"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us." - Hebrews 12:1

The goal of the message is to help you understand that in order to live above stress, you can't just hold onto biblical promises, but you have to embrace a biblical view of life and way of living as well.

Five Sources of Stress

1. Complexity

• Lives are too complex.
• We have too many things going on.
• We don't know how to set good boundaries.
• Our schedules are overloaded.

The solution is SIMPLIFYING.

2. COMPLAINING

• How we talk matters.
• The tongue is a rudder that steers the ship of our life.
• When we talk stress, we walk stress.
• The negative stuff is true, but so is the positive stuff-speak differently.

The solution is SPEAKING (to God/prayer).

3. COMPARISON

• We get stressed by comparing our lives to others.
• Social media has opened us up to what everyone else is doing.
• Comparison kills contentment.

The solution is SATISFACTION (see Galatians 6:4 NLT).

4. CONTROL

• We're stressed about things out of our control:
  • A diagnosis
  • The family we're born into
  • Past experiences
• We're also stressed because we try to control people and circumstances that we can't.

The solution is SURRENDER.

5. CONDEMNATION

• We're stressed by the sin we carry.
• The guilt and shame of things we've done weighs us down.
• We're under legalism, trying to earn our way in.

The solution is SALVATION.