Stress is a Lie
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16 above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.
quench - to extinguish v. — to put out, as of fires or flames.
Fiery Darts:
pyroomai - to burn (undergo) v. — to undergo combustion.
belos - missile n. — a weapon that is forcibly thrown or projected at a target but is not self-propelled (arrow, javelin, dart, and other projectiles).
For the missile to be on fire implies that the strike is only the beginning of the damage!
It purposely doesn’t say “darts” of the wicked one. They are fiery because when you let them get by, and strike you, their damage will spread.
What is stress?
Stress is a NEGATIVE response to pressure. By definition, stress is negative.
There is a positive response to pressure. That’s what we’re after!
The Mental Health Foundation:
Stress is the feeling of being overwhelmed or unable to cope with mental or emotional pressure.
Stress makes you act differently. Since it is negative, by definition, the way it makes you act is negative.
What do you do when you’re stressed?
1 But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come:
Perilous - troublesome adj. — difficult to deal with.
27 Then they told him, and said: “We went to the land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit.
28 Nevertheless the people who dwell in the land are strong; the cities are fortified and very large; moreover we saw the descendants of Anak there.
This is us right now. This land we’re in, grand prairie, God has called us to. God has given it to us. I know that because we didn’t do this ourselves.
The sales manager this week.
God supernaturally preserved this place.
The enemy is going to come against us! The enemy wants us distracted, fighting each other, feeling overwhelmed, feeling angry, feeling too busy.
You don’t have to be the pastor to feel like you can’t do this!
Every person in this room is part of the team. Every person here is a member of the army God has sent to this place. This is OUR promised land.
One of the easiest ways he can get to us, is stress.
30 Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, “Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.”
31 But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.”
32 And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature.
33 There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”
1 So all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night.
2 And all the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in this wilderness!
3 Why has the Lord brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and children should become victims? Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?”
4 So they said to one another, “Let us select a leader and return to Egypt.”
What was actually wrong?
THE STRATEGY!
Stress is a fiery dart.
Fiery darts can only be quenched with one thing: faith.
We need a simple tool to inject faith IN THE MIDST of stress!
Let’s build a question we can ask when we feel stress.
Stress is a lie.
Stress means you think things are not gonna be okay.
One question solves this: What would my GOOD heavenly Father say?
Stress is an attack.
When you feel it, the enemy wants you distracted. The enemy wants you to QUIT!
What would my MIGHTY heavenly Father say?
Stress is a fruit.
If we don’t deal with what’s producing the fruit, it’ll just grow right back.
What would my PRESENT heavenly Father say?
Putting them together, we have:
What would my GOOD, MIGHTY, PRESENT Heavenly Father say?
What would He say about your quota at work?
What would He say about that deadline?
What would He say when you’re running late?
What would He say when things are going wrong?
What would He say when your spouse is making things hard for you?
What would He say to your disobedient children?
Peace is no accident. We have to fight for it and guard it. It’s the fruit of faith.
Peace is a choice. It’s an outlook. It’s a fruit.