Unleashing Your Inner Potential: Lessons from Inside Out 2

 TRANSCRIPT

One thing I've found is when you ask someone how you're feeling today, you don't always get the honest answer. Yeah, I'm good, but I actually work with children. I'm a teacher as well as working here and I get to work with children from the age of eight down to five and I'm a music teacher for those years and I do this thing with them and I go, Hello everyone, and they have to respond.

Hello, Mrs. G. And then I go, how are you today? And they're like, we are, and I get all these different like words. Some of them, I am interested. Ooh, you're interested? I'm interested in what you're going to teach us today, Mrs. G. Oh, A plus for you. But, the other thing I have found is you'll get, the Henry's over here.

I am horrible. I'm terrible today. Why are you terrible? They're just like so honest, they'll tell you. I dropped my, my Zupa Dupa in the playground and I lost like half of it. My life's just terrible. So, I'm, I'm pleased that. Everyone here seems to be fine today, but, um, one thing that I wanted to have a look at today, because obviously we are going to be delving into this whole story of Inside Out 2, and, um, we're going to unpack the movie.

I'm going to try and tell you a little bit about the movie up front, and then go into some of the unpacking of our story for today. But before we did, so that you can get a bit of an idea about me, because feelings are funny things, right? You can be top of the world, and then the next minute, you're in the corner.

So. We want to have a little bit of a look at some stuff about Megs, but also I want to get a feel for who I've got in the room today. And we're going to play a game called Would You Rather. Would you rather? This is my eight year old's favourite game to play with me, and it's so obscure, the things he gives me.

But would you rather? So in this game today, I'm going to ask you, would you rather, two options. And if you are going to choose the one on this side of the image, you point to that direction, and then you'll point to that direction if you'd rather. And if you're in the middle, just pin it if you want. Okay, , but here we go.

Number one, would you rather cockroaches or snakes? Oh wow. This is a real mixture. All right, for me, here's some revelations. Wow. Most people are saying they'd rather the cockroach for me. I would rather the snake. When I was young, um, I lived in Broadbeach Quarters, grew up in Broadbeach Quarters. A lot of cockroaches around that area.

And I distinctly remember, there was a cockroach on the wall, and it chased me to my bedroom, like it flew. You know that sound, right? Uh, anyone experience that? I'm scarred for life. In fact, my husband, he's in the back mixing today, but he knows anything over three centimetres, I'm going to be like, no! I'm going to be like, no!

Under three centimetres it seems to be fine, but anyway. Um, alright, next one. Would you rather heights or enclosed spaces? Heights or enclosed spaces? Enclosed space?

Alright, most people are saying they prefer heights. Oh, some pins in the room. I'm going to say I would prefer heights. I do not like an enclosed space. I have been in an enclosed space and I had a slight panic attack and realised that is not my vibe. Being stuck inside something is not my vibe. Alright, last one.

Would you rather public speaking or running a marathon? Public speaking or running a marathon? Are there any pins in the room? They're the next people. Okay, you're gonna be speaking next week. I'm just letting you know. I'm just putting that out there. All right. Okay, quite a few. Public speaking can be a super scary thing for some people.

I love it. Can you tell? For me, running a marathon? I don't think you have to look at me for long to realise that's probably not my favourite thing. Secondly, if you see me running, you better start running because there's something wrong. There is something coming for everyone. You should start running.

Okay, emotions, right? Those things would send me from my highest of highs to my lowest of lows very quickly. We're going to look at feelings today. We're going to get all feely as we have a look at this story of Inside Out 2, and it is the story of a girl called Riley. We're going to pop her picture up here today.

And it's the exploring of the inner working of this young girl. And in the very first movie, which was called Inside Out, the second one they called Inside Out 2, I spent a lot of time in thinking of the title. Um, they're looking at the five. core emotions of this young girl, and a lot of you would have seen this movie of Inside Out, but the five core emotions which they show, we've got disgust, fear, joy, anger, and sadness.

And so when we get to Inside Out 2, it still follows all these five core emotions, but But what ends up happening is something new. Some new characters are starting to hit center stage. Now, in the stories, I love the way they produce this to look like there's a control center inside Riley's mind. And it controls all of her emotions.

And when we start the movie in Inside Out 2, Joy and the other four have been doing an excellent job of keeping Riley happy. She had to move in the first movie. She moved places and she was dealing with all the emotions of that. But Joy kind of runs the foreground. She's, she's keeping things sweet. She has even come up with a plan so that her positive self esteem can stay really, really well.

She takes any sort of negative memories and she's created this machine that Just throws it to the back of the mind. Easy way to keep yourself happy, right? Just, ah, it doesn't matter. What's next year's problem? Throws it back there. And so things are going really well. Only positives, guys. Joy. Joy at all times.

That's what kids are kind of like though. They can get an extreme, something happens in their life, but then they're happy again. You give them a lollipop. Oh yeah, fantastic. So this is where the movie sort of kicks off. But then a malfunction starts to happen. And the control center is starting to go haywire.

It isn't working. And that's because some new characters are hitting the scene and this is them. The new characters we've got, we have got boredom, which is this one over here on Wii.

We have got, this one here is embarrassment. We've got anxiety. And we have Envy. Look at her eyes. Don't you love the way they do all of the imagery to portray each of these? So these four new emotions have come into Riley's life to help her create the new sense of self development of being a teenager.

Dun, dun, dun! And as you can imagine, hilarity ensues. So these four have come, and I don't know how far away you have been from being a teenager, for me it's a little while. Um, some of you maybe are teenagers right now, so maybe you're in this. new sort of stuff happening. Some of you might be on your way in the next few years of becoming a teenager.

You got some of these guys to look forward to, maybe popping up a little more than you expected. But one thing that I remember about being a teenager is when these four things started to come into my life, they never went away. They didn't actually turn up when I was a teenager and then leave. They're like, hey, we've moved in now.

You got to figure out how to deal with us. And even as an adult, I, I'm going to say I'm managing them quite well. But even for myself, sometimes I struggle. And I don't think you guys can probably, you can probably relate to that. I don't think it's any different for you guys. Right? In fact, if I could say to you, all right, um, think about a time of something that made you feel embarrassed.

You can probably remember it cause it's stuck with you that time. Maybe, Oh, can you think about something maybe you've been a bit envious about? What is that trigger? That thing that has made you feel a little envious? What things make you bored? I know what things make me bored. And hopefully it's not this message today.

But I'm Ching. But all of these emotions, they stick around. The reason they stick around is because God actually designed these emotions. God gifted these emotions to us. So the emotion itself isn't good or bad. The thing that happens though, is the emotions can start to malfunction in our control desk over time.

And this is what we want to have a look at today. And then of course, the big player in this movie, and I'm gonna say the big player in the life of people in this world right now, Anxiety and anxiety is one of the emotions. I really want to focus on today now I first thought when I was looking at this movie and I saw the ads of the second one coming out and they're like Anxiety is coming and I thought well, they've already had fear in the first movie So what actually is the difference because in my opinion, I thought they were pretty much the same thing But thank you to a dictionary.

I found out They're a little bit different. So here we are. We've got fear is actually, we'll pop it up for you so you can see, but fear is an emotional response to a known or a real danger. I see the cockroach. I see the wings come out. It's a known or real danger. The fear kicks in. However, anxiety. It's a longer lasting stress response to an unknown or unclear threat.

So fear is like I'm reacting to something that's actually happening, anxiety is I'm reacting on behalf of something that hasn't even happened yet. This is the difference between the two and it actually makes a huge difference in your life. if you don't recognize the difference between the two. Anxiety was put there to try and save us from different situations, but it has malfunctioned.

Now in the more, in the movie, as it continues on, Riley, she's now 13, and she gets a chance to go to this hockey summer camp. So in the States, as you know, they've got this big break in the middle of the year for three months, and she gets to go to this soccer humming, uh, hockey summer camp. And she gets to go there and she's going to have a chance to practice her skills.

She's with her friends. She might get chosen for the team for her high school. She is happy. She's in the car there and Joy's just pressing the button. Oh, this is going to be great. You're going to have so much fun. You're going to be with your friends. You're going to get in a team. And then if anyone's seen the movie, this car scene is one of my favorites.

It's hilarious. The girls are just like, oh, we didn't get to tell you. Her friends are telling them, we're actually going to a different high school next year. All of a sudden, things change. She finds out the people that she thought were going to be her connection group when she goes to school are no longer going to be there.

And anxiety moves in and brings with it all of its baggage. Knocky knock! Ha ha ha! Guess who's home? I've experienced this sort of thing. Anyone else? You feel the baggage of anxiety that's snuck in? Uninvited most of the time, don't even ring the bell. Just, yeah, help make yourself in. Anxiety is taking over.

And in real life, Anxiety is taking over. I see it. I see it in people. And it is actually halting people in their steps of being who God has created them to be. And it's happening across the globe, but I would, I would probably go as far to say that probably more so in our Western culture. It is stopping people in their steps.

It is changing them from who they were actually meant to be and squishing them down to become small. And if we think that that's a coincidence that's happening. I don't think it actually is, and maybe you can relate to that even in your own life. Maybe in your own life you have been struggling with some things that are causing anxiety, and you know this isn't actually who I want to be, but I am being squashed into something smaller than I am, and I actually don't know what to do about it.

It's a real threat. And so I had the opportunity recently to be part of this webinar and there's these two great trauma therapists and psychologists and they've written books, quite a few books, but Dr. Chinui Williams and Will Hutchison are their names. And they've created this book and it's called Beyond the Spiral.

Why you shouldn't believe everything anxiety tells you. And in the book, they go through lots of things, but we were specifically looking at the stats of what is happening with anxiety and depression. And this is just one of the graphs that they got to share with us when I was in this webinar. So this was looking at college students.

So we're looking at like probably 18 to 26s, realistically. But on the side, this is our percentage. Now this is diagnosed. Things that are diagnosed as a diagnosed health, uh, mental health issue. Okay. Zero to 25. If you look at the anxiety and depression, anxiety has had 134 percent increase since 2010.

Depression, 106 percent increase since 2010. Now that's diagnosed, I have a diagnosed issue. And that black line there, Is when Instagram was created. Okay. Now, social media, again, in and of itself, you can go either way and I'm not going to just hone in on social media as an issue for today. Okay. But I think I can see from this, the fact that we have an issue with anxiety and depression.

In not just our young people, because I'm telling you now in 2016, those young people that were in college are now adults. So it's not like it just happens with college students, it takes it with us. And so we throw into our world a global pandemic, we throw in their financial crises, we throw in loneliness, We throw in a lack of purpose.

We throw in a lack of hope for many people and the stresses of the unknown or unclean threats begin to run right. They run rampant and this is what we're seeing. This is real data of what is happening. And Anxiety and Joy are at war with each other. Constantly. Trying to take the higher ground. And it's the same in the movie.

What ends up happening is Anxiety makes this power play and the very device that Joy had created to throw the negative things to the back of Riley's mind, she pushes Riley, uh, she pushes Joy and all of those other, Emotions, the OG emotions into there and banishes to the back, so anxiety is the boss. And whilst it is an animated movie, it is very, very clear the correlations this has to our real life world.

So why is this happening? What is going on? And there's this one quote in the movie, which is quite heartbreaking, there's quite a few to be honest, but Joy says this, she says, maybe that's what happens as you grow up, you feel less joy. And so I'm asking, why is this happening? What's going on? And your response might be, well Meg's life is just worrisome.

There's just so many things to think about nowadays. There's so many things to worry about nowadays. And I'm going to very respectfully say, life has always been worrisome. From the very moment that humans decided to go against God's perfect design and choose to do what they wanted to do, the world became worrisome.

Life became worrisome. It's not a new thing. We live in a broken world. We live in a world where the unease of the unknown is real, but we also live in a world where something was done about it. Something was done about it and it was done for you. For every person that is listening to this online, for here, for people that aren't listening to this, it was done for them.

It was done for you. Something was done about it. And I want to share with you another little amazing story right now. We hear this story about Riley, but I want to share with you a little story about a boy. A boy that was born into a world that was not always nice to him, but he loved that world. As a boy, he wanted to be different from those people around him.

He watched the times that others were unfair. He watched as people were judged by their status or made fun of and cast aside because of where they were born. He listened to others that said they cared about people, but then he saw them do the most terrible things to them. He saw the things around him and he knew that he had to be different.

And even though he was just a boy, he wanted to learn more about how to love.

For years he studied, he listened, he took the time to investigate, he put into practice the things he heard and he began to do things differently, to treat others differently. He became a young man and some people loved what he was doing and they wanted to follow him. It was revolutionary. It was unprecedented.

And as he got older, some people didn't like what he was doing. People started to talk about him, make fun of him, mock him. High up influencers despised him. They hated the way he challenged them. The way he accepted those that everyone knew weren't worthy. How could he do this? How could he be allowed to influence others, not on their watch?

This man, Jesus, was a threat to the way things were done. He was dangerous, he was unpredictable, and he had to die. This boy, now Jesus, knew that those around him were angry, that he had many after him. He kept talking with God, he kept studying with him, and communing with him, and asking him about the next steps, and then one day He hears it again for himself.

My son, you are going to die. It will be painful. And it will be at the hands of those who have been making fun of you. But it's actually for them. For the ones that you've been cheering on, it's for them. For the ones that you've been studying how to love, it's for them. The one you have been walking alongside and all the ones to come, you were doing it for them.

Because they need a way out of this world. And that young boy stepped in to becoming a savior. Story of a boy. Now this book, this is my Bible. It's been thrown around, knocked around, over time. This book Has so many accounts of that man. The way in which he loved. The way in which he gave his life for every person.

And not only did he die. But he came back again. And that is the real kicker. He came back and he came back for you and me. And there were lots of people that followed Jesus and they saw these things that were happening. Something was done about it and it was done for you. And in Matthew 26, Matthew recorded down the things that happened just after Jesus had shared with his followers that he was going to actually go and be killed.

that had a dinner and he was sharing with them a little bit. Someone's going to betray me. This is actually what's going to happen to me. And after that, Jesus then went to a place called Gethsemane. And we picked this up in Matthew 26. I'm going to read verse from 36, but we'll have a look at a screen in a moment.

But it says, then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, sit here while I go there and pray. And he took Peter and the two sons of Zeb along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. And in verse 38, we read this. Then he said to them, my soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.

Stay here and keep watch with me. Going a little further, he fell with his face to the ground. My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me, yet not as I will, but as you will. And as you continue through this story of Jesus in Gethsemane, he goes back and his disciples are sleeping. He's like, can't you just stay awake for a few minutes?

Come on, I want you to pray with me. I need you to pray with me. I need you to be awake. And then he'd go back and he prayed again. God, can you just maybe take this away from me? But, but your will, not my will. But is there a chance? Yes. And it says he did it three times. He prayed the same prayer. Jesus knew anxiety.

He knew what was coming, but he knew that feeling of, I don't want to do this. I haven't experienced the cross yet. I know it's coming and I know it's not going to be good. Jesus knew anxiety. He experienced having to rely on God for everything. Everything. He experienced people hating him. He experienced people judging him.

He experienced the threat of death and he experienced death itself and he experienced raising again. He gets it. And Peter, who was there in the garden, who would even says he took Peter and these two others and Peter wrote so much later. And I love Peter. I feel like I relate to Peter a lot. And Peter writes this in first Peter.

And remember, Peter had multiple things. He walked on water. Wow. He saw Jesus being able to spread bread and loaves, fishes, and it multiplying. He saw his mother in law healed. Peter saw so many things, but he also experienced having to leave a lot of his life behind to follow Jesus. And in 1 Peter 5, 7, he wrote to the people there, cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

And that word cast I did a bit of research because we get the English version, but when it was originally written, some of these words are full of so much depth. And the word cast, and I'm probably going to say it incorrectly, but it's a word that says irrepeat, peripeto, and it's to hurl, To throw or to cast, and it often means to violently throw or fling something with great force.

To violently throw. So he's saying, throw with violence away from you all of your anxiety towards Jesus, because He cares for you. Fling it away. It doesn't mean the anxiety isn't a real emotion in your life, but fling it towards him and allow it to stick instead of trying to carry it yourself. And then in verse eight, he said, be alert and of sober mind because your enemy, the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to kill.

And personally, there's a lot of devouring going on. And I'm not in the position, and I would never say, that it is a human's fault that we feel anxiety and we struggle with being able to control it. Because the emotions that we're trying to control ourselves, you're not going to. You're not meant to try and control your life yourself.

And that is the beauty of the gospel. That is the beauty of Jesus dying for you, because you don't have to do it by yourself. And those emotions, the gifts that you were given to make you, you, the you that you were actually meant to be, the you that's actually meant to be here right now. You were born into this time.

You're meant to be here right now. The you that is called to something beyond yourself, it's starting to be hijacked. And it's the same for me. It's being hijacked by a busy and noisy world and difficult times, but we're not meant to control it for ourselves. In fact, we actually suck at being on the control desk.

I've tried. I'm not good at it. God saves us from our self. And this is the big thing I want you to remember for today. God saves us from our self. Big S. The self nature, the self nature that we have, thanks to things that have happened in the past for us. God saves us from our self, our internal control system, which is a mixture of hormones, experiences, emotions, triggers, trauma, all thrown in together, and you're behind the controls trying to figure out life like this, boop ba boop boop boop, and we're wondering why we're not succeeding.

It is too hard for us to do on our own and God saves us from ourselves, from having to rely on ourselves. And in the movie, Riley, she's struggling with this anxiety with different things that happen throughout the movie. And she's really struggling to be in control of the different things that are happening to her.

And there's this one point in the movie. Where anxiety goes into full meltdown mode on the control panels. Blub blub blub blub blub blub blub blub blub blub blub blub blub blub. And Riley has a panic attack. And anxiety, the way in which they have done this in the movie, I'm going to come to that in a moment, but joy and the other emotions, they have finally made it back to the control centre and they walk in to find this truly confronting scene.

Anxiety is just in complete meltdown mode. And for me watching the movie, I had a huge emotional response to that scene. I've experienced panic attacks and watching it even in an animated way, they have just done such a profoundly great job of replicating what it feels like internally to have those attacks of anxiety that are just so overwhelming.

And I was reading a little bit about the producers and how they crafted this scene. And they spent so much time in working out the exact way in which the characters needed to look, the music of the timing, the way in which the screen was slightly shaky. They said, we researched it from a psychological point of view to make it feel like what happens.

And there have been reports. everywhere of grown adults weeping in cinemas at that part. Because it's real. The grip of anxiety is real. But it's also a natural emotion. And so our challenge is to learn then, how do we understand it? And how do we integrate it into our lives in the way it was designed to be, instead of letting it rob us of who we're actually called?

To be. Which is for him. Now there's this really truly unhelpful song that was written quite a few years ago. Goes a little bit like this. Here's a little song I wrote. You might wanna sing it note for note. So don't worry. Be happy.

In every life, you have some trouble. But when you worry, you make it double. Don't worry, be happy. Don't worry, be happy now. Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh. Don't worry. Do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do. Be happy. Do, do, do, do, do, do, do. Don't worry, be happy now. So that's it for today, guys. We're going to pray. Thanks for that little Just don't worry about it, everyone!

We'll all be fine. Oh, can I just give you a heads up? If someone's feeling anxious about something, please don't just tell them to don't worry about it. Have you tried not worrying about it? I'm pretty sure they have. But I do want to give today, just before we finish up, a few practical things. Because I'm saying like, God saves us from ourself and he did that on the cross, but we have to also do some practical things for ourself, okay?

And he does, he wants to save us from ourselves. But I researched a little bit about some of the top things that they say are things you can do to help with anxiety. And there's quite a few, but there were a lot that overlap. So I've looked at some of the top four things that they say you can do. And this is just, You know, experts out there.

But I was always surprised when you see what an expert has to say. There's a lot of biblical stuff in there almost every time, right? Good try trying to take it as your own, but I'll, I'll give it to you. Um, but first of all, here's one of the things that they say to do. They say to ground yourself. And engage the senses.

So grounding yourself, thinking about what can I feel? What can I touch? What can I smell? What can I hear? All those sorts of things. Ground yourself. That helps you be able to get out of some anxiety. Just make yourself present. But I find it very interesting in Ephesians 2, 19 and 20, Paul wrote this. Do whatever it takes to be thoroughly grounded.

In the truth, the truth of God's word, right? So when we're grounding, yes, you can ground yourself in your senses, but are you grounded in the truth of what God says about a situation? Because that is going to take you to another level. That is going to help you step away from yourself and step into him.

So grounding yourself. What a great one, world. Great idea. God's already thought of that. Next one. Control, Your breathing. Control your breathing, you know. In through the nose, out through the mouth. Does work. I've done that. It does help. But, we also have this. In John 20, 22. John wrote this down. John, Jesus favourite, right?

Again, Jesus said, this is Jesus himself. He said, Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, I am sending you. And with that, He breathed on them and said, Receive the Holy Spirit. And the Spirit of God is known as the Breath of God. His Spirit that allows us to be able to follow and move and work with Him.

Control your breathing. Start to breathe in the Spirit of God and see what is He saying about the situation. Where is He leading to you next? Next of all, use relaxation techniques. Mindfulness. It's a new buzz thing, right? Mindfulness, like it's a new thing. Use relaxation techniques. And in Matthew, Matthew wrote this down.

One who's travelled with Jesus, Matthew 11, 28 29. And he wrote, Then Jesus said, again, this is Jesus himself saying, Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you. Because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

There ain't no matter going to bed early, you're gonna find your rest for your souls. Tried that for a season. Still tired. Right? Rest for your souls. There's only one way you can do this. And then last of all, challenge your negative thoughts. And Phil did an amazing message on this. If you weren't here recently in our Everyday Gospel series, he unpacked This mental health challenge of taking captive our thoughts.

It was an excellent message. Comes in so well with what we're doing today. So I just encourage you, go back, watch it on YouTube or listen to it on Spotify. But challenge your negative thoughts. And this was in Philippians. Paul was writing this to people who were struggling. Struggling with not being able to challenge what was happening in their lives and the stress of that.

And he says, And now dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true and honourable and right and pure and lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Reframing, challenging your negative thoughts, grounding yourself in the word, controlling your breathing of breathing in his spirit, relaxing and finding rest in Jesus himself, and then challenging your thoughts and making it obedience to the word of God.

You're going to be on a good track of trying to release a bit of self from your life. Cause God has made a way out from you having to control your control station. Now I'm not going to tell you everything about what happens in the movie. In fact, that's it. I'm going to tell it. That's it. You're stopping on anxiety, having a meltdown.

Yeah. I'm going to have to see what happens people. It is positive though. So I'd encourage you to watch it. Um, but Riley hits emotionally. And I am pretty confident that there could be people here today that you are hitting a bit of a rock bottom emotionally. The statistics tell us. But that is going to be the case for many.

So my questions for you as we finish up today is what emotions maybe have you been having running the show in your world? Now, I talked a little bit about anxiety. It's mostly today, but is it anger? Has anger been running the control desk of your life for a little while? Is it sadness like depression?

And we are very blessed to have professionals as well in the world that can help us as well alongside God. Is it anxiety? Is it fear? Or is it joy? Has joy been up there at the moment for you? But I think we all know it's a slippery roller coaster of life with the emotions. So it can be different things at different times.

And for those of you that are here today, if you are exploring God for the very first time, we're welcome. And perhaps knowing about Jesus is extremely new for you, then you maybe have just some things to consider today. From what I've shared, this Jesus guy that I talked about, maybe you want to do a bit more research.

And you're welcome to come back again. You're welcome to ask us. But I think you can all agree, the emotional journey of life is real. So maybe you've been controlling it yourself so far and you are trying to figure out a little bit but how's it been going with you controlling the, the machine yourself?

How's it going for you? And then for many of you here today, you've probably been getting to know God for quite a while. You might be on different stages in your journey with him and you can understand the way in which God guides and he leads us into making good decisions and helping us in our life but Perhaps you haven't fully stepped into it recently and you might have to reassess and start afresh.

The great thing is we get to do that anytime. But regardless of where you are at on the spectrum of getting to know about God or Jesus, He is inviting you to step into it. Letting go of the controls, it can be scary. It can definitely be risky. But it's the only way to truly live your best life. And for me, the past few years, with work situations and other things in my life, I have had some huge anxiety, probably the highest anxiety driven moments in my life.

I've had panic attacks in the night. I've had ulcers for like six weeks in my mouth. Over things that I was concerned about for my life, and I can let you know that I'm just not here today talking the talk But I've walked the walk in this recently. I have come out the other side to say that it's real I've experienced letting go and allowing God to take over and the peace that I've had in my life You can't explain it from anywhere else I've done it.

And I encourage you to think about for your life, what is he calling you to? And I a hundred percent know that his Holy Spirit has been working in each of you here today. And so just as we finish up, I want to remind you that the same God that was with Peter, who was anxious about the things of his life is the same God that I have relationship with today.

The same God who took a young boy named David and put him in front of a giant and slayed that giant. is the same God that I get to call my friend? The same God who made the way for Jesus to be able to share the loaves and fishes is the same God that provides and talks with me daily. The same God who sent a savior for me to be able to access him is Jesus, the one I get to still walk with every day with now.

It's not a different God for a different season. It's the same God. And this morning, just as I finish up, I'm going to pray and then the team are going to sing over us. But I really want to challenge you today, not to just sit in that feeling of what is God calling me maybe or giving me opportunity to think about in the area of my emotional.

Don't just think about it. Act on it today. Reach out to him, call out to him and say, I'm ready, God. I'm ready to connect with you. And I encourage you to do that throughout our worship time here today because I am all about helping people find God so that you don't have to live squished and small, but you get to be big the way in which he's intended for you to be big in this world.

So we're just going to pray. And the team are going to sing, and I'll give you opportunity to think about this for yourself. What is his spirit saying to you here today? Father, we just thank you for the opportunity to, first of all, hear your words. Secondly, the chance that we have to be able to breathe in your presence.

That your Holy Spirit is with us and you're talking to us so we can sense you with us, God. And we just thank you, Jesus, for the way in which you chose to go to the cross on our behalf, and that today we have the chance to be able to meet with you. We have the chance to be able to connect with you. And God, just as we continue to worship in your presence here today, we just want to say that we are here for it, we're here for you, and we're here to step into the next steps that you have for us.