Too Blessed To Be Stressed

What I'm going to preach on today. I think he hit every point. So, if you want to, I can closes in prayer right now. I mean you bought you've already heard heard the sermon but he actually did. That was amazing. He prayed my sermon today and so so is it is good to be here today and I hope you're here. And I hope you're ready to to hear word from God today because we are living in perilous times, aren't we? When you look at our nation in our country. And when you look at some of the things that's going on in our culture sometimes, we just want to shake her head like or what's going on. I remember back in 2008/2009 when the stock market crashed when they had all the banking crisis in the Ponzi schemes, and people lost billions of dollars in their 401ks and all. And I remember reading an article That at that time it was revealed that some of the executives on Wall Street had voted themselves millions of dollars in bonuses. And I remember reading one, executive One, Man, spent 1.2 million dollars redecorating his office. and he had a trash can in his office that he paid $2,400 for a trash can. But yet this is the same people who want to talk about the people who don't have things to eat and how we're going to help them and how they want to take your money and give to them. But yet, they are redecorate their office and spend millions of dollars and thousands of dollars on a trash. Can government officials and in Congress and State legislatures, they vote themselves, pay raises and the whole time. They have the lowest approval rating of any one at any time in America. But yet they'll vote themselves raises and it just looks like when we see the corruption this in politics and the corruption that's in the court system. All the corruption in in culture, it just seems like that the innocent the ones who tried to live in. According to God, we become the victims. And and we are charged with things. And the ones who are committing the crimes just seem to get away scot-free. They're just get away scot-free. Well, these examples and there's many more. We have to ask ourselves during this days that we live in. Who in the world? Can you trust? Who can you trust in in our government or in, even in the state legislature who in the world? Can we trust? Because we're having a credibility meltdown in our society? The people that supposed to be looking after the people are not looking after the people. Well, you say, well this is unprecedented, well, no, it's not. It's been going on ever since mankind. Matter fact, King David looked around one day and saw some of the same contradictions that I'm talking about people over spawn, stability and credibility, failing the people. And that's what we're going to look at today. How in the world can we live in a culture like ours, but live Above The Fray and not below it, I can remember once when I was working at Nortel at the time and I was talking to a gentleman and he really wasn't complaining about how things were in the world. It's just that, his life was falling apart, his wife was almost ready to leave him. He had a couple of teenage a boy and a girl. Both of those were rebelling. And he was having some financial problems, and he was talking to me about it one night. And I told him this, I said, well, you know, sometimes when it seems like everything is going wrong, we just need to look at the things that God has blessed us with, and I will never forget his response. He says, I want to tell you something, he said, you may be right? He said, but I am too stressed to be blessed.

now, what I want to talk about this morning as I want us to reverse that because you may be looking at your life this morning and you anxious, you are worried your fretful. Everything may seem to be going wrong then when you look at the world there's nobody you can trust, you don't even watch TV anymore because you don't know what to believe and what not to believe. But this is the title of today's message. We need to be in the attitude that we are too blessed to be stressed. We need to reverse that. And what I want to talk about is how do we respond to a world that's in chaos. So I want you to turn to Psalm chapter 37, Psalm chapter 37 you say well where slimes at Wells? Right after Proverbs? You say well where's or right before proverb? You say well where's Proverbs at? Well it just is kind of in the middle of the Old Testament. All I can taste but turn to Psalm chapter 37. And we going to look at if there's around 40 40 versus in here, we're only going to read first level but you going to get the jest of what we're talkin about too blessed to be stressed. So let's begin. Inverse one. Do not fret because of evildoers nor be envious of the workers of iniquity for. They shall soon be cut down, like the grass and wither as the green herb. Trust in the Lord and do good, dwell in the land and feed on his faithfulness. The light yourself also in the Lord and He Shall give you the desires of your heart, not a good promised, their delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. Does that mean that every and anything that I desire, that he's going to give me no. But I'll explain that when we get to it commit your way to the Lord trust also in him and he shall bring it to pass. He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light and your justice as the Noonday. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him. Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way. don't fret because we want people's got money to spend $2,400 on a trash can Don't worry about that. Don't fret don't envy that. Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass cease from anger and forsake wrath, do not fret, it only causes harm. Just worry yourself to death, be anxious, have to be get on antidepressants and all the medication ulcers, you just any and everything, he said, don't do that. He said, all it does is cause he's harmed. First night for evildoers, shall be cut off. But those who wait on the Lord, they shall inherit the earth for yet a little while, and the wicked shall be no more indeed. You will look carefully Forest Place, but that shall be no more but the meek shall inherit the earth and she'll Delight themselves in the abundance of Peace. Well, in this, these passages here, David gives us some help. In answering some questions. So I want to ask you this more. Are you too stressed to be blessed? Are you worried this morning? Are you anxious? Do you envy those who have a lot? Even if they got it in unseemly means, do you envy those on Wall Street or governmental officials or political leaders who used striving? And they have millions and millions and millions of dollars because they're taking it from us taxpayers, do you envy them for doing that? Well, here's what we need to do. Only give you five principles that will help. You keep your bearings in a culture that has lost its moral compass. We need to keep our bearings, if we don't, we going to get angry, but there's no telling what we may do. We don't need the stress, we are too blessed to be stressed. So I want to give you these five principles. Principles number one, if we're going to overcome this culture, we need to have a confidence that relies on the Lord. We need to have a confidence that relies on the Lord. This first principle is foundation to all of life. Look at it in verse 3, trust in the Lord and do good, dwell in the land and feed on his Faithfulness trust here. What does that mean? It means that you're confident in something, you're confident in someone, like I said, many times for the reason, many people don't trust God is because they don't know God, if you don't know God, you confidence in them. If you don't know a certain person, you're not going to do certain things. You're not going to let that person take care of your children. You're not going to let that person watch your finances. Why because you don't trust them because you don't know him, but he says, in God, we can have confidence that relies on the Lord. It carries a notion of security and well-being, which is what we need and a time. And in a world where insecurities surrounds us everything, it seems It's insecure when you can't trust in society, you can always trust in God because God always keeps his promises, you can always trust in God. Let me tell you what livly that word trust mean. It means to lie face down.

You say well, well what what does that mean to lie face down? That means that you come to the point in your life where you tell the Lord without you and without your help. I'm helpless. Am I am totally dependent upon you? That's what it means to trust in the Lord. It doesn't mean that I trust. In my education, I trust in my gift, I trust in my talents, I trust in in my character or no, we trust in the Lord as if we have nothing else to to trust we're helpless and dependent. Let me give you, let me give you an example. Old Catholic children of Israel leaving Egypt. There they were, and they all of a sudden Egyptians are chasing after him. And they come in the children, run right up against the Red Sea. So they have two choices. We need to step out in the sea and get drown or we can talk on and we can go and we can run toward the enemy, and they're going to slaughter us. Now, what choice would you have made? You see, they were lying face that they had no other choice. They had to rely on God. And what happened? God, parted the Red Sea. He made water stand in the heat. Like we talked about last week he made it to Ocean stand in the Heat and a cross through on dry ground. You see many of us, we trust so much and things that we have, we trust in our job, we trust in her spouse, We Trust in our finances, our bank account, we trust in a certain person, our children, we we trust in the house that we have in the vehicles that we drive. We trust in all of that. You say what, how do I know if I'm trusting in the lord? Well, it's a process of elimination. You take all those things away and see if you still have joy in your life. Because when you're trusting, someone you have joy in your life, take away your help. Would you have joy in the Lord? You lost your job? Would you have joy? Would you still have joy in the Lord? if you lost a child, your spouse walks out on you. Would you still have joy? I don't mean that you're happy because of that, but I mean what is it? That gives you Joy in life. Many times we like to make the statement with Jesus is all I need. Well, that's a true statement but sometimes God will make us prove it. And he will take everything away and will be lying down face first on the ground. And he's going to bring us to the place where Jesus is all we have. Do you know that he will do that sometime you're in there? You're been that. We're the only thing I can think of that, Jesus is all I have. And when you get to that point, you'll see that he's enough. He is enough. That's all you need. You see, we need compliments that relies on the Lord, and when others are thus are doing bad. What does David tell us? Do inverse 3 trust in the Lord and do good in that hard to do. Good when everybody else is doing bad and getting away with it and making all this money, getting all this and we don't have this. And what are we supposed to do? We supposed to serve others? We supposed to wash other people's feet. We supposed to just let people run all over. Is that what we're supposed to do? Just do good. He says here, that's our specific responsibilities friends. We're not saved by doing good. But we are safe for doing good. That's the reason they this for good work. So sometimes the best way to clear away the confusion that comes with watching what's going on in this world is to get busy about doing God's work. And I don't necessarily mean Church work either. I mean, invest in yourself and the lives of other people in your community bank. Someone a cake go cut, someone's yard, go build a wheelchair ramp or something like that. It may seem small in the grand scheme of things but we know God will use it but he says he will that word fret that I've read about three or four times in those Levin versus it means to burn to burn with Envy. That's why he says, in inverse one don't fret because even up nor be envious because the Lord knows when we see people doing evil getting away with it and they're getting ahead and they seem to be the ones who are prospering sometime envious Port, then David no, don't do that. Don't fret because of evil-doers we're not supposed to do that when you're amazed at the unfaithfulness of individuals in society. What are we supposed to do? Verse 3 tells us trust in the Lord. Do good dwell in the land. That means don't don't become an isolationist, don't get in your house and shut the door and close the windows in and never come out of your house. He says go ahead and live with him. Well in the land he says in feed on what on his face on it. Feed on God's faithfulness not the evil that you see going around in this nation. That means we meditate on God in his word, feeding on God just like feeding on food, you have a nice balance diet of carbohydrates, fats and proteins. Will when you feed on God, we take in to ourselves and it nourishes us and gives us help. It gives us comfort and it gives us strength. David knew what he was talking about because when he was anointed king, he spent the next fifteen years running for his life. Because King Saul was to kill him. He knew what it meant to trust in God, when all things around him or chaotic unstable, he knew exactly what it meant. We can take his word for it. Trust the Lord feed on his face, when it's the first thing to do to live in an ungodly, unstable chaotic culture that relies on the Lord that yes, the look. Edith Piaf.

We need a communion. That rejoices in the Lord. Look at it and verse 4. He says delight yourself also in the Lord and He Shall give you the desires of your heart. Now that word to like what it mean this the light means that when we are tempted to become bitter and calloused, By the actions of others, we should keep our focus on God. You see, sometimes we can be tempted or we can be we can Envy them or we might even want to strike back at them. We can't become hardened toward the wicked. No retaliation are joy and happiness is never based on our circumstances, but it's based on the Lord friends lesson, life will never get so good. Where we can rest and say will, you know something? Things going. All right, may, I don't even need the Lord. You know, that's why many of us have problems and tribulations and trials. Because if we didn't have them, you know what way do we would forget God, we quit coming to church with, we would just forget it because everything's going fine. I'm just kind of doing this on my own and we forget the Lord. And so he says here, delight yourself in the lord. Well, if if I Delight myself in and what does he promised? He shall give you the desires of your heart. Does that mean that one that one point? But ever f****** big in dollar lottery, wouldn't you? Yeah, I don't like to have one that that could have been a desire of mine, or I desire new car sometime, I desire, you hunting equipment, sometimes. I desire. You house or maybe a second home. There's a lot of things I desire. Does that mean that if I Delight myself

I bet if I love, give me every single thing that I want will know, it doesn't mean that at all, when I am in life, Is to please the Lord and follow his leading. He will lead us to the correct desires. We all have inordinate desires. We all want like material things. We we kind of put the material above the spiritual. What God is saying here is this, when you Delight in me in my word, in other words, when you want to, please me, I will give you the desires that will bring migori and give you peace and Security. In other words, your desires will align with God's desires. That's what he's saying here and we shouldn't be afraid to tell the Lord our desires, he knows whether that desire is for His glory or for our own self-interest, just go ahead and tell him. He knows he loves the grant us, the desires of our heart, that will also bring him glory, especially when so many around us are pursuing desires. That does not bring him glory, like the evil doors, like the Wall Street, people like the people who do want to cheat in and get things that way, but when we're seeking God's glory, the desires of our heart will be pleasing to him. So you set yourself up and you delight yourself in the Lord, delight yourself in his word and he will give you God desires. You will want what God wants. That's exactly what David is saying here. So we Delight ourselves in his word because the degree in which we Delight in. God's word is usually the degree in which we delight in God himself. Keeping our mind on his word, is a sure way to be kept in perfect peace of what do we need a confidence that relies on the Lord. We going to trust him with all of our heart, we need a communion that rejoices in the Lord, so that our desires will be hid his desires. We won't Envy The Wicked, and we won't Strike back at them and try to retaliate because we know that God controls everything and one day he's going to bring them down anyway and we can live with peace and contentment because of that. Number 3, we going to live in this world. The way it is. Now if we want to be too blessed to be stressed, we need a commitment. That rolls burdens on the Lord. You say, well, why in the world? Would you use the word? Roll you say you probably just want it cause alliteration in you just wanted to go with the others know. Let's look at it again. In verse 5, says commit your way to the Lord trust also in him and he shall bring it to pass. That word commit. It means to roll off on. Work commitments to roll something off, to roll it away from you and give it to someone else. That's what the word commit here means, take something that you currently have and release it to someone else. So in the east of committing it, it means to take your life. And give it over to the Lord release, it completely to him. Did you know that Peter 5:7? We are the cast, all your care, all your anxiousness, all your worry, I'll all your labor, everything that you're stressed about casting all your care upon him because why he cares for you? He can handle it. That's what he wants. He says, commit your way to the Lord roll, all your burden on the bring it to pass. That means. That if we belong to God, we all to act like we belong to God and commit ourselves to him so that he can work out his perfect will in his perfect time in our life. That means that we don't fret over things that happen to us or around us. So many people today think. That if we just vote the right people in the office, our world would change. It will never happen. One group is, is just as conniving as the other. Now it don't matter Democrat, but it doesn't matter that. That is not the hope the hope of our nation. Is Calvary Hill, not Capital here. That's the hope of our nation is in calvary's Hill. Not Capitol Hill. And you say, well, Lord, I'm going to give this over to you. You're the master. I'm the servant. You're the father, I'm the child. And you have promised to guide my way. So I'm going to release all these things to you, and I'm not going to worry. I'm not going to fret. I'm not going to be anxious and I'm not going to be stressed. That's what he wants us to do. Why cast all your cares on him? Because he cares for you, let me see it. Let me see the problem with most of us and I include myself.

We Fear man, more than we fear God. You say what? How do you know when you see her man? More than you fear? God, I tell you how Because your reputation is more important to you than your character. You see a reputation is what people think about you. That's your reputation, your character is what God knows about you. Many of us are so caught up in our reputation. That if someone says anything negative or critical about us, it just destroys us because we want everybody to like us, we want everybody like we want to do this and do that. We want to have all these friends on Facebook. We want to have all these lights and we won't all this. But what's going to happen when someone says something negative about you? There's 11 gentleman. He was a deacon of the church and one of the other members of the church come to him. He said, he said Sam, he said you've got to get down here. He said so and so from the church he just talked about you, he's running you down to him. He said he is destroying your reputation and that they can look them said. Well he said that's okay. He said because he said I'm just glad that he don't know anymore about me. That's the way we ought to look at it. And what is the law? What does he say that he will do the tenant verse 6? Give it all to the Lord trust. Also in him, don't worry about your rep. What people are saying about you and watch what he says. Verse that he shall bring forth your righteousness as a light and your Justice as a noon. He'll make it right one day. Just let them talk. Let them say what they want to say. Don't retaliate don't try to defend yourself you let them say because your character is more important than your reputation. Amen. Reputation is what people think about you, your character is what God knows about you. So, we need to work on our character. Not our reputation, and so fear man will destroy us. Always remember people will disappoint you but God will never disappoint you. That was number 3, we're moving on to number for what we said so far, if we want to be too blessed to be stressed conference, that relies on the Lord, a communion that rejoices in The Lord of commitment that rolls burdens on the Lord, just give your whole life to him. Let him take, he's in charge. Anyway, number for We need a contentment that rest in the Lord. How many of you are content today? Or how many if you've got a heart that just racist, how many of you can go to bed at night and sleep peacefully or how many of you go to bed at night and first thing you start doing is thinking about tomorrow and worrying about this and that and the other and can't even go to sleep because of everything that you have to do. We need a contentment that rest in the Lord, look at it verse 7. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him, do not fret. There's that word again to burn, do not burn because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass cease from anger and forsake wrath, don't fret don't burn. It only causes harm It's what it does. So we need a contentment that rest in the Lord. Now let me tell you what this word rest means. It means to be silent.

When we rest in the Lord, we're silent and steel. Sometimes when you could on the news at night and you see all this stuff going on and you hear all the news reports and, you know, it's not true and you see what everything is going on this, where all the immorality, all the cheating, all the evil going on in our world. You know what we want to do? We want to start clamoring, and we want to start criticizing, and we want to start complaining if the exact opposite of silent and steel. We get so mad at you. Say, I remember one night, I was watching something on TV and I heard I said that is the craziest and I had my sock, my hand. I just threw it at the screen on the TV. I threw my sock at the TV screen. That's before I just stopped watching everything. I haven't watched anything down about six months because it makes me angry, but this is what we need to rest in the Lord. And think about it. We trust him, we Delight in. We commit Our Lives to him. So the next logical step is that we would rest in it. It means that we're willing to wait patiently upon God. As he works out, his will for my life, your life in this world is hard to do. We don't fret or where we commit everything to God and trust that he's in control of everything. We don't, we don't do that friends list. God has his ways of dealing with evil and I know it looks like evil is winning and we are losing. But we can work against evil, but we all not to worry about it, you do everything. You can to get rid of evil and wrong in society, but don't worry about it. Because one day, the evil in this world is going to be gone. And the Bible says justice roll. Run down like water and righteousness, like a mighty stream, that's what's going to happen. One day, when the Lord comes back, he's going to set everything straight. So we need a contentment that rest in the Lord. Number 5 and will close. if we're going to be too blessed to be stressed, we need a courage. That responds to the Lord. I'll look at it in verse 7. Rest in the Lord hears the courage. wait, patiently for You say you mean to tell me waiting is an act of Courage. Absolute, how many? How many of you like to? Wait, go to the doctor's office where you have to do is, wait, wait, wait. Wait till you go to the dentist? Wait till your name called. Look at your phone, read a book. Talk to somebody. You don't know. Just wait, wait, go. Get in the line at the grocery store. Wait in line, waiting for all the older. People like me to count out $0.63 in change Instead of giving a $5 bill just let me reach in my purse and put Penny by Penny out. 63 of them. Just wait, wait, wait. That's all which we hate waiting. We hate waiting in traffic. It takes a courageous person when life is falling apart to wait on the Lord. It takes a courageous person, not to move until the art moves. Amen. Not to move until the ark moves. It takes a courageous person to sit, still be quiet and be silent when everything around them is falling. Apart that takes Kirk and look at it first nine. For evildoers shall be cut off. But those who want to wait on the Lord, they shall inherit the earth, looking for 34. Same chapter

Wait on the Lord. A cheapest way. What does that mean? Do good dwell in the land feed on his faithfulness, wait, on the Lord, and keep his way, he shall exalt you to inherit the land. When the wicked are cut off, you shall see it. You see, it takes courage to wait. And this is what we struggle with the most. And let me tell you why. Because it's the problem of time. Every single one of us when we get up everyday we're on the timer. Don't we have to get to work at a certain time. If you have a meeting you have a meeting at a certain time. If you have a project that's due is due at a certain time. We off on time, we watch the clock as if our very life depends on it. But time is nothing. He's not controlled by the time. He doesn't have a timer, he doesn't act that way. You familiar with the pastor says with the passage that says with the Lord, one day is a thousand years and a thousand years is one day. That's that's his concept of time and so another work God doesn't measure time. Like we do time is not a marker for him as it is for us. God's never in a hurry. You say why? I know that he never answers my prayers when I want it answered. That's exactly right. Because he's not interested in our timing. He doesn't work on a clock. Our appointments and progress in life are all marked by time and then we transfer our time expectations to God or God I got to have this by such-and-such and then God didn't move. And then when he didn't move we can't move or we shouldn't move. The ark had moved and we wanted to move and we don't know what to do. So we need to adjust our understanding of waiting. It can help us waiting is not When you think of waiting, we think of just sitting back and fold your hands and doing nothing. We think of it as a passive. Something passage we just have to wait in activity but it doesn't mean sitting with folded hands. Doing nothing waiting on the Lord is a matter of walking with him. That's what it is. Walking with the Lord, not ahead of him, not behind it, not lagging. It's staying in step with him by prayer and fellowship so that we can have contentment about what he's doing, how he's doing it but posting for it when he's doing it, Oh, how many times I prayed for something and it didn't happen. And I would find out later it would happen but not on my time scale. And the reason is because many times when we pray about something God goes to work, working in someone else's life, to help that prayer, be answered for friends, that takes time that takes time. When he says, okay, I'm going to use this person to answer mics prayer, but then he has to convince that person that person have to accept what God is doing that takes time. That's why God uses people to answer the prayers of other people, but it takes time and it's the time that we don't seem to have. And so we have to be content about what he wanted and how he's doing it. But most importantly, when he's doing it, so we need to readjust our time, our schedule and adjusting our understanding of what the word, wait means, but there's another dimension and will close with this. The Bible says that those who wait. She'll inherit the earth. Well, it seems like to me when I look at this world that the wicked are the ones inheriting the Earth, they seem to have all the money, all the power and all the influence. So, how is it that those who patiently? Wait on God. One day, We'll Inherit the Earth. Remember what Jesus said in Matthew 5:5 is called the Beatitudes? He said, blessed are the meek. 4 Day show inherit the earth. The meat that mean the week? The meat means those who are half strength that's under control those who are strong, but have the courage to wait. That's what it means. No friends. When you look at your life when you look at this world, when it seems that wickedness, is winning all the way around. You know what we're called to do? We're called to have a compliment and rely on the Lord. We are called to have a communion that rejoices in the Lord, a commitment that rolls all of our anxious thoughts and burdens to the Lord. We need a contentment that rest in the Lord and a courage that responds to the Lord. Knowing that one day, we going to inherit the earth. Friends. We are on the winning team today. We serve a God who is working all things out in his own time, amen. All right, let's pray. Father, we thank you. And praise. You and love you today. Lord, for this message, Lord, that you've given us in psalm 37:4. I know that there's people here this morning that are They're Freddy there, they're worried. They're anxious, it may be physical, maybe mental, it may be relational. It may be vocational many and every way that we all worry and fret, or maybe we're just looking at our world knowing that we are spiraling out of control, Lord help us to understand. That we're not too stressed to be blessed but it's the opposite. We are blessed. We are too blessed to be stressed. We need to have confidence trust in you. We need to feed on your word and rejoice in you knowing that you're going to give us your desires for our lives. We need a commitment Lord that we're not going to try to carry all these burdens in her life on ourselves because it's going to weigh us down and it will destroy us. We need to learn to give our life to you. And then trust in you that you will work. Things out in your own perfect time. Lord, help us to go to bed tonight. And rest, help us to have a contentment That will rest and have confidence in you and the courage Lord, while everything is going crazy around us. We have the courage to wait for the order to move force. In Christ name, I do pray. Amen.