REVIEW
 
Today, we will be concluding our “Stress(ed) Out!” teaching, and I hope that you have gotten as much out of these teachings as I have. It could not have been timelier for me personally, as the Lord knows what we need and when we need it. Amen.  
 
So, we started out talking about the spirit of stress—that is, what stress truly is and how it affects us. We then talked about how Jesus gave us His very own peace. Therefore, we do not have to let our hearts be troubled—for peace is in our boat. We then began breaking down Jesus’ words in Matthew 11:28-30 and saw that Jesus gave some solid, practical steps to entering His rest.
 
But last week, we moved over into Philippians chapter 4 and looked at the life of a man who had more opportunity to live in stress than any of us—the life of the apostle Paul. We saw how in Philippians 4:9 he said, “The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.”
 
So, we saw that Paul was saying that everything that this body of believers learned from him by his teachings, received from Him by what he shared with them, heard in him by listening to the way he talked, and saw in him by observing how he lived his life—all of these avenues that Paul used to mentor them—if they would do these things, the God of peace would be with them. And, of course, the same is true for us too.
 
And we learned that when he said that the God of Peace will be with us when we do these things, this meant that the peace of God will be with us—for the fruit of having the God of peace manifested in our lives is having the peace of God manifested in our lives! In other words, when we live in the presence of the God of peace, we will live in the presence of the peace of God.
 
So, we learned that if Paul said that all we need to do to experience the peace of God in our lives is follow his example and his teachings, what is it that we need to follow? Paul said that the key to experiencing the manifest presence of the God of peace in our lives—which results in us walking in the peace of God—is “doing” the four things he listed in Philippians 4:9.
 
Now, the first thing we focused on were the two words “these do” because it is very easy for us to slip into the deception that because we are hearing the Word of God, that it will begin to automatically work in our lives. The Word most definitely works, but it only works for those who do it. So, we learned that we need to look at this from time to time and honestly evaluate ourselves by asking the following question: “Am I being a doer of the Word or just a hearer?”
 
But the main thing we focused on last week was how the apostle Paul himself walked in this peace. And I mentioned that we could attribute the level of peace that he experienced to two things—his passion and his perspective. 
 
We saw that by his own testimony, Paul “labored more abundantly than” even all of the rest of the apostles (First Corinthians 15:10). And I mentioned how I have found that when we are truly seeking first the kingdom of God, this will automatically cause us to slip into that manifest peace that passes all understanding.
 
I also made the statement last week that our peace is found in our place! For example, some of the most peace I have personally ever experienced has been when I was on the mission field. When I am truly seeking first the kingdom of God and it is all about ministering to others, there is a great peace that is experienced. And so, I said that because Paul was a more earnest laborer, it yielded a peace in his life that was greater than most Christians have ever experienced.
 
Secondly, we looked at what caused this passion and zeal to seek first the kingdom of God was his perspective: You see, the apostle Paul was the professor of “Perspective 101!” Amen! This guy saw things through a different filter than even some of the other church leaders.
 
We saw this in his second letter to the church of Corinth, when he called these painful situations— “light afflictions” (see Second Corinthians 4:17)! The word he used for “light” here literally meant “non-burdensome” and was a reference to the weight of his trials. In fact, this is how Jesus described His burden (i.e. load) that is “light” (see Matthew 11:30). Therefore, Paul was saying that the afflictions that he suffered were not heavy, weighty, or burdensome at all. But aren’t these trials, tribulations and afflictions one of the primary causes of the stress that we experience in our lives? Sure, but Paul said that, when looked at from the correct perspective, they are actually light.
 
So then, the apostle Paul is a great example how one can live in the peace of God. But he not only exemplified how one can experience the peace of God by the way he lived his life, he also taught us, in a very practical way, how we can walk in peace, and I gave you some homework last week regarding his instructions. I asked you to read Philippians 4:4-9 several times this week because these verses are some of Paul’s most detailed instructions on how we can walk in peace.
 
THE ATTITUDE OF PEACE
 
So today, let’s begin to cover these verses, by backing up to verse 4 in this same chapter. Yes, we are going to look at the steps to walking in this peace: In this familiar verse, Paul tells us to “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, Rejoice.”
 
Now I am not going to take the time to break this verse down today, but I begin here because we need to understand that joy & peace work together. Someone might say, “What does rejoicing have to do with living in peace and freedom from stress?” My answer to this question is—more than you might think.
 
You see, I think far too many people live too seriously, which leads to the stress they experience.  What do I mean by that? I mean that they are far too intense and do not ever allow their heart and mind to rest.
 
I once heard a quote from C.S. Lewis that echoes what I am attempting to communicate to you today— “Joy is the serious business of heaven.” You see, when we get all grown up and all, we tend to think that we need to get serious about things, and that having fun and enjoying life like a child is a sign of immaturity. But I’m here to tell you, saints, that if you do not have a steady diet of joy and rejoicing in your life, you will have a hard time not getting wound up like a knot. Didn’t Jesus teach us that one cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven unless he change, becoming like a child? (see Matthew 18:3) We have to learn to relax, be free to be ourselves, and have a little fun in life. Why? Because it will help us to decompress and enter into rest a whole lot better. 
 
Don’t the Scriptures teach us that a merry heart does good, like a medicine, but a broken spirit dries the bones. (Proverbs 17:22)? So, having a merry heart evidently has a medicinal effect on our bodies, all the way down to the bone. And I’m sure this positively affects the soul too. Amen!
 
So, learning to rejoice all the time is a major key to maintaining peace. And one of the reasons why is because a lot of times we lose our peace simply because we lose our focus. We stop being thankful for what we have and enjoying the life we do have and begin to become discontent because of what few things we lack.
 
You see, the apostle Paul tells us in Romans 1:21 that one of the main reasons that unbeliever’s hearts become hardened is because they do not “glorify Him as God, nor are thankful.” This begins that steady drift from the things of God. And this process is not just true for unbelievers, but it is true for Christians as well. When we stop praising, worshiping, and thanking God for all He is and for all He has done, our hearts, too, can become hardened. And a result of our hearts becoming hardened is, of course, a lack of peace in our hearts. 
 
So, peace is an attitude—an attitude that is established in joy. Like we have learned when studying the fruit of the Spirit, joy precedes peace for a reason—and that is because joy will lead one into this peace and freedom from stress.
 
Which leads me to what the apostle Paul went on to say in verse 5, “Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand.” 
 
So, what does this have to do with walking in peace? I believe it means that we must make sure that we are living in such a way that we are representing the Lord properly.   
 
You see, the word “gentleness” essentially describes someone who is the opposite of a religious person. They are gentle, gracious, and patient, unlike someone who is very legalistic and judgmental. Which ought to teach us something about walking in peace—for how many of you know that there are not too many religious people (in the negative sense of the word) that have peace in their hearts.
 
Yes, peace is found in living the Christian life the way Jesus intended us to—not being law-based, judgmental and legalistic people, but also not living loose and lascivious lifestyles either. Both of these are ditches that we must avoid to walk in the middle of the road where the pure peace is.
 
Church, there is such a contentment and peace that comes over us when we do our best to live right in front of the world. Our conscience will stay clear and we will stay full of peace as a result, because our heart will not be condemning us.
 
So, peace is an attitude—an attitude that begins in rejoicing and results in living a life free from both legalism and lasciviousness. It is behaving properly and enjoying life in the freedom that Christ has given us.
 
THE PEACE SURPASSING ALL UNDERSTANDING
 
Now in verse 6-7, Paul specifically began his exhortation on walking in peace by saying, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
 
So, notice that Paul promises in verse 7, that if we do what he said in the sixth verse, we will experience the peace of God—a peace that surpasses all understanding.
 
Now what does that phrase mean? This means that this peace is a peace that transcends all comprehension. To put it in layman’s terms, it’s a peace that simply doesn’t make sense. When we have this supernatural peace in the midst of difficult circumstances, people will not be able to comprehend it. They will not be able to understand why we do not panic or get flustered when we receive bad news. But as I said earlier, not only will others not be able to understand it, we will be overwhelmed by it at times too! 
 
I can remember one specific day when I was just overwhelmed by this peace of God: I had spent the early portion of the day praying and studying the Word and then, that evening as I was spending time with a group at church, I just had to stop and tell them the awesome peace that I was experiencing. It was incredible—like I cannot explain! That experience was so paramount that I knew I had gotten a glimpse of something more that is available to us!
 
My friends, I can personally testify that there is more to the Christian life than the peace we experienced at salvation. Sure, that peace was great, but there is the peace that is available through the abundant life that Jesus died to provide for us! How many of us could honestly say we are currently experiencing that much peace in our lives? Sad to say, there are not many who do. 
 
But peace is a fruit of the Spirit and in order for it to be produced in our lives, our hearts must be cultivated properly to produce it. Wouldn’t it just be awesome to have this peace that surpasses all understanding working in our lives all the time? I’ll tell you—that is a recipe for a blessed life right there!  
 
So, let’s apply these truths from Philippians chapter 4 to our lives—for God gives us a solid promise that when we do, His supernatural peace will guard our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. That means that both our hearts and minds will be guarded from the barrage of worry, anxiety and fear that the enemy likes to throw at us. His fiery darts will not be able to affect us any longer when this peace that surpasses all understanding is standing at the gate, keeping us safe and secure. Thank You, Jesus!
 
But the fact is, verse 6 of Philippians chapter 4 is the specific instructions that Paul gave us to experience the promise made in verse 7. So, let’s break verse 6 down in order to learn how to walk in the promise of the peace that surpasses all understanding.
 
BE ANXIOUS FOR NOTHING BUT IN EVERYTHING
 
Notice that the first exhortation he gives in Philippians 4:6 is to “be anxious for nothing.” This is just an old English way of saying— “Don’t worry about anything.”  But although in its purest definition this word “anxious” describes worry and anxiety, the Greek word literally means “to divide into parts.” Therefore, this word “anxious” describes having a preoccupation with other things that causes us to worry and be anxious.
 
You see, I consider the greatest robber of our peace to be the distractions of the world.  We have to learn to guard our minds from the cares of everyday life. If we let the anxiety, worry, and cares of the world take the place of precedence in our minds, then it will be downright impossible for us to walk in God’s peace. Why is this? It is because where the mind goes, the man will follow. Another way of saying this is what we allow our minds to meditate on will determine the state of our feelings and emotions. That is why it is imperative that we do not become entangled in the affairs of this life, because if our focus is on this fluctuating world, the peace of God will rarely affect our hearts and minds.
 
However, by giving us this command to “be anxious for nothing,” Paul was basically telling us to decide to stop worrying. In essence, he was saying, “Do not ever allow anxiety or fear to remain in your thought life! Make the choice to live worry-free!” You see, before we do anything else, we need to understand that it is never acceptable for a child of God to worry. Therefore, we have to, first of all, make the decision that worry, anxiety and fear are not to have a place in our lives. Amen?
 
But how do we cope with these opportunities to fret and worry when they are presented? How do we effectively deal with these temptations when they are thrown at us? The apostle Paul gives us the answer to these questions in the rest of this verse …
 
Notice again that Paul says, “Be anxious for nothing, but…” This one little word “but” carries with it the idea of “on the other hand.” So, what Paul was essentially saying was— “This is what you do since you are not to worry.” And what does he go on to say we can do to keep from worrying? He says, “but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.”
 
You see, the way we cope with the temptations to worry and fret is by, first of all, choosing not to meditate on the problems of life for any period of time. But we do that by immediately lifting those things up to the Lord in prayer. Paul tells us that in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. What this means is that we have to maintain a vibrant prayer life in order to quench worry and anxiety. When those temptations come, we should immediately cast all those cares over on the Lord because He cares for us (First Peter 5:7). It does not matter what the problem is, “in everything … let your requests be made known to God.” In other words, take those things that are trying to steal our peace to the Lord in prayer. Just ask and, as Jesus promised, you will receive. We know that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us, and if we know that He hears us, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him (First John 5:15).
 
These words “in everything” also teach us something very important. They show us that this response to fear and anxiety is not something we are to occasionally practice; this is to be our lifestyle. These two words teach us that casting our cares over on the Lord must become a regular practice that is generated from a close walk with the Lord. If we only communicate with the Lord when we have big problems and do not include the Lord “in everything,” we will experience very little peace in our lives. Therefore, our constant communion with God is essential to walking in the supernatural peace of God. 
 
Now I wish that this was all that is involved in keeping ourselves in the peace of God, but it isn’t. Why? It is because if all we do when there is a crisis in our life is just pray a little quick prayer and try not to worry, we will have far too much idle time for our mind to gravitate back towards the storms surrounding us. This is why the other part of this verse is so important where he interjected— “by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving…” These words are so important because they describe the manner, whereby we are to let our requests be made known to the Lord.
 
So, let’s look at these three words—prayer, supplication and thanksgiving—and find out the prayerful attitude we should have.
 
THE TRAIN, THE CARS, AND THE CABOOSE
 
Notice, first of all, that the first two words Paul used were “prayer and supplication.” Isn’t it interesting that Paul makes a distinction between “prayer” and “supplication”? The word “supplication” literally describes fervently asking God for things. So, what is prayer then? Some only view prayer as asking God for things, but that would basically make prayer no different than supplications, right? You see, while prayer can most certainly include our requests and petitions, evidently Paul thought there was a difference between what “prayer” is and what petitioning God is. 
 
So, if prayer is not just made up of our requests and petitions, what is it? The Greek word used for “prayer” here literally means “coming face to face and making a vow or declaration.” The first part of this definition—coming face to face with God—denotes closeness and intimacy and describes having a close relationship with God. But notice that the second part of this definition for “prayer”—making a vow or declaration—describes a statement, not a request. You see, a “vow” denotes making a commitment or a promise to someone, and these statements of commitment (i.e. vows) generally come during our times of worship. Coincidentally, making a “declaration” is proclaiming a statement of truth, and these declarations of who God is and what He has done are statements of praise. Therefore, this second part of our literal definition of prayer shows us that prayer is simply our fellowship with God and our praise & worship of Him. Herein lies the difference between what prayer truly is and what man has considered it to be: Prayer, in its purest form, is simply our communication with God based on the relationship we have with Him. It is not just us petitioning Him for our needs to be met, but includes fellowshipping with Him through praise & worship.    
 
So, what does our fellowship with God have to do with walking in the peace of God? It has everything to do with it! You see, we were created for relationship with God. It is the foundation of our very existence and purpose. Therefore, if we are not fulfilling our primary purpose, how are we going to experience all that God has provided for us to walk in? If we are not planted in the root of our salvation, how can we produce the fruit of our salvation? As we have previously mentioned, peace is a fruit of the Spirit. Therefore, peace is a product of our relationship with God which is to be developed through the person of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, our fellowship with the Holy Spirit through what the Bible calls “prayer” is going to greatly determine our peace level.
 
But does this mean that there is no place for bringing up our issues and needs to the Lord? Of course, it does not! While our fellowship with God and our praise & worship of Him are listed first in Paul’s response to anxiety for a reason, he then specifically made mention of supplications. Again, this word “supplication” literally describes our fervent petitioning of the Lord. No, not those long, drawn out times of petitioning the Lord where we tend to spend 90% of the time focusing on the problem and 10% on the solution; these “supplications” are referring simply to making our request in a spirit of faith. 
 
Now this too is an important part of the equation if we want to walk in the peace of God. The reason for this is because we have to learn to look to the Lord for our help instead of just trying to figure out what we are going to do. And this is the value of making supplications to the Lord:  It is us seeing the Lord as our solution and knowing that He is willing to both hear our requests and speedily meet them. And when our trust is in Him like this, we will take our problems to the Lord and leave them there, knowing He will handle it from there.
 
So, I would describe the “prayer” here as the train—for it is what drives everything in our prayer lives and it is what powers our peace. The “supplications” are simply just the cars that bring our needs to the Lord, but they are not to be what we begin our prayers with, nor are they to be what we end our prayers with either.
 
So how do we end our prayers? Let’s look at the last of these three words that the apostle Paul used to describe making our requests known to God—thanksgiving: With thanksgiving being mentioned last here in Philippians 4:6, this is why I like to call it, “the caboose of prayer.” Now this in no way indicates that giving God thanks is last in order of importance. The fact is, thanksgiving is an extremely important part of our prayers especially during these times of anxiety. So, let me explain to you why I believe it is mentioned last here. 
 
You see, it is so vital that our prayers and supplications are prayed in faith—that is, with a confidence and persuasion that God has not only heard our prayers, but that He will answer them. So, if we truly believe that our prayers and supplications are being both heard and answered, then what do we have left to do? You got it! Our response should be— “Lord, thank You for hearing me! Thank You that the answer is on the way! Thank You that You love me so much and, therefore, will perfect that thing which has concerned me (see Psalm 138:8)! Thank You for all that You are, all that You do, and all that You’ve promised! Amen!” You see, thanksgiving should always follow our prayers and supplications because being thankful is the true response of faith.
 
But there is another very important part that being thankful plays in us experiencing the God of peace in our lives: You see, one major reason that we lose our peace is because of what I would call a “perverted perspective.” For example, it is so easy because of the nature of the flesh, to put our attention on the few things that are going wrong in our life instead of all the things that we have to be thankful for. Therefore, when we focus on the few things that we lack instead of all that God has blessed us with, it is only natural that we will be filled with turmoil and anxiety. But what if we a cultivate a lifestyle of thanksgiving—constantly thanking God for all of His blessings in our life—instead of letting our souls gravitate towards the things we lack? What if we started thanking God for everything that is going right in our lives instead of focusing on everything that is going wrong? I guarantee you that this change of perspective will greatly promote the peace of God in our lives because, the truth is, our peace level is oftentimes a result of our perspective.       
 
So, do you see the role that prayer, supplication, and thanksgiving all play in us experiencing the God of peace and, therefore, the peace of God in our lives? Yes, having a vibrant prayer life is a vital key to maintaining peace. When we maintain a vibrant prayer life that consists of fellowship, praise, worship, thanksgiving, and casting our cares over on the Lord, then we will experience what verse 7 said— “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
 
THINK ON THESE THINGS
 
Now, in conclusion, I want us to continue in Philippians chapter 4 and discuss another very
important ingredient to maintaining the peace of God in our lives. You see, we just saw the important role that prayer, supplication, and thanksgiving play in our walking in the peace of Christ, but our prayer life is not all that is important for experiencing the fruit of these two blessed virtues of joy and peace. Why? Because we have to remain offensive in this thing! We have a lot of other time in the day to allow our minds to wander. So, there is a very important truth found in Philippians 4:8 that I want us to end with today that teaches us how to aggressively pursue peace in our lives.  
 
The apostle Paul said in Philippians 4:8— “Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy- meditate on these things.” What a powerful verse, Church! This very truth would absolutely transform our lives if we began to apply it.
 
Some of us have heard good teachings on the importance of the mind and learning to manage our thought life, but what I have found is that many of these teachings only deal with what we shouldn’t be thinking on. Yes, they only seem to stress the importance of not thinking on things that would lead us into sin, doubt, fear, etc. And while it certainly is important to not think on these negative things, I want you to notice a relatively simple yet profound truth found in Philippians 4:8: In this verse, the apostle Paul doesn’t tell us what not to think on; rather, he tells us things that we are to think on. In other words, he does not spend his time saying, “Alright guys, do not think on the following things…” No, he gives us a list of specific things that we should be thinking on. Why is this so important? The reason is because it is imperative that the Christian not just be defensive, but that we also be proactive and on the offensive in our thought lives.  
 
So, what are some of these things we should be thinking on, you ask? The apostle Paul lists them in specific detail in this verse. So, let’s begin to look at these different things that Paul told us to fill our minds with in order to be “mind-full” of the truth with no room for those renegade thoughts to rent space in our minds.  
 
In the beginning of Philippians 4:8, Paul said, “whatever things are true…” My friend, in order to live in joy and peace we must learn to think on things that are “true.” There are a lot of thoughts and imaginations that enter into people’s minds that they perceive to be true, but do not line up with God’s Word. Saints, God’s Word is truth (John 17:17). So, if what we are thinking on does not agree with what God has said in His Word, then it is not true. Period! It might seem right or even be considered a fact, but that does not make it true in the kingdom of God. No, what is true is the Word of God, and therefore, filling our minds up with God’s Word—meditating on His Word day and night—is part of what it means to think on things that are “true.”
 
What I believe so many of us struggle with, which causes us to lose our joy and peace, is thinking on things that are not even real. I have heard this spiritual epidemic called, having a “speculative imagination.” Let me give you an example of this: Say you are at work one day and one of your co-workers looks at you in a strange way. What so many of us tend to do is start speculating as to why they had that look on their face. Our minds will begin to formulate all kinds of ideas of what they might have been thinking. Mind you, this is pure speculation on our part. My point is this—our tendency is to take these situations personally, thinking everything everyone does is aimed at us somehow. And why is this? It is because most people are so self-centered. We think the whole world revolves around us. We usually do not think, “Maybe they are just having a bad day” or “Perhaps they had something else on their mind.” No, most people automatically assume the worst and take these things personally. But what if we were to just decide to think on what is true, and not on what we think is true? What if we would just lay aside all of our speculations of what others might be thinking about us and choose to think on what God truly thinks about us? I guarantee you that this will only result in us enjoying our day more. Amen?
 
So, Paul said that we are to think on whatever is “true”—to meditate on what God’s Word says because it is the truth. Sure, there will be times when people will say things about us that they believe are true. We may even adopt certain negative concepts about ourselves that we believe are true. But these things should not be allowed to rent space in our minds because the only thing that is “truly true” is what God thinks about us. 
 
Indeed, let God be true and every man a liar (Romans 3:4)! A “liar” is one who believes what is contrary to what God has said. God’s opinion of us is the only “true” opinion, my friend! So, only think on these things that are true. Amen.
 
The apostle Paul said next that we should think on “whatever is noble”: This word “noble” literally describes things that are “worthy of respect and reverence.” Did you know that there are a lot of things that we let ourselves meditate on that do not deserve the amount of attention that we give them? In other words, they are not worthy of the respect and reverence we give them. For example, staying with the last example we used, when we allow our minds to focus on what others believe about us over what God thinks of us, we are honoring what they think over what God thinks. The truth is this—what we think upon most is what we honor the most. If we are constantly giving our attention to one thing more than others, then we are acting as if that thing is worthy of more honor than other things. 
 
Here is a good question: What is worthy of our respect and reverence? What is really important to think about? How about the Lord, His Word, and all that He has done for us in our lives? These are things that are truly worthy of our focus and attention—not the things of this world. These are the things that deserve that place of “nobility” in our minds. When we allow our minds to be dominated by thoughts of this present evil age, we are giving them the place of honor that God alone deserves. 
 
Jesus told us that the first and greatest commandment is to love the Lord God with all of our heart, all of our soul, and all of our mind (see Matthew 22:37). So, by referring to our “mind,” the Lord was indicating that He desires for our minds to be dominated by thoughts that are directed towards Him. Some might see this as a little too radical, and others might consider this unreasonable, but the truth is that God considers this normal. To Him, it is simply natural that we esteem Him in our thought life. He alone is worthy of our thoughts, saints! So, think on these things that are truly noble!
 
When you study the next two words Paul used in Philippians 4:8— “just & pure” —you will find that they are basically synonyms for the terms— “righteous & holy.” Now these two words are incorrectly thought of in the modern-day Church as having the same meaning--perfection. If you were to ask many Christians— What is the difference between being “holy” and being “righteous?”—you would probably not find too many who could tell you the difference because they are generally both viewed as being totally absent of mistakes and faults. But this is simply not correct.
 
The word “righteous” describes “the state of being or doing what is right and in agreement with God’s standards.” I don’t have time to go into a lot of detail about this, but if you study “righteousness,” it was almost always used in connection with God’s heart of freeing the oppressed, giving to the poor, providing for the orphans and widows, etc. And with as much as you see in God’s Word of Him dealing with these issues, it is clear that doing these things are what is “right in God’s sight.” In other words, taking people who are in helpless situations and lifting them up out of their afflictions, is God’s standard for all of us.
 
On the other hand, the word “holy” describes “being set apart, different, clean and uncorrupted.” Like this word “pure,” it describes not letting our garments get dirty or soiled by the filth that is around us. Now most of the time, when we think of this word “purity,” we associate it with being sexually pure. And while that is most definitely a part of purity, being faithful and pure in our relationship with our Husband, Jesus Christ, is the big picture we should be looking at. So, what Paul was saying by instructing us to think on whatever is pure is to think on the things that promote faithfulness to our Lord.
 
So, when you apply these truths to your thought life, you find that God wants us to think on things that are right and in agreement with His standards—namely helping the helpless. He wants our hearts and minds to go out towards those who are in need around us. He wants us to think on things that promote holiness, not on things that are impure and, therefore, corrupt our relationship with Christ. Think on these things that are just and pure.
 
The next group of things that Paul says we are to think on is whatever is “lovely.” By using this word “lovely,” he was saying to think on things that are adorned and arrayed in love. In other words, “lovely” thoughts are thoughts of love. 
 
Now this is certainly not the only verse that tells us to think on thoughts of love: We are told in several Scriptures to think on things that promote the love of God—especially when it comes to our brothers and sisters in Christ. One in particular, tells us to “consider one another in order to stir up love and good works” (see Hebrews 10:24). The word “consider” in this verse literally means “to think about from top to bottom.” In other words, as Philippians 2:4 also says, this word describes focusing on and looking out for the interests of others and esteeming them better than ourselves. You see, what the flesh tends to gravitate towards is thinking about itself. From childhood, that fallen nature that we inherited veers towards these self-centered thoughts. But what the Holy Spirit desires to lead us into is thinking about others. His will is for us to begin to consider what is in their best interests, and He desires for us to think about things we can do that might bless them.
 
Based on Hebrews 10:24, by “considering” one another—that is, being mindful of everything which concerns them—we can actually stir up the love of God in our lives. By thinking these thoughts of love, we can begin to generate love and good works in our life because our focus will be on the needs and wants of others. This is a practical way that we can grow in walking in love and there are not many better ways to walk in the Lord’s joy and peace than to walk in His love. Therefore, think on things that are lovely.
 
But not only does the flesh have the tendency to think self-centered thoughts; it also has the tendency to be pessimistic---that is, to think on things that are negative. We have all witnessed this. There are certain people who just cannot seem to think on the positive side of things. Their focus is always on what they do not have, what they cannot do, and what they do not know. This is a characteristic of the flesh and is most certainly not having the mind of Christ. This is why Paul goes on to tell us to think on things that are of “good report.” Church, God desires for His people to trust and believe Him and this involves thinking on what He has done and what He has promised. He wants us to have His perspective on things—to be able to see people and circumstances through His eyes. 
 
There is perhaps no greater example of this than in Numbers chapter 13. In this account, twelve leaders of the children of Israel were sent to spy out the land. But when they returned, ten of the twelve gave a “bad report”—stating that they were like grasshoppers compared to the giants who were already dwelling in the land. Therefore, they did not believe that they could possess the land that God had promised them. You see, these ten spies were thinking on things that were of a “bad report” because they were looking at the impossibilities instead of the “good report” that God gave them.
 
Now before we condemn the children of Israel here, let us ask ourselves: How many times have we done this same thing? Problems arise in our lives, and instead of considering that God is on our side and He is resolved to fight our battles for us, we begin to fear, thinking about what these problems might result in. This is thinking on things that are of a bad report. But we are told to think on whatever is of a good report, saints! 
 
This is what the other two spies did: Joshua and Caleb did not ignore the fact that there were giants in the land, but their focus was so much on both God’s presence and His promises that they encouraged the people that they could go up at once and possess the land. Therefore, Joshua and Caleb were thinking on things that were of a good report, and this different spirit in them produced the faith and confidence we see that they obviously had. We too, when confronted with difficult challenges, should choose to think on who God is, what He has done, and what He has promised. This will likewise lead us into our Promised Land of peace!  Think on things of a good report.
 
MEDITATE ON THESE THINGS
 
The apostle Paul then goes on to conclude his list of things that we should be meditating on by summing up everything else we should purposefully be thinking on:  He says, “if there is any virtue or if there is anything praiseworthy— meditate on these things.” This phrase makes such an important point that every Christian would do good to understand.
 
You see, there is something that I have noticed in my relatively short walk with the Lord amongst “religious” people: They tend to always focus on the negative in people and circumstances. For example, they will look at someone whom they consider to not be as “spiritual” as them and magnify their faults and shortcomings. They will focus on the sin that they see in that person’s life and can only seem to see the areas that they fall short in. But this is not the way a Christian ought to think, Church! God is love, and love covers a multitude of sins (see First Peter 4:8). Love believes the best in people. It sees the potential in others and expects them to reach that potential.  So, love is not critical; it thinks on the positive.
 
Now that leads me to this final phrase in Philippians 4:8: What did Paul say that we are to think on? He said, “if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy…” Someone might say, “Yeah, well that’s the problem, pastor! There isn’t anything!” I am here to tell you—that is simply not true. There is always something we can find that is virtuous and praiseworthy to think on even when it comes to those who irritate us. So, what should we be thinking about our neighbor? We should be thinking on their virtues—that is, their good qualities and moral excellencies. We should be thinking on the things in their lives that are praiseworthy—things that are worth talking about and that deserve to be praised and glorified. 
 
And even if you are certain that they possess no virtues and there is nothing praiseworthy about them (which I highly doubt), you can meditate on the opportunity you have to develop character, patience, etc., simply by having them in your life. Did you know that this is what James used as his basis for instructing us to “count it all joy when you fall into various trials” (see James 1:2)? It was that the testing of our faith would produce more patience in us! So, if you cannot find a silver lining in the person themselves, think on the virtues that your positive response to them will produce in your own life. If we were thinking spiritually, this would be our mindset.   
 
But what do so many in the Church do? They do not focus on the virtues of people both in and outside of their church; they think on and point out their not so virtuous qualities and characteristics. They choose not to look at the things that are worthy of praise in individuals. In fact, what they do “praise” is their sins and shortcomings. This, my friends, is ungodly! Aren’t you glad God does not do that with us? Contrary to popular belief, God does not focus on our weaknesses and mistakes; He focuses on our potential. Take any good parent for instance: They have an uncanny ability to only see the good in their children and are oftentimes blinded to the things in them that are not so virtuous. And why? The reason for this is because this is what true love does. It focuses on the virtues and things that are praiseworthy in the ones it loves. Again, a parent will do this to the point where they cannot even see their child’s weaknesses.
 
The same can be said for circumstances: Some people just tend to focus on things that are negative and depressing like the condition that the world is in, political and social issues, the state of the Church, etc. Sure, these things are unfortunate and we should desire to see them change, but there is a bright side to everything. God is working in the earth today and people are getting saved by the droves every day. So why not praise the things that are worthy to be praised instead of “praising” what the devil is doing? This should also be applied to how we think of ourselves. We should not allow our unregenerate minds to always focus on our not-so-virtuous qualities that are not yet crucified or on the negative situations in our lives.
 
The bottom line is that we need to think on the things that have any virtue or are praiseworthy. It is not “spiritual” to focus on the negative. In fact, it is very unspiritual. As believers, we should be the most positive people on the planet. My friend, thinking like this will lead our emotions and attitude where they need to be—full of peace. Amen.
 
So, to summarize the things Paul told us to think on in this verse, they could be summarized in God Himself. Our Holy, Triune God—the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit—He is true and He is the Truth. He is noble and honorable. He is just and righteous. He is holy and pure. He is the good report—the Gospel. He is wholly virtuous and He alone is praiseworthy. So, to think on these things is to think on God Himself; and nothing will yield greater pleasure in our hearts than to keep our minds full of Him. Amen?  
 
And the awesome promise we have in the Scriptures is that when we keep our minds stayed on Him, He will keep us in perfect peace. So, this is the key to walking in the peace that surpasses all understanding. It is aggressively keeping our minds stayed on Him—by the way we think and also by living in constant communion with Him. This is how Paul experienced the presence of the God of Peace in his life and how we can too. Amen. 
 
Church, this is how we can get the stress out and keep it out. It’s a mentality—a non-compromising attitude that we will live free from stress—and that we will follow His instructions to walk in the peace He has already sown into us. Peace is our inheritance! Stress is not! So, let’s fight for it! Amen! 

​REVIEW
 
Today, we are continuing our series entitled “Stress Out!” and most recently, we’ve been breaking down Jesus’ words in Matthew 11:28-30. So, let’s quickly review what we’ve been learning:
 
The first thing we learned is how the Lord was addressing “all you who labor and are heavy laden.” We saw that this is just another way of describing a stressed-out people and that those who are experiencing this stressful life need only do one thing—to come to Him! Yes, Jesus invited everyone who labors and is heavy laden to come to Him in order to receive rest for their souls.
 
And we covered a couple of weeks ago what this rest truly is: We learned that while one rest is given (vs. 28), the other is found (vs. 29). Yes, one is experienced when we come to Christ upon making Him our personal Lord and Savior. This is the positional rest we have entered into—and many of us can attest to immediately receiving this rest the moment we called on the name of Jesus and were saved from the burden of sin. However, we saw that there remains a rest that we can partake of experientially—and that is when we exchange our weakness for His strength and learn to wait on the Lord and draw near to Him in fellowship. But like we saw, this rest for our soul must be found—which indicates that we have to search for it. 
 
So, we learned some very practical ways to do so: For example, we have come to learn that it actually is a good thing for everyone to rest one out of every seven days. Therefore, we said that this is a good principle for each of us to live by in order to live free from stress: have a day each week where we detach, disconnect, and decompress—that is, where we lay down every project, where we turn the phone off, where we don’t even try to problem-solve in our minds; just a day of rest where we put our relationship with the Lord as our priority and we even enjoy some nice recreational things that do not require a lot of physical or mental energy. I bet if we would make sure to schedule this on a weekly basis, we would live more stress-free lives. Amen?   
 
But we also learned that it is wise to schedule periodic times of rest throughout the year where we can cease from the physical and emotional labor and focus on the spiritual side of our life. Not only that, but we learned that we also need a certain period of time every day in order to find rest for our souls. What I mean is, we need that period of time every day to “come to Him,” simply meditating on His Word, praising & worshipping Him, etc., to where that rest is found daily.
 
And, finally, we learned that what we do during those “sabbaticals” is important as well. Yes, reading the Bible is important, praying for others is important, but there is something very specific that you and I can do that actually causes us to enter into His rest. And one of those things that we can deliberately do to enter into His rest is to speak in tongues! Yes, Isaiah chapter 28 teaches us that this is the rest that is available for us.
 
Now, last week, we looked at another qualifier that Jesus mentioned for finding this rest for our souls: It is what Jesus said at the beginning of verse 29 when He said, “Take My yoke upon you…” We went into great detail on what this means and learned not only what His yoke is, but how to take it up.
 
In answering the question of what this yoke is, we found that this was an interesting way to describe how one can find rest for their souls. I mean, to use the example of wearing a yoke—which was used for laboring, not resting—that seems like the opposite of finding rest. Amen?
 
But the first thing we said is that it is obvious that the Lord was differentiating between the former and first yoke—that is, the first covenant, which came to be called by the apostle Paul, the “yoke of bondage” (see Galatians 5:1). So, His yoke—which would be this new covenant that Jesus’ blood provided for us—is what He is offering for everyone who labors and is burdened down to take up. And in this new covenant of grace is found all the rest and freedom from stress that we will ever need!
 
You see, grace always precedes peace, and this peace is what we are striving to live by. We see this in many of the apostle Paul’s blessings that He spoke over his churches. For example, here in Galatians 1:3 he says, “Grace to you and peace from God…” Therefore, understanding the grace of God will always promote peace in one’s life—which as a result will yield freedom from the stresses of life.
 
Now we also found out what Jesus was not saying: He was not saying that there is another yoke out there other than the yoke of bondage—the law—that we are to take up and put on in place of the old yoke. Jesus did not go to the Cross to provide us with another updated and improved yoke of religion. That is not what the new covenant of grace is, and is not what Jesus was saying here.
 
You see, the example that is being used here is not of us exchanging one yoke for another, but of us getting yoked up together with Him. We learned that the word Jesus used for “yoke” here literally described a wooden yoke that joined two animals together. So, it was not describing one yoke for each animal. No, the purpose of this particular yoke was so that they, through their combined strength, would pull a load that generally would have been too difficult for one animal to pull by itself. Therefore, this “yoke” made the two one.
 
Now let’s relish in this one truth for a moment: Me … You … All of us … Have the glorious opportunity to get yoked up together with Christ. This describes us co-laboring with Him just as we have been made joint-heirs with Him. It is not Jesus way up there, and us way down here. In His righteousness, Jesus has made available a way for everyone who believes on Him to share equally in His righteousness. Yes, and He has also offered for everyone to come labor work together with Him in the same field and on the same footing. What an honor and a privilege! Amen? Glory to God! 
 
So, back to this yoke Jesus referred to: As a result of being yoked up together, these two cows, bulls or ox were collectively stronger, and their combined strength made their task easier. Now the obvious reason that they did this was because even the strongest “beast of burden” could not pull the load on some jobs. There were certain things that needed to be done that required more strength than their strongest animal could carry alone.
 
You see, we might be the strongest one in God’s flock, but we still have our limits on what we can carry on our own. Yes, every single one of us has a limit to what we can do for Him. But the error I see most of us making at times is that since we feel we can do it, we do it, and because we might seem to be strong enough to handle something, we grin and bear it. While that might sometimes be what needs to be done, I don’t think this is the primary way that the Lord would have us live the Christian life. That’s right: I believe that we need to have the wisdom to know that things like working harder, toughing it out, and doing things in our own strength is generally not God’s best. So, what is God’s best? Getting yoked up together with Him, and letting Him provide the strength and power that we need to carry our load.
 
You see, there is One who is stronger than I—and His name is Jesus! And He has promised me that if I will take His yoke upon me, I will experience a light and easy load and that I will find rest for my soul. And why? It is because Jesus is the strongest Ox of them all and, therefore, He is carrying the brunt of the weight. In fact, if we would just consider the strength of the Savior, I think it would be clear that He doesn’t need any of our help. Yes, Jesus is doing just fine pulling the full weight of the work, thank you very much. We are just along for the ride. Glory to Jesus!
 
And this beautifully illustrates this new and better covenant. There is nothing you and I can do to add to the work of Christ! Jesus paid it all! He carried it all! Our sins are no longer to be carried. Our cares are to be cast over on Him. Jesus, and Jesus alone, has done the work of salvation. And this is not just in regard to our eternal security. Jesus also wants to carry the full brunt of the things you need in your everyday life as well.  
 
I’ll tell you—this is the LIFE. Learning to do things His way and resting in the finished work of Jesus is a stress-free way to live.  And He goes on to say this about His yoke in verse 30—It is easy and it is light. 
 
We saw that the word Jesus used for “easy” literally describes something that is “fit, manageable, and pleasant.” Therefore, His yoke is “easy” because it fits, is easy to handle, and is simply pleasant. He goes on to say that His burden is light, and we saw that the word “burden” is a poor translation. It is actually the same word we looked at in Galatians 6:5, which was correctly translated as “load” in the NKJV. You see, nothing in the New Covenant is “burdensome.” The moment we begin to feel “burdened” is the moment we have become unyoked from Christ. Yes, every believer is called to carry their own load (see Galatians 6:5), but when a Christian is burdened down, that is when we are supposed to help alleviate those burdens from our brothers and sisters. So, the Lord was literally saying here that His load is light. In fact, the only other time this word for “light” is used in the New Testament is in Second Corinthians 4:17 when the apostle Paul referred to our “light” afflictions. (We might get into that a little today)
 
My point is that the Lord said that His yoke and His load are easy and light, as opposed to hard and heavy. The moment things begin to get hard and heavy is the moment that we are carrying those cares ourselves. “Burnout” comes as we do all the pulling ourselves. This is not what the Lord intended. If we are yoked up with Christ, what we will sense is a much more light and easy experience in the difficult situations we walk through in life. This is when we must learn to yoke ourselves up together with Him to where He does the majority of the pulling.
 
Friends, the Christian life is meant to be light and easy, not heavy and hard. And the moment we begin to feel like our burden is heavy and hard is the moment we have simply realized that we are taking our own yoke and are not benefiting from Him pulling the weight for us. The only time that it becomes laborious is when we, of our own accord, unyoke ourselves from Him and try to carry the weights of this life ourselves. This is when the Christian life becomes burdensome and overbearing and we, as a result, lose our peace.  
 
So, the next question we asked was—How does one take His yoke upon themselves?
 
Well, the first thing we need to understand is that He is not going to make us take it. He doesn’t tell us to pray that God throw this yoke upon us. Yes, I don’t see in the Lord’s prayer—Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be your name, Your yoke come, Your putting it on me be done…” No, Jesus tells us to take His yoke upon us ourselves.
 
I said that I believe we find that answer back in verse 28 when Jesus said, “Come to Me … and I will give you rest.” So, it would be incorrect for one to start assuming that we take His yoke upon ourselves all kind of other ways without considering the context. Amen?
 
So, I think it is safe to assume that the way we take His yoke upon ourselves is by first coming to Him. Now, again, coming to the Lord describes both proximity and perspective—meaning, it describes us literally drawing near to Him and abiding in our True Vine and it also describes us turning our attention to Him and looking unto the Author and Finisher of our faith. Therefore, when we do that, we take His yoke upon us and benefit from the strength He has to offer.
 
We then looked at several Scriptures that talk about how we can “Come to Him” and receive His strength. So, if you missed last week, you can listen online.  But the main point that was made is that it is imperative that we learn to “come to Jesus” when we are feeling overburdened and stressed out. And we come to Him by setting aside times to draw near to Him and draw our strength from Him that way, but we also come to Him by putting our focus and attention on Him and what we say as a result.
 
I can assure you that if you make your personal relationship with Jesus a priority in your life and then adopt the mentality of faith that takes His Word at face value, you can “take His yoke upon you” and as a result “find rest for your souls.” Like we learned—it is an easy fit and not a burden in the least. It is a light and easy yoke, and that is because Jesus has both done the work for us on the Cross and because He is doing the same today, carrying the load. 
 
However, the next point that I want us to move into today is that Jesus did not just encourage us to take His yoke upon us in order to find this rest for our souls; He included in this verse that we are also to “learn” of Him.
 
THE YOKE OF HUMILITY
 
But before we get into what this means to learn of Him, I want you to notice one of the motivations for Jesus telling us to do these two things. He said, “for I am gentle and lowly in heart.” So, it was because of this “gentle” nature and how He is “lowly in heart” that we can both take His yoke upon us and learn of Him.  
 
Why did He describe Himself this way? What does this have to do with us entering into His rest? Well, the word “gentle” is only used this one time in the New Testament, and describes one who is gentle, mild, meek and humble. The phrase “lowly in heart” also describes “humility” as it denotes someone or something that does not rise far from the ground. Therefore, this person who is “lowly in heart” is someone who is “base” or of “low degree”—not that they are less and lower than others, but that they choose to lower themselves for other’s benefit. So, this is how Jesus described Himself—with the characteristics of humility—and this is what He told us to learn from Him.
 
Now it stands to reason that if the High & Lofty One Himself was able to humble Himself like this, don’t you think you and I ought to do this as well? Yes, if Jehovah Elyon can lower Himself to this degree, then we ought to operate with the same lowliness of mind ourselves. Again, not thinking lower of ourselves than we ought to think, but choosing to not think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think either (see Romans 12:3).
 
And make no mistake about it, this humble opinion of ourselves has a lot to do with us finding this rest for our souls. Why? Because don’t you know that the things which produce stress in our lives—things like worry, anxiety and fear—contain an element of pride in them?
 
You see, pride is not exactly what we think it is. While pride certainly includes haughtiness, arrogance and being a braggart, at its root, pride is simply “self”—self-centeredness & self-reliance. This certainly includes these more obvious forms of pride that scream— “look at me!” but they include the other more subtle forms of pride that only looks to itself as well. So, for you or I to worry about something that the Lord has told us not to worry about and that He said He would provide for us would be pride on our part because we are not humbling ourselves to our Creator and trusting in who He is and what He has said.  
 
But the fact is that Jesus described Himself this way to us for a couple of reasons: Number one, it was to show us that this is how the Godhead operates. You see, the Lord is not in the business of forcing things on us and driving us like the former yoke—the law—did. No, God is gentle, meek, mild and humble. He does not force His yoke on us; He wants us to take it up and put it on ourselves. As the Lord Jesus said to Pastor Robert, He has come to us, now we must come to Him. But the second reason I believe that Jesus described Himself this way was because He wants us to learn to become that way as well. That is why He didn’t just say for us to take His yoke upon ourselves but also to “learn of Me.”
 
LEARN FROM ME
 
So, what did He mean by this? Well, in my opinion, the phrase “learn of Me” is not the best way to translate this. The word “of” here comes from the Greek word apo which literally denotes coming away from something. In other words, it describes where something originates from. So, perhaps a better translation would be— “learn from Me.”   
 
Now there are a couple of ways that we can “learn from” someone else. One is obviously by listening to their words and learning by what they are verbally teaching us. But another, arguably more effective, way to learn from someone is by their example—that is, we watch how they do it themselves and learn by observation.
 
Therefore, I believe what Jesus was saying here was for us to learn by His example and how He lived His life. So, apparently, we can look at Jesus’ life and learn how to live this stress-free life of rest that He described here. But we can also learn from Him personally too—for Ephesians 4:20-21 teaches us that we can learn directly from Jesus Himself. Amen?
 
Now we could certainly go through the Gospels and find instance after instance where Jesus Himself kept His heart free from the troubles that surrounded Him, but lest we look at the example of Jesus’ life and think— “Oh, well, that was Jesus. We can’t do that. He was the Son of God … Yadda, yadda, yadda …”--I feel led for us to look at someone else who learned from Christ just like we would have to and see how this man walked in this peace that passes all understanding. No, I am not talking about Peter, James or John. I am talking about the apostle Paul!
 
You see, the apostle Paul invited us to follow him even as he followed Christ (see First Corinthians 11:1). So, even though this apostle didn’t physically walk with Jesus while He was still on the earth, he had learned how to follow Him and walk with Him by faith. And one could make a case that He knew the Lord Jesus even better than the likes of Peter and John. I know that is strong statement, but there are a lot of things in the New Testament that point to that.  My point is that we can follow this man’s example, trusting that he was following Christ himself.
 
So, let’s turn over to one of this man’s writings—Philippians chapter 4—and begin looking at a passage of Scripture that I believe teaches us how to eliminate the stress from our lives in a very practical and clear way. Yes, I believe these verses we will begin looking at this week are a way for us to “learn from Him” and find rest for our souls.
 
But I want us to start expounding on the end of this range of verses because this verse shows us why the apostle Paul is such a great example of living free from stress: Notice how in Philippians 4:9 the apostle Paul says of himself, “The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.”
 
So, Paul was saying here that everything that this body of believers learned from him by his teachings, received from Him by what he shared with them, heard in him by listening to the way he talked, and saw in him by observing how he lived his life—all of these avenues that Paul used to mentor them—if they would do these things, the God of peace would be with them. And, of course, the same is true for us too.
 
THE GOD OF PEACE
 
First of all, what did Paul mean when he said that the God of peace will be with us if we do these things? Didn’t the Lord promise to never leave us nor forsake us? Didn’t He promise that He would be with us, even to the end of the world? Sure, He did! So, why did Paul say that God will be with us if we do the things that He both taught and demonstrated in his life? That seems contrary to these other Scriptures that teach us that God is with us simply because of who we are, not because of what we do, right?
 
But we must understand that there is a difference between God being with us spiritually and Him being with us experientially (i.e. tangibly in the physical realm around us). God most certainly is with us all the time positionally—in the spiritual sense—but we also have the ability to have Him be manifested in our lives in an experiential and tangible way.
 
But we need to understand that us physically experiencing Him is not automatic. If it were, we would all be experiencing it—for God is no respecter of persons. No, in my experience, only a few believers consistently carry the presence of the Lord with them in their everyday lives. But this is a blessed place to live, saints—where His presence is experienced, felt, and tasted. Amen!
 
But the apostle of faith had a specific fruit of God’s tangible presence in mind here. Mind you, the context of all that he was teaching in Philippians 4:6-9 revolved around peace. So, it can be surmised that he is concluding his instructions on walking in the peace of God by saying “the God of peace will be with you,” right? Therefore, it is clear to me why Paul referred to God as “the God of peace” here: Again, it was because the subject up to this point in Philippians chapter four is the peace of God.
 
Now here is a powerful truth: The fruit of having the God of peace manifested in our lives is having the peace of God manifested in our lives! In other words, when we live in the presence of the God of peace, we will live in the presence of the peace of God. So, when we have peace, we’ve experienced a piece of God. Hallelujah! That is what the Holy Spirit had in mind as He inspired this truth to be recorded!
 
Therefore, the examples that the apostle Paul gave through his words and deeds are how we can experience more of the God of peace in our lives which, in turn, causes us to experience more of the peace of God in our lives. Peace is the manifest presence of the God of peace.
 
You see, peace is the manifest presence of God. This is why time spent in the presence of God is so important! Strife is the manifest presence of the devil. But when you have the peace of God all around you, that’s proof that you have God all around you. Fear and strife are the devil personified, while love, joy and peace are the Lord personified! 
 
So, if Paul said that all we need to do to experience the peace of God in our lives is follow his example and his teachings, what is it that we need to follow? Well again, what did he say in verse 9? “The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and…” Therefore, the key to experiencing the manifest presence of the God of peace in our lives—which results in us walking in the peace of God—is “doing” these four things.
 
BEING DOERS OF THE WORD
 
Now, first of all, we need to camp on these two words “these do” before we move into the four other things that Paul listed. Why? Because it is very easy for us to slip into the deception that because we are hearing the Word of God, that it will begin working in our lives. The Word most definitely works but it only works for those who do it.
 
Sure, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Sure, there are benefits to continuously hearing the Word of God, like it will renew our minds and can produce fruit in our hearts. But, as James said in his epistle, we need to “be doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving ourselves” (see James 1:22).
 
Saints, it is apparently very easy for us to slip into the mentality that we are “doing” the Word simply because we are coming to hear the Word. There is a subtle lie that our flesh and soul will feed us, and that is, by coming and at least hearing the Scriptures being taught and proclaimed that this is enough to get us blessed. But this is simply not true!
 
James goes on to say in James 1:25 that when we are a doer of the Word, we will be blessed in what we do—not what we hear, but in what he or she does. Amen!
 
For example, this is why someone can come to church, attend bible studies, go to Sunday school, listen to teachings through various forms of media like television, CD’s, etc. for year after year and not grow, and not experience change, and not see the fruit of the Word in their lives. Why? Because, as Jesus taught us in His Sermon on the Mount contained in Matthew chapters 5-7 and Luke chapter 6, we must build our house not on just hearing His Words that He taught them on that day, but on applying those principles in their lives. He said this is what will cause their house to be built on the rock and what will enable them to overcome the rain, floods and winds of life.
 
You see, what were the similarities between both of these guys? They both heard the Word and they both were hit with winds, rains and floods. The only difference was that one did what he heard, and the other didn’t.
 
Just look at Matthew 7:24, where Jesus concluded all of these strong teachings on asking, seeking knocking, not judging, forgiving, turning the other cheek, etc., etc., etc. with “Therefore, whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock…”
 
So, Jesus is saying here that the person who does these specific sayings that He laid out in His Sermon on the Mount will be the ones who will overcome when the tough times come against them. And do you see why so many believer’s houses seem so broken and they seem to not overcome the trials and tribulations that the devil throws at them?
 
For example, do you know what Jesus included on His Sermon on the Mount? In Matthew 6:25-34, Jesus told His followers— “Do not worry!” Amen! He gives us specific instructions regarding worrying that help with the perspective issue, but what does He tell us to do as an alternative to not worrying? Verse 33 says, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things (that you tend to worry about) will be added to you.”
 
So, again, what should we focus on doing when we are tempted to worry? Determine that we will start seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness! This might be us getting our minds off of those troubling thoughts and us seeking ways to put God’s kingdom above our own problems. For instance, when those dark clouds are trying to move in over our heads and its quickly closing in, we rise up immediately and determine to seek first God’s kingdom by finding someone we can bless, listen to, etc. (i.e. meeting others needs first). This releases a supernatural anointing that releases us from the clutches of anxiety. Amen?
 
So, we need to look at this from time to time and honestly evaluate ourselves by asking the following question: “Am I being a doer of the Word or just a hearer?” Amen?
 
HOW PAUL HAD PEACE
 
Now this leads me to my next point because this seeking first the kingdom of God and how it frees us from worry is what we see in the life of the Apostle Paul: Notice what specifically the apostle Paul said that we are to make it a point to do in order to experience more of the God of peace in our lives. Again, he said, “The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and…” So, the apostle Paul was using His own example as the basis of experiencing this peace that passes all understanding—specifically what they had “learned, received, heard and saw” in him.
 
Now what is so powerful about considering the apostle Paul’s example is that this great example of walking in peace had many opportunities to not experience and walk in the peace of God. In other words, His circumstances did not constitute living a life of peace. He had far worse problems and experiences than most of the other apostles, much less than us. Yet, he experienced the manifest presence of the God of peace which enabled Him to walk in the peace. This is what caused him to pray and sing hymns unto God at midnight in that Philippian jail cell. Amen!
 
So, this should expel all of the ideas we have that— “Well, if this happens to you, then you can’t expect to have peace.” No, if Paul practiced the presence of the God of peace, then you and I can too!
 
Now Paul was using the example of the things he taught them (i.e. learned, received, and heard) as well as his own example (i.e. saw) to illustrate how we, too, can walk in the peace of God. And while I do not want to necessarily go into an in-depth study of the life of Paul right now, if I could name a couple of things that I have “learned, received, heard and saw” in the life of the apostle of faith that teaches me how I can walk in the peace of God, it would have to be His passion and perspective.
 
You see, by his own testimony, Paul “labored more abundantly than” all of the rest of the apostles even (First Corinthians 15:10). And I have found that when we are truly seeking first the kingdom of God (as we just saw), this will automatically cause us to slip into that manifest peace that passes all understanding.
 
You see, the reason some are not experiencing the peace of God is because their focus is on their own kingdom rather than on God’s kingdom. Your peace is found in your place! For example, some of the most peace I have personally ever experienced has been when I was on the mission field. When I am truly seeking first the kingdom of God and it is all about ministering to others, there is a great peace that is experienced. And so I say that because Paul was a more earnest laborer, it yielded a peace in his life that was greater than most Christians have ever experienced.
 
Secondly, what caused this passion and zeal to seek first the kingdom of God was his perspective:
 
You see, the apostle Paul was the professor of “Perspective 101!” Amen! This guy saw things through a different filter than even some of the other church leaders. Part of the reason for this was because He had been forgiven of much, therefore, he loved much. But he truly saw things through the eyes of eternity.
 
We see this in his second letter to the church of Corinth, when he called these painful situations— “light afflictions” (see Second Corinthians 4:17)! The word he used for “light” here literally meant “non-burdensome” and was a reference to the weight of his trials. In fact, this is how Jesus described His burden (i.e. load) that is “light” (see Matthew 11:30). Therefore, Paul was saying that the afflictions that he suffered were not heavy, weighty, or burdensome at all. But aren’t these trials, tribulations and afflictions one of the primary causes of the stress that we experience in our lives? Sure, but Paul said that, when looked at from the correct perspective, they are actually light.
 
How could he say that? A better question though is how could he view all of his incredibly difficult problems as just being light and we view our much smaller problems as enormous?
 
The reason the great apostle of faith could view his circumstances in this light is found in the same verse—Second Corinthians 4:17. He went on to reveal in this powerful verse two very important truths regarding his light afflictions:
 
Number one, he said that they were “but for a moment.” This means that they were temporal—only lasting a short while. But what we need to understand is that many of these afflictions were not just momentary, naturally speaking. Many of them lasted weeks, months and even years. Therefore, Paul could not have been referring to them just being “for a moment” according to this present life. So, what was he referring to? He was saying that they were “but for a moment” in comparison to eternity!
 
You see, in comparison to eternity, our present life is extremely temporal. In comparison to eternity, our life on this earth is just a brief moment. This is why you see the Bible compare our life to a vapor and to a blade of grass. It uses both of these examples because a vapor appears for a moment and then vanishes away, and a blade of grass appears one day and is gone the next. Saints, our life is but a speck of sand in the beach of eternity. Never forget that.  
 
But Paul does not stop there! He goes on to describe the main reason that he was able to disesteem and devalue his afflictions so much. He said that they are “working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.”
 
The apostle Paul was saying that his difficulties could in no way compare to the reward for successfully enduring and overcoming them! In other words, he saw his afflictions as light because he saw the glory he would receive in exchange for them as heavy! So, in comparison to what he would receive in the kingdom of heaven, his problems were not problems at all for two reasons: Number one, because the reward would be so glorious and magnificent. And, number two, because this awesome glory would be eternal. When we see the riches of His glory in this light—as awesome and eternal—there is truly no comparison. Therefore, our afflictions must be viewed as light and non-burdensome! Thank you, Jesus, for this living and blessed hope we have! 
 
Now let me say this though: this is in no way intended to teach us that our sickness’ and pains are just to be simply endured. No, Jesus paid the price for those kinds of afflictions on the Cross, through His stripes. But the purpose of why we are talking about this is to remove the care and stress over these physical ailments so that we can experience peace. Saints, when we experience the God of peace, we can more readily receive the God of freedom, the God of deliverance and the God of healing! Amen?
 
So, Paul’s example of passion & perspective certainly provide us with a road map for walking in the peace of God, but notice in Philippians 4:9 how he also referred to the things he taught them as being a part of how they would experience this supernatural peace.    
 
Now in order to find these wonderful words of exhortation of how to walk in the peace of God, we need look no further than the very chapter this promise was made in. So, next week, we will look back at the preceding verses of this chapter so that we can find out how Paul specifically taught us to walk in the peace that he did.
 
But Paul’s example is a good first step to experiencing the manifest presence of the God of peace in our lives. If we view things like he did and do the things he did, we have the promise that supernatural peace is ours. Determine today to follow Paul as he followed Christ, and you too will walk in the peace of God and freedom from stress. Amen.

REVIEW
 
So, today, let’s pick up our teaching on the subject of stress again and learn a little more about what God’s Word has to say about how we can deal with it.
 
The first thing we learned in this series of teachings is what the spirit of stress is—that is, we found out what it truly is and learned a Biblical way in which we can deal with it when it tries to creep up. We then learned how we already have peace in our boats, so we do not ever have to let our hearts become troubled. Yes, we have learned that stress is not an acceptable part of our lives and saw how we can speak to those waves that crash into our boat and experience a great calm even when the storms of life try to sink us.
 
Then over the past couple of weeks, we have been looking in depth at Matthew 11:28-30 where Jesus said, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
 
Now the first thing we learned is how the Lord was addressing “all you who labor and are heavy laden” and this is just another way of describing stressed-out folks, right? And we saw that those who are experiencing this stressful life need only do one thing—Come to Him! Yes, Jesus invited everyone who labors and is heavy laden to come to Him in order to receive rest for their souls.
 
And this is what we covered last week—what this rest truly is. We learned that one rest is given and the other is found. Yes, one is experienced when we come to Christ upon making Him our personal Lord and Savior. This is the positional rest we have entered into—and many of us can attest to immediately receiving this rest the moment we called on the name of Jesus and were saved from the burden of sin. However, we saw that there remains a rest that we can partake of experientially—and that is when we exchange our weakness for His strength and learn to wait on the Lord and draw near to Him in fellowship. But like we saw, this rest for our soul must be found—which indicates that we have to search for it. 
 
We looked at the 23rd Psalm where we see the heart of our Good Shepherd to lead us beside these waters of rest. In other words, if we’ll let him, the Lord will lead us into restful and relaxing places in Him where we can experience a perpetual “Sabbath”—that is, experiencing life in the promised land as opposed to a life of stressing out in the wilderness.
 
We saw how that Jesus, being the fulfillment of the Sabbath, offers us this promise of rest—where we can rest in His finished work on the Cross. Therefore, this rest is rooted in knowing that the work of salvation is complete—everything from our eternal security to the temporal situations we find ourselves in. All of these battles belong to Lord, and He has already fought them for us. So, us learning to enter into His finished work is a big part of finding rest for our souls.  
 
However, we learned that this is not to say that the physical observance of the Sabbath has no benefits: Yes, although we are not bound to legalistically observing a day like the Sabbath anymore, this does not mean that there are no benefits to observing a day of rest every week. Yes, like it is with many things contained in the Mosaic and Levitical laws, there are certain natural benefits to observing certain things that the law tells us.
 
For example, we have come to learn that it actually is a good thing for everyone to rest one out of every seven days. Therefore, we said that this is a good principle for each of us to live by in order to live free from stress: have a day each week where we detach, disconnect, and decompress—that is, where we lay down every project, where we turn the phone off, where we don’t even try to problem-solve in our minds; just a day of rest where we put our relationship with the Lord as our priority and we even enjoy some nice recreational things that do not require a lot of physical or mental energy. I bet if we would make sure to schedule this on a weekly basis, we would live more stress-free lives. Amen?   
 
But I also made the point last week that I think it is wise to schedule periodic times of rest throughout the year where you can cease from the physical and emotional labor and focus on the spiritual side of our life. Not only that, but we learned that we also need a certain period of time every day in order to find rest for our souls. What I mean is, we need that period of time every day to “come to Him,” simply meditating on His Word, praising & worshipping Him, etc., to where that rest is found daily.
 
And, finally, the last point I made with this is what we do during those “sabbaticals” is important as well. Yes, reading the Bible is important, praying for others is important, but there is something very specific that you and I can do that actually causes us to enter into His rest. And one of those things that we can deliberately do to enter into His rest is to speak in tongues! Yes, Isaiah chapter 28 teaches us that this is the rest!
 
 
Church, I’m convinced that if we did these four things: Made sure we scheduled a week or more of rest during the year, made sure we had a day every week where we rested, and made sure we spent a period of time daily in His rest, we would live in this supernatural Sabbath that Jesus said was ours. Especially, when we include praying in other tongues all along the way, every day.
 
Now, this week, I want us to look at one of the qualifiers that Jesus mentioned for finding this rest for our souls: It is what Jesus said at the beginning of verse 29: Notice how Jesus said, “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”
 
WHAT IS HIS YOKE?
 
So, what did Jesus mean by saying, “Take My yoke upon you”? This is an interesting way to describe how one can find rest for their souls, isn’t it? I mean, to use the example of wearing a yoke—which was used for laboring, not resting—that seems like contradicting terms.
 
First of all, let me say that I think it is obvious that the Lord was differentiating between the former and first yoke—that is, the first covenant, which came to be called by the apostle Paul, the “yoke of bondage” (see Galatians 5:1). So, His yoke—which would be this new covenant that Jesus’ blood provided for us—is what He is offering for everyone who labors and is burdened down to take up. And in this new covenant of grace is found all the rest and freedom from stress that we will ever need!
 
Now we also need to understand what Jesus was not saying: He was not saying that there is another yoke out there other than the yoke of bondage—the law—that we are to take up and put on in place of the old yoke. Jesus did not go to the Cross to provide us with another updated and improved yoke of religion. That is not what the new covenant of grace is and is not what Jesus was saying here.
 
You see, the example that is being used here is not of us exchanging one yoke for another, but of us getting yoked up together with Him. Let me explain: The word Jesus used for “yoke” here came from the Greek word zugos, which literally described a wooden yoke that joined two animals together. So, it was not describing one yoke for each animal. No, the purpose of this particular yoke was so that they, through their combined strength, would pull a load that generally would have been too difficult for one animal to pull by itself. Therefore, this “yoke” made the two one.
 
So, back to this yoke Jesus referred to: As a result of being yoked up together, these two cows, bulls or ox were collectively stronger, and their combined strength made their task easier. Now the obvious reason that they did this was because even the strongest “beast of burden” could not pull the load on some jobs. There were certain things that needed to be done that required more strength than their strongest animal could carry alone.
 
You see, we might be the strongest one in God’s flock, but we still have our limits on what we can carry on our own. Yes, every single one of us has a limit to what we can do for Him. But the error I see most of us making at times is that since we feel we can do it, we do it, and because we might seem to be strong enough to handle something, we grin and bear it. While that might sometimes be what needs to be done, I don’t think this is the primary way that the Lord would have us live the Christian life. That’s right: I believe that we need to have the wisdom to know that things like working harder, toughing it out, and doing things in our own strength is generally not God’s best. So, what is God’s best? Getting yoked up together with Him, and letting Him provide the strength and power that we need to carry our load.
 
You see, there is One who is stronger than I—and His name is Jesus! And He has promised me that if I will take His yoke upon me, I will experience a light and easy load and that I will find rest for my soul. And why? It is because Jesus is the strongest Ox of them all and, therefore, He is carrying the brunt of the weight. In fact, if we would just consider the strength of the Savior, I think it would be clear that He doesn’t need any of our help. Yes, Jesus is doing just fine pulling the full weight of the work, thank you very much. We are just along for the ride. Glory to Jesus!
 
And this beautifully illustrates this new and better covenant. There is nothing you and I can do to add to the work of Christ! Jesus paid it all! He carried it all! Our sins are no longer to be carried. Our cares are to be cast over on Him. Jesus, and Jesus alone, has done the work of salvation. And this is not just in regards to our eternal security. Jesus also wants to carry the full brunt of the things you need in your everyday life as well.   
 
I’ll tell you—this is the LIFE. Learning to do things His way and resting in the finished work of Jesus is a stress-free way to live. 
 
NOT HARD AND HEAVY
 
As He goes on to say this about His yoke in verse 30—It is easy and it is light.  
 
The word Jesus used for “easy” literally describes something that is “fit, manageable, and pleasant.” Therefore, His yoke is “easy” because it fits, is easy to handle, and is simply pleasant.
 
He goes on to say that His burden is light: Now the word “burden” is a poor translation. It is actually the same word we looked at in Galatians 6:5, which was correctly translated as “load” in the NKJV. You see, nothing in the New Covenant is “burdensome.” The moment we begin to feel “burdened” is the moment we have become unyoked from Christ. Yes, every believer is called to carry their own load (see Galatians 6:5), but when a Christian is burdened down, that is when we are supposed to help alleviate those burdens from our brothers and sisters. So, the Lord was literally saying here that His load is light. In fact, the only other time this word for “light” is used in the New Testament is in Second Corinthians 4:17 when the apostle Paul referred to our “light” afflictions.
 
My point is that the Lord said that His yoke and His load are easy and light, as opposed to hard and heavy. The moment things begin to get hard and heavy is the moment that we are carrying those cares ourselves. “Burnout” comes as we do all the pulling ourselves. This is not what the Lord intended. If we are yoked up with Christ, what we will sense is a much more light and easy experience in the difficult situations we walk through in life. This is when we must learn to yoke ourselves up together with Him to where He does the majority of the pulling.
 
Friends, the Christian life is meant to be light and easy, not heavy and hard. And the moment we begin to feel like our burden is heavy and hard is the moment we have simply realized that we are taking our own yoke and are not benefiting from Him pulling the weight for us. The only time that it becomes laborious is when we, of our own accord, unyoke ourselves from Him and try to carry the weights of this life ourselves. This is when the Christian life becomes burdensome and overbearing and we, as a result, lose our peace.  
 
But, no, Christianity is not intended to be burdensome. Certainly, there is discipline over the flesh and the resistance of temptation involved in the life of a Christian, but in regard to our growth and increase in every area of our walk, it is God Who carries that entire burden. Praise the Lord!
 
HOW DO WE TAKE HIS YOKE?
 
So, a good question then is—How does one take His yoke upon themselves? I believe that to find that answer we need to go back to verse 28 and see what Jesus said there again: Jesus said, “Come to Me … and I will give you rest.” So, it would be incorrect for one to start assuming that we take His yoke upon ourselves all kind of other ways without considering the context. Amen?
 
So, I think it is safe to assume that the way we take His yoke upon ourselves is by first coming to Him. Now, again, coming to the Lord describes both proximity and perspective—meaning, it describes us literally drawing near to Him and abiding in our True Vine and it also describes us turning our attention to Him and looking unto the Author and Finisher of our faith. Therefore, when we do that, we take His yoke upon us and benefit from the strength He has to offer.
 
Let’s now look at some other Scriptures that talk about how we can “Come to Him”:
 
You have likely heard me say before that our attitude determines our altitude, and this is so true. Do you know where I get this from? From the Scriptures! Let’s look over at Isaiah chapter 40 and see one place where this principle is described:
 
Beginning in verse 27, the Lord said to His people through the prophet— “Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel: “My way is hidden from the Lord, and my just claim is passed over by my God”? So, what the Lord was asking His people was why were they letting come out of their mouth that He didn’t know what they were going through and was not concerned with helping them? Now I know that none of us have ever let things like that come out of our mouths 😉, but when people talk like that, would you characterize that as faith? Of course, not! And I’ll promise you this: when one talks like that, they are even further away from the help they need than they were before. Why? Because the way we talk, determines where we walk.   
 
And I just love the Lord’s response to their negativity: He said in verse 28— “Have you not known? Have you not heard?” Did you know this is why it is important what you hear and what you know? So, be careful what you allow in your ear-gates and what you believe—because that will determine what comes out of you when you’re in a squeeze.
 
He then says in the remainder of verse 28 through verse 29— “The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength.” What I hear the Lord saying is that He is all-powerful and all-knowing! Therefore, there is nothing He cannot do and there is nothing He does not understand! Glory!
You see, He is not like us—who even at our strongest point can faint and be weary. That is why He says in verse 30— “Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall.” But His promise to us is found in verse 31— “But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”
 
Church, I think we have missed what it really is that causes us to experience this life where we run our race, completely dispelling the weariness, and where we walk (by faith and in love) without fainting. And did you know that this is available to us? A life where we renew our strength?  
 
As a matter of fact, the Hebrew word for “renew” here literally means “to exchange” and was used to describe someone changing their clothes. So what this promise is describing is not us having our own strength renewed (notice that the word “their” is in italics—meaning it was not in the original text), but rather describes us exchanging (or changing) our own strength for another kind of strength (which I believe to be God’s strength). So, what we are seeing here, that is available for us, is an “exchanged life,” not just a “changed life.” Amen!  
 
This is a supernatural strength that would also cause us to mount up with wings like eagles! This here is some supernatural grace given by God where we begin to “rise or ascend” (definition of “mount up with wings”).
 
Have you ever noticed how these larger birds like eagles seem to rarely have to flap those wings? They just seem to glide and soar with the wind. Well, most Christians do not operate like this. They are flapping their wings trying to stay at the level they are at. They are doing things in their own strength, just “flapping” around, and are therefore getting weary and fainting. This should not be so with us, saints! We are to mount up with wings like the eagles—letting the wind of His Holy Spirit carry us! Hallelujah! I liken this to that law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus (see Romans 8:2) where the law of lift supersedes the law of the gravity (or, the flesh).
 
Saints, this is a place in God that we can all experience and consistently walk in—where weariness and faintness never set in, where a supernatural strength is tapped into, and where we just seem to soar with the Lord by His supernatural grace! Amen!
 
But there is obviously a part we have to play in it or we all would be experiencing it. Amen? So, what part do we have to play in it? Isaiah says at the beginning of this verse— “But those who wait on the Lord.” These are the ones who shall renew their strength. These are the ones who will mount up with wings like eagles. These are the ones who will run and not be weary and walk and not faint.”
 
So, what does it mean to “wait on the Lord.” Well, the word “wait” comes from the Hebrew word qavah (pronounced kah-vah) and means “to wait for” but also means “to look for, expect or hope.” This verb qavah is actually the root of the noun tiqvah which describes “hope or expectancy.” Therefore, this word for “wait” literally means to “wait on the basis of hopefulness and expectancy.” So, what we see in the word “waiting” is what the Bible refers to as “hoping.”  Amen!
 
You see, nowadays when we see this word “waiting,” we see a passive and lethargic kind of waiting. So, when we see the phrase “waiting on the Lord,” we might think that this is just us patiently waiting on God to do something—if it be His will, whenever it’s His timing etc. But, as we have seen, this is not the picture this Hebrew word is painting. When we are waiting on the Lord, we are actively looking for and placing our expectations on the Lord and His promises. That is a far cry from just sitting back and waiting for God to do whatever He wants to do! 
 
My point is that the key to us clothing ourselves with His strength is our hope. Yes, if we expect to walk in His strength, we will. And if we don’t, we won’t. This is where our attitude determines the altitude we reach in resting in the Lord’s strength. It is that simple.
 
Now there was someone else who possessed this positive mentality—the apostle Paul: In Philippians chapter 4, after talking about the varying circumstances that he had in His life, he boldly declared this. In Philippians 4:13, he said, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
 
I think it’s just awesome the faith this man possessed. He didn’t moan and gripe about his situation or focus on what He didn’t have and couldn’t do. He confidently declared what He could do and how He could do it. Church, don’t major on what you cannot do; major on who He is on the inside of you—for this is a part of walking in His strength. Amen!
 
Oh, how this applies to us: You see, when we are stressed out and overburdened, what is our tendency? To tell someone. To give them that “woe is me,” “it’s tough,
 and “I’m just so busy” kind of talk. What is the wise thing to do if we are feeling this way? To major on His grace that is available and frame the world we want to see with our faith filled words. Amen. 
 
So, our attitude and mentality play a big part in how we take His yoke upon us—for the way we think and the way we talk is another way we can “come to Him.” But like we said, another way we come to Him is by drawing near to Him and drawing our strength from Him that way.
 
We see this described in Isaiah 41:10 when the Lord said, “Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God…” Now while these terms describe things that we are afraid of or worry about, we’ve learned that those are the things that lead to stress in our lives. Therefore, the Lord is addressing those who are living in stress. Not to mention, the word “dismayed” literally describes the feeling of distress. What word can you see in the word “distress”? Stress!  
 
So, what does the Lord promise to us when we are being tempted to be stressed out? He said, “… I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’”
 
Praise God! He said, He would strengthen, help and uphold us! How? With His righteous right hand! Well, that denotes that we are close to Him since His right hand is what is strengthening and upholding us. Amen?
 
You see, this being yoked up together with Him is critical to even being able to carry the weights that He has commissioned us to carry. We see this in Ephesians 6:10 when the apostle Paul said, “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.”
 
You see, the apostle Paul prefaced his teaching on the spiritual warfare and the armor of God with us first being strong in Him. Why is this important to understand? It is because in order for a soldier to wear all of that heavy armor and be able to fight in it, he would have to be a strong person. Likewise, for us to be able to carry the things that the Lord has called us to carry into our wrestling with the kingdom of darkness, we have to be spiritually conditioned first. And can you guess how this spiritual strength comes? It’s found “in the Lord and in the power of His might.” Amen. So, again, it is all about staying connected with the Lord Jesus and benefiting from His strength.
 
So, church, it is imperative that we learn to “come to Jesus” when we are feeling overburdened and stressed out. And we come to Him by setting aside times to draw near to Him and draw our strength from Him that way, but we also come to Him by putting our focus and attention on Him and what we say as a result.
 
I can assure you that if you make your personal relationship with Jesus a priority in your life and then adopt the mentality of faith that takes His Word at face value, you can “take His yoke upon you” and as a result “find rest for your souls.” Like we learned—it is an easy fit and not a burden in the least. It is a light and easy yoke, and that is because Jesus has both done the work for us on the Cross and because He is doing the same today, carrying the load. 
 
May we all learn to take His yoke upon us daily and consistently lean on His strength. Amen.

REVIEW
 
Today, we are continuing our teaching entitled— “Stress Out!”—where we are learning how to get the stress out of our lives and keep it out.
 
And the first thing we learned in this series of teachings is that the things that cause stress in our lives—things like fear, worry, and anxiety—are not to be tolerated. We saw that we have a myriad of Scriptures that teach us to not have anxiety about anything, to not worry, and to fear not. Therefore, what stress really is, is a result of disobedience, because if we would choose to live a care-free life, stress would be a non-factor.
 
Someone will say, “Yeah well, living a life free from all cares doesn’t seem possible. I mean, how can you expect me to do this, pastor!?!” Well, first of all, it is not me who set the bar; this is what thus saith the Lord, not thus saith Trey. Therefore, we saw that with the words that tell us to live this way comes the ability the walk in those words. So, just as Peter walked on that one word from God that said, “Come,” and did what most of this world would call impossible by walking on the water, likewise, you and I can walk on these words that we have from God and walk in supernatural peace and rest. Glory! 
 
And these words that we have been looking at in Matthew 11:28-30 hold the same power. So, let’s look at them again: Jesus said, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
 
Now we began last week breaking down Jesus’ words in this passage of Scriptures because I believe there are keys contained in His words that will unlock this stress-free life that we all desire.
 
The first thing we looked at is how the Lord was addressing “all you who labor and are heavy laden.” This is just another way of describing stressed-out folks, isn’t it? So, the Lord is addressing all of us out there who “labor and are heavy laden” with the cares and stresses of this life and inviting us to come to Him.
 
Now we looked at these two types of people in detail—those who “labor” and those who are “heavy laden”—and we found that the word “labor” describes “the feelings of being tired, fatigued, or weary that come as a result of the hard work one is doing.” Therefore, it denotes working hard, laboring, toiling, and the physical and emotional effects that this effort can have on us. And we saw that while this word was primarily used to describe physical labor, the likelihood is Jesus was using it to describe those whom were fatigued, weary, and stressed out in the spiritual sense. In fact, I’ve found that jobs and projects that require a lot of hard work both mentally and emotionally are oftentimes even more exhausting than the hard, physical labor that one can do. Sure, working hard with our hands can make us physically tired, but that soulish stress can leave one feeling even more fatigued than someone who works a very physically demanding job. So, Jesus was including “all who labor”—both from the physical sense of working hard, physically and mentally demanding jobs to those who are feeling the fatigue from other spiritually related things that they have been carrying. 
 
Then we saw that even though there is a good kind of “labor” for the Lord, there is also a bad kind. That is because there is a laboring with Him and then there is a laboring for Him, and there is big difference between these two. One can work for the Lord, but it not be Spirit-led or Spirit-empowered—meaning, they can do a lot of good, well-meaning and religious duties, but it not be what the Lord has directed us to do or how He directed us to do it at that specific time. I can assure you that if a believer is becoming stressed out over the good works that they are doing for the Lord then one of two things are true: Either they are doing something that the Lord did not tell them to do or they are doing what He might have told them to do, but in their own strength. How can I be so confident in this, you ask? It is because, as we’ve seen, the Lord’s yoke does not have stress accompanying it. It is really that simple.
 
Then, of course, there is the laboring we do that is not only not with Him but isn’t even for Him. This would be all of those worldly—not necessarily sinful, but just natural things of life that we work so hard at that leads to us getting stressed out. So, even in these normal routines of life, we still ought to include the Holy Spirit, asking Him what His plan is.
 
But we saw that Jesus also invited those who are “heavy laden” to come to Him.  And this is not terminology that we might use today. What it means to be “heavy laden” is a burden is placed upon someone to where they are overloaded. And, oh, how this is certainly a cause of stress because if you recall, one of the definitions used for “stress” is to put force or pressure on something to where it might even begin to bend. Well, this is what happens when one becomes overloaded or burdened by something. It will place stress on our souls.
 
Now we saw that this being overburdened would describe people who are overloaded with the cares of this world and also those overburdened by the law and the keeping of religious rules and rites. All of this leads to stress—for when we try to work harder, even in our spiritual lives, we add stress that is unwarranted. You see, many people have the mentality that with anything from our vocation to our spiritual walks that if we just work harder, everything will be better. But that is not necessarily the case: working harder is not always the answer and certainly is not wisdom. Like they say in the business world, we need to learn to work smarter and not just harder. This applies to the kingdom business world too! We need to learn to work smarter for the Lord and not just do more and more.  
 
So, we saw last week that those who are in these situations need only do one thing—Come to Him! Yes, Jesus invited everyone who labors and is heavy laden to come to Him to receive rest for their souls. Sounds like living stress-free to me!
 
However, we saw that just because the invitation has been sent, not everyone will respond to the invitation. We looked at Jesus’ Parable of the Great Supper to validate this, and can even see in Revelation 3:20 that the Lord is said to be standing at the door of our heart knocking. Many use this as an evangelistic verse, but the fact is, this is written to a church full of believers—not to unbelievers. So, is it possible that a born-again, Spirit-filled Christian can have the Lord knocking at the door of their hearts and not already living in their hearts? Apparently so. Now that doesn’t mean that they are not saved; it just means that Jesus is not occupying their lives like He desires to. And that is a major point: He obviously desires to or He wouldn’t be standing at the door knocking. Amen?
 
However, He is not going to kick the door down. He will patiently wait until we decide to open the door and invite Him in. This is the beauty of the way He operates!
 
I was reminded of what Pastor Robert had the Lord Jesus tell Him in response to Him coming back with him to show Himself to the world. Jesus said, “I have come to man, now man must come to me.” This means that Jesus already came and made everything available—all things that pertain to life and godliness and every spiritual blessing. Now it is up to us to come to Him and receive everything He died to provide for us. Amen?
 
But my point is that, just like in this Parable of the Great Supper where they all made excuses that were based on their stuff and relationships being more important than the supper they were invited to, this is when the stress enters in. In other words, when those who “labor and are heavy laden” do not “come to” the Lord, they will automatically and unnecessarily live in the stresses of life.
 
We then looked at an example of this found in Luke chapter 10 of Martha & Mary: In this story, we see Martha was distracted with much serving, and how she resented her sister for not helping her. Eventually, she had had it with her sister and decided to interrupt Jesus to get Him to correct Mary. But we saw that Jesus said that this one thing Mary was doing is the good part of our calling. And He went on to say that it is not just a good idea; He said that this one thing is “needed.” This is something that we desperately need to understand—that spending time in God’s presence is an absolute necessity and not just beneficial.
 
So, what He was essentially saying to Martha was— “Martha, Martha, you are troubled and stressed out about too many things. All of these things that you are doing are not what is truly important. Only one thing is necessary, and it is not even all of this serving that you are doing. The one thing that is needed is that you ‘Come unto Me’ and sit at my feet.” Amen.
 
So, we saw that herein lies one of the primary reasons that we live stressed lives: it is because we do not make our personal relationship with God our priority. I am convinced that if we would make the “first thing first” and accept the invitation to “Come to Him,” we would be more at rest in our souls.  And the awesome thing about it is this: when we draw near to Him, He draws near to us.
 
Yes, coming to Lord in fellowship and focus is our Christian duty! It is what we are primarily called to do. So, if we fail to make the first thing first, stress will be the by-product—even when it comes to other good, well-meaning things we do for Him. Amen. Therefore, although we ought to strive to live for God and serve Him, we do not need to view what we do for Him as being our most important calling. Our relationship with God is our most important calling! It is our “dyuty” as Christians. Amen.
 
THE REST THAT IS GIVEN VS. THE REST THAT IS FOUND
 
Now, this week, I want you to notice Jesus’ promise to those who come to Him when they are carrying all of these burdens: He said, “And I will give you rest.” So, when we learn to come to Jesus—whether that be us simply turning our attention towards Him or us actually drawing near to Him—He has promised that we will be given “rest.”
 
So, what can we determine if we are not at rest? That we haven’t come to Him like He described in this passage. And I’ll tell you—people don’t like to acknowledge that, but either Jesus is telling the truth here or they are. Which one of these options do you think is true? I, for one, choose to believe Jesus over my own experiences. Amen?
 
But I want you to notice that although Jesus said in verse 28 that He will give us rest when we come to Him, in verse 29, He said that we will “find” rest by taking His yoke ourselves and learning from Him.
 
You see, we must understand that one rest is given and the other is found. Yes, one is experienced when we come to Christ upon making Him our personal Lord and Savior. This is the positional rest we have entered into—and many of us can attest to immediately receiving this rest the moment we called on the name of Jesus and were saved from the burden of sin.
 
However, there remains a rest that we can partake of experientially—and that is when we exchange our weakness for His strength, when we learn to wait on the Lord and draw near to Him in fellowship. But like we saw, this rest for our soul must be found—which indicates that we have to search for it.  
 
How do I look for this rest, you might ask? We find it through our fellowship with the Lord—through learning to sit at His feet like Mary did and seeking Him, not seeking it. Yes, we are not going to find peace by seeking for it, but by seeking the Lord Himself. In other words, once we find that secret place in the presence of the Prince of Peace, we will find the peace we desire. 
 
You see, oftentimes we gravitate towards doing things in our own strength and we begin to pull that “Martha” that we talked about last week—and that happens even with trying to find peace. This is when we must become more like Mary who learned when to sit at the Master’s feet and draw her strength from Him. Strength comes from fellowship—strength for everything from serving the Lord to simply being calm and quiet.  
 
But this rest and freedom from stress only comes through Him, and that is the point we need to take away from this.
 
THE REST THAT REMAINS
 
In fact, all of Psalm 23:2 teaches us this one principle: In it, King David said of His Good Shepherd, “He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters.”
 
First of all, the entire phrase at the beginning of this verse— “Me makes me to lie down”—comes from one Hebrew word, the word rabats. This word literally means “to stretch oneself out or lie stretched out.” Thus, the reason that this word is translated “to couch” in a couple of places. Therefore, this word describes “reclining.” So, we might translate this first half of Psalm 23:2 like so today: “He helps me to take a load off and to rest & relax.”
 
You see, if we are not joyfully serving the Lord, then we are not serving the Lord the way He intended for us to. When we are living the Christian life correctly, we will live a life that is full of rest & relaxation. It is only when we try to live the Christian life in the arm of the flesh that we become stressed-out and lose our peace.
 
Saints, it is not the Lord’s will that any part of our Christian walk feels like “work.” Sure, it is not always pleasant putting the flesh under, and sure, it is not always easy to go through the various trials we fall into. But if everything always seems arduous and an uphill battle, then we are likely missing it in some way. Therefore, to lie down in green pastures describes our Good Shepherd leading us, His sheep, to places of comfort, rest and relaxation—like a spiritual couch or recliner. Amen!
 
Now the next thing David said in Psalm 23:2, essentially teaches us the same thing: “He leads me beside the still waters.”  
 
The phrase “beside the still” comes from the Hebrew word menuwchah and describes a “rest or resting place.” It carries the idea of a comfortable, still and quiet place or thing (and in this case, that thing is “water”). So, these “still waters” that David describes here could literally be described as “waters of rest” and for us to be led beside these still waters would describe us being led and guided alongside places of rest—places that are quiet, still and comfortable. Amen.  
 
So, again, this is what happens: We come to Jesus in our stress and anxiety and He—our Good Shepherd—leads us into our resting place. In other words, there remains a rest for the people of God—a stream that makes glad the city of our God. It is beside these still waters that we find rest for our souls.
 
In fact, this is actually the same word that was used to describe the Rest of God referred to in Psalm 95:11--the same Rest that the writer(s) of Hebrews describe in Hebrews chapter 4.
 
Now most people associate this rest referred to in both the 95th Psalm and in Hebrews chapter 4 as heaven and us passing through death’s doors to enter into His rest in eternity. And while in all likelihood, we certainly will experience a peace in that day that will by far transcend what we will walk in on the earth today, it is entirely incorrect for us to just roll with the punches of this world and only expect to find rest for our souls when we die.
 
If you recall, we spent a good amount of time in our study of the 23rd Psalm emphasizing the fact that it is not just a funeral psalm. No, it is a life psalm because the language in it indicates that the Lord’s sheep is walking through the valley of the shadow of death, fearing no evil, and that the Lord has prepared this table for us in the presence of our enemies. There are no enemies in heaven! There is nothing to fear there—no valleys of the shadow of death, only mountains of life! Amen?  
 
You see, this “Rest” was an obvious reference to Canaan, the Promised Land, and was described as a rest in contrast to their 40-year journey in the wilderness. Canaan had giants in it; heaven won’t. So, the promised land that you and I can possess today is a life of overcoming those giants that oppose us from receiving our inheritance, which certainly includes peace.
 
Now this “wilderness” period was certainly that feeling of no rest—for it involved always moving and striving and never experiencing the peace the Lord has for His people. Well, likewise, there is rest that you I can enter into in this life! That is those still waters of rest that He leads us beside! That is that spiritual recliner that He makes us to lie down on! All of this is for us now in this life.
 
And sadly, that is where many Christians live—in the wilderness, living from miracle to miracle (which means they are also living in crisis to crisis) and experiencing this striving, working, and arduous lifestyle. There is a better life that that, saints! Yes, I said there is a better life! And that is—living in the blessing of Canaan where we enter into His Rest and throw off all stress! Yes, there remains therefore a rest for the people of God—where we can cease from our works, our striving and busyness. This is the Sabbath that we are called to observe—where we learn to rest in the work of another—namely, the Lord Jesus Christ’s work on the Cross. Its ultimate fulfillment will be when we leave these tents and live in the eternal rest in the Kingdom of God, but there is also a rest to be experienced now. A sabbath if you would. Amen.
 
JESUS, OUR SABBATH
 
And this is why Jesus said for us to come to Him in order to receive His rest—because He is the fulfillment of the Sabbath!
 
Now this leads us into an important biblical principle that was first referred to in the beginning during creation, then was instituted under the Law, and finally was fulfilled in Christ—the Sabbath, which is symbolic of this rest we are talking about today.
 
So, let’s start out by looking at this commandment that God gave His people: In Exodus 20:8-11, God gave them the Ten Commandments and said, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.”
 
In this Scripture, we see how He gave His chosen people the Sabbath by comparing it to when He rested from His work in creation.
 
Now it is important to understand that God did not “rest” in the sense that we think of resting. When we think of resting, we think of recuperating because of fatigue, but this is not what is implied here. God rested on the seventh day, not because He was tired and exhausted. He rested because the work was finished and complete. There was nothing left to do.
 
This word “rest” described more of a cessation of activity, the ending of effort. A good example of what transpired here is an artist who was working to paint a beautiful masterpiece and then when his or her picture was completed, they lean back in their chair observing their completed masterpiece maybe with their brush in the mouth. This image in no way describes an artist laying down his brush because it got too heavy. No, he rested from his work because his work was finished and complete.
 
God had created the heavens and earth and all that is within them and saw that it was all “very good” (Genesis 1:31). It was finished! His work was complete! So, He was attempting to get His people to see that the work of creation had been completed. Therefore, He gave them the Sabbath to illustrate to them that they are to rest in God’s finished work of creation and redemption. 
 
So, what is our attitude to be regarding the Sabbath? Are we to keep the Sabbath or not? Well, let’s look over at Colossians chapter two and, in this passage, we will see the true purpose of the Sabbath and how we should be fulfilling it.
 
THE SHADOW OF THE SABBATH
 
Colossians 2:11-15 says, “In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.”
 
So, notice here that things like circumcision (another big point of contention), water baptism, and all the other “handwriting of requirements” (i.e. the commandments of the Law) have been fulfilled in us who are in Him. Amen! 
 
Now notice this: Paul goes on to say in Colossians 2:16, “So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths…”
 
In other words, because the law has been fulfilled in us through the finished work of Christ (i.e. “so”), we are to let no one judge us in food or in drink (this is dietary laws of the law), or regarding a festival (all the feast days) or a new moon (some other requirement for the Jews to keep) or SABBATHS. Or what? Or SABBATHS! This implies we are not to let anyone judge us regarding keeping the different Sabbaths because we are now under the perfect law of liberty.
 
But why? Why are we free from keeping the Sabbath today under our new and better covenant? Well, continue reading: In verse 17, Paul goes on to say, “which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.”
 
Do you see this? All of these requirements of the law—the dietary laws, the feasts, and, yes, even the Sabbath—are shadows of things to come! This means that all of these commands the Lord gave them were meant to foreshadow something which was to come, namely, SOMEONE who was to come—and that is Christ! Praise the Lord!
 
Actually, this word “substance” literally means “body.” So why would we continue hugging the shadow of the One we love when we have their body? That would be kind of weird, wouldn’t it? 
 
So, what does this teach us? It teaches us that the Sabbath is simply a shadow of Christ and, therefore, Christ is the fulfillment of the Sabbath. Yes, saints, JESUS IS OUR SABBATH REST!
 
IT IS FINISHED
 
Let’s look at another passage where the Lord gave His chosen people a command concerning the Sabbath and we will see this more clearly:
 
Deuteronomy 5:15 says, “And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.”
 
Notice the word “therefore” in this verse: Being redeemed from Egypt is a type of our salvation, so this is why He commanded them to keep the Sabbath. He did it with His mighty hand and outstretched arm. Therefore, Jesus brought us out of the kingdom of darkness and we should rest in His finished work.
 
Practically speaking, God gave them one day a week not to work to illustrate to them that they are not their own source. In other words, the Sabbath had an element of trust to it. You had to trust the Lord that He could do more by His mighty hand and outstretched arm in 6 days than you could do by your arm and hand in 7 days. It was to illustrate to them that they are not their own Savior and Provider—God is. 
 
So, this is what we need to understand about the seventh day—that when we were made a new creation in Christ that His work in us is complete. Therefore, we are not a work in progress. His work of grace in our spirit is finished! And it was not by our own hands that we are saved—Jesus did the work Himself.
 
This is why Jesus said on the Cross just before He gave up His spirit that “It is finished!” He was saying that the price that needed to be paid for our salvation was complete. He was saying that what He hung on that Cross to accomplish was sufficient. Nothing else needed to be done! The price needful for our redemption had been fully satisfied and we are complete!
 
You see, the word “sabbath” obviously means “rest.” In fact, the words “seven, sabbath, & rest” all come from the same basic word in the Hebrew shabat. And we know the number seven in biblical numerology describes “completion.” Therefore, we see the meaning of the Sabbath: It is that God indeed rested on the seventh day because His work of creation was completed. Amen.
 
So, we being children of God who have been made new creations in Christ Jesus ought to also follow our Heavenly Father’s pattern—know that the work of the new creation (i.e. salvation) has been completed within us and now we are to rest from our works of the flesh that seek to accomplish what has already been accomplished in us through Christ Jesus. Amen. We are complete in Him. The work of salvation has already been accomplished within us, so now we can cease from our works (i.e. works that seek to justify and obtain what can only be received by faith in His grace) as God ceased from His works. We must cease our WORKS of righteousness (which are not good enough) and REST in the work that Christ did to atone for our sins. Therefore, we can rest in all the works that Christ has done for us! He has paid the price and done everything that needs to be done in regards to our salvation!
 
The number seven in Biblical numerology describes “perfection and completion.” Thus, our salvation and the new creation we were made is perfect and complete! There is nothing left undone! God made all things good in the beginning and God has made all the things that are new in us good! When God looked over all that He had made, He said it was very good! Likewise, God looks at His work in us and says it is very good! We have passed inspection!
 
Therefore, the rest is essentially learning to rest in God’s finished work!
 
You see, so many believers never learn to do this. They see Christianity as a religion, based on a bunch of rules and regulations, and if we do all of these things, or rather, simply avoid certain things, then we find ourselves in the good graces of God. But this is not Christianity! Christianity isn’t even a changed life; it’s an exchanged life. It is where we, as Jesus said in Matthew chapter eleven, “take His yoke upon us.” In other words, it is all about Jesus—learning to come to Him, trust in Him, and letting His life be lived through you. It is resting in His finished work on the Cross! Amen!
 
Boy, I can tell you, this alleviates the stress from our lives when we learn that Jesus has done this “very good” work of salvation and it is truly is finished! Now you and I can learn to not only let our salvation rest in Him, but also every other battle of life. Yes, every need, every care, every trial, etc., etc., etc.—all of these are His concern, not ours. So, that resounding truth that we have all likely heard (i.e. the battle is not yours, but God’s), is true in every situation we find ourselves in. Amen.
 
Therefore, this rest is rooted in knowing that the work of salvation is complete—everything from our eternal security to the temporal situations we find ourselves in. All of these battles belong to Lord, and He has already fought them for us. So, us learning to enter into His finished work is a big part of finding rest for our souls.  
 
THE WISDOM IN THE SABBATH
 
However, this is not to say that the physical observance of the Sabbath has no benefits: Yes, although we are not bound to legalistically observing a day like the Sabbath anymore, this does not mean that there are no benefits to observing a day of rest every week. Yes, like it is with many things contained in the Mosaic and Levitical laws, there are certain natural benefits to doing certain things that the law tells us.
 
For instance, how many of you know that even though we are freed to eat bacon, crab, porkchops and lobster today, it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to make these things a large part of your diet. Why? Because the world will even tell us that these things are not the healthiest things we can put in our bodies. Likewise, even though we are not bound to observe the Sabbath, that does not mean that there are no benefits to observing a day of rest every week. In fact, we have come to learn that it actually is a good thing for everyone to rest one out of every seven days.
 
Therefore, I would say that this is good principle for each of us to live by in order to live free from stress: have a day each week where we detach, disconnect, and decompress—that is, where we lay down every project, where we turn the phone off, where we don’t even try to problem-solve in our minds; just a day of rest where we put our relationship with the Lord as our priority and we even enjoy some nice recreational things that do not require a lot of physical or mental energy. Amen? I bet if we would make sure to schedule this on a weekly basis, we would live more stress-free lives. Amen?    
 
However, like I stated earlier, the one day a week Sabbath is not the only Sabbath instituted under the law; there was also the seventh year Sabbath. And what this teaches me is that there are obviously other periods of rest that are wise to do as well. For example, it’s obvious that annual vacations are good for the soul too, right? Yes, having a week of rest can really help to rest and rejuvenate you. Likewise, I think it is wise to schedule periodic times of rest throughout the year where you can cease from the physical and emotional labor and focus on the spiritual side of our life.
 
We do this as pastors: Because of all of the burdens of the people that we try to help carry, it is easy for a minister to become weary and overburdened. This is when that term “burnout” can occur. So, a wise decision is for those who minister full time is to take a regular “sabbatical”—which is a time period, whether it’s a day, week, month, etc. to disconnect and get refreshed in the presence of God. 
 
But I’ll add this one thing: I think if we really wanted to be balanced and enter into His rest consistently, then it’s not only just one day a week or one week a year that we need to strive for; we need a certain period of time every day in order to find rest for our souls. What I mean is, we need that period of time every day to “come to Him,” simply meditating on His Word, praising & worshipping Him, etc., to where that rest is found daily.
 
Which leads me to my next point: What we do during those “sabbaticals” is important too. Reading the Bible is important, praying for others is important, but there is something very specific that you and I can do that actually causes us to enter into His rest. Are you interested in knowing what that is? Speaking in tongues! The Scriptures teach us that this is the rest!
 
In Isaiah 28:11&12, we are given a prophetic glimpse of this benefit of praying in other tongues. In this passage of Scripture, we have what many consider to be the only reference to this particular manifestation of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. In fact, we know these verses in Isaiah are prophetic of this New Covenant gift because the Apostle Paul made reference to this Scripture in First Corinthians 14:21 when admonishing the Corinthians on the subject of tongues. So, let’s look at these Scriptures in Isaiah chapter 28:
 
In verse 11, Isaiah says, “For with stammering lips and another tongue He will speak to this people…” The Apostle Paul used this particular statement to show how one of the many diversities of tongues is to be a sign for the unbeliever (see First Corinthians 14:21-22), but if you look on to verse 12, I believe the Holy Spirit through Isaiah gives us a result of these “stammering lips and other tongues”… He says, “To whom He said, ‘This is the rest with which you may cause the weary to rest.’ And, ‘This is the refreshing’; yet they would not hear.” Notice in this verse we are told that two of the results of praying in other tongues are that we enter into a rest and that we experience a refreshing. These are two of the specific characteristics of what Paul deemed “edification.”  
 
Did you know that when you become weary in well doing and begin to grow faint in your race of faith, that praying in other tongues is a way that you can enter into a supernatural rest? Did you know that when you feel dry and empty in your soul that you can experience a supernatural refreshing through your prayer language? That’s right! You don’t need to run to someone else to pray for you or to the nearest revival service to get a fix.
 
You see, this is what so many believers do: They look for a place where God is moving and drive miles to go get that quick fix from God. But that is only a superficial way of experiencing a personal revival. The best way to experience a personal revival is to get it from the inside/out and not the outside/in! All you need to do to enter into the rest and refreshing of the Holy Spirit is to set aside a period of time, go into your prayer closet and pray in other tongues for an extended period of time. I guarantee you if you do this, your battery will get charged up and you will experience more peace and joy than you were previously experiencing!
 
Church, I’m convinced that if we did these four things: Made sure we scheduled a week or more of rest during the year, made sure we had a day every week where we rested, and made sure we spent a period of time daily in His rest, we would live in this supernatural Sabbath that Jesus said was ours. Especially, when we include praying in other tongues all along the way, every day.
 
May you find your Resting place in Him today and always. Amen.

REVIEW
 
So, let’s continue our teaching which I have entitled— “Stress Out!”—where we are learning how to live the stress-free lives that Jesus Christ has enabled us to live.
 
And the first thing we learned in this series of teachings is that the things that cause stress in our lives, things like fear, worry, and anxiety, are strictly forbidden. Yes, we saw that we have a myriad of Scriptures that teach us to not have anxiety about anything, to not worry, and to fear not. Therefore, what stress really is is a result of disobedience because if we would choose to live a care-free life, stress would be a non-factor. Someone might say, “Yeah well, living a life free from all cares doesn’t seem possible. I mean, how can you expect me to do this, pastor!?!” Well, first of all, it is not me who set the bar; this is what thus saith the Lord, not thus saith Trey. Therefore, we saw that with the words that tell us to live this way comes the ability the walk in those words. So, just as Peter walked on that one word from God that said, “Come,” and did what most of this world would call impossible by walking on the water, likewise, you and I can walk on these words that we have from God and walk in supernatural peace and rest. Glory! 
 
Then, last week, we looked at John 14:27 where the Lord Jesus told His disciples that He left His peace for us. So, we saw from this passage of Scripture that if the Lord said He gave us peace and left it with us, then we shouldn’t be asking Him to give us peace. It would be like me telling you that I left you something in your mailbox and then you calling me later and asking me to please give you that thing I already left in your mailbox. What do you think I would tell you? I might say, “I left it in your mailbox, dude! Didn’t you get what I left for you?”
 
You see, the very peace that Christ Himself walked in has already been given to you and I. It’s ours! Therefore, it is up to us to collect what He has already given.
 
Then we went over to Mark chapter four and learned from the story of Jesus resting in the boat as his disciples were being flooded with cares about the great windstorm they were caught in, that this describes our lives.
 
We saw that just as they were stuck in the middle of the storm at evening time, we too have a promise by the Master that in the world, we will have tribulation (see John 16:33). You could say that in the sea, you and I will have storms, winds and waves. It is just a normal part of living the waters of this world. However, Jesus went on to say for us to be of good cheer because He has overcome the world. In other words, just as He walked on the water, He has already shown you and I how we can walk in the supernatural like He did and overcome the winds and waves of life. Amen!
 
But we also saw that we have to let it happen: Yes, just as Jesus—the Word made flesh Himself—said to His disciples, “Let us cross over to the other side!” we too have to let ourselves walk in this supernatural peace. And I made this point because we need to understand that we need to cooperate with the Lord. And one major way that we do not cooperate is by allowing ourselves to fear, worry and be anxious. Therefore, you could say that a way to not let ourselves get to the other side is to let our hearts be troubled.
 
But in this remarkable story in Mark chapter four, we saw both how stress tries to sink us and how we are to deal with it by what Jesus did after His disciples woke Him up:
 
In Mark 4:37, we saw that a great windstorm arose and how the waves beat into the boat. Now we saw that the “windstorm” is symbolic of the trials, tribulations and persecutions that arise in our lives. However, it is not these windstorms that sink us; it is the waves that beat into our boat as a result of the storms. So, we saw that these waves would be the cares, worries, fears, etc. that come as a result of the problems we face in the natural. In other words, it is not the physical trials that steal our peace; it is the waves they produce in us that will steal our peace if we let them.   
 
And then we saw that this is when the stress begins to affect us—for these worries and cares like to “beat into” our souls to where we are “filled” with those troubled waters. That water that fills our boats is the stress, and that is actually what sinks us. So, we learned that if we do not deal with the winds that are crashing into our boat and we become filled with the water from those waves, it is going to be all but impossible to cross over to the other side. 
 
But this is when, as Jesus’ disciples failed to realize, we need to recognize that Jesus is in our boat! Yes, because Christ lives in our boat, we have a hope of glory of getting to the other side! Amen! So, if Jesus is in our boat resting, then we can rest in Him!
 
But as we saw, Jesus’ disciples were not at peace in the least bit. Even though Jesus was in the boat with them, they were stressed out to the max trying to keep the water from filling their boat. And the ironic thing about this was that they didn’t think Jesus cared about their predicament! That’s why they went and got Him and asked, “Master, carest thou not that we perish!?!” But we learned that the real question is not, “Does He care?”; the real question is— “Why are we caring?” So, while we might want to know why the Lord doesn’t seem to care about what is going on in our lives like we do, He wants to know why we are not resting like Him? Amen?
 
But arguably the biggest thing we learned last week was how to deal with the storms that try to drown us in cares: We saw that just as Jesus rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace be still” in verse 39, we can experience the same “great calm” when we follow His example.
 
So, what did Jesus do again? First, He rebuked the wind—which we likened that wind to the circumstances themselves. So, He rebuked the circumstances—and to “rebuke” something means “to correct, admonish, instruct, or charge authoritatively.” So, this means He set the source of the problem straight by “speaking to the mountain”—which was the wind that was causing all the problems on the water.
 
Then we saw that He “said to the sea.” Now we likened the sea that was beating against the boat and filling it with water to those fears and worries that impact us as a result of the circumstances. So now what we see is Jesus speaking to the sea, and we are told exactly what He spoke to it— “Peace, be still!” What did He say again? PEACE! In other words, we need to speak the peace of God over our mind, will and emotions when those unruly waves are trying to drown us with cares.
 
Now we saw that these words in this verse “Peace, be still” describe “to be quiet, remain silent, & to muzzle.” So what Jesus was literally saying to the sea was, “SHUT UP!” And did you know this is exactly what you need to do with those thoughts and emotions that are beating against your heart and mind—tell them that you will have peace and for them to be quiet! In other words, we have to quiet our souls by telling all that is within us that we are not going to tolerate any anxiety and that we are going to put our attention on the Prince of Peace. Amen!
 
So, we learned that Jesus said we are going to get to the other side! So, no matter what the storm, winds and waves are telling us, we too can stand up in the midst of those troubled waters of life and say to our soul— “Peace be still!” and experience a great calm—that is, that perfect peace that passes all understanding! Hallelujah, and amen.
 
Now then, let’s go over to our golden text in Matthew chapter eleven and look again at what Jesus said is our inheritance.
 
Again, in Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus said, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
 
 
 
 
 
 
Now what I want to begin doing this week is begin breaking down Jesus’ words in this passage of Scriptures because I believe there are keys contained in His words that will unlock this stress-free life that we all desire. Yes, I see this saying by the Master holding many practical ways that you and I can walk in the peace that passes all understanding and free from the stress of life.
 
First of all, I want you to notice how the Lord was addressing “all you who labor and are heavy laden.” How many of you know that this is just another way of describing stressed-out folks!?! So, the Lord is addressing all of us out there who “labor and are heavy laden” with the cares and stresses of this life and inviting us to come to Him.
 
WORKING WITH HIM VS. WORKING FOR HIM
 
Now the word for “labor” describes “the feelings of being tired, fatigued, or weary that come as a result of the hard work one is doing.” Therefore, it denotes working hard, laboring, toiling, and the physical and emotional effects that this effort can have on us. And while this word was primarily used to describe physical labor, the likelihood is Jesus was using it to describe those whom were fatigued, weary, and stressed out in the spiritual sense. In fact, I’ve found that jobs and projects that require a lot of hard work both mentally and emotionally are oftentimes even more exhausting than the hard, physical labor that one can do. Sure, working hard with our hands can make us physically tired, but that soulish stress can leave one feeling even more fatigued than someone who works a very physically demanding job.
 
So, here Jesus is including “all who labor”—both from the physical sense of working hard, physically and mentally demanding jobs to those who are feeling the fatigue from other spiritually related things that they have been carrying. 
 
Now let me say that there is certainly a place for some forms of “labor” in our lives. We see this word used in a positive way throughout the New Testament to describe one laboring for the Lord. But obviously those that Jesus was describing here as “laboring” were those who were apparently laboring apart from Him—thus the reason Jesus told them to come to Him first.
 
You see, there is a laboring with Him and then there is a laboring for Him, and there is big difference between these two. One can work for the Lord, but it not be Spirit-led or Spirit-empowered—meaning, they can do a lot of good, well-meaning and religious duties, but it not be what the Lord has directed us to do or how He directed us to do it at that specific time. I can assure you that if a believer is becoming stressed out over the good works that they are doing for the Lord then one of two things are true: Either they are doing something that the Lord did not tell them to do or they are doing what He might have told them to do, but in their own strength. How can I be so confident in this, you ask? It is because, as we’ve seen, the Lord’s yoke does not have stress accompanying it. It is really that simple.
 
Let me give you a couple of examples of how a Christian can “labor” without Him:
 
I could have a sufficient amount of duties on my plate, but then, in my heart to help someone who maybe needed a ride somewhere or someone else who needed to talk for a couple of hours, begin to overextend myself as I just don’t have the heart to say no. Well, because I just don’t feel like I can turn someone down who needs help, my plate then goes from having enough to this heavy, burdensome thing. This is when I have to “come to Jesus” and find out what I have added to my plate that wasn’t me laboring together with Him—for I’ll remind you that His yoke is easy and His burden is light and if there is no apparent grace on all of these good things I’m doing, I need to find out what it is I’m doing that I’m not yoked up together with Him on.  
 
Another good example is that I could see that in the Bible the Lord stresses the importance of the church taking care of the poor, and that spiritual duty has been engrained in me somehow. Therefore, every time I see a poverty-stricken person, I drop everything and do what I can to meet that need. Well, how many of you know that if we gave everything to everyone who has a need, it won’t take long until we don’t have anything left to give. No, there is a wisdom aspect in this. The Lord obviously doesn’t expect us to give everything away to every poor person we come in contact with. In the world we live in today, if we gave to everyone who let’s us know of their need, we would be sowing our precious seed on bad ground because how many of you know that there are a lot of folks out there who are milking the system, are unwilling to work, and are using others’ hard earned money to pad their pockets? Doesn’t the same man who emphasized his desire to give to the poor time and time again say that if a man doesn’t work, he doesn’t eat? (see Second Thessalonians 3:10). So, the Lord is obviously not telling us to give to every person who says they need our help because not everyone who solicits our charity has truly fallen on hard times and legitimately needs our help. The fact is, some are just working the system and preying on the good consciences of Christians who desire to help the poor.
 
I just bring this example up because someone can even be doing a good, spiritual activity and be laboring for the Lord, but not with Him. I have found this to be a major key to living free from stress—to be led by both wisdom and the Spirit of God. Not to just do good works because I’ve been trained to do them or because I’ll feel condemned if I don’t. That is not a good motive and will certainly tend towards stress. The key is living by the perfect law of liberty—that is, not feeling pressured to do the things I do, but to only do what I believe the Holy Spirit is directing me to do. Now I certainly must tend towards the duties of Christianity (I don’t want to err on the side of doing less than I am responsible for), but I do not allow my heart to condemn me if I ever feel led to say, “no” to something.
 
So, a good rule of thumb is to wake up every day and invite the Lord into our day, saying, “Holy Spirit, what do you have planned for us today? I know you have good works for me to walk in today, so I ask you to show me what I am to set my hand to today. Give me the green light regarding what I am to do, but give me the red light regarding what I am not to do.” Then, I live that day constantly communing with the Holy Spirit and being led by Him.
 
But then there is the laboring we do that is not only not with Him but isn’t even for Him. This would be all of those worldly—not necessarily sinful, but just natural things of life that we work so hard at that leads to us getting stressed out. So, even in these normal routines of life, we still ought to include the Holy Spirit, asking Him what His plan is.
 
But always remember this: The Lord wants to do life with us, saints! No, not just in the spiritual or religious things; He desires for us to include Him in the other things like our jobs, hobbies, etc. And living our lives in constant communication with Him and looking for His direction in every step we take is a key to keeping the stress out of our lives—because, again, I can assure you, He is not going to lead you and I into a stress-filled life!
 
The point is that we must learn to labor with Him and not just for Him or apart from Him. The moment we begin to work in our own strength and according to our own abilities is when we are capable of letting the stress in. This is why we must take His yoke and not our own or another’s—so that we can avoid the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual fatigue of “laboring” apart from Him. Amen?
 
HEAVY LADEN
 
But it was not just those who “labor” that Jesus invited to come unto Him; He also included those who are “heavy laden.”
 
Now this is not terminology that we might use today. So, what does it mean to be “heavy laden”? This phrase describes placing a burden upon someone or to be (over)loaded and (over)burdened. And, oh, how this is certainly a cause of stress because if you recall, one of the definitions used for “stress” is to put force or pressure on something to where it might even begin to bend. Well, this is what happens when one becomes overloaded or burdened by something. It will place stress on our souls.
 
Now it needs to be said that there is a difference between the load we have the responsibility of carrying and those burdens that the Lord has not assigned for us to carry. We see this difference in Galatians 6:2-5 when the apostle Paul says for us to help bear one another’s burdens, but that every person has their own load to carry. In fact, in the original King James version, the word for “load” in verse five is translated “burden.” This has led to some confusion because Paul just said in verse two that we are to bear one another’s “burdens.” So, is he contradicting himself? Of course, he’s not. You see, he used two different Greek words. In verse 2, the word used was baros, which describes something that is heavy, weighty & burdensome (i.e. more than one could carry on his own). In this verse, the word Paul used was phortion. This word was used to describe a pack that a marching soldier was designated to carry. In other words, it was his own personal load to carry. Therefore, it would be considered irresponsible of him to require another soldier to carry his pack for him. This word was also used in Acts 27:10 to describe a ship’s cargo—which was obviously considered before the ship left the dock. Likewise, the Lord knows how much we can carry, and He is faithful not to give us more than we can bear (First Corinthians 10:13). So, if the heat in my house went out in the middle of winter, while it would be okay for me to go stay at someone else’s home for a short time, it would be irresponsible of me to move in with them until winter is over. In other words, there is a difference between helping others bear their burdens when they need it, and each one bearing their own load (i.e. responsibilities) that they must attend to themselves.
 
However, we ought not make the mistake of associating our load with a burden either. In fact, this word phortion was the word the Lord Jesus used in Matthew 11:30 when He said that His “burden” was light. And the reason His burden is light is because the Master takes the heavy end. So, if you and I are yoked up together with Christ the way He intends for us to be, our “load” is not going to be some heavy, weighty, burdensome load. It will be a “light load” with joy & peace accompanying it every step of the way. Hallelujah!     
 
But another interesting fact is that this word Jesus used for “heavy laden” here was only used in one other passage of Scripture (see Luke 11:46) and there it says, “And He said, ‘Woe to you also, lawyers! For you load men with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers.’”
 
It seems obvious to me here that Jesus is talking to those who have been overburdened by the law and keeping of religious rules and rites. Therefore, Jesus is beckoning those who are burdened by the law. All of this leads to stress—for when we try to work harder, even in our spiritual lives, we add stress that is unwarranted. You see, many people have the mentality that with anything from our vocation to our spiritual walks that if we just work harder, everything will be better. But that is not necessarily the case: working harder is not always the answer and certainly is not wisdom. Like they say in the business world, we need to learn to work smarter and not just harder. This applies to the kingdom business world too! We need to learn to work smarter for the Lord and not just do more and more.   
 
So, those that labor and are heavy laden are those who are busy in life, working hard for the Lord, and are burdened down with their religion. All of this equals stress. We must learn to:

1. Only become busy with our Father’s business (that is, only doing the things He tells us to do—which could be secular things or ministerial things).
2. Learn to work with the Lord—that is, tapping into the Spirit led and Spirit empowered life that only does what it sees our Father doing.
3. Eliminate the religious yoke of bondage that strips us of our freedom.

 
THE GREAT INVITATION
 
But as much as I can offer you practical advice about how to “labor” properly and how to avoid being “heavy laden,” the greatest piece of advice is Jesus’ invitation at the beginning of Matthew 11:28 when He said, “Come to Me…” 
 
In fact, do you know what these words in Matthew 11:28 denote? They signify that if we are in this condition, then we haven’t truly come to Him. No, not that we have never come to Him for salvation, but that currently we have not come to Him to where this peace is being experienced in our lives. Amen or Oh me?
 
Now this word “come” is not necessarily a command as much as it is a friendly invitation. While He certainly wants us to come to Him and while it certainly is in our best interest to come to Him, He simply puts the ball in our court and invites us.
 
And this is just the way God does things: From beginning to end, the Lord gives mankind freewill. While He created Adam and placed him in the Garden, He gave him the option of turning from the beauty of His perfection, which we know Adam & Eve obviously did.
 
And at the end of the Bible, we see the apostle John making this declaration— “And the Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’ And let him who hears say, ‘Come!’ And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.” (Revelations 22:17)
 
This declaration by the Holy Spirit, the bride of Christ, and everyone who hears to “Come!” is a plea for the Lord Jesus to return and the establishment of His kingdom on the earth. But the next half of this verse is that in the meantime for him who thirsts and desires this water of life to come and take it freely.
 
So, the Lord apparently gives the invitation to “come,” but it is up to us to accept that invitation and “come.” As He also said in Isaiah 55:1– “Ho! Everyone who thirsts, Come to the waters; And you who have no money, Come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.”
 
Also, the Lord is said to be standing at the door of our heart knocking (see Revelation 3:20). Many use this as an evangelistic verse, but the fact is, this is written to a church full of believers—not to unbelievers. So, is it possible that a born-again, Spirit-filled Christian can have the Lord knocking at the door of their hearts and not already living in their hearts? Apparently so. Now that doesn’t mean that they are not saved; it just means that Jesus is not occupying their lives like He desires to. And that is a major point: He obviously desires to or He wouldn’t be standing at the door knocking. Amen?
 
However, He is not going to kick the door down. He will patiently wait until we decide to open the door and invite Him in. This is the beauty of the way He operates!
 
I was reminded of what Pastor Robert had the Lord Jesus tell Him in response to Him coming back with him to show Himself to the world. Jesus said, “I have come to man, now man must come to me.” This means that Jesus already came and made everything available—all things that pertain to life and godliness and every spiritual blessing. Now it is up to us to come to Him and receive everything He died to provide for us. Amen?
 
WHO IS INVITED?
 
But who is Jesus inviting here in Matthew chapter eleven? It is those whom it seemed good in the sight of the Father to reveal Him to—namely, the uneducated and unwise (see verses 25-27). So, while it certainly is true that the Lord has invited whosoever will come, the fact is, not everyone responds to the call. In other words, everyone who got an invitation does not accept it. Amazing, huh?
 
Let’s look at a significant parable given to us by the Lord that is along these lines: In Jesus’ Parable of the Great Supper found in Luke 14:15-24 we see a similar invitation going out to many that said essentially the same thing— “Come.” In fact, in Matthew’s account, the exact same Greek word for “come” is used (see Matthew 22:4), but they all made excuses that were based on their stuff and relationships being more important. Let’s look at this parable more in depth:
 
The Parable begins after one of those who were sitting at the table eating with Jesus and others said to Jesus, “Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God.”
 
Now the “bread” of God’s kingdom has been likened to healing and deliverance (see story of Syrophoenician woman in Matthew 15:21-28), and obviously would denote the things that are ours to partake of in the kingdom of God. But the point is that this statement is what generated this parable by Jesus. Why? It is because I’m sure that this man who made this statement represents the majority of believers who think that the bread of God’s kingdom will be partaken of by more than what will in reality happen.
 
Like it is with our salvation in general, to all of the other benefits of God’s kingdom, not everyone will receive what the Lord has provided. And this certainly includes the peaceful, stress-free life that Jesus offered to us. We must come to Him to receive that bread just like we do everything else that He has made ready for us. So, that is the point of this parable. Now let’s delve into it:
 
Jesus begins by saying, “A certain man gave a great supper and invited many…” So, we see that this man (an obvious type of God the Father) gave a “great” supper. That indicates this was a big deal! He did a lot to prepare all of this food and drink! Likewise, the Lord did a lot to prepare so great a salvation for us. Sure, He killed the fatted calf which provided the meat of our salvation (a type of Jesus’s death, burial and resurrection which assured our salvation), but He also provided many delectable sides and desserts that come with this so great of a salvation—which would include the fruit of peace. Amen.
 
Then we see that He “invited many.” That indicates that He did not just invite a “select elect;” no, he invited a bunch of people—for many are called, but few are chosen. Now there are varying beliefs of who these chosen were, but I personally believe the few that are chosen are the few that decided to come when the invitation was sent out to many.       
 
Now in verse 17, Jesus went on to say, “and sent his servant at supper time to say to those who were invited, ‘Come, for all things are now ready.’” So, we can clearly see that since the “certain man” was Father God that “his servant” is His Son, Jesus Christ. Therefore, Jesus was sent to the earth at “supper time” in the kingdom of God. Why? “To say to those who were invited…” Notice that they were invited before He was sent. This describes to us the true doctrine of election. You see, it is not that God predestines one to life and another to destruction. No, He simply made preparations for the Great Supper and sent out the invitations beforehand. Then He sent out His Holy Servant, Jesus, to say to those who were invited, “Come, for all things are now ready.” This was essentially the Gospel that Jesus came to preach during His 33 years on the earth.
 
But again, did they “Come” in response to His invitation? Nope! All of these that Jesus was sent to did not accept the invitation to the Master’s Great Supper. Notice what Jesus said next in verses 18-21— “But they all with one accord began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of ground, and I must go and see it. I ask you to have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to test them. I ask you to have me excused.’ Still another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ So that servant came and reported these things to his master.”
 
So, what we see in this parable is that all of these people who were invited began at the same time (i.e. with one accord) to make excuses as to why they could not attend. Now I don’t believe this is necessarily how folks reject the Gospel’s invitation to receive what Jesus died to provide for them. Just like there might not be a formal invitation to a dinner given, there might not be a verbal “RSVP” given. In other words, actions speak louder than words. So, sometimes just simply putting something else before Him is us communicating the same thing as these guys verbally did in this parable.
 
OUR CHRISTIAN “DYUTY”
 
But my point is that, just like in this parable where they all made excuses that were based on their stuff and relationships being more important than the supper they were invited to, this is when the stress enters in. In other words, when those who “labor and are heavy laden” do not “come to” the Lord, they will automatically and unnecessarily live in the stresses of life.
 
Do you reckon that you and I at times have been working like busy little bees dealing with the people and stuff in our lives, when the Lord has been calling for us to come sit at the table and sup with Him? I’m sure we all have been guilty of this at one time or another.      
 
But lest we undress ourselves today, let’s pick on someone else who did this: In Luke 10:38-42, we have an event that perfectly illustrates what we have been talking about today.
 
This is, of course, the familiar story of Martha and Mary: In this story, we see Martha was distracted with much serving, and how she resented her sister for not helping her. Eventually, she had had it with her “lazy-bum” sister and decided to interrupt Jesus to get Him to correct Mary. But I bet she was not prepared for the response He gave her: He said, “Martha, Martha, you are troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.” Wow! This verse is loaded with some powerful truths that paint the picture of so many believers!
 
Notice that in Luke 10:42, Jesus did not say that this one thing—the good part of our calling—is just a good idea; He said that this one thing is “needed.” This is something that we desperately need to understand—that spending time in God’s presence is an absolute necessity and not just beneficial.
 
Notice that Jesus said only “one thing” is needed, and it was not Martha’s service for Him. Now, He was not saying that her service was unimportant or that it did not have its place. Our service unto Him is important, but Jesus said that Mary had chosen that good part. That “good part” of what? That good part of a believer’s responsibility and calling! What Mary had chosen was the one thing that was needful: And what was that one thing that she desired and sought after? It was fellowshipping with Jesus—drawing near to Him and sitting at His feet! Jesus attested that spending time in His presence was the good and needful part of our relationship with Him! What He was essentially saying to Martha was— “Martha, Martha, you are troubled and stressed out about too many things. All of these things that you are doing are not what is truly important. Only one thing is necessary, and it is not even all of this serving that you are doing. The one thing that is needed is that you ‘Come unto Me’ and sit at my feet.” Amen.
 
So, herein lies one of the primary reasons that we live stressed lives: it is because we do not make our personal relationship with God our priority. I am convinced that if we would make the “first thing first” and accept the invitation to “Come to Him,” we would be more at rest in our souls.  And the awesome thing about it is this: when we draw near to Him, He draws near to us.
 
Now these three words Jesus said in Matthew 11:28— “Come to Me”—are super significant. First of all, the word used for “to” here is the word pros and describes coming face to face with something or someone. Therefore, Jesus is describing here our spiritual proximity or our relationship with Him. So, you could translate this phrase— “Come facing Me.” In other words, this describes us turning away from the cares of this world that might be distracting us like Martha was distracted and then looking unto Jesus. But this doesn’t just describe us turning where we are at and facing Him, it describes us drawing near to Him to where we actually come face to face with him. And what we need to understand is that this face to face relationship with Jesus is our calling and primary purpose. Interestingly enough, the word “Come” comes from the Greek word deute (pronounced dyu-te). Likewise, coming into this relationship with Jesus is our Christian “dyuty.”
 
How many of you know that living in this kind of fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ is our primary purpose and our relationship with Him is our calling? The Apostle Paul makes this clear in First Corinthians 1:9 when he says, “God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”
 
What this verse is saying is that God Himself has called each of us for one specific and primary purpose, and that is to come into fellowship with Jesus. We oftentimes associate our “calling” to what we do for the Lord, but the works we do for Him is not all we are called to do. So, First Corinthians 1:9 means that we all have the same calling. Yes, above everything else God has called each of us to do to promote and expand His kingdom, He has called every one of us to fulfill this general calling first. This is important to understand lest we identify what we do for the Lord as being our relationship with Him.
 
Let me explain what I mean by this: a tendency that the flesh has is to let what it does for the Lord define its relationship with Him. We have to be careful not to do this because our works are in no way an indication that we have fellowship with Christ. While certainly our service and good works will follow our relationship with God, these works can also be done apart from knowing Him. You cannot know God without serving Him, but you can serve God without knowing Him. So, although we ought to strive to live for God and serve Him, we do not need to view what we do for Him as being our most important calling. Our relationship with God is our most important calling! It is our “dyuty.” Amen.

REVIEW
 
We began last week by “stressing” the fact about how stress is a very real problem in the world we live in today. Yes, with the increase in information and technology that we have in this 21st Century, the human race is living in more stress than it has ever been before. Even with these conveniences we have in the world today, people have still found a way to live stressed-out lives.
 
But we found that the solution is not to just throw our hands up in the air and say, “I guess we are just doomed to live our lives full of stress today.” No, we said that God’s Word, which clearly gives us the answers regarding living free from the stress caused by worry and anxiety, is not just relevant to those who lived back in the Bible times; the same principles will work for us today too! Amen?  
 
So, the title of this particular series— “Stress Out!”—because what I believe the Holy Spirit has directed me to do is give us God’s way to eliminate stress from our lives. So, we will receive, most importantly, what God’s Word says about this subject, while also learning some of the very practical ways that I personally deal with the stress that tries to come against me.  
 
So, let’s begin again by looking at a New Testament Scripture which I believe clearly describes to us God’s perfect will in this area for all of us—and it is out of the mouth of our Savior: In Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus said, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
 
So “all who labor and are heavy laden” that Jesus addressed here sounds like both the cause and effect of stress to me. But what we should learn in this passage of Scripture is that Jesus came to give us rest from the stresses of life. That’s right—by taking His easy yoke and light burden, we will find rest for our souls. That means that everything within us—our minds, emotions, and even our physical person—will enter in a supernatural rest that will free us from the stress of this world. Amen?
 
Now last week, we dealt with the spirit of stress. And we did this by digging into what stress really is, how it affects us, and looked at a real-life example from the Bible of a man who was faced with great stress and what he needed to know which helped him deal with it. So, quickly, let’s review these things that we learned last week:
 
First of all, we learned that stress is not necessarily synonymous with worry, anxiety, fear, etc. The truth is, stress is not really the same as worry or anxiety; stress is simply our soul and our body’s reaction to these cares we carry. We saw this in stress’s definition: that it is “the state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or very demanding circumstances.” We also saw that, interestingly, in relation to the “stress” that is put on physical objects, stress is also defined as “the pressure or tension exerted on a material object.” So, stress would be more correctly viewed as the effect worry, anxiety, and fear has on us—mentally, emotionally, and even physically—because of the circumstances & situations we are surrounded with.  
 
In regard to this, we also learned that other words used to define “stress” are “force, pressure, violence and oppression” (see Webster’s 1828 Dictionary). So, who does it sound like stress comes from? The devil, sin, this world, etc. Therefore, stress is not a part of God’s kingdom. So, we learned that if stress is not of God and is a result of the curse in this fallen world, we need to understand that it is a thief—sent to kill, steal and destroy. In other words, it is an intruder, and not to ever be a part of a Christian’s life. Since stress is an intruder, we need to understand that stress cannot get in us without our consent.
 
Now the reason I made this point is because a large part of the body of Christ doesn’t see stress this way. They see it as an understandable and even acceptable part of living in this world. But the truth is that even though we are in this world, we are not of this world. Therefore, just because the world accepts that having stress is normal, it doesn’t mean we are supposed to. You see, the Bible is explicit in teaching us that the stress caused by the cares of this world is not to have any part of our lives. In fact, it tells us exactly what stress really is--stress is a result of sin. 
 
We proceeded to go through several New Testament Scriptures that teach us how the things that cause stress in our lives—things like worry, anxiety, fear, etc.—are not to be a part of a Christian’s life. Therefore, we need to have zero tolerance in our lives for things like fear, worry and anxiety—anything that would cause stress on us because, in the eyes of God, they are unacceptable—sinful even. So, we need to avoid stress, worry, fear, etc. like we would adultery, murder, and stealing. One could even make the case that these have worse consequences than these other “bigger sins.”
 
But I made the point last week that God does not place such an emphasis on this and command us not to worry because He’s trying to control us. No, He “stresses” this because of how stress hurts us.
Yes, even the world has begun to realize how detrimental stress is on our lives. They tell us that stress is actually the number one cause of sickness, disease, and physical infirmities. So, the world has come to understand that worry, stress and anxiety can have harmful effects on our physical bodies, but before science and medicine of this world came to realize this, the Word was already declaring it. Last week, we looked at several Scriptures that clearly show us the harmful effects that stress has on our lives.
 
But we concluded last week by looking at a Biblical example of a man who was “stressed out” to the max and what the Holy Spirit inspired his father in the faith to tell him in the face of his fear.
 
In Second Timothy, we see how the apostle Paul was writing to his son in the faith, Timothy, who was under tremendous pressure at the time of this letter because the emperor of Rome at that time, Nero, was stirring up persecution against the body of Christ, to where even the persecution stirred up by Saul of Tarsus could not hold a candle to the threat that now faced the church. And what made this pressure that Timothy had on him so great was that he was not just under the stress of caring for himself and his family; he was the pastor of the church of Ephesus during the time this was written! So, he had an entire church to “worry” about.
 
So, one might call this the epitome of stressful times for Pastor Timothy. Amen? Yes, I doubt that any of us in here today have anything in our lives that would be considered more stressful than what the apostle Paul or even Pastor Timothy were facing back then. And Paul knew this—probably by his own personal experiences and, evidently, because he was being inspired by the Holy Spirit. He knew his son in the faith needed some encouragement because a spirit of fear was apparently trying to set in even in Pastor Timothy.
 
So, Paul writes him this letter, and in the first chapter directly begins dealing with the spirit of fear that Timothy had allowed to enter into his life. Sure, Paul acknowledged the hurts, pains, heartache, and stress that Timothy was experiencing by saying, “being mindful of your tears,” but that was all he said about Timothy’s stress. He then began to remind him of the faith that he had within him—a faith that was passed on by his mother and grandmother. I made the point how awesome it is that evidently virtues can be passed down from generations!?! But unfortunately, just like good things like faith can be passed down from our parents & grandparents, bad things like worry, anxiety and fear can be passed down too.
 
You see, there are some out there who are worry-warts, and the reason why they are worry-warts is because they were raised by worry-warts, who in turn were raised by worry-warts. In other words, these behaviors and attitudes that cause stress in our lives can be passed down from those who didn’t know the very things I am teaching you today. But that doesn’t mean we are doomed to a life of stress! No, we can reverse the curse—draw a line in the sand and say, “No more! The buck stops here!” So, just like Timothy had faith instilled in him at a young age and wasn’t currently walking in it, we could have fear instilled in us at a young age and not currently walk in it! It’s a choice either way. Amen.
 
Then the apostle Paul began to exhort Timothy to stir up that faith! Why? Because God has not given us this attitude, this mental disposition, of fear! Yes, the apostle of faith turned Timothy’s attention away from the fears and unto to the things God had given him—power, love, and a sound mind, saying, “Man of God, stir yourself up! Tell your soul who you are, what you have, and what you will not allow! You have a spirit of power, of love, and of a sound mind!”
 
Well, as it pertains to what we are talking about in this series, if we are carrying around a spirit of stress, then we would need to be exhorted that we have a spirit of peace within us, being passed down from the Lord Jesus. Therefore, we need to stir up the spirit of peace! Amen?   
 
So, the main point I wanted you to see in these verses in Second Timothy chapter one is that the spirit of stress that so many have adopted in their lives is not our inheritance. God did not give us the spirit of stress! He gave us the ability to have a new kind of attitude—an attitude that says, “I can live free from stress!,” a mentality of perfect love that does cast out all the fear, and a new way of thinking that has disciplined thought patterns and chooses the right way of thinking every day.
 
Now we ended last week with me saying that just as Peter walked on the power and authority of that one word spoken by Jesus, “Come,” we too can walk on the Word of God that tells us that we can live free from worry, anxiety, fear, cares, and the effect they have on us. Amen! That means that with God’s Word that commands us to hold on to our peace, comes the enablement to do the thing He has told us to do.
 
So, today, let’s look at another example from the life & ministry of Jesus of how we can walk in His peace—ironically enough, from another instance in Jesus’ ministry when they found themselves in a boat amidst the troubled waters. Amen?
 
THE SAME PIECE OF PEACE
 
Now last week, we briefly looked at John 14:27 as we went through a few Scriptures that show us how the Lord has commissioned us to avoid anxiety in our lives. So, let’s go back to this verse and dig out some more of its treasures:
 
In this verse, Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”
 
So, apparently, when Jesus ascended on high, not only did the Lord give us the Holy Spirit, the love of God, joy, His name, etc., but here Jesus tells us that He has left us peace by saying, “Peace I leave with you.” So, this peace is not something that God hopefully will give us one day; this peace has already been left for us. But like it is when someone leaves us a package, it doesn’t do much good to call the person who left us the package and ask them would they please give us what they already left us. What would their reply be? Something like— “Uh, I told you I left it there for you. Didn’t you pick it up?” In other words, if they already “leaved” it, then it wouldn’t make much sense for us to ask for them to give it to us. So, if we persisted in trying to get them to give it to us when they said they already left it, then that would just indicate that we don’t believe what they said. Amen? No, I can assure you that Jesus has already left us this peace we desire. So, we first must simply believe that Jesus has already delivered it to us.
 
And this is not just any old peace that He left for us. No, it is not some generic form of peace that Jesus has delivered to us. This is His very own “piece of peace!” That’s why He went on to say, “My peace I give to you.” Praise God! So, do you know what this means, church!?!? The peace that has been afforded us is the very same peace that He possessed in the midst of the storm that enabled Him to sleep peacefully in the boat (a story we are about to look at)! So, this is the quality of peace that He has left with us and freely given to us! Amen!
 
But the fact Jesus said in this phrase “My peace I give to you” shows us that this peace is not earned or to be worked for either. No, it is a gift of grace to us! Amen. Like we just learned, peace is a fruit of a spiritually-alive and Spirit-empowered life. So, just like the Lord has freely deposited all of these other eight fruit of the Spirit in our born-again, recreated spirit—which are the Lord’s very own attributes and characteristics—Jesus’ peace has been freely given to us as well. Glory to God!
 
Then Jesus went on to say, “not as the world gives do I give to you.” Now this has a couple of possible meanings—both of which have truths contained in them:
 
Number one, it can mean that Jesus does not give us His peace like the world would give it. In other words, He does not have a bunch of stipulations and conditions to receiving and walking in His peace like the world might “give” something. No, when the Lord gives something, He really gives it—for the gifts and callings of God are without repentance (Romans 11:29).
 
Number two, it can mean that this peace of Christ is not the same kind of peace that the world speaks of—which is a total absence of conflict, wars and fighting. No, Jesus left us the peace of God which, in the midst of conflicts and troubles, we can have a total quiet and tranquil state in our hearts! In other words, this peace is a peace within, not necessarily a peace without. So, like in the example of Jesus sleeping in the boat that we are about to look at, while there was certainly not a rest, quietness and calmness on the waters at that moment, there absolutely was a rest, quietness and calmness in Jesus in the midst of the storm! Amen!
 
So, this peace of Jesus which describes a state of rest, quietness, tranquility and calmness of soul is resident within us. Jesus not only left it with us, but freely gave it to us. So, it’s there—like that package that was once and for all delivered to your front door step. This is the first very key and vital step to seeing His peace work in our lives—knowing that it is already ours. Amen. 
 
But as Jesus went on to say in this verse, we must let it! That is why He went on to say, “Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” So, the understood subject here is us. The ball is in our courts. We are the ones who decide whether or not we are going to let our hearts be troubled or not. We are the ones who decide whether we are going to let this peace that is resident within us operate or not. 
 
Now let’s go over to this example in the Scriptures I have alluded to already and learn more about these truths that peace is already living within us and how we need to let it rule in our hearts. Amen?  
 
REST IN THE STORM
 
I believe that in Mark 4:35-41, we have this concept of walking in Christ’s peace perfectly illustrated:
 
In verse 35, this story begins with the following words— “On the same day, when evening had come…”
 
Now the first thing we need to understand and be prepared for is that “evening” will come to all of us—that is, the dark time where it seems like we have no light and that trials and tribulations surround us. In other words, we shouldn’t live under the delusion that if I do everything right or if God loves me, that I won’t have troubles in my life. We have an enemy, saints. And He is absolutely going to try and sink you every chance he gets, just like he did Jesus and His disciples here. Jesus promised us this—that in the world, we will have tribulation (John 16:33). You could say it this way: in the sea, you are going to have winds and waves. It is just to be expected if you out on the water that you will experience these ups and downs. Likewise, it is to be expected—that as long as you and I are in this world, there will be the winds and waves of life that will try and affect our boat. But I love that Jesus did not just say, “In the world, you will have tribulation…” He went on to say, “…but be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world.” Amen! What that says to me is that even when these winds and waves of life come against us, we don’t have to let our joy sink because Jesus already walked on those troubled waters for us! Therefore, we can walk on them too! Amen and Glory!  
 
But notice how these troubled waters occurred “on the same day” that Jesus taught them all of these principles of the kingdom. Did you know that this is established kingdom principle? Yes, we have multiple witnesses in the Scriptures that teach us that Satan comes immediately to steal the Word that was sown in our hearts (Mark 4:15). So, it seems apparent to me that Jesus was preparing them for this trial of their faith in the evening by teaching them all day how the kingdom works. And this is why we are learning these things as well, church—because we are going to have ample opportunity to lose our peace. In other words, just as sure as we are going to have daytime, we will have nighttime as well—and particularly as the Word of God’s kingdom is being sown in our hearts. Amen or Oh me.
 
Then the next thing we see is Jesus speaking a very powerful statement to His disciples. Yes, He spoke a Word that I’m sure was not properly heeded because His disciples did not fully perceive or understand who it was coming through. The Word made flesh Himself said, “Let us cross over to the other side!”
 
And like it is with us, we hear the Word and don’t truly realize that these Words are not just the words of men that hold no power; no, these Words are life-giving and able to empower those who yield to them. In other words, these words by Jesus here in verse 35 had power in them to cause this very thing to happen, no matter how much adversity would come. Amen!
 
Now the terminology here is important: Notice that Jesus did not say, “We are going to cross over to the other side” or “I am going to take you to the other side.” No, He said, “Let us cross over to the other side.” Why? Because it was not just up to Jesus whether they crossed over the troubled waters. His disciples had to “let” it happen. This signifies to us that we have a part to play in overcoming the obstacles of life while getting to the other side and also maintaining peace throughout the journey. 
 
Now I wanted to make this point because we need to understand that we need to cooperate with the Lord. And one major way that we do not cooperate is by allowing ourselves to fear, worry and be anxious.
 
LET NOT YOUR HEART BE TROUBLED
 
In looking back over at John 14:27, we see again that after Jesus described leaving His peace with His disciples, that He said, “Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”
 
Now this statement by the Lord speaks volumes, so let me ask you a few questions:

1. Is it ever ok for us to let our hearts be troubled or afraid? (In other words, “Is it ok to ever allow our hearts to become filled with worry, anxiety or fear?”) No, it’s not! As we saw last week, we have many Scriptures that directly forbid us to worry, be anxious and to fear. In Colossians 3:15 we are told to “let” the peace of Christ rule in our hearts. So, it is clear that it is not acceptable in the eyes of the Lord nor should be in ours as well to ever let our hearts be troubled or afraid.
2. Can we keep our heart from being troubled and afraid? Evidently, we can—because the Master would have been unjust to tell us to do something that we are incapable of doing. Amen? And as we’ve also learned, with the Word of God to do a certain thing comes the enablement to do it. In other words, accepting and believing God’s Word contains supernatural ability to walk in that Word.  
3. What can you conclude if your heart is troubled and afraid? (In other words, “So if your heart is troubled, how did it get that way?”)  We let it get that way! In other words, the reason our hearts get filled with worry, fear and anxiety is because we did not keep it from happening. Now this should not condemn us, but rather liberate us in knowing that we have this key to the kingdom. It is in our control and we are not at the whim of our situation or circumstances.   

 
Now do I always do this? Certainly not! But should I? Certainly! Why? Because Jesus said I can and the Word tells me I should. My prayer is that the Lord would elevate our experiences to match His Word instead of us watering down His Word to match our experiences. Amen!
 
Now it is important to note here that Jesus is talking about our hearts here, not our heads. What do I mean by that? I mean, we will certainly have thoughts come into our heads, tempting us to worry. We will certainly have feelings and emotions try to rise up in our flesh, tempting us to panic and fear. But the key is in understanding that we don’t have to let those thoughts and feelings impact our hearts. Amen?
 
As you heard me say last week, “You can’t keep a bird from flying around your head, but you can sure keep him from building a nest there.” Likewise, we can’t keep the thoughts and emotions from coming, but we can certainly keep them from taking root in our hearts. This is when we need to do exactly what Jesus said here and not let our hearts be troubled even if our heads are screaming troubling things.
 
So, Jesus essentially was telling His disciples the same thing in Mark chapter 4 when He said, “Let us cross over to the other side.” He didn’t say, “Let us go half way and then drown” nor did He say, “Let us go as far as we can and hopefully without a storm hindering us.” No, the God of the universe—the Master of the winds and the waves—said the other side was where we are going, and “dagnabbit,” that’s where we are going! Amen? 
 
HOW STRESS AFFECTS US
 
Now in verse 37, we are told— “And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling.”
 
You know, I believe this is a great description of how fear, cares, worry and anxiety affect us: When those “great windstorms” arise in our lives, seemingly out of nowhere (i.e. the word “arose” denotes unexpectedly and out of nowhere). This might be that alarming bad report given to us by the doctor, our children, etc. And when this happens, these bad reports usually catch us off guard. This is when these “great windstorms” produce waves that beat into our boats. I would liken these “waves” to the emotions, fears, anxieties that come as a result of the adverse situations and circumstances going on in our life. And this is when the stress begins to affect us—for these worries and cares like to “beat into” our souls to where we are “filled” with those troubled waters. 
 
So, you see, that is what the devil strives to do—to bring adverse weather conditions that will cause pressures to continually crash into our soul, until hopefully our hearts are filled and drowned with those intoxicating cares. In other words, his goal is not just simply to bring trials, tribulations and persecutions against us; his goal is to then use the worry and fear to beat into our boat to where we are filled up with the stress from the circumstances. This, my friends, is when he can sink us—when the stress fills our hearts by the cares which come from circumstances.  
 
But the good news in this is that the “great windstorms” of life cannot sink us in and of themselves; it is the waves that we let crash into our boat that will sink us. Glory!   
 
So, if we combine these two truths (i.e. not letting our hearts become troubled or afraid and let us cross over to the other side), we come up with a truth that is worthy of all acceptance--if we let our heart become troubled, we can keep ourselves from getting to the other side. In other words, if we do not deal with the winds that are crashing into our boat and we become filled with the water from those waves, it is going to be all but impossible to cross over to the other side. 
 
JESUS IS IN THE BOAT!
 
But notice what Jesus was doing while all of this was going on: Verse 38 goes on to say, “But He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow.” So, in the midst of this great windstorm and the water that was filling their boat, Jesus was just taking a nap! Amen!       
 
You see, this story illustrates our lives: The boat in this story describes our lives—and because Christ was in the boat in this story, we see a picture of the truth the apostle Paul gave us in Colossians 1:27— Christ is in us, the hope of glory. Yes, because Christ lives in our boat, we have a hope of glory of getting to the other side! Amen! So, Jesus is in our boat resting and because Christ has put His peace within us, we can have peace in Him! Therefore, we can just rest, praise God, because Jesus is resting in your boat!
 
But as we know, Jesus’ disciples were not at peace in the least bit. Even though Jesus was in the boat with them, they were stressed out to the max trying to keep the water from filling their boat. But if Jesus’ disciples would have just considered that Jesus was in the same predicament that they were in, don’t you think it would have changed their outlook?
 
First of all, did they really believe that Jesus did not care about their plight? After all, was He not in the boat with them? If they would have honestly considered it, they would have known that the Lord was not going to drown. No, the Word said that they were going to the other side. That was their seed! They were to let that Word be planted in their heart and then let it produce its own results even though they might not know how. They could (and should) have stood in the midst of that great windstorm and said, “No, we will not drown and you will not keep us from our destination. The Lord said that we were going to other side. So, you might as well calm down storm because we are going to the other side!”
 
But as we’ve seen, not only did they have the Word that they were to go to the other side; they also had the Lord in the boat with them. So, if for no other reason than that, they should have known they were not going to sink.
 
Likewise, we need to understand that Jesus is in the boat with us too! He lives within us! He is in our lives! Therefore, He has a stake in the game! He is not going to let us drown! He is going to make sure we cross over the windstorms of this world and get to our destination! Hallelujah!
 
But the main reason why Jesus’ disciples did not consider these things is because they obviously did not fully know who this man was yet. Sure, they had plenty of evidence that He was more than a man, but their hearts still were not persuaded of all that He was. We know this because down in verse 41, after Jesus took care of the storm, we are told that the disciples “feared exceedingly, and said to one another, ‘Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?” 
 
And did you know that this is why we too get drowned in stress? It’s because our hearts are not completely impacted yet as to whom Jesus is in our lives. If we “knew” whom we have believed, we would be more persuaded that He is able to keep those cares we have committed to Him (Second Timothy 1:12).
 
On top of that, we are also drowned in cares because we don’t know who we are in Him—because in other accounts of His disciples being caught in the middle of a storm on the water, Jesus indicated that His disciples could have done the same thing in His name.
 
DO YOU NOT CARE?
 
Now let’s look at what happened next in verse 38: They awoke Jesus, saying to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?” You see, they obviously expected Jesus to be consumed with the same “cares” that they were because, after all, this is a real and serious problem they were in, right? And how many times have we done this? In the midst of an alarming situation and it seeming like the Lord is asleep somewhere, have we ever cried out— “Lord, do you even care!?!”
 
While I certainly sympathize with those who have had these types of situations, having had some of them myself, the truth is, that is not the right question to ask. Of course, Jesus cares! He loves us so much and cares about our welfare in many ways more than you and I do about our own welfare. But the real question is not, “Does He care?”; the real question is— “Why are we caring?”
 
You see, we must remind ourselves in those times where it seems like the Lord is not present in our troubles that He truly does care for us and that He knows what we are dealing with. And then, because we know He cares for us, we cast those cares upon Him (see First Peter 5:7). On top of that, if Jesus does not deem it important enough to fret about, then why do we? We must stay on His side in these things—His side of the boat. So, while we might want to know why the Lord is not caring like us, He wants to know why we are not resting like Him?  
 
PEACE, BE STILL!
 
And I just love what Jesus did in response to their question: Verse 39 says, “Then Jesus arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Peace be still!’ And the wind ceased and there was a great calm.” Amen!
 
So, what did Jesus do again? First, He rebuked the wind—which we likened that wind to the circumstances themselves. So, He rebuked the problem itself—and to “rebuke” something means “to correct, admonish, instruct, or charge authoritatively.” So, this means He set the source of the problem straight by “speaking to the mountain”—which was the wind that was causing all the problems on the water.
 
Then, we are told, that He “said to the sea.” Now we likened the sea that was beating against the boat and filling it with water to those fears and worries that impact us as a result of the circumstances. So now what we see is Jesus speaking to the sea, and we are told exactly what He spoke to it— “Peace, be still!” What did He say again? PEACE! In other words, we need to speak the peace of God over our mind, will and emotions when those unruly waves are trying to drown us with cares.
 
Now these words in this verse “Peace, be still” describe “to be quiet, remain silent, & to muzzle.” So what Jesus was literally saying to the sea was, “SHUT UP!” And did you know this is exactly what you need to do with those thoughts and emotions that are beating against your heart and mind—tell them that you will have peace and for them to be quiet! The world will say you’re weird if you talk to yourself, but I think they’re weird!
 
QUIETING OUR SOULS
 
This is what I see as the Psalmist’s describing the “quieting our souls.”
 
Of course, we have a lot of Scriptures that refer to us as speaking to our own souls—telling ourselves what we are going to do. One of the most obvious ones is Psalm 103:1 when David says, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name.”
 
I feel sometimes we hear these Scriptures so many times that we get on autopilot and don’t really think about what they are saying. But in this verse, David was talking to his own soul! He was telling himself to praise the Lord! In fact, he wasn’t just talking to his soul; he addressed “all that was within him” to praise God’s holy name!
 
So, a good question is: Why would one ever have to tell their soul to praise God? It’s because there will ample opportunity in one’s life to either forget or not feel like praising God. And this is when we have to give ourselves a little self-talk, grabbing ourselves by the ear, and make ourselves bless the Lord at those times! Amen. 
 
But just like David told his soul to praise God, in Psalm 62:5, he also said, “Yes, my soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from him” (NIV). God’s Word translation says, “Wait calmly for God alone, my soul, because my hope comes from him.”
 
So here, David was telling his soul to settle down. Almost like the admonition of a child, he speaks to his soul and says, “Wait calmly.” Do you think the Bible might be trying to teach us something here? 
 
And I really like this next one David wrote: Psalm 131:1 says, “Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor my eyes lofty. Neither do I concern myself with great matters, nor with things too profound for me.”
 
And did you know that is all that worry is—it’s being concerned about things that we cannot control. This is why Jesus said in Matthew 6:27 that we cannot through worry change anything anyway, so why do it?
 
Now David is also saying here that his heart is not “proud” or his eyes “arrogant” in relation to not being concerned with these things. Did you that it is an arrogant and proud thing for us to be anxious and worry? It is basically us saying (without saying it) that we are going to concern ourselves with these things rather than casting it over on the Lord, in humility, and letting Him perfect those concerns.  
 
Then in Psalm 131:2 David goes on to say, “Surely I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with his mother.” God’s Word translation says, “Instead, I have kept my soul calm and quiet. My soul is content as a weaned child is content in its mother's arms.” Amen!
 
So, again, David seems to be describing his soul like a baby that needs to be trained to grow up. Like when a baby is weaned, it won’t like it initially and might pitch a fit, but it will eventually adapt and do what it needs to do. Likewise, our soul must be put in its place and not be allowed to dictate our lives. That would be no different than letting our children dictate what we do and when we do it. No, our spirit needs to rule the soul well just like the parents need to rule their homes well.   
 
CONCLUSION
 
So, here is the takeaway from today’s message: This peace has been left with us because the Prince of Peace Himself lives within us. And since we have the peace of Christ, we know the ability to walk in this peace is in our control. Therefore, it is up to us to not let our hearts be troubled and to not let them be afraid. And when we let this peace rule in our hearts, this is when we let ourselves get to the other side just like Jesus & His disciples. No, it is not the storms of life nor is it the winds & waves that can sink us; it is only the troubled waters that get in our boat that sinks us. So, the good news is, if we can keep the troubles around us from getting inside of us, they cannot sink us. Amen and amen!
 
So, we have learned that Jesus said we are going to get to the other side! So, no matter what the storm, winds and waves are telling us, we too can stand up in the midst of those troubled waters of life and say to our soul— “Peace be still!” and experience a great calm—that is, that perfect peace that passes all understanding! Hallelujah, and amen. 

INTRODUCTION
 
Let me start out today with a couple of dad (i.e. bad) jokes about this subject we will begin covering today:

• If you were stressed out yesterday does that make you past tense?
• Why was the computer stressed after work? Because it had a hard drive.
• Why wasn't the rancher stressed when his cows had really short legs? The steaks were low.

 
(Hopefully today’s message is better than those jokes😊)
 
Stress … Stress is a very real problem in the world we live in today. With the increase in information and technology that we have in this 21st Century, the human race is living in more stress than it has ever been before. Yes, even with these conveniences we have in the world today, people have still found a way to live stressed-out lives.
 
So, what is the solution? Should we just throw our hands in the air and say, “I wish I was born in another time-period because it seems like we are just doomed to live our lives full of stress today.” Absolutely not—for God’s Word, which clearly gives us the answers regarding living free from the stress caused by worry and anxiety, is not just relevant to those who lived back in the Bible times; the same principles will work for us today too! Amen?  
 
Now I am titling this particular series— “Stress Out!” Not that I am giving you permission to live a stressed-out life as the title might seem to indicate. The reason I am titling this series this way is because I want to teach you how to get the stress out of your life and how to keep it out. Yes, what I will be doing in these teachings is giving you God’s way to eliminate stress from your life.  You will receive, most importantly, what God’s Word says about this subject, while also learning some of the very practical ways that I personally deal with the stress that tries to come against me.  
 
So, let’s begin by looking at a New Testament Scripture which I believe clearly describes to us God’s perfect will in this area for all of us—and it is out of the mouth of our Savior: In Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus said, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
 
Hmmm … Labor and heavy laden … Sounds like both the cause and effect of stress to me! How about you? But what we learn in this passage of Scripture is that Jesus came to give us rest from the stresses of life. That’s right—by taking His easy yoke and light burden, we will find rest for our souls. That means that everything within us—our minds, emotions, and even our physical person—will enter in a supernatural rest that will free us from the stress of this world. Amen?
 
Now through the course of these teachings, we will go through three powerful verses and break them down in detail in order to find the nuggets that will help us to enter into this supernatural rest. But today, I want us to begin by dealing the spirit of stress. We will do this by digging into what is stress really is, how it affects us, and look at a real-life example from the Bible of a man who was faced with great stress and what he needed to know which helped him deal with it.   
  
WHAT STRESS REALLY IS
 
First of all, let’s learn what stress really is: Some use the term “stress” synonymously with worry, anxiety, fear, etc. But the truth is, stress is not really the same as worry or anxiety; stress is simply our soul and our body’s reaction to the cares we carry. 
 
Consider the definition: Stress is defined as “the state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or very demanding circumstances.” Interestingly, in relation to the “stress” that is put on physical objects, stress is also defined as “the pressure or tension exerted on a material object.” So, stress would be more correctly viewed as the effect worry, anxiety, and fear has on us—mentally, emotionally, and even physically—because of the circumstances & situations we are surrounded with.  
 
When defining the word “stress,” Webster’s 1828 Dictionary uses words like “force, pressure, violence and oppression” to define it. How many of you know that this does not sound godly? God does not put pressure on us, nor does He force things on us. He certainly is not oppressive and does not get violent with us. But this is what stress does. So, who does it sound like stress comes from? The devil, sin, this world, etc. Therefore, stress is not a part of God’s kingdom.
 
So, if stress is not of God and is a result of the curse in this fallen world, we need to understand that it is a thief—sent to kill, steal and destroy. In other words, it is an intruder, and not to ever be a part of a Christian’s life. Since stress is an intruder, we need to understand that stress cannot get in us without our consent.
 
Now the reason I say this is because a large part of the body of Christ doesn’t see stress this way. They see it as an understandable and even acceptable part of living in this world. But the truth is that even though we are in this world, we are not of this world. Therefore, just because the world accepts that having stress is normal, it doesn’t mean we are supposed to. You see, the Bible is explicit in teaching us that the stress caused by the cares of this world is not to have any part of our lives. In fact, it tells us exactly what stress really is—it’s a result of sin. 
 
You see, the Holy Scriptures teach us to not let our hearts be troubled (John 14:1 & 14:27), to be anxious for nothing (Philippians 4:6), and to not worry about even the basic essentials of our life (Matthew 6:25-34). We see in First Peter 5:7 that we are to “cast all our care on Him for He cares for us”—which teaches us that when we truly know in our hearts that He cares for us, we will then be able to effectively cast all our care upon the One who cares for us. The Lord said in Joshua 1:9, “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” To be afraid or dismayed would certainly be symptoms of stress, right? Therefore, we can see that the Lord commands us to be strong and courageous and not stressed out. In fact, there are countless times in the Bible that we are instructed to not fear. And that is all anxiety and worry are—they are fear’s distant cousins.
 
So, all I am saying is that we need to have zero tolerance in our lives for things like fear, worry and anxiety—anything that would cause stress on us. In the eyes of God, they are unacceptable—sinful even—and should be in our eyes as well.
 
And here is another good point we should consider: If we are told not to allow ourselves to be troubled in heart, to have any anxiety about anything, and to not worry about our life, then we must be capable of not allowing these things inside of us. Amen? In fact, if we are told not to allow these stressful things in our lives, then to allow them would be considered disobedience, right? And that is what we need to come to grips with: While the world defines stress as a natural part of life; stress is simply a result of disobedience for the believer. Therefore, we need to avoid stress, worry, fear, etc. like we would adultery, murder, and stealing. One could even make the case that these have worse consequences than these other “bigger sins.”
 
THE HARMFUL EFFECTS OF STRESS
 
But God does not place such an emphasis on this and command us not to worry because He’s trying to control us. No, He “stresses” this because of how stress hurts us.
 
Now the world has begun to realize how detrimental stress is on our lives. They tell us that stress is actually the number one cause of sickness, disease, and physical infirmities. So, the world has come to understand that worry, stress and anxiety can have harmful effects on our physical bodies, but before science and medicine of this world came to realize this, the Word was already declaring it.
 
Let me share with you some Scriptures where God tells us the harmful effects of stress on our lives: 

• Psalm 37:8— “Do not fret, it only causes harm.”
• Psalm 55:22— “Cast your burden on the Lord, And He shall sustain you;” (What does this imply? If you don’t cast your burden on the Lord, you might forfeit your sustenance (i.e. your provision).
• Proverbs 12:25— “Anxiety in the heart of man causes depression, but a good word makes it glad.”
• Job 3:25— “For the thing I greatly feared has come upon me, and what I have dreaded has happened to me.”
• First Peter 5:7-8 even talks about “whom the devil may devour” right after telling us to cast our cares over on the Lord. Do you think there is a connection?

 
REMINDERS FOR STRESSFUL TIMES
 
Now speaking of fear, let me conclude today’s introduction with something the Holy Spirit reminded me of out of Second Timothy chapter one which really illustrates the Lord’s heart concerning the stresses we face in life:
 
The apostle Paul was writing to his son in the faith, Timothy, who was under tremendous pressure at the time of this letter. You see, Nero—one of the most demonized leaders Rome ever had—had come into power, and the threat of persecution and even martyrdom was at an all-time high. Yes, even the persecution stirred up by Saul of Tarsus could not hold a candle to the threat that now faced the church. And what made this pressure that Timothy had on him so great was that he was not just under the stress of caring for himself and his family; he was the pastor of the church of Ephesus during the time this was written! So, he had an entire church to “worry” about. The apostle Paul echoed his sentiments in Second Corinthians 11:22-28 when he gave his resume of all of the difficulties he faced in his ministry: he described being beaten, imprisoned, shipwrecked, stoned, hungry, etc. etc. etc., but at the end of his list he said, “besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches.” So, Paul knew a thing or two about “pressure” too, which included his concern for all of the churches that he planted.  
 
So, one might call this the epitome of stressful times for Pastor Timothy. Amen? Yes, I doubt that any of us in here today have anything in our lives that would be considered more stressful than what the apostle Paul or even Pastor Timothy were facing back then. And Paul knew this—probably by his own personal experiences and, evidently, because he was being inspired by the Holy Spirit. He knew his son in the faith needed some encouragement because a spirit of fear was apparently trying to set in even in Pastor Timothy.
 
So, Paul writes him, and after his initial introduction and blessings, says in verses 3-7: “I thank God, whom I serve with a pure conscience, as my forefathers did, as without ceasing I remember you in my prayers night and day, greatly desiring to see you, being mindful of your tears, that I may be filled with joy, when I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also. Therefore, I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” (Second Timothy 1:3-7). Wow! What powerful lessons are contained in these few verses! Let’s look at some of them:
 
Notice, first of all, how Paul said, “I thank God, whom I serve with a pure conscience, as my forefathers did…” Now we will get ahead of ourselves a little here, but herein lies a good way to live free from stress like Paul did—to serve God with a pure conscience.
 
Did you know that not everybody does this? Many well-meaning Christians serve God, but not with a pure conscience. For example, so many do things for the Lord out of a conscience that is defiled—meaning, they are doing things that seem like good things to do, but they are doing them because they either feel obligated, because someone put pressure on them to do it, because they are afraid of disappointing God or someone else, etc., etc., etc. The bottom line is a lot of people do things, but their motivations are not pure and Spirit-inspired. And guess what the result of this: It’s going to be adding stress to our lives! “Well, I’m serving you, Lord!” they say, but is it what the Lord told you to do? I’ve seen this in both others and myself.
 
Now let me interject this: This probably only applies to a little over 10% of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ—because generally only about 10% of the body of Christ does ninety percent of the work. The other 90% don’t serve well at all. But the fact is, there is a small group of people in the Body of Christ who serve and serve and serve, and can slip over into doing more than the Lord would have them to do. That is why it is important for us to be Spirit-led in everything we do and not let our hearts condemn us if we don’t do something that we see the need for or that we are asked to do. Amen.
 
Moving on … Notice how Paul began to thank God that he had the privilege of remembering Timothy in his prayers “night and day.”
 
I believe this is also an important part of what kept Paul not only stress-free but also so joyful and triumphant amidst his own afflictions—he stayed connected to the Lord in prayer. And not just at night or in the morning, but both “night and day.” I think one area we fail in is we are trying to walk in peace, yet we have one foot in the Word and one foot in the world. It’s going to be very hard for one to live the peaceful life that Jesus promised us if they are not setting the Lord always before them (Compare Psalm 16:8).  
 
And notice that the apostle Paul said he prayed like this “without ceasing.” Aren’t we told to pray without ceasing (First Thessalonians 5:17)? This is what I call “keeping the lines open”—that is, never hang the phone up. Call Him up, Call Him up, Tell Him what you want without ceasing. This is a key to casting those burdens on the Lord and receiving from Him to sustain us. (We will go into this point in much more detail in the coming weeks)
 
Then Paul even acknowledged the hurts, pains, heartache, and stress that Timothy was experiencing by saying, “being mindful of your tears.”
 
So, yes, there is certainly a place for being mindful of other’s tears—for sympathizing with, and even weeping with those who weep. But here is an extremely important point you and I need to understand and embrace: Your tears, your hurts, your pain, your pressures, your cares, etc. absolutely should mean something to me. But your tears, your hurts, your pain, your pressures, your cares, etc. should mean absolutely nothing to you. In other words, when it comes to me loving you, I should be touched with the feelings of your infirmities and show compassion on you. However, when it comes to us governing our own life—you and I should not be moved by our own feelings nor should ever tolerate ourselves going to pity parties. It’s tight but it’s right😊
 
However, what good friends in the faith will do is, while they will be compassionate towards their friend’s difficulties, they will also draw them back to faith. Notice what Paul said next: He said, “that I may be filled with joy … when I call to remembrance the genuine faith...”
 
What filled Paul with joy was remembering the genuine faith Timothy had. So, what Paul was doing here was a good job of exhortation. He was not just remembering Timothy’s faith, but was reminding Timothy himself of the faith he had inside of him—apparently because Timothy hadn’t been using much of it.
 
You see, evidently something like faith or peace can be in us, but not necessarily experienced by us. So, yes, Timothy needed to be reminded that there was faith in him. Therefore, do you reckon that we might need to be reminded from time to time that there is peace in us? Amen!
 
So, when Paul said that this genuine faith that he knew was in Timothy’s grandma and his mama was in him as well, he said, “and I am persuaded is in you also.” In other words, what he was saying was—"You got it in you, boy! That same spirit of faith that your grandmama & mama had in them, it’s in you too!”
 
Isn’t that awesome, how evidently virtues can be passed down from generations!?! But unfortunately, just like good things like faith can be passed down from our parents & grandparents, bad things like worry, anxiety and fear can be passed down too.
 
You see, there are some out there who are worry-warts, and the reason why they are worry-warts is because they were raised by worry-warts, who in turn were raised by worry-warts. In other words, these behaviors and attitudes that cause stress in our lives can be passed down from those who didn’t know the very things I am teaching you today. But that doesn’t mean we are doomed to a life of stress! No, we can reverse the curse—draw a line in the sand and say, “No more! The buck stops here!” So, just like Timothy had faith instilled in him at a young age and wasn’t currently walking in it, we could have fear instilled in us at a young age and not currently walk in it! It’s a choice either way. Amen.
 
Then we get to this oh so powerful verse—Second Timothy 1:6. Paul says, “Therefore…” In other words, “since you have this genuine faith in you, this is what you need to do—stir up that gift that God put in through the laying on of my hands!”
 
Now what did Paul mean when he said, “I remind you”? Apparently, he had spoken something to him before about stirring up this gift of God that was given to him. So, when did Paul tell him this—do we have any record of it? We sure do!
 
In First Timothy 4:14, Paul had told Timothy not to neglect this gift of God that was in him, given to him by prophecy and through the laying on of hands of the eldership. Well, guess what apparently happened? Pastor Timothy did exactly what most of us do—God tells to be sure to do something and then we fail to do it, and then He has to come and tell us how to get out of the condition we never should have gotten in in the first place. That is why messages like this are so important—because while a lot of us have probably heard things like this before, that doesn’t mean we are currently doing them. Therefore, we need to be reminded of these things in order to stir up our pure minds (see Second Peter 3:1).
 
You see, the words “stir up” that Paul used in Second Timothy 1:6 comes from a triple-compound word in the original Greek language. It comes from the word where we get “pyro” from, which obviously means “fire.” It also uses the word zoe—meaning life. And, finally, it uses the Greek word ana which means “up or again.” So, when you combine these three words together, the phrase “stir up” means to “bring a fire to life again,” or you could say it means to “rekindle” a fire.
 
Well, in order to “rekindle” a fire, that means that the fire had to go out. And that is exactly what had happened to Pastor Timothy—his fire had all but been quenched and he was living in the same stresses you and I do. So, his father in the faith was exhorting him to stir that fire back up—that fire of the gift of God which he had in his spirit. 
 
But when do fire’s go out? When we neglect them! Therefore, Timothy’s fire went out simply because he had failed to give the proper attention to it. So, how do we keep the fire stirred up within us? By doing what Paul told Timothy to do in First Timothy 4:14—to give attention to reading, exhortation, doctrine, and meditating on these things, etc. (see First Timothy 4:13,15-16).
 
You see, saints, it all starts with us just simply reading our Bible. You would think that this was a given to most Christians, but it’s not. Very few believers actually read their Bible on a regular basis. God’s Word is food for your spirit man, church! So, in order to stay nourished in the spirit, we must feed ourselves regularly on the Word of God. Amen?
 
So, you getting in the Word ourselves is the first and foremost way in which we do not neglect the gift of God within us, and therefore, keep that fire stoked. But then Paul says to also give attention to “exhortation.” This is exactly what I am giving you today—a good exhortation! But did you know that you do not have to wait until church? You can “exhort” yourself in the Lord. (We will get more into this momentarily) And, finally, Paul lists the third and final way in which we give attention to the gift of God within us and not neglect it—through “doctrine.” Now “doctrine” simply describes “teaching.” So, what this means is that we need to regularly sit under good, solid teaching like you are hearing here today. Can I get an, amen? 
 
Then, in verses 15-16, Paul goes on to describe other important factors to keeping the fire kindled in our hearts—namely, meditating on these things (i.e. what you have been reading, are being exhorted by, and what you are being taught). In other words, it is important for you to take the things you’ve heard, and give even “the more earnest heed” to those things lest you drift away from their truths (see Hebrews 2:1)—that is, aggressively and purposefully meditating on these truths afterwards.
 
And, finally, Paul tells Timothy to “take heed” to himself. This has a wide range of meaning too. First of all, we need to learn to take care of ourselves by not burning the candles at both ends and experiencing “burn out.” There is certainly a natural side to this as well. But it also describes “watching ourselves” in regards to making sure that our flaky flesh and squirrely soul don’t start this pity party “woe is me” stuff we’ve talked about.
 
A good example of all of this I’ve been describing to you that happened to Timothy is how so many of us go to a camp-meeting, a youth retreat, or some other time of spiritual refreshing and we get “fired up.” But what happens almost every time? The fire begins to subside. What once was a bon-fire of zeal and excitement begins to wane and we wind back down to where we were before we ever went—full of cares and stress. Do you know why this happens? It is because we let the fire go out by not giving attention to it and continuing to throw logs on the fire. And we throw more wood on the fire by doing these very things Paul told Timothy in First Timothy chapter 4.
 
But what I want you to see is the reason Timothy had yielded to these stresses of life & ministry was because:

1. He didn’t heed what Paul said to him in his first epistle (as we’ve seen)
2. He began to give attention to other things that instilled fear (as we will see)

 
We see this second point in Second Timothy 1:7 when he said, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”
 
So, the apostle Paul turned his attention to the things God had given him (the benefits, if you would)—power, love, and a sound mind, saying, “Man of God, stir yourself up! Tell your soul who you are, what you have, and what you will not allow! You have a spirit of power, of love, and of a sound mind!”
 
THE SPIRIT OF STRESS
 
The apostle Paul goes on to say in Second Timothy 1:7, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”
 
Now the first word in this verse is significant—because it tells us why Paul said what he just said. In other words, Paul had just reminded his son in the faith that he was persuaded that he had the same faith in him as his grandmother and his mother had in them (vs. 5), and to use that faith to stir up the gift of God—the anointing—that was placed in his at his ordination. So now he tells him why he said these things. It was because of this spirit of fear that Timothy had evidently been yielding to.
 
So, before we go any further into this, I want you to notice how apparently fear is the polar opposite of faith. I get this from the fact that if Paul had just encouraged Timothy to get back into faith and then tells him why in this verse—namely, because God had given him this spirit of faith. Then, in verse 7, he tells him this is because God had not given him this spirit of fear. Therefore, Paul was telling Timothy to get out of this attitude of fear by stirring up the gift in him by faith. So always remember—fear and faith are completely opposite.
 
Well, as it pertains to what we are talking about today, if we are carrying around a spirit of stress, then we would need to be exhorted that we have a spirit of peace within us, being passed down from the Lord Jesus. Amen? Therefore, we need to stir up the spirit of peace!   
 
So, that leads me to the next point of focus in Second Timothy 1:7: not only has God not given us a spirit of fear; He has given us a spirit of faith—an attitude that manifests itself in three ways: Power, Love, and a Sound Mind.
 
Notice in this verse how it is worded: The apostle Paul says that we have not received from the Lord a spirit of fear. However, He apparently has given a different spirit—because when he goes on to say, “but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” This is why I believe these three things are characteristics of a spirit of faith.
 
First off, we have been given a spirit of power. Now the word “power” comes from the Greek word dunamis and describes dynamic power and ability. It is where we get the word “dynamite” from. In studying this word, you will find that it describes the ability or capability of a thing. So, in this case, we have given a spirit of power—that is, the “I am able” and “I can do” attitude. Therefore, us having the spirit of power would be us possessing the attitude that says, “I am able to live stress free! I can live free from worry, anxiety, and fear! I can do all this through Him who strengthens me!” Amen!
 
You see, as a people of faith, we shouldn’t focus on what we can’t do. Rather, we should focus on what we can do. As I like to say, our attitude determines our altitude. I am strong in the Lord because He tells us: Let the weak say I am strong. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
 
Then Paul said to Timothy that not only have we been given a spirit of power, but also a spirit of love.
 
Now one thing we must understand about a spirit of faith is that faith & love work together. Paul said in Galatians 5:6 that faith works by love. So, it is no wonder why Paul includes a spirit of love in here with a spirit of faith. Faith always expresses itself in love. On top of that, the apostle John said that perfect love casts out fear. Therefore, like faith, love is the enemy of fear and always overcomes it.
 
So, Paul was encouraging Timothy to let that spirit of love that had been shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Spirit (see Romans 5:5) to dominate his heart rather than the fear that was currently dominating his heart. This agape love is first the love of God and secondly the love of the souls of men. In a commentary I read—Barnes’ Notes—he explains it like so: “Nothing will do more to inspire courage, to make a man fearless of danger, or ready to endure privation or persecution, than love. The love of country, and wife, and children, and home, makes the most timid bold when they are assailed.” In short, this agape will cast out the spirit of fear and make one bold and courageous in Christ. It will cause one to forget their own self-preservation and be motivated to do more for others—including the Lord Himself—than we do for our own lives.
 
But here is another part of the love of God that we might need to stir up—our love for Him: Revelation chapter two speaks of this when Jesus exhorted the Church of Ephesus to return to their first love. Now our first love never leaves us even though we can leave it. This is why Jesus said to abide in His love. What I am referring to is the experience of God’s love toward us that we had either when we were saved, baptized in the Holy Spirit, or had some awakening to God’s love. It’s our heart that changes, not His love. 
 
And, finally, Paul includes another manifestation of the spirit of faith—a sound mind. Now the use of this term is obvious because the spirit of fear dominates the mind.
 
The apostle Paul refers to the “spirit of the mind” in Ephesians 4:23—which is an obvious description of the “attitude of the mind.” So, yes, there is a spirit of a sound mind—that is, a way of thinking that is sober, self-controlled, and disciplined in its thought patterns.
 
The Greek word used for “sound mind” is only used this one time in the New Testament. It comes from the words sos, which is where we get the word “sozo” from, and means “safe.” It also comes from the word phren, the word commonly used to describe the “mind.” So, when you combine these words together, you get the word sophronismos which describes, “safe-thinking, the ability to use good judgment, have disciplined thought patterns, and the ability to understand and make right decisions.” I’ve heard one minister translate this as having “saved brains.”
 
So, this is the attitude that we need to have—one in which we have the mind of Christ in all things. We do not allow our minds to go into that “stinking kinda thinking.” We bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ! We cast down every imagination that exalts itself against the knowledge of Christ! We discipline both our minds and bodies—bringing them into subjection lest we become disqualified (Compare First Corinthians 9:27). And that certainly includes all of those cares, worries, and anxieties that try to come against us!
 
But the main point I want you to see in these verses in Second Timothy chapter one is that the spirit of stress that so many have adopted in their lives is not our inheritance. God did not give us the spirit of stress! He gave us the ability to have a new kind of attitude—an attitude that says, “I can live free from stress!,” a mentality of perfect love that does cast out all the fear, and a new way of thinking that has disciplined thought patterns and chooses the right way of thinking every day.
 
It has been well-said that we cannot control birds from flying around our heads, but we can sure keep them from building a nest there! Accept the fact that the Lord has said we can absolutely not let our hearts be troubled, that we can certainly not have anxiety about anything, and we surely can keep from worrying, and that we can live free from this spirit of stress.
 
Like Jesus said “Come” to Peter, when Peter asked Him to call for him to come walk on the water to Him—and this one word from the Lord enabled Peter to obey and walk on the water supernaturally. One could say that Peter walked on the Word. Likewise, when the Lord tells us to not worry, to be anxious for nothing, and to not let our hearts be troubled, we can walk on that Word too! Yes, we can walk on the troubled waters and live free from stress too! The Lord says to you and I today—Come!

​ So since today is our annual First Fruits Sunday here at High Point Church, it seemed good to me and to the Holy Ghost to wrap up our teaching on the Fruit of the Spirit on this particular Sunday. With that being said, my title for today’s summary & recap of this series is “The Last Fruits on First Fruits.”
 
Now I hope you all have gotten as much out of this series on the Fruit of the Spirit as I have. This series of teachings has caused me personally to look at these nine virtues known as the Fruit of the Spirit quite differently than I had before.
 
For one, I had never really seen these nine fruit as being the core nature of God Himself. But we have many Scriptures that back this up—because, for example, we know God is love, right (see First John 4:7)? He is also called both the “Prince of Peace” and the “God of Peace.” On top of that, we are constantly reminded in the Bible that God is good and He is faithful too. So, throughout the Bible we can find these nine virtues describing God Himself. Therefore, the fruit of the Spirit is essentially a call for us to imitate God in our hearts, actions and behavior. So, while most have essentially described the fruit of the Spirit as us simply displaying character in our lives, I now see these virtues as us basically producing God’s character in our lives.
 
This is huge, church—because I believe that once we begin to see God as love, joy, peace, etc., then we find the freedom to reflect these virtues in our lives. In other words, once we see God as this way, we can see ourselves becoming this way too! Therefore, beholding His fruit is how we can nurture the seed for those same fruit that we who have been born again already have on the inside of us.
 
And this has always been God’s plan for His creation, saints—to be fruitful and multiply in the paradise of His presence: Do you remember on the third day, after the Lord created the earth, what the Lord said? He said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth”; and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.” (Genesis 1:11-12). Here we see how God originally designed fruit to be produced:
And I want you to notice that, first of all, in order for the tree to yield fruit that it must be created as a fruit tree. For example, if the tree is not an apple tree, then what is it not going to produce? Apples! So, the first thing that had to transpire in order for you and I to bear the fruit of the Spirit in our lives is to be recreated as a fruit-bearing tree. And we know that this occurred by the Holy Spirit when we called on the name of the Lord, were born again, and received the new nature we received through the Spirit washing, renewing and regenerating us (Titus 3:5).
 
So, the Lord created things so that a fruit tree will yield its fruit, but notice that it yields fruit “according to its kind.” I like how the New Living Translation says this. It says, “from which they came.” In other words, a fruit tree is only going to produce the fruit, and the seed in that fruit, from the seed from which they came.
So, the reason it is called the fruit of the Spirit is because it is fruit that is according to His kind, or you could say, it is the fruit that came directly from the seed of the Spirit.
 
And that is exactly how I defined the Fruit of the Spirit: It is the fruit of a spiritually alive and Spirit-empowered life. That means that it is what is produced in our lives both from what we have in our recreated spirit when we got saved (i.e. the fruit of our spirit) and from what the Holy Spirit helps us to produce (i.e. the fruit of the Holy Spirit). And both of these truths work together to see more fruit in our lives—for we had to be born of the Spirit to be capable to produce His fruit and we also need His help in producing it as well.
 
So, what I want to do in this, the “last fruits” of our teaching on the Fruit of the Spirit is go back through each of these nine virtues and briefly touch on some of the highlights of what they are and how we can see them produced in our lives:
 
Now these nine virtues are, of course, listed in Galatians 5:22-23 as “… love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control …”  (Galatians 5:22-23).
 
First of all, I made the point as we went through these nine fruit that the order that Paul listed them in is significant: For example, and understandably so, love is mentioned first in his list. Why? Well, because God’s core nature is agape. Therefore, like God is at the top of the food chain, love should certainly be at the top of the fruit chain. Also, Jesus called love—both our love for God and our love for our neighbor—the greatest of all the commandments. And Jesus then gave us a new commandment that was a whole new standard of love—loving one another as He has loved us. So, love certainly deserves to be the first in Paul’s list.
 
But love also might be first because it is the meant to be the first virtue produced in the life of a born again, Spirit-filled Christian. You see, the Bible is explicit that our love for one another is how we know that we have passed from death unto life (First John 3:14). It is also how the world will know that we are Jesus’ disciples (John 13:35). So, you could say that love is how both we ourselves and the world around us will know that we are Christians.
 
So, I don’t think I need to belabor this point any more that love is the greatest of all these fruit. Amen?
 
But we also learned that by walking in this love, it will organically yield in our lives the other fruit as well. For example, joy and peace then become a natural by-product of the love we are producing. I’ll tell you—you show me someone who loves well and I’ll show you someone who also produces some joy and peace in their lives. Amen?
 
So, my point is, these fruit play off one another in many respects. But do you remember how I made the point that the lower third of these nine manifestations of the Spirit are probably the last three virtues most Christians desire in their lives—faithfulness, humility (i.e. meekness), and self-control? Yes, I’m sure if we were to poll a hundred-plus Christians and asked them to honestly rank these nine Fruit of the Spirit, that these three would be at the bottom of the totem pole.
 
But I made the point that the fruit of the Spirit are like our spiritual muscles, and like it is with most body-builders, the tendency is to only focus on developing the upper third of their body. In other words, these gym rats like to work on their chest, shoulders and arms, but they don’t work on their thighs and calves. This should not be so for us, spiritually-speaking. We need to not just focus on the upper half of Paul’s list—desiring more love, joy and peace. No, we need to pursue being more faithful, humble and self-controlled in our lives like we would being more loving, joyful and peaceful.         
 
So, my point is that Paul’s order of these fruit shows us some important truths about all of the fruit’s importance in our lives.
 
So now, as promised, let’s briefly go back through each of the nine fruit of the Spirit in order to see what they are and how to see them produced in our lives:

1. LOVE – We made the point that there is a big difference between the way God uses the word “love” and the way the world uses the word “love.” This word “love” comes from the Greek word agape, which describes the God kind of love, again different than a worldly kind of love. An example that we used is how, in the world, we are quick to loosely throw around the term “love.” We say “I love Jesus” but also say “I love coffee.” Well, hopefully we love Jesus more than we love coffee. But my point is that this is a worldly kind of love because it is based on the condition of the thing we are loving. No, the God kind of love we are talking about here is a love that is not based on the behavior of the one being loved; it is solely based on the character of the one doing the loving. Therefore, agape is unconditional, limitless, and self-sacrificing. This is why I like aspects of the King James Version’s translation—the word “charity.” I believe this is a good description of agape because when one gives to a charity, there is nothing expected in return. It is understood that when we give to a “charity” that there are no strings attached and there is no reciprocation. Not to mention, “charities” are not designed to receive well wishes or good intentions. They receive tangible goods and monetary gifts. Likewise, agape is not just saying “I love you”; it is giving love. Therefore, we also learned that since love is a commandment and not a feeling nor a suggestion, then feelings are not a part of producing love in our lives. Therefore, as it is with the rest of the fruit of the Spirit, you and I can choose to put on love like we put on our clothes. It’s a choice—a deliberate and conscious choice that we are going to produce loving actions towards others.
2. JOY – We learned that if love is not some gooey feeling that just makes us feel love for others then why would joy be any different. A good example of this that we looked at was in Philippians 4:4 where the apostle Paul tells this church to “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say, Rejoice.” Why would the Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul tell us to always rejoice if joy was just automatic? I mean, if joy was just something that is manifested in and through us irrespective of our own conscious and deliberate decision, then why would we have to be told to exhibit it? No, joy is not just automatic. It is a fruit that we decide to produce in our lives as we put our attention on the things that are true, lovely, noble, etc. Therefore, we can accurately say that joy is the fruit of focus. I gave you several examples of how joy is like feeling like we have a million bucks when everything in the natural might say otherwise.  
3. PEACE – The same is true for peace. That tranquil, restful state of the soul that Jesus left us with is also a fruit of our focus—for He promised to keep us in perfect peace when our mind is stayed on Him (Isaiah 26:3). We saw that one aspect of peace is that peace that we can have within us during the storms of life. This is also what is implied in Philippians chapter 4 when Paul teaches us that the way to having the peace guard our hearts & minds is by us rejoicing, being thankful, turning to the Lord with the things which concern us, etc. (see Philippians 4:4-7). So, what we are beholding is again imperative to maintaining our peace. But we also learned that this peace that Paul speaks of is like a two-sided coin. Of course, there is the side of peace that describes the tranquility, quietness, and rest in the soul. But there is also the side of peace that describes peace between two individuals. And this is what we spent most of our time talking about last week—the peace we are to pursue with others.
4. LONGSUFFERING – This fruit of the Spirit comes from the Greek word makrothumia and comes from two words. The prefix is makros, which simply means “long”, and the other word is thumos, which describes “passionate anger or wrath.” So, when you combine these two words together, you see a person described that takes a “long” time to get “mad” or you could say they are slow to anger. When it comes to this word, I like to use the analogy of a stick of dynamite. But not just any ordinary stick of dynamite, but one that has a tremendously long fuse (i.e. that string that one lights on fire to ignite the dynamite). So, because its fuse is so long, you can “burn” it for a long time before it will ever “explode” on you. Therefore, the believer who is producing this virtue in his or her life is extremely “patient & forbearing” with others. So, one could say that the fruit of longsuffering is “patience with people.” But like it is the rest of the fruit of the Spirit, this fruit must be put on. In other words, just as your clothes didn’t choose you, but you choose them, neither will the fruit of longsuffering choose you; you must choose it. And one of the ways to choose it is when you are being tempted the most to not be patient. In other words, you must resist the temptation to not suffer any longer when people are irritating the mess out of you. This is how that spiritual muscle gets exercised. 
5. KINDNESS – The dictionary defines the word “kindness” as the quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate. Therefore, I see kindness as being exhibited in demeanor, action & thought. What I mean by that is the fruit of kindness is to look kind, be kind, and to think kind. In other words, it is produced in our lives by our countenance, our actions, and our mindset. I would describe “kindness” as being motivated by compassion, or you could say, “moved with compassion.” And in order to be kind and compassionate, we must be conscientious and considerate. This is the key to kindness in my estimation: to give attention to the needs of others and then letting that awareness stir up a heart of compassion in us that will manifest in kind actions.
6. GOODNESS – The fruit of “goodness” denotes being “beneficial.” So, it paints the picture a benefactor, which would describe one who possesses great wealth and that uses their wealth to benefit others. Therefore, I would describe bearing the fruit of “goodness” as us being more “generous, liberal and charitable with our finances, time, or energy” like a “benefactor” graciously gives of him or herself to bless others. So, one important key to bearing more of the fruit of goodness in our lives is receiving more of the goodness of God in our lives. Someone might ask, “Are you saying that if I don’t have a lot of money I cannot produce this fruit in my life?” Absolutely not! All I am saying is that if you had more money, you could be even more beneficial than you are now. I get tickled when I’ve heard people say, “When I win the lottery, I’m going to give the church a million dollars.” Honey, if they don’t give a hundred dollars now, then they are fooling themselves to think they will give a million dollars if they hit the jackpot. No, we have to learn to bear the fruit of goodness now with what we have, and not wait until we feel like we have enough to spare.
7. FAITHFULNESS – We saw that the word that was used here by Paul is the same word used for “faith” itself. However, most agree that this particular fruit of the Spirit is describing someone who, through their faith, is reliable and loyal—that is, he or she is trustworthy, dependable, dedicated, consistent and unwavering in their dealings with others. Therefore, people can believe in the person who is faithful just like we can believe God because He Himself is faithful. It is for that reason that I said that God’s faithfulness is what our faith is rooted in, and our faithfulness is the fruit of the faith we have in Him. Amen. But how many of you know that faithfulness is not just automatically appearing on the branches of most of God’s people (i.e. us!)? So, how do we become more faithful? Well, it begins with beholding His faithfulness and then it comes by exercising this particular spiritual muscle. Sure, there will be times where we will be tempted to be unfaithful, but it is in exercising faithfulness that it can grow exceedingly. Amen.
8. GENTLENESS – Now most translations use this word “gentleness,” and the word Paul used here literally describes someone who is gentle, meek or mild. I made the point that the term “mild” is interesting here because what do you think of when you think of something being “mild”? We might think of something not being sharp, spicy or bitter. And it makes me think of cheese! I think of “mild” cheddar versus “sharp” cheddar. You see, mild cheddar is much blander and more moderate. The sharper cheddars, on the other hand, stand out a little more! They are a little tarter! Likewise, a “mild” person is much less abrasive, severe and harsh. Rather, they are gentle, meek, and humble. But this virtue called “gentleness” is by nature, meek, mild, and humble. The exact opposite of harsh, abrasive, and arrogant. Therefore, as you’ve heard me use already, perhaps the best translation of this word we would have today would be “humility.” But again, like it is with all of the fruit of the Spirit, this fruit is a mentality, an attitude, and a product of being pursued and put on. God doesn’t make us humble; we humble ourselves.
9. SELF-CONTROL --- We saw that this term “self-control” comes from the Greek word enkrateia which is a combination of two words—the word en which means “in, inner or inward” and the word kratos which describes “ruling power.” In fact, this word kratos is where we get our English term “democracy” from—the word demos being the Greek word for “people” and the word kratos meaning “ruling power.” So, the word democracy literally means “people ruling power”—essentially being a government that is ruled by the people. So, when we combine these words together, we get what I consider to be the perfect definition for “self-control.” Self-control is not people ruling power; it is “inward ruling power.” In other words, a person exhibiting the fruit of self-control is a person who is “governing” themselves. So, “self-control” is the supernatural ability of the Holy Spirit to rule over our outward man by our inward man. In other words, it is controlling the flesh by the spirit man. But like you’ll hear said in the world regarding people shooting down the notion that the majority rules when it comes to certain decisions— “This is not a democracy!” And it’s not with this particular fruit of the Spirit either! No, God the Father is not going to control you for you! Jesus is not going to make you produce His fruit either! And contrary to popular opinion, the Holy Spirit is also not going to make you bear this fruit of self-control! No, the only one that will control you is you! Therefore, we just need to be properly motivated.

 
CONCLUSION
 
Church, fruit in our lives is what the Lord is after. I would say that it is ultimate goal of God for each and every one of us. In fact, this Greek word for “fruit” in Galatians 5:22 is used 66 times in New Testament. What makes that number significant, you ask? Well, we have 66 books in the Bible. Therefore, I think it is safe to say that the entire Word of God is geared around “fruit”—showing us God’s fruit and teaching us to bear fruit according to His own kind.
 
And today is the fulfillment of all that we have been talking about over the past two or three months—for the purpose of First Fruits Sunday is to give everyone an opportunity to be even more fruitful by showing God’s love, goodness, kindness, etc. to your church family. In fact, it is essentially the same as what many people around the world are doing this week, where they are joining gyms and resolving to get back in shape for this coming year. Well, that is what today could be viewed as—for some of us it is us going to our spiritual gym for the first time in a while and exercising our spiritual muscles.  
 
But like we might say to the person who has made it their New Year’s resolution to start exercising, one quick word of encouragement: Don’t just make this a once-a-year event in your life. Live a lifestyle of blessing those around you—purposefully and intentionally thinking of ways to bear fruit towards those you come in contact with. This is the way to joy, the way of peace, and most importantly how to give glory to your Father! Amen and amen! 

REVIEW
So, we are coming close to concluding our study of the Fruit of the Spirit—which we have seen are the Lord’s divine characteristics and attributes that the Holy Spirit helps produce in our lives. In other words, the fruit of the Spirit is God’s character being produced in us, to where we exhibit His character.
 
Again, we have learned that these are the fruit of a spiritually alive and Spirit-empowered life. Not only that, but they are also the evidence that one is truly spiritual. Therefore, if we desire to be spiritually mature, then these nine virtues will be a part of our lives.  
 
Of course, these nine fruit of the Spirit are listed in Galatians 5:22-23 as “… love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control …”  (Galatians 5:22-23).
 
Thus far, we have covered eight of these nine fruit, and we have studied some awesome things. So, if you have missed any of these, please either get a hold of the prior notes or go to our website and listen to the one’s you’ve missed.
 
But let me say that the last two fruit we have covered are the first two in Paul’s list—the fruit of love and the fruit of joy. And we learned last time that like Jesus said concerning the great commandment, the second is like the first. Likewise, the second fruit (joy) is like the first (love).
 
You see, like God is at the top of the food chain, love is certainly at the top of the fruit chain. And love is a choice and an action, not necessarily a feeling or an emotion. We saw that since it is a commandment, that doesn’t necessarily mean we have to feel like doing it to obey.
 
Well, we learned last time that joy is no different. You see, if love is a choice and not an emotion, then why would joy be any different? I made the point last time that the vast majority of Christians believe that while love might be an act of obedience, joy is just going to happen automatically in our life. I believe, like love, goodness, kindness, etc., the fruits of joy and peace are a choice, not just fruit that fall on us.
 
A good example of this that we will look at again in a moment is in Philippians 4:4 where the apostle Paul tells this church to “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say, Rejoice.” Why would the Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul tell us to always rejoice if joy was just automatic? I mean, if joy was just something that is manifested in and through us irrespective of our own conscious and deliberate decision, then why would we have to be told to exhibit it?  
 
No, I think it is clear that, like love, joy is not an emotion or a feeling; joy is also a spiritual fruit that is meant to be produced in the natural. That means that I don’t have to feel happy or to necessarily have joyful emotions to produce this fruit. All I have to do is decide whether I am going to let my feelings dictate what is true or if I am going to purpose to let my spiritual nature walk in the truth.
 
Now last time, after we described both what and who joy is, we looked at how we can see the fruit of it in our lives. And I said that one thing that is clear to me about joy is that it is predominantly a product of one’s perspective: I used the example of how we can line up two people—one who is an elderly millionaire and the other a 12-year-old kid who doesn’t have two pennies to rub together—and then give both of them $100. Guess what is going to happen? The millionaire might show some gratitude but he certainly would not be bubbling over with joy, right? On the other hand, the kid would probably be ecstatic, filled with joy. Why? The $100 is worth the same, isn’t it? The difference is that it is worth less to the millionaire than it is to the child. In other words, it is how they view the money and the value system that creates the joy, not the money itself.
 
Likewise, you and I can be filthy, stinking rich in the spirit, having the same spiritual blessings as all the other born-again Christians out there, but if one of us doesn’t either recognize, focus on or esteem those spiritual blessings, then we won’t have joy produced in our hearts like another Christian who does. Therefore, we can accurately say that joy is the fruit of focus.   
 
So, I gave an example of what possessing joy is like: It would be like someone coming up to you, and promising to give you a million dollars. In fact, they say that the money is yours. It’s as good as done. And they’ll mail you a check by the end of the week. Well, depending on who it is that promised you this, you will have varying feelings. For example, if it is someone who has a reputation of being a prankster, they don’t have any indications from their life that they have that kind of money, or you simply just don’t know this person that well, you might not have any joy at that moment because your confidence in that promise would understandably be weak. But what would happen if you went to mail box one day that week and there was an envelope in the mail from this person, and in it was a check for one million dollars. Well, you probably still will not let yourself get too ecstatic because the check might not be good, right? But then you decide to take it to the bank it’s drawn on and ask them to give you a certified check for it, and you see them get up and go make that check for you. What do you think you are going to be feeling on the inside right then? Even before the check hits your hand, and you know it’s as good as gold, your heart rate will be sky high at that moment! So, this is what joy feels like: It is like when you don’t have that million dollars in your hand, but you feel like you do. Glory!      
 
THE PATH TO PEACE
 
Now before we move on to the final piece of fruit that we have left to cover, let me make one important point:
 
I personally believe there is a reason Paul put the fruit of the Spirit in the order that he did in Galatians 5:22-23. Why? Because these are the appropriate order in how to start seeing these fruit in our lives. Let me explain:
 
You see, everything starts with love. Love is the foundation of “quality Christianity.” So, check your love walk—because I can guarantee you that if you are not walking in love with people (being generous, benevolent, considering others more than you do yourselves) then you won’t be walking in joy, nor will you have peace.  
 
For example, if we are going to experience fullness of joy, we must learn to become givers—to give of our time, our service, and yes, of our resources too. Sure, it is important that we cooperate with these other spiritual laws of God’s kingdom in order to experience joy, but being a giver is what I consider to be the most important key to joy that we have.
 
I remember early in my Christian walk being dissatisfied with the level of joy I was walking in. I was growing by leaps and bounds and learning more and more about the Lord, but I witnessed in others a joy that I did not see in my own life. This prompted me to ask the Lord, “Lord, why do these other individuals seem to have more joy than I do?” To which the Lord responded, “It is because you count your life dear to yourself.” Then He took me over to this passage of Scripture in the book of Acts where the Apostle Paul made a powerful and most revealing statement.
 
In Acts chapter 20 Paul was summarizing his message to a group of pastors saying that he was aware of the chains and tribulations that awaited him in Jerusalem. Then he said, “But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy…” (Acts 20:24) Through this simple, yet profound statement we see a major key to the joy that is our inheritance in Christ. 
 
The way the Lord unlocked this verse to me was that the reason Paul was able to finish his race with joy was because, number one, he did not let anything move him and, number two, because he did not count his life dear to himself. But He also showed me something more specific: Number one, I saw that because Paul did not let things move him, he was enabled to finish his race. In other words, simply persevering to the end and not quitting is based on our faith to not let circumstances and situations move us. And the same is true for all of us. If we do not let these things move us, we too will finish our race. It is only in allowing ourselves to be swayed by the tribulations of life that we will be hindered from finishing our race and completing our course. But the second truth we see in this verse is that finishing our race with joy is directly tied to not counting our own lives as dear to ourselves. You see, just because we are strong in faith does not mean that we will enjoy the journey to the degree that we can. Yes, it is only when we learn to not count our life dear to ourselves that we will finish our race with joy. In other words, while letting nothing move us through trusting and believing in God will enable us to finish our race; coming to the place where we become selfless and focused more on the needs of others is when we will possess joy in the midst of that race. Amen!
 
We actually see this in the sequence of Philippians 4:2-7 when Paul begins to make an appeal to a couple of women in the church to walk in unity with one another and not to be contentious (see verses 2-3). Then, in verse 4, he exhorts them to rejoice in the Lord always. So, yes, love always precedes joy. But did you know that joy precedes peace too? Yes, after he talks to them about rejoicing, he gets into the things that govern the peace of God.  So, there is evidently a way of peace in our lives, and along that way is love & joy.
 
THE FRUIT OF PEACE
 
So, now we come to the final fruit of the Spirit that we have left to cover—the fruit of peace. Let’s begin by defining it:
 
This word for “peace” comes from the Greek word eirene which describes a state of rest, quietness and calmness. (On a side note, this is where some women have gotten their name “Irene” from)
 
Now this peace that Paul speaks of here is like a two-sided coin. Of course, there is the side of peace that describes the tranquility, quietness, and rest in the soul. But there is also the side of peace that describes peace between two individuals. In fact, in the Blue Letter Bible application, peace is defined as that tranquil and blessed state of the soul, which is what we commonly think of when we refer to peace. But it also defines it as peace between individuals (i.e. harmony & concord), which is that peace that we speak of when we refer to the absence of wars and conflicts. So, we could say, there is a peace to be had on the inside—that is, peace within man—and a peace we can walk in on the outside—that is, peace towards men. So, I that to say that peace has different meaning depending on the context it is used in.
 
Now let’s quickly look at that fruit of peace that we can possess on the inside of us:
 
I would describe this peace as that same peace that enabled Daniel to get a good night’s rest in the den of lions. It is that peace that the Prince of Peace Himself walked in that enabled Him to lie down and rest peacefully on the boat when the storm was raging around Him. It is that supernatural peace that causes the winds and waves of life to not disturb us or cause us to change our course. This is the Lord’s peace, the peace that He left with us (see John 14:27)—the peace that surpasses all understanding that guards both our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (see Philippians 4:7). 
 
Now as we have brought up repeatedly throughout this series, just because we have these fruit of the Spirit dwelling within us as born-again, Spirit-filled Christians, does not mean that we will just automatically walk in them. There is a cooperation with these virtues that enables us to bear this fruit consistently in our lives. 
 
For example, like we talked about with the fruit of joy already, peace is also a fruit of our focus. In other words, it is walked in when we choose the proper perspective—for the Lord told us that He will keep us in perfect peace when our mind is stayed on Him (Isaiah 26:3). This is also what is implied in Philippians chapter 4 when Paul teaches us that the way to having the peace guard our hearts & minds is by us rejoicing, being thankful, turning to the Lord with the things which concern us, etc. (see Philippians 4:4-7). So, what we are beholding is again imperative to maintaining our peace.  
 
However, peace is also obtained by the presence of the God of peace in our lives (see Philippians 4:9). You see, this is the manifest presence of God in our lives—peace. Where there is true peace, there is God. Where there is confusion, turmoil, strife, division, etc., God is not manifest there. So, I say that to say that if we want peace manifest in our life, then we need God’s manifest presence surrounding us to keep us in that bubble of peace.  
 
Now this peace of the soul that surpasses all understanding is not what I feel led for us to emphasize this week. Mainly because I will be teaching much more thoroughly on that side of peace at the beginning of 2020 as we will be talking about stress and how to both deal with it and keep it out of our life. Stay tuned for that.
 
What I want us to spend more time talking about this week is that part of peace among the body of Christ that is less emphasized. However, even though we like to hear more about possessing peace within ourselves, this peace towards one another is something extremely critical that the body of Christ needs to be established in. In fact, in my studies, I have found that most of the times when the term “peace” is used in the New Testament, it is referring to peace between individuals. So, let’s look at some of these verses that “stress” the importance of peace in the Body of Christ:     
 
 
PEACE TOWARDS MEN
 
A good first example of this is how, around this time of year, we hear repeated what the angels declared to the shepherds on Christmas Eve— “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!” (Luke 2:14).
 
Now it is obvious that with the coming of Christ, that did not secure peace on the earth among  men—for we have seen war after war over the past 2,000 years since His birth. In fact, Jesus even said in Matthew 10:34, “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword.” So no, the peace that the angels broadcasted was not going to be peace among men; the peace that He was ushering in would be made towards men by God. In other words, Jesus was the peace offering made by God to bring conditions of peace between Him and His creation. Therefore, as the apostle Paul said regarding Jesus in Ephesians 2:14, “He Himself is our peace…”  
 
Therefore, the primary form of peace that Jesus came to provide for us is the peace between us and God. In other words, He came to take the sin of the world in His body so that we do not have to be separated from Him anymore. You could say that God in Christ was the ultimate peacemaker. And because He brought us peace with Himself, now we are called to be peacemakers ourselves.
 
Of course, that is referring to ushering others into the same salvation that we have received, but it is also referring to us giving people the same state of “right-standing” with us. In other words, we seek peace with others like Christ sought with us. It is only fitting that we as His children imitate our Heavenly Father—for we are His ministers of reconciliation (Compare w/ Second Corinthians 5:18-21).
 
BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS
 
We see this in the Beatitudes when Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” (Matthew 5:9)
 
Why will the peacemakers be the ones called sons of God? It is because their Father is the original & ultimate peacemaker, so they are just following in His footsteps. Amen.
 
And again, this way of the peacemaker is a fruit of true spirituality. It is not natural, but is what a truly spiritual person does. We see this in James 3:13-18 when Pastor James began correcting this church in what a truly “wise person” does. He says, “Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.” What this is essentially saying is that true spiritual wisdom is not found in our theology, but in our behavior—for if there are envies, jealousies, strife, self-seeking, etc. in our midst, then there is no peace. And if there is not the fruit of peace, then it is earthly, carnal, and demonic. I have heard it said and agree wholeheartedly: strife is the manifest presence of the devil and peace is the manifest presence of God. Where there is peace, there is the God of peace.
 
You see, have you ever noticed how “natural” it is for us to be contentious, to slander others and to become disjoined? The reason it is so natural is because it is carnal. You see, any old sinner can get mad, find fault, and run from reconciliation. But it takes someone who intentionally decides to walk spiritually to be a peacemaker. Why? Because people don’t like us much when we don’t feed into their slander and gossiping about the person they are offended with. It is going against the stream.
 
Let me give you an example: when someone offends us or does something that it hurtful, our natural response is not to go to that person and tell them how what they did made us feel and to seek reconciliation. No, the general response is to not go to that person but to go to others and tell them the hurtful thing that this person did to us. Why? Because when the flesh gets involved it wants to do what is easy, and that is not to confront; it is to vent to others.  
 
But what if we all did what Jesus taught us in Matthew chapter 18 when He taught us how to deal with a brother or sister who sins against us. What if we always—without any reservation—either dealt with it in our heart or went directly to the person ourselves and dealt with the situation one on one. 
 
But this is what the Lord expects from all of us, His children—to be His peacemakers.
 
PURSUING PEACE
 
And make no mistake about it, this fruit of peace is not going to just automatically appear on your branches. It is going to have to be pursued—because we live in this natural, carnal world, and everything in it (including our flesh) will just naturally go the opposite of the way of peace.
 
So, let me give you several Scriptures that will establish this point that peace must be pursued:

1. Second Timothy 2:22 – “Flee also youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.”
   • Notice that those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart are said to pursue these virtues like righteousness, faith, love, and peace. It is somewhat comical to me to hear people describe someone who lied, stole, cheated, etc. as having a good heart. No, if someone has a pure heart, they are at least in pursuit of these good, godly virtues. But my point is that, like righteousness, faith, and love, peace is to be pursued by those who call on the Lord. 
2. Hebrews 12:14 – “Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord”
   • So, here we see the premium put on pursuing peace with all people, not just believers. And notice that there is a very sobering warning attached to this exhortation in this verse. So, whatever way one chooses to interpret these verses, we can see that pursuing peace with all people in our lives is critical to us seeing the Lord. 
3. Romans 14:19 – “Therefore let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another.”
   • In the midst of Paul teaching this church about considering one another’s consciences when it comes to walking in our Christian liberty, he says this. His point was that even above pursuing what the Lord has done for us and walking in the freedoms we know are ours, our pursuit needs to be for the things that bring peace in the Body. Along these lines, Paul taught in Romans 12:18— “If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men.” This means that our goal should always be to pursue peace with everyone. Now sometimes it is not possible, and why? Because of the other person not being willing to reconcile. But as Paul says, “as much as depends on us,” we need to do what we can to live peaceably with everyone.   
4. First Peter 3:8-12 – Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another; love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous; not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing. For ‘He who would love life and see good days, Let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking deceit. Let him turn away from evil and do good; Let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayers; But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”
   • In these verses, the apostle Peter is quoting from the 34th Psalm—describing how “seeking peace and pursuing it” is part of experiencing a good quality of life here on the earth.

 
CONCLUSION
 
So, I hope you can see just how much of a premium the Lord obviously puts on pursuing peace with one another and with all people. It is a big part of Christianity in His eyes, and should be in ours as well.
 
But one thing that needs to be said about being peacemakers is that it all begins on the inside. In other words, as we are certainly called to be a people who are “endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” (see Ephesians 4:3), this first takes place in our hearts. This is why the apostle Paul said in Colossians 3:15, “And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful.”
 
You see, while most people use this verse to describe how peace is to be our guide when making bigger decisions (and I certainly agree with that principle), what Paul was actually saying here is that we are to let that peace that we are to have with one another to call the shots in our hearts. In other words, we are not to allow our hearts to get filled with offenses, strife, conflicts, etc. since we are called in one body.
 
We can see that the way of peace is found by letting that peace rule in our hearts first. So, as the apostle Paul said in Second Thessalonians 3:16, I say to you today: “Now may the Lord of peace Himself give you peace always in every way. The Lord be with you all.

REVIEW
So today, we are going to pick back up in our study of the Fruit of the Spirit—which we have seen are the Lord’s divine characteristics and attributes that the Holy Spirit helps produce in our lives. In other words, the fruit of the Spirit is God’s character being produced in us, to where we exhibit His character.
 
How many of you know how important this is for us to produce God’s nature and attributes in & through our lives? It is vital—for the world needs to see God, and a major way in which He is seen and known is through our lives. In other words, the world will know that He is love when they see His love operating through the church.
 
So, we have learned that these are the fruit of a spiritually alive and Spirit-empowered life and also are the evidence that one is truly spiritual. No, it is not our spiritual giftings that indicate that we are mature spiritually; our spiritual maturity is based on how much of these nine fruit we produce in our lives.
 
Now these nine fruit of the Spirit are listed in Galatians 5:22-23 as “… love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control …”  (Galatians 5:22-23).
 
Thus far, we have covered seven of these nine fruit: We began by studying two of the fruit sandwiched in the middle of Paul’s list— the fruits kindness and goodness. Then, the following week, we looked at the fruits of longsuffering and faithfulness. And then, the week after that, we covered the last two fruits in Paul’s list—the fruits of gentleness (i.e. humility) and self-control. And we saw some awesome things in these 6 fruits of the Spirit. So, if you missed any of these teachings, I encourage you to go to our website and listen to them. There was some good stuff in them!
 
Then last time, we moved on and began looking at the top third of Paul’s list—beginning with the first and greatest fruit of the Spirit, the fruit of love.
I made the point last time that agape is the undisputed greatest fruit of the them all, and why? Not just because Paul listed it first, but because it is the core-nature and characteristic of God Himself. We are told in First John 4:8 that “God is love.” This is not just saying that God has love to give. No, God is love! And we know that God has the preeminence, right? Yes, He is the greatest, the most glorious, the highest. Yes, God is the top of the food-chain! So, we learned that if God is love, then guess what? Love is the top of the “fruit-chain” too! Love is the highest and He is the best!
 
We also saw that love is the greatest fruit we can produce in our lives because even out of faith and hope, it is the main virtue that we begin to walk in now and will continue to walk in throughout eternity. In fact, we learned that it is the greatest of all the commandments and is what our Lord gave us as the new commandment to following—loving one another as He has loved us. Therefore, love is the most valuable “produce” we can produce in the Christian life.
 
Now we learned that there is a big difference between the way God uses the word “love” and the way the world uses the word “love.” We saw that this word “love” comes from the Greek word agape, which describes the God kind of love, again different than a worldly kind of love.
 
You see, in the world, we are quick to loosely throw around the term “love.” We say I love Jesus, I love my wife, and I love my children the same way we say, I love pizza, I love chocolate, and I love coffee. But that is a cheap, generic, artificial love—because it is generally based on the performance of the thing we say we love. For example, what if the pizza man doesn’t use the best ingredients, or the pizza is cold, etc.? Then you are not going to say you love that pizza. What about the coffee? If it’s cold, watered down, or isn’t sweetened properly, you probably won’t say that you “love” that cup of coffee, right?
 
The point of this was that this is worldly love because it is based on the condition of the thing we are loving. No, the God kind of love we are talking about here is a love that is not based on the behavior of the one being loved; it is solely based on the character of the one doing the loving. Therefore, agape is unconditional, limitless, and self-sacrificing.
 
So, back to that example of loving coffee. If I truly did love coffee the way agape loves, then even if the coffee is bitter, bland, or just doesn’t taste the best, I will still drink from that cup. Amen? And why? Because it is not based on how good the coffee is; it is based on how good I am at loving unconditionally.
 
Now we saw that the King James Version translates this God kind of love as “charity,” which I believe is a good description of agape because when one gives to a charity, there is nothing expected in return. It is understood that when we give to a “charity” that there are no strings attached and there is no reciprocation. Not to mention, “charities” are not designed to receive well wishes or good intentions. They receive tangible goods and monetary gifts. Likewise, agape is not just saying “I love you”; it is giving love. And I said that I believe John 3:16 describes it best by saying, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son…” It did not say that God so loved the world that He said to it, “I love you so, so much.” Nor did it say, “…that He gave it big hug.” No, He so agape’d us that He gave something (rather, Someone) to us and for us! And He did not just give anything; He gave His very best. Amen!
 
So, we need to understand that this fruit of love is not to be cheapened by comparing it to this world’s idea of love. No, agape is not a love that is determined by the person being loved; it is only determined by both the nature and actions of the one doing the loving. Amen.    
 
We spent a considerable amount of time looking at this truth that love is a commandment, not a suggestion. Therefore, since it is a commandment, that means it does not necessarily involve emotions or feelings because a command is something we do whether we feel like it or not.
 
Now those of you who have served in the military would agree to this point—but more times than not, when you were given orders to do something, you didn’t feel like doing what they told you to do. Particularly, when you were in basic training and those drill sergeants gave you orders like “drop and give me twenty” or “go run 5 miles!”, nothing in your flesh or your soul wanted to do it. But guess what? You did it anyway! And why? Because you were given orders by your authorities.
 
Again, agape is a spiritual thing! Therefore, it is eternal and unchanging! But so many have a hard time believing this because they feel that they do not have love because they don’t “feel” love. In other words, because they don’t have the emotions of love and there is selfishness, anger, etc. in there, they believe that they are void of love. But this is when we must believe what the Word says more than what our feelings and our heads are telling us. Amen! And, as it is with everything spiritual in nature such as love, we are not led by our feelings.
 
Saints, what I am saying is—do not wait until you feel like operating in these spiritual things before you practice them. Know that they are fruits of the spirit and spiritual things are not based on feelings.
 
Again, if we are going to be a “spiritual” man or woman, we are going to have to learn to live out of the part of us that is willing by faith (i.e. the spirit) and not yield to the part of us that is weak by feelings (i.e. the flesh). Yes, being spiritual is a decision! It's an action—an act of our will (for the spirit is willing). It is not carnal to have feelings and emotions; it is carnal to act on those feelings and emotions; to act on what we know is true and, by faith, will to do those things is spiritual.
 
A good Scriptural example I gave of this is found in Titus 2:3-4, where the Apostle Paul told Pastor Titus that the older women were to, among other things, admonish the young women to love their husbands and to love their children.
 
We saw that these older women were not to admonish the younger women to “feel” more like loving their husbands and their children? No! We do not admonish someone to have certain emotions and feelings. What these older women were being admonished to do was to teach the younger women how to love their husbands and children—which, of course, would be actions and deeds of love. Amen!
 
You see, love is more of an action than it is an emotion. And if we can be taught how to love, then we should know that it is an act of our own volition. If it were an emotion, then it would be out of our control because we are always going to have ups and downs in our emotions. But since love is a commandment, we know that it is in our control because the Lord would not have told us to do something that it wasn’t in our control to do. Amen! 
 
Yes, church, spirituality is having command over our feelings and emotions and learning to do things simply because it is what we are told to do or it is simply the right thing to do. Church, we must have resolve and integrity—doing what is right simply because it is right and because it is a command. We should need no other reason to love one another than this!
 
THE SECOND IS LIKE IT
 
So now, let’s move on to the second fruit that we see mentioned in Galatians 5:22—the fruit of joy. And just like Jesus said regarding the first fruit of the Spirit, the fruit of love, the second commandment of loving our neighbor is like the first and greatest commandment of loving God. Likewise, the second fruit of the Spirit is like the first. What do I mean by this?
 
I mean that if love is a choice and not an emotion, then why would joy be any different? You see, I think that the vast majority of Christians believe that while love might be an act of obedience, joy is just going happen automatically in our life. But is that true? I don’t believe so. I believe, like love, goodness, kindness, etc. the fruits of joy and peace are a choice, not just fruit that fall on us.
 
Let me give you an example: In Philippians 4:4, the apostle Paul tells this church to “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say, Rejoice.” Why would the Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul tell us to always rejoice if joy was just automatic? I mean, if joy was just something that is manifested in and through us irrespective of our own conscious and deliberate decision, then why would we have to be told to exhibit it?  
 
No, I think it is clear that, like love, joy is not an emotion or a feeling; joy is also a spiritual fruit that is meant to be produced in the natural. That means that I don’t have to feel happy or to necessarily have joyful emotions to produce this fruit. All I have to do is decide whether I am going to let my feelings dictate what is true or if I am going to purpose to let my spiritual nature walk in the truth.
 
You see, this is why I am a big proponent in acting on the joy that we have inside of us. We can do this by laughing at our circumstances and the devil by faith. It doesn’t have anything to do with the way we feel. But since joy too is a fruit of the Spirit, why do we just sit there and cater to our feelings saying, “Well, I don’t feel like laughing right now.” We wouldn’t say— “Well, I don’t feel like reading my Bible anymore” and then just cater to that, would we? No, we have enough sense to know that is wrong. Nor would we believe that because we don’t feel like praising God that we evidently do not need to press through those feelings and cater to our flesh. No, if we know we are to act on things like this whether we feel like it or not, why would walking in any of the fruit of the Spirit be done any differently? No, we rejoice by faith because joy is a fruit of the Spirit just as we love by faith! Amen? 
 
WHO IS JOY?
 
Now I want to remind you that all of these nine fruit of the Spirit are the characteristics and nature of God Himself. So, this fruit of joy is also an attribute of the Lord. In other words, just as much as God is love, He is joy as well.
 
You see, some of us don’t have a lot of joy in our life because it was never modeled to us. What I mean is that some of us weren’t raised in happy homes. Our parents were locked up in certain ways and never were examples of joy to us. So, guess what? Unless we learn joy from our peers, we are probably going to conform to what we learned from the home we were raised in.
 
But I want you to understand today that it’s okay to be happy and have joy. We have a Heavenly Father, an elder brother, and a holy companion, who is the ultimate model of joy for us! Glory to God!
 
Let me show you a few Scriptures that model the joy of the Lord to us:
 
In John 15:11, Jesus said, “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.” Notice that it is Jesus’ joy that remains in us. This is the fruit of the Spirit that is in us, Jesus’ joy! And Jesus said that because His joy remains in us, our joy can be full.
 
In John 17:13, Jesus prayed to His Father and said the following: “But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves.” Notice again that Jesus possessed joy Himself and here He prayed that we would have His joy fulfilled in us. So, this is evidently the Lord’s will for us, right?
 
The apostle Paul said in First Thessalonians 1:6, “And you became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit” And this exactly what I am attempting to get you to start doing today—being a follower of the joy you see in those over you, which certainly includes the Lord Himself. But notice here that it is called the joy of the Holy Spirit. Did you know the Holy Ghost has joy too? We’ve already seen Jesus possessed joy; now we are seeing the Holy Spirit has joy as well.
 
But what about God the Father? Look at First Timothy 1:11 “according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my trust.” This word “blessed” can be translated “happy.” Church, we need to see Him as the Happy God today!
 
Another, more familiar Scripture is Nehemiah 8:10 that refers to the joy of the Lord being our strength. The joy of what? The joy of the Lord! You see, it is His joy! And this is the only reason we can have the fruit of joy in our life—because of the seed of joy that was sown in us by the Sower Himself. In other words, He can only give us this joy because He has it in Himself to give. Therefore, because the Godhead evidently possess joy themselves, they have joy to give to us. Amen?
 
WHAT IS JOY?
 
Now this word “joy” comes from the Greek word chara—which is akin to the word we know to be the word translated “grace,” charis. This is important to understand because of how our joy is connected to His grace. I’ll tell you, it’s awfully hard to have joy in our life without an understanding of what He has done for us by His grace. Far too many Christians have their focus on what they’ve done instead of what Christ has done. Church, I’ll tell you—if our eyes are predominately on who we are and what we’ve done, we have a good chance of being down & depressed. On the other hand, if you and I put our attention & focus on Jesus and the grace He’s provided for us, joy is the natural (or we could say, supernatural) byproduct. Amen?
 
The word chara describes “gladness & cheerfulness.” The dictionary defines the verb form of joy—the word “rejoice”—as “to be joyful, to feel or express great happiness and to become cheerful.”  Some synonyms used for “rejoicing” are words like “gladden, revel, exult, glory, delight, celebrate, and triumph.” 
 
However, as I have studied this word and the contexts that it is used in, I see how “joy & rejoicing” are easier to describe than they are to define. And the greatest description that I could find of what it means to “have joy and rejoice” is in the example of a dedicated and enthusiastic sports fan.  Yes, the way that some of these “fanatics” act when their favorite team is victorious describes this word “rejoicing” to a tee. For example, notice that in the word “cheerful” is where we get the word “cheer” from. Who cheers? Fans! 
 
So, let’s consider some of the characteristics of a “fanatic”:  What do many of these fans do when their team triumphs? They will clap their hands, pump their fists, and even throw their hands up in the air! Yes, they might jump up and down and even dance!  Others will shout at the top of their lungs and will high-five and even hug complete strangers in those exciting moments! Saints, these joyful reactions by the “fanatic” describes the kind of rejoicing that the Bible speaks of. So, rejoicing is what one does at the height of their positive emotions. Simply stated—rejoicing is being excited!  It is showing great enthusiasm and expressing it in some demonstrative way! So, no, rejoicing is not quiet and passive; it is loud and expressive!
 
Now I do understand that people are wired differently and express their joy in different ways. For example, some of these very passionate fans are not demonstrative at all even though their devotion for their team runs just as deep.  Therefore, rejoicing is not demonstrated the same way by everyone. However, the bottom line is that whatever way one of these devoted fans acts at the height of their excitement is a good description of how they rejoice. Now to some, that might just be getting a big smile across their face and lightly clapping their hands. To others (like myself), that might be absolutely losing themselves and screaming at the top of their lungs in excitement. To each their own.  But, again, my point is—to rejoice is to celebrate in the most radical way that each person tends to.
 
Church, our revelation of who God is and what He has done for us will naturally produce this genuine expression of joy. Yes, when we realize the magnitude of the grace and mercy we have obtained, it will touch our emotions too. Again, I am not advocating being emotion-led or emotion-ruled; but I am advocating letting our emotions serve the Lord through learning to rejoice in Him.
 
So, the fruit of joy is not stoic and non-emotional. No, the joy of the Lord being produced in our lives will be a demonstrative cheerfulness & gladness that will mirror the height of our joy in this world.   
 
THE ROOT OF JOY
 
Now that we have described both what and who joy is, how do we see fruit of it in our lives?
 
Well, one thing that is clear to me about joy is that it is predominantly a product of one’s perspective: You see, we can line up two people—one who is an elderly millionaire and the other a 12-year-old kid who doesn’t have two pennies to rub together—and then give both of them $100. Guess what is going to happen? The millionaire might show some gratitude but he certainly would not be bubbling over with joy, right? On the other hand, the kid would probably be ecstatic, filled with joy. Why? The $100 is worth the same, isn’t it? The difference is that it is worth less to the millionaire than it is to the child. In other words, it is how they view the money and the value system that creates the joy, not the money itself.
 
Likewise, you and I can be filthy, stinking rich in the spirit, having the same spiritual blessings as all the other born-again Christians out there, but if one of us doesn’t either recognize, focus on or esteem those spiritual blessings, then we won’t have joy produced in our hearts like another Christian who does.
 
So, I believe we can accurately say that one’s joy oftentimes is based on what they see and what they hear. In other words, joy comes as a result of both looking at and listening to the right thing. Let me give you a couple of examples of this—naturally, from the Christmas story since “tis the season”:
 
In the story of the wise men, we are told how after they left Herod’s presence, that they followed the star that they had seen in the East. And in Matthew 2:10, we are told that “when they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy.”
 
Notice that they rejoiced with exceedingly great “joy” (the same Greek word, chara, used for the fruit of joy), when they saw something. Now I suppose some of us might have experienced something like this before. Perhaps it was when we saw a loved one whom we hadn’t seen for some time. Perhaps it is was when we found something we had lost and were unsure we would ever find again. And here is a good example: When we opened a Christmas gift and were surprised by something that was given to us that exceeded all expectations. I’ve seen some serious “joy” in watching children and even some adults when they’ve “seen” what lied beneath that wrapping paper.
 
So, yes, “seeing” certain things has brought many of us great joy before! Amen?
 
But over at (ironically enough), the same address in Luke’s Gospel, we see how sometimes our joy is based on what we hear:
 
In Luke 2:10, after the angel appeared to the shepherds in the field and the glory of the Lord shown around them, He said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people.”
 
Notice the phrase “good tidings of great joy.” Now the phrase “good tiding” essentially describes information to share that someone will probably like. In other words, it describes “good news.” But the angel called it good news “of great joy.” In other words, the good news that he was about to tell them was to produce “great joy” in them (Again, the Greek word chara).
 
I’m sure we’ve all experienced this one as well: Perhaps it was the news of a pregnancy or when someone told you that you had won a prize. Oftentimes, good news is a joy-producer in people, depending on how much they value the news being told to them. 
 
But my point is that the wise men’s joy was based on what they saw (i.e. the star) and the shepherd’s joy was based on what they heard (i.e. good tidings).
 
Now this is the problem too: Just like people derive joy by the good things they see and hear, people’s lack of joy is based on the same thing—on the bad, alarming, and displeasing things that they are looking at and listening to.
 
This is why Paul told us to rejoice in the Lord, not rejoice in our problems or in our circumstances, but in who He is and what He has done. In other words, we are looking at Him and His work as opposed to ourselves, our circumstances, etc. Church, this is the key to releasing the joy of the Lord in our lives—by not looking at the things which are seen that are temporal, but by keeping our focus and attention on the things that are spiritual and eternal.
 
Now to some, this seems unrealistic. “How can someone not pay attention to the storms of life that are surrounding them?” they say. But what they miss is it is not us simply putting our head in the sand and covering our eyes; it is us choosing to look elsewhere while the storms surround us.
 
We have the example of Peter walking on the water, right? There were storms all around him, and it was when he began to look at the wind & waves that he began to sink. However, when he put His focus on Jesus, He walked in the supernatural. Likewise, when you and I look away from everything else and look unto Jesus—the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2)—we can experience water-walking joy.
 
So, no, it is not just trying not to look at the problems; it is deliberately looking at the answer that produces consistent and unwavering joy in our hearts. Joy is the fruit of focus.   
 
I love another Scriptural example we have of this: It is found in Hebrews 10:34 where the writer(s) of Hebrews described how they had “joyfully accepted the plundering of their goods, knowing that they had a better and an enduring possession for themselves in heaven.” How could someone do this? For instance, it would be like you or I going home today and finding someone had broken into our house and stolen everything we own. This verse says that they “joyfully accepted the plundering of their goods.” And why? Because they knew they had a better and an enduring possession for themselves in heaven. Wow!
 
Now do you and I have a better and more enduring inheritance waiting for us in heaven or was this just true for the Early, First-Century Church? No, it is just as true for us as it was for them! So, God-forbid, if we lost everything that we possessed in this world, would we lose our joy or would we likewise know that we have better and more enduring possessions waiting for us in heaven? My point is, it is all a matter of perspective.
 
Jesus taught us similar things regarding our perspective: In the last beatitude (Matthew 5:11-12), He said, “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
 
Here, Jesus taught us that we ought to rejoice and be exceedingly glad (sounds like an extra measure of joy to me) when we are reviled and persecuted falsely for Jesus’ sake. Why? Because great is our reward in heaven! Amen! So, what I am rejoicing in when I am persecuted for Christ’s sake is not the persecution itself, but is the reward on the other side of the persecution—which makes it more than worth it. For example, I suppose anyone in here might endure some temporary setback for a period of time if it was in exchange for a giant bounty. Amen?
 
And this is not monopoly money we are talking about here! This is real gold, silver and precious stones that we have in our account, saints! So, what we have to do is what James taught his readers—Count it all joy (see James 1:2)! I saw the example of when all hell is breaking loose around us, it’s like a guy sitting in the confines of his own home counting the Benjamins! Glory! In other words, he’s not worried about all the alarm going on around his home; he’s focused on the riches he’s got in his possession! Amen!
 
FEELING LIKE A MILLION BUCKS!
 
So, continuing along this analogy, let me conclude today by giving you an example of what possessing joy is like:
 
It would be like someone coming up to you, and promising to give you a million dollars. In fact, they say that the money is yours. It’s as good as done. And they’ll mail you a check by the end of the week. Well, depending on who it is that promised you this, you will have varying feelings. For example, if it is someone who either has a reputation of being a prankster, they don’t have any indications from their life that they have that kind of money, or you simply just don’t know this person that well, you might not have any joy at that moment because your confidence in that promise would understandably be weak. But what would happen if you went to mail box one day that week and there was an envelope in the mail from this person, and in it was a check for one million dollars. Well, you probably still will not let yourself get too ecstatic because the check might not be good, right? But then you decide to take it to the bank it’s drawn on and ask them to give you a certified check for it, and you see them get up and go make that check for you. What do you think you are going to be feeling on the inside right then? Even before the check hits your hand, and you know it’s as good as gold, your heart rate will be sky high at that moment! So, this is what joy feels like: It is like when you don’t have that million dollars in your hand, but you feel like you do. Glory!       
 
But let me take this a step further: What if some prominent, wealthy person in the community, who also already has a good reputation for being generous, a man of his word, etc., made you that same promise? Do you reckon you might feel joy rise up in you simply because he told you that it was on the way? No, you won’t necessarily have to see the check in your hand to start feeling joy rise up in your heart, will you? No, joy will be produced in you before you see the money. Again, this is what joy feels like: It is like when you don’t have that million dollars in your hand, but you feel like you do. Glory!     
 
So, the question that begs to be asked is—Can one be a millionaire and not even know it? Sure, they can! You realize that there have been people living on this earth who had riches available to them that they didn’t even realize. In one case, it might be a person who was left an inheritance and for whatever reason they didn’t ever receive it. In another case, it might have been a person who had a treasure hidden on their property somewhere that they never discovered. You name it, there are people out there who died in poverty when riches were rightfully theirs. Likewise, there are Christians who die having lived sad, depressed lives when they had so much to be happy about because of the riches they possessed in Christ. Yes, the riches are buried within them, but they never realize it and, therefore, never experience the joy of what they possess.
 
This is one of the reasons Jesus gave us the Parable of the Hidden Treasure. In this parable He said, “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” (see Matthew 13:44). Notice the “joy” that accompanied him knowing what he had buried in that field. That is the same fruit of joy that will spring forth in our field when we realize what we have buried in us. Amen?