Speaker 1: Hello, Saddleback. Have I told you lately that I love you?
Speaker 1: You know? I want to encourage you to take out
Speaker 1: your message outline right now because this is going to
Speaker 1: be a very useful message that I know is going
Speaker 1: to help you a lot. So pull out your message
Speaker 1: notes wherever you are now. The reason that I'm speaking
Speaker 1: to you from the farm is because I'm doing something
Speaker 1: this weekend that I hope every one of you will
Speaker 1: do before the end of the year, and it's this.
Speaker 1: I want you to plan a getaway with your small group.
Speaker 1: We have I don't know thousand and seven thousand plus
Speaker 1: small groups at Saddleback Church. Plan a getaway with your
Speaker 1: small group on a day or a weekend. Just go
Speaker 1: away for a day, or if you can go away
Speaker 1: for a weekend, plan something fun together, plan a retreat.
Speaker 1: Believe me, after the last nearly two years of limited
Speaker 1: fellowship due to the COVID nineteen pandemic, you need to
Speaker 1: plan a getaway with your small group and have some
Speaker 1: serious fellowship and some serious fun. That's why I'm modeling
Speaker 1: it for you this weekend. So I'm away with my
Speaker 1: small group that we've been together almost twenty years now.
Speaker 1: For most of you. I doubt that your schedule is
Speaker 1: as busy as mine is, and I don't want you
Speaker 1: to use busyness as an excuse for not getting away.
Speaker 1: So if you've got the desire to do this with
Speaker 1: your small group, and you make a commitment to do it,
Speaker 1: you'll figure out a way to plan a fun getaway
Speaker 1: and a spiritual retreat with your small group. That's the
Speaker 1: doctor's orders this week. Now, this week, I want us
Speaker 1: to continue with part five of my series called Strategies
Speaker 1: for Stressful Times. Specifically, we're going to look at how
Speaker 1: Jesus personally handles stress, and I want you to see
Speaker 1: what I call jesus Seven Secrets of Resilience. Now, maybe
Speaker 1: you've never thought about it, but the Bible says that
Speaker 1: we are to look to Jesus as our model for
Speaker 1: enduring tough times. The Bible says, as we are to
Speaker 1: look to Jesus as our model for enduring tough times,
Speaker 1: we are to follow his example of resilience, and we
Speaker 1: are to follow his example stress management. And the Bible
Speaker 1: says it this way. If you've got your notes there
Speaker 1: right at the top of your outline, Hebrews chapter twelve
Speaker 1: says this verses one to three out of the New
Speaker 1: Living Translation. Since we are surrounded by such a crowd
Speaker 1: of witnesses to this life of faith, let us strip
Speaker 1: off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin
Speaker 1: that so easily hinders our progress, and let us run
Speaker 1: with endurance. Underline that, run with endurance the race that
Speaker 1: God has set before us. We do this by keeping
Speaker 1: our eyes on Jesus. You see that we do this
Speaker 1: by keeping our eyes on Jesus, on whom our faith
Speaker 1: depins from start to finish. Jesus was willing to die
Speaker 1: a shameful death on the cross because of the joy
Speaker 1: he knew would be his afterwards. And now he is
Speaker 1: seated in the place of highest honor, beside God's throne
Speaker 1: in heaven. Think about all he endured. That's what we're
Speaker 1: talking about this weekend, resilience. Think about all he endured
Speaker 1: when sinful people did such terrible things to him. So
Speaker 1: that you so that you don't become weary and give up. Now,
Speaker 1: what is that verse? At passage Thomas nobody experienced greater
Speaker 1: stress than Jesus Christ. He experienced enormous pressure. He was
Speaker 1: criticized constantly, he was misunderstood. There were constant demands on
Speaker 1: his life. He had little privacy, and there were people
Speaker 1: who were trying constantly to kill him. I doubt that's
Speaker 1: true of you, but that's stress. And yet when we
Speaker 1: look at the life of Jesus Christ, we look at
Speaker 1: his ministry, we see that he walked and he lived
Speaker 1: with an amazing peacefulness, no matter how difficult the situation became.
Speaker 1: He modeled a calmness and a resilience in the face
Speaker 1: of outrageous demands. This is the Book of Hebrews advises
Speaker 1: us to keep our eyes on Jesus. That's what we're
Speaker 1: going to do today. We're going to watch his example
Speaker 1: of endurance. We're going to learn his secrets of resilience.
Speaker 1: And today I'm going to unpack jesus seven secrets of resilience.
Speaker 1: You're going to need this, so I want to encourage
Speaker 1: it to take notes. Now we learn these seven secrets
Speaker 1: of resilience from Jesus's own words. Let's get started. The
Speaker 1: first secret of resilience when you're under stress is this.
Speaker 1: Write this down. Remember how much God loves me. That's
Speaker 1: the first antidote to stress. It's the first secret of resilience.
Speaker 1: It is the principle of compassion. Jesus had no doubt
Speaker 1: in his mind that God the Father loved him. He
Speaker 1: talks about it over and over and over and over.
Speaker 1: Just one verse on your outline, John ten, verse seventeen.
Speaker 1: The Father loves me. The Father loves me now knowing
Speaker 1: and remembering that God loves you unconditionally, and God loves
Speaker 1: you extravagantly, and God loves you continuously, and he will
Speaker 1: never stop loving you. That is the foundation. That's the
Speaker 1: first secret, the foundation of a resilient life. As Paul
Speaker 1: says in the Book of Romans, if God's for us,
Speaker 1: who can be against us? Okay, who could be against us?
Speaker 1: We are resilient because we know that God will never
Speaker 1: stop loving us. Now, I know what you're thinking, think, well,
Speaker 1: of course God loves Jesus, he's his son. But did
Speaker 1: you know that Jesus said the same thing about you two. Yeah.
Speaker 1: In John fifteen, verse nine to ten says this. Jesus says,
Speaker 1: just as the Father has loved me, So if I
Speaker 1: loved you, now remain in my love, and if you
Speaker 1: obey my commands, you will remain in my love. Now.
Speaker 1: I've talked to you many, many times about how much
Speaker 1: God loves you, because it is really the basis of
Speaker 1: your personal security. If you're not convinced that God always
Speaker 1: loves you, that he loves you unconditionally, completely, instantly, continuously,
Speaker 1: that he never stops loving you, that you can't make
Speaker 1: him stop loving you. If you don't really have this
Speaker 1: foundation of God's unconditional love in your life, You're going
Speaker 1: to be easy, pray for the disapproval of other people.
Speaker 1: You're going to be a people pleaser. How much does
Speaker 1: God love you? We'll look there on your outline. First,
Speaker 1: John three, verse one says this, how great, How great
Speaker 1: is the love of the Father that He's lavished on us,
Speaker 1: that we should be called the children of God, and
Speaker 1: that is what we are. So the first key to
Speaker 1: resilience is to build the baseline that God will never
Speaker 1: stop loving me. Jesus knew it. You need to know it.
Speaker 1: Number two. The second key that we see in the
Speaker 1: life of Jesus, and you need this for your stress resistance,
Speaker 1: is this, remember who I am. Don't just remember that
Speaker 1: God loves you unconditionally. Remember who I am. This is
Speaker 1: the principle of identification. Now why is this important? Because
Speaker 1: if you're not sure who you really are. You're going
Speaker 1: to be whipped around and manipulated and molded by the
Speaker 1: pressures and the problems and the other people around you.
Speaker 1: When you have a confused identity, when you have an
Speaker 1: unclear identity, when you don't really know who you are,
Speaker 1: it makes you more prone distress. Why because our culture
Speaker 1: will try to fit you in it's mold. It's going
Speaker 1: to make you into what you want it wants you
Speaker 1: to be. And until you settle this issue first, God
Speaker 1: loves me unconditionally, and I know who I am. I'm
Speaker 1: a child of God, You're going to be prone distress.
Speaker 1: Now we know that Jesus never had any doubts about
Speaker 1: his identity. He knew exactly who he was. In fact,
Speaker 1: eighteen times in scripture he publicly defines himself eighteen times.
Speaker 1: These are famous statements called the I Am statements of Jesus,
Speaker 1: the I Am statements of Jesus. I've listed just a
Speaker 1: few of them there on your outline, mark Chapter fourteen,
Speaker 1: John eight, John fourteen, John six. Many different places Jesus
Speaker 1: says I am, and then he fills it in I
Speaker 1: am the light of the world, I am the Son
Speaker 1: of God, I am the way, I am the truth,
Speaker 1: I am the life, I am the bread of life.
Speaker 1: Over and over, he defines himself. He knew exactly who
Speaker 1: he was. Why is this helpful in knowing in handling stress? Well?
Speaker 1: In John eight eighteen, Jesus says, in other words, I
Speaker 1: testify to my own behalf. I don't need other people
Speaker 1: to tell me who I am. I know who I am.
Speaker 1: I don't depend on the opinions of others to validate myself.
Speaker 1: Do you do that? If you depend on the opinions
Speaker 1: of others to validate yourself, you are prone to stress,
Speaker 1: and you certainly aren't resilient to chronic stress. The fact is,
Speaker 1: if you don't know who you are, other people will
Speaker 1: decide it for you. They'll force you into a mold.
Speaker 1: They'll create stress. You'll end up pretending. You'll end up
Speaker 1: faking it. You'll end up wearing a mask. You'll end
Speaker 1: up trying to be a man or woman that you're
Speaker 1: not really who you are. You're who everybody else wants
Speaker 1: you to be. And that's called stress. Stress happens when
Speaker 1: you try to be something you're not. Doesn't matter if
Speaker 1: it's for the sake of your parents or the sake
Speaker 1: of your boss, or the sake of your spouse, or
Speaker 1: the sake of your boyfriend. Doesn't matter who you do
Speaker 1: it for. You're going to be pressured and you're going
Speaker 1: to be stressed, and you're not going to be resilient.
Speaker 1: Now you say, well, of course Jesus knew he was
Speaker 1: the light of the world. Of course he knew that.
Speaker 1: But did you know that Jesus said the same thing
Speaker 1: about you. He said the exactly he said, I'm the
Speaker 1: light of the world. But in Matthew five thirteen sixteen,
Speaker 1: Jesus says this, you are the light of the world.
Speaker 1: He says, you are the salt of the earth, and
Speaker 1: you are the light of the world. Don't hide your light.
Speaker 1: Do you realize how special God says you are. There's
Speaker 1: nobody in the world exactly like you. When God made you,
Speaker 1: he broke the mold. Just like God doesn't make two
Speaker 1: snowflakes the same. God doesn't make clones of people. Even
Speaker 1: identical twins are different in thousands of different ways. There
Speaker 1: will never be in the history of humankind someone like
Speaker 1: you at all. You're unique, and you need to know
Speaker 1: that God loves you unconditionally, and you need to know
Speaker 1: who you are now. Identity, this issue of identity, This
Speaker 1: is the second principle, the principle of identity. When you
Speaker 1: don't know your identity, it increases your stress. And it
Speaker 1: comes out two different ways, comparing and copying, comparing copy comparing.
Speaker 1: When you say, well, I'm going to compare myself to
Speaker 1: everybody else, God says, don't do that, and copying others.
Speaker 1: We all begin as originals, but we end up as
Speaker 1: carbing copies of other people. God does not want copies
Speaker 1: of anybody. God does not want clones. That's why I
Speaker 1: only created one of you. God wants you to be you.
Speaker 1: When you get to having God, I'm going to say,
Speaker 1: why weren't you more like Moses? The point is you
Speaker 1: must be comfortable, become comfortable with being you. You must
Speaker 1: accept your strengths, and you must accept your limitations and
Speaker 1: your weaknesses. You must accept the truth about you. When
Speaker 1: you do that, this second principle, the principle I know
Speaker 1: who I am, you'll have a lot less stress. All right. Now,
Speaker 1: here's the third secret of resilience that we learn from
Speaker 1: looking to Jesus as our model. I know that God
Speaker 1: loves me, I know who I am. Here's the third thing.
Speaker 1: Know who I'm trying to please. Know who I'm trying
Speaker 1: to please. In other words, know who you're living for now.
Speaker 1: This is the principle of motivation. You need to know
Speaker 1: what is your deepest motivation. If you don't know that,
Speaker 1: if you haven't figured it out, you are prone to
Speaker 1: get stressed. What motivates you every day? You see, Mixed
Speaker 1: motivations are a third great cause of stress. Jesus said,
Speaker 1: no man can serve two masters. This third cause of
Speaker 1: stress is trying to please everybody. The truth is you can't.
Speaker 1: You get crowd A please, crowd B ticks off, get kissed,
Speaker 1: kicked off. You about the time you get crowd B happy,
Speaker 1: crowd A is upset again. Did you know that even
Speaker 1: God can't please everybody. Somebody's praying for it to rain,
Speaker 1: and somebody's praying for it to be sunny. On the
Speaker 1: same day, somebody's praying for some team to win, and
Speaker 1: others praying for another team to win or this guy
Speaker 1: to get elected, and somebody else is praying for somebody else.
Speaker 1: You know, as a path I have learned that for
Speaker 1: forty two years I'm always disappointing somebody. Why because everybody
Speaker 1: has different expectations. Okay, they have different expectations. The Bible
Speaker 1: says the fear of man is a trap. It's it
Speaker 1: will capture you, it will cause you to stumble. That's
Speaker 1: why Jesus says, I and John five point thirty, I'm
Speaker 1: not trying to do what I want, but only what
Speaker 1: my father, who sent me wants. I know who I'm
Speaker 1: trying to please. Now, if you're not trying to please
Speaker 1: God in all likelihood, you're trying to please a bunch
Speaker 1: of people, it's a whole lot easier to say, I'm
Speaker 1: just going to focus on pleasing God and let the
Speaker 1: chips fall where they me because if you please God,
Speaker 1: it will always be the right thing. If you don't
Speaker 1: please God and you're trying to please others, you just
Speaker 1: get stressed out with what this person wants that person wants.
Speaker 1: This was the third reason Jesus was so stressed resistant
Speaker 1: he was only trying to please please one person. Notice
Speaker 1: there on your outline, John eight twenty nine. I always
Speaker 1: do those things that are pleasing to him, And if
Speaker 1: you're pleasing God, it's always the right thing. It also
Speaker 1: simplifies your life because I don't have to worry about him.
Speaker 1: I please to every veilse. I'm just trying to please God.
Speaker 1: Jesus never let approval or that matter of rejection control him.
Speaker 1: He lived for an audience of one, as I mentioned
Speaker 1: earlier Luke sixteen thirteen. No man can serve two masters.
Speaker 1: You can't please multiple audiences. He focused only on pleasing God. Now,
Speaker 1: this is what you need to do if you want
Speaker 1: to be resistant distress and if you want to be
Speaker 1: resilient to when you get knocked down. Galatians one ten.
Speaker 1: Paul says, I'm not trying to be a people pleaser.
Speaker 1: This is Paul. I'm not trying to be a people pleaser. No,
Speaker 1: I'm only trying to please God. If I are still
Speaker 1: trying to please people, he says, I wouldn't be Christ's servant.
Speaker 1: I love that. In the New Living Translation, one of
Speaker 1: the biggest myths that will make you miserable is this,
Speaker 1: I must be loved by everybody in order to be happy.
Speaker 1: That's just not true. You don't need other people's approval
Speaker 1: to be happy. But let me ask you right now,
Speaker 1: who's approval are you depending on for your happiness? Who
Speaker 1: you're still trying to please? Somebody been trying to please
Speaker 1: an unpleasable parent and they've been dead for a while.
Speaker 1: You know, we love to blame other people for our stress.
Speaker 1: I have to do this, I must do this. I
Speaker 1: can't do that. The truth is, nobody's holding the gun
Speaker 1: to your head. You're not a victim. You are as
Speaker 1: free as you choose to be. Nobody can pressure you
Speaker 1: without your permission. That's why the third secret of resilience
Speaker 1: is know who you're trying to please. Jesus said, I
Speaker 1: know who I'm trying to please. I'm only trying to
Speaker 1: please my father. I'm not worried about anybody else. That's
Speaker 1: why we're looking at him as our model. Now here's
Speaker 1: the fourth thing that Jesus did. Here's the fourth secret
Speaker 1: of resilience and resistance to stress. I need to not
Speaker 1: only know God loves me. I need to not only
Speaker 1: know that that who I'm trying to please. I need
Speaker 1: to not only know that God has called me. That's
Speaker 1: the fourth thing. I know my calling. If you want
Speaker 1: to be resistant to stress, you need to get alone
Speaker 1: with God until you know your calling. I must know
Speaker 1: exactly and believe exactly what God has called me to
Speaker 1: do with my life. Now, this is the principle of vocation.
Speaker 1: Vocation and until you clarify this and it becomes crystal
Speaker 1: clear in your mind, you're going to be more prone
Speaker 1: to getting stressed out. But when when you know what
Speaker 1: God's called you do, you know what God has called
Speaker 1: you do you all still know what God has called
Speaker 1: you not to do. In other words, when you're sure
Speaker 1: of your calling, you know what's your business, but you
Speaker 1: also know what's none of your business. And that simplifies life.
Speaker 1: To Jesus, knew exactly what he was called to do.
Speaker 1: Here's the fourth thing. And John eight fourteen. He says,
Speaker 1: I know where I came from, and I know where
Speaker 1: I'm going. To me, that sounds like a purpose driven life.
Speaker 1: I know where I came from, and I know where
Speaker 1: I'm going. He lived a purpose driven life. If you're
Speaker 1: to look up the word drive in the dictionary, it
Speaker 1: means to guide or to control, or to direct. When
Speaker 1: you drive a car, you guide control directed down the street.
Speaker 1: When you drive a nail with a hammer, you guide control,
Speaker 1: direct the nail into the wood. When you drive a
Speaker 1: golf ball, hopefully you guide controlled, directed down the fairway.
Speaker 1: Every life is driven by something. Some people are driven
Speaker 1: by guilt, some people are driven by fear. Some people
Speaker 1: are driven by the pressure of others. You're going to
Speaker 1: be guided through life by either pressure or purpose. Let
Speaker 1: me say that again. You will be guided through life
Speaker 1: by either pressures or purpose. And that's why this is
Speaker 1: no You're calling. Know your purpose. We have a whole
Speaker 1: series of classes on this at saddle Back Church. And
Speaker 1: when you know your purpose, then you determine what's important,
Speaker 1: the purpose or some people's idea for your life. What
Speaker 1: am I saying to you this weekend? That the direction
Speaker 1: of your life? It's your choice, Okay, nobody, as I said,
Speaker 1: nobody's holding a gun to your head. And by clarifying
Speaker 1: your calling and goes you know what God shaped me
Speaker 1: in a certain way, That means I, whatever you're shaped,
Speaker 1: it is what you should be doing. But when you
Speaker 1: when you know your shape and you know what God's
Speaker 1: called you, then you can avoid the tyrannage of the urgent.
Speaker 1: And until you clarify your calling, you're going to be
Speaker 1: controlled by others. How many times have you already learned
Speaker 1: that God loves you and everybody else has a plan
Speaker 1: for your life? James, Chapter one, verse eight says this,
Speaker 1: a person who has doubts is thinking about two different
Speaker 1: things at the same time. They can't make up their
Speaker 1: mind about anything. The Bible says, you're wishy washy when
Speaker 1: your purpose isn't clear, when your calling isn't clear. That's
Speaker 1: why Paul says the Ephesians for one, I urge you
Speaker 1: to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.
Speaker 1: Everybody has a calling, not just missionaries or pastors or
Speaker 1: church leaders. Everybody has a calling. Some are called to
Speaker 1: be pharmacists, some are called to be accountants, some are
Speaker 1: called to be a school teacher, some are called to
Speaker 1: be cab drivers. Each day you need to ask, am
Speaker 1: I moving toward my purpose? And that leads me to
Speaker 1: the fifth principle of resilience that we learned from looking
Speaker 1: to Jesus as our model. And here's what Jesus did.
Speaker 1: Number five, Focus on what matters most. Focus on what
Speaker 1: matters most. Now, this is the principle of concentration. We've
Speaker 1: talked about, you know, motivation, and we've talked about the
Speaker 1: compassion of God. This is the principle of concentration. And
Speaker 1: what I mean by this is when you know where
Speaker 1: you're headed and you focus, then you're not distracted by
Speaker 1: less important things. It's a matter of priorities. You know
Speaker 1: what matters most in life, and you focus on those things.
Speaker 1: As I said, everybody has a plan for your life.
Speaker 1: You know what I've discovered that is Satan can't get
Speaker 1: you to do wrong. He'll just wear you out with
Speaker 1: too many good things. Yeah, yeah, good things. There are
Speaker 1: a lot of good things you shouldn't do. Did you
Speaker 1: know that Jesus was a master of concentration. He was
Speaker 1: a master of focusing his life. He focused his life
Speaker 1: like a laser, and he refused to be distracted. Let
Speaker 1: me show you some verses Luke nine fifty one. Here's
Speaker 1: an example of this principle. As the time drew near
Speaker 1: for his return to heaven, Jesus moved steadily onward toward
Speaker 1: Jerusalem with an iron will. That's a living Bible. What
Speaker 1: does that mean? He had a goal, he knew what
Speaker 1: his goal was. He knew he was going to die
Speaker 1: in Jerusalem. He's persistent, he's determined, he's focused, he focuses,
Speaker 1: he's clarified his priorities. Paul's the same way. Paul says,
Speaker 1: this one thing I do Paul didn't say these forty things.
Speaker 1: I dabble in. That's what we do. We dabble in
Speaker 1: forty things. This one thing I do. If you want
Speaker 1: your life to count, if you want your life to
Speaker 1: have impact, focus is the name of the game. You know,
Speaker 1: you have incredible spiritual potential, but the barrier is often
Speaker 1: you haven't really settled what's most important. I don't really
Speaker 1: have time to serve God. I would rethink that one okay,
Speaker 1: I would rethink that, knowing that one day you're going
Speaker 1: to stand before God and he's going to say, what
Speaker 1: did you do with what you were given? You know,
Speaker 1: some guys gave that same excuse to Jesus, Lord, let
Speaker 1: me first, go do something else before I follow you.
Speaker 1: And that phrase let me first, that's always the problem.
Speaker 1: Me first. You can't say Lord, let me first. Lord
Speaker 1: and me first are contradictory. Jesus said in Luke nine
Speaker 1: sixty two. Anyone who lets himself be distracted from the
Speaker 1: work that I plan for him. God has planned a
Speaker 1: work for you to do. Anyone who lets him be
Speaker 1: act from the work I plan for him is not
Speaker 1: fit for the Kingdom of God. The older I get,
Speaker 1: the more I realize selection is the name of the game.
Speaker 1: Lots of opportunities, lots of option, but the key to
Speaker 1: effectiveness is selection. First Corinthians ten twenty three says this,
Speaker 1: We're free to do anything, but not all things are helpful,
Speaker 1: not all things are profitable, not all things are wholesome
Speaker 1: or constructive to your character and your spiritual life. I
Speaker 1: love that the way it's brought out in the amplified translation.
Speaker 1: What is he saying Some things aren't necessarily wrong, They're
Speaker 1: just not necessary. That's one of the keys to resilience.
Speaker 1: It's one of the keys to stress resistance. And here's
Speaker 1: the sixth secret of resilience that we learn from looking
Speaker 1: to Jesus as our model. This is a big one.
Speaker 1: Number six. Spend time alone with God. Now, this secret
Speaker 1: of resilience, and this secret of stress resistance may be
Speaker 1: the secret that you do the least spending enough time
Speaker 1: alone with God, and yet is absolutely essential to building
Speaker 1: a resilient spirit and managing chronic stress. It is the
Speaker 1: principle of meditation. You know, prayer is a great stress reliever.
Speaker 1: It's a decompression chamber, it's cathartic. It's one of the
Speaker 1: ways to unload your burdens. The Bible says in Luke
Speaker 1: twenty two thirty nine, it was jesus habit. Notice this
Speaker 1: on your outline. It was Jesus' habit to go to
Speaker 1: the Mount of Olives to pray, and his disciples followed him.
Speaker 1: Circle the word habit. How do you develop habit? Well,
Speaker 1: habit is something you develop through practice and through reputation.
Speaker 1: It's not a habit unless you do it over and
Speaker 1: over and over. It was his habit to go to
Speaker 1: the Mount of Olives. He would leave the city of Jerusalem,
Speaker 1: go across the valley to the Mount of Olives and
Speaker 1: pray there. Now, this next verse says, in the morning,
Speaker 1: while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the
Speaker 1: house and went off to a solitary place where he prayed.
Speaker 1: Do you have any time like that in your life?
Speaker 1: You need quiet times to renew, to reflect, to recharge.
Speaker 1: I want to challenge you on this principle of resilience.
Speaker 1: Study that Jesus was convinced of the fact that no
Speaker 1: matter how busy he was, he took time to get
Speaker 1: alone with God and pray. In Luke chapter five, verse
Speaker 1: fifteen to sixteen, we have a good example of it.
Speaker 1: It says, news about Jesus spread even more, and crowds
Speaker 1: came to hear him to be healed. But Jesus often
Speaker 1: slipped away to be alone so he could pray. Now
Speaker 1: circle the word often often means frequently. If Jesus felt
Speaker 1: the need to frequently leave the crowd and get alone
Speaker 1: with God, how much do we need that? You know?
Speaker 1: I say as a pastor, the larger saddleback gets, the
Speaker 1: more I find myself personally seeking solitude. It was the
Speaker 1: famous philosopher Pascal who said, most of our problems, man's
Speaker 1: problems come from our inability to sit still. So I'm
Speaker 1: forty six says be still and know that I'm God,
Speaker 1: Sit down and shut up. Would you agree that noises
Speaker 1: a stress? Well, let me give you a suggestion. Start
Speaker 1: your morning with God instead of your phone, instead of TV,
Speaker 1: instead of radio. Set your mood with the good news.
Speaker 1: Colossians two seven says plant your roots in Christ. Do
Speaker 1: that every morning. Plant your roots in Christ and let
Speaker 1: him be the foundation for your life. Now, there's one
Speaker 1: more secret of resilience that we learned from looking to
Speaker 1: Jesus as our model, and it's this number seven. That's
Speaker 1: what I'm doing this weekend, Get a small group for support.
Speaker 1: Get a small group for support. Do you know the
Speaker 1: first thing Jesus did when he started as ministry He
Speaker 1: formed a small group. You see, you were never intended
Speaker 1: to handle stress by yourself. If I were to ask
Speaker 1: you to complete the sentence if you want a job
Speaker 1: done right, you typically say, do it yourself. That's the
Speaker 1: motto of a perfectionist headed for burnout. If you want
Speaker 1: a job done right, do it yourself. You can't do
Speaker 1: every job by yourself. Now, if anybody had a right
Speaker 1: to say, if you want a job right, it done right,
Speaker 1: do it yourself. If anybody had the right to say that,
Speaker 1: it was Jesus. Yet, even Jesus knew the power of
Speaker 1: having a small group for support. And in Mark chapter three,
Speaker 1: verse fourteen, it says he chose twelve that was his
Speaker 1: small group, designated in the Apostles that they might be
Speaker 1: with him. That's the point of a small group. He
Speaker 1: gathered a small group before starting his ministry. You know,
Speaker 1: so much of our stress, friends, is self imposed. We
Speaker 1: get up tight when we think it all depends on us.
Speaker 1: He doesn't. God hasn't called you to be the general
Speaker 1: manager of the universe here at Saddleback Church. This church
Speaker 1: out grew me decades ago, decades ago. I could never
Speaker 1: do it all by myself. From the very start, my
Speaker 1: goal was to give the ministry away, even preaching. And
Speaker 1: that's why I have other guest preachers, because I think
Speaker 1: you need to hear God's word from more than just
Speaker 1: one voice. God never meant for the church to be
Speaker 1: a one man superstar show. Even Jesus needed a small
Speaker 1: group for support. You remember that when he went to
Speaker 1: the garden of guestsebite before the cross. In Matthew twenty six,
Speaker 1: verse thirty eight, Jesus said to his disciples, my soul
Speaker 1: is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. That's
Speaker 1: severe stress. And here's his antidote. Stay here and keep
Speaker 1: watch with me. Even Jesus needed people to pray with him.
Speaker 1: Even Jesus needed the support of a small group when
Speaker 1: he was in a crisis. Why don't we accept help
Speaker 1: from other people. There's a couple reasons, insecurity and pride,
Speaker 1: And it is insecurity. It's our own insecurity and our
Speaker 1: own pride that we don't accept hell from others, so
Speaker 1: we stay stressed out. The fact is There are people
Speaker 1: in this church family waiting to help you, waiting to
Speaker 1: support you, waiting to encourage you, waiting to assist you,
Speaker 1: if you'll just be humble enough to ask. Here's the secret.
Speaker 1: Join a small group. If Jesus needed one, you need one.
Speaker 1: And the fact is stress is increasing in our culture,
Speaker 1: so you have to take these seven intentional steps to counteract.
Speaker 1: It's not going to go away. Your life isn't going
Speaker 1: to get less stressful by accident. It only is going
Speaker 1: to get less stressful, more manageable, and you're going to
Speaker 1: have greater resilience if you choose to do these seven
Speaker 1: things that Jesus modeled. Now, I want to close by
Speaker 1: reading again the passage that we started with in Hebrews
Speaker 1: twelve one to three. To it again in light of
Speaker 1: the seven things that I gave you as a model
Speaker 1: from Jesus. Here's what the Hebrews twelve says. Since we
Speaker 1: are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to
Speaker 1: the life of faith, let us strip off every weight
Speaker 1: that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily
Speaker 1: enters our progress, and let us run with endurance. You've
Speaker 1: needed that the last eighteen to twenty months run with
Speaker 1: endurance the race that God has set before us. We
Speaker 1: do this, He's going to give us the answer. We
Speaker 1: do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus start to finish.
Speaker 1: Jesus was willing to die a shameful death on the
Speaker 1: cross because of the joy he knew he would would
Speaker 1: be his afterwards. Now he's seated at the place of
Speaker 1: highest honor besides God, God's throne in heaven. Then it
Speaker 1: says this, think of about all he endured. When you
Speaker 1: think you're going through a tough time, think about all
Speaker 1: what Jesus endured when sinful people did such terrible things
Speaker 1: to him, So that you don't become weary and give up.
Speaker 1: You know, I remember many years ago, this is going
Speaker 1: to date me when the long awaited fourth installment of
Speaker 1: Schwarzenagger's Terminator movie series came out. The fourth of the
Speaker 1: Terminator movies was called Terminator Salvation, and I remember reading
Speaker 1: an online review of this many years ago, and the
Speaker 1: reviews said this quote in Terminor Terminator Salvation, most of
Speaker 1: humanity has been wiped out by a nuclear holocaust. Cost
Speaker 1: a grown up John Connors is fighting with the resistance.
Speaker 1: His adult life is certainly purpose driven. Now that caught
Speaker 1: my attention. This is a movie review. His adult life
Speaker 1: is certainly purpose driven, and this rebel with a cause
Speaker 1: has the weight of the world on his shoulders. You've
Speaker 1: heard that phrase, I'm sure many times we hear that
Speaker 1: phrase used when people are under intense stress. They have
Speaker 1: the weight of the world on their shoulders. But you know, friends,
Speaker 1: the truth is only one person in all of history
Speaker 1: has ever carried the full weight of the world on
Speaker 1: his shoulders. It's Jesus. So in closing, I need to
Speaker 1: mention one more stress reliever that Jesus didn't need because
Speaker 1: he was the son of God. What's the seventh or
Speaker 1: the eighth stress reliever? You need a savior. You need
Speaker 1: far more than the model of Jesus. You need that,
Speaker 1: But you need Jesus himself in your life. You need
Speaker 1: his presence in your life. You need his power in
Speaker 1: your life. You need his pardon for your sins. You
Speaker 1: need his peace in your life. You need his salvation.
Speaker 1: We've looked at this verse before in this series. Matthew eleven,
Speaker 1: twenty eight, twenty nine. Jesus said, come to me, all
Speaker 1: of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens. And
Speaker 1: I'll give you rest. Take my yoke on you and
Speaker 1: let me teach you because I'm humble and gentle, and
Speaker 1: you will find rest for your souls. You know what
Speaker 1: that verse is. It's salvation. This is salvation. Are you
Speaker 1: stressed out? Don't give up? Look up because Jesus' offer
Speaker 1: still stands. Come to me. The single greatest source of
Speaker 1: stress in your life is this trying to live your
Speaker 1: life apart from a daily connection to Christ. God is
Speaker 1: God and you're not. And when I'm disconnected from Christ,
Speaker 1: or when you're disconnected for Christ, it cases all kinds
Speaker 1: of problems. Fear, gil worry, loneliness. Come back to Christ today.
Speaker 1: Give him your stress. He's aware of the load you're carrying,
Speaker 1: and he says, I'll carry it with you. Let's power heads.
Speaker 1: Heavenly Father, thank you for not only being a model
Speaker 1: for stress relief, a mentor for stress relief, but for
Speaker 1: being the answer to our stress. We need a savior.
Speaker 1: You've never opened your life to Christ. Say Jesus Christ,
Speaker 1: come into my life right now. I need a savior.
Speaker 1: I need your power. Just say that. I need your power,
Speaker 1: I need your presence, I need your pardon for all
Speaker 1: the things I've done wrong, and I need your peace
Speaker 1: in my heart and in my mind. I open my
Speaker 1: life to your love. I need to not just practice
Speaker 1: your model, but I need to have a relationship with you.
Speaker 1: Please save me in Jesus' name. Amen, God bless you. Everybody.
Speaker 1: We'll be talking to you next week. Have a great weekend.