Churches in Land O' Lakes

“Like, if we would learn to sit with Jesus, it would change everything. It's actually if we don't learn how to sit with Jesus, this is why everything feels so hard and so weighty and so heavy and so anxious and so frustrating. Because when we try to do things in our own strength, I'm telling you, that is a tired place to be. But when you're sitting with Jesus, it changes things. It says, don't sit in the seat of scoffers. Well, then where do we sit? Sit with Jesus.”

“And this is this is the illustration. Don't stand on the path of sinners because you think you might be still, but your your life is headed in a certain direction, whether you realize it or not. He said, you're you're taking a stand in the path or in the ways of sinners. The things that we tolerate now become our culture later. He's saying, attention because the people movers the the the people mover of sin is gonna try to bring you somewhere, whether you realize it or not. What I frequently stand in, I will eventually stand for.”

“Sometimes we just gotta get up from the comments and walk out. Sometimes we gotta get up from a gossip circle and walk out. Sometimes we just gotta decide, no. No. No. This is not a circle I wanna be in. I don't know how I found myself here, but now that I'm here, I just realized this is not for me. Return to sender. I gotta go sit somewhere else. But if you don't know where to sit, you won't know where to go. Sit with Jesus. Sit with Jesus.”

“Some of us just need to get in our car after a frustrating day of work and sit with Jesus. Some of us need to hop off of online and go sit with Jesus. Some of us need to have a frustrating conversation with our kids and hang up the phone and go sit with Jesus. If we make a habit of sitting with Jesus, I'm telling you, it'll change the way you walk, the way you think, the way you stand, and the direction of your life. If you learn this was hard, let me go sit with Jesus.”

“Philippians 4, 8 through 9. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there's any excellence, anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Read that list again. Honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable. Why does it matter where we set our mind? Because it shapes our mind. Why does it matter what feeds us? Because what feeds us is either going to be truthful and honorable and just and pure and lovely and commendable and excellent or it's not. If there's anything worthy of praise, Paul says, think about these things. Fix your mind on these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me. This is some good news for somebody right here. Practice these things. Grateful. That he doesn't say do and know and grab a hold of and expert. No, he's at practice. Why? Because you're going to leave, you're going to be like, oh, man, the camera went like, that was crazy. And Monday, anxiety is going to be off the charts.”

“Start praying. Listen, if things are going to trigger my anxiety, it might as well trigger me to pray. If things are going to trigger my anxiety, it might as well trigger me to pray. I call it duping the enemy. He comes over, that anxiety gets triggered. Well, if every time I start to learn, we're going to talk about patterns next week, but if I start to learn that this pattern of anxiety starts creating a trigger to pray, guess who's going to back off? Can you imagine if every time the enemy messed with you, it pushed you closer to God? He's going to leave you alone. Why? His sole objective is to get you further from him. So if we use his tools and weapons against us, and we allow that to draw us into the presence of God, not only do we get clarity, but we also begin to set and fix our life. And then the last thought, this is the last adjustment. We're going to make prayer the method. We're going to have gratitude be the posture, but here's the last adjustment. Ready? Make uplifting thoughts my habit.”

“He's saying, I raised some victors. You're my kid. Watch how I can shape you and change you and take that thing that hurt you and shape it into something new. So prayer, prayer is going to be the method, but gratitude becomes the posture because it tells me how I pray. See, I don't pray just going like, God, you know, I don't like this, and this really stinks, and I don't, this is very frustrating, and like, I didn't even ask for a wife, but you gave her to me. You know what I mean? I mean, I did ask, but like, I didn't know what I was asking for at the time, and it was great, but she's changed as if the goal of life is to remain the same. My kid's seven now. He doesn't run up and go, Daddy, you're home, like he did when he was three. Yeah, he's changed. We change. But gratitude becomes our posture because instead of praying, God, this is really bad. I need you to change it. It becomes like this, God, I don't know what you're going to do here, but you really have a problem.”

“Because prayer helps me to see clearly. You know what anxiety looks like? It looks like this. When we can't see a way forward or when we can't see what's coming up, we get anxious. But then what prayer starts to do is you say, God, I need your perspective. I need to understand what you're seeing. God, I may not know what's going to happen in my future. But I know who holds my future. And because you're in the future and the past and the present. And even though I might be worried that my past may try to repeat itself in my future. And even though I've got anxious because I lost funds before, I may not have enough now. And even though my first marriage didn't work out, I'm really worried that my second one's not going to work out. All of a sudden when we pray and we start talking to God, there gets this clarity in prayer. So where does anxiety come from? Well, it's because I have no idea what I'm looking at. I don't wear glasses. My wife does.”

“Supplication is to ask of God. So listen to me. It's not just telling God about how we feel. It's asking God to do something with how we feel. Make prayer the method. I'm going to pray. I'm going to talk to God. But I'm also going to pray in such a way that I'm also going to ask God to do something with how we feel. Ask him, what are you doing here? What is your perspective? Can you take this away? Would you change it? Would you give me a different perspective? Because prayer begins to reshape and shape and change how we feel. You know why so many times we get anxious? Here's the definition of anxious. Are you ready? To be pulled apart into different directions. Think about that for a second. Why do we feel anxious? Because we're pulled apart into multiple directions. Why do we feel anxious? Because we're pulled apart by the different directions. We're conflicted. I want to go to the top of the mountain, but I'm too afraid to go there. Pulled in different directions.”

“How do I deal with anxiety? You got to make prayer your method. Listen, there's a lot of different ways in which we can be coached and learn how to deal with anxious thoughts. But I'm telling you, when it comes to what scripture tells us, you go to counselor, seek all these things. There's a lot of resources, but don't seek all those resources and miss the one that scripture talks about. Prayer is the method. And so I'm going to meet with people and I'm going to get coaching. I'm going to get resources. I'm going to get help. I'm going to get help. I'm going to get But at the end of the day, Ashley knew she had prayed to God. And this is what Philippians says. He says, don't be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication. You know supplication. We use that word all the time. You're like, I kind of know prayer and supplication. Amen. It's a good one. Give it up for me. Give it up for God. Right? But what the scripture is saying there, and the reason why Paul says prayer and supplication, because prayer is to talk to God.”