Do you know a single person that does not have stress?
Even little kids have stress, adults have stress,
it does not matter how much money you have,
it doesn't matter if you have no money.
Every single person has stress.
It's just a matter of how much you have.
Chronic stress has become such a big deal in our culture
that tens of millions of people
suffer from the physical effects of holding on to stress.
Your body thinks it's in fight of flight mode.
And so we have obesity, and depression, chronic illness,
we have autoimmune disease, all these things,
insomnia, back pain, muscle pain.
All these things affect our bodies
because we're holding on to this stress all the time.
I know, we can eat better, we can sleep some more,
but is there something that the Bible says
that can kind of change our perspective
on what stress is.
Change how we look at stress. I think there is.
God says in his word, in 1 Peter 5,
God did not design us to carry this stress.
God did not design us to go sleepless nights with anxiety
and worry about what's happening to us now
or what's happening to us tomorrow.
God designed you to have a relationship with him.
God designed us so that in Christ
we can take all this trouble,
and this pain, and this sorrow,
and we can give it to him.
But here's the question,
how do we know that God even
cares about our problems?
It might be a big problem to me,
but is it a big problem to God?
You know because God took care
of your biggest problem of sin.
If you were literally the only person on this planet
God still would have sent Jesus to die on the cross
and take all that inequity on him,
take all that sin, and pain, and mistakes,
and he also gave you a life
in forgiveness and acceptance to take all that burden,
all the things that keep you up at night,
the things that give you headaches and back pain,
and put that on him.
God can handle it, he's big enough.
And we know he cares.
Let's pray.
Dear heavenly father, it's hard to believe
that you actually care about us.
It's hard to believe that you actually want to be
part of our life in our world.
Maybe it's harder to believe
what you withstood, your suffering and your death
so you could smash open a door,
a door for us to come to you in prayer.
And in that prayer, in our quiet times
to cast all our anxiety on you,
to change our perspective on the stress that we have.
And know that you can take care of it
because you take care of our biggest problems.
We ask this in Jesus' name.
Amen.
How big are your problems?
When I was a kid, I would battle with
the neighborhood kids and I would say,
my dad is bigger than your dad.
That seems ridiculous, but now as an adult,
I find myself with people I care about,
explaining, "Okay, here's why I am stressed out.
We're worried about the kids or we've got bills
or we've got work and we have all these things
kind of on my head.
This is why I'm acting this way."
Well, in the book of Chronicles, it talks about
King Jehoshaphat, and that's really his name.
King Jehoshaphat and his army and his family are there.
And down from Eden a vast army is coming to attack them.
In a sense, their army is bigger than his own army
and they're not sure what to do.
If we've got a problem that is smaller than we are,
we call that a problem, we call it a puzzle,
we call it a riddle, we call it an escape room.
It's fun.
You can say, I can figure this out.
It's like my kid's fifth grade homework.
I feel smart when I do my son's fifth grade homework.
But sometimes your problems are bigger than you are.
And that's exactly what was happening to Jehoshaphat.
This was bigger than he was.
He didn't know where to turn.
Can you imagine what that would feel like?
Having this huge army ready to attack you and your family.
And this army is getting closer and closer.
Can you picture like a headache and sleepless nights
and back pain and wondering, what am I gonna do?
And your heart racing because you're not sure.
Well, here's what King Jehoshaphat did.
He said a prayer.
And I want you to listen to the prayer that he had.
And I want you to listen because of this.
I don't think you have to imagine very much
what it feels like to feel overwhelmed.
Because I think you've been there.
I don't think you have to imagine what it's like
to feel the stress and this pressure of a situation
that seems bigger than you are, 'cause you might
be there right now.
So, listen to Jehoshaphat's prayer.
Is my dad bigger than your dad?
I have no idea.
Are my problems bigger than your problems?
Maybe.
Are your problems bigger than you are?
Most definitely.
But I do know this. Our God is bigger than your problems.
God is bigger than cancer, God is bigger than health,
God is bigger than relationships,
God is bigger than a job loss.
God is bigger than anything you can imagine.
And we've got a God who says, "I care."
I think it's time we stop telling everyone
about how big our problems are.
I think it's time we start telling our problems
how big our God is.
Let's pray.
Lord, the God of our ancestors, are you not
the God who is in heaven?
When we cry out to you, and you hear our distress,
we know you will hear us and we know that you will save us.
Amen.
There's a movie,
There's a movie, I'm not sure if you've seen it,
I'm not sure if you've seen it,
starring Jim Carrey, and it's called "Yes Man."
I'm not even saying it's a good movie,
but as I remember it, he's a bank loan officer
that says "No" to everything.
He's becoming pessimistic, but he gets convinced
to go to a seminar where he agrees
to say "Yes" to every opportunity.
His life takes off.
He's way more fun, and all kinds of
amazing things happen to him,
but I am convinced that in real life
your life only gets better when you say "No."
Think about all the stress that is caused
because you say "Yes."
You say "Yes" to a project at work.
You say "Yes" to be room mom.
You say "Yes" to volunteer.
You say "Yes" to be on a board.
You say "Yes" to go on a trip.
You say "Yes" to home improvements.
All these things bring stress.
I wish it was as easy as Titus chapter 2.
We just say no to ungodliness and sin and we're set.
But instead, we have good things and more good things.
Is work bad?
No.
Are sports bad?
No.
Is your family bad?
No.
Is a new car bad?
No.
None of these things are bad,
but we live in a zero sum world
so every single time we say "Yes,"
we have to say "No" to something else.
Let me give you some examples.
If you say "No" to a project at work,
you might have the stress of not making money at home.
But then if you say "Yes" to that project at work,
you might have the stress of not being with your family.
You say "Yes" to volunteering,
well, now you have to give up something else,
and you have stress from that.
You say "Yes" to a new car,
and now you must say "No" to being under budget
and the stress that comes with it.
You say "Yes" to going on a Sunday to a sports game,
and now you have the stress of not being
in church with your family.
Every time you say "Yes," that brings stress.
Why do you do these things?
I think that's the question we have to ask ourselves.
Are you saying "Yes" because this is best
with our walk with God, or are you saying "Yes"
because you want to be accepted?
Are you saying "Yes" because it feels cooler
to be in a new car?
Are you saying "Yes" because you want people
to look at you like you're this tireless worker?
Derek Sivers, who is an author,
is famous for one phrase,
and I can't actually say his phrase.
So you can guess what word goes in between.
He says when you look at an opportunity,
when you look at a job,
when you look at something you can do,
if it is not an enthusiastic, "Heck yeah,"
it's a no.
Why does he do this?
If you want to live out the life
that God has called you to be,
to be the best mom you can be,
to be the best dad you can be,
to be the best worker you can be,
to have your best walk with God,
you have to say "No" to a lot of good things.
I just think of the life of Christ.
Here is God on earth who could do anything he wanted,
anything at all, and what does he do?
All these opportunities, and he says
"Yes" to a perfect life.
He says "yes" to death on the cross.
When God pointed to him and said the next step means
damnation and suffering and hell,
our Jesus said, "Yeah."
Let's pray.
God, you give us so many opportunities.
We pray for two things.
We want strength to say "No" to ungodliness and sin,
but we also want just as much strength
to say "No" to the good things in our life
so that we can do the awesome things in our life,
our priorities, the things you've called us to do
in our walk with you.
We ask this in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Earlier this summer, my family and I got a chance
to go to New York for the very first time and,
just like Frank Sinatra, I love New York in June.
It was amazing.
It's inspiring.
It's things you'd never imagine.
So, my kids, they loved the trip but,
as a dad in a family of five, that means stress for me.
So, I plan out my trip and I did the best that we could
and we get there and that's when it just starts to load.
Mike Tyson famously said about boxing,
"Everybody's got a plan until you get punched in the mouth,"
and that's kind of how I felt.
I got there and I'm thinking, "Why is LaGuardia so small?
And then I had to figure out how to buy Metro tickets.
Do we ride the bus and then we ride the subway?
I'm trying to figure out why is that guy mistaking
the rest room with the corner of the subway,
like, what is happening?
How do I get my family fed without
taking out a home equity loan?
Like, how does this all happen?
And then I look at my kids.
They're smiling.
They're having a great time.
All they wanted to do, because they knew Dad had a plan,
was go to Nathan's and eat a hot dog and
go to the top of the Empire State Building.
On my end, though, all this stress starts to pile up.
The only thing they had a complaint about,
the only time they ever pushed back or
they wanted the itinerary to change, is when I would announce
which subway we were gonna take to our next spot.
They would say, "Dad, do we have to take the subway?"
And I would say, "Yes,
because A) I already bought the tickets
and B) I already bought the tickets."
But, I wonder, did you ever do that with God? Like,
you take a look at your life and the plan
and the itinerary that God has for you and you wonder,
"God, do I have to take the subway?"
Like, do I have to go through this dark place?
Do I have to suffer?
Do I have to be sick, God?
Do I have to struggle with cancer?
Do I have to suffer loss?
Do I have to fight this addiction?
God, why do I have to do that?
If it was up to me, God, I'd just want to take the top.
God tells us in His Word that you might not know
the plan that you have but I think stress goes away
when you know that someone is taking care of you,
you're in someone's hands with that plan.
And this is what God says in a favorite verse
for probably many of you, Jeremiah 29,
I don't know your life, but I know New York.
In order to get to the amazing places,
you have to take the subway.
You have to go into that dark place,
but I know when you come up, the sun is out and
you see something you've never seen before.
You see the 9/11 Memorial.
You see Rockefeller Center.
You see Central Park.
You see these beautiful things that you never imagined
when you're in this dark place.
Maybe, on the other side of a job layoff is
a brand new job that you love.
Maybe, on the other side of sickness,
you get to see an appreciation for your family.
Maybe, when you go through the darkness
of confessing your sins,
you get to see the Son.
S-O-N,
and you can see that God has a hope for you
and God has a future.
Let's pray.
Dear Heavenly Father,
We are overwhelmed sometimes when we go to dark places.
We wonder why we have to go there and, if it was up to us,
everything would be rainbows and sun.
But, it's in these dark places that
we are often closest to you.
We pray that, in these times, we cling to the plan
you've given us, a plan that says that we confess all
the things we've done wrong to you and
you bring us close through your Son.
We ask this in his name, Amen.
Even though I grew up in the Midwest,
I have never actually been in a tornado.
My wife, on the other hand, tells a story,
when she was five and she was running
and wind swept off her jelly shoe.
I don't know if that was a tornado.
In my wind, she kind of catastrophied,
or exaggerated an event.
And if she did that, she wouldn't be
the only one to do that.
You lose a job, and what do we tell ourselves?
We tell ourselves we'll never get a job again
because of our age or experience.
Someone breaks up with you, and you think,
oh, I'll never find someone else
who cares for me like that person.
It's just real practical things.
You write a report and you give it to your boss,
and she doesn't respond right away,
and you start saying to yourself, oh,
I bet she hated it, and you start to worry,
and you add all this stress to your life.
Your friend doesn't call you back, and you think,
oh, he must hate me, only to find out
your boss was busy and says I really did like the report
or your friend dropped their phone in the sink
so they said sorry, I couldn't get back to you,
I lost my phone.
All this is catastrophizing something,
and when you do that, our body thinks
we're in fight or flight mode.
And it adds all this pressure to us,
and it changes not the problem.
It changes us, and not for the better.
What do you do, though, when it's actual problems?
Not all our stress is exaggerated and catastrophied.
I may have asked my father-in-law just a couple years ago
about Amy's tornado story.
Totally real.
A tornado ripped through the campground,
knocked over trees, blew over campers,
and they were running for their life to get to shelter.
When you face problems that are real,
that you're not just making up,
when it seems like you really cannot pay your bills,
when it seems like you're not getting better,
when it seems like divorce is inevitable after an affair,
or this ugly relationship situation,
you need to run to shelter.
But worry is not a shelter.
Anxiety is not a shelter.
Alcohol, not a shelter.
Drugs are not a shelter.
Eating too much, that's not a shelter.
God tells us where our real shelter is.
Psalm 46:1,
I love that verse, because it reminds me
of the strength of God, but one of my favorite verses
is found in that strength.
At the end of that chapter, it says,
In your life, when you take on these stresses,
give them to God.
God is bigger than your problems,
God loves us, He cares for us,
He's taking care of our biggest problem in Christ.
But in the end, let God be God and let us be us.
Let's pray.
God, as we contemplate all of the stress
that we have this week, we pray that we don't
catastrophize things, we don't exaggerate all these things.
Instead, we let those things that we can handle
be handled, and the things that You should handle,
You handle.
God, You be God, and we'll be us.
Amen.