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!