When You’ve Had Enough - Anxious for Nothing Part 1 with Craig Groeschel

hey thanks for joining us here at Life Church for more videos messages and content be sure to subscribe to our channels or a great way to stay connected throughout the week and everywhere you go is the Life Church app it's free and available wherever you download your apps from right now let's go to our senior pastor Craig Groeschel for this week's message [Music] [Music] hey a big welcome today to all of our life search locations those of you had searched online all over the world I wonder if any of you could help join me in

congratulating and celebrating those who've been baptized this weekend and all I can say every single one of you your story is different because of the grace of Jesus and we celebrate his forgiveness his power in your lives congratulations I had one guy who told me make sure you have the pastor hold me under water a little longer because I need a little more forgiveness His grace is available to all of us let me tell you today we're launching into a new message series the title of this series is anxious for nothing the title of this

particular message part one is when you've had enough I don't know if any of you have had enough but for those of you who are battling anxiety this message series is for you in fact if you wouldn't mind at all of our life churches would you just stand to your feet in honor of reading God's Word I want to set up our text to you today and I want to tell you a little bit about what we're gonna talk about this is a message series for those of you who might feel heavy in spirit you

might be worried about something it could be a health issue for you it could be someone that you love that might be aging parents it might be burdensome financial season it might be that you're worried about your children the decisions that they're making or sending them off to school and such this is a message series for those of you that are worried or may be battling with fear or some type of anxiety we're gonna do over the next four weeks is we're going to start in Philippians chapter four and I'm going to take a small

portion of that text and highlight it and use other portions of Scripture to support the big truth and what I want to do is give you the context today then we're gonna read this and we're gonna read it every single week and we let it settle into our supports and we believe that God is going to calm our anxieties we cast our cares on him the book of Philippians the Apostle Paul he wanted more than anything else to go to Rome to preach the gospel but he found himself in Rome as a prisoner locked up

24 hours a day to a Roman guard and out of the situation where he could have been more anxious than anybody I know right now not knowing his potential outcome how long he would be there even whether or not he would live under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit he penned these words he said rejoice in the Lord always I will say it again rejoice let your gentleness be evident to all here's the portion for this week the Lord is near would you all say that aloud set with me the Lord is near do not

be anxious about anything another version says be anxious for nothing but in every situation no matter what you're going through by prayer and petition with Thanksgiving you present your requests to God and the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus so father we ask that your presence would be evident to all and God as we cast our cares on you we would since your love and your goodness because you care for us and may your peace from heaven guard our hearts and our minds and our

souls in Christ Jesus name we pray and everybody said amen amen hey why don't you high five five people around you just tell them the Lord is near the Lord is near one of the many things I love about our church family is you all let me be a real person is it okay if I'm a real person today most of the time I am a pastor who glows in the dark not really all of the time I'm a regular person and I want to tell you the story behind this message series it started the

first week of June and I flew to see a friend of mine pastor Steven Furtick about twice a year or so I'll fly to see him or he'll fly to see me and we spend one day together we always fast we pray we search scriptures together we seek God actually everything I told you to lie what we do is we watched Wimbledon last time we workout and we ate a lot but it felt holy another I'm saying okay and so and the truth is this last visit almost every one is a highlight for both of

us because it's two friends getting together and and encouraging each other but it was a particularly rough season for me and immediately he's like Rochelle what's wrong and I told him I just I'm having a hard time breathing this is incredibly unusual for me I don't battle with a lot of anxiety but I I could barely even breathe full breaths and I was overwhelmed with this sense of anxiety and what I'm about to tell you was causing it you're gonna say well that doesn't make any sense exactly what anxiety is it doesn't make any sense

so often I was stressed about the message series that I'm teaching right now because I have to name the series a couple of months of advance because of our programming and such and I couldn't come up with another idea for decades I've done this and I just hit the end of my rope there was nothing no idea no insight into Scripture no revelation nothing I wanted to say I just was empty and it scared me beyond description the walls felt like they were closing in I felt like maybe I need to hang it up massive

heart-wrenching anxiety and pastor Steven said well here's what you're gonna preach on you're gonna preach on anxiety and we're gonna call it anxious for nothing he just pulled that tie Lance a good title and he said because you know your best freaking comes out of your personal experience as you dive into God's Word and he works in your life so this message series is not born out of my strength here I am pastor to save the day no no this is born out of the very scary unusually dark season of real deep anxiety for me

okay be human Paul said be anxious for nothing I'm asking myself is that even possible in the world that we live in with all this going on be anxious for nothing mass shooting followed by tragic mass shooting can I be racist or nothing I read a book about jimsy recently love the book about those of you who are like high school age and college age and there's so many promising things about your generation one of the biggest challenges I say is that you're the most stressed generation in recent history worried about everything should I go

to college if I do my fifty I got student loans and then if I graduate well I get a job good enough to pay off the loans and am I going to get married if I do am I can American Psycho cuz I've seen a lot of psychos you know and how am I gonna pay the bills and then there are people that are married like I did marry psycho and I think I'm psycho because she's making me psycho and I don't know about my job and my car's going into the shop and my teenagers

are driving me crazy and my parents are aging and there's so much uncertainty in the world kids it even possible to be anxious for nothing what I'm gonna do in this particular message is I want to show you an Old Testament prophet that maybe like some of you all he really loved God and yet even though he had seen the faithfulness the power the provision of God he still struggled massively with anxiety his name is Elijah if you don't know the context of Elijah Elijah actually confronted a very evil king named King Ahab he called

an honest and he prophesied a drought there was significant impact to Ahab's kingdom and so the king came after the prophet Elijah with all the forces of his army saying we're going to destroy you essentially we're gonna kill you and so for three years Elijah was on the run he was hiding out and yet God was faithful God fed him with bread and and and ravings and from heaven and Elijah raised the dead there was one time this is so cool Elijah stood down 850 false prophets one man stood down 850 that's cocky in the

name of the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit I love that there was a time one of my favorite moments in life where I actually stood down three men I did they were harassing a woman and being very inappropriate to her and so I stood them down your pastor single-handedly read off three men I just told them I'll introduce you to two of my friends it'll be even there's me there's grace and there's truth and truth will set you free okay I ran off a true story but that's not the point it's message but

I am proud to tell you that I ran all three myths 850 he called fire from heaven made him crispy critters after miracle one grumpy woman gets up into his grill head he falls completely apart if you don't know the story a ham was bad but oh he had a wife that made him look like Mother Teresa this woman his wife was named Jezebel and she got in the picture and essentially she said honey if you can't get a job done and a little woman do it right I'm gonna kill Elijah and Elijah completely falls

apart you'll see him spiral into deep depression and anxiety that some of you might be able to relate to I want to show you the story and when we do look at the story I want you to notice four different mistakes that Elijah made when he had had too much and you might see yourself making one two three or four of these mistakes as I did in my season of significant struggle let me show you the text and first Kings chapter 19 we'll start in verse 3 see if you can find the mistakes that he

made scripture census Elijah was afraid he's freaking out he's experiencing deep and very real anxiety and so he ran for his life when he came to bear FEMA in Judah watched for the mistakes he left his servant there while he himself went on a day's journey into the wilderness dies by himself and wandering in the wilderness he came through a broom bush sat down under it and prayed that he might die notice how irrational he is his biggest fear is that she's gonna kill him now he wants to die he's struggling what is he saying

he said the same thing that some of you might have said I've had enough I can't take any more he has his Popeye moment that's all I can stands I can't I've had enough he says take my life I'm no better than my ancestors some of you about right now you might be in that I can't take it anymore I've done everything I can I'm trying to pay the bills one more thing broke I can't take it anymore some of us in the relationship you're trying you're trying you're trying you're trying and they deceived you

again I can't take it anymore some of you it's your schedule you work and you're working you're trying everything and you may be a single parent you're trying to juggle are you working your tail I just cannot take it anymore it could be something simple you've made dinner nine thousand times and they haven't said thank you nine thousand times and they've walked away nine thousand times but on nine thousand and one I'm gonna kill you in the name of the Father Son Holy Spirit and God's gonna be pleased about that because your sin has taken

you out I can't take it anymore for me it was naming a sermon series one sermon series I've done hundreds of one hundreds and I could not catch my breath or finished sentences Elijah couldn't take it he made four mistakes I've made these and perhaps you have as well let's look at his mistakes the first thing we tend to do when we've had enough is this we run ourselves into the ground we run ourselves into the ground this is what he did and the text says he was afraid he ran for his life he ran

to birth Sheba which if you don't know the geography of it he ran about a hundred miles he ran as far as it was human possibly took possible to run had he run anymore here to run into the water he couldn't run anymore he ran four marathons he ran he ran he ran he ran he was so exhausted he wore himself out I told you part of the story I told you I had deep anxiety I told you about the first week of June what I didn't tell you about was what led up to the

first week of June and that was made and probably April and March and February and January and December and the list goes on and on but May in particular was different it was once I was processing this with someone who was helping me who said your problem wasn't June your problem was May let me tell you what I didn't May I'm not complaining Norma bragging this is just what I did in May I taught four weekends of chasing carrots and that's along with leaving the church is a full month for me just doing the normal

stuff I also wrote and pre-produced the good work for weeks on Nehemiah I did it on a Monday and Tuesday and the reason I do that almost every May is so I can have the weekends off for one month a year with my family in the month of June thank God Virginia so essentially I did Mays messages and June in May and at the movies has to go into production early so I wrote shot and edited at the movies in May as well as a good work as well as that's three what months worth in

one month that's a lot and I did two months of leadership podcast and on top of that in that one month period Amy and I did an international trip to London to do a Leadership Conference with multiple talks every day man on a Thursday preached on Saturday during the message my daughter Katie gave birth early to her daughter with significant health scares with India being ok then I preached on Sunday then on Sunday night I did the rehearsal dinner for my daughter's Anna's wedding on Monday I gave her away and officiated the service I fell

apart in June but I ran myself in the ground in May some of you are there right now you're in a real season of anxiety and you'll recognize you've been going way too hard for way too long Elijah ran himself into the ground the second big mistake that he made we many of us do is we shut people out we shut people out did you notice him he left his servant he said to his trusted friend I don't need you anymore and he went off on his own this is a little bit of what I

did in the month of May which is pay on the pastor and I'm not gonna tell anybody I'm hurting and I'm just gonna push through this on my own and didn't let anybody and this is one of the reasons why life groups they are the heartbeat of our church can I get an amen this is this is the heartbeat of who we are without the body of Christ we are incomplete in the month of September we're launching new life groups many of you that you're not in one this is gonna be a turning point in

your life we've got a message series called I'm in oh I just tell you the name of the upcoming message series it's already named and already working it's coming up and we're gonna launch them live through because we know that life is better together and we are incomplete without the family of God and we're not gonna do what Elijah did when he shut the most trusted people out the third mistake that he made and we often make as we focus on the negative here's what he said he said I've had enough I'm no better than

my father's I'm no better than my ancestors and this is the very thing that we often do we focus on the negative my life is so hard I can never get it all done there's just too much I can't stand these people I don't like my job I don't like where I'm going I'm always gonna suffer I'm always gonna struggle I'm always gonna be broke we're never to be happy we're always going to be hurting and we focus on the negative and that's kind of what I did I got all these sermons to do and

nobody understands and number four perhaps the biggest mistake is we forget God we forget God which crazy is every step of the way through Elijah's life God was present God was faithful God's power was visible God's provision was real and even though God had been faithful Elijah did with so many of us do he was facing his problems while forgetting his God for over two decades of preached and preached and God has been present and yet I was facing my fears and forgetting my god the crazy thing is Elijah's name alone should have been enough

to comfort him in the middle of his anxiety his name alone elijah lel i j a 8e L stands for Elohim it's four four Elohim which is God i LD L I is I or my Jah Jah is short for Yahweh which to a devout believer they would not even put the vowels in the word Yahweh because that would be disrespectful where who are we and they wouldn't even say the name Yahweh because they would they would say it like this without the vowels would be sure like because because of the holiness of God essentially

what he's saying is this my God God is my my god is my breath my god is my my god is my source my god is my sustainer my god is my strength my god is my breath and yet knowing that his God is near he falls apart what did God do when he did that well ye of little faith no no no no no God met Elijah in his need and I want to show you how God revealed himself to him scripture says this the Lord God said to Elijah go out and stand on

the Mount in the presence of the Lord for the Lord is about to pass by then a great and powerful wind tore the mountain apart and shattered the rocks below but the Lord was not in the wind after the wind was an earthquake but the Lord was not in the earthquake and after the earthquake came a fire but the Lord was not in the fire after the fire came a gentle whisper a gentle breath the Lord is my breath earth shook the Lord wasn't in the earthquake the wind howl the Lord wasn't in the wind

fire but the Lord was not in the fire earth wind fire just a little nod from my older buddies in the crowd [Applause] but the Lord was in the Lord was in death the Lord was [Music] I want to show honor to my bride Amy who walked me through what was a dark season and is an ongoing process in healing through real anxiety if any would you just mind joining me up here real quick and you guys can clap for her a few times if you don't mind [Applause] this is my favorite part of the

message just because I get to stand close to my best friend and my bride so you we're gonna do a sermon illustration and you can look stressed okay pretend like you're anxious and what I want to do is is help illustrate this God was not in the remarkable God was in the ordinary when we're hurting when we're afraid when we're overwhelmed why doesn't God sometimes speak in the loud ways why does God [Music] [Applause] death on the other hand shouts despise his voices of condemnation his accusation [Music] [Applause] because the Lord is near he whispers

because I'm gonna try my microphone off because I don't want you to hear the smack [Music] [Applause] [Music] so I called a counselor your pastors in calluses yes why is to get help for the wise say to get it's wise to get help from the wise walk with the wise grow wise walk with a bunch of turkeys you become a turkey that's the new Craig translation that version anxiety is a complex issue for some people it might be a change of diet so we need help from dietician for some that might be a chemical imbalance

that we need help from doctors for some we not need a process and things we need to help from counselors I chose the counselor I hired a performance psychologist and he helped me come up with this is my phrase based on our time together but essentially as I was going into a very heavy summer of preaching this phrase is what I'm living on my experience being I've done this for a long time my experience plus God's presence is enough that's by Braille my experience plus God's presence he's with me easier it is enough so I'll

tell you about what happened this summer and again this isn't to complain nor is it to brag but it's way cheaper than this guy I talk to all the time so you feel better to tell you for free Amy and I did events in in New Zealand and in Australia and during that time our house was under construction we found significant and dangerous mold in five rooms so five rooms were being ripped out while we're gone our kids were at home and while we were gone and our house was under construction somehow a raccoon got

in the house but that's just a side story which is fun and a rat got into Pastor Charlie an intern is living with into his car ate out of his car so it wouldn't start my son's car wouldn't start the air conditioner had to be replaced because it was faulty so there was no air conditioner for about ten days the water was down for seven days my credit card got compromised which is the one that my kids at home used so if you can imagine we were traveling internationally no heat no no air condition no

water with a raccoon no transportation and no money and I preached 25 different messages in eight days in five different cities in two different countries and in the middle of feeling anxiety going into it and we walked through it with the grace of God because my experience plus his presence is enough the Lord is near my god is my [Music] here's what's funny about Elijah if you don't know the end of his story it's pretty funny what was his greatest fear his greatest fear was I'm going to die but if you don't know the end

of his story later on he's walking along with his protege Elijah and God sends a chariot from heaven like this horse and stuff from heaven that sweeps Elijah off the face of the earth and he never tasted physical death like we will he never died the thing he feared the most we could say get ready for it I've been leading toward it the whole time we could say he was anxious for nothing I came to tell somebody here that the vast majority of what you worry about is not going to happen most of it never

ever does the vast majority never happens and therefore we were anxious for nothing the vast majority doesn't happen sometimes it does happen and it's not as bad as we thought we were anxious for nothing and sometimes it does happen and it is bad and it's worse than we ever thought but the goodness of God always carries us he's always faithful he never leaves us he'll never forsake us because he is our breath he is a he is our strength is our source and that's why the Apostle Paul shaking up to a Roman guard not knowing

as if you can say do not be anxious about anything he said this we can rejoice in the Lord always I'll say it again rejoice let your gentleness be evident to all why because our God is near because he's new why does he whisper because he is don't be anxious about anything but in everything was prayer and petition bringing a request to God and the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds and your souls in Christ Jesus [Music] why as he was Lord is our God [Music] so we

trust in you father we ask that by the power of the name that is above every name that even in the midst of severe trials and significant anxiety worry fears doubts insecurities God that we could experience a peace from heaven that goes beyond our human ability to understand all of our churches today I've been about as transparent as I know how to be with you those of you who may have a burden a weight you feel crushed you feel overwhelmed you feel anxious you feel worried that there's something weighing on you and you want to

take it to God today would you lift up your hands right now all of our different churches just lift up your hands reaching out to God Father we we thank you for your presence and for your goodness and God I thank you that you know every single need of every person with a lifted hand towards you god I pray father that you would be actively engaged and involved and more than anything else God that we would sense your presence now Emmanuel God with us got even in your own way would you just whisper that you

know that you care that you're involved that you're working even when we don't sense it that your act of God even when we don't see it don't we thank you for your presence as we cast our cares on you because you care for us may your peace God from heaven guard our hearts and our minds and our souls in Christ Jesus as you keep praying today at all of our different churches there may be those of you that you're a really low point right now and you would recognize if we sat down and talked to

each other and I said hey where's God involved in all this you might say I don't know and you may come to recognize that you don't really know God personally you might believe in God kind of sorta you might even been a church person but you're not walking with God you know since his presence I'm convinced there may be times when God allows us to get so low that the only place we had to look it up look toward him look toward heaven and when we look toward him let me tell you about who he

sent to show us his goodness and his lot he sent His only Son Jesus God in the flesh Jesus hung out with the those that religion rejected he hung out with those who were messed up those who were dysfunctional those who were grossly sinning and he loved them exactly where they were then Jesus went to the cross why did he go he went to become sin for us he shed his innocent blood in place of ours he died in our place God raised him from the dead so that anyone and this includes you don't matter

who you are doesn't matter what you've done doesn't matter how dark your life is anyone who calls on the name of Jesus would be saved would be forgiven I'm convinced that there are those of you you're about to experience the goodness of God he is near he here and you are watching you are listening there on the other side of the computer you're present in the room because our God is reaching out to you he's showing you his father he's drawing you close you're not here by accident you're here because of the goodness of God

what do you do you recognize your need you call on the name of Jesus when you call on his name he forgives every cent he makes you brand-new he takes up residency in your life you will never be alone we'll always be here all of our churches those who say yes I need this grace yes I turn from my sin yes I give my life to Jesus that's your prayer lift your hands I now all over the place lift them up and say yes Jesus that's my prayer oh my goodness all three four of you

right at your praise God for you others Jesus I surrender I give you my life I trust you Lord search online you guys click right below me and as we have people at all of our churches surrendering to Jesus would you mind the standing to your feet in prayer we're going to pray nobody prays alone until in your heart your voices and your faith with those around you just pray a lot for a Heavenly Father I give you my life Jesus saved me forgive all my sins make me brand new fill me with your spirit

so I could follow you and live for you thank you God you're nearer you'll never leave you'll always be with me my life is not my own the day I give it to you in Jesus name I pray and everybody said dog in the dog family thanks again for joining us here at Life Church you know it's our hearts mission to help you grow and take your next steps in your relationship with Christ we've a great way to help you do that just go to life dot Church slash next and there you can find all

kinds of resources to help you as you take your next steps in your faith journey again thanks again for joining us this week we'll see you next time [Music]