[00:00:01] Speaker A: Thanks for tuning in to the Met Church podcast. Here at the Met, we are all about connecting people to God and one another. If you have any questions or want more information about what's happening here at the church, then head to our
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[00:00:25] Speaker B: It's been a great week around the church and around our community. I don't know if you're aware of it, but the Rangers did win the World Series. You happy about that?
I could put a good mood in the church, right? It's a good spirit in the church. I remember when I first went out there, it wasn't in that stadium, obviously, but when I played Little League baseball and Forest Hill Youth Association, our coach would take some of our teams out there. We would get to wear our uniforms. And there was actually a minor league team that played out there. I don't know if you remember that called the Turnpike Spurs. Wow. Anybody remember that? Turnpike. I'm older than dirt. But thank you, brothers for having my back. Six of us did remember that. It was a real thing. Google it, kids. They were called the Turnpike Spurs. And let me tell you, it was minor league ball. Low budget baseball. I'll tell you how low budget. We got out there early to watch them do batting practice and so forth. If they hit the ball up in the stands, you had to throw it back out on the field. That's true. They'd tell you, throw that ball back was a man and brother, get a snow cone or anything? No, get the ball back in here. Low budget baseball. But if you've been able to watch out through the years that you had a good time enjoying them win, that so that was a lot of fun. And then yesterday I heard that our CRC. We were able to take care of 981 families just yesterday alone. That's wonderful.
You think about that number in one day. That's not counting all the families they take care of on Thursday and Friday. When the facility is open, it'll be expanded even more than that. Offering more than just the food, though. The food is so significant. But 981 families, that's families. That's not individuals. You think about families of three or four, and you get an idea of the hundreds and hundreds, even thousands of people that you are a part of reaching each and every week. That's why I thank you for your financial support of our church. That is the largest mission dollar that we spend goes in that direction to help supplement the food. Costs have gone up. It cost us more to help buy the food, but that's okay. If we can lift that burden from people and help them through a hard time, the chances of us reaching them are greatly enhanced. We talk all the time in our church that you really don't reach people till they get reachable. And if we can lift that from them, that burden from them, we want to do that. Because the holidays are a wonderful time of the year, but they're also a difficult time of the year that's when we talked about what would be a good series to kind of get us into the spirit of the holidays, we thought, well, let's talk about the holidays. Let's talk about some of the negative emotions that we hear talked about during this time. In fact, two thirds of the people said that the holidays, the time between Thanksgiving and New Year, that it is something that they endure more than they enjoy.
Well, man, when you think about it as a kid, how you would look forward to this time of the year, and then you become adults, and now all of a sudden, with all that is going on in your world, you endure it and not enjoy it. Well, I could tell you something has happened, us big kids, and we're doing it wrong.
We're doing this time of the year the wrong way. And I believe with all my heart there is a way that you can have a great, wonderful, memorable holiday experience and you can get past the negative emotions that sometime attach themselves to this time of the year. I read an article where a psychologist referred to what people go through during the holidays, as he called it, festive festive stress.
He said that there's a unique stress that people feel, from sadness to financial pressure to family issues. It is unique to this holiday season. And again, I want to share through this series some ways whereby you and I could implement biblical principles into our life that would lift the burden and make these times of the year more enjoyable and not just simply getting through them. Right. But stress, I think, is probably a good word that describes what a lot of people feel during this time of the year. They say one of the biggest things that people deal with is over scheduling. I read an interesting article. They said there's five things people deal with during the holidays, the top five. And number one was over scheduling. I wouldn't have thought that. But they said that's what surveys report. People just get too much on their plate. You have too many events to go to, too many people to attend to, and all of a sudden you find yourself just over scheduled. Can I say this about that? It's okay to say no. It's okay to not have something to do every week of the life and every day of the week. So sometimes you have to evaluate and assess your schedule and say, is this schedule just draining the life out of me? Is it taking the joy out of the season? So number one was over schedule. Number two was gift buying. The pressure of what do I get them? How much do I spend on them? Will it fit? Will they like it? They say that is a huge pressure that people feel this time of the year. Number three, financial pressure. I think every one of us can relate to that. The pressures of this season. If you're not careful when Christmas rolls around, jingle Bells becomes juggle bills and you begin to feel that really quick. The fourth thresher, they say, is just preparing the house, getting things ready for company, just getting everything in order, and just the stress of that. And the fifth thing is family issues, dealing with that one relative, that is always the blessing in the family that are going to come around this holiday season, and everybody has at least one. And so all of those are combined to create festive stress. A difficult season that you end up saying, I think I am just enduring this time rather than enjoying this time. I heard about a lady that went to a physician. She just says, I feel run down. I'm just run down all the time. And after he examined her and talked to her a little more, he said, the problem is you're not too run down. You're too wound up. You need to learn how to relax, and you need to learn how to deal with the stress that is in your life. In fact, the number one killer of people is heart disease in our nation. And the number one attributor to heart disease, other than just genetics, is stress. I remember when I had my heart issues in 2010. I remember the cardiologist told me, he says, Bill, you do have this in your family background. I had a grandfather that passed to heaven in his 60s. My uncle went to heaven in his sixty s I have a cousin that went to heaven in his 50s all related to heart disease. So I was just tracking right on there. I was 51 when I had this issue with my heart. And so he said to me and when I went back to visit him, he said, you have to learn how to handle stress. He said, that's a contributor to what you're dealing with. And I looked at him and I said, how do you do that? And he looked back at me and said, I don't know.
Have you figured it out?
I haven't known anything but stress. All my obvious, you live in that world so long, you just deal with it and you cope with it. Can I tell you this? All stress isn't bad. Now, sometimes you think about stress, you need a little stress. If you don't have a little stress on you, you won't get out of bed tomorrow morning. Sometimes a little stress is good. I mean, this guitar that's up here on this platform will not make music without a little stress on the string, you got to have some stress. Now, the problem is, if you don't have enough stress, the music is dull and lifeless. If you've got too much stress on the string, the music is shrill and annoying. So you have to know how much stress you can handle on your string and you have to be able to balance that. And everybody's different. That's why there's no one size fits all. You got to learn how do you manage the stress that is in your life? So what comes out of you is music and not something shrill or something dull. So stress is important. Stress is essential. Stress is just a part of life. Again, inescapable and unavoidable. It's how do you deal with it? That's what we need help at. So I look into the Bible and I find some help. I found some things that I think I can give you, at least five that will help you as it tries to help me deal with the pressures and stress of daily life. In fact, it's in Philippians chapter four. If you have a Bible, look there with me. If not, take a look at the screen. We have it there. And I'm going to read this to you. And as I'm reading it, I'm going to comment. But notice the times you'll read the word things. Things in this narrative. Things. Thing are things. Notice the times you read that. And what's interesting about it is pressure, stress, worry, fretting has a direct coordination and correlation to the things that we deal with in life. So listen for the word. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything. By prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your request to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are noble, whatever thing is right, whatever thing is pure, whatever thing is lovely, whatever things are admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think on these things. And whatsoever you've learned and received and heard from me or seen in me, put that into practice. Do it. And when you do that, the God of peace will be with you. Now, Paul is talking about the things that we deal with in life. And the things that you and I deal with are the things that create all the anxiety and the festive stress. The things and the secret to navigating through this season is dealing with the things that are affecting you this morning in a biblical and in a positive way. And he opens by saying this be anxious for no thing. Let me give it to you another way. Don't worry about anything.
Now, I know that sounds trite and that sounds easy to say. And I know people say, well, you have no idea about my life. You don't know what I'm dealing with. You don't know the pressure I'm under I understand that Paul doesn't qualify that. He doesn't say, well, don't worry about, you know, you're dealing with a lot of financial pressure or you're dealing with a lot of family issues now that you worry about, you're dealing with the IRS that you worry about, he doesn't put any qualifiers. He just says, hey, let me just start out by saying if you want the peace of God to guard you and you want the God of peace to guide you, learn not to worry about the things that you deal with in life. It's interesting because this word anxious or worry literally means to be pulled in different directions. Pulled in different directions. My faith is telling me it's okay, but I have those dark moments where I don't know if it's going to be okay. My faith is telling me God has never failed me, but I have those dark moments when I wonder if he's going to come through. When is it going to happen? Is it going to happen? How will it happen? What if it doesn't happen? And all those things can become anxious things that tear your heart and tear at your heart, and it isn't long until it affects your peace. And I know that because verse seven, he says, if you can learn not to worry, you'll have the peace of God. And not only that, down in verse nine, he said, you'll have the God of peace. So there's a special presence and a special provision that comes to people who learn how to face the things of life and not be anxious or worried about them. Now, let's be honest. All of us struggle with this. I'll be the first one to tell you I struggle with this. And how many on you're in church? There's nobody here but us. Just look around if you doubt that. Just us here. How many of you would say, I got at least one thing I'm worried about this morning? My hands up. Up. Don't lie. You're in church now our hands are all up, right? How many would say, I'm sitting next to one of the things I'm worried about? Now I'm just messing with you. Now.
That's true. Let me give you some real practical advice that I try to give myself a lot. I don't take it all the time, but I wish I could. I wish I would. Number one, don't worry about anything you can do something about, right? Don't worry about anything you can do something about. If you can do something about it, quit worrying about it and go fix it. Remember the principle, jesus said, if you come and bring your gift to the altar and when you bring your gift to the altar and you remember that you've got some ought is the word, or some difficulty against someone else, something in your spirit is affecting your worship. He says this, leave your gift at the altar and go try to be reconciled to your brother. Now, I love the idea of leave your gift at the altar. He didn't say, take it with you while you work that out. He said, no, bring it, bring leave that. We leave that. But go fix the other, right? Go fix it. The point was, he was saying, you got to get that out. This is something you can fix now. You can't always fix it. Not everybody will be willing to let you fix it. Have you found this statement to be true? There are no problems too big to solve, but there are some people too small to solve them. I mean, you're going to find that true in life. And there's some people you can't resolve thing because they will not be reconciled. They just won't hear it. They don't want it. But the honest is on us to make the attempt. And the point I'm making is instead of worrying about things that you can do something about, go do something about it. Get a game plan. I'm going to do this, and I would tell you, start with the thing you dread most. Do that first, because if you don't, you'll dread it all day long. So start with the worst part of your day. Get that baby over with bright and early. Get that thing out of your way, right? So you start there. If you can do something about it, don't worry about it and go do something about it. That's the principle. Principle. Two things you should never worry about are things you can't do anything about.
You can do nothing about it, so why are you worried about it? What you do is, and I'll get to it here in just a second, is you hand it off to someone else who's capable of handling it. But when it's beyond your ability to deal with it, what is the point in worrying about it? You know what it does? It affects again, it affects your peace of mind.
Remember, he said, if you do this right, you'll have the peace of God to guard your heart. Verse seven, meaning that if you don't do this right, the peace of God is not going to reside in your heart. Your heart is going to be anxious, which means it's going to be pulled in different directions. You're going to be full of anxiety and full of worry, and it affects the thing. I am convinced this morning, the devil is after more in your life than anything else is your peace, your peace of mind, the peace that you have in your heart say, oh, the Devil's after my kids. I ain't after your kids. You don't want them half the time.
Devil's after my job. He ain't after your job.
You know what he's after? He's after your peace of mind. Because if he can get that, he'll get your kids. And if he can get that, he'll get your job. He'll get all the other things that are in your world that mean something to you if he can get your peace, if he can disturb the peace. And one of the things that learning how to not have a heart full of anxiety and worry, it protects the peace of God that is there to guard you and the God of peace who is available to guide you. So the first advice Paul gives us is worry about nothing. And by the way, remember where he is when he wrote this. He's chained between two Roman guards and he's facing execution.
This guy's going to die in a few hours. I don't know about you. If ever a brother ought to be worried, that might be a time to worry. I mean, he'd be okay. I'd be a little Hawaiian. I don't know about you. If I knew I was going to die for nothing bad I'd done, I don't know if I'd have that framework of mind, but Paul doesn't have that. He's not writing you from a condo on Maui. He's writing you from a prison where he's facing death. And he's saying, in my circumstances, I'm trying to help you with what has helped me. I can't worry about this. This now is out of my hands. I mean, I'm in the hands of this Roman government and they may put me to death. So what I'm trying to do is condition myself to a place where I'm not worrying about anything. Instead, notice the next piece of advice he gives you here's. Who you hand it off to worry about nothing. But in everything with prayer, make your request known to God. You know what you do with the thing you can't fix? You hand it to God.
Why? Because there's nothing too hard for Him. There's nothing he can't do. Listen, there's no sin he can't forgive. There's no burden he can't lift. There's no problem he cannot solve. There's not a verse in the Bible where he ever says, go easy on me. You're asking too much of me. It's not there, in fact, God challenges. Can I not provide a table in the wilderness? I mean, God says, look, there's nothing I can't there's nothing too hard for the Lord. It doesn't matter what you're dealing with this morning. God can handle it. And it's a matter of trusting Him. When I go to prayer, I pray in his name, and I pray in faith, believing that he's able. But I also pray in faith believing that his will will be done.
Now, sometimes I pray Bill's will will be done.
And Bill's will isn't always the best will to be done because I don't have all the facts and I don't know what's best.
And God knows if he had answered every prayer the way I prayed, that he would probably wouldn't be here today.
I'm just suggesting you that God sometimes shows his love not only by what he gives, but by what he refrains from giving. He looks at I said, you don't really want that. No, you don't want that. You think you do, but you don't. So I'm going to answer your prayer, but I'm not going to answer it in the way you thought I would, because I know what's best for you and I'm going to give you what's best for you. So it's a matter of trusting Him in the midst of praying to Him. Yeah, you pray and you go say, god, I pray for this healing, or God, I pray for this job, or God, I pray for this financial deliverance. God, I pray the burden would be lift. Yes, all the above. You pray for all of those things, but you pray also in his name for his will to be done. Because at the end of the day, you want God's will for your life.
Because I've learned the hard way. And you know my story, most of you. You know, sometimes you don't get what you pray for.
Sometimes your faith has to be big enough to receive the fact God may tell you no.
Remember when Paul prayed for the thorn in the flesh to be removed from him in one corinthians twelve or two corinthians twelve? And he said, I prayed three times. Now, I believe he prayed more than three times. He just remembers three distinct times he's prayed for it. This was something that was bothering him to the point he was praying about it all the time.
Have you ever had a burden so heavy on your heart that you get up in the night praying for it? Something that is affecting your sleep, and you pray about it? Something that is so heavy that you can't get escaped? And so in trying not to worry, you're trying to pray and you're just praying because that's Paul. You know what God said to Paul when Paul said, god, deliver me from the thorn? God said, no, my grace is sufficient for you. Remember the three Hebrew teenagers who were facing death in the fiery furnace of Nebuchadnezzar because they would not recant their faith, they would not turn their back on God. They said in Daniel 317, our God is able to deliver us from this fiery furnace, and we believe he will. But then here's the caveat. They said, but if not, even if he doesn't, we're not going to bow, we're not going to bend our knee, and we will not recant our faith, your faith. Listen, when you pray for the things that you're worried about, your faith needs to be big enough not only to accept the things that he gives, but it needs to be big enough sometimes to accept the things he withholds.
Sometimes the question of your faith is not, do I have enough faith to be healed? The bigger question is do you have enough faith not to be healed?
Is your faith big enough for you to hear God say, no, I'm going to heal, but I'm going to heal them in heaven. I'm not going to heal them on the earth. Is your faith big enough to allow your mind to accept God's will in any given circumstance?
And I'm telling you, I've walked down this road. So I'm saying when you pray, you pray in faith, believing that God loves you and he wants to give the best things to his children, but the things that he gives may not be exactly the things that we're praying for. And man, when you got to climb that mountain, that's when you learn to trust Him. That's when you learn to trust Him, man. That's when you say, god, this isn't right. This isn't fair.
I handed this thing over to you thinking this, but I could have kept it in my hands and done better than that. Now, you don't say that out loud, but you think it.
You ever had that little inner monologue with God?
And I'm just suggesting you folks, that God knows what's best. He's got a plan. He can be trusted. He is too good to do wrong. He is too wise to make a mistake.
And if you can get your head around the fact that God loves you more than you love you, and he will do what is right for you, if you can trust Him, then you get to the point where Solomon was in Proverbs three, five and six, where he said, trust in the Lord with all your heart.
Lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, in all your ways, acknowledge Him and he'll direct your path. God will go before you. He'll open the way, he'll direct the path. What was Paul saying? Man, when the things of life get so heavy and difficult and you find your heart and mind full of anxiety and worry, you pray.
You can't worry and pray at the same time.
And I'm telling you, if you'll start praying about the thing you worry about, some of you will be prayer warriors. You'll get that downed because I talk to people every week, get worried if they ain't worried about anything.
I'm not worried something bad's going to happen. I just know you ever had those feelings. It's going too good. Just going too good, right?
Paul says, hey, don't worry about this thing. Instead, pray about it. And notice the third thing he said. Worry about no thing. Pray about all things. Again in verse six, be thankful for everything. Be thankful for everything.
Billy Sunday said we need to pull some of the groans out of our prayers and shove in some mean. There needs to come a time when just coming before God to say, god, I got something else I got to ask you for. Sometimes we just come before God and say, god, can I just say thanks?
Did you know in the scriptures the Word think and the word think come from the same root word, and you can infer from that idea that thinking people are thankful people.
And when you think about it, we have a lot to be thankful for.
Yeah. I can feel sorry for myself, and believe me, I do. I look at myself in the mirror sometimes and want to cry, get up my lap and hug me. Do you ever look at yourself that way?
If you could, you just crawl up in your lap and just hug yourself.
God love you, Bill. Let me wipe those tears off that mirror. I mean, I don't need people. I got that down. I can feel sorry for me. But you know what I do sometimes when I think about a wife in heaven and one of my granddaughters that are there, and I think about those things? I think instead about 42 years of a wonderful life that we built together.
I think about the things that God allowed us to do, the memories that we've made. Do I wish you was here? Are you kidding me? Every moment of every day.
Do I wish we still had that granddaughter with us? Are you kidding me? But here's what I know. I have known to take the things that make no sense and the things that I don't understand and even the things that I didn't pray for, and I've taken them, and I trust him with it. Why? Because I know he's too good to do wrong. He's too wise to make a mistake, and it helps me be thankful to be thankful. I don't want to end up some bitter old man.
I can't help the old part, but I don't want to end up being a bitter old man. Marty got the old man down pretty good, but I don't want to be a bitter old man. You ever run into somebody, it's like the older they get, the meaner they get.
I don't want to be that guy. I don't want to walk in the room and people saturate my presence with their whoa, whoa. The time. The time it is. We got to go. See you, Bill.
You want to be the thermostat that regulates the temperature in a room. You want to bring that up.
You want to make people better because they know you, and you want to make an environment richer because you were in it. And we all have enough reasons and excuses to be bitter about the experiences of life. But I found that's a choice. That's a choice.
And my faith leads me to a point that I can trust God enough to know he knows what's best, and it changes the level of gratitude. I look back on what I have and what I've been able to do and the opportunities I still have in front of me, and it helps me be thankful. Be thankful for all things, and then notice the fourth thing he said. Put this together now. Worry about. Nothing. Pray about everything. Be thankful for everything. Number four think the best things. Think the best things. If there's any virtue, if there's any praise, is there anything good? Think on these things. Have you ever noticed the biggest battle you'll fight is a battle in your mind?
It's a battle in your head.
That's why it's worse at night. Have you noticed all the problems you face are worse at night because everything is dark. It's like everything closes in on you. And now you're left alone with your thoughts. And if you're given to anxiety and worry, and you're just someone that leans more on the negative side, the nights are horrible, they're difficult, you have trouble sleeping, your mind is at work, and it doesn't slow down. And all those things come in on you at night.
That's why they'll put a prisoner in solitary confinement. Because one of the worst places a person can be if they're in a bad place is to be left alone with their thoughts. Nothing but your thoughts. In fact, in Proverbs 23, verse six, Solomon said as a person thinks in their heart, so will they be. Vance Havner used to say, you're not what you think you are, but what you think you are.
Everything leads you come into the world head first. Think about that.
I mean, every experience you go from one dimension in life into the next one head first.
You think yourself into a better situation in life before you realize that situation in life. You always move head first. You're here this morning because you thought yourself to be here before you got here. You'll go wherever you're going when you leave this morning because you'll first think about it. Where are we going to go eat? Boy, don't you hate that discussion. But anyway, where are we going? You decide. No, you decide. You all to always decide. Y'all somebody else decide, and you gotta have that. One person in the group says, bless God, we're just going to Kin cage, get a burger, settle it.
I digress. Here's the point.
You have to stay on top of how you think.
You can't think two thoughts at the same time. That's why Paul said, ground up every wavered thought and bring them into captivity. Don't allow a negative destructive thought to run free in your mind.
Bring it into captivity. Don't allow it to become something you fantasize about or something that you allow free range in your head. Bring that negativity under the power of the Holy Spirit into captivity in your thinking. Because as you think, so will you be. Your mind is dress rehearsal for life. So make sure you're thinking about the thing. You want to see a reality in your life, so you worry about no things, you pray about all things, you be thankful for everything you think the best things. Here's the last one. We'll go home. You then do the right thing. Do the right thing. Paul said, whatever you've seen in me that you've observed, that's positive and beneficial and good, do that, do that. The best thing you can do is continue to do good things. Bible says, walk in the spirit. Galatians 517 walk in the spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
You know how to guarantee yourself not to get into trouble if you'll just do the right thing.
Walk in the spirit every day, walk in the spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Say, today I'm going to do the right thing. This is what I purpose to do. I'm going to control how I think about this situation. I'm going to make good decisions. I'm going to walk in the spirit. I've told you before, people who are doing what they shouldn't be doing are people who are not doing what they should be doing. And if you don't do what you should do, you'll do what you should not do. That's what I'm trying to say.
So when you find yourself doing what you shouldn't be doing, I'm going to try it again. It's because you stopped doing what you should have been doing. My cat. Sorry, that sounded right that time, right. So if I do what I shouldn't do, it's because I quit doing what I should have done. That's right.
You work that out, but there's a lot of truth in there if you figure it out.
But that's what it gets us all in trouble. Just get up and say, I know what I need to do. I'm just going to do that. And if I can do that, I won't be doing the things that I shouldn't do. Just say, that's not a good reflection, not who I am.
I don't want to bring a bad reflection on my business, on my family. So I don't know what the day holds. I can only control what I do. And so I just know this is take care of your five minute plan. If you can take care of your five minute plan, your five year plan tends to take care of itself. Just try to live in the moment and make good decisions. And Paul said, when that happens, here's the payoff. The peace of God will guard your heart and the God of peace will guide your life. Let's pray.
Father. Thank you for your word. Thank you for the joy it is to communicate Your word to these wonderful folks. And Lord, we all deal with this stuff in life. We're all dealing with things health, finances, business, family, just our own personal stuff. So, Father, help us to glean something from the message this morning that will give us tools that we need to help us deal with those negative things, those difficult things.
Help us, Lord, to trust you more, to lean on you more, to realize, Father, you do have a plan and it's going to work out for our good and for Your glory. So, Father, I pray for the businesses in the room. I pray, Father, for the families in the room that you would bless them, that this would be a productive week, a good week. Thank you for the life that You've given us. Thank you for all the things thank you, Lord, for the things you're doing in and through the ministry of this church.
And I pray, Father, you'll continue to be the Jehovah Jireh, the God that provides for all the needs that we have. And finally, Lord, I pray if there's one in this room or one watching online that's never trusted you as Savior, that this might be the moment when they humble their heart and they swallow their pride and they simply pray and say, lord Jesus, with all that I know about me, I now trust all that I know about you. Come into my heart and forgive my sin. And I pray this prayer in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:31:56] Speaker A: Thank you so much for tuning in today. If you have any questions or prayer requests, please contact us by visiting metchurch.com so that we can follow up with you this week week. We look forward to seeing you next week.
