Sheryl Brady - The Stress We Bring On Ourselves

Proverbs 20, verse 25: How many of you know wisdom is so important? I love to shout, I love to holler, I love to do all that fun stuff, but when I walk out of here, I want to have my mind right. I want to be able to make wise decisions and wise choices, so wisdom is imperative. I want to take the 25th verse right here, and the Bible says that an impulsive vow is a trap; an impulsive vow is a trap. Later, you wish you could get out of it. Has anybody ever found themselves in something they wish they could have gotten out of? Some of you are right now; you’re right in the middle of it. You’re sitting right next to them. Don’t say a word about it; I know, I know. Today, I want to take just a few moments; I’m not going to be long, but I want to talk about breaking the impulses that bring unnecessary stress—breaking the impulses that bring unnecessary stress. Look at somebody and tell them, «You gotta break it! You gotta break! You gotta break your spirit!» God bless this food that we are about to eat. We honor you today for your presence. We thank you for it, as it is rich in this place. Now say whatever you want to say in this church; touch everyone here in this place, and we’ll give you glory for it, in Jesus’ name. Amen, amen. On your way down, just touch somebody and tell them, «You gotta break it! You gotta break every impulse that leads to unnecessary stress.» Has anybody been out shopping on Black Friday or Saturday? Anybody been shopping? Lift your hands—don’t be ashamed; just lift them. Just let them see. There are a lot of us that went out shopping on Black Friday. How many of you bought gifts for somebody else? No, we lost half the crowd right there. How many of you went shopping on Black Friday and bought something for yourself? I’m not by myself; I did! I went out on Black Friday; I never ever hardly do that, but my chair—my chair, my favorite chair—you all know what kind of chair that is. Everybody has their own favorite chair. My chair broke over the Thanksgiving holiday, and I’m like, «I got to have a new chair!» So I left my house and started out to find a chair. I knew where I wanted to go, and the problem was I could see the store but couldn’t get near it, probably because all of you were out there shopping. I couldn’t get near. That’s frustrating when you can see something, you know where you’re going, you can see it, you can almost touch it, but you can’t quite get there. That was frustrating, and what made it worse was that it wasn’t just cars in my way; it wasn’t just traffic in my way—people were everywhere! They were walking the streets. I’m like, «Who said we were going to turn this street into a sidewalk?» I mean, just tons of people! So traffic was everywhere; people were everywhere. Parents were out there trying to hold hands with their children, so they didn’t get hit by people trying to drive on what is called a road. You had that to look at. I also saw grown kids pushing their elderly parents in wheelchairs. So, I saw parents pushing their children, and I also saw children, who were grown, pushing their parents. As I was looking at all of that, I was trying to think, «Man, that’s a beautiful picture right there,» but I was so stressed out that I couldn’t see the beauty of the picture because I was really wanting to get to the store. Okay, but it was a beautiful thing, but it was a stressful thing. They say that the most stressful time of the year for the majority of people is the time that falls between Thanksgiving and Christmas. One article that I read said that it actually falls number six in the most stressful life events. This particular season that we are in right now is right up there, the article said, with the death of a loved one, with a divorce, with the loss of a job, or with having to pack up and relocate and move. People are stressed this time of year, and I want to help us today so that we don’t take what God meant to be a blessing of a season and fall into the trap of it becoming a stressful season. So touch somebody next to you and tell them, «Chill out! Chill out! It is His birthday; it’s not yours; it’s His!» But people stress; they stress out for a lot of reasons, and stress is a killer. I’m not a doctor, and I’m not trying to act like I am, but I know that stress can ultimately—after enough time—be like compound interest; it just gangs up on you, and you find yourself under it, and you can’t seem to get out of it. People stress about gifts; they stress about finances; they stress about disappointing their children; they stress about disappointing their spouses, their families, their friends. Some people worry and stress out because of empty seats that will be around the family table this year that were filled last year, but we lost certain people. Some people stress out not because of who’s missing but because they stress about who they think is going to be there. So, it’s just all kinds of stress. We stress out because we’re concerned about family feuds; we’re concerned about when we get together.