Help! I'm Stressed Out

Welcome to this edition of PowerPoint with Jack Graham. A little later in the program, we'll tell you how you can get Dr. Graham's eight message series, Help. But first, here's his message, Help, I'm Stressed Out. So many people today are living with chronic stress, pressure.

In fact, so much that we're breaking down, we're burning out. And yes, Christians have stress too. And when we realize that God made us to find our help in Him, God so made us to find our rest in Him, we can actually turn our stress to strength. And that's the title of this message.

And you can begin turning to Isaiah chapter 30 and verse 15, because that's going to be our primary text today. Stress can actually become, as I said, chronic in people's lives. And you are overwhelmed, you are overwrought, you're overworked, you're overweight. Yes, obesity is one of the responses to stress. My Dr. Ken Cooper has reminded me on more than one occasion that stress spelled backwards is desserts.

But what do you do when you get to the end of your rope and you don't know whether to turn loose or to hold on? I heard about a man who filed an insurance claim. He was a bricklayer. And so in writing this claim, he said this, dear sir, I'm writing in response to your request for additional information for my insurance claim. In block number three of the accident form, I wrote, trying to do the job alone as the cause of the accident.

You said in your letter that I should explain that statement more fully and I trust the following details will be sufficient. I'm a bricklayer by trade. And on the day of the accident, I was working alone on the roof of a new six story building. When I completed my work, I discovered that I had 500 pounds of bricks left over. Rather than carrying the bricks down by hand, I decided to lower them in a barrel by using a pulley, which was attached to the side of the building at the six four level. Securing the rope at ground level, I went up to the roof, swung the barrel out and loaded the bricks into it. Then I went back down to the ground and untied the rope, holding it tightly to ensure a slow descent of the 500 pounds of bricks.

You will note in block number 22 of the claim form that my weight is 150 pounds. Due to my surprise at being jerked off the ground so suddenly, I lost my presence of mind and forgot to let go of the rope. Needless to say, I proceeded up the side of the building at a very rapid rate of speed. In the vicinity of the third floor, I met the barrel coming down. This explains my fractured skull and collarbone. In a load only slightly, I continued my rapid ascent, not stopping until the fingers of my right hand were two knuckles deep in the pulley.

By this time, I had regained my presence of mind and was able to hold tightly to the rope in spite of my pain. At approximately the same time however, the barrel of bricks hit the ground and the bottom fell out of the barrel. Devoid of the weight of the bricks, the barrel then weighed approximately 50 pounds.

I refer you again to the information block 22 regarding my weight. As you might imagine, I began a rapid descent down the side of the building. In the vicinity of the third floor, I met the barrel coming up.

This accounts for the two fractured ankles and the laceration on my legs and lower body. This second encounter with the barrel slowed me enough to lessen my injuries when I fell under the pile of bricks and fortunately, only three vertebrae were cracked. I am sorry to report however, as I lay there on the bricks in pain, unable to stand and watching the empty barrel six stories above me, I again lost my presence of mind and let go of the rope. The empty barrel weighed more than the rope so it proceeded at a rapid descent down the side of the building, landing on and breaking both my legs.

I hope I have furnished enough information sufficient to explain why trying to do the job alone was the stated cause of the accident. Now when you get to the place where you don't know what to do to hold on or to let go when you're at the end of your rope and you don't know how to cope, then what do you do? How can you manage your stress? The purpose of this message is to help you understand how to turn that stress that we all feel into strength. The pressure that we have in life can actually be powered up to your advantage. Now some people, they sort of live on stress and like it. I mean because stress can be exhilarating. Stress can be exciting. The adrenaline gets flowing and we can even become adrenaline addicts.

We love the adrenaline, especially if you're a type A personality like your pastor. I mean, we kind of live on the stress. I once proudly said, you know, I don't get stress, I give stress. I've changed my mind on that because I do know the impact of stress on my own life. But, you know, there's this excitement. Stress can be a motivator.

But it can also be a monster that can take us down and even take us out. So many people today are under such pressure. They're living under all kinds of pressure and someone defined stress as that gap that exists between what we must do, what we want to do, which we need to do, and our ability to do it.

So that gap is the stress gap. And we often find ourselves overwhelmed. We often find ourselves overloaded in life.

We're just carrying too much weight emotionally, spiritually, and even physically. And stress will actually kill you if you keep living this way. All kinds of physical illness, including heart disease and cancer and diabetes and sleeplessness, insomnia, you name it. In fact, I was startled to read this week that about 70 up to maybe even 90% of people who visit their primary care doctor are there ultimately because of stress-related illnesses.

Amazing, isn't it? It can impact your body as well as your mind and of course your soul. And even if stress doesn't kill you, this chronic stress, this constant pressure in your life, even if it doesn't kill you, it will make your life miserable, robbing you of joy and peace and contentment and even your faith at times.

But you don't have to live this way. The Apostle Paul, in talking about stress and his own personal stress, he said, We are afflicted in every way but not crushed, perplexed but not driven to despair, persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed. Jesus said in the upper room, on his way to the cross, the most excruciating extreme pain and pressure possible. Looking at death, Jesus said to his disciples, Let not your hearts be troubled.

You believe in God, believe also in me. He went on to say, My peace I give to you. It was Jesus who said, Come to me, all you that labored or heavy laden or weary and I will give you rest, rest for your souls. There are five, what I want to call five C's of stress that impact our lives, the causes, if you will, of stress in our lives. They are change, can be change in location, a change in a relationship, can be a change in your health, but change. Then there's conflict and then criticism and then concerns of various kinds and then crisis.

It could be something catastrophic that puts you under extreme stress in your life. As one of my sons said to me, Dad, don't forget to mention children. Children are a blessing.

They're not a burden. Children and family issues can stress us. In fact, the primary reasons for pressure, tension, adversity, stress in our lives are in probably this order. Work, family, finances, health, and your calendar, your pace of life. We're running at breakneck speed and we're exposed to more and more information. More and more insults. We're constantly under this kind of pressure.

You think, I'm in the rat race and the rats are winning. So here's how stress works. There's some danger or demand, sometimes real, sometimes even imaginary. But some danger or demand, some threat, and when that happens, your mind and your body gears up for action. Your heart begins to beat faster, palpitates, maybe even skips a beat or two. Your blood pressure rises. Adrenaline kicks into hyperdrive.

Your eyes even focus more clearly and your hearing gets better under extreme stress. Your hands begin to shake or to sweat. Your muscles tighten.

Your neck, your back, your muscles in your arms, they tighten. And then certain kinds of chemicals like cortisol begin to flood your system. And this is okay and you're now ready for fight or flight. It's okay if you are facing some danger that is present. But if it becomes chronic, this whole thing of always being in the fight or flight mode. You're always running. You're always resisting. You're always fighting.

You're always pushing. You're always pressured. That's chronic stress and it's related to anxiety. It's related to worry, of course.

It's related to post-trauma stress syndrome, panic attacks, insomnia, all these things if we're constantly under this stress. You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and the message, help, I'm stressed out. So many people are crushed by the stress of life and are searching for help and hope. That's why we're excited to share that a generous friend has offered to double your gift of up to $150,000 to help us reach our hurting world with the perfect peace Jesus offers. As a thanks for your gift, we'll send you Dr. Graham's eight message series, Help.

This resource will help you walk in the quiet trust that comes with knowing your security in Christ, even in uncertain times. So call right now to have your gift doubled and request your copy of Help. Call 1-800-795-4627. That's 1-800-795-4627. You can also text the word PowerPoint to 313131. That's PowerPoint to 313131. And don't forget to visit Jack Graham.org where you can shop our e-store, give a gift online or sign up for Dr. Graham's free daily e-mail devotional. Our website again is Jack Graham.org. Now let's get back to today's message, Help, I'm stressed out.

So what do we do? Isaiah 30 verse 15 is a prescription. It's a go-to verse for me, especially when I find myself stressed. For thus says the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, in returning and rest you will be saved. He's calling his people to come home to rest. And he said, in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.

There it is, underscore that in your Bibles. In quietness and confidence or trust is your strength. He went on to say, but you were unwilling. So the choice is yours.

You have a choice to make. Will you find your rest in returning to the Lord and in quietness and confidence turn your stress into strength. Quietness, here's the formula, here's the prescription. Quietness plus confidence equals strength. Quietness plus trust equals strength. Now the meaning of quietness here is not just being quiet or silent, but rather it speaks of the cessation of activity. Just stop.

Stop all the running around. And God says in Psalm 46, be still and know that I am God. In quietness, God wants his people to stop constantly running from him, running around from him and to take time to rest the soul. Some Americans were on a safari and they were pushing every day like so many Americans we do that and we're pushing, pushing, pushing and every day they were up before the sun and going again on this safari and to the end of the day and on one particular day, several days later the guides weren't getting up.

They were still in the tents. These men said, come on, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go. And the guides said, no, we don't go today because today we let our souls catch up with our bodies.

That's good advice. To let your soul catch up with your body, to turn down the RPMs because the result of too much movement, too many RPMs is the wearing down of the body of the soul. The exhaustion is so common, it's one of the most common things I hear from people today. I'm just so tired. I'm just so exhausted, whatever the cause. And as a result of the exhaustion and the tiredness comes the tenseness and the emotions that are out of control and often the first thing we want to do when we're feeling this stress is to double down and just try harder, work harder to work alone and as that bricklayer found out, that never works. When you're carrying too much weight and holding on to a rope and you don't know what to do with it.

So what is the answer? The Apostle Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians chapter 4 that though pressure is all around and the physical man is breaking down, he says the inner person is renewed every single day. The core of you, the character, the center of you can be renewed. Your spirit can be renewed day by day. You can actually in your weakness find strength.

That's what he's saying. He said when I am weak, I am strong. How? By turning that stress into strength. Now I have two parts to this message today. One is the physical side of turning your stress to strength and the second part is the spiritual side of turning your stress to strength.

So number one, the physical side. There are some things you can do physically to help you turn your stress to strength. One is I'm simply going to call rest, R-E-S-T, rest. Don't discount the power of sleep to replenish and restore your life. Christians who find themselves constantly going, staying up late, burning the midnight oil, getting up early. In fact, the Psalm is talked about in Psalm 127 and verse 2. He said, it is vain that you should rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil, for he gives to his beloved sleep.

Isn't that a good thing? Sometimes the most spiritual thing you can do is take a nap and to rest. And if you will make sure that you're getting enough rest, then you'll find your stress relieved.

I know when I am tired, when I am exhausted, that's when I'm the most irritable, the most anxious, the most stressed out, and therefore I know what I need to do is to get some rest. It's impossible to discount the impact of the physical from the spiritual in our lives. There was a sign in a doctor's office that says, it was a plaque that said, if you wear out the body, if you wear out this body, where will you live?

Good question. We are stewards of our bodies. Do you not know that your body, the Scripture says, is the temple of the Holy Spirit?

Don't abuse it, don't misuse it. Take care of your body. Your body belongs to God, and that includes the proper rest. Paul said, we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works. We, your body is the workmanship of God.

It is a precious treasure of God, from God. What and how can you do the good works that God wants us all to do if our bodies are worn out and wasted from too much stress, too much pressure, and too little rest? I'm determined to take care of my body, that I can keep serving God faithfully as long as I live. So rest. You can say a lot about that, but the second thing is, here we go, regular exercise. And not just the exercise of your body, which is so important, but the exercise of your brain. Did you know that when you exercise, when you are moving, physically moving, it is not only strengthening your body, but it is strengthening your brain.

It is helping your brain. Dr. Kenneth Cooper, who is my personal physician, a long time member of this church, recognized the need years ago in his inaugural book, Aerobics, that we need to exercise the body and the mind in order to combat what he called or described as oxygen deprivation. Therefore aerobic means breath, or with air. And so the idea was to move your body and your cardiovascular system in order that you would get more air. And when that happens, the training effect takes place, and it's called aerobic conditioning. Now what happens to the body physically when we move it, improves everything.

It's a proven fact. It improves work, sleep, attitude, and energy. It's almost counterintuitive that if we exercise, you can certainly exercise too much. But it seems counterintuitive that if we exercise, we're doing all this exercise, we're wearing ourselves out more. No exercise properly done can strengthen the body as well as the mind. On the contrary, contrast to that, when we are immobile, or laying around and not moving around, we just slowly die. We deteriorate more rapidly.

It's just a gradual decline down, down, down, down. I can tell you this, that when I get regular exercise and rest, as noted earlier, it reduces the stress in my life greatly. You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and the message, Help, I'm Stressed Out. Where do you turn when the stress of life feels overwhelming?

Many people look to the latest self-help fad, but true rest only comes in returning to the Lord and trusting in Him because the truth is you simply can't carry life's burdens on your own. In Dr. Graham's 8-message series, Help, he'll show you how to turn your stress into strength through the certainty of God's promises so you can face any challenges that come your way. Help is our special thanks for your gift to help boldly proclaim God's word through PowerPoint.

And thanks to a generous $150,000 matching grant, whatever you give today will be doubled to impact even more lives for Jesus Christ. So request your copy when you call today, knowing your gift will be doubled. Call 1-800-795-4627. That's 1-800-795-4627. You can also text the word PowerPoint to 313131. Text PowerPoint to 313131. And don't forget to visit JackGraham.org where you can shop our e-store, give a gift online, or sign up for Dr. Graham's free daily email devotional.

Our website again is JackGraham.org. Pastor, what is your PowerPoint for today? Stress is a major problem for people today.

And the rat race is on and the rats are winning. So we have not only the big three that stress us of death and disease, divorce, but just daily life and the pressures of life, whether it's financial pressures or family pressures or just personal issues that we're dealing with every day that just stress us out and can ultimately burn us out. The medical-related stress illnesses are catastrophic. But the Bible tells us how we are to unstress, de-stress our lives. Jesus said do not fret, do not be agitated or frustrated or constantly pressured or stressed.

We are to live and rest and to relax in the Lord and find His peace day by day. And so what we need to do is actually allow stress to work for us. And by that I mean when we have obstacles to overcome, when we have difficulties or deadlines, whatever may stress us. And remember we said in the message that stress is the gap that exists between what I need to do, must do, want to do, and that which I am able to do. So stress can work for us when we are enabled and strengthened by the power of Christ in us.

And so we need to take time away to retreat from life's pressures and on a daily basis seek God to experience His peace, to embrace His love, and then overcome every obstacle and every issue in our lives in the power of Christ. I really want to encourage you to join us in an online conversation here at PowerPoint and I would personally look forward to getting to know you better through Twitter or Facebook and at JackGraham.org. It's an amazing world in which we live and we are able to get to know each other better through these amazing measures online and the technology provided.

So I'm really having a lot of fun with Twitter. And if you'd like to join me on that account it's Jack N. Graham, J-A-C-K-N-G-R-A-H-A-M. I would also encourage you to visit us on our website. If you have a prayer request we really want to pray for you. And there are people standing by right now who will pray for you, who will call your name before the Lord, who will cry out to God in your behalf.

I promise you that. We would also encourage you to take advantage of our ministry resources. There you will find messages and booklets and materials that will help you face the daily pressures of life and live for the glory of God whatever you do and whatever circumstances you find yourself.

God bless you. Have a great day and join us again on PowerPoint. And that is today's PowerPoint. Remember when you give a gift to PowerPoint we'll send you Dr. Graham's eight message series, Help As Our Thanks. Call 1-800-795-4627. That's 1-800-795-4627. You can also text the word PowerPoint to 313131. Text PowerPoint to 313131. Join us again next time as Dr. Graham brings a message about how you can combat stress and breathe easier. That's next time on PowerPoint with Jack Graham. PowerPoint with Jack Graham is sponsored by PowerPoint Ministries.