Please Click Image for Complete Sermon Notes
Welcome to Part 3 of our 50 Days of Transformation Series! Before we get into the message this morning, let me start with a question:
- How many of you here have felt a bit stressed out at any point this week?
- Now, if you haven’t, that’s great! Maybe you woke up this morning completely rested and refreshed…
- You got yourself energetically out of bed… and when you stood in front of your bathroom mirror, all you could think was, “Wow, do I feel good! In fact, I really look good!”
Maybe those were a few of your first thoughts this morning. But if they weren’t, then know that you’re not alone.
- In fact, more and more people today are living their lives feeling far more overwhelmed & exhausted than rested & invigorated.
- As a society, we’ve found ourselves chronically tired… STRESSED from what seems like an infinite barrage of challenges & complications & ever-increasing responsibilities.
And the sad reality is that the presence of stress in our lives is increasing year after year.
- In fact, 31% of men and 37% of women surveyed claimed to have experienced significant stress last year.
- That’s up several percentage points for women from the year before and a full 5% more for men.
- And what are we stressed about? Let me ask you. What do you think came up as the #1 stressor for men & women?
- Well… 67% said money. 65% said work-related stress; 54% family-related stress; 51% said health; and so on.
Of course, not all stress is bad. Feeling a bit stressed from time to time is a natural part of life that actually come with a few benefits.
- In smaller doses, it can help you meet your deadlines a little more efficiently… It can event help you focus and can help boost memory.
- It’s also a God-given mechanism that stirs the fight-or-flight response that can help us in emergencies…
- flooding our bodies with chemicals like adrenaline & cortisol,
stimulating laser-like reflexes, for example, so you can jump out of the way of a truck about to hit you.
But, as we all know, too much stress can wreak havoc on our physical health; From weight gain to fatigue to hair loss to muscle pain.
- And when that stress is chronic, it can weaken the immune system, cause high blood pressure, depression, and even heart disease…
- And, it can also cause inflammation which can lead any one of a number of auto-immune diseases.
And yet, because of how “normal” stress has become, we’re less & less aware of its presence in our lives.
- But even when we are, we’re only vaguely aware of the physical, emotional, relational, and spiritual price we’re paying for it.
- At the very least, you find that you’re not becoming the kind of person that you long to become…
- you’re not enjoying life and relationships and ministry the way you know you could.