Dealing With Stress

00:02 Hey man, thank you for that song... for all those songs this morning, brother. Would you turn in your copies of the Scriptures to 1 Kings 19? I want to share with you this morning on the subject of Casting Our Cares Upon Christ. 00:19 Or another title could be Dealing with Stress and Learning How to Cast Your Cares Upon Christ. I had a conversation with someone this week, not from our church, and the question he asked me was, "How do you deal with stress? How do you deal with things that feel out of control? 00:40 How do you stay positive in a negative world?" And I pondered on that a bit through the week. How do you... how do you handle stress? And there's a lot of stress in our world around us. Much of our stress is third world or first world stress. 01:00 You know, in many parts of the country, the stress is, "Am I going to have enough food to eat?" Here, the stress may be a little bit, you know, "What food am I going to eat of the plenty that I have?" So we have some first world as opposed to third world stress that revolve around choices. 01:20 In fact, some time ago, somebody... it was quite a few years ago, somebody mentioned that the reason we have so much stress in our lives as Americans is because we have so many choices. And you just go to... just go to the library and pick a library book. My, oh my. There's all kinds of books. 01:38 You go out to eat and they've decided which restaurant you want to go to. There's choices. You try to pick out a countertop for your cabinet. You get rings and rings of choices. And it's, "My, my. Somebody just choose for me. I'll like it. I promise you I'll like it." Just... husbands, 01:58 you can go ahead and tell your wife that you will like it if she let her make that choice. Anyway, there are some issues that really aren't worth getting stressed out over. And then there are others that just happen. That stress happens anyway. But I want you to think about it. How is it that you deal with stress? Have you learned and are you learning? 02:19 Are you practicing casting all your cares upon Christ? For He cares for you. We sing that. We think about that. We know that verse. But what does it mean to cast our cares upon Him? To bring them to the cross and leave them there. 02:35 And I've been thinking about that this morning as we've gone through this service about living by faith and walking by faith and not by fear. Because cares can tend to produce fear. Stress can tend to produce fear. Am I going to have what it takes to make it through? Am I going to make it? 02:54 Or am I just supposed to just tie a knot in the end of the rope and hang on for dear life? You know, some people have said when you get to the end of your rope, just tie a knot in it and hang on. Well, that doesn't help when you're feeling overwhelmed. God actually says when you get to the end of your rope, let go. 03:12 Let go and trust Me to be able to carry you through. Well, we have before us in the book of 1 Kings 19 an account of a man who had to let go. He had to let go and he had to trust God. Well, he had been trusting God for a number of years. In fact, going back, 03:32 it seemed like when he arrived on the scene in about chapter 17, Elijah was there to pronounce judgment. He was there to pronounce a drought. He said, "For three and a half years, it's not going to rain as judgment on the people of God, on the nation of Israel for your sins. 03:53 And it's God calling you back, calling you back to the source of living water, the source and fountain of water and of life. And come back." And of course, that immediately inspired the ire of the king of Israel, Ahab. And you can read through that. 04:10 We're familiar passages here about Elijah and the widow and Elijah reviving the widow's son and Elijah's message to Ahab. And of course, the showdown on Mount Carmel and how that the prophets of Baal went into a contest with Elijah, the God of Baal, the God of Elijah, Jehovah God. 04:31 And we know how that all turned out. And then Elijah came to the end of this drought after he had that great showdown and there was a certain amount of recognition that God is the God, the true God. Then he began to pray that the drought would be lifted and that the curse of the drought would be broken. 04:51 And so he takes that in verses 41 through 46 of chapter 18. And then you know the story there how that God sent that cloud, that storm cloud out in the horizon about the size of a man's hand. 05:08 And it came and came and came and came until there was a cloud burst of rain that was heavy, heavy rain. And Elijah had won the battle there in the contest of the prophets of Baal versus Jehovah. 05:26 But Elijah still felt like he had not won the battle of the nation. And he still had this battle raging within him. And Elijah, chapter 19, verse 1, "And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, also how he had executed all the prophets with the sword. 05:46 Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah saying, 'So let the gods do to me and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time.'" I'm talking about wanting to... she's wanting to kill Elijah, to do away with him, to punish him and take him off the scene. 06:07 And verse 3, "When he saw that, he arose and ran for his life and went to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there. But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he prayed that he might die and said, 'It is enough. Now, 06:26 Lord, take my life, for I am no better than my father's." You've heard of death by cop where people want to be shot by the cops and commit suicide instead of killing themselves. They want the cops to kill them. That's a very real thing. Death by cops or suicide by cops. This is suicide by God. God, kill me. 06:45 Take me out. If he really wanted to die, why is he running from Jezebel? Why not just stay there and let God use Jezebel to kill him? But nevertheless, we don't think clearly when we're stressed out and burned out and overwhelmed. And so he says, "It is enough. Now, Lord, take my life." Verse 5, 07:03 "Then as he lay and slept under a broom tree, suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, 'Arise and eat.' Then he looked and there by his head was a cake baked on coals and a jar of water. So he ate and drank and lay down again. And the angel of the Lord came back the second time and touched him and said, 07:23 'Arise and eat because the journey is too great for you.' So he arose and ate and drank. And he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights as far as Horeb, the mountain of God. And there he went into a cave and spent the night in that place. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him and he said to him, 'What are you doing here, 07:43 Elijah?' So he said, 'I have been very zealous for the Lord God of Hos. For the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant, torn down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left and they seek to take my life.' Then he, that is God, said, 'Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord. 08:03 And behold, the Lord passed by and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord. But the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind, an earthquake. But the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake, a fire. But the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire, a still small voice. 08:25 So it was when Ahab heard it that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. Suddenly a voice came to him and said, 'What are you doing here, Elijah?' And he said, 'I have been very zealous for the Lord God of Hos. Because the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant, torn down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. 08:46 I alone am left and they seek to take my life.' Then the Lord said to him, 'Go. Return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus. And when you arrive, anoint Hazael as king over Syria. Also, you shall anoint Jehu, the son of Nimshi, as king over Israel. And Elisha, 09:06 the son of Shaphat of Abel-Maholah, you shall anoint as prophet in your place. It shall be that whoever escapes the sword of Hazael, Jehu will kill. And whoever escapes the sword of Jehu, Elisha will kill. 09:19 Yet I have reserved seven thousand in Israel whose knees have not bowed to Baal and every mouth that has not kissed him.'" So he departed from there and found Elisha. And it goes on then to follow up. I wanted to ask you this morning, do you ever feel like Elijah? 09:40 Now, this is some extreme stress. This is some extreme stress. But sometimes we may have the same kind of... the same kind of attitude, the same kind of fears, the same kind of worries. When I ask you this morning, is there ever a family conflict that God wouldn't understand? 09:57 Is there ever a temptation too powerful for God to deliver? Is there any social situation that would cause God to panic? Of course, we know those are rhetorical questions. The obvious answer is no. But yet then we stress and worry over those things. Is there any disaster that God couldn't protect you from? 10:18 Is there any financial collapse that would take God by surprise or that He couldn't provide for you going forward? Any disease that is beyond His power to heal? Any sin beyond His forgiveness? Any spiritual condition out of God's control? 10:34 Elijah shows us this morning and God shows us through Elijah how to deal with overwhelming stress. Now, not all stress is bad. Some of it's actually good. People pump iron. They stress their body. Yes, they stress their body. 10:52 Why? So they can get strong. People exercise their mind. Why? They get an education. Why? So they can think deeper and further and more creative. They get training in all kinds of things. And part of that training is stress. But real stress happens and healthy stress is a result of the fall. 11:14 When our world is out of balance and not only maybe the things that come at us, but it's how we respond to the things that come at us that really causes us stress. 11:24 Someone has defined stress like this: "Stress occurs when the lifestyle I or someone else has chosen puts pressures and demands that use up one's mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical resources." Did you get that? 11:42 "Stress occurs when the lifestyle I have chosen or someone else has chosen that puts pressure and demands on me that use up one's mental, emotional, spiritual, or physical resources." Now, that's what's happening to Elijah. I mean, 12:01 the nation has put stress on him. I mean, he... and really God has put stress on him because God called him to be this prophet to this ungodly people. And because of the lifestyles that they have chosen and the call of God that God chose for him has put pressure and demands upon Elijah that have used up all of his mental, 12:23 emotional, spiritual, and physical resources. How do you respond to that? How do you get through it? How do you stay positive in a negative world? How do you come through when you feel like you're just like... 12:39 got your nose above water and your feet are treading water and at any moment you feel like you could just spiritually, emotionally drown? It helps to understand that some stress... it helps identify our stress at times. Stress comes to us from within: temptation, worry, 13:00 anger, fear, lust, jockeying for position, mistrust, rejection, out-of-control thoughts. Those are things that come forth from within a person and stress out the person who really wants to live for God because he's not free to act on those impulses. 13:20 And if he was free to act on those impulses, he'd have more stress in his life. So we have this continual battle of the flesh battling the spirit and the spirit battling the flesh. And these are contrary one to another. 13:34 And that creates a a a a degree of frustration in many of our hearts and lives that we have to do something with. Then there are... well, I remember reading a quote here of a man who said, "I have made myself literally sick based on fear of what might happen. I was not dealing with reality." In other words, 13:56 he was so overwhelmed with fear about what might happen that he wasn't able to relate to what was happening. Then there are pressures that come from without, from outside of us that hit the pressures from within. They collide. These might be things like finances or change of jobs or crisis, 14:19 family crisis, financial crisis, things like moving or exams or schedule or persecution. The actions of others that interact with my life and cause cause a frustration, expectations from others. 14:37 We expect certain things out of people around us and they expect things of us. And the sense of loss. And so after people have a sense of loss, many times that stress turns into depression. Sometimes it's sickness or noise. Noise can be stress. I remember when we used to live in town on Friday night and Saturday night, there was a... 14:57 there was a... they had put in some kind of a disco... we had moved there first. And so they shouldn't have been allowed to do this. But they put in a disco back behind us, back behind the the Mexican restaurant there on Chicago Avenue and behind the Bob Evans restaurant. 15:16 And Friday night and Saturday night till 2:00 in the morning, sometimes 3:00 in the morning, all we could hear is this bass frequency pulsating through the community and through our bedroom windows. And it just... I'll tell you, that stressed me out because Sunday morning I'm supposed to be in the pulpit to preach. I can't even sleep because of this thing. 15:36 You know, it's frustrations. Their choices interacted with my lifestyle and created a frustration within me. So noise can be frustrating. Sleeplessness, accusations, responsibilities for others. They did a study a number of years ago about... it took a couple of monkeys. 15:56 And the monkey had it arranged that whenever he felt electrical current, a light would come on. And then he'd push a button. He could push a button and the light would go off and the electric would go off. And so then they started... he figured that out. 16:12 Then they had another monkey that had the same thing except that the light would only go out when the first monkey pressed his button. And it was interesting what happened. The stress that the first monkey who was responsible for the second monkey came under. 16:32 He actually developed ulcers because here he was trying to manage the pain and the control for the other monkey much... and also himself at the same time. So if you're in a management position, you're responsible for other people. You're responsible and have expect... they have expectations of you and maybe you sign their paychecks. 16:52 That can create a lot of stress. And here Elijah is responsible not only for his own condition and not only to serve God for himself but to call this wayward people who hate him and this wayward queen who wants to kill him and her passive husband who wants to do the same. And what is he to do? 17:14 How did he cast his cares on God? How do we cast our cares on Christ? Well, the New Age gurus will come along and say, "Well, you just need to breathe. You need to breathe. Practice breathing exercises. 17:29 Or you need to do yoga and empty yourself out and disconnect from reality and all kinds of weird things that the world has a way of trying to bring peace to the troubled heart." We're not talking about that. We're not talking about that. 17:49 We're talking how to biblically and spiritually in our walk with God cast our cares upon Christ. What are some of the stresses that Elijah had here? I mentioned a few. The sin of the people in verse 10. He says, "They have violated your covenant. They've forsaken your covenant. 18:08 Torn down your altars. Killed your prophets. And I'm the only one left." Over in chapter 17, he came up against Ahab, which was a corrupt leader. Chapter 18:4, it says that they had slain the prophets. "Jezebel massacred the prophets of the Lord. 18:27 That Obadiah had taken 100 prophets and hidden 50 in two caves and was secretly trying to keep them alive." And then there was this thing of no rain. Being pursued, the Bible says in chapter 18:10 that that Ahab had tried to pursue him over every nation and kingdom. 18:48 "My master has has not sent someone to hunt to take Ahab..." or excuse me, "...to take Elijah captive and punish him for what he's doing." And then, of course, then we have the showdown on Mount Carmel. Wow. You talk about stress. Man, that was a great victory. But there was some stress coming through. 19:09 Can I trust God? Is God going to come through for me or am I going to make a complete fool of myself? You know, Ahab had to have a lot of faith going into that thing when he set that up because had God let him down, we're talking a crushing defeat mentally, spiritually to his leadership, 19:30 to his relationship with God. But God came through. So why are you discouraged, Elijah? Why are you still discouraged? Well, it's all these things coming together in a classic perfect showdown. Then he killed the prophets of Baal in chapter 18:40. So they seized the prophets of Baal, 450 of them. 19:50 And Elijah brought them down to the Brook Kishon and executed them there. So he's presiding over the execution of 450 people. Let me tell you, to preside over the execution of one person in the DOC, in the Department of Corrections, would cause enough stress for a man for a lifetime. 20:04 And here he is presiding over the execution of 450 prophets of Baal. Spiritual warfare, praying for rain, physical exertion. You look in chapter 18. I don't know if you've ever figured this out or not. But when that rain started coming, 20:26 verse 48-45, it happened in the meantime that the sky became black with clouds and wind and there was a heavy rain. So Ahab rode away and went to Jezreel. And then the hand of the Lord came upon Elijah and he girded up his loins and ran ahead of Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel, which is about 20 miles. 20:45 He outran Ahab's chariot to beat the rain 20 miles. I mean, we're talking physical exertion here such as few of us have known. In fact, do a little study here. When he left Jezreel, chapter 19 says he went down to Beersheba in verse 3. 21:07 Do a little map study, atlas study from Jezreel to Beersheba is about 90 miles. 21:17 And then he went all the way down to Sinai to Horeb, which is another 200 miles. So we're talking a man on the move. He is... he is... and he's doing this with a couple of meals from an angel. 21:38 It lasted him 40 days. We're talking extraordinary, extreme stress. Now, how do your problems look? I can't figure out what to make for dinner. 21:56 I can't figure out whether to buy the blue one or the red one. Well, these are things that are real to us. But this is real to him. Jezebel wants to kill him. He's lonely. He left his servant behind in the pits of despair, self-pity, verse chapter 18:22, 22:18 chapter 19:10. "I am the only one left. I'm the only one left." And brothers and sisters, if you ever feel that way, that's probably the enemy lying to you. Now, there are occasions when you are the only one. But generally, there's somebody else. Generally, there's somebody else. 22:38 In fact, in this case, God said there's 7,000. 7,000 people that resonate, Elijah, with your position and your faith in God. He was suicidal, depressed, exhausted, and totally and completely burned out. 22:58 Now, how do you deal with that? I'd like to give you several suggestions here this morning, several from the text and one from observation. Number one, he restored his body. Now, we know that the spirit, the soul, and the body are so intricately connected. 23:20 Just try to separate your soul from your body. Well, don't because you'll die. You cannot separate your soul from your body. You can't separate... try to separate your spirit from your soul. 23:36 Now, Scripture says there's just a fine line and the Word of God is able to divide between the spirit and the soul. But it is so intricately that it takes a scalpel, the scalpel of the Word of God, to divide between soul and spirit, just like dividing between the joints and morrow and discerning the thoughts and intents of the heart. 23:55 And so what we find out in working with people and working in our own lives is that what happens in one part of our life affects all parts of our lives. And so if you have a spiritual problem this morning, it will affect your soul and your body. If you have a body problem this morning, it'll affect your soul and your spirit. If you have a soul problem this morning, it'll affect your spirit and your body. 24:15 And in order to come together with dealing with casting our cares upon the Lord, I believe we have to take care of all three aspects of our existence, of our being. And that is restoring the body. 24:30 Chapter 19:4-7, "He he he he took a nap." Or maybe it was a long nap or maybe it was a several-day retreat here that he just slept and rested. And Lord knows that he needed to rest. 24:48 And I love the tenderness of our God at that time when there was just total, complete burnout. 24:57 Nothing left in him for resources. And God sent an angel. And the angel touched him and said to him, "Arise and eat." Angel didn't rebuke him. Angel didn't say, "What are you doing here?" No, God got to that. But right now, Elijah needs rest. 25:17 There are times when we need rest. And many times we need at least a night of rest every night. And sometimes we need periods of refreshment. The angel said, "Rise and eat." Then he looked and there by his head within reach was a cake baked on coals and a jar of water. 25:37 So he ate and drank and lay down again. And the angel of the Lord came back the second time and touched him. We don't know how long this was. But nevertheless, Elijah's body is being restored. "Arise and eat. 25:49 The journey is too great for you alone," we could add, "without these resources." So he arose and drank and he went on the strength. And so one of the things that needs to happen in dealing with stress in our lives is to restore our bodies. To restore our bodies. 26:10 Exercise, nutrition, diet, all those things which are very difficult for many of us to do. But nevertheless, God has given us a body to take care of. The second thing that I would suggest to you is that he refreshed his soul. So he restored his body. 26:29 He refreshed his soul. Now, you got to use a little bit of imagination here on this one because he didn't go on a on a on a cruise. He didn't go on a nice vacation. But he did something I think that was important. 26:47 That was he he he began to refresh his soul in the Word of God and really in complaining to God. Now, can you refresh your soul when you complain to God? Now, there's not much refreshing that happens when you complain to somebody else. In fact, that just makes the mountain bigger, doesn't it, many times? 27:09 Of course, my wife and I have a little disagreement on this. She works out her problems by talking about them and thinking through them while she talks. I work out my problems by thinking about them and not talking about them. And so I got to work through it privately. 27:29 She works through it with me. So there's a difference. But rarely does it help when we complain to each other. In fact, problems in church, problems in family, problems here, problems there, problems in politics, problems in in in religion, 27:48 problems in this place, that place, rarely is anything solved by complaining. But there's something that does get solved when we complain to God. Not complaining to God about God, but complaining to God about our situation. 28:03 Now, if you look down here in verse 9, he said, "There went he went into a cave and spent the night in that place." Interesting thing here, the word to spend the night there in the King James version, 28:22 it says to lodge there, means to stop over or to pass the night, to abide. He abode in this place. Probably spent the night, although we don't necessarily know exactly how long he spent because it means it can also mean to cause to rest or to dwell, to abide. 28:40 And then there's a secondary meaning to this word and that is to grumble. Have you ever grumbled with God? I have. Now, you always want to make sure he comes out the winter. But there's something to be said about casting your cares on him. 29:01 It doesn't mean that you ignore your cares. It means that in a respectful, humble way, you bring your petition and your complaint to the Lord and say, "God, help me handle this mess." And so two times here he says when he's asked, "What are you doing here?" Twice he says, 29:22 "I have been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts, for the children of Israel have forsaken that covenant, torn down your altars, killed your prophets with the sword. I'm the only one left. They're going to try to kill me." And he says it again in verse 14. 29:37 He's got to unload and unpackage his burden somewhere to somebody to get this thing dealt with and worked through. It may surprise us, but God isn't surprised. He already knows our stresses. He knows our struggles. He knows our complaints. 29:56 He knows our grumbling. Now, he's not grumbling here against God. He's grumbling. He's sharing his complaint to, I believe, cleanse his soul and get it out before the Lord so that the Lord and him can deal with it. And so we also need to find ways to refresh our soul. 30:19 Refresh our soul. I remember hearing one person say... his ministry is very widely used, not an Anabaptist, but he was a very high-profile pastor that said that sometime through his ministry, he found that he was burning out. 30:39 And Brother Leon teaches a seminar on burnout. I got the first part of it. I'd like to hear the rest of it sometime, brother. But burnout, he said, "When I came to the reality..." he said, "I thought there were two tanks in my life that needed to be full. One was the physical tank. One was the spiritual tank." Okay? 30:59 He said, "I was filling my spiritual tank. I was having devotions. I was studying God's Word. I was doing my spiritual disciplines." He said, "I was connected." And then the other was the physical tank that he says he kept exercising, wanted to keep himself fit and in good condition. And and and yet he still burned out. 31:21 What's the matter? Until he realized that every one of us have three tanks, not two. There's the physical tank. There's the spiritual tank. And then there's the emotional tank, the soul tank. He said, 31:40 "And I had to build into my life things that refreshed my soul." And I think we need to do that. We call it recreation at times. We call it fellowship. We call it vacation. In Canada, they call it holidays. 32:01 Their vacations are holidays. They take holidays. Now, we have to be careful with that. "I'm a little stressed and so I'm going to run away and hide. I'm just going to bury myself in my hobby or my books or whatever it is rather than dealing with our stresses." But there is a place, brothers and sisters, 32:20 for dealing with stresses so that we fill our emotional tank, that we have the reserves that are necessary to continue to minister and to meet the needs that are around us and to meet the need of the day. And so I think as he's doing this with God, I think that's what he's doing. 32:38 But the third thing that I think is of utmost importance because you can be physically... you can restore the body. You can refresh the spirit. But if you don't do this, we'll miss it completely. And that is we must reconnect with God. We must reconnect with God. And so what is he doing here? It's interesting. 32:57 I mentioned to you that he ran to Jezreel about 20 miles. And then he ran about another 90 miles south to Beersheba. And then he went another 200 miles clear down to Horeb. And I got to thinking, where is Horeb? 33:19 And Horeb 33:23 is Mount Sinai. 33:27 He went clear down to Mount Sinai, down by the Red Sea where they were delivered from Egypt and crossed the Red Sea. That Mount Sinai. 33:38 And then from there, he was told by God to go clear back up to the wilderness of Damascus and anoint the king of Syria, which was clear back up north of Mount Carmel. I mean, this man is touring in fatigue and burnout. 33:59 Why go to Mount Sinai? Because as a prophet, that's where the people connected with God. And it was whatever I have to do to get back to God and the foundational principles of the law of God, 34:19 which is to govern the people of Israel, I've got to get to Sinai to renew my vision, my passion, my connection, and my realization of the plan of God for this people. And we have to do the same. Get back to the cross. Where is our Sinai? 34:40 We don't go to Mount Sinai. We're not under the law. We go to the cross. That's where we cast our cares. We can bring our complaints. We bring our stress. We bring our serious issues. We bring the false accusations. We bring the family. 35:00 We bring we bring everything to the cross, that place of connection between heaven and earth where heaven touched earth and provided for the resources for our lives. That place where the Lord Jesus Christ, as the rock in our Sunday school lesson this morning, 35:21 that was smitten is now spoken to and complaint made before Him so that we might apply His resources to our lives by faith. We must reconnect with God. How do you do that? 35:40 Well, you do it by prayer, number one. He was driven to God by prayer. You can't cast your cares upon the Lord without praying. Got to pray. Got to pray. 1 Peter 5:7, we've said it over and over, "Casting your cares upon Him for He cares for you." Where do you know that He cares for you? 36:00 You find that out at the cross, which is the gateway to Mount Zion. We don't come to Mount Sinai, Hebrews says, but we come to Mount Zion, the place of connection with God in the New Covenant. Philippians 4:6 says, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication." With what? 36:23 Thanksgiving. You know a thankful heart... there used to be a little song our children used to sing that a thankful heart is a happy heart. Think about it. It's very true. One of the ways to get happy in the Lord is to start thanking the Lord and counting our blessings. 36:46 "When upon life's billows you are tempest-tossed, when you are discouraged thinking all is lost, count your many blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done." So amid the conflict, whether great or small, do not be discouraged. God is overall. Count your many blessings. 37:06 Every doubt will flee. And that's where it ends. With thanksgiving, let your request be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, will keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. That happens in that time of solitude. I mean, we run after... 37:24 okay, if I'll just run after this this this this this great wind that's ripping things up, then I'll get connected with God. No. Or maybe if I can really shake things up with an earthquake, I'll get connected. No. Or maybe if I light a new fire, let's burn things up. 37:47 Blow things up, shake them up, burn them up. It's not going to find God that way. Where do you find God? A still small voice. Early in the morning, late at night, in your prayer closet, the place of solitude, 38:07 the place of connection. Get there. Get there. And get there quickly. Second thing that happens when we reconnect with God or to help us reconnect with God is meditation. Not meditation like the the the Eastern mystics do, but meditation, which is meditating on Scripture, on the Word of God. 38:31 Eastern meditation and pagan practices say, empty your mind. Just get in a quiet place and hum. And hum and just empty your mind of all this stuff. That's the... when you empty your mind of stuff, you leave a vacuum. And in those practices, the devil comes in from the vacuum. 38:54 That's not biblical meditation. Biblical meditation is to take God's Word and chew on it and chew on it and chew on it and and and and let it go through our minds and meditate on it and pray it. Pray the Bible. Pray the Scriptures. There's great power. I found such healing in just praying God's Word, 39:16 casting all your cares. Lord, I want to cast my cares upon You. You know, Lord, I'm concerned about this and about that. Lord, Lord, I want to just give You those cares and cast them onto You. Lord, you can go through that throughout the day and say, "Lord, what does it mean to cast my cares on You? How can I do that better?" And just take a phrase of Scripture, 39:35 a verse of Scripture, and just throughout the day, just keep praying it to God. Find a verse. I know I've said this here before, but at the beginning of the day, get your verse and anchor it. Anchor to it. Anchor to it. And when the negative thoughts and the feelings come and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches, 39:57 you just anchor to that verse. Lord, this is my verse for today. I just anchor to that thing. I take it as my very own. I embrace it. Meditate on verses like Matthew 6. Be careful for nothing. Be anxious for nothing. For your heavenly Father knows what things you have need of before you ask. Matthew 6. 40:16 1 Corinthians 10:13, meditate on it. "There is no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man. Lord, I feel like I'm just stressed out like nobody else." Lord, it's common. It's common. And God has an answer. God has got this. Walk by faith, not by fear, not by sight. 40:36 Give it to God and let Him give you His peace. Philippians 4:19, "For my God shall supply all your need according to His riches and glory by Christ Jesus." Do you believe that? Is it true? Is it not true? Can you take that and wrap your mind around it and wrap your heart around it and say, "That's my verse for the day. My God shall supply." Lord, 40:55 in faith, I claim that verse because You said it. I'm not telling You how to supply my need. I just believe that You will supply my need. Whatever my need really is, You're going to take care of it. Hebrews 12:2, "Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith." What does it mean to look to Jesus? Lord, whatever that means today, help me to... 41:16 give me some thoughts today to help confirm what it means to look to Jesus. Help me to look to Jesus. I put my eyes on Jesus today. And Lord, whatever comes, I'm not going to let anything take my eyes off of Jesus. Those are very practical ways of meditating on Scripture. And you can do that as you go through the day. Psalm 1:3 says, 41:37 "His delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law doth He meditate day and night. And He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, whose leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever He does shall prosper." Psalm 143:5, "I will meditate on all Thy works and consider what Your hands have done." Meditate on all Thy works. 41:59 The third thing that will help us reconnect with God is Bible study and memorization. Psalm 107:20 says, "He sent His Word and healed them." Do you realize this morning that the Word of God has healing properties, healing components? It can heal the mind and convert the soul. The law of the Lord is perfect. 42:18 Converting the soul. "The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against God." That has more to do... 42:35 it has as much to do with the sin of worry and fear and stress as it does to falling into sin of sexual sins and those things. A lot of times we think, "Well, if I hide God's Word in my heart, it'll change my actions." And it does. But you hide God's Word in your heart, it'll change your thoughts. And it does. It'll change our desires. It'll change our way of thinking. 42:54 Number four, singing. Singing. Let me just put in a plug for singing. Ephesians 5. I came across this again yesterday. Some people say, "Well, I can't sing." And I know some of you can. That's okay. 43:14 I can sing and I love to sing and there's a lot of things I can't do. But God doesn't say, "Sing if you can." He doesn't say, "Sing if you feel like it." He says, "Sing." Do you realize that singing can be part of our emotional release when it comes to dealing with stress? 43:35 Now, you may create stress in those around you. That's okay. They'll get over it. Maybe you're just noise. Then find a place to sing. But Ephesians 5, where is it? 43:49 "Do not be drunk with wine in which is dissipation or wherein is excess." Why do people drink? To deal with stress. 44:02 They think, "If I just have a drink, it'll calm my nerves." So He says, "Don't do that, but be filled with the Spirit and speak to yourselves, speaking to one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord." Is there a reason why He put those two together? 44:23 I think there is. I really believe that there is. That just like going to the bottle helps some people relieve the stress, it's an unbiblical way of relieving stress. And so it creates more stress. But in that way, we go to the Lord to be filled with the Spirit and sing. 44:43 Did you ever stop to think that singing is a stress reliever? 44:50 So singing, making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Wow. You know, one of the first things Satan wants to do when he wants to steal your joy is he wants to steal your song. Wants to steal your song. So connect with God through singing. 45:11 And then finally, you see it here in verse 21, submitting yourselves to one another in the fear of God. And you see it also in our text where He said, "Now I want you to go back and get in relationship with some people. I want you to go back to and anoint Hazael as king of Syria. 45:31 I want you to anoint Jehu as king of Israel. And I want you to have a companion. His name is Elisha. He's going to be your successor and he's going to help you deal with the stress in your life." God doesn't say that. We're using a little imagination here, a little reading between the lines. But nevertheless, 45:51 get back in relationship. Stop running, Elijah. I know you needed to get down here to Horeb to reconnect with God, but it's time to stop running and start time to start being purposeful. And so the question is still remaining, "Elijah, 46:12 what are you doing here?" Time to leave here. Time to get back on track. Time to get back to your job. Connecting with God involves fellowship. Fellowship. It involves relationships. Submitting to one another in the fear of God. 46:32 Singing, praying, meditation, memorization, study. Don't forget fellowship. It's a very important part of our stress, dealing with stress. And we can have a whole message about that, but don't forget it. 46:51 It's very much a part of dealing with burnout. Let's pray. Father, this morning I realize that many of us experience stress in a variety of ways. Sometimes we look at each other's stress and say, "Why does that bother you?" And then some people can look at us and say, 47:12 "Well, why does that bother you?" We get hit by this in a variety of ways and places where we are weak, we are not strong. And our emotional, physical, spiritual, mental resources get used up. Lord, I pray that You will help us to restore our bodies, 47:33 to refresh our soul in You, and to reconnect with God. And Lord, keep us focused. There is so much out there today to to to get us off track. There's so much for us to lose focus over. 47:52 Let us remember why we're here and what our purpose is and what our place is and to function in that place and in that purpose and thereby glorify God who has promised, "Do not give us more than what we can handle, 48:11 but will with the temptation or the test make a way of escape, not of running and running away from our problems, but from running and fleeing from sin and fleeing to the Father." In Jesus' name, we pray that You'll teach us these things, Lord. 48:34 Amen. Shall we stand together for a song?