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Overcoming Anxiety Series
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There's a story about a man named Earl P. Haney who lost much of his business and money in the 1920s. He became so worried that he developed severe stomach ulcers eating away at his stomach lining. He lost so much weight and became so weak that doctors told him not to even move or lift his hand. He was living on alkaline powder and a teaspoon of milk, and nurses had to pump out his stomach every morning and evening.
The doctor said to him: "Listen, we can't cure you. This is really your life." But Earl P. Haney made a decision. He said, "If I have nothing to look forward to except death, I'm going to make the most out of the life I have left."
He always wanted to travel the world, so he bought a cruise liner ticket. When he told the doctors, they said, "If you go on this trip, you're going to die at sea." He replied, "I might die at sea, but I won't be buried at sea because I've already bought my coffin and given it to the captain."
Here's what he said after: "The moment I boarded the SS President Adams in Los Angeles heading towards the Orient, I felt better. I gradually gave up the alkaline powder and stopped pumping my stomach. I soon started eating all kinds of food, even strange mixtures and concoctions that were guaranteed to kill me. I started smoking long black cigars. I enjoyed myself more than I had done in years.
I ran into monsoons and typhoons which should have put me in my casket from fright alone, but I got enormous kicks out of all this adventure. I played games on board the ship, sang songs, made new friends, stayed up half the night. When we reached China and India, I realized that the business cares I had faced back at home were paradise compared to the poverty and hunger that I witnessed.
*I stopped all my senseless worries and felt fine. When I got back to America, I had gained 20 pounds and had almost forgotten that I had ever had stomach ulcers. I had never felt better in my life. I went back to business and I have never been ill a day since."
This man made up his mind to stop waiting to die and start living. And I want to tell you—we've gone through six weeks of how to overcome anxiety, and in this last message, what I want to preach about is: you've got to start living if you want to overcome anxiety.
Let's read from 2 Kings 7:3:
There were four men who were lepers at the entrance of the gate, and they said to one another, "Why are we sitting here until we die? If we say, 'Let us enter the city,' the famine is in the city and we shall die there. If we sit here, we shall die also. So now come, let us go over to the camp of the Syrians. If they spare our lives we shall live; if they kill us, we shall but die." So they arose at twilight to go into the camp of the Syrians. But when they came to the edge of the camp of Syria, behold there was no one there, for the Lord God had made the army of the Syrians hear the sound of chariots and horses, sounds of a great army.
These four men were lepers. In Bible times, leprosy meant certain death. Your skin would eat away, your fingers might fall off, your toes might fall off, your nose could fall off. If you had leprosy, you had to walk around and shout "unclean, unclean!" No one would associate with you. There was no chance of marriage, no chance of friendship, no chance of employment.
But not only were they isolated—there was also a famine. And yet these men said to themselves: "Why are we sitting here waiting to die? Let us do something." They didn't know what would happen. They might die. But they realized: "If we stay here, we definitely die. If we go to the Syrian camp, we might die, but we might also live. So let's go."
And notice what happened: as they moved toward the camp, the Lord caused the Syrians to hear the sound of chariots and horses—the sound of a great army. The Syrians thought they were being attacked, so they fled in panic, abandoning their tents, their horses, their gold, their silver, their food, their clothes. When these lepers arrived, they found abundance. They ate, they drank, they carried off silver and gold and clothing. They couldn't believe it.
The reason many of us stopped living is because we fall into self-pity. And I want to tell you: self-pity is one of the most addictive drugs to mankind.
Self-pity is bad for us, but it feels good. It's fueled by our pride. When you have self-pity, you can't do anything. "Woe is me. I've not done anything to cause this. It's everyone around me. It's everyone else. No one's helping me. No one's there for me."
Self-pity blinds you. I've seen people fall into self-pity saying, "Oh, no one's there for me, no one's helped me," when I know there are people who have done everything for them. Self-pity will blind you to the fact that God is for you. The Bible says, "If God is before you, who can be against you?" But when you fall into self-pity, you can't even see that God is for you anymore.
Self-pity makes us feel safe, even though it's destroying us. Because rather than stepping out and doing something different, something unconventional, something we've never done before, self-pity says, "No, it won't work," and we just stay safe. But it's destroying us.
Self-pity is so comfortable. You wrap yourself in self-pity like a warm blanket: "It's just me. No one cares for me. No one's there for me. No one did it for me." Self-pity is fueled by the flesh, and the devil loves to fill us with self-pity.
In the book of Luke, there's a story about a woman who had an issue of blood. She was bleeding for twelve years. For twelve years, she couldn't stop bleeding. Can you imagine how weak and drained she would be?
But because she had issues of blood, according to Old Testament law, she couldn't go to certain places. If she sat on your bed or couch, it would become unclean. People would say, "I feel for you, but you can't come around because my whole house would be unclean."
She was dealing with all of this. She could have sunk into self-pity. But the day she heard that Jesus was passing by—the day she saw that Jesus was in town—she said, "Listen, I've got to touch it. If I just touch the hem of His garment..." She could have waited and asked, "Why didn't He come for me? Why didn't Jesus knock on my door?" But she didn't say that. She said, "I've got to go get to Jesus. I can't be here waiting to die. I've got to start living."
Some of you, Jesus is passing you by today. You are in church today. I don't know how you came here or why, but I know that if you're here, then Jesus has hopeful for you, and He's brought you here. He wants you to touch Him today. He wants to change your life today. He wants you to start living today.
These lepers said, "If we enter the city, there's a famine, and we'll die. If we stay here, we'll die. So let's go to the camp of the Syrians. Let's do something. Let's become active. Let's initiate something here."
Self-pity keeps you inactive. It gets you depressed, full of worry, anxious, sick in your mind and body. But they said, "No, let's do something. Let's start living."
Studies published in research journals show that physical activity can radically reduce the symptoms of anxiety and depression. The research in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine shows that regular physical exercise is significantly linked to reducing symptoms of anxiety and depression in all age groups. Studies indicate that engaging in goal-directed activities and behaviors can reduce cycles of anxiety and worry, promoting better mental health.
What the research is showing us, the Bible has been showing us all along: If you want to overcome your anxiety, you've got to start living. You've got to start moving. People who go out, exercise, get busy, meet people, get involved, focus on others—they're able to overcome their anxiety.
There was a woman who went to the doctor with depression, anxiety, panic attacks, and fear. It got so bad that she couldn't go to work, didn't want to go out of her house, didn't want anyone around. The doctor said, "We've done all the tests. There's nothing physically wrong with you. But here you are, locked away."
He said, "You know what you need? Buy a kitten."
She buys this kitten and starts to take care of it. As she started to focus on something rather than herself, she went back to the doctor and said, "I'm free. I'm not suffering like I was, because now I'm living. I'm focused on doing. I'm active."
To overcome anxiety, sometimes you're going to have to do what you can do.
These lepers could not fight a battle. They could have said, "We can't fight the Syrians. We can't go into that camp. We can't fight them in battle." But what they could do was just walk in there and say, "Listen, we need help."
Some of you might die. They might attack you. But the lepers said, "Look, if we stay here, we definitely die. If we go there, we might die. We know it's definitely going to happen here. Let's do something."
You might say, "But what if it doesn't work?" Well, it definitely won't work if you do nothing.
But they said, "Listen, if we stay here, we're going to die. Let us do something. We might die, it might not work—but let's do it."
Some of you say, "But what if I witness to that person and they reject me? What if they're of another religion? What if they mock me?" They might. But then they might say, "Hey, I want this."
I remember when we were out in Romford, I stopped this guy with his kid. He started telling me his story: "I was wondering about God recently. Where is this church? I'm going to go to the church."
He told me what happened. He said, "I had to leave work because of a bad car accident. I had brain damage from it. But as I went through this trauma, I started to think about God. I need to know where is God?"
He wasn't walking around anybody asking, "Do you know God?" He was just walking through the High Street. But there are people living around you—maybe your next-door neighbor, maybe that person on the bus next to you. You don't know what's going on in their hearts.
But here's what I know: If you stay here, you know they're not going to get saved. If you stay here, you know you're not going to get that job. If you don't apply for that job, you definitely aren't going to get it.
We need to stop focusing on what we can't do and start doing what we can do.
God would say to some of us today, "What can you do?" Some of you would say, "Pastor, I don't have the money to pay all my bills." Okay, but you can contact them. "What's that going to do?" You don't know. Contact them. They've been bothering you, and you've been ignoring them. Contact them and say, "Listen, I don't have the money right now, but I can send you five pounds a month. I can send you a pound a month." They might just say, "You know what? You tried. Give us a pound. It's over."
When I had a bill that was thousands of pounds, I reached out to them and said, "Listen, I'll start paying, but I don't have it." They said, "If you pay half, we'll write off the whole thing." I found that money.
You can't find a job? You can apply for 20 jobs every day. This generation, you've got it so much easier. Back in the day, you had to go into the job place, ask if there were vacancies, get an application form, go home, fill it out by hand, and if you made a mistake, you had to start over. Nowadays, you just click, click, click, click. I would be applying for 100 jobs a day if I were job hunting.
Recently, I was speaking to somebody who told me he was online and saw a job that was way above what he was earning—almost double his current wage. He said, "It's way above me," but he applied for it anyway. They called him back for an interview. Then they took him to a second interview. He wouldn't have gotten it if he hadn't applied. He might get it, he might not, but let's believe God.
Don't talk about what you can't do. Talk about what you're going to do for you.
Some of you say, "I can't make every service." Well, make the services you can make. When you're here, take notes. "I can't be in a ministry right now." Okay, come early and pray for the ministries that are going on. "I can't make every outreach." Make the ones you can. "I don't think I can make any work every Saturday." Take some flyers and do your own witnessing on a Friday to the people in your area.
So many times we talk about what we can't do, but we need to focus on what we can do.
Some of you say, "I'm still single, Pastor. When is someone going to want me? No one wants me." If you're single right now, that means you have a lot of time on your hands.
When you're married with kids, you don't have the same time. If you're single, you have a lot of time. And you know what that means? It's time to develop you.
You have time to read your Bible and pray and really find out about Christ. You have time to take care of yourself. You have time to learn about nutrition and what you should be eating. You have time to go to the gym and lose some weight or gain some weight.
Rather than doing nothing and asking, "Who's going to want me?"—take care of yourself. Go to the gym. Look at your wardrobe. Do a course. Buy some clothes. Present yourself better. Work on yourself.
When you get married, you'll be in a better financial position, a better spiritual position, a better psychological position. You'll have read some books, you'll have developed yourself. You'll be richer.
Do you know how to take care of your own home? If you're struggling to take care of your bedroom, how are you going to take care of a home?
Learn to develop yourself and do better for yourself. Don't just wait for someone. Do you know what to eat? Do you understand nutrition? It's not rocket science. You can spend hours on Instagram looking at cats and people dancing, but if you spent half an hour looking at nutrition and working on a schedule for how to cook and how to live, you'd be a far better person—less depressed, feeling better about yourself.
You need new clothes? No. When you start doing yourself up, you put on those old clothes and you start to feel good.
Sometimes you need to launch out. Husbands, you need to think about your wife. She didn't marry you just to "ride it out." I remember a guy who said to his wife, "No, we're saving for a house. We can't buy a wardrobe." When are you going to buy the house? In 10 years? Come on.
You have to think. You have to engage. Sometimes we look at our spouses and think they've made up their mind about us, and that's just the way it is. But you can actually change. You can say, "You know what? I'm going to be the best I can be. I'm going to be the best I can be for you."
I remember speaking to a guy who separated from his wife. He's the dad. I asked him, "How are your kids?" He said, "The kids don't want to speak to me." I said, "Do you text them?" "No." "Do you write to them?" "No." "Do you try?" "No."
I said, "Listen, you should still be texting them, still writing to them, still sending them gifts. When they grow up, if you don't put in the effort now, they're going to get to that age and think, 'Yeah, you did nothing.'"
You've got to reach out. You've got to start doing something.
There's a guy in the Bible called Blind Bartimaeus. He's blind and he's a beggar. One day, he hears a commotion. He hears someone say, "That's Jesus! Jesus is here!"
He starts crying out, "Jesus, thou son of David!" But the people tell him, "Shut up! Be quiet! Get back!"
But Blind Bartimaeus doesn't sink into self-pity. The one thing he could do was beg. And when they told him to shut up, he didn't care, because he was used to begging. He kept shouting, "Jesus, thou son of David!"
His shouting was so loud that it went over all the other people, and Jesus says, "Bring him."
What is the one thing you could do? You might say, "It's not that good. It's not that powerful. It's not as good as her. It's not as good as him." Don't care. It's your one thing. God says to you today, "Do that one thing that you can do."
Some of you would say, "It's too late for me, Pastor." There was a woman named Sarah Bernhardt. She was a French woman, probably one of the first film stars. She was born in 1844.
She was born illegitimate, which was very shameful back then. She was a woman in the 1840s, when that would have been really hard. The man she married wasn't faithful to her. After he married her, he died very early, and she became a widow. She lost loads of money in investments. She lived through the First World War.
But she became a top actress. When she was older, her popularity waned, but at 70, she was still traveling around doing acting.
One time, on a ship, she had a bad pain in her leg. The doctor said it was serious. After investigation, they said, "Your leg is rotten. We're going to have to cut it off."
At 70, as she was going into surgery, her son was there, and she said to him, "I'll be back soon." She was waving to him like she was on stage. As they wheeled her into surgery, she started going into character, playing one of her roles. The nurse said, "Is this to help your nerves?" She said, "I'm going to entertain you until you do it."
She went in, got her leg amputated, came out, and said, "But I still got lots of life in me." At 70, with one leg, she was still acting. At 79, she was about to go on stage when she passed out. They thought she was dead, but she resuscitated and said, "Am I on yet?" She got up and went on stage. She kept going.
When she eventually passed away at 79, it was on the stage. Even when you went around her house as an old lady, her hands would shake, but when you looked in her eyes, you saw the eyes of a young woman.
This woman had bad experiences. At 70, she had her leg cut off. And even then, she said, "I'm not waiting to die. I'm still going to start living."
Some people here have had bad experiences in your 20s, and you've already given up. Maybe you've experienced something I've never experienced, and I'm not making light of it. But you're only in your 20s, and you're waiting to die? God says to you: Start living.
Some of you had bad experiences in your 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s. This woman is in her 70s, and she still said, "It's not too late for me. I'm still going to start living."
God did not come to give you religion. He came to give you life—and life more abundantly.
I did not come here to fill buildings. In 2007, I heard the voice of God, the call of God, and it wasn't to fill a building. I don't care how filled this building is—that's up to God. But what I want to do is make sure that every single one of you gets filled with life. That you will live your life to the fullest.
That you will say, "No, no, no. I'm not staying here. This is not defining me. I've lost the leg. I've gone through difficulties. This life is hard. There are things in my past. Yes, I could cry about them. But I'm not, because I'm not waiting to die. I'm living life to the fullest. I'm overcoming this depression, this anxiety, this fear. I'm reaching out. I'm launching out. I'm getting involved. I'm shaking hands. I'm going through doors. I'm believing God."
God has more for us, church. I've been praying to God recently. I said, "God, you've been so gracious to me. You've been so amazing. God has given me a new appreciation for His goodness and His grace over my life."
I said, "God, you're so amazing. I love you so much. You've been amazing to me. You've used my life. I've seen hundreds saved. But God, I want to see thousands saved now. I want to see hundreds of thousands saved through my life before I go home."
God has more for you, church.
Here are these lepers—bits dropping off them, starving, bellies rumbling, no food in the city, no hope, no life. And they look at each other and say, "Listen, let's just go. If we stay here, we die. We go into this camp, we starve. Let's just go. Maybe if they see us, they're going to kill us, but we're going to die anyway."
And the Bible says: as they go, something is happening in the camp. All these Assyrian soldiers have got gold, silver, food, clothes. They've got everything. But as these lepers start to go, the people in the camp start to hear chariots coming. They hear horses coming. They hear armies coming. They think, "Oh, we've got to get out of here!"
How did they hear that? It was the Lord. When these men said, "Let's go," God said, "I'm going to go with you. I'm going to go before you. I'm going to amplify those little leper steps. I'm going to amplify what you're doing."
The Syrians ran and fled, and when the lepers got there, it was like a free-for-all. Gold, silver, food, clothes. They couldn't believe it. They were eating, drinking, taking clothes, hiding them, going into another tent, hiding more.
What if God could do something in your life so powerful that you couldn't believe it? What if God would move in your life because you stepped out? What if there would be an abundance—friendship, ministry, resources, blessing—that would blow your mind? So powerful that it's not just for you, but for your family, for generations to come, for the church?
This is what God wants to do. But you have to move.
I want to tell you: God does not attend pity parties. God is too busy planning your victory party.
The Bible says in Psalms 23:5, "You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies." God is planning your victory party while you keep asking Him to come to your pity party.
God is like, "Shake it off."
That woman who had the issue of blood—she touches Jesus. Jesus stops and says, "Someone touched me." There's a crowd around Him. The disciples say, "Yeah, people are just touching you everywhere." Jesus says, "No, no, no. I don't mean a crowd type of touch. Some of you have got to get past the crowd touch."
Some of you come to church with the crowd. That's good. There's a crowd touch. You're with Jesus. You're taking pictures of Jesus. That's great. But this is a different type of touch.
Jesus says, "No, I felt power go out of me."
Think about it: This woman initiates something. She just says, "If I touch Him, if I touch Him, I can be healed." Jesus wasn't standing there saying, "Anybody want to touch me? You can be healed! Come on, touch me!" Jesus was on His way to do something else. There was another guy whose 12-year-old daughter was sick and dying, and Jesus was on His way to pray for her.
But when this woman steps out, when she says, "I'm going to believe God and I'm going to move," God gets involved.
When you and I say, "You know what? I cannot stay here. I cannot live like this. I cannot constantly be in poverty. I cannot constantly be depressed. I cannot constantly be barren. I cannot live here anymore. God, I'm stepping out,"—God gets involved.
During the Great Depression in the 1920s and 30s, there was a woman whose husband couldn't keep a job. He kept getting fired. He was sick. During the Great Depression, they lost their house and owed the grocer so much money—maybe 50 dollars, which would be like 500 now, maybe more.
One day, her son came home crying. She asked, "What happened, son?" He said he was in the shop, and the shopkeeper accused him of stealing in front of everybody. He didn't do it, and he was so ashamed. The dad couldn't go back and say anything to the guy because they owed him money.
She said that was it. It was like something broke within her. She said she could see no hope for the future.
Let me read her words:
I must have become temporarily insane with worry, for I shut off my washing machine, took my little five-year-old daughter into the bedroom, plugged up the windows and the cracks with paper and rags. My little girl said to me, "Mommy, what are you doing?" and I answered, "There's a little draft in here." Then I turned on the gas heater we had in the bedroom and I didn't light it. As I lay down in the bed with my daughter beside me, she said, "Mommy, this is funny. We just got up a little while ago. But I said to her, "Never mind, we'll take a little nap." Then I closed my eyes, listening to the gas escape from the heater.
Suddenly I thought I heard music. I listened. I had forgotten to turn off the radio in the kitchen. It didn't matter now, but the music kept playing on and on. And I heard someone singing: "What a Friend We Have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear. What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer. Oh, what peace we often forfeit. Oh, what needless pains we bear, all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer."
As I listened to that hymn, I realized I had made a tragic mistake. I had tried to fight all my terrible battles and troubles alone. I had not taken everything to God in prayer. I jumped up, turned off the gas, opened the door, and raised the windows. I wept and prayed all the rest of that day. Only I didn't pray for help. Instead, I poured out my soul in thanksgiving to God for the blessings He had given me—five splendid children, all of them healthy and fine, strong in body and in mind.
I promised God that I would never again prove to be so ungrateful. And I have kept that promise. For in time, things improved. Not overnight, but as the Great Depression lightened, we made a little more money. Today, my children are grown up and married. I have three fine grandchildren.
As I look back on that terrible day when I turned on the gas, I thank God over and over and over again that I woke up in time. What joy I would have missed if I had carried out that act! How many wonderful years I would have forfeited forever!
Whenever I hear how someone wants to end their life, I feel like crying out: "Don't do it! Don't do it! Because the blackest moments we live through can only last a little time, and then comes the future."
Have some of you today figuratively turned on the gas? You've just decided to die? You've given up? Maybe in your 20s, maybe in your 30s, maybe in your 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s—you've given up.
But can you hear heaven today calling: "Oh, what a friend we have in Jesus!"?
Listen, if you will call out to Jesus today and say, "God, help me. I'm stepping out. I'm no longer waiting to die. I'm going to start living," you can overcome. And I'm telling you: if Jesus is with you, there is nothing that can be against you.
In Jesus' name, let's give Him praise.
Father, we ask you right now for Your grace and mercy. I pray, Father, that You would speak to us through Your Word. I pray, Father, that You would give us a vision for life.
I pray for those, heavenly Father, who are downcast, under a cloud, under a shadow, under confusion, depression, anxiety, fear, and worry. Loosen them. Release them, heavenly Father. Let them see, Father, that they have every opportunity. Once they have You, once they have Christ, I pray, heavenly Father, that all we've discussed over these weeks to overcome anxiety will be more than information. Let it be transformation.
We look unto You. We need Your help today.
Now, if you're here today and you're not a Christian, you're not born again, you've come to church but you're not right with God—maybe it's because of some situation, some struggle, some worry, some sin, some weakness that you've distanced yourself from God, thinking that He's rejected you.
But I want to tell you: if you're here today under the sound of my voice, there is hope for you in Jesus. If you will turn to Him, if you will ask Him to forgive you of your sin and come in and guide your life, He will take control of your life. He will guide you. He will save you.
The Bible says God is not willing that any should perish, but all would come to Him and come to repentance. Start a new life with Him.
If you're here today and you would say, "Pastor, pray for me. I need to give my life to Jesus. I want to start this new life with Jesus. I need to step out,"—this is where you need to step out today. You need to first step out with God and say, "God, I need new life."
If that's you, pray this prayer with me. I'm going to say it, and you just say it right where you are. Say it from your heart. God is going to hear this prayer. You can whisper it, but I want you to speak it. Don't just say it in your head—I want you to use your mouth. The Bible says when we confess with our mouth, we are saved.
Lord Jesus, thank You for dying on the cross for my sin. Please forgive me. I receive You as my Lord and Savior. Help me to know You and to live for You the rest of my life, in the name of Jesus I pray. Amen.
