Sheryl Brady - Buried Alive: The Miracle is in the Margin

How many people are living their lives today feeling buried alive simply because they don’t have any margin in their lives? So today, I’m going to give you four things. You better write them down; I better not see you looking at me. You better be writing! I can remember; you cannot, so I’m going to give you four things that are going to happen immediately when you begin to build margin. You ready? Number one: You will find peace of mind. You will find peace of mind when you’re not in a hurry, and when you don’t have to worry. You can find the time to slow down, stop, think, relax, rest, and enjoy where you are. I cannot tell you how many miles I’ve traveled around the world and never saw anything but the inside of the church and the hotel where I was staying because my head was spinning from a lack of margin. We have to have margin.

Number two: Building margin will keep us in better health. Don’t wait until you have a problem; go for your checkup. Build some margin into your life. Don’t wait until the heart attack happens. Don’t wait until high blood pressure causes you to have a stroke. All you have to do is buy a little machine, and when your blood pressure is high, call your doctor. Stop being so spiritual! I want to detox the church from being so spiritual that you think you can eat whatever you want and live however you want, under all that stress and pressure, and not expect to have problems just because you’re a Christian. We’ve buried too many Christians. I mean, how much does it take? I went to the doctor a few weeks ago. I walked in looking healthy. I went to a cardiologist. He said, «Why are you here?» I said, «My father died of a massive heart attack, and my mother died of heart failure. I’ve already lived ten years longer than my dad, so that’s why I’m here. I just want you to tell me everything is alright.» Hello, it’s called margin! Margin helps keep us healthy because unrelenting, that means consistent, stress harms our bodies. The problem with us, church, is that we’ve lived under that unrelenting stress for so long that it now feels normal to us. Hello? But we’re not meant to live like that! That’s why when you go on vacation for a week and it’s time to go home, you feel like, «I was just getting relaxed, now I’m ready for vacation again.» That’s how much stress is affecting our bodies. So don’t wait until your diabetes starts destroying your body to get it checked. Build in margin! You all are quiet. You’re like, «I did not come to church to hear about my health.» Well, for the record, thank you for helping me to remember: I’m not a doctor, okay? I’m not a doctor, but I am a preacher, and I do have some common sense. Don’t wait until your health hits the ground to decide to take care of yourself. A race car, every now and then, even though it’s in good shape and going around the track at 200 miles an hour, has to stop and go into the pit because you can’t fix it while it’s racing around the track. Hello? I can’t fix you, and nobody can fix me when we’re constantly running around the trap. We think we should be repaired on the run, and that is just not going to happen. We’re going to find ourselves buried alive.

Number three: Building margin will help us have relationships that are stronger than what we currently have. Let me say that again to make sure you’ve got it: building margin helps us have stronger relationships. There are many different reasons for the collapse of family units in America and around the world, and one reason you probably won’t find on the divorce papers is a lack of margin. Do you have margin in your relationships at home? How many married people do we have in here? Lift up your hand. Listen, don’t be doing that because you may be right now, and I’m trying to let him know I ain’t playing! No, you have to have margin in your relationships. In marriage, we each have «love banks.» It’s like a bank account. Bishop SWS deposits into my love bank, and I put things in his love bank when I get up, get dressed, and go to the cleaners to fetch his clothes at the last minute before he needs them. So he can have something to wear today—Hallelujah! I earned brownie points for that. That’s what some people call them, but that’s me! I’ve added little extra deposits to his account so that if I mess up next time and don’t get to the cleaners on time, he can’t be too mad at me because he has a buffer. Here’s our problem: we’re exhausting each other and not depositing anything. We’re just taking and taking, making withdrawals without any deposits. You’re going to be just like Wells Fargo; you’re writing checks on money you don’t have…