Blessed in the Stress | Stop the Drift | Jeremy DeWeerdt

All right. Hello, church. How's everybody doing today? I'm glad that you are here. So excited. Everybody join us online at all locations. Well, I will tell you, it has been a wonderful week in the DeWert family. Many of you know this, but our son, Caden, and beautiful daughter-in-law, Dakota, have been pregnant. And on Thursday, they welcomed their daughter into this world. Our first grandchild. This is crazy. That makes Jen and I grandparents. What in the world? So at 7.59 on the morning of Thursday morning, Willow Ruth DeWert right here was born. She is absolutely beautiful, amazing, bright-eyed, a gift to our whole family. And I just want to say on behalf of Jen and myself, as well as I think Caden and Dakota would want me to say, is thank you for all of your support and prayers. Boy, I tell you, we are just blessed. And a few of you have told me that now grandchildren are God's reward for not killing your kids. I'm looking forward to reaping that reward, to be honest with you. No, I tell you, we are so grateful, so grateful. So we are in a series.

It's a mini-series. It's only two weeks long. It was last week and this week. And it's called Blessed in the Stress, Blessed in the Stress. And I'm talking about two subjects. Last week, I talked about anxiety. This week, I'm talking about worry. And right now, there's a lot of worry in the world. You look at it, there's people that are worrying about what's going on in the Middle East right now, the economy, the division in our nation. Maybe you're personally worried. You're worried about your health, maybe your finances, maybe the relationships that are in your life. Maybe there's worry, something that keeps you up at night, right? I just know this. I know that I could preach on the subjects of anxiety and worry every year. I could do this series every year. And every year, it would be timely and relevant because this is what I know. Every year, the world is crazy. And this world is hopelessly broken. And there are things that can capture our hearts and our imaginations, and it can make us worry and have stress and all of that. Like, honestly, some of you are like, man, didn't you just preach on this last year? Different sermon today.

Yes, but the same subject because worry is still hanging around. It's still in our culture. So today, we're gonna talk about how do we live a life that is not controlled by worry? How do we do that? Because some of us, if we're gonna be honest, worry tends to guide us, consume us. A few years ago, some psychologist did a survey on people and what they worry about. And these findings are just amazing to me. 40% of what people worry about will never happen. 40%, it's the what if kind of worry. What if this happens? What if that happens? 30% of what people worry about is what already happened. In other words, I did this or I didn't do this or I said this, now I'm worrying if something's gonna happen. So people worry about that. 12% of what people worry about is regarding other people's opinion. I wonder what my coworker thinks about me. I'm worried about whether my boyfriend is gonna break up. I worry if my marriage is gonna disintegrate. I worry if whatever, my neighbor doesn't like me. We worry about other people's opinion. 10% of what people worry about is regarding their health fears, many of which will never materialize.

This is what I call the I Googled it worry. You started to feel a symptom, you Google it. It's like, oh my goodness, it says that I'm dehydrated. Then the very next line is, you might die. I mean, you know, right? And so it went from like, I need a drink of water to like, tell my family I loved them. Only 8%, I really want you to hear this, only 8% of their findings, 8% of people worry about things that are real and actionable. In other words, real meaning it really is happening. Or number two, with that, actionable, meaning that you can do something about it. 92% of what we worry about either isn't real, we can't do anything about it, we can't do anything about it, or it's something that we already did that we can't go back and change. 92% of what keeps you up at night is not something that is maybe even real or actionable. So here's the thing, we worry. So what is worry? Why do we worry? Well, I'll tell you, it's because we care. This is actually good. I don't say worry's good, but the fact we care is good. See, I think worry in its embryonic state is actually caring. You actually care.

In fact, worry is being troubled with care, is what that really is. Jesus said it this way, Luke chapter 12. He said, can all your worries add a single moment to your life? What has worry done for you lately? Has worry added anything to your life? No, no, it is subtracted, right? It's taken away your sleep. It's taken away your enjoyment. Worry always subtracts, it never adds. Worry takes away your peace. It takes away your confidence. It takes away your health, even. Science will tell you, health will tell you. If you allow worry to linger too long and be really advanced and really extreme for a long period of time, it actually wears your body down. Worry is a thief. It is not a giver. In fact, the word worry in the old English, which is wirgen, all right, that word means to strangle, to choke, or to seize by the neck. Somebody actually thought, you know what? What is this word that means strangle? That's what keeps me up all night. It's actually choking the life out of me. Here's the tension though.

You and I can't stop caring. I don't want you to stop caring. Like some people are like going, well, I'm not gonna worry, I'm just not gonna carry more. I don't care anymore. Well, no, that's not good either. That probably requires some counseling, all right? But I tell you what you can do is you can choose what you care about and how you carry it, how you carry care. So let's dive into this idea of worry for a moment, all right? Number one, worry reveals what you really care about. So what are you worrying about? What you stay up at night, when the minute you get up in the morning, the first thought that comes into your head, as you're driving to work and you get to work and you don't even remember the journey because you were so preoccupied with worry, that actually points at what you care about. To worry about something is meaning that you give it value. You worry about what you value. Like you worry about your kids because you value your kids. You worry about your health because you value your life. You worry about your future because you actually value having a positive future. So again, the root of worry is not bad. It is really care. Worry proves that you care. The problem is it also exposes what can own you,

what owns your heart and your mind, what you fixate on. Jesus says, where your treasure is, there your heart is also. In other words, what is in our heart, which is really our mind, what is in our mind is what really we treasure. So where your heart goes, your worry wants to follow. All right? It's like that story I told a few weeks ago about Martha, character in the New Testament. I'm not gonna re-preach that portion of the sermon that I preached, but I just wanna remind you of it. She was very preoccupied and Jesus looked at her and said, you are worried and upset about many things. And today, I would say there are probably a lot of Marthas in the room and Marks in the room because worry is not gender specific. I know some people might go, oh, he's talking to just the ladies in the room today. They tend to worry. No, guys worry too. The way we show worry, the way we react to worry may be different, but I will tell you whether you're male or female, whether you're young or old, it doesn't matter. We all worry from time to time. And so here's Martha and she's not doing anything necessarily wrong, but she is trying to control everything and own too many things in her heart. And she's worried and her posture is bent over

in a sense spiritually. She's carrying too much. Worry is care that's out of place and out of proportion. That's all it is. It's care that has gotten out of control. So the second thing is this, worry can make you drift into panic. Some of you, your care has gotten out of control and turned into worry and now your worry is actually making you panic. It's actually creating a physical reaction in your soul and in your body and in your sleep patterns and in your ability to concentrate. See, we worry because we interpret our circumstances without the right anchors. Jesus said this, and I'm gonna break down this verse. He said this. He said, in this world, you will have trouble. But take heart, because I have overcome the world. Okay, there's one statement here, but there are three anchors in this statement. And I wanna dissect it a little bit, and hopefully it'll help you. Because if you don't have anchors to your care, anchors in your life, care becomes worry, and you begin to drift into panic. With the right anchors, care can actually lead you to hope. So there's the three anchors for your care. Number one is this, a realistic outlook. Jesus said, you will have trouble.

You will have trouble. I love Jesus, his forthrightness here. He's not trying to like, you know, snow us, as they say. He's not trying to, in any way, be like kind of Pollyanna. He's like, hey, listen, this is the deal. In this world, because it's hopelessly broken, it's full of sin, it impacts our lives, hurt people, hurt people, all the different things. You will have trouble. You will have trouble. Life is gonna shake, markets are gonna shake, families are gonna shake, health is gonna shake, there's gonna be earthquakes. Sometimes worry, it comes from an unrealistic expectation that we are gonna have a problem-free life. It's actually weird I have to preach about this. I was actually thinking about this this morning as I was rehearsing my message. I was like, it's weird that we now, because 30 years ago when I started preaching, I never had to preach this. But nowadays, we have to preach to people, hey, listen, sometimes life is gonna be hard. Because of prosperity and all the technology and all of the advancement that we have in our nation and our culture, which is a good thing, that's not a bad thing, but because of that, we believe, some of us, that that means our lives can be stress and problem-free. It is never gonna be stress and problem-free.

Jesus says you're gonna have problems. In fact, in another version of the Bible, it says it this way, the same verse, he says that there is constantly gonna be difficulties. How many of you have lived more than a millisecond and you know that life is constantly full of difficulties, right? See, Jesus never promised a smooth life, but he promised a steady presence, that he would be there in the storms and also in the sunshine, that he will be there. Don't expect in life that everything's gonna be perfect. Expect seasons of pressure, because unrealistic expectations actually create more anxiety. If you expect heaven on earth, you're gonna be very disappointed. The reason why, this is worth your morning, the reason why you're experiencing problems is you're not in heaven yet. Someday, we will be in a problem-free environment. We'll be in a place where the Bible says that there's no tears, no sickness, there will be no problems. We'll be in the presence of Jesus, but we ain't there yet, right? And because of that, Jesus is being very forthright and he's like, you're gonna have problems. And you sit there and go, well, that's not positive. It actually is, because we can prepare ourselves

and not be surprised when things go like wrong and we're like, well, yeah, Jesus said it, we're gonna have problems. So that's the first anchor. The first anchor is we have to have a realistic outlook on life. The second anchor is this, is that we have to have an accurate view of God. Jesus said, I've overcome the world. What that means is, is that Jesus is going, all of the problems, the troubles I'm talking about that you're gonna have, don't worry, I've overcome it. I'm stronger than it. God is not stressing out right now about what is happening in the Middle East. And he's not surprised about what's happening in your world. And he's not scrambling, trying to catch up with how the enemy has derailed you in certain areas of your life. No, no, no, God is in control, even when you feel like that life is not in control and is spinning out of control. God is in control. He's still got the whole world in his hands, like that song from many years ago, you know? He's got the whole world in his hands. And you're like, well, why doesn't he fix it? Why doesn't he just take it all away? Well, unfortunately, because we chose the path of sin as a human race, then you know what?

We are dealing with the consequence of it. And yet, this is the thing. He will work his purpose, and he will work his goodness in the middle of all of the mess. He is in control. He is. So here's my question to you. Is God big enough? Is God big enough to handle what keeps you up at night? Is God big enough to take care of what's stressing you? What's making you have all kinds of worry and anxiety? Is God big enough? Or do you need to help him out? I'll let that sit there. for a moment. You're like, okay, when you put it that way, right? Because isn't that what we do when we worry? We think, I don't know if God's got this. I better fix it. I need to help it. I need to, like, we start inserting ourselves in God's place of trying to take control. Worry begins where trust ends. Worry begins where trust ends. Where we end trusting God. There's a limit. We go, okay, I trust you up until this point, and from that point on, I'm gonna now worry. Worry is carrying what God has never assigned you to carry. When everything depends on you,

and let me speak to the guys here in the room. This is where I think a lot of times guys worry because we're, a lot of times, fixers. We're like, well, I'm gonna fix it. I'm gonna take care of it. I'm gonna own it. I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna, you know, whatever. And here's the thing. The thing is, is this. There are things in life that you do not have the ability, the time, the talent, the education, or experience to be able to fix. You come to the end of your rope, and there are things bigger than you. And when we try to, like, put it all on ourselves, we become full of worry. Peace comes when we remember God is in control, and I am not. That is maybe one of the biggest things that it could be a takeaway today. God is in control. And it isn't that you don't play a part. You do your part, but sometimes we do our part, and then we try to do God's part, right? Like, okay, you're stressing about the war right now. Okay, can you please fix that in the next five minutes? You can't, but yet you carry it, right? Peace comes from remembering God's in control, and I am not.

Peace is not control. Peace is knowing that God is in control. So the first anchor, realistic. I realize that there's gonna be problems. The second anchor, I serve a God who's ultimately in control. He knows what's going on and what to do. And then the third anchor is this, that I can have a faith-filled hope about my future. Jesus said, take heart. That almost feels like it's contradicting the first anchor of there's problems. Jesus is saying, take heart. What that's saying is this. You can have a hope in him for your future. Worry lives in the future, but guess what? Hope can also live in the future. God can do more than you could ever imagine. Your life and my life moves in the direction of your strongest expectation. So what are you expecting in your future? Like, if the future is all doom and gloom, your life tends to move in that direction. If your future is like, you know what? God's gonna rescue me, he's gonna heal me, he's gonna help me, he's going to be faithful, he's gonna walk with me through the storm, he's gonna do that. Well, then your life moves in that direction. Does that make sense?

So the three anchors, yeah, go ahead and give that a round of applause. Somebody like going, good. Like, I'd be a little depressed if Jesus just left it at the first sentence. You're gonna have a lot of problems. Then, pew, he goes to heaven. Oh, right? Okay, no. You're gonna have problems. God is bigger, stronger, and in control, and have a hope that God's future is gonna be better than what you're experiencing right now. Those are the three anchors to your care. So number three is, you gotta anchor your care. You can't just let your thoughts, you can't just let your worries go. You have to take the care that you have and not allow it to drift. You have to anchor it. It's like a boat. The boat in the storm, if it doesn't throw down an anchor, it's gonna be every wave, it's gonna be every current, every single thing is gonna make that boat drift. The gusts of wind are gonna blow it all over the place. Care that is unanchored becomes worry and drifts into panic. So if you drop the anchor, like I said, actually three anchors I gave you, you drop those anchors, the storm will still rage,

but your boat is gonna be pretty steady. The waves didn't stop, the drift did, and worry is drift, but yet hope is anchored. You say hope is anchored? Yeah, there's this great verse. In fact, I love this verse, found in Hebrews. It says, we have this hope as an anchor. Using the metaphor, hope as an anchor. What do you think about that? Hope as an anchor for the soul. Firm and secure. In other words, you don't need less care. Like today's message is not that you should care less. You should still care. You are designed to care. about things that you value. Yes, you keep caring about your kids. You keep caring about your job. You keep caring about your finances. You keep caring about your marriage or your dating relationship, or you keep caring about your best friend relationship. You care about those things, but you gotta anchor it so that it doesn't drift into worry, panic, and worst case scenarios. You just need better anchors. Same amount of care, better anchors. You don't need to care less. God did not want you to be detached from life. He designed you to care deeply.

So the question isn't, do I care too much? That's not the question. The question instead is, is what I care about anchored in God's truth, or am I drifting into panic and chaos internally? See, if you don't anchor your care in God, your care will start controlling you, and it's called anxiety, and it's called worry. So you gotta ask yourself this question. Gotta ask yourself the question, what am I carrying right now? What am I carrying right now? Because you're all carrying something. I even mentioned it to somebody today. I mean, I was like, hey, listen, I saw so-and-so. They just looked down. Looks like things are heavy. Something's heavy. You know, what's in here, many times, will show itself out here. Like, you meet somebody, and it's like, oh, wow, you okay, right? So what are you carrying? And then the second question is, are you supposed to be carrying that? Or is God supposed to be carrying it? Because you and I can do what we can, but then we have to give to God what we can't. So we do carry some of it in our care and in our responsibility.

There's certain things that we have to do, but then, at the end of that, we give to God everything that we can't carry. It reminds me of a story of a man who is carrying a very heavy backpack. It was like 100 pounds. I mean, he's struggling with it. He strapped that sucker on, and he's getting on a train, and as he's getting on this train, he's going down the center aisle, and he's kind of weaving because, I mean, literally, it's so heavy, and finally, he finds a seat, and he plops down in the seat. You ever try to sit with a backpack on? Super uncomfortable, right? He kept it on. He's sitting there. The train starts rolling. After about 50 minutes into the journey, the passenger sitting next to him looks and says, hey, hey, man, why don't you set that thing down? And the guy goes, oh, no, no, no, I can't do that. I don't want to add weight to the train. And the passenger's like, that doesn't make any sense. The train is already carrying the weight, and here's the thing. A lot of us, that's such a silly story, but that's us. In life, we're hanging on to that pack, and we're carrying something way too heavy for us,

and yet, God is already carrying it, but we refuse to release it. We're gonna carry it, because you know what? We need to help out, and what it's doing is it's actually making our spiritual posture or our emotional posture bent over. You ever try to carry something real heavy on your back? Like, when you carry it, you're bent over. You go slow. You stumble. You can't, you're not looking up. You're looking down, and some of us, the worry is doing that, because we're hanging on to something that God is already carrying, but we feel like we gotta hang on to it, and it's making our life stumble. We're just only seeing right now. We're not seeing future. We're looking down. We're just exhausted. We wake up after wrestling throughout the night with our mind, and I mean, we just are tired, and here's God saying, listen, just set it down. I'm already carrying it. The train is already carrying the weight. Just set it down. What happens when you set down something that you've been carrying on your back? All of a sudden, your posture changes.

You don't put your shoulders back. Now, all of a sudden, your vision is not just here. You can look up. You actually can walk without stumbling. For some of us today, this is what God wants you to do. He actually wants you to give him the weight that you were never designed to carry so that you can walk in the way that he wants you to walk, and I don't know what that is, but you know what it is. See, you were made to care deeply, but you are not made to carry everything by yourself, so I'm gonna leave you with this thought before we pray. I tried to break it down so you can. just remember it. I thought, okay, this is what it really comes down to. Work your role, because there's certain things you and I have to do, right? We gotta carry what we should carry. Work your role, anchor your soul, and trust His control. So in other words, you do your part, and then remember, anchor your care in realistic expectations, the knowledge that God is in control, and that He has a better future for you. And then trust Him with it, and say, God, I'm giving it to you. Work your role, anchor your soul, trust His control. And when you do that, you're saying, God, I'm gonna take this pack off.

I'm gonna let you carry what I was never designed to be able to carry in the first place. I'm gonna give it to you. Lord, you are not only here, but you're in my future, and you are working right now behind the scenes. Even the prayers that I'm praying, I may not see them being answered right now the way I want them to be answered, but guess what? You're working, and I'm just gonna give you this. I am tired of carrying what I was never designed to carry. So this is how we're gonna end, and I purposely made my message a little shorter today, because I want us to take a moment and create a solemn, and I would say even sacred moment today in the auditorium. And I just want us to just bow our heads and close our eyes and why do we do that? It's just bow our heads and close our eyes so we're not distracted. Don't worry about the person that's next to you, the person you came to church with. Don't worry about what you have to do afterwards. But I just want you to think for a moment, what are you carrying that's too heavy right now? What is it? Don't say it out loud, but identify it. What's keeping you up at night? What's preoccupying you all day? What is it? What are you worried about?

Now that you've identified it, I want to take a moment, I want to ask you a second question. Should you be carrying it, or is it God's to carry? What should you be carrying, and what should God be carrying? The answer to that is probably God should be carrying the most of it. You probably do a little bit, but at the end of the day, what's keeping you up at night, what's stressing you out, what maybe even be, you know, becoming anxiety in your life or whatever else, you should not be carrying that. So this is what I want us to do. With head bowed, eyes closed, I want you to just whisper a prayer to God, whatever it is that's in your head right now and in your heart that you've identified. I want you just to give it to him. You can say it simply like this, Jesus, I give it to you. I give it to you, and when I try to pick it up again, help me not to. I'm giving you my children, I'm giving you my marriage, I'm giving you my finances, I'm giving you the circumstance, the situation, maybe it's in the past, maybe it's in the future. Just take a moment, just, he's listening to you, he's, you know, I know I'm talking, but he's listening to you because he loves you and he cares about you and he knows what that thing is. Just take a moment and give it to him. You don't want to walk around with the hundred pound backpack anymore.

You want to do what only you can do and let God do what you can't. Lord, we give it to you. God, I believe there's heaviness that's lifting right now. Jesus, we carry so much. Some people in this room, some people watching online right now, we're carrying so much. Lord, we give it to you. Bible says that Jesus, your quote is saying that your yoke, your burden is easy. We've been carrying around something that's hard. God, I just pray, help us to, even spiritually right now, emotionally, help us to be able to stand up straight and our posture's not bent over, it's not heavy. God, we give it to you. Lord, you know when the door's gonna open. You know when the healing's gonna come. You know when the finances are gonna show up and arrive, when that relationship that's creating all kinds of, kinds of crazy and stress right now, you're gonna lead through that. Give it to you, God. We thank you, Jesus. As we're sitting here in this stillness, it reminds me of a psalm. It says this. In the book of Psalms, the Old Testament, it says, be still and know that I am God.

Sometimes in our stillness, as we release our burdens to Him, that's when we most understand He's God. Thank you that you love us. Thank you that you care. Thank you that you will carry. In Jesus' name. In Jesus' name, amen, amen, amen. Can we give God our praise for that real quickly? Now, I'm not done yet, so don't leave yet, okay? I still got a couple seconds here. There's some of you that you're carrying too much because you haven't given, really, your life to Jesus. And if that's you, I just want you to know that carrying your life by yourself, and I can say this from personal experience, carrying your life by yourself only makes you walk heavy. And so what God wants to do is He wants to be the leader of your life. He wants to forgive you for everything you've done wrong. He wants to come alongside you and give you a supernatural strength for life. Doesn't mean it's a perfect life. Remember what Jesus said, you're gonna have troubles, but He's gonna help you and be with you. And if that's you, all you have to do to accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior is to say something like this. Just say, Jesus, come into my life, forgive me of my sin. I believe you died for me. That's what we're gonna study at Easter here

in a couple of weeks, okay, we're gonna talk about that. Believe you died for my sin, you came back to life, I need a new life. It's that simple, it's that simple. And some of you, before you even leave today, all you gotta do is pray that simple prayer, saying, Jesus, I want you to be a leader of my life, forgive me of my sin, give me a new life, give me a new life, thank you for loving me. It's that simple. And if you do that, that begins an amazing journey, an amazing journey of life change, where now Jesus is leading you, helping you, carrying things for you that are too heavy in this life, and that you'll have heaven as your home someday. And if you do pray that prayer, we have a QR code that's on the screen, and you can take your smartphone, and it's kind of explaining that prayer and the what's next. Here's the biggest what's next, just come back to church. In a minute here, when I dismiss, there's gonna be people up here, and they're just people that love to pray with you. If you wanna have prayer for anything, it could be about what's creating all the worry, all right? If you want prayer for anything, just come out up here. And on the way out the door, make sure you grab a bunch of those Easter invites, and like Natalia, like that video,

go invite 1,000 people to come to church in two weeks, all right? I love you guys, I love you City First, thank you. Go without worry, we'll see you next week. Have a wonderful week. Well, what an incredible message today from Pastor Jeremy. And hey, if you just made that decision to make Jesus a leader and forgiver of your life, Corey and I wanna be one of the first to congratulate you. That is one of the best decisions you can ever make. And we're just, we're cheering you on, and we've got a free resource that's just for you, and it's called New Beginning. And we would love for you to download that if you're like, okay, I made that choice, I prayed that prayer, now what's next? New Beginning will help you take those next steps, help you understand what the Bible is, help you to understand what is this decision that you've made and how to fully walk in it. And secondly, we would love for you to share that decision with a friend, share it with a family member, or you can drop, scan that QR code on the screen and let us know that you made that. Yeah, after you finish that New Beginnings resource and let somebody know, we want you to jump in and join GrowthTrack. GrowthTrack is a great class that we offer either in person or we do it online as well,

where you can discover your God-given design, like how were you wired, and how does God want you to walk that out in your life to impact yourself and others. So you can find more information about that on the app or the website. Yep, that's right. And hey, if you haven't already, download the City First Church app. On the app, we have this incredible feature, it's one of my favorites, where you can pray for others and you can also request prayer for yourself. So if you're like, I'm really going through something, I would love some encouragement, I would love someone to pray with me. Well, if you're watching on our church online platform right now, you can request prayer personally, but if you're not, you can head on over to the City First app, we would love to pray for you. It's such a great place to find community. Church just isn't on Sundays. We wanna find that community during the week and you can find that and also daily devotionals on our app throughout the week. That's right. Hey, we know we'll love to see you next week. If you know somebody that struggles with worry and you heard this message today, we wanna encourage you to share it with them. We wanna get this word out to as many people as possible.

Hey, we love you guys. We'll see you next week. Bye, guys.