Sheryl Brady - From Overwhelmed to Overloaded

We’re going to be doing a whole lot of flipping around — a whole lot of flipping. I want you to go to Second Chronicles, if you will, and I’m going to actually begin at the first verse. Then I’ll try to call it out as I go, but I’m excited for God’s Word. Thank you, praise team and band, everybody for taking us into the presence of the Lord. Beginning at the first verse, the Bible says, «Sometime later, the Moabites and the Ammonites, accompanied by the Meunites, joined forces to make war on Jehoshaphat.» Verse 3: shaken, Jehoshaphat prayed, because sometimes when you are really shaken to the core, that’s what you do. So, shaken, Jehoshaphat prayed and went to God for help. He ordered a nationwide fast. The country of Judah united in seeking God’s help, and they came from all the cities of Judah to pray to God. Go to verse 25: when Jehoshaphat and his people came to carry off the plunder, they found more loot than they could carry off: equipment, clothing, valuables. As a matter of fact, it took three days to cart it away. On the fourth day, they came together at the Valley of Blessing, Baraka, and they blessed God. That’s how it got its name: the Valley of Blessing. Now, just a few verses earlier, in verse 3, shaken — some translations say he was troubled — he was worried, he was bothered. But here, just a few verses later — and there’s a whole lot of stuff that happened in between, and I’m going to try to hit the highlights of it today — I want to talk for a few moments from a particular subject. Look to your neighbor on your right and say, «Neighbor, being overwhelmed by the battle, being overloaded by the blessing.» Tell somebody else, «Being overwhelmed by the battle, being overloaded by the blessing.» It all happened in a day’s journey from overwhelmed to overloaded. Well, not just overloaded with troubles, burdens, or pressure, but overloaded by the blessings.

Father, we thank You for Your Word; it’s a timely word. We honor You; Your Word is always on time. I pray for the anointing to deliver it into this room. Thank You for touching Your people. Thank You for speaking confirmation in this house. Somebody came to hear — have Your way in here today, God. Take over this room right now; just take it over. Say what You want to say and do what You want to do, and we will thank You for it in Jesus' name. Somebody just stand there for a second, clap your hands, and give God praise in advance. Come on, praise Him in advance for finding you today, for speaking to you today, for giving you a word that you can walk out of here with and live with all week long. Thank You, dear God. I thank You today for Your Word, in Jesus' name, Amen and Amen. On your way down, just hit somebody and tell them, «From overwhelmed to overloaded, overwhelmed to overloaded.» Y’all have to say Amen real loud because I can’t really see you all that well since the lights are in my face. So, I know you’re out there because of the sound, but say Amen every now and then. Thank you, thank you; you all are awesome. One of the most common complaints that I hear — or common phrases, sentences, or words that I hear today, and probably you hear it too — is the phrase, «I am just overwhelmed.» Now, most of the time, the people who say that are telling you the truth, because there is a lot today that we can find ourselves overwhelmed by. There are just too many decisions that have to be made. One of the worst things I can stand is when, you know, because I will usually spend Saturday prepping for today, and I come in here and preach this first service, then preach the second service. When church is over, if my family looks at me and says, «Where are we going to eat?» I just want to bop them upside the head, because I haven’t been listening or hearing. I’ve been focused and delivering, and I’ve made a hundred decisions in the last 24 hours, if not more, on what we are doing right here, right now. So, the last thing I want you to ask me is, «Where are we going to eat?» If you have a catering business, we would love to cater — no, I’m just kidding, I’m just kidding! Most of the time, I want to go home and go to bed because I’m just worn out, but I feel like it can just in case somebody makes a decision on where we can go eat so that I can just walk out here and you say, «Here’s where we are going to eat today.» Obviously, nobody can do that. But the truth of the matter is that there are so many decisions. If you really stop to count the decisions that you make every day of your life, you would be shocked to know how many decisions you make. There are just so many expectations that you and I feel like we have to meet. There are calls that have to be returned, or you have to make the decision not to return the calls. There are requests that you have to fulfill, emails that you have to answer — or not answer — and there are social media inbox messages. If that’s not enough on Instagram, then you’ve got to go to Facebook, and they’ve got inboxes too. We have so many…