Getting Over Overwhelmed – Overwhelmed by Stress

This podcast is presented to you by Pastor Jason Burns and Access Church in Lakeland, Florida.

For more information, visit Access.tv.

Well, today I'm excited.

We're getting into a new little two-part mini-series that I'm calling Getting Over Overwhelmed.

Can we be honest for a moment?

We are some overwhelmed, stressed-out kind of people.

Like we really are.

I'll never forget several years ago.

My family took a vacation in the summer to the West Coast, and we we caught a flight that got back into Orlando very late at night.

By the time we got our luggage and got to our car, it was about 1 or 1.30 in the morning.

And I was on this little road.

It was two lanes on each side with a concrete divider in the middle.

I'm driving Liz's minivan, her little mom wagon, and we are on this thing going on our way back.

And it's late at night.

I'm exhausted.

My kids are kind of like falling in and out of sleep.

And off in the distance, as we're on this road, I see headlights.

But that's no big deal.

It's probably on the other side of the road.

Then it got a little closer and a little closer.

And I'll never forget the jarring moment I felt when my wife screamed, Oh my God, it's on the same side coming at us.

This car, I don't know what had happened.

People are like, Do you know what happened?

I have no idea.

I don't know if he was drunk.

I don't know if if they were just they missed the turn.

But they were coming, and here's my problem.

I'm driving in the left lane.

In the right lane beside me is another car right beside me.

To my left is a little shoulder, just a little bit of room, and a concrete wall.

And this car was coming full speed at us.

I'm going full speed on the road.

And so I start slamming on the brakes and slamming on my horn as much as I can.

And there was this moment when the car comes screeching in at us, and at the last second, I pulled left into the shoulder and then right back out.

And we, I mean, I'm telling you, I don't know how, short of the grace of God, I don't know how we weren't in a tragic head-on collision.

It was one of the scariest moments of my life, and it was so jarring that in that moment I felt my nerves were shot.

Liz was awesome.

She reached over and she was like massaging my shoulder.

She goes, You handled that so well.

Thank you, thank you.

And I'm like, I thank you.

I love you.

Please don't touch me.

Like I was so overwhelmed in the moment.

Got home after the hour or so drive, and I got in bed, and I promise you I couldn't sleep for two hours.

I was so shot.

My nerves were so overcome with emotion.

I was just overwhelmed.

As I was thinking about this message and specifically the story, had this thought hit me that that feeling, that shot nerves, can't sleep, heart-racing kind of feeling, is how so many people live every day of their lives.

Like we are overwhelmed kinds of people.

And here's the thing about being overwhelmed and the thing about stress stress is indiscriminate.

It affects the young and the old, the rich and the poor.

Stress hits people in different stages and seasons in the same situation but different ways.

A student can feel stressed about a test, a teacher can feel stressed because they have to grade the test.

A person can feel stressed because they can't find a job, another person is stressed because of the job that they have.

A person is stressed because they can't get pregnant and can't have a child, and some people are stressed by the children that they have.

Some people are stressed because they desperately can't find a house, and other people are stressed because they have a house that they can't sell.

Stress hits us in so many different ways, and we're stressed out, messed up kind of people.

Like, aren't we?

A couple years ago, a Wall Street Journal came out with an article, and it said that stress is one of the silent killers in our society.

That stress by itself kills more people than drugs, alcohol, and a lack of exercise combined.

The Wall Street Journal article called it the emotional epidemic Americans face.

In fact, one of the things that tends to stress us out is work.

And check this out.

Our generation, according to the latest statistics, works 181 hours a year more than the previous generation.

Let me tell you what that means.

It means in the same 12-month calendar year, this generation squeezes an extra four hours of work into the same calendar.

No doubt, no reason.

I mean, there's no doubt whatsoever that we are completely overwhelmed, completely stressed out kinds of people.

There's all different kinds of reasons we stress out.

In fact, here's a list of the top seven.

Our job stresses us out, money or the lack of money stresses us out.

Our health can stress us out.

Our relationships, come on, you know this.

You ever gone to bed wondering if you're gonna have a relationship tomorrow?

Those stress us out.

Poor diet stress us out.

Here's a big one: media overload.

Like we live in this generation where we're addicted to our phones, but what we're really addicted to is the comparison game.

We're into like looking at what other people have, and we compare their highlight reels to our normal moments of living, and it stresses us out.

Of lack of sleep can stress us out.

If you're like me, there's one extra one.

It's being a Dallas Cowboys fan stresses me out.

That is not a cheer moment, okay?

And I'd like to add, this isn't an effect to me, but being a Florida or Florida State fan this year is a reason people are all jacked up and stressed out.

Like, we live stressed out lives, and I could spend lots of time telling you why we're stressed, but the truth is you know.

And I wish I could stand up for you and be like, and so if you'll be like me, you'll never stress.

But can I be real for a moment?

A few weeks ago, Liz goes, uh, you should be more vulnerable.

Okay, you ready?

Here's vulnerability.

Stress has messed me up.

The last five years or so, I can't sleep past 4:30 in the morning.

I wake up, heart racing, can't sleep, mind going 120 miles an hour.

I've talked to doctors and counselors.

Stress is just a thing, like it's just a part of the human experience.

So, what do we do about it?

Well, let's start by talking about where it comes from.

Um, stress comes when the pressure that we're facing is greater than our capacity to stand up underneath it.

Stress comes when the pressure we're feeling is greater than the capacity we have to get up underneath it and stand up underneath it to help explain this.

I'll never forget many years ago, our church was kind of new.

We were just a few hundred people, and we grew really fast.

And we were meeting in a YMCA, and so we had all of our chairs that we would set up, and then there was a season when we grew so much that if if we could find something in the building that a person could sit on, we would set that out too, because we were just out of chairs.

And so we took people's desk chairs and benches and yoga balls, and I'll never forget in that season, there was this moment that was so funny to me.

It's super messed up, I'll admit this, but it was funny to me.

There was a guy who was one of our key leaders, and he was a bigger dude, kind of a strong, he was just a big dude, all right?

And he comes walking in as I'm preaching, and he is holding the thinnest folding chair I have ever seen in my whole life.

Now, something you need to know about me is I've preached so much that when I'm preaching, two things are happening at the same time.

On one hand, I'm thinking about what I'm talking about and what's coming next.

On the other hand, I'm looking at you, I'm thinking funny thoughts, I'm wondering why you're falling asleep, I'm thinking all kinds of stuff.

And I see this big boy come walking in with his little flimsy folding chair, and I thought to myself, oh, strengthen that chair in Jesus' name.

And he goes to the back corner of the room and he unfolds it and he sits down, and I'm talking not more than 10 seconds later.

I hear this loud crash and bang and ooh, that sound.

And I look and his feet are up in the air, his back is on the ground, the chair is in a dozen broken pieces.

Why?

Because the chair didn't have the strength to stand up to the pressure that it was under when he sat on it.

That's what happens to our lives.

We get stressed out when we don't have the strength to stand up to the pressures of this life.

Now, can I tell you what I wish?

I wish the Bible had like a verse that said, if you do these two things or these three things, you'll never be stressed out ever again.

But it doesn't.

In fact, the Bible doesn't even specifically talk about the issue of stress.

Now, there's moments where people are obviously stressed out, like Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.

He's obviously stressed.

But it doesn't talk about the antidote or the way to not be stressed.

And to make it even worse, okay, Jesus was talking one day and he said this is found in the book of John, John chapter 16.

John 16 · chapter mention

Jesus said, I have told you these things so that in me you might have peace.

And that sounds good.

That's what I signed up for.

Come on, thank you, Jesus, that I can have peace in you.

But then Jesus throws a curveball and he says, In this world you will have trouble.

Like, hold up.

I didn't sign up for that.

Like, in this world you will have trouble, and you want to be like, Come on, Jesus, can you be more positive?

To which Jesus would say, I am positive.

In this world, you will have trouble.

I want you to hear this.

A lot of Christians that they have these issues with God when life gets hard, and they think that if I follow Jesus, it's supposed to equal a very simple, easy life.

Nowhere in Scripture does it promise that life will be easy.

Here's what it promises.

In this world you will have trouble.

Jesus said, but take heart, but like stand up and have some courage.

I have overcome the world.

The promise of God is that you have strength, but your strength isn't in you.

Your strength is found in him.

So I want to talk to you about stress and what we can do about it.

And to get us started today, I'm gonna go to one of my favorite set sections of Scripture.

It's found in the book of Philippians.

And we'll go there in just a moment, but I want to set this up for you.

I want you to think about your stress, like what is stressing you out right now, and I want you to try for just a moment to imagine the stress of the author of the book of Philippians.

It's written by a guy named Paul.

Paul desperately wanted someday to get to Rome.

Rome was the epicenter of culture, it was the epicenter of the world.

And he wanted to get to Rome to preach on a platform, but when he gets to Rome, he's not preaching from a platform, he's preaching from a prison cell.

In this prison cell, he writes a letter that we call the book of Philippians.

Now I want you to understand this.

The book of Philippians is called the Book of Joy.

But what you need to understand is Paul writes from prison, and this prison was disgusting.

This summer my family had the awesome opportunity to go to Europe.

We spent a day in Rome, and in Rome, you can literally go to the prison cell where it is believed that Paul was held.

The prison cell was this dark kind of cave of a room, completely dark.

It was believed that in the time that this was written, that the inmates would have been chained to the wall or chained to a Roman guard.

It was underground, so no matter what the temperature upstairs was, downstairs it was much colder than it was above.

So think about this.

In the winter months, if there was rain, the rain had no drainage system, so it would naturally settle in the lowest possible place, which would mean that prisoners were held in these barbaric conditions, chained to a wall, standing in water that literally held whatever, because there was no toilets, it held whatever they produced.

Just this disgusting place.

It is known through history that people, in a desperate attempt to get out, would literally bash their heads against the wall, taking their own lives.

Paul writes this letter called the Book of Joy in this prison, chained to a Roman guard, with the addition of not knowing if he would live to see tomorrow.

He expected that one day there might be a knock on his door and he might be let out and executed.

Okay.

Now I don't want to minimize your stress.

I don't want to minimize my stress.

I believe it's real, but I don't think any of us feel stressed like that.

And in that position, Paul writes this letter.

I want you to see the promise, and then we'll come back to talk about how.

He says, if you do this, and we're gonna talk about what that is, you will experience God's peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand.

His peace will keep your thoughts and your hearts quiet as you rest at rest as you trust in Christ Jesus.

He's gonna give us a pathway to peace.

Like, how, in spite of all the stress and everything you're going through, can your life and your heart actually rest and your soul feel at peace?

I want to give you five simple thoughts of things that Paul's gonna invite us to do.

Write this down.

Number one, if we're gonna be people who do it, we have to refuse to worry.

And that sounds so easy, doesn't it?

Like you have to make a decision to not worry.

Here's how he says it in the verse before what we just read Philippians 4, verse 6.

Philippians 4:6

He says, Don't worry about anything.

Now pause here for just a moment.

Because that might feel like it's talking down to you.

That might feel like it's like so simple, so elementary.

But I want you to understand this.

This isn't a suggestion.

This isn't like Paul's, like, hey, buddy, champ.

If you don't feel like it, just maybe don't worry.

He's saying, no, no, look at me.

Do not worry, because worry is a choice about what gets your attention.

Don't worry.

Why does he want us to understand how important this is?

Because here's what worry is.

Worry is an old word that means to strangle or choke.

What is it strangling and choking?

It is strangling out your heart and it chokes out your capacity to dream.

Worry.

It just gives you something to do, but doesn't accomplish anything.

Worry is paying today for a problem that may not happen tomorrow.

It strangles everything out.

Jesus even talked about it.

Like this was such a big deal that in the most famous section of scripture that Jesus is teaching, it's called the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells us several things.

I want you to see it.

The first thing he says is that worry is unreasonable.

Let me try to explain it like this.

Have you ever woken up early in the morning dreading something, worrying about something?

And because you worried about it, it got better or easier.

No.

All you do is you magnify the problem.

Can I tell you theologically what happens when you magnify your problems?

You make your problems big, thus making God small.

That's what worry does.

So Jesus said it like this.

This is from Jesus' words in the Sermon on the Mount.

He said, That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life.

Whether you have enough food or drink, enough clothes to wear.

Isn't life more than food?

And isn't your body more than clothing?

Jesus says, like, there's so much more to this life than the temporary stuff that we worry about.

It's unreasonable.

Stop it.

The second thing he says is worry is unnatural.

You know, if we were to study all the different pieces of God's creation, the only part that worries is humans.

Like, dogs don't worry, bears don't worry, cats.

Cats are the reason we worry, but like there's there's like nothing else worries.

In fact, let me show you this.

Psychologists have somehow figured out that babies are only born with two natural worries, two natural fears.

The fear of abandonment and the fear of falling.

I don't know how they figured that out, but those are the two fears.

Here's what it means: it means that if you're an adult and you struggle with worry, it is a learned behavior.

And if worry is learned, it means it can be unlearned.

Like if you have trained and conditioned yourself to be a worrier, you can also do the opposite and train yourself to not worry.

So Jesus takes it a step farther in the Sermon on the Mount.

He says, look at the birds.

They don't plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly father feeds them.

Pause here for just a moment.

I want you to understand that one of the great promises in the Bible is that we have a heavenly father.

Remember the story I told you about driving back from Orlando and I almost got in a terrible car accident?

My daughter Ella was sound asleep in the back of the car.

She only woke up because I swerved the car and she sat up afterwards.

I'm freaking out inside and she goes, Hey, what's everybody doing?

She wasn't worried because she had a father who was looking out for her.

Okay, I want you to get this.

How much better is your heavenly father?

If he's gonna take care of the birds, he's gonna take care of you.

He says, Aren't you far more valuable to him than they, the birds are?

And he goes on to say, and why worry about your clothing?

Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow.

They don't work or make their clothing, yet Solomon, the richest and wisest man to ever live in all of his glory, was not dressed as beautifully as they are.

Here's what Jesus wants you to understand that God takes care of birds that human eyes will never see.

He takes care of flowers in the most remote places of the world that maybe no human foot will ever step.

And if God clothes them, provides for them, takes care of them, and feeds them, how much more valuable are you to him than they?

So you can rest in that.

Here's another thing Jesus said.

He says that worry is unhelpful.

Look at Jesus' words.

He says, Can any of can can all of your worries add a single moment to your life?

Pause here.

Can it?

I don't believe it can, but here's what we do know is that worry physiologically has a way of taking a toll on you, which can ultimately shorten your life.

Solomon in the book of Proverbs, chapter 12, said worry weighs a person down.

Proverbs 12 · chapter mention

An encouraging word cheers or lifts a person up.

Two chapters later, in Proverbs 14, he says, A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots at the bones.

Like physiologically, something happens to us when we worry.

It's unnatural, it's unhealthy.

Let me offer you one last one.

I want you to see that worry, Jesus said, it is unnecessary.

I want you to look at his words one more time.

He says, and if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly, I want you to circle that word in your notes.

He will certainly care for you.

Why do you have so little faith?

I want you to get this.

From Jesus' words to your ears, God will certainly take care of you.

You gotta make this decision.

I'm gonna refuse to worry.

Number two, according to Paul, we need to learn to talk to God about everything.

We tend to talk to ourselves about everything.

Here's what Paul says Philippians chapter 4, 6.

Philippians 4 · chapter mention

Don't worry about anything.

That's where we started.

Instead, replace it by praying about everything.

Tell God what you need.

Can I tell you one of my pet peeves as a pastor, counseled a lot of people over the years?

It bothers me so much when people say, Listen, I took this thought, I had this issue, something happened, and I've spent a lot of time processing.

What is processing?

It's thinking about something over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over, and then thinking about it more and more and more and more and more and more and more.

Then when you thought about it a lot, and then you thought about it more, then you just think about it a little bit more, that's processing.

Psychologists have a term for this, it's the term ruminating.

Ruminating, this is the fun thing.

Ruminating is what cows do when they eat grass.

They're vegans, everybody, and delicious vegans.

And they they eat grass, they chew it, they swallow it, they throw it up, chew it some more, swallow it, throw it up, chew it some more, swallowing it.

That's called ruminating.

I want you to see something for just a moment.

Every time a cow does that, when it throws it up, does it get better?

It gets way worse.

Okay.

You know what happens to your thoughts when you process everything and you think through everything on your own?

You're literally taking it, chewing on something, swallowing it, throwing it up, and chewing on it more and more and more.

It gets grosser and grosser and grosser.

Listen, if you're the only one you talk to about things, that's a really dangerous way to live.

Instead, Paul says, I want you to talk to God about everything.

And here's the point if you prayed as much as you worried, you would have much less to worry about.

Like, what if instead of talking to you, who may not be able to do anything about your problems, you talk to the one who, I don't know, can do something about it.

Number three, we're gonna thank God in all things.

Now, this is important for you to understand.

This word is the key word.

It's not necessarily for all things, because there's gonna be some funerals you sit in that don't make sense.

There's gonna be some dark and difficult days when you lose a job or lose a relationship.

You don't have to thank God for everything that happens, but you can thank him in the middle of all things.

Acts of Philippians 4, verse 6.

Philippians 4:6

Don't worry about anything.

That's what we started with.

Instead, pray about everything and tell God what you need.

And then here he says, thank him for all he has done.

Why?

Because the greatest indicator of what God will do is what he's always done.

You can find hope and peace in the faithfulness of your God.

Psychologically, there's another step to this.

The reason we thank God is thanking God really shifts our focus, and I want you to understand this.

You cannot be ungrateful and happy at the same time.

So, what if you just made this decision?

I'm gonna be a grateful person and I'm gonna walk in joy and happiness instead of being ungrateful and walking in unhappiness.

Paul, who wrote the Philippians that we were reading, wrote in 1 Thessalonians 5, give thanks in all circumstances.

Again, in not for.

Thank God in everything you walk through, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

The reason God wants us to be thankful is it redirects our focus on something to be grateful for.

Did you ever know someone who's walked through the darkest of days in their life and they just still seem to have joy?

It's because they've learned this principle that I can thank God in all things.

Number four, the fourth step is this.

I'm gonna learn to think about good things.

I want you to pay attention to these words we're gonna read in just a moment.

Paul's gonna give us eight things to think about.

The funny thing is, most of us never stop to think about what we're thinking about.

So we allow our brains to just kind of go every different direction imaginable.

Paul wants to understand that there is a way to train your mind to think about godly things.

He says this, verse eight.

And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing.

Fix your thoughts.

That kind of means two things.

It means to like repair what's broken, and it also means to affix or to put them in a certain place.

Fix your thoughts on eight things, ready?

What is true, honorable, and what is right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable.

Think about these things that are excellent and worthy of praise.

Pause here for just a moment.

If you were to examine your thought life, specifically when you're going through something hard, would you say you're thinking about these eight things?

Tend to think about the opposite of these.

I want you to start thinking about what you're thinking about.

Why does this matter?

Well, the prophet Isaiah, who lived some 750 years or so before Jesus, said this in the book of Isaiah, chapter 26.

Isaiah 26 · chapter mention

He says, You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed, here's that word again, are fixed on you.

So what if instead of even thinking about good things, we made this decision to be people who think on godly things?

It'll change everything.

And then here's the fifth thing, and this is maybe the hardest one in our current culture.

Paul says, I want you to learn to be content with anything.

And the funny thing is we look at everyone's social media feed, which is their highlight reel, and we compare our normal life, like we're laying around in our pajamas, on our pillow we just drooled on, in a house that feels too small, we go to closets and we think we have nothing to wear.

We walk into pantries full of food and we say we have nothing to eat.

And then we look on social media, and that person that you don't like that much is on a dream vacation.

They just got a new car, they just got a new job, they just got a new girlfriend, they just got whatever, whatever.

Like whatever it is that you want, it feels like everyone else has.

But when you learn to be grateful for what you have, it takes a lot of the pressure and heat off.

So here's how Paul says it in the book of Philippians 4.

He says, not that I was ever in need, for I have learned.

Why does he have to learn it?

Because it's not natural.

He had to make this decision to learn how to be content with whatever I have.

I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything.

Here it is again.

He says, I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with the full stomach or empty, with plenty or little.

He said there's a different way that you and I can live our lives, and it is to be grateful for what we have, to learn to think about the right things, and then to be content with whatever we have with us.

Now I said earlier that I wish there was a Bible verse that said, if you do these things, you will.

There's not really a verse that says, here's how to deal with stress.

But I believe in Philippians 4, Paul gives us what I would call the pathway to peace.

Here they are one more time.

I've got to refuse to worry, because I'm gonna choose where my focus is.

I've got to talk to God about everything instead of talking to me and ruminating my thoughts.

I've got to thank God in all things, in all things.

I've got to learn to think about good things or God things, and I need to learn to be content with anything.

Remember where we started today, Philippians 4, 7?

I read it from the living Bible, but I want to read it now from the NIV translation of the Bible, and I want you to understand this.

When you do those five things, when you do those five things we talked about regularly, when it becomes the habits of your life, then, only then, in Scripture there's 7,000 promises of God.

I want you to see this.

This promise is for believers and followers of Jesus, and it's a promise that has a premise.

It's when you do those things, when you do those things, then the promise comes true.

You want the promise of God?

Listen to me.

Person who's struggling with anxiety or fear that's ravaging your heart, the person who can't sleep in this room at night because their thoughts run rampant.

If you find yourself struggling, feeling overwhelmed, and you're a follower of Jesus and you do these things, the promise is then you will experience God's peace.

It's God's peace which exceeds anything we can understand.

His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

I want to end with this thought.

The promise of God is that when we do those things, he will guard our hearts.

Told you this summer, my family we went to Italy and we we were standing in the prison cell where Paul was when he wrote this.

And I had my son Joey, who was 17, pull out his phone, the Bible on his phone, and he wrote read these verses out loud.

I felt chills go through my body as he read it.

But then he uses this word, when we do all of God's things, then the peace of God, which transcends human understanding, will guard your hearts.

That word guard in Greek literally means to stand watch over.

The verse takes on a new level of meaning when you understand that Paul wrote it in jail, potentially chained to a guard.

What is that guard's only job?

To make sure this prisoner doesn't go away.

I want you to see this.

Paul says is when we do all those things of God, then the peace of God will stand guard or watch over your heart.

Talk about a promise of God.

I want you to hear this.

What would it look like if in a world full of people who are addicted to the emotional epidemic that the Wall Street Journal talked about?

That there was this group of believers who walked through the same kinds of difficult days, but we didn't let it affect our hearts.

Like how incredible would it be if you didn't go to bed another night, unable to sleep, tossing and turning, mind racing 120 miles an hour, because the peace of God was guarding your heart.

How amazing would it be?

If in this world that's so addicted to stress and drama, the church stood up and said, No, there's a better way to live, and it's not a good way, it's God's way, and God's way is the best way.

I think it would change everything.

So I want to take a moment, and in a moment, I'm gonna pray for the person in the room who's addicted to stress, constantly in adrenal fatigue, feeling like their mind will never stop erasing, their heart wakes them up in the middle of the night unable to sleep.

I want to talk to the parent who's addicted to the stress of this life because their kids feel far from God or far from them.

I want to pray for the person whose job is stressing them out or whose relationships are stressing them out or their bank accounts stressing them out.

And we're gonna trust that God is going to do what he promises when we will commit to doing what he asks us to do.

But I want to end with this.

Some promises in Scripture that, in my opinion, are reserved for followers of Jesus, for believers in Jesus.

Before we pray for the peace of God to guard our hearts, maybe you're here and you don't know if you're right with God.

Before you can take hold of the promise for you, you've got to be in right standing with Him.

I'm gonna ask you to bow your head and close your eyes all across this place.

Those of you joining us in North Lakeland, this is for you as well.

If you would say, Jason, I don't know if I'm right with God.

Before I can accept the promise of God, I need to make my heart right with God.

If this is you and you need to start or restart a relationship with God, would you raise your hand right now?

This moment's for you.

Thanks.

Thanks.

Wow, thanks.

If this is you, I'm gonna invite you to pray this with me.

And praying this changes everything when you mean it with your heart.

Would you say, Jesus, today I make this decision?

I give you my life.

Jesus, I believe you are the Son of God.

I believe you came into this world with one purpose, which was to give your life for mine.

Because you died on the cross and then you rose again from the dead, I believe that you have the power to forgive my sins and to change my life once and for all.

So, Jesus, today I receive your gift of salvation.

Would you change me, forgive me, make my life new?

I give you my life, and I commit to following you all the days of my life.

And it's in your name we pray, Jesus.

Amen.

Church family, we just had people all over this place pray to make that decision.

I love that.

Now, one more time, I'm gonna ask you to bow your head and close your eyes.

I'm gonna pray for every person in this room.

So, God, we live in a stressed-out, emotionally depleted, exhausted, emotional epidemic kind of world.

God, may that not be true for us, but may we go against the current of our stressed-out culture.

May we stop being overwhelmed, but may we take you at your word and join you on the pathway to peace.

God, we're gonna refuse to worry.

We're gonna turn our focus and attention to you.

God, we really do believe that your way is the best way.

So I pray that we'll have the courage to think about what we're thinking about, the courage to fix the things in our minds and our hearts that are broken, and may we think on your things, God.

And God, your promise is when we do our part, you will come through.

So for my brothers and sisters here today, whose hearts feel ravaged by fear, worry, anxiety, depression, whatever it is, may we fix our minds and fix our hearts on you.

We love you, God, and we thank you that you are good and you want to help us through this in Jesus' name.

Come on, if you're thankful for it, will you say amen with me, everybody?

Amen, amen, amen.