Sheryl Brady - I Take It Personal

Psalms 23 says this: «The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for Thou art with me. Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth 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.»

Now let me tell you something: this passage of Scripture is very personal. As I was just sitting in my office a few moments ago, I started counting the words. I found that the words «me,» «my,» and «I» are mentioned in this text 16 times, while the words referring to Him, like «the Lord,» «Thou,» and «He,» are mentioned 12 times. I share this to tell you that this passage is about relationship; it’s about having a personal relationship with God. I don’t have a title today, but if I did, I would say, «Take it personal.» I want you to take it personally.

I’m going to share what’s on my heart, and in a few moments, Pastor Travis will come, and we’ll take communion. But right now, I pray, Father God, that You would speak in this place, speak in that place, speak wherever Your people are. If we’ve ever needed to hear You, it’s now. I thank You for the Word; many things might be taken away from us, but Your Word remains true. We stand on Your promise. We thank You for Your Word today as I speak to Your people from Your Word. I pray the peace of God would cover every home, every mind, every family, and every person that is troubled. I pray for the peace of God to cover and protect, in the name of Jesus, amen and amen.

I don’t know if you’re standing; I do know Brother Justin told you all to get off that couch, but if you are, you can sit down and be seated in Jesus' name. You know, there are so many things we could stress about today; there are so many issues going on. The news seems to change momentarily. One of the causes of stress, as we all know, is worry. I know that’s not the first time you’ve heard the word «worry,» but we worry about so much in life. We worry about our health; those who used to take their health for granted worry today. We worry about our finances; someone might be saying, «I don’t know if I’m going to lose my job» or «I don’t know if I’m going to lose my home.» We worry about many things, including our families: «Is my family going to get through this?» We worry about whether our marriages will last through the storm. We even worry about, of all things, toilet paper: «Will I be able to find any?»

But let me tell you something today: the problem with worry is that it is unhelpful. Worry is not only unhelpful; it is unreasonable and unhealthy. I say it is unhelpful because worry has never solved a problem. It doesn’t accomplish anything; it merely makes us fearful. Worry is like starting your car, sitting in the driveway, not taking it out of park, but revving the engine; you just press the gas, and all it does is create a little smoke and noise. The truth is, you don’t go anywhere. That’s what worry does to us. Worry cannot change the past. Someone is watching today and worrying about your past. When it comes to your past, you need to repent. America needs to hear that right now: God is calling us to a place of repentance. He’s saying, «The things you’ve done, the ways you’ve possibly failed Me in the past, I won’t hold them over your head, but I want you to repent.» Don’t let the enemy cause you to worry about your past; just repent. At the end of the day, you can’t change your past, and you cannot change your future. All that happens is that worry makes us miserable in our present.

So not only is worry unhelpful, it is unreasonable. Worry exaggerates problems. Worry is like having a problem under a magnifying glass. When you look at it through the lens of worry, it simply makes the problem seem bigger. The more you focus on problems while you are worried, guess what? The bigger those problems will become. To worry about something you can’t change is absolutely useless, and to worry about things you can change is crazy—just change.