Well, hey everybody. Man, welcome to Highlands this weekend. I am so glad you're here. Let me welcome all you guys in Bluefield, over in Bristol, up in Marion, all of our in-person locations, and then those of you that join us every week, I so appreciate your emails, your kindness, encouragement that you watch on TV or online. Man, we love you. We're cheering you on, and we're really excited about this series we started last week called Thrive.
So we kicked off the series, it's a seven-week study, and I wanted to set the foundation last week and we talked about how to get spiritually healthy. So if you miss that, go back in the archives and you can catch the message there. I hope you'll stay with us, and then many of you got connected to a small group this week. This is our book study. Pick it up on your way out today if you didn't get it, and hey, take your next step and get involved in a small group.
It will help you so much in all these areas that we're covering during this study. So I want to ask a question as we start out today. As you think back over the last 18 months we've been in this pandemic, I want to ask you a question, and just be honest. Would you raise your hand if at any moment over the last 18 months you felt like you've been just stressed out? Anybody? All right. Almost everybody. The rest of you I think are lying, but let me ask you this. How about the last month?
Anybody just feel like you've been stressed out the last month? Can I see your hand? Yeah. Hey, in my house, this morning. I mean, Sunday morning is always one of the more stressful times for our family, trying to get the kids up, and sometimes, it can be really chaotic. I think some of you could probably relate to that as well.
Well, I got an email from one of our staff, and they shared something with me. I thought I'd share with you. I thought it was pretty cool. We've been having this astronaut theme for the Thrive series. They've had me in a spacesuit, and all these kinds of things. Do you know the most stressful job on the planet is an astronaut? I mean, it ranks up to the top of the top, and I get that.
I mean, it stresses me out just watching those guys take off in the rocket and stuff. I can't imagine being in the space station, being in the rocket. I just can't imagine that. But here's what the study said that he sent me, that actually, that we've been in this pandemic for the last 18 months, that we've been much like astronauts.
Think about it. We've been in isolation a lot of those 18 months. We weren't able to do things we normally did. Our world changed. We were in a capsule for the last 18 months. So you know what that tells me? Actually, you're all prepared to sign up to be an astronaut. All right? So maybe we can all get on the space shuttle or something like that, I don't really know. Or not a space shuttle, but the space station. Yeah, we can go there.
So anyway, I just thought it was pretty cool. I know that we all get stressed out in life and hey, I want to talk to you about that today. I want to try to help you with your stress. I don't claim to be a medical person at all. Now, I live with one, but I don't claim to be one at all. But here's what I know. All right? And research tells us this, that stress at its core, is just simply a threat.
When we get stressed over something, at the core of what's happening in our body, in our physical body, we have encountered a threat and whenever your body feels threatened by something, you know what happens, don't you? Your blood pressure rises. Your pulse increases. These neurons begin to go through your body. Adrenaline kicks in and you get all these physical effects. Now, here's the deal.
There's nothing wrong with that. I mean, God created us for that. I mean actually, when we encounter a threat, we want that stuff to happen. But here's what's happened in so many of our lives. That is not something that just happens once a month or once a week. Many of you are actually living in chronic stress, and here's the problem with living in chronic stress: When we live in chronic stress and there's tons and tons of medical studies that help us know this, it actually damages our physical body. I mean, it does.
And most medical folks will actually say, "If you live in chronic stress long enough, it could actually kill you." So last week, we talked about spiritual health. Today, I want to talk about physical health. Here's the big idea I want you to get today. I want you to establish some proper physical habits that will reduce stress in your life.
Now, obviously, I'm not going down the route, I preached on these messages 100 times. It's a given when we talk about physical health. Hey, here's what we all know. You need to eat the right kind of food. All right? You can't get physically healthy by going through the drive-through every day. So these things are givens. We all know this. You need to eat the right kind of food, need to have some kind of exercise. You need the right kind of friends, I think, around you. And I think you need to be a person of faith.
So that's just added bonus to that. But what I want to do today specifically is I want to look at the effect of this idea of chronic stress on your body, and the Bible has a lot to say about this, actually. In this whole study, we're looking at sacred passages of scripture that we all know. All right? So today, I want to look at one that you've heard many, many times. I want to look today and go verse by verse through Psalm 23. Psalm 23. But before I get into the text, I want to give you the top five causes of stress in your life.
Here's the first one, worry. I think we all know what worry is, don't have to teach on it very much. We worry. Second one is hurry. We are living in a hurry-up culture. The third top stressor is crowds. Now, this one has come into the top five, just over these last 18 months. Because one of the things we're all really concerned about is being around crowds. And we're wondering, "Is it safe?"
We're listening to our medical experts and they say, "Hey, you might want to be cautious around crowds," and all these kinds of things. So it causes great stress in many of our lives today, when we're forced to be in a crowd. Here's the next thing, endless choices. We are bombarded with choice after choice after choice in our life. We have endless choices. And then to round out the top five is the fear of the future.
Many, many people today have a fear of the future because of stress in their life. So let's go to Psalm 23. I want you just to listen to me as I read it. If you have your Bible with you today or at home, many of you have your Bible when we study there at home with me, but let's look at the lesson today, Psalm 23. This is what David says. He says, "The Lord is my shepherd, so I have all I need." I love the first phrase that he says.
"He makes me lie down in lush, green meadows. He leads me beside calm, quiet waters. He restores my soul. He guides me in the right paths for his namesake. And even though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death," David says, "I'll fear no evil, for you, God, are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies and you anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows."
And then he closes this sacred passage of scripture by saying this: "Surely, goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the House of the Lord forever. Heaven will be my home." Now, guys, hands down. I mean, Psalms is the longest book in the Bible. But this is the most sacred Psalm. I mean, none other even comes close. We all, when we think of Psalms, we know Psalm 23, we've heard Psalm 23.
And the reason it is so popular in our culture is because when we understand it, it gives us great comfort. It really helps us reduce stress in our life. How many of you would like to be healthier? I think we all would. And the scripture says in Proverbs 14:30, "Peace of mind makes the body healthy." And if we can get this Psalm into our heart today, we can get a peace of mind.
So what are these physical habits that can really help us overcome stress in our life? I want to give you seven. You say, "Oh my goodness, you got seven points today?" I do. We're going to go through them really quick because I see seven things in this passage of scripture and I want you to get this, because if you get these, I mean, if you begin to live with these, then your stress level will be reduced to almost nil. All right? That's where we want to be. Here's the first one. The first one that we have is God will meet all of our needs. God will meet all of our needs.
Now, these parallel with those five stressors. So when we begin to worry, we worry in our life that God won't meet our needs. We worry we're going to run out. We worry we're not going to have enough. We worry that there's something that we need, and it's not going to be met. Well, here's the first stress reducer. You got to understand, God will meet all your needs, and this is the first thing David wants us to see, that when we see this, it calms us down.
Now, a lot of times, we get stressed out because we don't think to look to God for this. What do we do? We look to other people to meet our needs. I mean, we'll look to our husband, our wife, or we look to somebody else, a friend. But if we would begin to focus that God is ultimately the one who meets our needs, our stress would go down dramatically.
So I would just encourage you, stop putting your faith and stop putting your security in things you can lose. You can lose your job. You can lose your marriage. Don't put your security in that stuff. I mean, you may actually see a spouse die. You may have to go through the tragedy of divorce, and then you go, "Well, my goodness, who am I now? I mean, I've lost my identity if that was my identity."
Or some of you put your security in your money. I mean, it's a big deal to you. And it's a big deal to all of us. We're going to teach on that during this series, but there are lots of ways to lose your money. You know one way I found? Have five kids. That'll take care of your money. It'll take care of all of it. So just as your pastor and your friend, I just want to recommend that you never put your security in anything that can be taken away from you. So if you lose your job or if you lose your health or you lose your reputation or your spouse, or I don't know, if you lose your mind, but you will never lose your relationship to Jesus Christ.
And if you anchor in that relationship and you put your security in that relationship, you know what's going to happen? God will meet all your needs. What does David say? Look at verse one, "The Lord is my shepherd, so I have all I need. I shall not want." I stop expecting other people to meet needs in my life that only God can meet. And when you think about it, I mean, the logic here is obvious, isn't it?
If God loved us enough to send Jesus Christ to die on the cross for us, don't you think he loves you enough to take care of the needs you have? He does. He really does. So David says, "Stop looking for other people to meet your needs, and begin to focus on God." He just says, "I'm going to look to God to meet my needs." When you do that, friends, you will never be disappointed. God will always provide. He will always take care of you. Number one, God will meet every need you have.
Here's the second stress reducer. We have to learn to obey God's instruction for rest. Now, what was the second major cause of stress in our life? The idea of hurry, right? I mean, we're in a hurry. We're all the time in a hurry. Now, I'm in a hurry. I'm always in a hurry. I've got places to go. I got things to do, and so much of the stress in my life comes from just the pace in which my life exists.
I'm always feeling like I've got too much to do. I'm never going to be able to get exactly caught up in my life, and I don't know what that does for you, but in my life, I'm just being honest with you, it causes great stress. So what do you do? Well, you have to look to God to meet your needs. That was the first one, and then you have to actually obey God's instruction to rest. God wants us to rest. Now, think about this, because for a lot of us who are overachievers, this word rest has... We've been taught it's a dirty word. I mean, surely, you're not going to rest. You don't have time to rest.
But think about this, if God had wanted to, he could have created human beings without the need to sleep. I mean, God could've created us without the need to sleep. I've thought about this a lot. Why did he create us this way? Because most statistics tell us, we'll spend a third of our life sleeping. When I think about that, it blows me away. Third of your life, you'll be sleeping.
Well, God created us this way I think because he wants us to understand the importance of resting. Rest is so important that he himself rested. I mean, God modeled it for us. The Bible says that after he finished creation, after he finished creating everything we see, creating us and all the like, of the animals and such, says on the seventh day, he rested. Now, why did God rest? I mean, he doesn't need to. God doesn't get tired. He's actually modeling the importance of rest for our life.
And he says, "Every seventh day, you better rest. You better take a break." Yet today, in our modern culture, in our society, we think we're a lot smarter than God. People aren't doing that. I mean, even on their day off, they're still working. So God says, "I want you to rest." David says here in the second verse of this, notice what he says. He says, "He makes me lie down," makes me. God can make us lie down. Has God ever made you lie down?
We all have a tipping point. We all do, and God will allow circumstances in our life just to help us understand the importance of rest. And God's wired our bodies in such a way that if you don't take time off, eventually your body will take time off for you. It's just going to happen. This is just bonus. You might write this down if you've got your Thrive booklet or something like that, but what do you do on your Sabbath?
People ask me this all the time, and I try to be really obedient about it. I don't do it every time, but there's three things I do. The first one I do is I just rest. I rest my body. I don't do anything physically, I just rest. I just chill out. The next thing I do is that I refocus my spirit. Now, that's worship, and for all of you that are in one of our locations today or online, that's what you're doing. You're actually refocusing your spirit today, and that is what God calls us to do during our time of Sabbath.
We're renewing our commitment to him. And then the third thing I do in my own life is I just try to recharge my emotions. I do something that recharges me emotionally. You say, "But I feel guilty when I rest." Well, Jesus didn't and he rested. So he didn't feel guilty. You shouldn't feel guilty either. Here's the third thing that really helps us reduce stress in our life, is that we have to learn that God's creation actually recharges our soul. Now, I've been fortunate. I've traveled all over the world, but I want to tell you something.
I think we live right here in Southwest Virginia, upper East Tennessee, man, we live in one of the most beautiful places all over the world. I love that we have four distinct seasons. Beauty is incredibly important in stress management. It is. When you think about this, beauty actually inspires. When we see beauty, it encourages us. It motivates us, it stirs up positive emotions within us. Have you ever thought about why God made the world so beautiful?
I mean, he could have made the Earth like the moon. It could have been just gray and dark and desolate and dusty, but man, we see sunrises and sunsets, and we see oceans and mountains. And I don't know about you, but there's something about it that just stirs me. It creates within me this heart of worship. It's as though that we want to spend some time outside. If anything, the pandemic has done, it's caused us to get outside when we can.
It's a safe place to get outside and enjoy it. In God's beauty, beauty inspires and beauty motivates. David since this, look in verse two and three, at what he says. He says, "He makes me lie down in lush, green meadows." Now for me, I think golf course, but for you, you might think something else. But this is what I think every time I read that. I mean, they're always mowed. I mean, it's beautiful.
And, "He leads me beside calm waters." Those of you that rent vacation homes or something like that, there's two things in a rental market I understand that people always want. One is a view, and second is water. You want to hear a stream going by. And those two things desire, all of us desire the beauty of that. And when we're around that, you know what God does?
David says, "He restores my soul." It's no wonder people love Psalm 23, but because when you read it, and you begin to visualize it, and you think about green meadows and calm, quiet places like the lake or wherever, you just relax as you think about this Psalm. My daughter, Martha, they just moved from Atlanta, the big city, which we loved going to see Martha, and being with family destresses me, but I was so stressed out in Atlanta trying to drive, about killed the family four times before I'd ever get to her house.
And I couldn't even enjoy the time we were there, because big city driving is not for me. And we were so grateful that she moved to Lenoir, North Carolina, and man, the drive down through Boone and Banner Elk and Blowing Rock, I mean, I get there and I'm ready to see her. I felt like when I got to Atlanta, I needed Xanax or something. But you may be different than me.
Well, let me give you a few suggestions on this. I would just say, get outside every day. And here's something else I've learned in this piece about the Psalm 23, is start your day with God, not the media. Don't grab the phone first thing when you wake up. Don't turn on the news first thing, just start your day with God, not all this craziness.
And then I think intentionally, just try to put beauty around you. I go out on our back porch, and often, I'll watch the sun come up in the morning. And we got this view looking over this farm land, and it is incredible. Brenda likes music. She likes art around her, but whatever it is that helps you to get into that framework, beauty just inspires. It reduces stress. Here's four things. You have to learn that God is the one who will give you guidance.
Now, when we don't know the direction we need to go, that often causes stress in our life. And this is really, really important, because the common source of stress are these endless decisions. I mean, we looked at that. We have so many decisions and you're faced with so many decisions, it's hard for you to make up your mind. And you find yourself at a fork in the road, and maybe you've got multiple options, and the stress just kills you.
I mean, you're so afraid you're going to make the wrong option or you're going to go down the wrong path. Well, I recommend that you just make God the number one source for guidance in those forks in the road, not the opinions of your friends. Sure, you can get some Godly wisdom and all those kinds of things, but just go to God for guidance. That's what David did. Look at verse three. He says, "He guides me in the right paths for his namesake."
So sometimes, when I get to a place and I don't know the direction, I just say, "God, I believe you're going to guide me at the right time, in the right way." And you know what? I think if you have that belief, you know what? God's going to do it. He's going to do it. He wants to do that for us. Here's number five. When you want to reduce stress in your life, just understand that God walks with us through our dark valleys.
Now, none of us want to go through dark valleys. Well, let's talk about this one just for a little bit. The truth is, we're all going to go through some dark valleys in our lives. You're going to be called to go through these kinds of valleys in your lifetime. Matter of fact, I think we're going to go through many of them in our lifetime. And one of the most common causes of stress in our life is this idea of loss. When we encounter loss. I mean, when you lose your job, if you've ever lost your job, I've lost a job before.
I mean, when I was going through this season of unemployment, just stress. I mean, it was just, golly, I could just feel it in my whole body. If you lose income, if you lose health, when you get the verdict, and you had the test, and you got the report and it was this, and you go, "Oh my goodness, I wasn't ready for this. I thought I was healthy. I thought I would never encounter this disease," or this whatever comes upon you.
What about if you were to lose your reputation in this cancel culture that we live? There's a real fear of losing a reputation. It takes your whole life to build a reputation, and it can be lost in just a few social media posts. I mean, we see this on the cover of our newspapers every day. You can lose a loved one. And man, what stress encounters in your life. I just did the funeral of one of our long-time Highlanders. And she and her husband had been married 58 years. And I just thought, the stress of losing a partner, it can be just... It can really be hard.
And we all go through so many losses in our life. Well, when you go through loss, there are a couple of reactions. One is fear, and the other is grief. Those are normally the two reactions we have when we encounter loss. Now, fear is bad, but actually, grief is good. Grief is a good way to encounter loss. I mean, it's a good way. It is a habit that God has given us. And actually, grief is the way that we get through transitions in life. Grief's a good thing.
The Bible says that God grieves. Did you know grief is a Godly emotion? It's okay to grieve. It's okay to cry. I mean, it really is. On the other hand, if we encounter loss, fear is not the way to handle it. Fear is a bad thing. Matter of fact, 365 times in scripture, God says, "Do not fear. Don't handle loss with fear. Don't handle your life with fear."
So what does David say here in verse four? I love this. He says, "Even though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death," and if you've studied David, man, you know this is literal for him. I mean, there are people trying to kill him. He says, "I will fear no evil, for you're with me, your rod and your staff, they comfort me." Remember, David's using the shepherd metaphor here in Psalm 23, and shepherds always carried a rod and a staff.
And these two tools I think really help us to understand. That's how God protects the sheep, we're the sheep and God is protecting us. He's going to ward off the wolves in our life. So he says, "I'm not going to stress out, but this is something I'm going to go to God to, because God, he's my protector. God is helping me through this. And if I'm going to trust God in my darkest valleys, he will see me through."
It's interesting in the language here that he uses the word shadow. Some of you, because you're so kind on sending me emails and you're asking me to pray for certain things in your life, some of you are going through a dark valley right now. Some of you are actually going through the shadow of debt, the valley of the shadow of debt. And you've just told me you're overwhelmed.
Some of you are going through the valley of the shadow of conflict. You got conflict, major conflict. Some of it's in your marriage, sometimes it's your coworkers. Some of you are going through the valley of the shadow of depression. These last few months of isolation and how your world is turned upside down, just you're depressed. Some of you may be going through the valley of the shadow of discouragement.
I know many of you are, but here's what I want you to understand. Even if you're going through a valley, it's interesting the word shadow that David uses, because I want you to understand shadows are always actually bigger than the source. All right? So the valley that you're going through, the shadow of it looks so huge and so massive, and you think there's no way I'm going to be able to get through this valley. But David uses this metaphor, this word shadow, because he wants you to understand God is so much bigger, is so much bigger than the valley you're encountering.
And that shadow makes your valley look so huge, but you just remember that God is bigger, because God will lead you through the valley. He's greater than the actual valley you encounter, so I trust God through dark valleys. It's how you lower stress. Here's the sixth one. The sixth thing is we learned that God is our defender.
This is a neat verse that David gives, but one of the stressors that we have is conflict. When we encounter conflict or opposition, or when we get criticized or we attacks in our life, and here's the truth. I mean, there are people in the world who simply just don't like you. I mean, everybody didn't like Jesus, and he was Jesus. So there are going to be people in your life, they just don't like you. And maybe they're people in your family, maybe they're people you work with. I don't know.
They criticize you sometimes out of jealousy, maybe out of fear. Maybe there are folks in your own family who will not let you enjoy anything. I mean, they always just put you down. They never give you a positive word. Anytime you have success, they try to minimize it. We have people like this in our life, and when that happens, what's the response? The natural response for us is we want to attack back. We want to retaliate. We want to get even. But when you get even with somebody who's criticizing you, all it does is put you on their level. And you don't want to be that person. I mean, if you forgive them, it puts you above them.
But if you get even, why, you're no better than they are. Yeah, our society today, if you think about how we've changed, our culture has lost its civility. I mean, it really has. Our culture is becoming more angry and more rude not by the day, it seems to me almost by the hour. I think social media just plays such a big part in this. I mean, we can get on social media and we can send zingers, and we can say things that we would never say face-to-face, and we spout off all this vitriol against people that we disagree with because we can hide behind the screen.
And we're just throwing our opinions out there. Well, I was just saying, let me just say, when you're getting ready to post all this stuff and you've read something, and you just can't take it, and you've got to respond, I would just ask you this. As you type out your response, whose voice is the loudest in that response? Is it yours, or is it God's? And if we put it on that little filter, probably save us a lot of heartache down the road.
I mean, how do you handle mean, rude people? You don't. You let God handle them. You let God be your defender. Listen to what David says in verse five, "You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows," and what in the world is David talking about?
He's using a metaphor here, and he's actually saying, "God, you're so good to me that even when people are trying to kill me and attack me, that what you're doing for me in the spiritual realm is you're preparing a banquet table for me. God, you are actually anointing my head with oil. These guys have to back off because I am covered underneath the defender who is my God. God is our defender."
And then the last thing, if you've got fear of the future, remember that's one of the big stressors. Just know this, God always, always finishes what he starts. Are you afraid of the future? And in your life you think, "Oh, what if this happens? Or what if this goes wrong? Or what if this went bad? What if? What if? What if?"
If you're a what if-er, if that's how you live your life, I just promise you, you're going to be stressed. You're going to have chronic stress in your life if you live your life by the what if mentality. Look at this last verse, David says in verse six, this is awesome. David says, "Surely, goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the House of the Lord forever."
"I'm going to heaven," David says. People tend to look at the future in one of two ways. I mean, you can look at it and you can say, "What if everything goes wrong? What if I don't have enough money? What if I lose my job? What if my marriage don't make it? What if somebody walks out on me? What if, what if, what if?" Stressed out. Or you can look at the future and you can say, "Surely, goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the House of the Lord forever."
Man, those are your options. You can either see life from God's viewpoint, or you can see it from just fearful anxiety. So how do you lower stress? You say, "You know what, God, I know you finished. You're going to finish what you started in me. Lord, you love me. You want the best for me. I'm your child." And even if everything goes wrong in your life, hey, you're still going to heaven. You're still going to dwell in the House of the Lord forever.
I don't know what you're carrying today. I don't know what burden is weighing you down. I don't know what weight is on you, but I do know the answer. And I want to close with this verse in Matthew, Chapter 11, verse 28, Jesus says this. He says, "If you'll just come to me, all you that are weary and carrying heavy burdens," and this is what Jesus promises, "I will give you rest. I will give you rest."
You may have come in today or you may join online today and you may be so weighted down that you think, "Golly, my life is in the tank." If you apply what we've looked at in the scripture today, and you begin to read and just apply Psalm 23 to your life and you come to Jesus Christ and you trade your weights and your chains and your burdens, Jesus will give you rest.
I don't know about you, that's where I want to live. Would you pray with me today? Lord, I thank you so much for this teaching, Psalm 23, and we've heard it at funerals. We've heard it in church services, and vacation Bible school. We've heard that 1,000 times. God, may it be real in our hearts today. May we know, God, that you're our defender and God, you want us to rest. You're going to supply all of our need.
Lord, you finish what you start in us, and Lord, today you offer an incredible trade that we can give you our stress and our what if mentality, and God, we can lay it at the feet of Jesus. We give you our burdens. We take off those chains that are around us, and God, we just pick up your yoke, which is easy. And we ask you to give us rest. Renew us today. Help us to understand. We need to take a season where we just magnify the beauty that is surrounding us, and worship you and praise you for that.
Lord, I'm so thankful that when I was 16 years old, God, blind and really in sin, that somehow God, you took the blinders off when I heard your word, and I invited you into my life and I asked you to forgive my sin, come into my life, and cleanse me. And that day, I surrendered my life to you, Jesus. And man, what a difference that's made.
If you're here today or you're watching online and you've never made that decision, I just want to beg you to consider it today. Just give all that stress and all that ego and all that what if mentality and just invite Jesus into your life, and just simply say, "Jesus, I've sinned. I've messed up, and I ask you to come into my life. I surrender it to you today." Man, we'd love to know that.
If you're watching online, just click that little raised hand button. If you're on TV with us today, just drop us a note. You got the address there in my email. I'd love to hear that. If you're in one of our physical locations, let somebody know you made that decision. And for all of God's children today, we that are in the family, golly, we've been through a season of stress. So may you help us apply the seven spiritual physical habits to reduce stress in our life. I'll trust you'll do that, Jesus. In your name, we pray. Amen.