Strategies for Stressful Times: Week 4

I want to ask you a question, and I want

to invite you to raise your hand. Be honest, please.

Who here has ever run out of gas? Been driving

on the road and ran out of gas. Okay, hey,

no shame, no judgment. That's okay. Now I want to

ask a couple other questions. When do you go to

the gas station to refill? Who waits until it's like

three-quarters tank and then you go? Any three-quarter tankers? But

half tank, half tank, it's time to fill up. What

about one quarter tank? When you've got one quarter tank,

it's time to fill up. Okay, now who here waits

for the light to come on? Yeah. And where are

the daredevils that think the light is a suggestion? Or

you know, like, I got 10, maybe 20 miles left.

We can do this. You're really living on the edge, huh?

That's your excitement, huh? Well, when Lauren and I were dating,

we were in college, and one night Lauren called me

because she ran out of gas and she was stopped

a few miles away. And so I said, no problem,

be right there. Got a gas can and got in

the car to drive to meet where she was. Well,

I found out later when I arrived, I was not

the only person Lauren had called. She called her dad.

And being a good dad, he did the same thing.

He got in the car in a gas can and

drove to, so there we were, her boyfriend and her dad.

And I'll tell you, as a young man, I was

a little bit irritated that Lauren had called both of

us because, you know, it was a one-man job. But

as I've thought more about it, I think Lauren just

needed some, she needed a little extra insurance, you know,

because I'm not a car guy. And so I think

she called her dad in case I needed a real

man there to help figure this out. Well, when we

got there, Lauren told me that she had an emergency

kit in her car. You may have seen these, like

a safety blanket, it has road flares, a flashlight, the

emergency things. She told me that in her emergency kit,

she found a spare emergency bottle of gasoline. Now, I'm

not a car guy, I can't fix cars, but I've

never heard of an emergency kit with extra gasoline. And

she told me that she had poured it into her

gas tank. I said, show me the bottle. Let me

see the bottle. She handed me this empty bottle. It

was engine oil. Now, thankfully, her dad reassured me that

just a small amount of engine oil wasn't going to

make a difference. So we filled her up with more gasoline,

full tank, and it burned off the engine oil. No

harm to the car. But for just a moment there,

we were a little bit nervous. I tell you that

story because I wonder how many of us are going

through life running on empty. I'm not talking about your

gas in your car. I'm talking about your spiritual tank,

your emotional tank, your capacity for stress. Going through life

on empty, just stressed out, maxed out, over-caffeinated, sleep-deprived, just

burned out. Man, I want to encourage you today for

the next few moments, we're going to look at what

Jesus has to say to us. And I want to

encourage you, man, Jesus has a better way of life

for us. Jesus has a better strategy for us. He

doesn't want us living life stressed out and burned out,

running on empty. He wants us to live life with

a full tank, and he's going to teach us how

to do that. Now, before we read from Matthew 11,

I want to tell you 100% honest that today I

am preaching to myself because, man, as I was reading

the words of Jesus, as I was studying the scripture,

preparing for today, man, I was just talking to the

Lord like, God, I'm no way qualified to teach on

this subject because I live life a lot of the

time running on empty and Burned out, stressed out, over-caffeinated,

going from here to there, over-committed. Like, man, I got

a lot of work to do. I got a lot

of work to do, but I want to get better.

I need God's help to live a better life. And

so we're going to listen to the words of Jesus.

Matthew chapter 11, I invite you to join me starting

Matthew 11 · chapter mention

in verse 28. Jesus says, 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 And you

will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is

easy and my burden is light. We're going to work

our way through these verses in a moment. We're going

to go line by line unpacking what Jesus is saying.

And before we go through each verse, I think it

would be a good idea, let's discuss some of the

reasons that we find ourselves running on empty. Some of

those reasons that our tank is empty. One, we overcommit

our time. We're overcommitted. Our time, our busyness will drain

your tank faster than anything. You know, Jesus, it's fair

to say Jesus had the most responsibility out of anybody

in history. I mean, he had one main assignment, save humanity.

He had the most responsibility. You call it pressure. He

had the most pressure. But when we read the Gospels,

never once do we read about Jesus being late. Never

once do we read about him rushing or hurrying somewhere.

And yet he still accomplished all that he was supposed

to accomplish. Man, look at your schedule. How overcommitted are you?

How stretched thin is your schedule? Man, I do this

so often. I go from this appointment to that appointment

to this meeting to this call back to back to

back without any break. I overestimate what I can squeeze

into an hour. And for me, it's because of a

lie that I've believed. And maybe you've believed this lie too.

The lie is that busyness equals significance. Significance. The more

busy I am, the more significant I am. The more

busy I am, the more important I am. The more

I've got going on, the more plates I'm spinning, the

more responsibility I have, the more impressive I am. And

by default, that lie translates, if I'm not busy, that

means I'm lazy. But for some of us, it's people pleasing.

Like you just want everybody to be happy. You don't

want to let anybody down. And so you overcommit your

time trying to keep people happy. Some of us, we

just can't say no anymore. And our time is overcommitted.

I'll tell you a story I came across recently. This

man was driving on the road. And as he was driving,

a pet delivery truck pulled in front of him. And

the man drove behind this pet delivery truck for several miles.

And they came to a stoplight. And at the stoplight,

at the red light, the pet delivery truck driver got

out of the truck and walked around the truck beating

the sides of the truck with a 2x4. And then

when the light turned green, he got back in the

seat and drove on. They came to a second stoplight,

and the same thing happened. Truck driver got out and

beat the sides of the truck, and when it turned green,

he got back in and kept driving. And then at

the third stoplight, the truck driver got out to do

the same thing. This time, the man following the truck

rolled down his window, and he said, excuse me, what

are you doing? The truck driver explained very rationally. He said,

I'm driving a two-ton truck. And I've got four tons

of canaries in here. So I've got to keep half

of them in the air at all times. Now that's

a really cheesy story. But I think it makes a

point that some of us are carrying something heavier than

we're supposed to. You've overloaded your limits. You've overloaded your limits.

You're carrying something that you shouldn't carry. Your system wasn't

designed to carry something beyond your capacity. For example, we

read in Proverbs 12, anxiety weighs down the heart. Man,

can you relate to that? Burden with anxiety, burden with worry,

stressing over a situation you can't control, stress about other

people's problems, someone else's issue, lying awake at night trying

to problem solve. Anxiety weighs down. It's a burden you're

not supposed to carry. It's too heavy. It's overloading your limit.

Psalm 38 says, My guilt has overwhelmed me like a

burden too heavy to bear. Are you weighed down with

guilt today? Are you suffering under a burden of shame

or regret from something in the past that you wish

you could go back and change? Are you carrying a

sin issue? Are you carrying some addictive, destructive behavior, a

secret thing that is wearing you out? Man, I want

to tell you what Jesus says. He says, come to me,

all you who are weary and burdened. Man, if you

are carrying something, if your limits are overloaded, Jesus is

strong enough to lift the burden. When Jesus died on

the cross, his death and his blood paid the price

for our sin so we can be forgiven. His death

is the power to lift the burden of shame, to

lift the burden of guilt. There is no regret too big.

There is no burden too heavy that Jesus cannot remove

and set you free from. Some of us, we're overburdened.

Our limits are overloaded. Some of us are running on

empty because you're pushing too hard for too long. I

have a friend who's a police officer and recently he

was telling me that in his department the police vehicles

that they have are constantly being replaced at a rapid rate.

He was explaining to me that the police cars are

typically run their engines 24-7 because the officer in the

morning shift is driving the car and Then the afternoon

shift takes the same car. And then the officer at

the night shift takes the car again and drives all night.

Even if they're not driving, if they're parked, they still

might be on and idling. And so the department is

constantly making new repairs or even replacing the whole vehicle

very quickly because their engines are going 24-7. Some of

us are running on empty because we overwork too much.

Because your engines are always on. You go, go, go. Man,

when's the last time that you had a true day off?

I mean, like a Sabbath day, like the Bible teaches,

a day dedicated to the Lord, a day dedicated to God.

to being with God, to enjoying Him, a day that's

off the clock, off the emails. Man, some of us

are running on empty because we don't know how to

turn our engines off. We go, go, go. And I

think for a few of us, overworking is especially dangerous

when when money is involved. Because if there's an opportunity

to pick up some extra shifts, there's an opportunity to

make some overtime, if there's a way to get some

extra income on the side here, you can go, go, go,

and burn out quickly. Some of us are just motivated

by the almighty dollar. We're motivated by the bottom line.

And some of us have turned work into idolatry. It's

become an idol. The bank account is your self-worth. The

overtime is your trophy money. that you hold up. The grind,

the hustle is your identity. And work becomes an altar

on which we sacrifice our health, sacrifice our family, sacrifice

our time, sacrifice our faith. Now, of course, the Bible

teaches a strong work ethic. What I'm talking about here

is overworking, idolizing work. Scripture says in Proverbs 23, don't

wear yourself out trying to get rich. Be wise enough

to know When to quit. For months now, the low

pressure tire indicator has been on in my car. And

so I took it to my car guy and he

looked at it and he could not find a hole.

He couldn't find a leak, couldn't find a problem. But

he inflated it and then sent me on my way.

And so I drove until about a week later, the

light came back on. So I stopped and looked at

the tire. I could not find a hole. I could

not find a leak. So I used my little air

compressor and inflated it again and kept driving. A few

days later, the light came back on. Somewhere there is

a leak that I can't find, but I just used

that air compressor. I've lived like this all summer long,

reinflating it every few days, every week or so. What

am I doing? I'm ignoring the problem. I'm just living

with it. I'm just coping. I'm just managing it. How

often do we just live with it? Man, how often

do we just deal with it, you know? What we're

doing is we're overlooking the warning signals. We're overlooking the

warning signals. Just like a car has indicator lights, your

life has indicators. Your body has indicators telling you when

you're stressed out, when you're burned out, when you're running

on empty. Man, when you're running on empty, do you

overlook the warning signals? A little more Advil, a little

more ibuprofen, an extra drink at night to take the

edge off. Some more caffeine in the morning to get

through the day, keep the pedal to the metal. Man,

there was a period in my life where I was

just chronically sick. Just kept getting sick. Like I'd go

from a cold to strep throat to the flu. Like

every two or three weeks, I was just getting something new.

And I was fed up. I was sick of being sick.

And so I called my teledoc. And I was basically

on a first-name basis with teledoc. And I said, I

need more antibiotics, probably strep throat again. And the teledoc said, Mr. Miller. Mr. Miller.

We've prescribed you the limit of antibiotics. You need to

go to a specialist. And so that's what I did.

I went to an ENT, near nose and throat doctor.

I'm like, doctor, do I need to get my tonsils out?

Is there some kind of infection going on? Like, what

do we need to do? The doctor looked at my

medical history. He gave me an exam. And then he said,

I know your diagnosis. He said, you have overworked, overstressed

young dad syndrome. I didn't need more medicine. I didn't

need a procedure. I need to pay attention to the

warning signals. I need to change some things in my lifestyle.

I need to change some things in how I cared

for myself. Pay attention to the warning signals in your life.

When you're running on empty, are you getting less sleep?

Is there chronic pain in your body? When you're running

on empty, are you overeating or undereating? When you're on empty,

are you sleeping less or Think about relationally what's happening

when you're running on empty. Are you isolating? Are you

pulling away from relationships? Well, so far we've talked about

a few of the reasons we run on empty, a

few reasons our tank goes on empty. I want us

to shift now. I want to make a turn and

go back to what Jesus says in Matthew 11 and

talk about how do we refill our tank. So let's

look at these words of Jesus again in verse 28.

He says, 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'm gentle

and humble in heart, and you will find rest for

your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden

is light. Notice the first three words that Jesus says here.

He says, come to me. He just says, come. It's

an invitation. It's a gentle, kind, compassionate invitation How do

you refill your tank? It starts here. Come to Jesus.

Respond to his invitation. Come to Jesus. Man, this is

where every human being has to start. Come to Jesus.

You have to surrender your life to Jesus Christ as

the Lord and Savior of your life. Let me tell you,

until you surrender to him, you'll be stuck in a

cycle of burnout, of stressed out, of running on empty.

Does your soul ever feel empty? Restless. Maybe you're not

stressed out at work. Maybe you have a good job.

Maybe there's nothing in your family stressing you out. Things

are pretty good. But at the end of the day,

when you lay your head on the pillow, does it

feel like there's this gnawing, empty restlessness? Something is missing.

The money hasn't changed it. That relationship hasn't fixed it.

That degree hasn't solved. It's just this restlessness. Your soul

will be restless. until you surrender to Jesus. Come to Jesus.

I've had some experience with addiction, and I've learned that

one thing about addiction is that addiction is usually always

about disconnection, about isolation. For example, pornography is an addiction

in my past, and that type of addiction is usually,

it's not about sex, it's more about trying to soothe

or medicate some disconnection or soothe or medicate some loneliness

or something in the past like abuse or trauma or

a loss of control. Dr. Chuck DeGroat once wrote, our

addictions are always seen as potential solutions to disconnection, an

attempt to soothe our dysregulated bodies and find relief on

our own terms. So whether it's a shopping addiction or

a food addiction or social media addiction or alcohol addiction,

We're looking for something to give us relief, to give

us relief from the stress, to give us relief from

not feeling like we're in control. But Jesus, in this text,

he invites us to a genuine connection. The greatest relief,

the greatest solution is a connection, a personal relationship with

the God who created you. Have you made that decision?

Have you come to him? Surrender to Jesus as your

Lord and Savior. Because he says here in the text,

come to me. He does not say, come after you

cleaned up. He doesn't say, come after you fixed your problems. Hey,

come to me after you're not stressed out. He says, come. Weary, burdened,

stressed out, come just as you are. And what does

he say in verse 29? You will find rest for

your soul. Many of us have made that decision. Many

of us are Christians. We believe in Jesus. He is

our Lord and Savior. And yet, even as Christians, we sometimes,

many times live on empty. We're still stressed out. We're

still exhausted. That's why I want to remind us today

that we need to come back to Jesus. Man, a

relationship with Jesus is always a pattern and a practice

of coming back to Jesus, coming home to Jesus. This

is something that I try to practice regularly. In my

home office, next to my reading chair, I have this painting,

this artist's depiction. And you'll see in the picture, it's

a lost sheep. And this lost sheep, in the background,

there's Jesus who's coming after to rescue the lost sheep.

And it's a reminder of the story Jesus tells where

the shepherd leaves the 99 safe sheep to go rescue

the lost sheep, to go find it. So when I'm

feeling overwhelmed, when I'm feeling stressed, when I'm feeling upset

or disappointed, I can look at this and remember that

in the stressed out, feeling empty, feeling overwhelmed, I don't

need to go looking to find something. I don't need

to go find connection. I don't need to find something

to soothe or medicate because Jesus came to find me

and to bring me home. Something else that I do

regularly throughout the year, I'll pick a few dates to

be alone with Jesus for a day or two. There's

a private retreat center that I often visit and I

plan these days months in advance and it's a place

where there's no Wi-Fi, there's no interruption. It is in

the middle of nowhere, nowhere. Like it's the capital town

of nowhere. Be all alone with Christ, even just for

a day or two. And I put these dates in

my calendar and I protect them. And just this week,

I'm preparing this sermon. I don't think it was an

accident that I have one of these dates blocked out

in my calendar in the future. And this week, I

received an invitation to go do some ministry and it

conflicts with those dates. I'm like, man, I'm preaching to myself.

I got to protect those dates. Man, what practices do

you have that help you come back to Jesus? What

are you doing to help you come back to Jesus,

to refill? I mean, it's one of the reasons we

gather like this every week. This is a coming back

to Jesus, coming back to the family of God, to worship,

to be refilled so we can go into the week tomorrow.

Daily prayer, daily Bible reading are practices where you can

refill to receive what Jesus has for you. When you're

stressed out, come back to Jesus. I want us to

continue looking at this text. Let's read verse 29. Jesus says,

take my yoke upon you and learn from me for

I'm gentle and humble in heart and you will find

rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and

my burden is light. I wanna talk about the yoke

for a moment. What does Jesus mean when he says

take my yoke? Well, remember in the context here, Jesus

is speaking in the first century in Israel to people

who would be familiar with agriculture and farming and they

would know what a yoke is. And likely two ideas

of a yoke would come to mind to the people

listening to Jesus. One might be a person carrying a yoke,

carrying a heavy bird and a heavy basket or water

to a watering well. And another might be an animal

under a yoke, an ox or a cow or a

donkey pulling a cart or plowing a field. And when

you first read Jesus' words, it might sound like Jesus

has this backwards. Like at first he says, come to

me all you who are heavy burdened. And I will

give you more to carry. I think there's a few

things we can understand from Jesus here. First, when the

animal is under the yoke, who is in charge? The farmer.

The person guiding and leading the animal. That's the person

who's in charge. The animal goes wherever the farmer leads.

And so when Jesus says, take my yoke, what he's

saying is, release control. When he says, come under my yoke,

he's saying release control. How much of the stuff that's

stressing you out is because of something you cannot control?

You've probably heard me share recently that I'm in the

process of trying to move to a new house and man,

there's so many things that I do not control. Can't

control interest rates, can't control mortgage lenders, can't control what

the seller might negotiate or Closing dates, like, man, there

are so many things. And I know that I've also

got a home that I need to sell, and that's stressful. Like,

there's just a lot of things not in my control. Man,

so much of what stresses you out are things that

you can't control. What is stressing you out right now?

Is it waiting on a decision? Waiting on an answer?

Waiting on test results? Waiting on an application? A health issue?

I want to ask you a question, a very simple question.

Are you under the yoke of stress or are you

under the yoke of Jesus? Is stress controlling you? Is

stress controlling your decisions? Is stress controlling your relationships? Is

stress controlling your sleep and your appetite? Are you under

the yoke of stress? I want to point something out

that Jesus says in Matthew 11. We've been reading verses 28, 29,

and 30. And maybe you've heard this passage quoted before.

And every time it's quoted, it starts in verse 28.

But I want us to read verse 27. Because I

think verse 27 gets overlooked. Because verse 27, I believe,

is where Jesus has the authority and the power to

say what he says in verses 28, 29, and 30.

Because in verse 27, he says, It's right here in

the text. He says all things are under Jesus' control.

Not small things, not little things, not tiny things. It

says all things. And this week, as I was studying this,

as I was preparing this message, as I was thinking

about our church, I remembered all of the people through

history where God's people have felt like they were not

in control, where they were stressed out, but God was

always in control. Let me remind us that our God

is always in control. Think back with me. Go all

the way back to the beginning of history. The very

first humans, when Adam and Eve were stressing over their sin,

he is the God who brought salvation. Noah was worried

about a flood. He is the God who brought him

through the storm. When Abraham was stressing about not having

a child, he is the God who gave him Isaac.

When Joseph was stuck in a dungeon, he is the

God who set him free. When Moses was trapped at

the Red Sea, he is the God who parted the waters.

When Joshua was afraid of the enemy, he is the

God who brought down the walls of Jericho. When David

was hiding in the cave, he is the God who

anointed him king. When Daniel was surrounded by lions, he

is the God who shut the lion's mouths. When Esther

risked her life, he is the God who delivered her people.

When Israel waited 400 years in silence, he is the

God who sent Jesus as a man. And that night

when Peter was denying his Lord, he is the God

who died for Peter. And on that Sunday morning, when

Mary could not find the body at the tomb, He

is the God who rose from the dead and called

her by name. Your God did it then and he'll

do it again. Your God is not stressed out by

what's stressing you out. Are you under his yoke? When

Jesus says, come under my yoke, he's saying, release control

and trust him. In verse 30, Jesus says, My yoke

is easy and my burden is light. What does Jesus

mean here? Jesus wants you to stop carrying the wrong

stuff and start carrying the right stuff. See, Jesus is

not saying, hey, you'll never carry anything. Man, you're a parent.

If you're a parent, you got a burden. You got

a responsibility. If you're a grandparent, you got a responsibility. Man,

if you're an employer, a boss, you got people that

you're looking after, you got responsibility. Like, We have responsibility.

We have assignments. We have callings in the kingdom of

God to fulfill. He's not saying you'll be burden free.

What he's saying is carry the right things. You see,

he says, my yoke is easy. In Greek, this word

easy is a word that is translated better, good, kind.

And I love this. It can mean well-fitting. So Jesus

is saying, my yoke is well-fitting. My yoke fits you.

My yoke is made for you. What he's saying is

that some of you are stressed out because you're carrying

something you weren't designed to carry. So I want to

tell you, carry what you're supposed to carry. Carry what

you're supposed to carry. When Jesus says, take my yoke,

he's talking about obedience. He's talking about following him. Obedience

is a responsibility. It is something that we carry. But

I wonder if you're stressed out because you're carrying something

that you weren't designed to carry, that is not well-fitted? Man,

who here is carrying shame and guilt over something that

Jesus died and paid for? Who here is carrying anxiety

and fear that you were not fitted to carry? Who

here is carrying other people's feelings, trying to keep them

happy and manage their feelings, or expectations that have been

put on you by a parent or a spouse that

you were not designed and fitted to carry Man, there's

got to be somebody here who is carrying something like

an addiction, a sin issue, a destructive habit that is

just not designed for you, that is not well-fitted. I

believe that somebody listening has a divine assignment. You have

a calling. God has something fitted for you that is

designed for your personality, for your gifting, for your experience,

something for you to do in his kingdom. And you

know what it is. You know the ministry you're supposed

to be leading. You know that serving role you're supposed

to be stepping into. You know what that assignment is.

But anytime you think about it, it feels overwhelming. It

feels intimidating because you're so stressed out carrying something you

weren't designed to carry. So let it go. Release that

so that you can carry the yoke that is well-fitted,

the assignment, the calling, the purpose that God has for you.

Because Jesus says his yoke is easy and his burden

is light. Carry what you're supposed to carry. Today I

want to close by providing a time for us to

practice some of the things we talked about today. To

practice being still before God. In a moment we're going

to have a time of prayer and there will be

some scripture on the screens that may be a prompt

as you pray. But I want to invite you just

to be still before God to maybe release something you've

been carrying. Confess something. Maybe for some of us, we're here.

we need to hear from God. Like today's been crazy,

this weekend's been chaotic, and you haven't even heard from

God yet. This space is that opportunity to listen for him.

So I want to invite you into this moment. Would

you bow your heads with me? I want to invite

you to put both your feet on the floor and

And then put your hands in your lap, palms up.

This is just a posture of receiving, a posture of openness.

And then now would you take a deep breath in

and hold it. And then let it out slowly. Once again,

take a deep breath in and hold it. And let

it out slowly. Slowly. Now spend these moments still before

the Lord and then I'll return and close us. Thank you.

Thank you. Amen. Amen. Amen. I trust that you've experienced

some of God's invitation to come. find rest for your soul.

In the early 1900s, a young man named Reinhold Niebuhr

grew up in American history at a time of great stress.

He was a teenager during World War I. He became

an adult during the Great Depression. He was working as

a seminary professor during World War II. It's safe to

say that Niebuhr lived in one of the most stressful

times of American history. And Niebuhr was is most remembered

today for crafting a prayer, a prayer that we call

the serenity prayer. And it's a prayer that includes much

of what Jesus had to say to us today from

Matthew chapter 11. And every Tuesday night here at Church

Matthew 11 · chapter mention

of the Crossing at Celebrate Recovery, we end our time

together praying the serenity prayer. And so I wanna invite

you to stand with me today and we're gonna pray

this prayer together. It'll be on the screen and I

want to invite you to pray this out loud with me. God,

grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

the courage to change the things I can, and the

wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time,

enjoying one moment at a time, accepting hardship as a

pathway to peace, taking, as Jesus did, this sinful world

as it is, not as I would have it. trusting

that you will make all things right if I surrender

to your will, so that I may be reasonably happy

in this life and supremely happy with you forever in

the next. Amen. Would you just celebrate the Lord today?