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00:00 [Music]
00:07 [Music]
00:10 Dealing with stress through scripture.
00:14 Dealing with stress through scripture.
00:18 And as a consequence, I'm going to do something I've not done.
00:22 Is for the entire month of May, I'm going to preach from just one verse.
00:29 Every Sunday, every Tuesday, we're going to just deal with one verse.
00:33 And as a consequence, I need you to have this one verse in your memory.
00:39 By the time this month is over, I want your children to know it.
00:42 I want your family to know it.
00:45 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse number 8.
00:49 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse number 8.
00:54 And today, we're only going to read just one clause.
00:59 We will finish this series the first Sunday in June.
01:03 We'll finish this series the first Sunday in June.
01:06 And so I need you in church every Sunday so you don't miss what God has to say.
01:12 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 8, clause A.
01:16 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 8, clause A.
01:22 Every person, let's read it together.
01:25 [crowd says "Amen"]
01:30 Amen. Amen.
01:33 [crowd says "Amen"]
01:37 Just read whatever you want.
01:39 [crowd says "Amen"]
01:43 We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed.
01:49 You may be seated.
01:55 We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed.
02:00 I want to preach part one of this series entitled "You Get On My Nerves."
02:12 Whatever you do, don't turn to your neighbor. Just look straight.
02:21 You get on my nerves.
02:27 Comrades, history will record the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan
02:35 as one of the most outspoken, controversial, and fearless leaders of our time.
02:45 The impact of the Million Man March made America reexamine black men.
02:55 However, what's not widely disclosed is that the head of the Nation of Islam is also an accomplished violinist.
03:08 In 1946, he appeared on the Ted Mack Amateur Hour.
03:14 And after he won first place, he went to Winston-Salem University on a track scholarship.
03:23 It was thereafter that he converted to Islam.
03:29 Upon meeting the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, he was directed to choose between music and Islam.
03:41 So as a consequence, he put his violin away.
03:46 After his mentor died, he pulled the instrument out only on special occasions
03:54 to brush up on his chops of Beethoven, Chopin, and Mendelssohn.
04:01 It should be noted that as a child, Minister Farrakhan was raised as an Episcopalian
04:10 and was closely mentored by his pastor, who was a black liberation theology writer named Dr. Nathan Wright.
04:23 And in his formative years, Minister Farrakhan served as an altar boy.
04:30 I can't help but to believe that while serving as an altar boy,
04:36 one Sunday, the young Minister Farrakhan had to have heard his pastor read Psalm 150.
04:45 We all know that "Let everything that has breath praise the Lord."
04:51 But as an emerging virtual soul, he must have been arrested at verse number four,
05:00 and it hit him differently.
05:03 Where David said, "Praise him with string instruments."
05:10 Might I argue this morning that in the entire symphony,
05:16 there's probably not an instrument that lives under more pressure than the violin.
05:26 To be clear, stress is an internal feeling because of external factors.
05:39 That's my thesis for the next five weeks.
05:42 That stress is an internal feeling because of external factors.
05:51 I want you to lay hands on yourself and repeat after me.
05:55 Stress is an internal feeling because of external factors.
06:04 That's what stress is. It's an internal feeling because of external factors.
06:12 And the violin has more stress than any other instrument.
06:20 The violin has four tightly stretched steel strings.
06:27 You're not going to believe it, but the strings on a violin weigh 66 pounds.
06:35 The strings on a violin weigh 66 pounds by itself.
06:42 What is amazing is that the violin only weighs a little more than one pound.
06:52 So what is on the violin is heavier than the instrument itself.
07:03 Jesus, being a pescatarian, according to a biblicist and theologians and historians,
07:10 Jesus was about six foot one, weighed 185 pounds,
07:16 walked between four to five miles a day, and I need you to hear this,
07:22 weighing in 185 pounds, but the cross he was crucified on weighed 350.
07:32 So what was on him was heavier than himself.
07:40 There are people who are sitting around you this morning
07:43 who don't know the gravity of the weight that you are carrying.
07:49 It is so heavy that it feels like it's about to crush you.
07:55 You don't even know how you sleep. You don't know how you're functioning.
07:59 You don't know how you focus. You don't know how you participate.
08:03 You don't know how you're getting a job in, done, because the stress is so heavy.
08:10 The violin is just a little more than a pound, but the strings are 66.
08:17 And the curators of the violin then have to stretch the strings, here it is,
08:23 because if the strings are loose, it will not play.
08:29 It is only after it is tightly wound that it will create the right sound.
08:37 I need you to understand that all of us are instruments in the hand of God,
08:45 but if you ain't dealing with no stress, you don't know how to praise him right.
08:52 The people who are shouting the loudest are the folk who are dealing with the most.
09:00 Don't look at me crazy because you hear me scream.
09:04 You don't know this scream is stopping me from killing somebody.
09:10 This scream is preventing me from losing my mind.
09:17 And so for us to be the right kind of praisers, God has to put us under the right level of tension.
09:26 Hallelujah. You dealing with some stress right now?
09:30 You dealing with some stress right now? You dealing with some stress right now?
09:35 This ain't a sermon to turn to your neighbor. I'm talking to you.
09:38 You dealing with some stress right now?
09:43 A rubber band in its intention, a rubber band is built to be stretched.
09:50 It's built to be stretched, but if you keep stretching it, it will lose its elasticity.
09:57 And many of you feel like you are being stretched. Hallelujah.
10:03 And the work of the enemy is to keep you in that suspended position
10:08 so that you are not able to function in your design.
10:13 But you know you are anointed not by the money you have or the car you drive or the job you go to.
10:20 You know you are anointed when you are being stretched, but you still keeping it together.
10:28 You being stretched and you ain't lost your mind.
10:32 You being stretched and you ain't falling apart yet.
10:36 You know God is still using you.
10:42 Let's keep it a hundred this morning.
10:45 All of us are dealing with stress at some scale.
10:51 You got stress from bills that keep demanding your attention.
10:57 They keep sending you unsolicited letters as if you forgot you owe.
11:03 They keep calling you from anonymous phone calls and you don't know nobody in Iowa.
11:09 You got stress from a job because you are being overworked and underpaid
11:14 and you deal with co-workers who are underhanded.
11:18 You got stress because your health is contending with issues from heart disease.
11:24 You're losing your hearing. You might need your hip replaced.
11:28 You might be dealing with hepatitis.
11:30 You're stressed about your love life because you either feel lonely or you want to be left alone.
11:37 You are stressed about your family because your marriage is going to be declared a mistrial.
11:44 Your kids are getting ready to get you committed to the insane asylum.
11:49 Your siblings are something special to deal with.
11:52 Your parents are always picking with you.
11:55 You are stressed and because of the stress that you are under, you deserve extra credit.
12:02 Because even with your stress, you ain't drunk right now.
12:06 You ain't high right now.
12:08 You ain't sitting outside of somebody's house with a hoodie on.
12:12 But you're able to say, "This peace of God is what's keeping me together."
12:18 I need five of y'all ought to be shouting.
12:21 Because with all of your stress, you ain't gone back to smoking.
12:26 With all of your stress, you ain't take the text message.
12:30 With all of your stress, you ain't jumped over the bridge.
12:34 You don't even know how strong you are that you're dealing with the stress.
12:43 Stress is the challenge between dealing with a challenge and the lack of equipment to deal with it.
12:55 You're dealing with a challenge and that's going to happen to everybody.
12:59 But you're only stressed over the issues that you can't control.
13:04 You are not stressed over what you can manage.
13:09 You don't stress over what you can pay for.
13:12 You stress over what is beyond you.
13:17 Kathleen Gunthert, who is a professor of psychology at American University, proclaimed that there are two different kinds of stress.
13:25 I want you to write this down. You're going to be the smartest person at work tomorrow.
13:29 It's two different kinds of stress. Two different kinds of stress.
13:35 The first kind, hear this, is distress.
13:40 Distress refers to the negative side of stress.
13:46 I am today years old when I found out the second kind of stress.
13:52 The second kind of stress, I didn't know about it, but I wanted you to have it, is called eustress.
13:58 There's distress, which is negative, and then the positive side of stress is eustress.
14:05 E-U-S-T-R-E-S-S. Eustress, which is I find something positive in what I'm stressed about.
14:18 Romans 8 and 28 says, "All things work together for your good."
14:24 And all of us have quoted it, all of us have memorized it, all of us have recited it,
14:29 and I only saw that passage, "All things work together for my good," I only saw that in terms of instances and occurrences.
14:38 But I never in all of my days thought all things work together for good included my stress.
14:47 Here to fore, we've seen it as stress as overwhelming.
14:52 But God brought you in this place of worship today for you to recalibrate your perspective and see that your stress is not overwhelming,
15:01 your stress is designed to be motivating.
15:06 You ain't never been stressed before? Yeah.
15:09 If you've ever been stressed, let me give you an example.
15:11 One thing that will stress you out, one thing that will stress you out is a deadline.
15:20 A deadline will stress you out. I'm telling you, I wrote my best papers the night before.
15:25 The stress of a deadline will stress you out.
15:31 Those of you who had a past due bill, and you get the light blue one before the pink one.
15:38 Y'all ain't saying nothing to me. This is it. Final notice.
15:42 If you do not pay that, you get the stress of a deadline.
15:48 Whether it's a paper, whether it's a budget, whether it's filing paperwork.
15:52 When you get stressed over a deadline, here's what I need you to do.
15:57 When you get stressed over a deadline, take your cues from God.
16:03 Take your cues from God of what to do when you get ready to pass your deadline and how to manage that stress.
16:12 Y'all don't believe me? Let me make it plain for you.
16:15 Remember that day Jesus was walking and he got a text message that said, "Come quick.
16:20 The one you love, Lazarus, is sick and he's getting ready to die."
16:25 Watch what Jesus says. He said, "Oh, it ain't nothing. It's all for my glory."
16:30 Now Mary and Martha, they hyperventilate and say, "You got to come right now."
16:34 Because in Jewish tradition and culture, the day that you die was the day you got buried.
16:42 The day you die is the day you got buried.
16:46 But Jesus shows up four days late.
16:50 So that's why Mary and Martha said, "It's too late. By now he stinks."
16:57 Because they were dealing with the stress of a deadline.
17:01 What God was trying to show them is that I don't move on your time schedule.
17:10 I am the God of time.
17:13 So as a consequence, I may not come when you want me to come.
17:19 But I am an on-time God.
17:22 Come on, don't stress about the time.
17:25 We've been made in door for a night.
17:28 But joy is going to come in the morning, late in the midnight hour.
17:34 God is going to turn it around.
17:36 Can I give you another one? Sooner or later.
17:40 It's going to work in your favor.
17:43 Get ready to turn it around for you.
17:48 You may be seated.
17:50 He says, "I'm going to show you that I am not," here it is,
17:55 "I am not confined to your time schedule."
17:59 There are some things you thought you were going to have by now.
18:02 There are some things you thought you were going to get by now.
18:06 But God said, "I needed to wait a minute to see how you would function while you were waiting."
18:13 Sometimes when God says, "Not yet,"
18:16 He is not punishing you.
18:19 He's trying to get some people away from you.
18:22 He needs to see, "Will you bless me when I didn't come in the time you wanted me to come?"
18:30 Do you think God is worth the wait?
18:33 And some of y'all are sitting out here looking crazy
18:37 because you're mad about a past deadline.
18:40 Stop looking at other people's timetable
18:43 because they're not on the track that you are.
18:46 But I've got an itchy suspicion
18:49 that God said, "Because you've been faithful over a few things,
18:54 He's getting ready to make you ruler over many."
18:58 I need 50 people to shout out loud, "It's my time now."
19:03 I done watched other people get blessed.
19:06 Other folk get a breakthrough.
19:08 Other folk get a raise.
19:10 Other folk graduate.
19:12 God said, "Did you forget I saved the best for last?"
19:17 I was waiting to give you what I had in store for you.
19:24 Hallelujah.
19:26 Hallelujah.
19:28 You may be seated.
19:30 I need you to just encourage the people on your row
19:33 and just spread a rumor for me and say, "Any day now."
19:37 Everything you prayed for, "Any day now."
19:40 Everything you've been waiting on God to do, "Any day now."
19:45 Everything you wanted to see for your children, "Any day now."
19:50 Your health is about to turn around, "Any day now."
19:54 God is getting ready to move some people.
19:56 I ain't telling y'all what to do, but if I was you,
20:00 I wouldn't wait till the battle was over.
20:03 I would shout right now like I'm in God's time.
20:09 [cheers]
20:12 Hallelujah.
20:14 You may be seated.
20:18 Stress--hear this.
20:21 Stress is intended to make you feel powerless.
20:28 Stress is intended to make you feel powerless
20:31 when in reality, stress pushes you to innovative problem solving.
20:40 Stress is designed demonically to make you feel powerless,
20:45 but angelically to push you to think outside of the box.
20:51 I'm telling you, ain't nobody more creative than somebody that's broke.
20:59 Y'all ain't saying nothing.
21:02 Come on, I'm going old school now.
21:04 You remember when your mama used to send a check in for the bill
21:08 but forgot to put the date on it?
21:12 Trying to buy some time. Y'all ain't looking.
21:15 Come on, I can't hear nobody where the box didn't match the memo
21:19 because she needed another seven days to just get it in order.
21:22 She's trying to think of a strategic plan to come up with some more time.
21:29 You remember in Mark chapter 2?
21:31 In Mark chapter 2, there was a crippled man
21:34 who enlisted the assistance of four friends
21:38 and said, "Jesus is in town at a house party.
21:42 Y'all put me on a stretcher and take me to the house where Jesus is preaching
21:47 and I can get healed."
21:49 The four friends hoisted him up and took him over to the house where Jesus was
21:54 and it was some mean evil usher, not like the kind here at New Birth.
21:58 A mean evil usher.
22:00 I mean a nice and polite and courteous and kind usher.
22:04 Those are the kind that go here.
22:06 But at that church, it was an evil, mean usher.
22:10 And the usher saw that somebody was on the stretcher
22:14 and exercised no compassion and said to them, "There's no room.
22:21 Can't come in here today."
22:23 But I'm thankful he had four friends who said, "I will not be denied.
22:30 This issue is too urgent for me to go home the same way that I came."
22:37 One of them said to another, "If they don't let us in, what we going to do?"
22:42 He said, "Well, let me think for a minute."
22:45 He said, "I got it. Let's go up to the roof.
22:48 Let's go up to the roof. If they wouldn't let me through the door,
22:52 let me break the roof apart and come down a whole 'nother way."
22:57 Y'all ain't saying nothing.
22:59 And God looked up as they're lowering the man through the roof
23:02 and said, "I ain't going to just bless him.
23:05 I'm going to bless all of those that fought outside of the box
23:09 so that he could get what he needed."
23:11 Y'all ain't saying nothing.
23:13 For five of y'all that don't mind shouting, God said, "I'm going to bless you
23:17 for who you helped when they were in a bind.
23:20 I'm going to bless you for who you supported
23:24 when they couldn't find a way out."
23:27 [applause]
23:30 I was in Greensboro, North Carolina, colleagues.
23:35 I was in Greensboro, North Carolina, about two weeks ago,
23:38 and I went to go preach for a pastor's anniversary.
23:41 And when I landed, they said, "Pastor, you want to go to lunch?"
23:44 I said, "Sure, I'd love to go to lunch."
23:46 And they took me to this restaurant called Seafood Delight,
23:50 Seafood Delight in Greensboro, North Carolina.
23:54 I said, "Now, y'all know I'm from Maryland.
23:57 You sure you want to go in this restaurant called Seafood Delight?"
24:01 They said, "Oh, no, it's great.
24:03 It's the best seafood in Greensboro, North Carolina."
24:06 I said, "Okay, I'm taking you at your word."
24:08 They took me in the restaurant, Seafood Delight, in Greensboro, North Carolina,
24:13 and they brought to the table crab cakes.
24:16 I said, "Y'all sure?"
24:18 They said, "Yes, we sure."
24:20 They brought crab legs.
24:22 "We positive?" They said, "Yes, we positive."
24:24 I'm halfway through the meal.
24:26 I'm telling y'all, it was good, and there's stuff all on my shirt.
24:30 I'm telling you.
24:32 It's a black restaurant, so they didn't have no bibs.
24:34 They just gave out paper towels.
24:36 And so I'm eating, and food is coming all down on my clothes,
24:42 and the chef comes out, and the chef comes out and says,
24:46 "Bishop, I'm glad that you're here."
24:48 I said, "I'm glad I'm here."
24:49 He said, "I am Bishop Anthony Knotts, and I'm the chef here."
24:53 I said, "Oh, bless you, man. This crab cake is amazing.
24:56 Don't tell nobody, but this is good, almost like I'm at home."
25:00 He said, "Do you like it?"
25:01 I said, "Yes, I love it."
25:03 He said, "I need you to understand, I'm a full-time pastor."
25:05 I said, "I can see that, but this crab cake is something special.
25:10 These crab legs are something special."
25:13 He says, "I was not always a chef."
25:16 I said, "You weren't?"
25:17 He said, "No, I wasn't a chef."
25:18 He said, "My daughter got accepted to the University of North Carolina,
25:22 but they gave her no scholarship."
25:24 I said, "They gave her no scholarship?"
25:25 He said, "No, they didn't give her no scholarship,
25:27 but I made a pledge that my daughter, wherever she wanted to go,
25:30 I was going to pay for her to get there,
25:32 but they wouldn't give me no scholarship money."
25:34 I said, "Okay."
25:35 So he said, "I went in my backyard, and I turned on my grill,
25:39 and I started barbecuing chicken and ribs, and I started selling plates."
25:44 Y'all ain't saying nothing.
25:45 And before I knew it, lines were around the corner
25:49 coming to my garage to buy barbecue plates.
25:53 I said, "Lord, that's amazing."
25:54 He said, "It got so big, I had to buy a food truck,
25:57 and when I got the food truck, the lines got even longer."
26:01 Y'all ain't saying nothing.
26:03 I said, "Lord, that's amazing."
26:04 I said, "What happened next?"
26:06 He said, "After the food truck, I went and bought this restaurant,
26:10 and people are coming from all over to come eat at this restaurant."
26:14 I said, "Man, that's amazing."
26:16 "Is your daughter doing well in college?"
26:19 He said, "No, my daughter ain't doing well.
26:21 She graduated.
26:23 I paid for all four years grilling ribs and chicken."
26:27 Y'all ain't saying nothing.
26:28 I didn't know how to do it, but I had to think outside of the box.
26:33 And ten of y'all ought to be shouting,
26:36 because God said, "What you need, you ain't going to have to do nothing illegal.
26:41 You ain't going to have to compromise your integrity.
26:44 You ain't going to have to play yourself.
26:47 All you got to do is trust me for something that's out of the box."
26:53 [applause]
26:56 I said, "My daughter graduated from college and owes no student loans,
27:02 is now in Washington, D.C., in law school,
27:05 and I paid all of it on a gift I didn't know I had."
27:11 I need a hundred of you to just start thanking God.
27:15 God said, "If you work your gift, if you work your assignment,
27:20 if you work your creativity,
27:23 stuff you didn't even know you could do is getting ready to bless you."
27:29 Some of y'all ought to be praising God,
27:31 because the enemy puts stress on the wrong person.
27:35 When the enemy stress me, I begin to see better.
27:40 When the enemy begin to stress me, I begin to worship louder.
27:46 [applause]
27:48 Stress--you may be seated--stress is used to isolate you.
27:56 [applause]
27:59 I'm telling you, when you stress, you don't feel like hanging out.
28:04 When you stress, you are irritable.
28:07 You stress, you are okay at the house.
28:11 When you stress, you don't feel like a lot of small talk.
28:16 Because part of the design of stress--here it is--is to make you be alone.
28:23 But the Holy Spirit creates bonds.
28:27 You will--I need you to hear me very carefully--
28:30 you will pull together your tightest relationships under stress.
28:38 If you meet anybody in the room, anybody in the room who's ever served in the armed forces,
28:42 they'll tell you that some of their closest friends
28:45 are the people who they had to dodge bullets with.
28:49 It was that stress that brought them together.
28:52 Anybody in the room, anybody in the room who pledged a real way--
29:00 [applause]
29:03 I'm going to leave that right there--a real way--
29:06 you pledged a real way--the stress of remembering that poem.
29:11 Y'all ain't saying nothing.
29:12 The stress of trying to remember that history
29:15 makes you close to people who you did not have a relationship with before.
29:21 Hallelujah.
29:22 That's why it is that the enemy don't want you to build relationships at church.
29:28 Hallelujah.
29:29 So everybody in church walking around like they ain't dealing with nothing.
29:33 How you doing? I'm blessed in holy faith all the time.
29:38 God is good all the time, but I don't feel good all the time.
29:42 The joy of the Lord--the joy of the Lord--your strength all the time.
29:47 You always happy. You always got a song in your heart.
29:50 I need somebody in the room that knows some days I don't feel like praying.
29:55 Some days I don't feel like opening my Bible.
29:58 I need five of y'all to give me a high five.
30:01 Some days I don't want to be in church.
30:04 I don't want you praying on my machine.
30:08 I don't want you sending me no scripture.
30:11 Just let me be mad where I am.
30:17 Stress--stress will isolate you so that you're by yourself.
30:28 But you don't even understand that the reason why we have fellowship--
30:32 my old seminary professor, Dr. Samuel DeWitt Proctor,
30:36 he said, "We have fellowship so we know we ain't the only fellow on the ship."
30:43 That there's somebody else that's going through it with us.
30:46 Don't let these people church clothes throw you off
30:50 and make you feel like every now and again I just need one Newport to cut off my nerves.
30:55 Every now and again, y'all ain't saying nothing, I just need one martini.
31:00 I need just one thing to take that--come on, just blink at me twice--
31:04 that there are some days I just feel like pulling the covers over my head.
31:09 The last thing the enemy wanted me to do is to sit beside somebody in church
31:15 who's under as much stress as me.
31:19 But they learned how to give God glory in spite of what they're going through.
31:25 I dare you to take a moment and get close to somebody around you.
31:30 Would you shout for somebody who's sitting next to you that the stress--
31:36 [cheers]
31:51 Listen to me.
31:52 With no stress, with no stress, you have no strength.
32:04 With no stress, you have no strength.
32:10 I don't know if you've ever seen a butterfly coming out of a cocoon.
32:15 But if you've ever paid attention to a butterfly coming out of a cocoon,
32:19 you'll see him struggling trying to break it open.
32:22 The worst thing that you can do when you see a butterfly trying to come out of a cocoon
32:28 is to open the cocoon for the butterfly.
32:32 Breaking the cocoon is a necessary part of the process.
32:38 Pastor, why is that so?
32:40 That is because in breaking open the cocoon, that's when blood flows to their wings.
32:47 I think I missed somebody in here.
32:49 If they do not break through the cocoon, here's your shout, then the blood don't flow.
32:56 But they need the struggle in order to find where your strength is.
33:01 God told me to tell 70 of you, there were some people that were getting ready to help you.
33:08 But I stopped them from helping you because I needed you to get your own strength.
33:15 So you didn't owe nobody nothing, but you knew it was just me and God that made it through this season.
33:24 [cheers]
33:27 Hallelujah.
33:29 Be seated, please.
33:31 Be seated, I'm finished.
33:33 My time is coming to an end.
33:36 This is just part one, I'm coming back next week.
33:39 Here's what I needed you to see.
33:41 We are troubled on every side.
33:47 Hallelujah.
33:49 We're troubled on every side.
33:53 Here's what the writer Paul said to the church at Corinth.
33:56 He said, "That doesn't mean because I'm troubled on every side, it don't mean I don't have stress."
34:02 I'm troubled on every side, here it is, but I'm not distressed.
34:07 To be distressed means I have no confidence that God is going to pull me out of this.
34:14 I feel like preaching now, but when I am troubled on every side, I got to remind that old nasty devil
34:23 that I am surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses.
34:28 I need you to know that there's some folk praying for you, even when you got stress all the way around you.
34:35 I need you to elbow your neighbor, tell him you ain't in this by yourself, but you getting ready to come out of it.
34:42 All over Atlanta this morning, I said all over Atlanta this morning,
34:48 is some preacher standing up, lying to his people, saying that if you shout, you're going to be a millionaire.
34:57 I love you too much to lie to you.
35:00 There's some preacher telling you, you're going to be in a mansion in a 10,000 square foot house.
35:07 But I love you too much to lie to you.
35:10 I came this morning to tell you, you may not be debt free,
35:15 but if you give him glory, you'll be stress free.
35:20 To say this joy that I have, the world didn't give it, and the world can't take it away.
35:30 I need you to grab your neighbor's hand and say, neighbor, today we're going to confuse the enemy.
35:39 I got bills that I cannot pay. I got issues that are in my house.
35:48 I don't feel the best in my body, but this joy that I have, the world didn't give it to me.
36:01 And the world can't take it away. Shake somebody's hand and say, neighbor, be stress free.
36:12 Here's a little song I wrote. I hope you like it. Note for note, don't worry, be happy.
36:24 If you're happy and you know it, praise the Lord. I get joy when I think about what he's done for me.
36:36 He didn't have to let me live, but I'm alive because he kept me.
36:44 He kept me. He kept me. He kept me. He kept me. And he's keeping me alive.
36:55 Give three people a high five and say stress free.
37:11 Stress free. I'm talking about me. I'm stress free. He gonna take care of me.
37:20 He gonna take care of my children. He gonna take care of my house. I'm stress free.
37:28 This battle is not mine. It's the Lord.
37:35 Thank you, Holy God. Hallelujah.
37:41 Hallelujah. Thanks to Holy God.
37:48 Hallelujah. God, I thank you. God, I thank you. God, I thank you.
37:58 Hallelujah.
38:05 Lift that hand for me.
38:19 You're under a lot of stress. The weight is getting heavy on you.
38:35 I'm gonna tell you what you've been feeling. I'm going to just give language to it.
38:42 It's unfair how much stress you carry.
38:49 It ain't right. But you got to deal with all of this.
38:57 You can barely sleep. You don't even know the sound of your own laughter.
39:06 I'm waiting on you. You don't know the last time you were legitimately happy.
39:13 And you weren't waiting on the other shoe to fall.
39:17 But I sing because I'm happy. I ain't talking about no phony plastic happy.
39:25 God, give me a reason to laugh for no reason.
39:30 Help me to trust you even when I don't understand you.
39:37 God, slap the watch off my wrist so I stop waiting for you to move on my time.
39:46 But trust you to move on yours.
39:50 Would you lift up that hand? Your pastor wants to pray for you today.
39:55 If you're dealing with a whole lot of stress, would you wave that hand?
40:00 You're dealing with a lot of stress. It's enough to take you out of here.
40:06 Wave that hand if there's been moments where you're starting to get chest pains.
40:13 Wave that hand if there were moments where your headaches begin to intensify and amplify.
40:23 Wave that hand if you went through episodes where you thought of going back to what God delivered you away from.
40:42 I want to tell you, listen to me, being saved, having a relationship with God is not a life of no stress.
40:53 But he gives power to the faint.
40:58 And to those who have no might, he increases their strength.
41:03 Lift that hand. I want to pray for you.
41:05 That hand is lifted. Why? Because I'm giving my stress back to God.
41:11 I'm giving my anxiety back to God. I'm giving my worry back to God.
41:15 I'm giving my hypertension back to God. I'm giving my insomnia to God.
41:21 I'm giving my migraines to God. I'm giving my eating disorder to God.
41:28 My craving for other people's affirmation, I'm giving it to God.
41:34 Lord, in the name of Jesus, I pray for every person with hands lifted.
41:39 I pray you'll anoint them with strength to manage what has been stressing them.
41:46 Give them the discipline to not become overwhelmed.
41:51 I pray you'll spark into them a prayer life.
41:56 That when they feel like shutting down, they'll open up heaven.
42:01 I pray God for every person with lifted hands, even those who are online, that you will exceed their expectation.
42:08 You'll meet their need.
42:11 Now that hand that is lifted, would you bring it down and hold that neighbor's hand?
42:16 Hold that neighbor's hand. Listen to me.
42:19 My sister, Dr. Tamar, former president of the American Psychological Association,
42:25 she said something to me that I've got to give to you softly musicians.
42:29 Here's what my sister, trained, licensed, tenured psychologist at Pepperdine University.
42:35 Dr. Tamar said this, and it's bothered me for the last couple of years.
42:39 Here's what Dr. Tamar said.
42:41 87% of your stress is not yours.
42:49 Did y'all hear what I just said?
42:51 87% of your stress, you worried about somebody else.
42:57 You fasting and they eating.
43:03 You are praying and they watching Netflix.
43:08 God says today, I am freeing you from false obligation.
43:15 Whoever is the cause of your stress, God says I'm taking it off of your plate.
43:23 I am now responsible for their welfare and their well-being.
43:30 That neighbor's hand is in your hand.
43:33 Just start shaking, moving that neighbor's hand.
43:36 God says I'm going to take care of your mama's health.
43:40 I'm going to take care of your child's behavior.
43:43 I'm getting ready to mend your marriage.
43:47 Whatever is going on in the life of your brother, I got it.
43:50 Whatever your sister is dealing with, watch me turn it around.
43:55 Whatever is going on in your love life, I'm still in charge.
44:00 Those of you who are turning it over to God,
44:03 Lose that hand and give God your best child a Thanksgiving.
44:10 Come on, I said give it to him.
44:13 Give it to him.
44:16 I got trouble on every side.
44:20 But I'm not distressed.
44:22 I want all of you standing.
44:27 All of you standing.
44:28 All of us have stress, distress, and you stress.
44:32 It's a matter of whether you see it as a negative or as a positive.
44:37 Let me cut across the field and say to you,
44:40 It was stress that got you to church today.
44:44 Stress made you get up, get showered, get dressed.
44:49 Y'all know how high gas is? Stress made you drive all the way over here.
44:54 Stress will drive you. Stress will motivate you.
44:57 And some stress that we are under, here it is, is not from demonic forces.
45:03 Some stress that we're under has been fueled by God.
45:08 Because he needed our attention.
45:10 He needed us in the right place.
45:13 I'm going to open the doors of the church. Listen to me.
45:15 In just one moment, 30 people are getting ready to come to this altar who need a church home.
45:22 And I want to tell you something about them. I don't know their names.
45:25 I don't know their background. I don't know where they went to school.
45:28 I don't know nothing about their family life or their marriage.
45:31 [The Power of God]
45:36 [The Power of God]
45:40 [The Power of God]