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Dalton SDA Church

Alan Parker

From Stressed to Blessed

It's been exciting to see what's happening at the meetings last night, and we're excited about what God is going to do.

But I know this is a time of year when many of us are stressed, right?

We feel like we're losing our stripes, and we don't feel like we can manage any longer.

It reminds me, a number of years back, my family and I were planning on moving out of our house and we were going to have some function, some kind of party.

I don't remember all the details, but it was highly stressful.

I had a lot going on at work, my wife had a lot going on, someone was pleading for counseling, and so she came over and my wife went into the back room to do some counseling, and the first sign that something was wrong was gleeful noises of laughter from my boys.

The second sign was when my wife finally went out to check on what had happened and discovered that they had picked up a 10-pound bag of lentils and distributed them gleefully across the entire living room until there was a pile of lentils across the living room.

We had the lentil sea in our living room and she came in, boys what have you done?

And we tried our best to clean it up, but I can tell you that even when we were moving out, we still found lentils hidden in the corner of that house.

Any of you had experiences with stress lately?

Yeah, there's a lot that's going on, a lot that's stressful.

And so I would like to look at this passage we just read to see the crisis that God allows us to go through and how He turns stress into bliss.

So here it is, Mark 6, verse 30 to 31, and it tells us something about why the disciples were in crisis and why Jesus was saying to the disciples, you need to go away.

And the circumstances here was that he had sent them out 2 by 2.

And now He said, I want to send you out and have you go out and share this message with others.

As they went out, they were seeing demons tremble and leave people.

They were seeing people responding to the good news.

And after an incredible time of being out there in the field, they came back, and as they're back with Jesus, they give Him a report.

And He tells them something really interesting.

Not, let's push forward, we can do more, but let's come apart before you fall apart." And so he encourages them to step aside.

Take a look with me back at Mark chapter 6 that we just read.

And let's see if we can identify some principles that led to this burnout.

He said to them in Mark 6 verse 31, come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.

For they were many coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat." Any of you ever been so busy you don't even have time to eat?

I've just got to keep working through this.

I don't have time for supper." And that was certainly true of some of us last night.

You know, so I succumbed to donuts last night because, you know, there was no time to eat.

So notice some of the trigger factors for stress here.

Exhaustion, you know, there's just, you're going so much of the time, you just can't keep up.

A lack of self-care, you can't eat because you've got to keep going, there's too much work to be done.

And when you're ministering to others, have you noticed how draining that becomes?

You just feel like, I can't do it anymore.

I read this little notice the other day and it said, I, the willing, am led by the knowing, am doing the impossible for the ungrateful.

I've done so much for so long that I'm now highly capable of doing anything with nothing But you know that's not true is it and So burnout they're ripe for burnout But you know as I looked at this I had missed something until I went back to this magnificent book on the life of Christ.

And in that book, it suggests that these were not the only reasons why they were ripe for burnout.

There were a couple of other reasons here.

As the disciples had seen the success of their labors, they were in danger of taking credit to what?

In danger of cherishing spiritual pride and thus falling under Satan's temptations.

A great work was before them, but first of all they must learn that their strength was not in, but in.

When I preached people were listening, when I commanded the demons to go out they left, when I touched a person they were healed.

The Messiah is here, Jesus is the 1, he's going to be king, and we are the ones who made it happen And have you ever been a danger of spiritual pride?

Getting to that point where you feel like you've got it all under control See the real problem The book goes on is to say as activity increases and men become successful in doing any work for God, there is a danger of trusting to what?

There's a tendency to pray less and have less faith, and like the disciples, we are in danger of losing sight of our dependence on God.

The worst phrase that we can make when we're stressed is to say, I'm going to work harder.

Because that's when you're in danger of either spiritual pride or depression when you can't do it.

Either an anxiety, I'm just going to try and get it all done.

Any of you ever gone between those cycles?

Anxiety and depression, yeah, I certainly have.

And we're in danger of praying less and losing sight of our dependence on God.

So in addition to these factors, notice 2 other factors we identified.

Did you know that success can lead to stress?

You know, when you do really well, you tend to think you can do more and you can take on more.

In fact, I've become persuaded as I look at my own life that the reason for stress is because I want to be in charge.

And when I'm in charge, I'm gonna make sure that things go right.

But inevitably, I end up stressing more and praying less.

Jesus says, come apart, rest a while, take a break.

It sounds like he's saying put your feet up, relax, don't do anything more.

How many of you are looking forward to a vacation?

How many of You would like a vacation, right?

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From Stressed to Blessed

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