Stress Busters

STRESS BUSTERS

Matthew 11:28-30

INTRO.- Stress. Who needs it? No one. Who wants it? No one. Who has it? Everyone.

ILL.- Joe Krebs is a local TV anchorman in Washington D.C. His three-hour morning newscast requires that he wake up every morning at 2:30 a.m. He found out about the connection between stress and health the hard way.

He said, “The doctor sat down beside my bed and said, ‘Mr. Krebs, your EKG tells me you’re having a heart attack.’ And I said, ‘Having a heart attack at this moment, as we speak?’ He said, ‘YES, AS WE SPEAK.’ “

And Krebs said, “That was a shock to me.”

ILL.- Here’s another. It’s a letter from a young woman. She writes: “I am 19, and my mother died four months ago after a hard battle with breast cancer. My parents are divorced. Every time I turn around, I have another health problem. I have horrible stomach pains. I get bad headaches and often feel faint and dizzy. I’m always tired but have trouble sleeping. And I recently had what I have been told is an anxiety attack. I just want to feel normal. Could all of these problems be stress-related?”

What do you think?

Brethren, I believe that everybody experiences stress in some form or another.

ILL.- How many of you remember the popular 1984 movie “Ghostbusters”? Bill Murray and Dan Aykoryd played a couple of odd-ball scientists who decided to set up shop in an old firehouse and become Ghostbusters. They supposedly trapped ghosts and spirits for money. They wise-crack their way through the city and accidentally stumble into a gateway to another dimension, which will release untold evil on the city. AND, OF COURSE, THE GHOSTBUSTERS ARE CALLED ON TO SAVE THE BIG APPLE.

Quickly, let me say, I don’t believe in ghosts! I don’t believe that when people die some of them come back in the form of ghosts.

But just as those bumbling “Ghostbusters” busted ghosts, so we need to bust stress in our lives! We need to somehow do away with stress in our lives. We need to trap it and get rid of it as best we can.

PROP. - Doctors give us all kinds of advice to rid stress from our lives and Dr. Steve (although I’m not a doctor, but I know a good one!) wants to give you his advice on how to rid your life from stress.

1- Pray hard

2- Sing praise

3- Laugh loudly

4- Serve humbly

5- Cut anger

6- Forgive people

7- Enjoy life

8- Unload more

9- Fear God (Don’t worry. I will not deal with all of these)

I. PRAY HARD

Matt. 7:7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”

ILL.- When my kids were still in school, they would say things like, “I don’t understand what the teacher is talking about?” And I would say, “Ask questions!”

Brethren, if you don’t ask, how do you expect to find out the answers to some of life’s problems and perplexities. And the one person we should be asking is our Creator, our Heavenly Father.

When we are faced with difficulties and stress in life, we should be asking our Father what’s going on. And we should be asking more than “whassup?”

Matt. 7:11 “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”

When our backs are against the wall, we’re beat up and stressed out, we need to ask our Father for help, for mercy, and for grace. “Father, help me! Please give me some relief! I’m burdened and bothered. I need help!”

ILL.- A friend of mine was involved in a car accident in Paducah, KY, one time. The wreck was bad enough that he ended up out of his truck on the side of the road. He said he thought he was going to die. I asked, “What did you do?” He said, “I prayed! I asked God to forgive me of my sins!”

Brethren, sometimes our lives are a wreck or perhaps a wreck waiting to happen. Consequently, we need to be praying a bunch!

And if our Heavenly Father won’t hear us and help us, ain’t nobody going to do it! HE IS OUR GREATEST LEANING POST! We can call on Him when we can’t contact anybody else. And sometimes, it seems like there is no one to listen and care and love, except Him.

Phil. 4:6-7 “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”