How to Not Be Stressed Out

Speaker 1: 0:00

Now, have you ever been so stressed out that you did something? In the moment it seemed like the right thing, but in retrospect you're like I probably shouldn't have done that. I've never been that stressed out before. Okay, I got a story I'm about to share with you, but there's a big but. I'm not going to share this story if you start judging me. This has to be a no, it has to be a judgment free zone up in here. Okay, is it judgment free? Okay, okay, you'll see how the story goes, okay, so here you go. Now. This story I'm about to tell you is not one of my finest moments. It's not one of my best moments, but I was in need, I was stressed out and I only saw one solution at the time. Again, in retrospect, I had many solutions. I had many options to get my need met, to figure out my problem, but in the stress I only saw one.

Speaker 1: 0:54

Okay, I was writing a 15 page paper for college. Who remembers those days? I was writing the paper, and I don't like writing papers. I mean, I don't mind writing, but the thought of a paper looming over my head until it's done, I hate that feeling. And so here's the problem Aaron, my wife, aaron, always checked my papers for me, make sure I did the formatting right, all that good stuff. The problem was my paper was due in the morning time and Aaron well, aaron was about six or eight hours into labor. Okay, and so here you go.

Speaker 1: 1:35

It was a weird night. She was having our first baby. I was up writing this paper in the hospital while Aaron was in labor and I had to get this paper done. And so don't judge me. Okay, so I know I need to submit it, but I don't want to submit it without it getting a proper read through, without Aaron reading it through. So my only solution in the moment and don't judge me was hey, babe, I know you got a lot going on right now, but do you think you enjoy this quick read? Don't judge me, church. I was stressed out. It wasn't one of my best moments. The funny thing too was Aaron warned me. Like before this, aaron warned me. She said, hey, you should get that paper done because I have a feeling King's is going to come a little bit early. And I was like, oh no, we got plenty of time Wrong. I was wrong. So my amazing wife reads my paper while she's in labor. I submit it. I submit it. A couple of citations were wrong. It's okay, but I was thankful. Not my best moment, though, right, but I was stressed out and that was the only option I saw, and retrospect, I had a lot of people that would have read that paper for me, but I didn't.

Speaker 1: 2:56

Now we are in a series called ER, which stands for extraordinary relationships, but it's also a play on the emergency room, and I think a lot of us, when it comes to relationships, we have been rushed to the ER. We've been rushed to the emergency room. We've been trying to figure out how do we handle relationships or relational damage and baggage and pain and things that go on in relationships, because we all know this People people are messy and doing life together could be messy. Now, today I've got a very practical message for you. Today I want to inspire you, but I've got a very impractical message. Today I've got three things that I'm going to go over that can either be a source of joy in your life or can stress you out, can cause a lot of stress. Stressful in the sense that it takes away from the life you really want. Life-giving in the sense that if we have our responsibilities down pat. They can be a source of joy for us and for the people we love.

Speaker 1: 3:58

We're going to talk about the big three today, and that is time, work and money. I like to refer to this as my time, treasure and talent. My time, treasure and talents. We're going to hit on these three things today because this is the truth Stress when we're in a stressful place. Stress wants control over my time, over my treasure and my talent. And to many of us, we live our day-to-day lives with too much stress, too much anxiety, fear of the unknown, fear of what might happen, stress about work situations and about what we're doing in our lives, and that can take a lot from us. But when we bring it to God, when we bring these things to God our time, talent and treasure faith brings purpose. It brings purpose and meaning to my time, treasure and talent, and that's when it becomes life-giving. That's when it becomes life-giving.

Speaker 1: 4:53

Now, jesus tells a parable about a father who had two sons and as I was prepping last week's message, I used this story as a sub-point for my message, and today I want to take the story again, and I want to take the story throughout the whole entire message today. Okay, because from what we see from the younger son is how control and stress causes him to waste his time, waste his treasure and his talent and hurt some pretty significant relationships in his life. Check this out In Luke 15, it says this Jesus continued and so Jesus is a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father Father, give me my share of the estate so he divide the property between them.

Speaker 1: 5:41

Now, to get a better understanding of this story, of what's happening here, jesus is telling this parable to a predominantly Jewish crowd and they would have kind of been familiar with this story. It's kind of like Jesus took an old classic story and put a new twist to it as he walks up to the father. It sounds kind of proper the way that you read it, but what he really does? He walks up to the father and says Dad, I'd rather you just die and you give me my money. That's what's really happening, that's the context of what's happening in this story, and so he wants his money now.

Speaker 1: 6:11

So here's this young man, he looks at his dad. He says I want what's mine and I want it on my time. And then I wonder, just wonder. I wonder how often we actually do this to God. I wonder how often we do this to God. It may not be that up front, it may not be that up front, but when we have stress in our lives, when we have worries in our lives, how many times do we go to God and say, god, if you just give me this right now, then I'll be good, god. If you just do this my way, God, if you give me this thing and that thing or that thing, then I will be good. If, god, you give me what I want, then I'll be all right. I wonder how often we do that. See, this is what I want to show us here.

Speaker 1: 6:54

It's three ways that stress can rob your time, can rob your time, rob what you have, and it causes you to not live in the moment that God has for you. Here you go, and here's the first one is this we pretend we have too much time. We pretend we have too much time Now. That may sound kind of funny at first to you. You're probably thinking to yourself I never feel like I have too much time. You may always feel like man, I wish there was more time in the day, but here's what can happen. Here's what can happen if we're being honest with ourselves.

Speaker 1: 7:23

Today, we can waste time on our productive activities, our destructive behaviors. We can waste time because we want to. What and why do we do that? Because we want to avoid stress. We will do things to avoid stress that causes to have more stress. We'll waste away looking at our smartphones for a long time and then we feel drained after we do it and never addressing the real needs in our lives. So we pretend we have too much time.

Speaker 1: 7:55

So the reality is this we don't have intentionality with our time. That's the truth. A lot of times we're not intentional with our time. It's just like budgeting money. If you don't put a name on every dollar you have, your dollars will begin to disappear. Everything for your time. If you don't put a name on your time, if you're not structured in your time, it will kind of go away. If you don't put enough, if you don't put intentionality on your time, you'll find yourself for hours reading articles about Travis Kelsey and Taylor Swift, all while not working on your own relationships. You know what I'm talking about. So here you go.

Speaker 1: 8:34

A second way stress robs our time is this you don't think you have enough of it. Now, that's the one I think most of us probably feel right. We probably feel like we're always in a rush, there's always a deadline, there's always something to do. We got to get there, especially if you've got little kids and you're always trying to keep them up. My two younger kids are in the season where they like to put their own clothes on and put their own shoes on. It's very cute.

Speaker 1: 8:57

But when you got to go somewhere, you're like come on, man, let's hurry up man wrong foot and he just let them leave the house with the shoes on the wrong feet. Then you kind of feel bad as a parent. Okay, is that just me? But you think you have enough. You don't have enough time. You're constantly running late for things. You leave the house in a panic. You're putting on makeup while driving your car. It's dangerous. You know it takes you 23 minutes to get to a place where you leave at exactly 23 minutes to get there, but you know you don't want to do that. You don't want to do that. You got to leave margin in your schedule.

Speaker 1: 9:31

If not, what do you constantly find yourself In? Stress, anxiety. Third way stress robs your time. Is this one now, now. Now, I got to have it now. I need everything now, and stress will try to convince you that if you just get this thing right now, you'll be okay, that if I just have this, then I'll be all right.

Speaker 1: 9:50

You may find yourself in one or two or maybe all three of those categories today and stress can have control over your time, but it has to stop. And here's the reason why Because it's not sustainable. It's not sustainable to live at a pace like that, it's not sustainable for your schedule, it's not sustainable for your health, it's definitely not sustainable for your mental health and it's 100% not sustainable for your relationships to be in a constant place of stress. And it's hard, it's hard to be present where we are when we have a whole bunch of different things running through our heads. So what do we do? How do we do this? How do we not allow stress, how do we not allow anxiety to take over our time?

Speaker 1: 10:32

I've got a couple ways I want to do this. The first one is this you need to know that your days are numbered. You may be like wow, pastor Jacob, that does not sound encouraging at all, but here's the thing you got to know that your days are numbered. Psalm 90 says this. It says so teach us to number our days that we may be present, that we may be present. And the reason why this is helpful is because whatever we think we have a lot of, we will waste it, but whatever we don't think we have a lot of, we will cherish it. You'll be a little more intentional with it. You'll have a tensionality with it. We have to learn how to become present where we are.

Speaker 1: 11:20

And the second way to use our time wisely is this invest your time in what matters. We invest our time in what. I'm going to be real practical today. So if you're taking notes, it's a good day to take notes. And, just in case you didn't know, you have to have a certain amount of notes in order to get to heaven. It says that in Leviticus 3.17. I'm joking, I didn't say that, but this is the principle of understanding your responsibilities.

Speaker 1: 11:48

Now let me say something about your responsibilities. There's some things you're responsible for and there's some things you're concerned about, and they are not the same. I'm concerned about a lot of things, but I'm not responsible for it, but there's some things that you're responsible for. And then again, notice this, notice I said, invest your time, not spend your time, because spend your time and you'll never get it back. Invest your time in things that really matter and you'll get a good return for your investment. You'll get a good return. But we have to invest our times in things that we are responsible for. And my list, my list, is simple and it flows, and this is my list. You can make your own list of what I'm responsible for, but this is my list. This is how I base decisions in my life, based on my responsibilities.

Speaker 1: 12:30

My number one responsibility is my relationship with God. There's no one that's going to have a relationship with God but me. I got to have my own relationship with God. I can't have my wife's relationship with God, can't have my mom's relationship with God. I got to have my own, and so I'm responsible for that. And second, I'm responsible for my relationship with myself. I got to make this one be clear. I got to make this one be clear Because sometimes we can feel like, oh, that's just so selfish.

Speaker 1: 12:56

I'm supposed to be thinking about other people. Doesn't joy mean Jesus, others and then yourself? True, but no, because if yourself isn't healthy, then you won't be healthy for the people that you're supposed to care for. So no one can take care of your physical health, your mental health, your emotional health, your spiritual health, other than you. So I got to be responsible for it. So I got to invest my own, my own relationship with myself. But then from there I'm responsible for my relationship with my wife, erin, then my relationship with my kids, kingsley, jameson and Hayden, Then my relationship with my close friends and families and lastly, for me, then it's my church, then it's the church. Now I have to invest in these relationships and for me, I got to do it in this order, because they build upon each other, Because it's easy especially for pastors and maybe you can feel this way too it's easy to say, oh well, I go to church, so that's my relationship with God.

Speaker 1: 13:52

That is not the same. That is not, I'm going to. That's a dangerous place to be. If you think, ma'am, sunday is my relationship with God. No, sunday is the time that you can come together, celebrate with other people, we can worship Jesus, so that Monday through Saturday, we're fixing our relationship on God. Okay, so it could be an easy thing for me to say that, well, I'm doing God's work. So that's no, no, no, no, my relationship with God is different. It's the same thing.

Speaker 1: 14:20

If you're a person who overworks and you say, well, I'm just trying to provide for my kids, that's great, I'm glad that you want to provide for your kids. That's a good heart. But you want to know. What your kids really want. It's for you to get down and play with them, to hang with them, to know them. Those are what's important. Okay, here you go.

Speaker 1: 14:38

Third way third way to use your time wisely and to compliment these other two is say yes or say no. Say yes or say no. And this can be really hard, especially if you are a people pleaser. If you're someone who loves to please people, love it. This could be a hard principle for you, but for me, one of the best ways I've been able to demonstrate this because that's me I'm a people pleaser. I do that.

Speaker 1: 15:04

But one of the best things that I've been able to do to help me do this is by keeping us Sabbath. We have a weekly set. We call it Family Fun Day. In our family we do it, unless it's an emergency. I don't take calls on that day, I don't make plans on that day. It's a day for the Lord and for my family, and it's been wonderful, especially for people like me, who you know I'm a go getter, I like to hustle, I like to do things. It's good to have intentional time to rest, to rest I knew that you know and be able to do that.

Speaker 1: 15:32

See, this is what Jesus says about our decisions. Jesus says this just say a simple yes I will, or no, I won't. Anything beyond that is from the evil one, and that sounds pretty intense. The way that he's saying is this but Jesus is saying is this whenever you say yes to one thing, you are saying no to something else. So, and if you say no to one thing, you are saying yes to something else.

Speaker 1: 15:57

My challenge for you to be is to monitor what are you saying yes to, because sometimes we're saying no to our kids, but we're saying yes to 2.5 hours a day in front of our smartphones. Sometimes we're saying no to one thing, we're saying no to serving that church, but we're saying yes to the staying up late binge watching Netflix, and which one is better for your soul. Sometimes we're saying no to getting the marriage counseling that we need, but saying yes to the arguments that we keep having, and I want to get up in your business a little bit, because whatever you say yes to is what you're holding up as what is most important. So what are you saying yes to? What is your yes saying? And this is another thing I've got to say, another thing I've got to say Whether or not you have intentionality in your discipleship. We are all being discipled and formed into something, and whatever we're saying yes and no to is shaping us into the people that we are today. So who are you and what are your decisions doing to do that? Okay, was that a little intense? I'm sorry. Here you go. I'm not sorry, though, but here you go. Here you go, going back to this story, the young man. He walks up to his father and says give me what's mine now. It's mine, I spend it. That's what he's saying to him, and then check out what happens next.

Speaker 1: 17:23

Luke 15 says this not long after that, the younger son got together all he had set off for a distant country. They're wasted his wealth in wild living. So once he's wasted his wealth, once he's got control of his time, he thought he knew better than his father. He went out to the clubs. He's doing the stinky leg, he's making it stink up in there in the clubs. He's doing wild living. He takes all this money, he's living it up and check out what Jesus says.

Speaker 1: 17:50

Next, after he spent everything. After he spent everything, after he did things his way, after he had control over his finances, after he spent everything, what happened next? After that, there was a severe famine in that whole country and he began to be in need. Wait a second, wait a second. Not after he did it his way, he gained more money and then, when the economy took a hard turn, he was okay. After he spent everything doing it his way, a famine came. But because he did it his way, he was financially secure and ready to take on the troubles. No, no, no. After he spent everything doing it his way, a famine came and he was in need and his treasure was gone.

Speaker 1: 18:40

And now the reason why I talk about money? Because people get funny when you talk about money in church. Did that rhyme? They did it. Wow, they called me Sam IM. I don't read a lot of Dr Seuss to my kids. Good read, not really, but anyway. But the reason why we got to talk about money in church is this it's because money finances is one of the primary reasons why people get divorced in America. Actually, the number one reason is communication. The number one reason for divorce in America is communication. But you want to know the number one topic of poor communication Finances. It's finances and it's stressor.

Speaker 1: 19:19

And, based on your upbringing, you have a different view when it comes about money. Some people you come from upbringing you spend everything. You always spend this stuff. Some of you come from upbringing where everyone's really tight. You never had anything. We all have different financial stories that play into what happens. Here are some just bottom line facts here. Studies say that the average credit card debt, the average credit card that has $16,000 of debt on it, and the average American has three of them. So that's a lot.

Speaker 1: 19:50

Proverbs 22 says this the borrower is a slave to the lender. See, here's the truth. I never met a debt collector that just says oh, bless your heart. Oh, just pay me back when you have time. Oh, bless you. I've never met that debt collector. You know, I don't think that one's out there. But we can have financial peace because of what Jesus offers us. Jesus offers us a life of freedom and peace and we can be free and not be on the slavery of debt, two ways that stress controls your treasure is this when we want everything now, when we want everything now.

Speaker 1: 20:28

You kind of can see a theme going on here right that when you want now, now, now you want everything now. I think we have bought into a cultural lie that we need everything immediately, instantly and right now. We need life, like our mashed potatoes, instant. Instant mashed potatoes aren't good, no, no, we got it. There's a level of patience to fruit of the spirit. So when we say we want everything now, this is when you buy things that you don't need right now and maybe you're buying things you don't need to impress people who don't matter. You don't have to have everything now.

Speaker 1: 21:03

This is something that Aaron and I really had to work on in our marriage, and one of the things that we started to do in the past year or so is we started, in our budget, having what we call sinking funds, and sinking funds are something that we make. We make a list of things that we want, that we need, like. We want better landscaping, we want a minivan Come on, I'm ready for it. We want to upgrade our TV. We were trying to listen to Usher at the halftime show. I could barely hear him. I said, babe, we need a new TV. I'm trying to hear Usher. Little John came up. I couldn't even see him. My TV was so dark, but anyways. So here you go.

Speaker 1: 21:47

But we have a digital envelope system that we have on our account and we set money aside for that. We put a goal and we set money aside for that. We're currently I'm going to tell you something right now that we're doing Because the Lord has really helped us, but we're currently saving a large portion of my salary to reinvest back into this church, and we're able to do that because of some disciplines we have. But we're also able to do that because we believe that when everyday people learn how to become Jesus followers, that's something worth investing into because it changes everything, and so we're able to do well, that's something that we're currently doing it because by the fall, we're going to have a big market in push and we want to reach everyday people in our community and to get more info to come out to Easter.

Speaker 1: 22:31

But we're so excited for what God is doing so we wouldn't have been able to be radically generous if we just bought everything. We want it right now and I'm going to tell you this you will never have the life you really want if you just get everything you want now. There is a level of discipline that you have to have. Here you go. Second way that stress controls our treasure is when we spend everything we have. Now, something that Aaron and I do personally is we live on 60% of our salaries. We live on 60% of it. We tithe 10%, we save 10%, we have 10% for rest and vacations because that's a high priority for us, and then we give that other 10% to our sinking funds and the same thing we do for our church. We budget our church at 90% of what we bought in last year. That's why I want to encourage you here's a small plug I want to encourage you to join us on our legacy meeting on this upcoming Wednesday at 7 o'clock. The info will be on the website to do it.

Speaker 1: 23:24

But I want to be able to share with you about how we steward money as our church, because we want to be transparent about that. Because, again, a lot of times when people think about church and money, they think about the celebrity pastors that have that that's riding around in the Cadillac Escalade with Chrome. That wills. I got a Hyundai Sonata. It got a heated seat. That's nice, but it ain't me, you know.

Speaker 1: 23:47

And so, because we want to steward where God gives us, well, because there's people out there, there's people in our community that need this message of hope, that need there's broken marriages that God can restore in Jesus' name. There's young people that are looking for direction and meaning and purpose, and man, let it be said of our church, that can reach those young people. Come on, let's do it, man. So it's worth doing that. Here you go, here you go. I'm about to get excited. I get excited. So join us. Join us at that meeting.

Speaker 1: 24:15

That was my plug. So here you go. Here's where we see this young man. He spent everything he had and for some of you, maybe, what you feel like, man, I spent everything I had. I don't have all this stuff, and maybe you find yourself in one of these categories. Jesus puts it like this where your treasure is there, your heart will be also. Here are two ways to bring faith and joy to your treasure. The first one is this tied into a healthy local church. Now, again, if you're new with us today, I do not expect anyone to start tying it. That is like I'm just glad you're here, you know.

Speaker 1: 24:48

But I want you to notice I said tied into a healthy local church. I didn't say tied into a local vineyard church. I just think it's a good value to tie to a church. I think you should be planted and serve in a church and give financially to that church. I think that's the way that God has wired us to do Now. I truly believe in the local church. I believe that the local church, mobilized, is the hope of the world. I truly believe that and that's why Aaron and I, we have invested our entire life savings into this church.

Speaker 1: 25:16

We invested every penny into this church. And what I'm about to say right here it's not because I'm awesome look how great I am but I just want to be transparent with you guys, because a few weeks ago I was talking to someone and they said wow, that's so cool that the county lets you use that school to do church. I said they don't let us do it. It costs us money. It costs a lot of money actually double the most of our mortgages to rent this facility to do that. And the reason why I share that is because Aaron and I we have given invested into this church because we believe it and the amount that we have given to it is a lot, but it's not because, oh, we're great and we're awesome, we're just being obedient to God, we'll be an obedient to God and we're given to a place.

Speaker 1: 26:02

Sometimes it's easy to say, well, I'll give a little bit, I hope there. But when God starts to ask you to really be generous, to really put him first, I mean that gets tricky, that gets hard and that gets hard. But we do it because God has called us to do this. And I don't want you here, you go. I don't want you to do what I've done. I want you to do what God has called you to do. I want you to live in obedience to God. Because we have invested our life savings into this church, but because we believe it. And this is the thing I want to tell you and I'm gonna shoot it straight to you today we invested a lot of money into this church, but we have been, but God has blessed us beyond. But we have given to the church I'm talking about. Like in crazy ways God has, financially crazy provided for Aaron and I in the craziest ways possible and I truly believe it's because of our obedience, it's being obedient to God.

Speaker 1: 26:55

Now, tithing does mean a tenth, and tithing was primarily an Old Testament principle. I want this to be clear, though tithing, when you look at it, really is an Old Testament practice. Jesus does endorse tithing, but again, he was Jewish, so of course he's gonna endorse tithing. The apostle Paul makes mention of percentage given to his letters to the church. But what we see in the New Testament is really generosity. We just see a spirit of generosity is what we see, and so for me, I give percentage rise because I just like knowing my next step. I'm more practical like that, so I like to know my next step. So my personal budget is percentage based and I'm not gonna go into what we give. Check this out Malachi 3.10 says this bringing the whole tithing to the storehouse, that there may be food in my house, and that's talking about the church.

Speaker 1: 27:40

Test me in this, says the Lord Almighty and mighty, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be enough room for you to store it. Now, that's not a prosperity gospel. That's not a prosperity gospel in the sense of oh, if I give a little bit, God's is gonna give me great cars and a private jet. No, no, no. What it's saying is, when you put God first, when you make God first, especially over something that's hard like finances, god is saying don't be surprised when I bless you. But above and beyond that's what it's saying it's saying test me in it. Test me to believe that I'm really your true God. Because here you go.

Speaker 1: 28:19

If you want me to be the God of your purpose, let me be the God of your finances. If you want me I mean again, this is a saying that this is what you want. You may not want this, but if you want me to be the God that takes care of your family, that provides for you, gives you hope and a vision and a dream, if I'm the God that's responsible for your salvation, dude, just trust me with your finances. Trust me in some of those hard areas. Okay, so here we go. I'm telling you this because I do believe that it's a big difference. It's been a big difference in my life. Even here at local vineyard, we have a 90 day policy that if you tithe for 90 days and you don't feel any spiritual breakthrough or funding, we'll give you all your money back? We don't need it. We don't need it. It's the next step for you, in a way, to bless the kingdom of God. Okay, here you go.

Speaker 1: 29:03

Second thing is this Second way to bring purposes to our treasure is faith brings contentment. Okay, and this is so important. We need to develop a heart of contentment. In a world that always wants more and more and more, we need to be content with what we have. We need to practice gratitude. We need to be people of gratitude, and here's the truth that all of us will agree with. You may not be where you want to be, but, by God's grace, you aren't where you could be and God has brought us through things, and it's good to pursue all that God has for you, but it's also good to have gratitude in this season.

Speaker 1: 29:40

Back to the story of the young man James. You can come on up and play something for us. Back to the story of this young man. First thing that went wrong. He said I'll take it in my own hands, I got this. He wasted his time, he wasted his treasure and the last thing we see is this he wasted his talent. He wasted his talent. Luke 15 says this. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country who sent him to the, sent him to the fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the paws that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. And this is this is significant. I mentioned this last week. This is significant because he was Jewish and in that culture, jewish people didn't associate with pigs, and so you can kind of see what's happened. He lost, he lost his treasure. He did that. He got to a low place where now he's feeding pigs, meaning he lost his belief. So not only did he lose things physically, he lost things spiritually. He's at his lowest moment, he's at a hard moment in his life because of the decisions that he made and things that happened.

Speaker 1: 30:53

And it's and it's tough Two ways, and this is what I wanted to get Two ways that stress can control your talent. Stress will make you negative at work you see this a lot and then stress will make you make you see work only as a burden. Now I want to. I want to unpack this a little bit. Now there's a few things I want to say.

Speaker 1: 31:11

When it comes to your workplace, I'm not just talking about a nine to five job. You may be a stay-at-home parent or a college student, or even a high school student, and it can be tough. It could be tough and you, you may be here. You may even love your job. Like me, I love my job. I'm so thankful that that the job I have. I love doing what I do, but there's still challenging things and at your workplace there's still maybe challenging people and challenging things to demands on your time and it could be tough.

Speaker 1: 31:36

A couple of funny funny, not funny stats, or this 80% of workers feel stressed on the job. That's a large number. 25% of workers want it to scream at the job because of the stress. That's getting pretty stressful. 10% of workers are concerned about an individual at work. They fear it could become violent. 14% felt like striking a co-worker in the past year. Dang, that's not talking about Mike Tyson. 18% experienced a verbal intimidation in the past year.

Speaker 1: 32:11

So all that to say is now I want to give you three ways that faith can bring purpose into your, into your talent, into your workplace. Three ways to that can happen. Discover that my, discover my real purpose and make a difference with my life. Now the happiest people I know and I want you to hear me when I'm about to say here okay, the happiest people I know I know they don't. They don't, they don't have better spouses, they don't have better kids, they don't have better finances than you, no, no, no. The happiest people I know what they have in their life is that they are doing something that is really meaningful. They're doing something that's really mean. Everyone has a calling and the happiest people are the ones doing something that makes a real difference, like I'm gonna.

Speaker 1: 32:59

I'm gonna shoot this to you straight again you can make all the money in the world, you can have all the influence in the world, you can have all the power in the world, but if you don't have, if you're not making a difference, if you're not living out your calling, you will always feel a little bit empty. You always feel like you're missing something, because we're not made for for treasuries and things. We're made to serve God, to live a life that makes a difference in our world, to follow the steps of our rabbi Jesus, who willingly let me put this to you he went to the cross for us because that was his purpose. I'm gonna tell you this, friends we get caught up in the comfort of our lives. We get caught up in the comforts of our of our workplaces in our world. But Jesus says if you want to make a difference in your life, are you willing to sacrifice for others? Are you willing to make a difference in a life with somebody else? Are you willing to do that? Maybe for you you can't change your job, but you can serve at church. You saw people and when you serve like we got people in our kids church that they love it because they see young people get excited and they know they're a part of that and they take that into their Mondays when they go to work. They do that Now. Now I encourage you to that.

Speaker 1: 34:16

Second thing is this realize that my vocation is my ministry location. Yeah, I'm rhyming again. I used to want to be a rapper. I used to want to be a rapper but I wasn't tough enough. Take responsibility of your work environment. Do you want another kind of person? I want you to be at your workplace. Be the Krispy Kreme person, be the person that brings in Krispy Kreme donuts, like, like. Be that person. And if you're a boss, if you're a manager, be the kind of boss, be the kind of leader that, when people pull up and they see your car in the parking lot, they're excited to work for you, because what you bring into them, what you do for them, be that kind of person Lead in that way. No, this is one thing that's true. This is one thing that's true. Just because I'm a pastor doesn't make doesn't mean I have like the holy job you want to know where we need to bring God into our work environments, like what God has put in your heart is a purposeful and that you can make a difference there. Don't count yourself out, but let God use you there. Here you go, start developing relationships with your coworkers so you can tell them about Jesus and be a person of hope for them.

Speaker 1: 35:32

Third thing is this work for God and not people. I think this is so important for us to have deep in our hearts, because sometimes people drive us crazy. Here you go. Have you ever busted your butt at work on a project and then your boss comes in and they barely give you any credit for it? I think we all have been there, right, it could be hard, but Colossians 3, 23 says this whatever you do, work at it with all your heart. I was working for the Lord, not for human masters. Now, I've been real practical today Trying to lay out some practical things. But here's the thing One of the reasons why I told this story about the prodigal son is because, yeah, it kind of correlates with time, treasure and talent.

Speaker 1: 36:14

But this is the bottom line I want to get to, because we all are living life every day. Well, all this, trying to do our best, we're trying to man, we're trying to make it, we're trying to get through it. We're trying to make things happen. What we see in this story is this young man who kind of felt like man, I had it, I know what I wanted, and he went for it and things didn't go out. Things didn't turn out good for him. He was at a low place feeding some pigs, and the text says Jesus tells this story.

Speaker 1: 36:42

Jesus is always the masterful storyteller. He tells this story. He's at his lowest place and then, when he's at his lowest place, he says to himself man, even my father's higher servants are eating better than this. My father's higher servants are doing better than this. He says, no, I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna, I'm going to go home, I'm gonna apologize to my father, I'm gonna lose my sonship, but I'd rather be a higher servant than where I am right now. And so this man, this young man, he gets up, he starts to head home, he starts to go towards home and I want you to see this. Okay, the young man comes to his senses, he comes home and it says, but while he still was a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him and he ran to his son and threw his arms around him and kissed him. And this is what I want you to get today, because, no matter the decisions that you've made, no matter the decisions that you've made up to this point, no matter the things that they've been wrong, they haven't been right, you've been stressed, you've been feeling whatever God's grace looks for you. God's grace is more aggressive than the sin in our lives. God's grace runs to us.

Speaker 1: 37:55

The story is radical because when Jesus was telling the story, the way the original story went was that the father, who represented God, when the son came home, the father represented God would smite down the son and leave him up as a higher servant. So if you were in the Jewish audience that day, you were ready for the ending of this story like, yeah, here comes God, he about to smite down his dude, he about to get him. But then Jesus, in M Night Shyamalan fashion, has a twist ending and he says no, the father doesn't smite down the son who comes home. The father runs to the son who comes home. And not only does he run to the son that comes home, he hugs him and kisses him. And then it says this, and this is the craziest part it says there's the son trying to say his speech. And this is what the father does. He says quick, bring the best robe and put it on him, put a ring on his finger, sandals on his feet, bring up the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate, for the son of mine was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. So they begin to celebrate.

Speaker 1: 39:06

And this is what I want to say to you no matter where you are in your life, god's grace goes after you. And when we live in a place of grace, it's not based on our efforts, it's not based on how good we can be, because we can never be good enough, but when we position ourselves for God's grace and we say, god, we need more of you. We want more of you in our lives. Then then, freedom, victory, hope, faith, love. Oh God, I'm going to give you my time and my talent and my treasure, because you gave me everything on that cross. Come on, can I be real today? You gave me everything on that cross and three days later you got back up again. So, god, here I am. I give you everything. I give everything to the God who gave me everything.

Speaker 1: 40:09

So let's pray. God, jesus, holy Spirit, we thank you for your love, we thank you for your goodness and God. Yeah, even though we're talking about how to utilize our time and how to utilize our finance, how to utilize our treasure, to not be in a place of stress and worry and concern, god, we acknowledge first, lord, that with you, all things are possible, that you give us hope and joy, that you give us grace upon grace. That's like the Holy Spirit saying you're not too far gone. That's like the Holy Spirit saying he's been watching you, waiting for you to come home, and he runs to you. I feel like the enemy is trying to tell someone right now but this is your third, fourth, fifth time you try to come back home and God is saying, even if it's your seventh, eighth or ninth time, I still take you back. God is saying. He still takes you back, no matter what, and there is victory and freedom in him. So, jesus, we love you. We say come, holy Spirit.

Speaker 1: 41:36

If you're in here today and you're like Jacob, that sounds good. But I don't know this Jesus you're talking about. Or maybe you have followed Jesus before, but life got in the way, decisions got in the way. You found yourself away, but you want to come back home. Come back home to Jesus today. If that's you, I want to pray your prayer for you. I'm not going to call you out. Have you come up front? Stand like that. It's right where you are, in your chair, if you want to make a decision to trust Jesus with your life. It's why I pray with you, right where you are. You can either repeat after me and say it out loud, or you can say it in your heart, which is right where you are, with faith. Begin to say Jesus, forgive me for my mistakes, make me new. Today I trust you with my life. Today I receive your grace. Today I follow you in Jesus name. Amen, amen, amen, amen. Let's give God some praise in here today.