Louie Giglio - Living Free From Anxiety
God's giving us the opportunity today to put an X through anxiety, for us to live free from the grip of anxiety in our lives. I don't know if anybody here today needs a message like that. I would guess that there are people in this space that need it and people in your life's sphere that need this message. In 2012, something radical happened to the people of America, and every study has showed a spike in self-harm, fear, anxiety and depression. I don't mean a little spike, I mean a massive spike on the chart. What happened in 2012 to cause that spike? You think, oh, maybe it was when the phone was created. No, that happened a little bit earlier. It's when social media became a part of the fabric of our lives. And this isn't a Christian perspective, these are just people studying people.
And so, we are living in the most anxious age that we can find in humanity, and that would touch into your life the same way it's touched into my life. And I just want you to know today that God is in our midst today, and he is saying, "I am greater than whatever is making you anxious. I'm greater than whatever is making you afraid. And you can live free". And if you're thinking today, "Hey, that sounds great". I would expect you to say that, you got a book, 'Putting An X Through Anxiety,' but you don't understand where I am. You don't understand the situation I'm in. And I'm telling you today, God brought me back from the other side to this place today. Over a decade ago, I fell in a hole, happened just like that. I didn't know the hole existed. I didn't know how deep it was. I didn't know how dark it was, and I didn't know how captivating it was, but I fell in it.
And I figured out in a hurry that this thing called depression is real. And I'm not talking about a bump in the road, I'm talking about being outta commission for months in my life. I didn't leave the house, I didn't go on a walk in the neighborhood with my wife. I didn't go to a meeting at the office. And if you'd said to me in that season, you'd come in faith to my house and said, "Louie, listen, I have a word for you. God's gonna put you back on a path. One of these days you're gonna be at the most influential church in the world. You're gonna be at Life.Church, doing the thing that you were called to do. You are gonna be preaching the word of God with the wind of the Spirit at your back, and with the fire of Jesus in your heart". I would've just said, "Thank you for coming. I appreciate your faith".
I can imagine myself riding a bike to the moon, easier than I can imagine that I'm gonna be standing at Life.Church in 2023, in the Book Club series. That's how far down in a hole I was. But I am standing at Life.Church today in the Book Club series. By the grace of God. And I think that I'm standing here to steward to you a message that a lot of you're gonna think today, that's too far up for me to reach, and grab hold of. I've been broken down in depression too long. I've been strangled by anxiety too long. I've been afraid for too long in my life. I can't really see myself living free. I'm telling you, here's the two big messages. If you miss everything else today, one, you're not crazy, and two, you're gonna get through it. God's gonna bring you through it.
The first thing that you feel like in that hole is that you are losing your mind. And I know we kind of just shifted a little bit there, the tone in the room just shifted a little bit, right? But when you fall in that hole, and you start having crazy thoughts and crazy symptoms, you start thinking, "I'm going crazy". And I want to tell you today, there might be crazy in it, but you're not crazy. And the second thing I want to tell you today from the other side is, God's gonna bring you through. And you're probably already saying, "How"? How? How is God gonna bring me through? How am I gonna get free from anxiety? And I just wanna say today, it's not really a how, it's a who. There is a how, and there's a lot of that in "Putting An X Through Anxiety." This is just a simple little honest, gritty book. And there's a lot of how in there.
Walking outside, changing your diet, getting the right exercise, changing your environment, talking to people about the things you're stuffing down inside, being honest with yourself, giving yourself grace, learning how to breathe. All these things are helpful, but it's not all about the how, it's mostly about the who. The most well-known passage of scripture is the one that says, "The Lord is my Shepherd. I shall not want or I shall not be in need. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters, and he restores my soul. He guides me on paths of righteousness for His namesake. And even if I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil". Why? Because he gave me a plan. No. Because he gave me a formula. No. Because I had a blueprint. No. Because I had a book. No. I fear no evil because You are with me. It's not a how, it's a who.
"You are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. And surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever". I'm telling you, a big shift happened for me in my life when that went from being something that was crocheted on a thing framed behind my grandmother's dining room table, to a gritty promise from a trustworthy Shepherd who wasn't the guy in the Oland Mills photograph with the little lamb on his shoulder, and the perfectly pressed robe and coughed beard looking off into the sky somewhere. Did you have that guy growing up at church? I mean, we got middle school boys in a little Sunday school room sitting on these pan metal chairs, with a linoleum floor, and on the wall is a photograph of that guy.
And when you're 14-years-old, you kind of buy into it. That's our guy right there, you know. For the rest of the story, that's our guy. That's the one. He is our champion. He is our hero. That is our leader. He's our guy. And then you start to migrate into life, and realize how deep the pitfalls are, and how massive the challenges are, and you kind of look at that guy and you're like, I don't know about that guy. That's not the guy. The Shepherd that we are seeing a picture of, which Jesus clarifies, just so we're all on the same page, he says, "I am the good Shepherd. And I am the shepherd of the sheep. The thief comes to steal, the thief comes to kill, the thief comes to destroy. But I have come that you might have life to the full".
That shepherd, he has a rod and a staff. And I didn't know that, I knew he had a staff, because it was in the Oland Mills photograph. And that staff's important, because we're not the smartest people on planet earth. And when God refers to us as sheep, he's not paying us an enormous compliment. He's not saying you're nice and cuddly, and oh, aren't they so cute, and look how soft they are. He's saying, you know what, these people don't realize they have a duvet on their head, and they will stick their neck into rushing water if they're thirsty, only to then have 80 pounds of wet sog pull them into the rapids. And so here comes the shepherd with the staff, I got you, I got you.
Now, if you'll allow me, I'll lead you to the still water. So the staff's important, but it's the rod that we miss. So when we move from the how to the who, there are four words I want you to carry away with you today. And the first one is this, it is to see Jesus as he is. To see him as he is. Not some made up, glossed up photograph. But to see him as a Shepherd that has a staff in one hand, something to guide you and a rod and the other. And what was the rod? It was what the Shepherd used to protect the sheep. And Jesus is your protector. When I was in college, I worked for the hockey team in Atlanta, Georgia. The team now is in Calgary, the Calgary Flames, they used to be in Atlanta, the Atlanta Flames. And I worked in the visiting team locker room. And at that time, all the hockey sticks were made of wood. And in any given game, several sticks would break. And I would take a lot of the broken sticks home.
And I took one home one night from one of the players, and I sawed the blade off the bottom, and just kept that square part of the hockey stick, about this long, had the taped up grip on one end where he would hold it with his gloves. And you say, well, that's cool, but why'd you take it home? Because I lived in a little bit of a rough neighborhood at that season of life. And at night, peeping Toms would come around our house, and when I would hear a knock on the wall from my sister's bedroom, I had a hockey stick inside my closet, and I would head out our back door, and come around our apartment building, and I'd be wielding that thing in case I needed to let somebody know, you need to move on to another area.
And one night I heard my mom scream bloody murder, and we lived in a very small apartment, and she's just, the middle of the night, and all of a sudden I'm sitting straight up, and I go outta my door and it's only two feet to my mom and dad's bedroom door. And I open the door and, my dad is in there and got the light on. And my mom points immediately at me as I come through the door and she said, "He's over there". And I'm like, "What"? And then I hear the rat and it's just doing this, kinda really loud squeaking. We had rats occasionally. We lived near a wooded area. And when my dad would grill on the patio, they thought when the door was open, that was an invitation for them to come into the house. And so this one had made his way in during the afternoon, found his way back to my parents' bedroom.
Now it's middle of the night, he needs to get back with his friends, and so he can't figure out how to get out. And he's behind this stack of Golf Digest magazines that my dad had by the bed. And my mom hears him, wakes up, screams bloody murder. Good news. I got a hockey stick in a closet. So I quickly grab the hockey stick, I'm running into the bedroom, I give a little jab, 'cause I really don't want to get into it with this rat. He runs under the bed, comes out on the other side. My mom, "He's over here now". And I go in the corner and boom, just one good jab. Sorry if I didn't give a trigger warning for that. I should have, should have done that. We can do that in editing, we can fix all of that. But it is largely Oklahoma where a lot of our churches are today, so I think we're probably good. And that was the end.
My dad disposed of our little friend, and I was an under reactor at that stage of life, so I just said, "Goodnight everybody". Went back in the closet, put the hockey stick in by the door. I still have the hockey stick in my garage right now. The rod and the staff, they comfort me. Jesus isn't some meek and mild, one dimensional photograph on the wall. He is a Shepherd who is determined to protect you. Shelly and I, in one of the most difficult seasons of our life a few years ago, and I was speaking out of the country at an event, and before the session, all the people came and laid hands on those of us who were about to lead in that session. And the prayer ended and we turned to walk away, and then a nice lady walked up to me and she said, "While we were praying, I had a picture for you, and I have a word for you". And she said, "Somebody's trying to trip you up". Which was true.
I wasn't sure who, but I knew somebody was trying to trip me up. She said, "But I just have a word for you today. The Lord has got your back". And I went, "The rod and the staff, they comfort me". See, anxiety is a symptom, and mostly it's a symptom of something we are afraid of. And the thing that we're afraid of, we need to understand that God is in charge of whatever it is that we are afraid of, and He's got your back. We say, "Oh, you know Sally, she's got my back. Yeah, no, no, no, no, she's got my back. I know". And that's awesome, and praise God for Sally, she's five seven and weighs 119 pounds. Oh, but she's fierce. Listen, God has got your back. Yahweh has got your back. God Almighty is inviting you to let him be your Shepherd. And yes, that's green pastures and still water, and paths of righteousness. But it is a rod and it is a staff to protect you.
The second word that helps me get my head around the who is set. First I wanna see, I wanna see Jesus as he is, but I want to set him before me. Psalm 16:8 says, "I have set the Lord continually before me, because he," again going back to Psalm 23, "is at my right hand. I will not be shaken". And then listen to the three things that result from that. "My heart will be glad, my tongue will rejoice, and my flesh will dwell secure". I'm telling you, when you're anxious, your heart is not glad. When you are anxious, your tongue is not rejoicing. When you are anxious, your flesh is not resting. Your flesh is wide awake at 2:30 in the morning, trying to manage everything that you are anxious about. And the thing that he's giving me the opportunity to do, and giving you the opportunity to do today is to replace what you're fixated on.
Instead of being completely fixated on the anxiety, or the thing that's making me anxious, I'm gonna set the Lord in front of me. Continually, he says, I'm gonna choose to set Jesus in my view. That doesn't mean I'm minimizing what is happening, I'm ignoring my circumstance. It just means I'm choosing to set Jesus in my view. This is what was going on in the valley of Elah, when Goliath is taunting the army of Israel, David comes out and he says, "Everybody here is fixated on the fact that you are bigger than them, but I'm kind of clear on the fact that you are smaller than Him". Yes, you're bigger than them, and you're bigger than me, but you're smaller than Him.
And again, I just wanna underscore again today, this isn't a simple formula. These things don't always change overnight. Maybe your situation isn't gonna resolve by the time this service is over today, but you have a choice today to set the Lord continually before you, to get him in view. At a younger stage of life, at that same apartment, there was a bully that lived in an apartment complex over from us. And on this particular night, he was in our zone, way bigger than me, and a little bit tougher than me, and he was between me and our apartment building. And I was the fastest guy on the planet at that time, and I was kind of sussing out my options. Like, yeah, well I can deke you, fake you out this way, and then I can move around, and run around three other buildings, and make it to my front door before you even know what happened.
So I'm sizing up my moves, he's standing between me and my back patio on the ground level, and he's actually taunting me a little bit like Goliath. Not like he's gonna kill me, but I don't know, he might. And I'm just sizing everything up, and at some point the sliding glass door goes this way, and my dad comes out on the patio. Now, my dad was a no nonsense guy. When he showed up, it was over, it was done. Now we're all finished, this is gonna end right here. And he just walked out, and he's just standing on the patio. And this guy's back's to my dad, and this guy, I can't tell you what he's saying, and I can't repeat that. And maybe I can tell you he was giving me the finger, it was not the one that you want to get. I mean, he's just kind of giving me all this grief, like, you're not gonna make it to your house.
And all of a sudden my stress level just went, whoa. And all my plans resolved, and I just went. "Yeah, try to make it to your house". I'm just like. And I kind of, you know, giving him the, might want to turn around. And finally he's like. And my dad just gives him that look like, be in your best interest to move on out right now. The guy was still there, but my dad was so much bigger. And that's the option that you have today. You have more power than the enemy wants you to think that you have. You today can choose to put the Lord in your view. Maybe there is a family situation going on, maybe there is a diagnosis in your story, maybe there is a business thing that's happening that's massive and major that you cannot ignore. Maybe there is a personal thing going on, or a neurological thing, or a psychological thing, or a physiological thing going on. Those things are real.
And we're not saying deny all those things, and forget they exist. We're just saying put God in view. And when you do, you'll be able to understand that I can now experience these three results of seeing him in the midst of the circumstance. That's what one of the four words is. The third one is to say. I wanna see Jesus the way he really is. I wanna get in touch with him the way that he really is. I know that sounds elementary, we're all in a gathering at church in this service, but a lot of times we come near the things of God, and we miss the God that we are in the midst of. To see him, to set him and then to say to him, Isaiah 25:1, "You are my God". This was my verse of the day, a version a few days ago. I've got it really ingrained in my heart right now. Lord, you are my God. "I will exalt you and praise your name for in perfect faithfulness, you have done wonderful things, things planned long ago".
What a five word prayer, Lord, you are my God. I wanna encourage you to say that today. You're like, I don't feel like saying that. Great, then don't feel like it, just say it. Yeah, but I wanna keep it real. Okay, here's real. Are you ready? The tomb is empty and Jesus is alive. That's real. I just wanna keep it real. I wanna keep it real. I wanna keep it real, keep it real. And so I say, okay, keep it real and say, I don't feel like it, however, the tomb is empty. So I'm gonna go on out there and say, the Lord, he is my God. I'm gonna confess it that I have a Shepherd who's leading me in life. No, I don't feel it. No, I don't see it. No, I can't make sense of it. I can't explain it. I can't put all the pieces together today, but I'm gonna choose to say it. And my words are gonna start writing a new narrative for my life.
And then the fourth thing is to sing the praise of the One who's greater. I'm telling you, that's why I'm here today. That is the reason why I am here today. I am here from the other side, I am here from the dark hole. I am here from the pit of depression to say Jesus is greater. You're like greater than what? Greater than whatever is causing you to be afraid. Greater than whatever is keeping you up at night. Greater than whatever you can't seem to manage, or control. Jesus is greater, and he's your Shepherd. And he's offering to lead you, and he's offering to guide you. He's offering to provide for you. He's offering to protect you. He's offering to follow you with goodness and mercy.
So when you start looking over your shoulder, which we have a tendency to do when we're anxious, you see, "Oh, there's goodness again. Oh, there's mercy". That's who's following me. It's not dread and doom, it's goodness and mercy. I've set the Lord, I've said to him, "Lord, you are my God," and I'm gonna worship him right here and right now. I believe that worship is the most powerful anti-depressant in the universe. Because the antidote to fear isn't courage, it's faith. The antidote to fear isn't, I'm gonna bulk up, it's faith in the One who's already bulked up. The antidote to fear isn't me going, I can do it. The antidote to fear is me going, Jesus, you've already done it.
You've faced every giant, every enemy, every attack you have faced them all, and defeated them all. You are the undefeated, crowned, seated Lord of lords and King of kings. That is you. That is not me, that is you. And so I'm gonna worship you right here and right now. There was a night in my hole that I came to the end of it all. I wasn't gonna do something rash, I just was so broken and so desperate. Shelly, my wife, God bless her, is sleeping next to me in the bed, and I just raised my hands up and I said, "God, you gotta help me". I've been to so many doctors, I've been down so many paths, I've tried everything you can try, and nothing is working. And here it is, two o'clock again. And two o'clock always meant this suffocating cloud that just would press down on me.
I could manage the day okay, but I hated the night, because I knew two o'clock was coming and here it was. And I'm just like, "God, I can't do this anymore". And then the Holy Spirit, you know, he helps us in our weakness. And this verse that had been an anchor for me at another season of life that our family had gone through something really hard, the words of Job came into my heart, "God gives songs in the night". Now you'd think you would want him to say he comes with a troupe of soldiers in the night, or he comes with a bright flashlight in the night, but he gives songs in the night. 'Cause everybody's got a song in the daytime, everybody's got a song on the mountaintop, but our God even gives songs in the night. And I said to him in the weakness, I said, "God, if you'll give me a song right now, I'll sing it to you".
Now, we were shepherding a whole record recording thing with Matt Redman and Chris Tomlin, and Crowder, and I could have just picked, 'How Great Is Our God,' Or '10,000 Reasons' or any, I don't know why I didn't just pick a song. I wasn't thinking clearly. And I said, "Lord, if you'll give a song, I'll sing it to you". And just like that, a little couplet of lines fell into my heart. "Be still my soul. There is a healer. His love is deeper than the sea. His arms of mercy, they are mighty. His grace is help for the weak".
And I just begin to sing those little lines to God. No chorus, no tag, no real melody. And I sang 'em till the morning. No kidding. And I know this story should end with, and man, when the sun came up, I got up, I took a shower, I got dressed, I went to work. I did a five mile run before I went to work, I downed a protein shake, killed a meeting that morning. I lead a Bible study over lunch, you know. And wow, praise God, there's the thing. It all happened. No, the next day was kind of the same as the day before, and that night, the two o'clock cloud came, but when the two o'clock cloud came, I already had a song. And that night it was song, cloud, song, cloud. The next night, two o'clock came and it was song, song, cloud, song, song, song. And in time I looked in the mirror one day and realized, wow, I haven't thought about my anxiety all week long. My brain had reset, my heart had reset, and my life was resetting.
And yes, doctors helped me, and if you need help, get help. Yes, my community of faith helped me. Yes, trusted smart people helped me. But I believe it was that song of praise that poked a hole in the darkness, and let one ray of the light of the life of God into my story. And that one ray of light began to change everything in the bottom of that pit of darkness. I'm telling you, you've got power at your disposal, and it is called the song of praise. And here's the thing, and this is a little bit hard for us to get our hearts around, but I hope that God will give us all the grace to do it.
I realized in my journey that I was worshiping in my journey, but what I was worshiping was anxiety. Because if you spent 30 seconds around me, you would get an update on my status that day. You would get an update on how I'm feeling, what my symptoms are, how I'm navigating, if I'm functional, anxiety, anxiety, my anxiety, my anxiety, my depression, my fear, my anxiety, my panic, my fear, my anxiety, anxiety, anxiety. Again, not minimizing, this stuff is real, but also making a decision at some point to go, I'm gonna stop putting anxiety on the pedestal of my heart. And if you get around me, you will hear, yeah, I'm struggling with anxiety right now, and if I'm honest, I still do occasionally struggle with anxiety. I got smashed so hard, I still got the scars all over my life. But when anxiety comes to convince me that doom and dread are following me all the days of my life, I just say, oh no, they're not.
I know who's following me, and I know who is leading me, and I'm choosing to set before me the God who is with me, and I'm choosing to believe, and I will worship Him. And if you don't have a playlist going, then you're just gonna get smashed by the cloud. You gotta have a playlist close by, you gotta know where the button is. You gotta know that you're the DJ to set the story and the narrative for what is happening in your life. And in the middle of it all, you can choose to sing, because worship and worry cannot be in our mouths at the same time. One of them always displaces the other. It is some of the how, but it's mostly the who. And I just wanna invite you back to Jesus today to set your gaze on him.
Jesus, thank you. Thank you that you are for us and not against us, that you are with us, and not far from us. Thank you that you are not just meek, although you were meek, and chose to become meek, but you are mighty, and fierce, and a warrior. And I'm asking today by your grace that you would give us all the ability to look up and see that you are so much bigger than whatever is taunting us. And give us the grace today to put it all in your hands, and to trust, we are gonna be good, you're gonna bring us through. We love you. In Jesus name. Amen.
Craig Groeschel: Amen. Thank you. Come on, church. Let's tell pastor, thank you. What a special word from God. And pastor, thank you, I needed that encouragement today. I'm looking over my shoulder and the good news is, I see some goodness and I see some mercy, and this is a safe place to be real and to be vulnerable. And so I would just ask today, even with all eyes open, this is a safe community. Wherever you're watching from, if there's something that's weighing heavily on you, maybe you've got anxiety, maybe it's a fear or worry about financial situation, or a health issue or a relationship, or something that's coming up that's really weighing on you. Maybe it's an ongoing anxiety, but whatever it is you want to, you wanna reach out to God today.
If that's you, would you just lift up your hand? Just be honest, lift up your hand. So many of you online, you can type in the chat, I have a a heaviness I want to trust God with. And what we're gonna do is, we're gonna do what scripture says, and that is just to cast our anxiety on Him. Whatever's weighing us down, we're gonna give it to him. We're gonna trust that he is bigger, and he is with us. He's got a rod and he's got a staff, and they're gonna comfort us.
So Father, we just pray right now, and I pray for our church family, for this community. And there's so much heaviness, and so many people carrying weights. We cast our fears, we cast our anxiety, we cast the weights that hold us down onto you. We trust you that you're good, that you're faithful, that you're righteous, that you're pure, that you're always true, that you're just, that you're working in all things to bring about good, Father, to those that love you and are called according to your purpose. We thank you that you are the good Shepherd, that you lead us, you guide us besides still waters, that you'll even prepare a table before us in the presence of our enemies. You're always good. Your goodness, your mercy follows us. So we trust you God, we pray for healing from anxiety. God, give us the wisdom to get good counsel. God, if we need counsel from doctors, we'll get counsel from doctors. If we need counsel from therapists, we'll get counsel from therapists. But God, we come to you, the great physician, and believe that you direct our steps, and heal our souls. We pray for healing, we pray for peace. In Jesus' name.
As you keep praying today at all of our churches, there's some of you that would say, man, I'm drawn to that. I like what Louie was saying about the good Shepherd. But you might say, he's not my good Shepherd. Let's talk about Jesus. Who is he? He was the Lamb of God who was slain. The sinless Son. He was the Lamb of God who died for the forgiveness of our sins. And at the same time, he is the Shepherd. "I am the Shepherd and you are the sheep".
Just because he's the Shepherd, doesn't necessarily mean he's your Shepherd. God loves you so much that He sent Jesus, the perfect Son of God. He's not just someone who died for your sins, He's someone who wants you to know him personally. The Shepherd is a personal one who loves the sheep. If you're listening right now and you say, you know, maybe I kind of believe in God, or I might have grown up around the church, and there Jesus was on the wall or whatever, but you don't know him personally, I want you to hear and feel that God is reaching out to you right now. Whatever you feel, that is the Holy Spirit drawing you toward God. So what do you do?
Well, we just recognize that we've all sinned, we've all fallen short of God's standard. That sin it blocks our intimacy with God. And so when we cry out on the name, the name of Jesus, that name that is above every name, God hears our prayers and he forgives our sins, and he begins a relationship with us. The moment you cry out to Jesus, all of your sins will be forgiven. Intimacy with God you begin, he'll fill you with his spirit, you'll never be the same.
Today, wherever you're watching from, those of you who'd say, I don't know him as my Shepherd, but I want to, I'm gonna call on him. You step away from your sin. You say, yes, Jesus, come into my life. It's your prayer. You need his forgiveness. You need his grace. Today, by faith, I give my life to Jesus. That's your prayer, would you lift your hands high right now? Wherever you are, lift them up. We thank God as we've got people today at all of our churches saying yes to the grace of Jesus. Online, just type it in the common section, "I'm surrendering my life to Jesus". And wherever you are today, those of you, your sins are being forgiven, you're being born into the family of God, would you just pray aloud, nobody prays alone. Pray:
Heavenly Father. Forgive all of my sins. Jesus, save me. Be my Shepherd, my Lord, my Savior. Fill me with your spirit so I could know you, and live for you. I give my life to you, my cares to you, my burdens to you, my anxiety to you, my future to you. Take all of my life. Thank you for new life. You have all of mine. In Jesus' name I pray.