Episode Transcript
[00:00:03] Speaker A: Welcome to the Erickson Covenant Podcast. We're so glad that you've joined us today.
We confess that we don't have all the answers, but as a community, we seek to find and follow Jesus and to discover daily the life he has always wanted for us.
We hope this message will be encouraging and will inspire you to take the next steps on your spiritual journey.
If we can help you in any way, please connect with us. The easiest way is through our website at Erickson Covenant ca.
Let's get started.
[00:00:37] Speaker B: Good morning, Erickson Covenant. It's been a while since we've looked at each other in this vantage point.
It's a real pleasure for me to be here with you today. So delighted to see you, whether you're here in person, because I can see you dimly, because my eyesight's not that good.
But also, to those who are online watching now or perhaps later, I'm just really excited to share my own when God speaks moment. And I pray that as I share with you, he will also speak to you.
We've been exploring this theme ever since Easter. I don't know about you, but I've been so very blessed to hear Peter and Tom and Cheryl and Cohen and Chase share some of the scriptures that have shaped their lives as believers. I've loved hearing more of their life stories, their testimonies, well, that personal bit specific moments in their lives when they really felt God speak to them. You could call it an aha moment, really.
It's my honour and privilege to share today one thing that God has been teaching me in the past few years. Hopefully there's been more than one, but this is one thing that stood out to me.
Let's start out by praying together.
God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, Triune God, I can't thank you enough for your love, your comfort and your guidance, for everything you have done for us and continue to do.
Please bless our time in your word this morning and may we feel your comfort in difficult times.
In the name of Jesus, amen.
Anyone here remember March 2020?
What happened in March 2020?
Yeah, the entire planet shut down due to COVID 19. We'd heard some vague, disquieting rumors for a few months right over there. Somewhere overseas, there was this niggling problem of a growing pandemic.
But did we have any idea how much impact it would have on our daily life here in the Creston Valley when we first heard those rumors?
Not so much.
Something else happened in March 2020.
And over the following months of isolation the pandemic triggered a massive global increase in anxiety.
The World Health organization reported a 25% rise in prevalence during the first year alone.
This spike was driven by fear of the virus, of course, social isolation, instability, and just widespread uncertainty.
Can anyone relate to that anxiety feeling that maybe grew larger in March 2020?
I definitely can.
Before the pandemic, I would never have cast myself as an anxious person.
I had moments, of course. We all do. But the kind of tension and dread that filled me in the spring of 2020 was unprecedented.
And I have to say, that's one word I also dreaded hearing on the news during that era. You too?
I mean, I knew what it was before that, but it seemed like everything now was unprecedented.
I was sick and tired of it. I wanted things to be precedented again.
I wanted things to stop being groundbreaking and unparalleled and never before seen.
Most of you know that I'm an author. That spring, I was in the midst of writing a novel, which is my natural state. I'm always editing one, writing another, and looking forward to the next one, because that's what I do.
But at that time, with the entire planet seemingly holding its collective breath, waiting for the other shoe to fall, you know, the precedented one or the unprecedented one, my creativity froze solid.
What was the point of writing a silly, frivolous story if this was the end of the world and everyone was going to die anyway?
I know, I know. Dramatic much?
But deep inside, that dread was definitely underlying my thoughts. And as an aside, my stories weren't frivolous then, and they aren't now. But nothing was reasonable at the time.
As I grappled with the suddenly dim hope for the future, God pointed me to a specific scripture.
You've heard the other speakers in this from the Air Series on the Air Series mention a preaching team meeting a few months ago in.
Tom sat us down in a circle and said, why don't you share with us a verse that's been really impactful and meaningful to you lately? And so we went around the circle and just shared something that popped into our minds. And then he said, oh, you get to preach on that.
So that was lovely.
First Corinthians 15:58 was the verse that came to my mind that day, and I intended to focus on that in today's sermon. But as I mulled and prayed about it, I realized that it was really only the springboard to what God had been showing me. Well, what does it say in the Valerie Comer Living translation? It says this.
So, my dear Valerie, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever wasted.
And so, after a period of paralysis, really, I was able to write again. I was moving forward in obedience to the Lord, no matter what happened to the story, if anyone else ever read it or not, because, you know, they might all be dead, who knows?
I was writing as an act of worship to my Lord. And that is never useless. It is never pointless.
So that verse with my name in the blank has been riding along at the bottom of my writing document for the last six years. Every time I open my document to write today's chapter, I see that, and I'm reminded that I'm working for the Lord and that it is that there is a point to it. The point is for him, not for anything else.
But that wasn't the end of my battle with my newfound best friend anxiety. I'd become a functional person in the daytime again, which was wonderful.
I was grateful for that. But nighttime, that was a different matter.
Authors and other creative people are blessed or possibly cursed with vivid imaginations. And my brain desperately wanted to spiral and keep me wide awake, staring into the darkness, panicking about the situation and the division on the planet. And while we're at it, me and my brain, we might as well feel anxious about all sorts of other things, because now we were getting really good at it.
And that's where God met me. He wanted to renew my mind, but he didn't wave a magic wand. There was work to be done, and I had to do the work with his help for sure.
Pastor Tom has been challenging all of us for several years now, specifically to memorize scripture, right? You all have heard that from him, right? I'm sure I'm not the only one who has sat in the pew and nodded and thought, yes, I should memorize more scripture, or maybe at all.
But that during that time in spring of 2020, I once again renewed my goal of filling my mind with God's word. I needed a weapon against the spiral of darkness. And what better weapon than a sword? Ephesians 6 says, Take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
And now to practice with my sword.
And for that, Philippians 4, 4, 9 became my guide and one of the first portions of the Bible that I rememberized.
And finally, you'll be glad to know I'm to the main point of today's message.
Let me read these verses. Rejoice in the Lord always.
Again, I will say, rejoice, Let Your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand.
Be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report. If there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things, those things which you have both learned and received and heard and seen in me do, and the God of peace shall be with you.
If you were observant, you may have noticed that the readings went from the new King James to the old King James. I first memorized these verses when I was a teenager, and even after years of dormancy I cannot memorize them again in a different version. Can't be done. My brain says, no thank you.
New memory work I often do in the niv. But repeats these have to be in the language of my childhood. And I've come to peace with that because honestly, for years that was a procrastination tool for me. I'd be like, but I can't remember these words because these words are still kind of stuck, even though I haven't thought about them that way. And so I couldn't do it.
Remember, God brought these verses to mind as I was battling anxiety, particularly at nighttime. The message in them is twofold.
One, the very act of reciting Scripture as I close my eyes at night blocks other things from grabbing hold of my mind.
And two, the words of the Scriptures themselves remind me how to grasp and keep the peace of God. What a great thing to meditate on.
Let's look at each of these sections one at a time.
Rejoice in the Lord always.
Again I will say, rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to all men.
The Lord is at hand.
You've heard the saying, choose joy.
Is it always that simple?
Of course not.
First, if you're in the grip of depression or have deep unresolved issues or chemical imbalances, you should seek counseling, perhaps medication. Please do not hear me saying that it's all mind over matter. Just put on a happy face and everything will be fine. Just fine.
And yet.
And yet, the choice to rejoice in the Lord is huge. It's a conscious decision to see everything from his hand, to see that he is bigger than our problems. Even if those are huge planet wide catastrophes like pandemics and wars and famines because While the COVID era 19 is over, there is still plenty going on out there to concern us all now that our anxiety brains have been engaged.
Romans 8:28 reminds us, and we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.
If that's not cause for rejoicing, I don't know what is.
We choose to take the long view. There's another saying that says it will all work out in the end and if it hasn't worked out yet, it's not the end.
So this should cause rejoicing in us. Maybe not dance in the aisles rejoicing or you know, party horn blowing rejoicing, but a deep sense of perspective.
Remember Paul wrote this letter to the Philippian Church from a prison cell.
He had endured many trials and persecutions that we in the Creston Valley can only imagine.
Beatings, imprisonments, shipwrecks, stonings, etc. For his faith in Jesus. When Paul tells us to rejoice and then reiterates it, actually reiterate means to say it a different way. He just repeats it.
Rejoice.
Again, I say rejoice.
He knows what he's asking us to do.
It wasn't easy for him to rejoice either.
Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. The King James says, let your moderation be known. While we're rejoicing, we need to keep balanced.
That means we need to be steadfast, not prone to anger, not wishy washy, just focused on Jesus and rejoicing in Him.
Max Lucado says, unchecked anxiety can unleash angry outbursts, rash accusations and fiery retaliations against those in your path who are unfortunate enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
How many people have been wounded as a result of such unbridled stress?
On the other hand, how many disasters have been averted because one person decided to remain calm?
It's this composure Paul is referring to when he states, let your gentleness be evident to all.
Be anxious for nothing but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
It's actually a command not to be anxious. Oh, that means we need to nip it in the bud.
That's what we're working out here today. By focusing on joy and balance and now on prayer, we take those anxious thoughts and present them to God in prayer. We do this by supplication.
That's asking him to intervene on the current issue.
Then we proceed to thankfulness that he sees that he has intervened in the past, that he will intervene in the future.
We don't need that negative thought spiral. We've chosen joy.
We've chosen steadfastness.
We know that the Lord is near, and so we choose to take our cares to God.
We're reminded of who it is we trust.
And if it is God we're trusting in, then we can release our worries into his care because he is capable and strong enough to fix them.
Now we can say thank you and accept his peace.
We don't have to wait to see the evidence because we know he is in charge.
From 1 Peter give all your worries and cares to God, for He cares about you.
Isn't that cause for rejoicing? That's the kind of spiral God can get behind.
But may I add a word of caution from personal experience.
Remember how I broached this topic today by my struggles to fall asleep because my brain latched onto all the negatives.
Your mileage may vary, but I have found that if I pray to God with supplication while lying in bed, it tends to trigger that negative spiral.
As I give God all the details, this detail and this one and this one and this one. I'm focusing on those things again.
And then I can get bogged down in them. Even while I'm trying to give them away, I'm analyzing them while I do. Does that make sense?
So we definitely need to pray for world leaders for all the trials of the day. But for me, I need to do that earlier in the day.
I think of it kind of like drinking coffee or tea. It's not a bad thing. Even a good thing can really enjoy it. But maybe we don't need a lot of caffeine at bedtime.
Focus on worship, on reminding yourself how big and how great and how strong your God is, how mighty he is.
Remind yourself of his presence. Remind yourself of his great love to you.
Tell him how amazing all that is.
But don't let the downward spiral begin in your prayer time.
What's the end goal here?
And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Peace Peace is not the absence of struggle.
It's not a ceasefire. Biblical peace is a state of wholeness that comes from being right with God and trusting him, often right smack in the middle of trouble.
Logically, we could be, should be troubled by terrible circumstances. But we're not, because we're focused on Jesus.
The peace of God transcends all logic. It can't be explained, only claimed and clung to.
Now we finally have something to guard our hearts and minds during those sleepless nights.
The peace of God.
But how?
Finally, Friends of Erickson Covenant Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, Whatsoever things are just, Whatsoever things are pure, Whatsoever things are lovely, Whatsoever things are of good report. If there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things. I'm. I'm looking at that list over there. I'm looking for whatsoever is worrisome, whatsoever is fear inducing.
Whatever knots my stomach up.
Think on these things.
Except they're not on the list.
Notice we're told to focus on true things.
From Psalm 25 show me the right path, O Lord. Point out the road for me to follow. Lead me by your truth and teach me for you are the God who saves me. All day long, all night long, I put my hope in you.
Whatsoever is true.
The Bible is ultimate truth.
Focus on the words of God in the written word. Think on true things.
Focus on honest things. Other translations say honorable things or people look for those who exemplify honor and are worthy of respect and imitate how they place their faith and trust in the lord.
From Psalm 16 the godly people in the land are my true heroes. I take pleasure in them.
Focus on what is just or right.
From Psalm 1 oh, the joys of those who delight in the law of the Lord. Meditating on it day and night.
See, we're on the right path here by focusing on, by delighting in, by meditating on God's Word at night. Even says so right there.
It's hard to meditate in the dark with words you do not know by heart.
So memorize.
Focus on what is pure. From Psalm 119 how can a young or older person stay pure? By obeying your Word.
Once again, the key to thinking about pure things is to focus on Scripture.
Focus on what is lovely or pleasing.
From Ephesians 5 carefully determine what pleases the Lord.
How do we do that? Again?
Right. Think about Scripture.
Focus on good reports or as some translations say, on what is admirable or commendable.
What is more admirable or commendable than our God? So let's think about him and his amazing attributes.
From Revelation 4 Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, the One who always was, who is, and who is to come.
If there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things. This sentence sums up the rest of the verse. Whatever is virtuous or praiseworthy, anything that is uplifting, that is what we should be thinking about.
Which things didn't Paul just tell us? Maybe he thinks we've lost the forest for the trees because he reiterates again in verse nine those things which you have both learned and received and heard and seen in me do, and the God of peace shall be with you.
It's not enough to know these things.
It's not enough to watch someone else practice them.
It's not enough to study them and dissect them. It's not enough to hear sermons or talks about them.
We have to walk out the walk what we believe to be true. We have to do them.
In my case, I have to do these things in bed at night.
I want. I desperately need the presence of the God of Peace with me all the time and especially in those dark hours. Emmanuel God with us is with us, and he's the God of Peace.
So all these things work together.
Peace and freedom from anxiety help us sleep. Sleep helps us cope and even thrive and rejoice and be moderate. Then we can carry that peace with us through the day. It's also a spiral, but this time it's a positive, uplifting spiral instead of a downward depressive one.
But how?
You might have noticed that I like to know the steps and the specific things.
So let me share some things that have helped me first, we need to deal with the darkness, right?
No, light is stronger than darkness.
Yes, negative thoughts want to crowd in, but we deal with them by shining the light of God's Word on them, not by grappling with them in the dark.
Again, a reminder here. I'm not talking about clinical depression or chemical imbalance or addiction. I'm talking about fear and dread grabbing hold of our minds and how to excise that.
Let me share three tactics for guarding your heart and mind, specifically at bedtime.
Maybe I'm being too specific, but maybe I'm not.
First, memorize scripture that you can recite at night.
Choose whatever verses speak to you.
Philippians 4:4:9 is a good place to start. Or any of the other verses that I've shared today. You can go back through the sermon on YouTube later and make note of those if you want to.
I can already hear you, although it is silent in here. Memorization is too hard and I have said that. Also, as Pastor Tom has said, if you can remember someone's name, you can memorize Scripture Now, I'll be the first to admit that I cannot always remember names very well.
So start simple. Start perhaps by rememberizing verses that you once knew but have forgotten.
Build up the muscle. It's good for your physical brain as well as for your spiritual health.
Secondly, excuse me, Remind yourself of all the verses from old hymns and worship songs that draw you closer to God.
Memorize those. Now. You maybe know them better than you might know some scripture. At least that was kind of the case with me because of their rhythm, right? It makes it easier. And they rhyme often. But have you ever noticed that when a few people are trying to sing an old hymn and they don't have the lyrics in front of them, sometimes that second half of verse one becomes the second half of verse three and so forth, because we don't actually really remember them.
So take a bit of time to actually learn the words.
And it should be pretty easy to do, comparatively speaking, if it's something that you have known well in the past.
And you can sing those in your mind as you fall asleep.
And third, try breath prayers. These are super, super simple and they require zero memorization. You'll be glad to know. Choose two words to focus on, a negative and a positive. Yes, I know. I know what we're talking about here. But you pick opposite words such as anxiety and peace or fear and hope.
And as you exhale, you think out with anxiety. And as you inhale, you think in with peace.
Out with anxiety, in with peace.
You're pushing out the negative with every exhale and welcoming positivity with every inhale. Repeat the words in your mind. Exhale.
Inhale.
These are three ways to counter dark thoughts by focusing on Scripture and on God. I'm sure there are others, and if you have any other tips or tricks, I would really love to hear them.
When the dark thoughts snake their way in, because they will, they will try to for sure recite Scripture louder. Sometimes I am absolutely shouting Bible verses in my mind, or belting out a praise song rather aggressively, quietly, or bellowing in with peace as in my head. As I focus on breath prayers, typically I close my eyes and start right in on Psalm 23. The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.
When I get distracted, because I do, I circle back to the first verse and start again as many times as it takes to get through it. Over to Philippians 4, 4, 9, over to Isaiah 40, 28, 31, and on through my list, which is slowly growing.
If I'm still awake, and I'm often not at this point, then I have a mental worship soundtrack to go to next.
Leave no room for Satan to barge in with all the negative thoughts, all the worst case scenarios.
Crowd your brain with the positives with God and with His Word.
A few weeks ago, Cheryl reminded us of a quote from Holocaust survivor Corrie Ten Boom. She said worry is a cycle of inefficient thoughts whirling around a center of fear.
She also said, never be afraid to trust an unknown future to an unknown God.
If you, like me, need a reminder of how to trust God with all the things in the night hours as well as the daytimes, I pray these thoughts on Philippians Chapter four will help guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
And in Psalm 4:8 it says, in peace I will lie down and sleep for you alone, O Lord, will keep me safe.
Jesus said in today's reading that Kristin read for us, I am leaving you with a gift, peace of mind and heart. And this peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don't be troubled or afraid.
The gift Jesus promised was embodied as the Holy Spirit who came down on Pentecost, which we are celebrating today to reside in each believer. He is the comforter and he is here with us giving us peace, whether in the dark of night or the light of day.
Is getting a good night's sleep, the end all and be all for the Christian person?
It doesn't sound very spiritual, but good sleep is a gift that definitely helps set a positive tone.
And whether your specific struggle looks like mine or not, following the guidance Paul offers in today's passage is solid for renewing your mind and clothing you in God's peace.
If you're here today and you have not invited the God of Peace into your life, that would be the first step.
He is absolutely willing and desires that relationship with you. He wants to give you his love, his peace, his hope, his everything. And if you want to talk about that later, I'd be happy to chat with you.
Let's close in prayer.
God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
Blessed triune God. How thankful I am that the Holy Spirit came to comfort us after Jesus ascended into heaven. Oh God, we need your comfort. We need to keep our eyes focused on you and let you guard our hearts and minds.
You have already overcome the world.
Please help us to keep eternal perspective in mind and to trust that you have everything under control even when things seem dark. You are worthy, O Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:31:56] Speaker A: Thanks for listening in today.
We hope you feel encouraged and challenged.
If you know someone who would benefit from what you have heard today, please share this podcast.
For more information or if you have questions, you can connect with us through our website, Erickson Covenant Ca.
You can also find us on Facebook by searching for Erickson Covenant Church.
