Dealing with Stress

I. Introduction

If you have watched the news in the last week at all....you have undoubtedly seen some disturbing images....you undoubtedly saw our election results challenged and fought over....you undoubtedly saw the state of Georgia officially become a blue state for the first time in 20 years....and you undoubtedly saw our capitol building invaded and torn up....and I’m not asking you how you feel about any of that....but if I were a betting man....I’d be willing to bet that, at some point in the last couple of weeks, that you have felt worried....perhaps even stressed about something....maybe about what’s going on in the world....maybe about things in your life....but stress is real…and it is rampant.

So the question remains: how do we, as Christians, handle stress?

a. Scripture: Isaiah 40:1-8…& 29-31

And as always, I’m going to ask you to stand with me, if you are able, as we read from God’s Holy, Perfect, Sufficient and inerrant Word.

<Pray>

Thank you, and you may be seated.

II. Contextualization

a. Isaiah was a prophet that was the spokesman for God from around 740 until about 700 years B.C. In that 40 year period, the nations of Israel went through the reigns of King Uzziah, Jotham, and Ahaz…and Judah went through the reign of King Hezekiah. This was a time of revival for the people of God....especially in Judah under Hezekiah. In the book of Isaiah, the Hebrew people are going to have a hard lesson in the sovereignty of God…and how He controls their destiny and demands loyalty from His people. And at this point in Chapter 40, Isaiah speaks comfort for Jerusalem and the exiled people of God there.

III. Major Point

The Problem of Stress

The Promise of Strength

IV. Point #1: The Problem of Stress

Explanation If you sat down to read the entire book of Isaiah, you would find that it is set in a very chaotic and confusing time for the people of God. They had suffered attacks from the Assyrians and judgment for their disobedience against the Lord…and the city of Jerusalem had been through its fair share of tragedy and heartache because of this. You see, their stress MOSTLY (key word: mostly) came as a result of their own disobedience and sinful selfishness…and they had had quite a bit of punishment and consequence to endure as a result.

But I can just imagine that with all of these stressors in their lives, the people of the Lord in those days were worried…and had been stressed and worried for a good many years, can’t you?

Illustration I read an interesting statistic: “Americans consume 4 ½ million pounds of aspirin every year.” Can you imagine that? This is an aspirin age—4 ½ million pounds of aspirin. We’re all tense. We’re all stressed up and nowhere to go....I was reading a very old copy of USA Today a while back that I had found laying somewhere in storage, and they were talking about this fact that more of us are hypertensive. Nearly 20 million people in the U.S.A., who last year were considered to have normal blood pressure, have been reclassified as hypertensive by the American Heart Association. The Association now estimates that 55 million adults and 2.7 million children have elevated blood pressure…and that was way back in 1986....in 1985, only about 39 million were considered hypertensive....that was quite a while ago....I wonder what it would be today?

Application We worry don’t we? We worry about the economy…the state of the government....our health....our family’s health....grades....our performance at work....the election. We worry!

And the reasons we worry are vast in life....but they all can be boiled down to one very specific thing called The Problem of Stress....Now, what is the problem of stress? The problem of stress is that gap between the demands that are placed upon us and the strength we have to meet those demands. Now, that is the stress ratio, and that is the stress factor. Over here are the demands that we have: the necessities, the deadlines, the opportunities, all of those things that we must do, want to do, have to do, and ought to do. Over here is me and my weakness. Over here is my ought to, and over here is my weakness. And, the difference between those things causes stress.

If we read a bit ahead hear in chapter 40, we encounter verses 29 and 30, which famously read this way: “He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall.”…did you hear that? Even YOUTHS—the young people— are going to find themselves stressed. They are going to find that their strength is gone. They do not have the strength to meet the need. And I want you to hear me say this loud and clear this morning: it’s not a sin to be stressed. It’s not a sin to be weary. It’s not a sin to run out of strength. You may be weary for three basic reasons:

A. The Demands of Service: As Christians, it is our responsibility to serve the Lord and to serve one another…Jesus was the ultimate servant…He is the King of Kings, but He came and was the epitome of servanthood....He was the suffering servant in His time here. And you know what? Even the Lord Jesus Christ Himself was weary at times, wasn’t He? The Lord Jesus knew what it was to get tired. Do you remember in John chapter 4 before he had witnessed to that Samaritan woman? The Bible teaches that Jesus was weary, and He sat upon the curbing of the well there at Samaria. Jesus had been traveling those hot dusty roads, and His body was depleted and drained of strength, because He was human. He had humanity just like we do....Now, friend, whenever you minister to others, whenever you serve, if you’re truly ministering, if you’re truly serving, you are giving of yourself: strength goes out of you. You get worn out at times…and you need to rest. It was said of John the Baptist, “He was a burning and a shining light,” and friend, there can be no shining without burning. And, when you burn, you’re consumed. You become tired and need rest…I’ll be truthful with you: Every time I preach, something goes out of my very life, out of my strength, and out of my character. When I stand here and preach on Sunday, I am literally giving of myself…it wears me out....Hannah will be driving me to Metter to have lunch and I’ll be sitting there and just fall asleep....I have nothing left....and no matter what YOU are doing in the service of the Lord, if you are giving it your all, at times it’ll wear you down…we aren’t supermen…we need rest…and even the deamnds of Christian service can be stressful at times.

B. Sin: When we are disobedient to the Lord, it will often wear us down to nothing. Think of ole Samsoin…the Heavyweight Champion of the New Testament....the strongest man to ever live....He destroyed a mighty lion as if he were nothing....he carried off the gates of Gaza on his shoulders....he slew the army of the Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey....so great and mighty when he was in the will of God....but then he began to flirt with a trashy harlot named Delilah and what happened? He traded his relationship with God for the false god of the flesh and lust…and his trength was depleted....And, sin, my dear friend, will weary you; it takes out physical strength, emotional strength, moral strength, and spiritual strength. But make no mistake....like with the Israeilites in Isaiah: this weariness and stress is self-inflicted…it comes from our own actions that we are responsible for…our failure to be obedient....But, all of that is compounded by the devices of Satan as well.

C. The Devices of Satan: Satan waits until he sees that you’re weary to oppose you spiritually. Remember when the children of Israel were leaving the land of Egypt, there was a king named Amalek, and he was a demon-possessed king. He kept his eyes on the children of Israel. And, God reminded Moses, in the Book of Deuteronomy He said, “Do you remember what Amalek did to you?” He said, “He watched and he smote behind most of you when you were weary. That’s when he came. That’s when he smote you.”…in other words at the moment of your greatest weakness is when Satan comes after us. For a example: When a man who has made the mistake of being unfaithful to his wife…and they have perhaps tried to get over that and have worked through forgiving eachother…that does happen sometimes....It’s not when that man is sitting in church with his family and surrounded by his pastor and church family that Satan sends a temptation—oh no, it’s when he is alone…and nobody can see…and he has no accountability....THAT is when he finds a flirty girl talking to him…or an ex-fling texts him or sends an email....it is when we are at our weakest that Satan attacks....so be vigilent and aware.

Now, folks, all of us are going to know the stress factor. And, good people and bad people, sinners and saints, young and old, even the youths, shall faint and be weary. There are demands that are upon us, and there is this negation of strength, and there’s a gap, and that gap is the stress factor....the truth is: we all get stressed....no matter the cause....some of it, as we’ve seen is self-inflicted....others come from the stress of doing what youa re supposed to in Christian service…and still others come straight from the Devil Himself....

So the question is: what is a Christian to do? Are we hopeless? Not at all...

V. Point #2: The Promise of Strength

Explanation

Despite all of the punishment and weariness that the Jews had been through in the previous 39 chapters of Isaiah, now their punishment is officially over. Their consequences were officially at an end…that means that there was now an opportunity for them to be back in communion with the Lord where they belonged....there was and opportunity for them to move on…and Isaiah is prompted by god to give these words of comfort to these people at the time when they need them most.

Isaiah 40:1–2 NASB95

“Comfort, O comfort My people,” says your God. “Speak kindly to Jerusalem; And call out to her, that her warfare has ended, That her iniquity has been removed, That she has received of the Lord’s hand Double for all her sins.”

Traslation? You are forgiven…and the Lord is promising comfort to His people…He is promising that good and better times are coming:

Isaiah 40:4 NASB95

“Let every valley be lifted up, And every mountain and hill be made low; And let the rough ground become a plain, And the rugged terrain a broad valley;

And how do tyhe people know for SURE that this will be the way things are?

Isaiah 40:8 NASB95

The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever.

Translation? This is the Word of the Lord…and if HE says it....you can take it to the bank, my friend....your time of weariness is at an end for the moment...

So know this friend: your time of stress and weariness will come....but just like it was only for a moment for the Israelites, even when it was their own fault, it will also only be a moment for you. These things do not last forever. Endure…and trust the Lord, and He will pull you through at the end....

But the Lor also promises something else....look back at verse 31:

Isaiah 40:31 NASB95

Yet those who wait for the Lord Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary.

This is promising the Israelites that if they will trust in the Lord and wait on Him, They shall—not may, they shall—renew their strength.

Illustration

You know back in the olden days when a boy would be courting a girl, do you know what they would call it? That young man is waiting on that young lady. You could take that several ways too, I suppose—waiting on her to get ready. But, folks, that’s not what they meant. When they meant that he was waiting on her to CHOOSE him, it meant that he was pursuing her very actively. Well, listen. When I was head over hills in love with Hannah—and I’m more in love with her today than I was then—I was actively pursuing her. My mind, my emotions, my will, and everything, was to pursue this girl that I loved. And, dear friend, when you’re waiting upon God, you’re not just sitting around. You’re active...actively pursuing God.

Application

Now, that comes that brings us to a real question: How do you wait upon the Lord? Because this is the crux of the whole matter. And, here is the answer to stress. The key to dealing with stress is in this little phrase here in Isaiah chapter 40 and verse 31, “waiting upon the Lord.” The Psalmist said almost the same thing in Psalm 27, verse 14: “Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.”

Listen, we have the promise of strength from the Lord if we are willing to do this: to pursue Him....to love Him....to trust Him…and no matter what your stress is, we SHALL, the Bible says, have our strength renewed.

VII. Conclusion

a. Let me ask you this morning, are you trusting Him to help you weather the storms in your life....to take care of the stress you face? Now, friend, I want to tell you something. You’re going to face some storms, and those storms are going to stretch you, unless you’re waiting on God. But, if you wait upon God, God’s going to exchange your weakness for His strength, and you’re going to rise up, and God is going to give you strength to overcome whatever it is.

You know friends…Victorious Christian living isn’t made great in our best times....it shows best in times of adversity....just like a light shows best in a dark room....it’s not when everything is going right....it’s when you overslept for work....hop up and everything is going wrong....you can’t find any clean socks....the kids won’t get moving....and you KNOW your boss is going to be mad....but yet you praise the Lord and trust Him anyway....

It’s when your family member or friend is laying ina hospital bed fighting cancer…and yet you still trust the Lord and praise Him....

It’s when you are having marital problems and youa re desperately trying to save your marriage....and your world seems to be falling apart....but you still parise the Lord…and trust Him....and wait on Him…you seek Him...

Oh to have that kind of faith.....would you seek and work to have that kind of faith? May we all....

b. Let’s Pray