Sermon Tone Analysis

Insomnia

Week Two: Stress

Sunday October 9, 2011

Theme verse:

“Then you will go on your way in safety,

and your foot will not stumble;

when you lie down, you will not be afraid;

when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.

Have no fear of sudden disaster

or of the ruin that overtakes the wicked,

for the Lord will be your confidence

and will keep your foot from being snared.”

Pr. 3:23-26

God wants his children to sleep well!

Not talking about a medical problem, but to have child-like trust in him; to enjoy rest, sleep and peace.

Insomnia is the opposite of that.

Staying awake, thinking, mind racing, worry, fear, stress, greed, shame, guilt.

Today: stress - can you relate?

Life has been called the “rat race” How many of us feel like that?

Let’s take a group quiz to see how many of us are being dragged through life.

Fill in the blanks:

I’m ready to throw in the…

I’m at the end of my…

I’m just a bundle of…

My life is falling…

I’m at my wit’s…

I feel like resigning from the human…

Apparently we’re all experiencing the rat race.

Just when you thought you were getting ahead, along come faster rats.

But remember, he who wins the rat race is still a rat.

We will always have some stress.

Stress is a God-given gift.

We are given a burst of adrenalin to help us when we need it.

Scientists tell us that stress provides us with a “Fight or flight” ability.

We can either fight or run when trouble comes.

But in modern life, we live with stress; it does not come and go only with danger.

So instead of getting a burst of it when we needed it (attacked by a wild animal) now we live in it, soak in it.

The Life you Have Always Wanted -- Ortberg p. 83

Stress is a big deal, and one of the amazing things that I began to find out as I began to prepare for our time today is that eight out of ten, eighty percent of all of our illness is either directly related to or made worse due to stress.

That’s a big deal.

In a very real sense stress can kill you.

Stress can kill me, and stress can kill the people that we love the most.

Its not a sin to be weary - but it is foolish to not know how to restore your strength.

They that wait upon the Lord will renew their strength!

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Mt. 11:28-30

This has become one of my “life verses” a place that I come back to again and again.

Do you have places like that?

I hope so.

I come back to it again and again - not because I have stress all figured out and I never deal with it - but because I wrestle with it and I want to win!

Check out the Message paraphrase: “Are you tired?

Worn out?

Burned out on religion?

Come to me.

Get away with me and you’ll recover your life.

I’ll show you how to take a real rest.

Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it.

Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.

I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you.

Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

Wow, what a great offer from Jesus.

Jesus tells us to do 3 things:


1.

Come to me

This is where it all begins.

He doesn’t say “come to the church” - although I hope here you will find jesus.

Just being in church does not = coming to Jesus!

I have to admit that I need help, that I can’t figure it all out on my own.

Where do we take our cues in life from?

Who do we listen to?

Do we just try to figure life out, or do we “come to Jesus”?

Listen to the world around us? Go with the flow?

This involves a level of humility that some people don’t have.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”

What a statement!

No one else could say that and mean it.

I wouldn’t want the burden of making that promise to anyone else!

“Rest” - isn’t that a great word?

To me, it is so much more than physical rest; emotional, spiritual rest.

All is well.

:29 “rest for your souls”.

Not just a nap or a good nights sleep, but a sense of rest in the deepest part of you.

3 ways to find that rest!

We can’t jet to Maui every time we get weary; there has to be a secret to finding rest in the midst of life as we live it!

If this doesn’t work in real life, what good is it?

Take care of your body!

We are bodily creatures; we have a God-given body.

We always will! Managing our lives begins within this God-given body.

I may want to run the whole world, but that needs to begin with myself.

We only get one body; we’ve got to take care of it if we want it to last.

Our bodies are not evil.

We are bodily creatures - always have been, always will be.

Jesus came and took on a body; The “Incarnation” in heaven, we won’t be “spirits” floating around - we will have new bodies, but always bodies.

Take care of them now!

I haven’t said much about how to “spiritually” deal with stress.

It is my personal opinion you can’t separate your physical body from your spiritual body.

Stress in a pencil or a rubber band.

You can stress it for awhile, but eventually it will break.

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