which the father replied, I believe help me with my unbelief. And that's what my prayers felt like for my sister. Hey, God, I believe, help me with my unbelief. They put her in chemo.

It was crazy intensive. They were sticking needles in her spine so the chemo would go up in her brain. After they got a picture of her while she was doing chemo, All of her eyebrows are gone. Her eyelashes are gone. Of course, all of her hair is gone.

And then came the day. They called me on the phone and they said, Lynn, it's gone. She's cancer free.

Matter of fact, here's a picture of her now with her husband. Seven years later,

if you came to me today and said, Lynn, do you believe that God can heal? I would tell you, I know God can heal because I've lived through it. And guys, can I just say to you, one of the reasons God invites you to the storm is so that you stop believing scripture in your head and you believe scripture because you know?

Because you've gone through the storm. There's this incredible, incredible verse in scripture that's meant to help you and I overcome anxiety. It's in Philippians chapter four, here it is. This is Paul writing. You really need to know. The guy who's writing this is gonna say, hey, do not be anxious about anything. This guy

had been beaten with rods multiple times. He had been stoned twice where people were trying to kill him by stoning him. He's been thrown in prison multiple times. He's been shipwrecked twice, and as he writes that verse, he's sitting in a jail cell. And he says to you and me, don't be anxious about anything.

And then he tells us how. By prayer and petition. Prayer is me saying, hey God, what are you doing? And what are you teaching? Petition is me saying to God, God, here's how I'd like it to go if it could. And then, Thanksgiving. Not Thanksgiving that you've got the problem.

Thanksgiving for all the times God has come through before. It's remembering in my heart that on every other occasion God has been with me, and God has been good to me, and God has been bigger than my problem.

When the children of Israel were were crossing the Jordan River going into the promised land, it was at flood stage. If they were to step into the Jordan, it would sweep them away much like what just happened in Texas. And God said, oh, no, no, no. I'm with you. I love you, and I'm bigger than the Jordan River.

So you take the ark of the covenant, you start walking through, the waters are gonna part just like they did for the Red Sea. And when you walk through, I want you to reach for stones. And I want one person from each tribe to take a stone and put it on the bank on the other side as a remembrance. Because someday,

you're gonna have another problem. And and you're gonna come back to these stones and remember. Remember the God who is with you, the God who loves you, and the God who is bigger. If you go into my office, I I I've got a whole wall of pictures and plaques. It's all the times. It's all the times God's been with me in the storm.

It'd be my mother, who despite unbelievably tough circumstances, stayed faithful to God and showed me what that was like.

It'd be a baby sister who was severely handicapped, and a brother who was self absorbed in selfish, and God knew one day I'd be a pastor, and so he taught me how to be compassionate and caring.

It was a youth pastor named Wayne that he brought into my life who, man, helped me walk through so much of my brokenness and helped me fall in love with scripture and I was called to ministry.

It was a great mentor who literally for eight years took me to lunch every single week and just poured into my life, and who to this day I stand on his shoulders as I lead this church.

It was the day that God healed my sister.

Stones of remembrance. And so I get in the storm, I'm like, God, what's going on? And I don't understand, and I I pray and I say, God, do you know there's a storm? Yeah. And then I go back to all the times in my life that God has been with me, and good to me, and bigger than my problem. Here's what I'm gonna ask.

In your seat backs, there's cards look like this. I'm gonna ask you to leave today. Just start writing. Fill out the card. Stones of remembrance. Times in your life where God showed up. And it can be people. It can be people that God brought in your life and and your life was forever changed for the better. Stones

of remembrance. And I don't know, stick it in the back of your bible, put it somewhere you can find it. And the next time, next time the storm is swamping the deck, you pull like, oh, God is with me.

Remember at the beginning, we said there were some other boats. Jesus wasn't in those boats. Those guys deserve to be anxious because all that problem everything that storm was theirs to handle by themselves.

There are some of us in this room, and you have never invited Jesus in the boat, which means every one of your struggles, every one of your problems, it's you. And I'm just telling you, there is a freedom. There is a there is an absolute peace that's found when Jesus is in the boat with you.

And so I'm just gonna encourage you that I'm gonna pray in just a moment and and when I do and everybody heads that way that that if if you're here and you go, man, I want Jesus in my life. I I don't wanna do this by myself anymore. That you come to the front where you got counselors. They're gonna be they'll they'll simply explain to you what it means to be in the boat with Jesus.

It'll change your life. Let's pray. Hey, dear Lord Jesus. Man, we do. We get so focused on the storm, and we get so caught up thinking that it's ours to fix, and it's bigger than us, and it's harder than we know and how often do we forget you're with us.

And God you care. You care. There's there's never been anything that's happened that you didn't care what was going on with us. And God, you're bigger. You're bigger than anything we have ever faced, which means there is absolutely no reason for us to be anxious. So here's our promise. Next time it comes,

we're gonna pray. We're gonna say, God, did you know there's a storm? Course, you're gonna tell us, yeah, saw it. Matter of fact, I invited you into it. And then we're gonna go back to the moments in our life where you've come through, where you have been good to us, and you've been bigger than our problems. And

then we're gonna lean in, and we're gonna tell anxiousness goodbye. God, this we pray in Jesus' precious name. Amen.