Don’t Let Stress Get Your Best - Pastor Nicole Crank

how many of you are too blessed to be stressed that is my message for tonight we're too blessed to be stressed and we can't let stress get the best of us there is this new preacher talking about Paul coming back to Sunset Hills he's not new at the game but there is this guy who was new at the game and he was going to the funeral he couldn't find the he couldn't find a cemetery and it was really late and everybody was already gone when he got there but the burial vault was there and there were two guys working on on burying the burial ball he's like wait wait wait wait wait and he runs up the Vario vault and even though the funeral was over he was gonna do his best right rev camp that's what it sounds like after four days of camp ride Rev camp how many kids were at rest camp 271 did you come back with 271 praise God it was a success so he's gonna do his best job and he's sitting there and he's like he's preaching that funeral and he's preaching the whole thing he's not short cutting it he even gave it some extra time he was gonna make sure that man was blessed and then turned around got in his car and went away the one guy looked at the other guy and he said I had never seen that happen when I was burying a septic tank before in my life [Laughter] everybody say stress will make you do funny things stress will make you do funny things anxiety worry anybody ever stayed up all night thinking about stuff that in the morning light seemed dumb but when you were sleeping it didn't seem dumb it was just keeping you awake you're worried you were gonna forget about it 18 percent of all Americans are on medication for anxiety 100 percent of Americans admit to worrying every single day even the New York Times did a World Health Survey and of all the nation surveyed guess which nation said they were the most anxious and stressed out America America did so I wanted to talk about what the Bible has to say about stress anxiety and worry because let me ask you this does it say anywhere in your Bible thou shalt live an uptight overwhelmed tight faced stressed-out wife does it say that anywhere but how many of us feel that way frequently go on go ahead get your hand up leave it up look around put it high just so we can all see it's pretty normal right it's a thing that the enemy brings to all of us I call it the gap between the real and the ideal you see there's the real life in life how it goes and there's the ideal life it's what the Kardashians are doing it's the fact that they only wear an outfit only once I got embarrassed when I came up on the front row right now because when Dee and Dave are here with us from the Florida campus say hey way away and we got a whole troop of people here from Florida that went to ruff camp ruff camp Florida represent and I realized a snap by where this last Sunday the West Palm Beach campus do you not think it's the only clothes I wear because of social media we see everybody's highlight reel never their practice days woke up like this is alive if you did you spray tan got your eyelashes sewn in got a sew-in wave you did not wake up like that it took 27 takes and some leftover eyeliner to make that happen and that's just on my husband the real and the ideal the romantic comedy tells us that every fight ends with us all getting back together again and everything is fabulous but instead we worry we say everybody say worry the God did not call us to be obsessed by the stress and disquiet and disease on the inside of us no he told us that we're supposed to move from fretfulness to faithfulness we're supposed to be fortified by grace not weakened by worry so I have an example to show you what stressed us for us so I'm gonna need a volunteer but before you raise your hand I need a promise from you what am I about what I'm about to do to this volunteer might not look very nice will you forgive me in advance you will okay with that said Julie may have a microphone and who would like to volunteer no it's a volunteer who's that is that Kyle under that hat okay come here Kyle under that hat all right so what's your name Kyle Kyle what's your last name Marlar where do you live Potosi Missouri why are you sitting over there with those people I just got back from Roth camp ah so what was your favorite part of our camp I'm just seeing the students what's your middle name [Laughter] [Applause] what what what's your middle name my name is Paul Paul Kyle thank you very much you survived that man you made it you made it what just happens well what happened is I got his middle name and now I can break him to his bank account no no I'm teasing he knew where he was he knew where he'd been he knew his middle name but as soon as the stressor was introduced all it was was a random scream but I lost him his heart started racing he walked away and I don't know if you could hear him because the microphone was away he goes what just happened what just happened that's what happens to us when the guy cuts us off in traffic and we think we're gonna be in a car accident that's what happens when we're at work and all of a sudden this work gets piled on our desk and we don't know how we're gonna handle it that's what the enemy intends to do to you the Bible says my people perish for a lack of a lack of knowledge what we don't know is what the enemy's trying to get us with so all he has to do is send someone random to scream put some headline on the bottom of the TV 24 hours a day that is gonna freak us out all he has to do is give us some bad news and suddenly our acupoints drop by up to 30 points in an instant suddenly we can't make good decisions how many of us would raise our hand and say we have several opportunities a day to be stressed out because things happen to us now you can see the plan of the enemy even Paul and the Bible was anxious Paul was the guy who wrote two-thirds of the New Testament and yet in 2nd Corinthians 2 verse 13 he said yet my spirit could not really rest I couldn't relax I couldn't get relief this is the amplified version I did not find my brother Titus there I read that and thought well he should have gone to the West Palm Beach campus that's realesed worship so I took leave from them and departed for Macedonia if even Paul mass-murderer of Christians prior to meeting Jesus he can murder people in cold blood but he can't get rest and relief because he can't find somebody everybody say the enemy the enemy has a plan he wrote that in 2nd Corinthians and about 55 a B he wrote the answer to that about seven years later in the year 62 ad and he wrote it in what is now known as the most highlighted passage of the Bible according to Amazon is the Amazon has all the Kindles and all the online books so whenever we highlight that stuff Amazon keeps record of what we are highlighting doesn't that scare you just a little bit but they keep record of everything and when I saw that they had a most highlighted passage of the Bible I thought it would probably be I don't know John 3:16 Lord's Prayer 23rd psalm no it's where we're going we're gonna go to Philippians 4 in our Bibles and I'm gonna start with verse 7 which is not actually where we're starting I'm going to start right here and then we're gonna work backwards just a little bit and what I'm gonna give you today are five things everybody say five things five things straight out of scripture that will deactivate stress in your life five things straight out of scripture that will deactivate stress in your life well this one is the benefit to all of that why why do we want to do these five things verse seven says that and it says em the peace of God which transcends all understanding the peace of God did you know you could have peace when you shouldn't have peace I remember walking into an airport one time we were traveling internationally we went to the airport and while we had been on this trip there had been a shooting in Turkey in the Instanbul Airport I think it was and some people have been shot in the airport so when we walk into this Airport internationally there's these guys these guards these military guards walking around with ak-47s how many of you know my stress level went up and my IQ went down I was already freaking out but what were they doing they were guarding the airport to keep it safe so in the peace of God which transcends your minds in Jesus Christ this is the way to surround your heart to surround that piece of you that's been worried to surround your emotions to surround your mind with an ak-47 letting the devil know not today Satan not today not on our watch so how do you do it how do you guard your heart in mind how do you get peace that passes all understanding let's go backwards one scripture and we're gonna start in Philippians 4:6 mark twain's that I've had thousands of problems in my life most of which never actually happened you see where is one of those things it's like a rocket chair it'll give you something to do but it's never gonna get you anywhere I'll sit here in rock and rock and rock but we're not going anywhere so before we get in the five things I do want to start at the very beginning of that scripture because it's important to know when will this work for me when can I apply this in my life when is this applicable and Philippians 4:6 starts with don't be anxious about anything but in every situation how many situations so only the situations with your kids what situation so it works at work so it works at church it works with road rage it works with your spouse it works to help you find a spouse yeah in every situation so now that we know this works all the time let's dive in number one don't be anxious about anything but in every situation by prayer and petition that's number one prayer and petition there's a poet that said every morning I turn my worries over to God he's gonna be up all night anyway if he's gonna be up all night why should we be up all night now there is scientific proof that backs up that prayer is powerful what is prayer it's your high god time it's when you talk to him it's when you share with him what's going on and I know your best friend probably has some good advice but how many of us know our best friend has also given us some advice that's really been wrong how many have had people call you and you have no idea what to do but you don't want to let them down so you make it up right but God always knows what to do but we have to share with him everybody say share with him talk with him and so I want to read to you for one second just a couple of things from some medical studies that we're done this is after an exhaustive analysis of more than 1500 reputable medical studies it says it indicates people who are more religious and pray more have better mental and physical health says Duke University's doctor Harold G Koenig and out of a hundred and twenty five studies that looked at the link between health and regular worship everybody say regular worship now tell your neighbor tell them I go to church turn the other side and tell them and I got an eye connect watch how frequency impacts our mental health watch this it says out of 125 studies that looked at the link between health and regular worship 85 showed that regular churchgoers live longer in 2006 the University of Texas says there is a seven-year difference in life expectancy between those who never attend church and those who attend weekly Wow weekly weekly that's why the enemy is trying to pull Americans out of church that's why the enemy is trying to pull prayer out of school you know it used to be that Americans used to go to church once a week then it was one out of every two weeks now barniz latest study says that Americans go to church one out of every four weeks do you see how he's trying to steal our health do you see how he's trying to steal our joy that's how I connects fit in because if you're traveling on a Sunday at least you can be connected with your small group amen because maybe they miss meat on a Wednesday so you might be a doubter the proof of the power of prayer is overwhelming says researcher and writer Tom Knox a one-time atheist who became a regular worshipper after doing the in-depth study on the medical benefits of faith says the benefits of devout religious practice particularly involvement in a faith community I'm like well thank you for inserting the name of our church and religious commitment are that people cope better in general they deal with stress better they experience greater well-being because they have more hope they're more optimistic they experience less depression they have less anxiety they commit suicide less often they have stronger immune systems and lower blood pressure is that some good news so why it's so important to invite your family and your friends to church it's so important to invite them to Jesus because Jesus is the answer what was the question oh gosh they didn't get that pastor Paul I'll try it over here I understand rev might be tired I'm gonna try it over here you know Jesus is the answer what was the question it's a good word when we come and we communion with him when we get with him when we go to bed at night so number one is prayer and petition so how do you put that into your life go ahead your note-taker write this down when I go to bed at night I will talk to God about my day a problem worth worrying about is a problem worth praying about a problem not worth praying about is a problem not worth worrying about so why is it that we would worry about something and not pray about it so let's start a little habit go ahead and climb in bed go ahead and turn the lights off and then just go ahead and start talking to him before you go to bed there is a story about a man and he knew the end of his life was coming so he wanted the pastor to come to his house so the pastor came and when Pastor walked into his room real quietly he was about 15 minutes early he saw the man talking to an empty chair and he said mmm it must be close to his time he's kind of going in and out already the man said excuse me pastor I'm sorry you caught me doing that I've been living with my daughter for the last couple years and she's never caught me please don't tell her he said I know it probably looked interesting but years ago I had trouble talking to God and I didn't know how to pray and my pastor told me this he said sit at a table pull up a chair put an empty chair across from me you get your coffee and have coffee with Jesus and talk to him while you're there he said so I can't sit at a table anymore but I had that empty chair and I was talking to Jesus well the pastor prayed with him and it was about 48 hours later that the daughter called and said her father had passed and the pastor was asking her some questions and she said pastor it was the strangest thing he hadn't been out of bed in a couple of weeks but when I went in and find him found him he had his head in the empty chair he had developed such a strong prayer life of just talking to God everybody say talking to God when it was time to transition he was ready to deal with it so number two don't be anxious about anything but in every situation with number one prayer and petition with Thanksgiving everybody say Thanksgiving that word makes me hungry right I'm like I am ready for some sweet potato pie with some green bean casserole with some pecan pie with a big old turkey with cornbread stuffing don't give me that regular stuffing on with the cornbread stuffing but that's not the kind of Thanksgiving we're talking about here is it there's an easy way to build Thanksgiving into our lifestyle and something I heard somebody else do and I adopt it into my life is here's the way I start my day everybody writes start your day so we figured out how to end our day now let's talk about how we start our day you know things happen you wake up late you don't know what to do your time gets robbed you head for your Bible and instead a kids spill something or somebody knocks on the door your phone rings and and our time gets stolen sometimes but here's something we can do before we get out of bed in 90 seconds or less we can be thankful for 10 things we can be thankful for 10 things and you might be thinking right now I don't got anything any thankful for well let me ask you this question did you wake up in a bed that's something you can start with if you're so low in the thankfulness tank that we got to go there we can you can say thank you Jesus that I woke up in a bed thank you Jesus that I woke up under the roof of the house thank you Jesus that I had air-conditioning because it was a hundred degrees outside last night thank you Jesus that I have windows that close because it was a heck of a storm out there thank you Jesus that I can get up today and when I put two legs on the floor they both work thank you Jesus that I can walk myself to the bathroom and nobody's got to clean me up because I don't want to do that Thank You Jesus that I've got a job to go to and if you don't have a job to go to saying that I'm able to get a job in Jesus name thank you Jesus that I got a job that maybe you were complaining about before and you said that I got a job that I can pay my bills thank you Jesus that I go to the best church in the entire country we end our day talking to God we begin our day before our feet even hit the floor do you see how quick I did that has ten things right there ten things we can do that turn to your neighbor right now and say I can do that so let's move on to number three we know how to end our day we know how to end our day we know how to begin our day now what do we do in the day well it says let's say sorry let me go back to that scripture says be anxious for nothing but in every situation by prayer and petition with Thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God present your requests to God so basically you might be thinking didn't you already say pray doesn't that mean pray yes and no prayer is the conversation somebody was cracked up at that voice I don't know who this lady is but she lives out here somewhere prayer is talking to God but talking to God is not necessarily asking God for things you see the Bible says in Matthew 7 verses 7 & 8 it says ask and you shall receive not just talk to God about it not just complain to God about it not just kind of mention it sideways to God it's us to do what it says ask and she shall receive seek and ye shall find knock and the door shall be opened unto you everybody who asks shall receives who's going to receive everybody who asked shall receives everybody who seeks will find everybody who knocks the door will be open not not broken pencil it's pointless you think it's just a bad joke but that's what a lot of people think prayer is they think it's pointless why should I not nobody's gonna answer the door God's not I'm gonna storm the gates of heaven well read your Bible friend the gates are open and you've been invited to the throne room but if we never knock I'm hungry right now and I want to eat so if after church you went home and I went to your house because I knew you were cooking up something good and I wanted to eat with you and I stood at your front door expectant knowing that she'd probably let me in no one did she had enough for me to hungry but she never came to the door I'd be freaking out why aren't they coming to the door do they not like me do they not want me here are the did I do something to offend them Oh surely I'm not worthy of being here surely I'm not worthy No you never knew I wanted in if I come to your house and I want in the house I'm gonna have to do what I'm gonna have to knock on that front door how many of you if I came and knocked on your front door you would let me in it's the same with God you have to ask you have to knock you have to make it known Matthew 21:22 says that all things you ask in prayer believe that you will receive we just need to ask everybody say ask it works out good when we ask things out there was this a sixtieth high school reunion a solo man this little lady they had dated back in high school and one was a widower and one was a widow and so they were there together talking all night finally in the end of the night he mustered up the courage and he said Edna I should I asked you 62 years ago to be my bride would you marry me and Edna said yes I will marry you Harold they both go home to their homes that night the next morning Harold was like I don't remember if she said yes or no did she say yes or did she say no so he called up Edna he said Edna it's Harold last night I asked you if you would marry me did you say yes or did you say no Edna said yes I said yes with all my heart and he said oh good because I couldn't remember have you said yes or no and I said that's okay I can't remember who asked everybody say I asked and ask again yet that's last night and in the morning it's okay just ask so number one bring your prayer and petition to God number two with Thanksgiving number three ask him everybody say ask him we got to ask him present your request and number four number four starts with verse eight finally brothers and sisters whatever is true noble right pure lovely admirable excellent praiseworthy and here's how you label number four think about such things we have to think about what we're thinking about because the enemy will sneak right in there this my friends if you wanted another word for think on these things you could just write down use a filter you see we have a filter on our water at our house because the stock ters like friend of ours he's like oh the waters terrible it's got all this junk you have to buy this distiller thing and it was like five hundred bucks but he talked us into it we didn't buy it from him when he had us buy it from you know this website or whatever and we went we bought it we installed it and the water tasted like water just saying I was like put out I was upset until a certain number of months went by and then the water started smelling fishy and now I was really mad I'm like my water never smelled like fish before this is a hot mess so I called him and he said did you change the filter said well now so he told me how to do it and we pulled up the YouTube and you have to unscrew this pot you have to get it out and it is coated in this hard white thick gunky material I'm like it won't come out he said oh no it won't come out you have to soak it overnight with a vinegar so we poured vinegar on it and in the morning we still have to cook and the stuff that comes out of there is so sharp it will cut you it's the stuff that we're drinking he said that's exactly why people have aneurysms that's exactly why people have hardening of the arteries that's exactly why people have clots that's exactly why people have heart attacks he said that would be on the inside of you everybody say we need a filter it's the same thing that happens to our mind if we don't think about what we're thinking about we start thinking oh my gosh what if the economy dives oh my gosh what if this stock market crashes oh my gosh what if I get laid off oh my gosh we're worried about getting laid off and our bosses at his house thinking we're the best employee and he hopes we never leave oh my gosh what if they leave me we're freaking out that they're having an affair and they're actually making a plan to have you a surprise party what what is what if what if what if back to Mark Twain he said I've worried about thousands of things hardly any of them have ever happened we have to filter it everybody say filter it we have to think about what we're thinking about whatever's true noble right pure lovely admirable excellent or praiseworthy think on these things and my last point number five everybody say number five number five is verse nine so we did verse six seven eight and this is verse nine whatever you have learned or received or heard from me or seen in me put it into practice that's number five put it in to practice well why why do I have to do all this stuff because the next sentence says and the God of peace will be with you peace sweet peace how do you get peace you put the stuff into practice you see it's not what you know it's what you do you can know everything you can know that eating 9 Big Macs a day will make you gain weight but if you still I'm Big Macs a day okay no more jokes about McDonald's got it you guys sent a clear message we're gonna pick on Long John Silver if you eat 27 fried fish meals a day knowing it and doing it are two different things I think rihanna said it best everybody work work work work work it won't work unless you work it I said it that way for the rebbe camp guys it won't work unless you work it because that sounds like something y'all would say you gotta work work work work work you can't know about it young friends because you know they say that teenagers right now have higher anxiety levels than ever in their history that's what - it's so good to get my connects if y'all just went to camp this past weekend you're gonna come back from camp and not getting a student I could not not get in the rev Connect that wouldn't be a smart decision because you need to get that circle of people around you you need to get Kyle around you and Dre around you kaamika around you and Brandon around you Andrea round you and Ashley around you you need all these people around you to help lift you back up because you're high right now life is good right now but there will come a day when school is gonna feel like a hot mess and then when you have those people who can say I know what they said about you but let me tell something about you that they don't know I know what God says about you and he said you were created for this you were purpose for this you were intended for this and then they can could be encouraging us habits everybody say habits it said that habits are the invisible architecture of everyday life we repeat about 40% of our life and daily habit and daily routine let me ask you a quick question how many of y'all are in the section that you usually sit in say Amen how many of you are in the road that you usually sit in say Amen how many of you are in the seat that you usually fit in say Amen right how many of you are ticked off because somebody else said your saying you had to move no no don't say anything don't say anything we are creatures of habit so what we want to do is develop more habits that we don't have to think about we want to develop the habit of being thankful before we get out of bed we want to develop the habit of talking to God before we fall asleep we want to develop the habit of asking God while we're talking to them while thinking about that empty chair we want to develop the habit of some simple things in life because we only have so much self-control every day we only have so much self-control every day and if we use it remembering to put the coffee mug in the dishwasher I know sometimes I pray I'm like dear God so if I have it today I haven't gossip lost my temper I haven't been greedy grumpy nasty I haven't set a foul word I haven't been overindulge it god I'm really happy about it but in a few minutes I'm gonna get out of bed and I'm gonna need you to be with me God has a plan for your life and it's a good plan God wants you to live healthy and strong he wants you to live fortified not fearful he wants you to live as a winner not worrisome he knows that you're an overcomer by the blood of the Lamb and the word of your testimony he's your good good father he wants you to ask things of him come into his courts with Thanksgiving come into his gates with praise so we know how to approach the morning being thankful we know how to end the day talking to him we know it's okay to ask and now we've remembered we got to talk to him a lot and if we put it into practice everybody say put it into practice not only are we going to live longer like science says but we will live stronger like the word says with every head bowed and every eye closed if you've had some stress worry and anxiety and just if you haven't been sleeping if your stomach's been upset if you've been having digestion issues if your blood pressure's been going up maybe you got put on blood pressure medication would you raise your hand whether you're online Facebook Sunset Hills wherever you are there's no distance in prayer I'm praying for you right now I know there's people watching in Texas right now watching in New Jersey right now watching in Connecticut right now they're watching in the caymans right now they're watching in California right now Washington there's no distance in prayer and God is talking to you right now actually God is flowing through my spirit right now it's such a strong rate that it's kind of shutting my mind down because my spirit is flowing because he's got a word that he wants you to hear and that word is this this can be the last night that you worry about sleeping that can be over it can be a thing of the past God says you've asked me to help you have sweet sleep God says now I'm asking you to trust me with it and if you trust me with it your sleep will be sweet it will be regenerative it will be restful you will be filled you will be fuelled and you will be awakened you will be ready he said the person that you meet tomorrow in the mirror will be refreshed and you'll look at yourself and say that's what one night did if you want that to be you in the morning stand up right now father God in the name of Jesus I pray for every single one of my friends that are standing up if they're driving a car they're standing up on the inside God that you break this curse that's been trying to rob them of their years that's been trying to rob them of their joy that's been trying to live the rhythm of their life enemy we rebuke you and we bonds you up in the name of Jesus whatever we bond on earth is bound in heaven whatever we loose on earth is loosed in heaven therefore I loose the power of God I loose the knowledge of God I loose the wisdom of God I loose the favor of God I lose the energy of the Lord Jesus Christ and it's flowing into them and they can stand up and face the day knowing the God of heaven and earth is on their side in Jesus name we pray man and a man was that alright for today [Applause]

Channel: Crank Ministries

Views: 9,554

Rating: 4.9499998 out of 5

Keywords: Pastor Nicole, Nicole Crank, Faith Church, faithchurch.com, church in St. Louis, church in West Palm Beach, church in Missouri, church in Florida, tall woman preacher, stress, worry, anxiety, peace, prayer, thankful, practice, habits, nicole crank, faith church, hi god

Id: _XR5AHmQPPE

Length: 34min 52sec (2092 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 02 2018