Overcoming Overwhelm

Can we give God the credit that is due to the holies of holies, the was, the is, the I am, whose presence is with us today. I don't know how you walked in, but I believe that if you open up your heart, if you open up your mind, if you open up your soul today, that the lyrics that we sung will feel real to you. That in the midst of trial, trauma, and tribulation, you could say, God, you are my everything. You are my everything. You're the very breath that I need. And so will you do me a favor, church? I want to open up today's word with the word from God. You don't have to turn there. It's on the screen. But Psalm 61, 2 says this, from the end of the earth, I will cry to you. When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the rock that is higher than I. So even the psalmist David says, I am overwhelmed, lead me. You can come and overwhelm today and be led to the rock that is higher than I. So spirit of living God, you are wanted here. You're welcomed here. We give you honor. We give you glory. We give you praise. So you be the glory in Jesus' name, amen and amen. Welcome to Revere Church. Do me a favor. Before you are seated, will you introduce yourself to your neighbor? For those watching online, welcome. We're so glad that you're here. Go ahead and put in the chat box where you were tuning in from. We want to know what you ate for Thanksgiving if you are here in North America. And if you're around the globe, we are just nosy folk and we want to know.

We want to know where you are from. Well, welcome to Revere Church. If you are new or you're visiting, my name is Bianca and I'm one of the pastors here. I get the distinct honor and privilege of being part of leading this community to experience the goodness and the glory of God. As you walked in today on your seat, you're going to see an envelope. Next week is Legacy Weekend. And that's what we like to talk about and remember that this community is not just about us. This community is not just for our generation. We believe in generation and generation and generation to experience the goodness and the glory of God. And so next week is our above and beyond offering. That's where we come. It's not our tithe. It's not giving. It's where we take a selected amount that we want to honor God and we say, God, above and beyond everything else. This is what I'm believing for the next generation to experience. So on your seat, there's an envelope. It's the offering. Take it home. Pray over it. Seek God. Ask God, hey, what is the investment that I want to sow into this community as there are needs that are here, needs that the Lord is meeting and needs that you will be able to participate in experiencing the blessing of what God is doing in this community. Well, if you're new here, you're visiting, we've currently been in a series entitled Perfect Peace. Somebody say Perfect Peace.

And it's rooted in Isaiah 64, 7. It's not on the screen because I want to speak it over us. It's you keep them in perfect peace. The New King James translation says you keep him, but it's humanity. You keep humanity in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you. And as we go into the holiday season, I know that there's a lot of chaos and crazy family gatherings and expectations. And so how do we experience peace in the middle of chaos? Now, as we were putting together this series, I was a little hesitant because I think there might be some people in the room that are like me, where when we talk about mental health, you think, well, I don't have a mental health issue. I don't wrestle with clinical depression or anxiety. I sleep well. Nothing is neurochemically dissonant in my brain. I'm okay. I might experience situational depression, but that really doesn't affect me. One of the things that I want to kind of remove in this series is the misnomers and the misjudgments that we think about mental health, specifically within the church. So I started this series talking about what are some of the myths that we're experiencing in church? Like, if you love Jesus, you shouldn't be depressed. That's not true. What about some of the stigmas that we put around? If you had enough faith, then you'll be healed. So we started dismantling that. And then in week two, Mekon came in and he spoke about anxiety, and anxiety is simply a feeling wrapped in fear and gave us tools on how to war against fear. And last week, Kobe Campbell was with us. She's a clinical licensed therapist, and I brought her in to speak on depression. But for those that were here in second service last week, I hope you went back and watched

service one because what happened in service two, we didn't even get to open up the can about depression because she said, why am I here to speak about peace when the prince of peace is here? If you weren't here, I'll give you a little recap at the end of what happened. But this week, I want to talk about something that is often overlooked when it comes to mental health issues. And it's not overlooked because it's not happening. It's overlooked because it happens so often, it's become accepted. It's overlooked not because it's simply just negative. It's overlooked because it's considered normal. If you're a note taker, put your notebooks, your highlighters, your pens, and your Bibles, and I want you to jot down the title of today's message. It is overcoming overwhelm. Somebody shout back, I'm over it. Because I want us to be over feeling overwhelmed. The thing that I am going to unpack and discuss today. is based on the idea that a lot of us will do things that are not normal, but because we've been exposed to that since we were young, or we just lived in that, or we got used to that, we think it's normal. For example, in college, I was sitting with some athletes, and there was this one particular Midwest athlete who pulled plain pasta up from the noodle bin, and then he squeezed ketchup on his spaghetti noodles. And I looked at him, I said, bro, what are you doing? And he said, what? In my family, this is normal. And I'm like, every Italian grandma nonna is out there dying. Like, I cannot believe someone put ketchup on their spaghetti. I said, bro, that's not normal. Or maybe you're married, and you discover that someone squeezes the middle of the toothpaste tube instead of the end.

Because that's how we did it in my family. That's not normal. That's weird. How many are familiar with CrossFit or High Rocks? Yeah? Okay, great. I was in that cult, too. I've been delivered, praise God. But about two years ago, I went on a radical health journey. I realized that my adrenals were shot. I was killing myself in trying to keep my life together and this fear of my life imploding. And I went on this radical health journey. I changed all the things that I ate. I changed how I worked out. I changed my whole entire life. And I'm grateful for what the Lord has done and been able to heal some very broken parts of my life. But this week was Thanksgiving, and I looked at my gym's workout schedule, and I realized how much calories I was going to consume on Thursday and how much pie I wanted to eat and how all the things I wanted to be guilt-free. And so I saw that there was a High Rocks class being offered at 6 a.m. Well, this guy that is my workout partner, he's my pace setter. He's 6'4", and I'm like, if you are that fast and that strong, I will beat you. So he's my pace setter. And so we both signed up for this High Rocks class. And keep in mind, I have not done High Rocks in two years. So I show up, and about 10 minutes into the workout, he looks at me and gives me that look like, what's up? Like, are you okay?

And I was like, I think I'm having a heart attack. He said, yeah, yeah, that's normal. Okay, okay. Then we moved on to the kettlebell station, where you're vigorously throwing kettlebells over your head at rapid speed and weights that are far too heavy for you. And he looks at me, are you okay? I was like, I think I'm going to vomit. He's like, yeah, yeah, that's normal. That's normal. I said, okay. So we keep on going and we keep on going. If you're not familiar with High Rocks, think of it as like dying and going to hell while you're sweating on a treadmill. Then you row, then you do a skier, and then you throw weights over your head that are far too heavy for you. So by the time that we come to the very last station, something kicks in on me. And I was like, we're going to have pumpkin pie. We're running at 12.0 speed at an incline. And I am dying. I'm hauling, like I'm a professional athlete. We get off the treadmill and I'm at the end like this. Like I'm dry heaving. And he pats me on the back. He said, yeah, that's normal. Let me tell you something. That's not normal. That isn't normal.

But see, when you're in something for a long enough time, you begin to think things that are not normal are normal. And why do I mention that? Because that topic I want to talk about today is the topic of overwhelm. And we can talk a lot about anxiety. We can talk a lot about depression and mental health. But we often don't talk about what leads to depression, anxiety, and mental health disorders. And the reason why we don't talk about it is because it's normal in our society. In fact, if you meet somebody that has two jobs and then they have a weekend side hustle to make some extra cash, and they have their kids in karate and their kids in Spanish and their kids in French, and they're teaching their kids Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic, and their kids are in culinary arts school, and they do ballet on the weekends, they have piano lessons, and they go to Kumon. And then they also have a Bible study together for other couples at their house. We don't look at them and pray for them. We praise them. And we say, wow, look at all that you're doing. Look at your capacity. It's so amazing. That's so amazing. And for some people who have high capacity, that is their normal. In the same way that some people love to do high rocks. That ain't me. But if I look at them and try to be them, I will exhaust myself because I'm not wired for that. But we're looking at people run their lives ragged, and they're wondering why they come to church feeling like they're going to throw up

or break down. And as you came into this room today, maybe you've been running at a pace that feels so fast for so long, and you're beginning to know this isn't normal. So I want to speak about getting over overwhelm. If you're with me, can you say I'm over it? Okay. So for the note takers, there's two types of overwhelm. We have a schedule of your calendar life that feels overwhelmed or your life is overwhelmed. That is an external overwhelm or an internal overwhelm. Does that make sense? Great. So let's break down external overwhelm. External overwhelm. This is when the demands of life are too stressful. When your daily life and your calendar is jam-packed, and it's chaotic, and you feel frazzled about how many things you have scheduled, not for the week, but for the day. Everyone in your family expects so much of you. You're barely hanging on by the end. end of the day you have nothing left to give. If that's you in here today, let me give you the words of Jesus. I'm gonna encourage you just to jot it down. It's gonna be on the screen. I am gonna forewarn you. I have a lot of Bible to give you today. So I want you to take notes. You can go back and annotate the message. Go back and listen on YouTube. Share it with a friend. These are the words of Jesus for those that feel overwhelmed with the chaotic life, especially as we're going to the holiday season. John 16 33. This is the words of Jesus. I've told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth

you will have many trials and sorrows, but take heart because I have overcome the world. You can get over your overwhelm because Jesus has overcome the world. Amen? Okay, so those are external pressures. What about internal overwhelm? You feel weighted down by the worries of the world. You think and feel like things are absolutely out of control. You have needs, but you don't have the supplies for your needs, and this overwhelm isn't happening outside of you. This overwhelm is happening inside of you. Mark chapter 14 verse 32 said this, they went to a place called Gethsemane. Side note, we're going to Israel in 2027, date change, May 27, and we're gonna go to the Garden of Gethsemane. You don't want to miss out. This place, Gethsemane, is called the place of pressing, which tells me that we can experience overwhelm not simply by enemies, but we could be surrounded by emotions that press us. And Jesus said to his disciples, sit here while I pray. He took Peter, James, and John along with him, and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled. My soul, Jesus says this, my soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. I'm so overwhelmed I want to die. Have you ever been through something that has been emotionally overwhelming? Have you emotionally felt like you were on a treadmill running at 12.0 speed on an incline, and you feel like you have nothing left to give? Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane, and he's about to die. He is faced with every emotion that you and I would be able to experience and that we can imagine. He's faced with sorrow. He's faced with sadness, which shows me that if you came in here today sad, please know this, sadness is not a sin. Sadness is not a sin. If you're sad today, you have a Savior who empathizes with you. Jesus was sad, and he expressed his sadness. And I wonder, in a room of this size, for those watching in online, and those in the room, if you've been overwhelmed with sadness in this season. Disappointment that the Thanksgiving that you thought was going to be reconciling for your family was just wrecked. Sorrowful because the reality that you've spent another holiday season alone has hit. Disillusioned, depressed, distressed, and there's also anger. Sadness is little brother anger. So if it's not sadness, it manifests itself in anger, and I believe that Jesus expressed and felt these

emotions too. Well, angry with what? Angry at the world? Angry for empty water bottles that drop? No, just kidding. Angry that the devil is out there? Angry with the sin and weight of humanity? That he has to give up his life so others can live through the act of death? He's clearly overwhelmed, and he says that he is, and in his moment of overwhelm, in his moment of sadness, in his moment of anger, in his moment of utter and complete loss of ability to make a decision because he submitted to the will of his Father, he invites three friends, Peter, James, and John, and he says, hey guys, come pray with me. Come pray with me. You know what they do? They fall asleep. What kind of friends are that? He's so hurt, and his friends fall asleep on him. He's overwhelmed, and in spite of all those emotions, are you ready for this? He still believes God because he believes that there is the power of the resurrection that will come through his life. He knows how the story will end, and yet he's still overwhelmed, which shows me and gives me permission to bring my sadness, my overwhelm, my confusion, my anger. Faith doesn't mean that you will never be overwhelmed. It means that we have a Savior who empathizes with that feeling, and if that is you today, and you are overcome by sorrow, you are overcome by emotions, you're overcome by your schedule, the good thing is, the good news is, is that you can get over this feeling of overwhelm. So what I want to do, self-awareness is a big value for me in this community. I want Christians who are very aware of our emotional intellect, I want us to be very aware of where we fall short, where we need our Savior, otherwise you're going to... to church you're going to experience a feeling and you're going to leave with like that was a good tip i'm going to share with my co-worker rather than saying what is the mirror that the bible was revealing about my life and so i'm going to ask two questions and these two questions will give us a an emotional temperature of where we're at these questions will show us are we overwhelmed and if so how do i fight for peace in a season of chaos how do we fight for peace in the middle of overwhelm the question i want to ask is is it overwhelmed or is it over want am i overwhelmed or am i experiencing over want psalm 23 psalm chapter 23 if you're fast you can turn to turn there but i'm actually going to teach out of the new king james version because that's the one that

i memorized as a kid but it says this the lord is my shepherd i shall not want he makes me lie down in green pastures he if you brought your pen in your own bible circle every time you see he he and you he leads me besides still waters he restores my soul he leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake now i love that god is saying this because god is the one to refresh our soul he's the one to restore our soul god is saying i promise you restoration these are promises of restoration and he continues on in verse four though i walk through the valley of the shadow of death i will fear no evil for you are with me your rod and your staff come for me you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies you anoint my head with oil my cup over runs over surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and i will dwell in the house of the lord forever so god is saying i'm gonna do this i'm gonna do this i'm gonna do this but the problem is the expectations that we have of god we expect god to do all of this while overlooking the one thing he asks of us and when we don't get what we want we blame god but if you look at this passage again he says he makes me lie down in green pastures he leads me beside still waters he restores my soul but the one thing that it's so easy for us to gloss over is actually found in verse one i shall not want in other words god says i can help you with your work but i can't help you with your wants you're gonna have to work on your wants so let me put it this way the problem isn't that you're doing too much the problem might be that you want too much and the reason why you're working 50 60 70 hours a week is because you want to buy things and you want to pay for things and you're going to create this life that you think you deserve right now and so we have to take a look at this and say wait a minute wait a minute am i experiencing overwhelm or over want is this for me right now because if we pause and ask that ourselves that question we might be able to assess and say huh i don't know if it's the right season for this let me put it this way i love to cook and i love throwing dinner parties i threw an italian dinner party i was going to do a four course meal and pairing and i was very excited i sent the menu to my friends and one of my friends tina and eric that were going to be there when they saw that i was making my kachoi pepe that is homemade pasta noodles that is a parmesan reggiano cheese sauce with toasted black peppercorns i mean chef's kiss okay it is is and that's the dish that's gonna get me married all right okay tina had this great idea she said i saw oprah and oprah has her favorite truffles bought and purchased from italy that they can overnight so i'm gonna order these truffles tina doesn't get one truffle at 150 dollars each she gets two the woman spent 300 on truffles i

mean it was like basically tending to newborn chicks you had to like wrap it in this paper and then you put in this plastic bag you had to keep it a certain temperature i mean it was so finicky it was like an orange county woman what do we do with these things okay so that i finally make it and it's the piece de resistance i bring up my mandolin and i'm slowly shaving the truffle on top of the pasta and everyone's making like a scene like ah so we all sit down we take a bite and at first i thought it was just me because if you're familiar with truffles they have a very umami flavor they're mushrooms they're found underneath the ground they're found by pigs i'm not even kidding you it's it's it's amazing it's amazing and the flavor is so pungent and yet i'm eating this pasta i don't taste anything i thought it was just me and i didn't want to say anything because tina spent all this money on it i didn't want to be like the girl that was like i don't taste anything but all of a sudden through the course of the dinner people said did you taste anything and then later that night i googled why don't truffles taste like truffles and i realized that if they are not harvested in the right season they will taste just like a button mushroom a plain mushroom with no flavor and what's happening is that many of us are wanting in the wrong season so we want to get with that girl but it's not the season we want to buy that house but it's not the season we want to get that car but it's not the right season what happens is that we eat it and we wonder why we're not satiated because it's not the right season And we find ourselves being overworked because we over want and we experience overwhelm So you're eating these things experiencing a lack of satiation. You're like, wait a minute. I have what I want It's not filling it. The Bible says I shall not want but what comes before I shall not want The Lord is my shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd. The reason I shall not want is because he is my provider Everything I have in this season is because the Lord wants me to have it in this season if I don't have it in this season, it's because he doesn't want me to have it or he will give it to me in the right season and I'm willing to wait because if I want something out of season that I will work for it in my strength and I will burn Myself out. I'll have as the tick tockers say a little mentee B I will experience a mental breakdown because I am over working for what I want We got and let me just pause for a second because I don't want us to confuse complacency and contentment I'm not saying don't dream don't aspire to greatness. In fact, that is the opposite of everything I preached a couple weeks ago. I preached a message three weeks ago

I preached a message on asking God for more and believing him for more. That's not what I'm talking about I'm talking about asking him for his divine alignment for the time and for the season Because here's the truth. I want a house in Corona Del Mar. I Want a house in CDM and I can say I live in CDM and everyone who knows CDM You know, the letters are Corona Del Mar ever since I was a child My father would put us in his Volkswagen bug and we would drive all the way down the road We would go to Corona Del Mar and I would walk along the streets and I would say one day I'm gonna live in Corona Del Mar now. I could take on a third job. I could Hustle I could sell essential oils. I could sell houses. I could sell my ovaries. They're worth a lot Like I could do a lot right I can get the house But will I kill myself in the process and I'm fighting to be content with what I have right now And if I'm not content, then I will strive I will fight I will stress I will feel overwhelmed with desire So I will add more hours to my calendar and more hustle and more work and more worry because I'm wanting season something in the wrong season And if you're not content with what you have right now, you will say yes to everything that will fill the void Oh Work more hours. Yes. Oh pick up your child. Yes. Oh a sign up for that. Yes. Oh, you can do that Yes, you can do this. Yes. Yes. Yes, and if you aren't content Let's just say parents in a crazy holiday season or even just a school season You find yourself not content with your child Is that so you put them in soccer and you put them in baseball then you put them in football then you do ballet then? You do gymnastics then you do come on then you think all of a sudden you're putting your kids in piano lessons and all these Other things because you're looking at that kid and you're wondering why your kid is so behind Wait, wait, we all grow at a different pace and grace at the end of this. You're crashed out. You're burned out You're overwhelmed and your kids hate you So with this holiday schedule that's going on I really do want to be gentle Hold on. I realize that I said that really intense. I want to be gentle. Hold on. Let me do this again There's so much on our plate in this holiday season I'm very aware that there's high emotions and high expectations that we place on ourselves and we place on other people But I also cannot coddle you and I have to tell you the truth. You can't cry about the calendar you created You made your schedule

You filled it said this way you can't whine about the week you wanted You did it You wanted it now you have it. But here's the good news. You could change it, too Cuz Psalm 23 3 says this he restores my soul Someone say restores and this is this is really good I love that the Bible doesn't say that he gives me rest or he allows me to take a nap Scripture says that he restores my soul and restore is the key verb that I want us to focus on see God is very intentional when he says this because we say Tired as a synonym for overwhelmed we say tired as if it's the same word for overwhelmed. It's not you're not overwhelmed You might be depleted You might not be tired. You might be depleted So the first question is is it overwhelmed or is it over want but this is another emotional temperature Are you tired or are you depleted because there's a difference if you're tired you could take a nap and it'll fix it But if you take a nap and you wake up exhausted you're depleted You could take a day off. But if you go back to work and you're tired You're actually not tired. You're depleted if you're tired You're like I just need a vacation and you go on vacation you come back from your vacation How many have gone on vacation and needed a vacation from a vacation? Yeah, especially they have young kids. That's not a vacation That's a missions trip because everyone needs to get resaved at the end of that you question. Why are we even doing this? This is so expensive Disneyland is not fun Okay, so how many people know that you need a vacation from your vacation and you come back come back depleted? You're not tired. You're empty Psalm 23 3 He restores my soul. Your soul is tired except tired isn't the most direct word to clearly express what we're feeling. And what we're actually feeling instead of tired is I'm emotionally spent. I have spent all my emotional energy on trauma and drama. And sometimes the drama costs more than the trauma.

Some of y'all had some crazy families you had to deal with this week. You know what I'm saying? And then you find yourself if you're not dealing with the family trauma, then you find yourself disassociating in the living room, doom scrolling and then getting lost in somebody's comments and you arguing about something that you have no connection to or you having to come face to face with that family member that you thought you can reconcile with but really you still have beef with them. And you're like, how are you 45 and still acting like a 16 year old? Anyone feel me? Yes, so you're emotionally depleted. By the way, I'm so proud of you for coming to church this week because this is historically one of the lowest weekends people don't come to church. I think it's because they're emotionally depleted, not because they don't love the Lord, we just poured out so much and we were left empty. And so the beautiful thing is that if you are depleted, you could change your strategy. So this is my iPad. And I've had my iPad for a number of years and I know how long my iPad lasts. And what I do to make my iPad last is I put my iPad in sleep mode,

because I'm smart. Except I didn't preach last week or the week before and it didn't charge it. So I came to church today, it was absolutely dead. But wait a minute, it was sleeping for two weeks. How did it die? It was not being filled. My iPad was depleted. In order for something to be refilled, it has to be connected, bing, bang, boom, thank you, shout out Jason and Anna for having a traveling charger. You have to be connected to be filled up. So you can take a nap, but a nap isn't gonna solve what's going on in your soul. You don't need a nap, you need to be restored. Okay, so what does it mean to be restored in heart, and restored in body, restored in mind? Are you ready? Do you wanna be refilled? Do you wanna be replenished? Do you wanna be restored? Okay, this is what you do. You focus on the grace and the goodness and the glory of God. Now listen, I usually give a cheat code and I put my notes up on the screen, but I'm noticing y'all get lazy. You take a photo and then no one's putting it in their journal.

So I'm not gonna put it on the screen. I actually want you to pull out your notebooks and write this down. How do you replenish your soul? How is your soul restored? You are gonna focus on the grace, on the goodness and the glory of God. What is the grace of God? God, I don't know how you have chosen me. I don't know how you have forgiven me. I have made some stupid mistakes and yet you call me yours and you love me and you've played a purpose on my life. By the grace of God, I focus on you. What are the goodness of God? I don't have a lot to be excited about. There's nothing good in my life. You know what? You're complaining about your stinky man, but there is some single girl out there that would gladly take your stinky man, all right? So you say, God, thank you for my stinky husband because some other girl will want him. Talk about the goodness of God. Thank you, God, for my home. No, I don't own a mansion, but I love my apartment. Thank you so much, God, for your goodness. Think about the glory of God. You hung the moon. You dipped the stars.

The sun raises at your command. The edge of the waterline comes to the sin. The glory of God. I am shook. I am, Old Testament, I'm shooketh by the glory of God. So we look at the glory. We look at the goodness. We look at the grace of God. And when you focus on the glory, when you focus on the grace, when you focus on the goodness of God, all of a sudden what is emptying your life begins to feel charged up. Your situation is still the same, but your perspective has changed. Oh, Bianca, you don't get it. Can't a vacation charge me up? Or maybe you're sitting here thinking, well, can't watching a movie with my girlfriend like charge me up? Doesn't that replenish my soul? Maybe. You have to ask yourself the question, is this activity refilling me or is it a refuge that I hide behind? So I took a look at my life. I was preparing for this message. I started doing an analysis. What am I doing with my days? I do a couple of things every day.

Listen, don't judge me, okay? Because we don't judge in the house of God. I do two things every day. I work out every day and I watch reality TV every day, okay? Every Real Health Lives in any city, I gladly watch, okay? And I realized why do I like working out? When I'm there, I'm not even kidding you. I'm on the treadmill, I'm on the skier, I'm on a rower, I'm lifting weights, and I'm like, God, thank you for my 10 toes that I get to stand up straight. Thank you, Lord God, that in a moment in my life of weakness and sadness, I asked that you would take my life and yet you did not listen to my request and I get to stand and testify the goodness and healing grace of God. Thank you, Lord Jesus, that you have given me the right mind to be able to do this and I love it. It focuses, it orients me on the goodness of God and I leave a workout, which I should feel depleted, but I'm actually filled up. I'm ready for the day. I'm like I'm gonna charge hell with a water pistol, like I'm ready. then when I watch reality TV I realize I love looking at women whose face don't move and they're spending money that like their third husband gave them because they married them when they were 89 and had a trust fund and I'm like oh tell me more and I leave empty I leave empty so begin to do an analysis what are the things in your life that are filling you up what are the things that

charge you up what are the things that are leaving you empty see Romans says that God is in everything Romans 12 says that God is in everything so when you enjoy something don't just enjoy that thing enjoy it with a purpose knowing that it's gonna give glory and grace to God you eat a burger God I thank you for the hands that in and out that made me this burger I thank you for the cow that gave up its life so I can enjoy this double-double God I thank you for the money that you put in my account because 519 for a full meal is not a bad price God I thank you I thank you I wonder what our life would look like if we started thinking about the goodness and the glory and the grace of God and everything that we do instead of numbing out hiding out tuning out and running on empty and what does this look like normally hey I just want to demystify it like what does this look like if you're married go on a walk with your spouse grab their hand wow we've made it five years we made it seven years look at the trees look at the sky God you're gracious if you're single go on a walk with the Lord and and you say things like God I'm single so my pockets jingle okay no one's gonna tell me what to do all right but I don't do my laundry over to do my laundry thank you Jesus all right but it's the everyday activities that we can give glory unto God and so I want to give you a principle on how not just to rest from work but to rest in work who wants that principle okay Dean thank you so much I love you that's why you're an elder here yes Paul and Dean always holler back at me yes who wants the principle for peaceful productivity okay I want you not just to rest from work I want you to rest in work Matthew 11 28 says this is the words of our Savior hey come to me you you who are feeling depleted and tired and weary you've been going so hard I see you giving a hundred and ten percent are you tired do you want to give up you're doing a good job but you're doing it in your own strength come to me all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart okay so this is a farming analogy and so Jesus saying you'll find rest for your soul so Jesus understands overwhelm and that overwhelm is not just a symptom in your

body it's a symptom of your soul that's why Jesus says you will find rest for your souls so this is how you can find peaceful productivity I want you to jot this down it's his burden not mine it's his burden not mine let me tell you something you don't have to wait to be refreshed that a refreshing can take place as you build your business a refreshing can take place and you work a nine-to-five a refreshing can take place while you're wiping nose and cleaning derriere's that you can experience his peace even in your work now in order to understand that this is possible you need to understand the principle of the yoke so on the screen there is a photo of a yoke if you're not familiar with this it's an agricultural instrument that was used in ancient times and it's a heavy wooden object that would connect two oxen together but you're looking at this thinking wait a minute Jesus says come to me all who are heavy laden and now you want to put this wooden thing on my neck but we don't understand the power of the yoke see you would take a strong older oxen and you would put in a younger weaker oxen and what would happen is the weight would be distributed between both mostly on the stronger beast of burden so Jesus is saying come to me yoke with me I will take this off of you learn my pace let me teach you come to me all who are heavy laden and burden I will give you rest for my yoke is easy and my burden is light and it's not just his presence and his power but in verse 29 it says this take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart he's saying you got to learn how to work like like I work well how did Jesus work and this is where everything changes how did Jesus work how did Jesus find peace in his productivity peace in his work are you ready he discovered peaceful productivity because his peace was in his pace his peace was in his pace look through all throughout the entire Bible you will never see Jesus running everywhere not one place that Jesus run he was never in a rush in fact he got to choose transportation during that time he could have had a donkey a camel an ox or donkey wait remix camel horse or donkey and Jesus chose a donkey the slowest beast of burden because he was never in a rush and yet Jesus did more in three years

then we will do ever in our entire lifetime because he understood pace and here's what I want to tell you if you're going to work and work effectively you have to understand pace don't rush to the rays don't rush to the new job don't rush to the new relationship don't rush to buy a church building and right now if we're not careful we can just go work work work work work work work work work work work work work and it really should be work and rest and work and rest and work and rest a powerful principle that's changed my life two years ago when I did an evaluation about what is wrong with my life I realized I was not sabbathing Sabbath is that I learned from Rabbi Shmulek in Israel if you go you will meet him Sabbath is one hour a day one day a week one week a year all of us should be taking time we focus on the goodness the glory and the grace of God and that will initiate a pace and I get it someone in this room like young you don't understand my life or my job my work my spouse you don't get it you don't get it yes you're right I don't know your job but I know my life is busy too and what I'm realizing is that if we don't manage our workflow work will manage our flow do you want to be run by your calendar or do you want to run your calendar do you want to manage and enjoy and pace your life so that you're here for the long haul because the truth is if you want to do that people will be disappointed you will let people down you might not be able to buy that gift for that person right now but you will find peace in your pace and this beautiful last principle that I see here and in peaceful productivity is that we can have peace in his purpose Hebrews 12 one says this and please please indulge me I'm going to read out of the message translation because Eugene Peterson says this beautifully when I read it it was like adrenaline my veins he said this keep your eyes on Jesus who both began and finished the race that we're in study how he did it because he never lost sight of where he was headed that exhilarating finish in and with God he could put up with anything along the way cross shame whatever and now he's there in the place of honor right alongside God when you find yourselves flagging in your faith go over that story again item by item that long litany of hostility

that plowed through that will shoot adrenaline into your souls speak to me Eugene yes fix your eyes on Jesus fix your eyes on Jesus the author and the finisher of your faith and I want I want us to kind of put this together I want you to attach heaven to your hustle I want your perspective to be God in everything that I do I want to give you glory that's what Colossians 323 is all about hey whatever you do do it to the glory of God period full stop the end and we understand that our reward for work isn't just a paycheck our reward for work is bringing God glory that perspective changes everything you may be sitting here thinking oh well Bianca you're a pastor you don't get it I do get it you might be a barber do a lineup to the glory of God you might sell houses sell houses so that a family might be restored you might be a medical doctor ride prescription and pray in faith you know what I'm saying attach your purpose to the calling that God has for you and you will experience a deep sense of peace many times where do we see this we see this in the life of Jesus because many times that Jesus was going into a chaotic season or out of a chaotic season he spent time with the Lord spent time with his father break down he he's about to step into ministry and he takes 40 days sabbatical to go up into the desert to spend time with the Lord when he discovered that his cousin was murdered John the Baptist says that he goes away to us in a secluded time in a secluded place he goes up into the mountains to spend time with the Lord when he did it we performed a super amazing miraculous miracle fed 5,000 people after feeding 5,000 people he secludes himself to a private place to what spend time with the Lord and before he's about to go to the cross he goes up and he spends time with the Lord do you see the pattern here yeah anytime that Jesus was either about to head into or head out of a crazy overwhelming season he made sure that he was overwhelmed by the presence of God and this is what we see here you want to have peaceful productivity be overwhelmed by the presence of God and there have been several times in my life where I have been in rooms where the presence of God was so thick all of my life situation melted like hot butter because God was in the room and for those of us that

were here in second service last week For those that went to first, they didn't understand why we were so excited about what God had did in our community last week. But for those that were here in second service, Kobe, our guest speaker, clinical licensed therapist brought in to speak about depression, comes on to stage while the worship team is closing out. She's so moved, she doesn't speak, she begins to pray. And then from prayer, she begins to sing. And the worship team begins to join her in this act of singing. And the room just begins to shift and change. And then from singing, she begins to prophesy, to speak life. The Lord gave her a word of knowledge. In scripture, a word of knowledge is when the Lord reveals something to someone about somebody in the room that will change their life. And let me be honest with you, in this community, we're not chasing emotions, we're not chasing feelings, but we invite the presence of God. And last Sunday, I stood over there and the production team's like, hey, what do we do? And I just said, we do nothing because the presence of God is here. I love what the Psalmist says, Psalm 27, four.

One thing I ask, this only do I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple. Can I give you the anecdote to overwhelmed? When you're overwhelmed with the world, it's because you're looking at everything else. Can we be people that are overwhelmed by looking at Jesus? Because last week, she spoke a very clear word for people that were dealing, not just with suicidal ideation, but for those who wanted to take their life. In a very bold invitation, she had those people that were wrestling with deep mental anguish to come forward. People flooded the altar, were on their knees, were weeping before God. I saw the prayer team, I saw Jeff and security, I saw the leaders and the pastors praying over people who experienced the Prince of Peace. And in that moment, it was like the veil that separates heaven from humanity became so thin, I could feel Jesus in the room. And when you feel overwhelmed, you might just need a reminder, Jesus is here. Emmanuel, God with us. And so today, I'm gonna do something a little bit different. Usually we pray in service, but I've invited the elders and the prayer team.

If they could, they could stand and be ready to receive. And I ask that the house lights are lowered to create privacy. And I'm gonna invite you to do an emotional temperature check. If you feel comfortable, you can put your hand on your heart. It's very rare that we create space to hear what is going on inside. And so my prayer today is that nobody leave, you got two minutes, you got three minutes. Begin to talk to your savior and let him know, I'm sad, I'm sorrowful, I'm disappointed, I'm disillusioned, I'm overwhelmed, I'm anxious, I'm depressed. And it is not a label. It is an emotion that your savior could heal. And so spirit of living God, we move in this place. And can we have honesty? And where there is honesty, there's healing. And where there's healing, there's transformation. And where there's transformation, there's life change. And so spirit of living God, you're invited into this space. In this moment of honesty, there's no shame. It's an admission, we need you. So invade this environment. We worship you, God, in spirit and truth. And we just ask God that you do what only you can do. In Jesus name.

You are invited to sit, to receive. The worship team is gonna sing over us. But if you feel overwhelmed, if you need a touch from God, if you're experiencing depression, disillusionment, you can come forward and receive prayer for the prayer team. I'm asking not to be a disruption and leave. Be with us for five minutes as a community, as we give God the glory and witness life change.