NEC 2015 Camp Meeting: Strong Families, Strong Churches

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NEC Youth

Eric Walsh

The Stress Factor

We're gonna go to Philippians chapter 4, start at verse 19.

Philippians chapter 4 starting at verse 19.

Just the 1 verse is our scripture reading for tonight.

The Bible says, But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

Our message tonight is entitled, The Stress Equation.

Father God, we thank you Lord for this opportunity to study your Word.

I ask now Lord that you make me just a nail upon the wall once again.

Hang that portrait of Jesus Christ there so that Jesus is seen tonight and not I.

Bless our discussion, our study, and our worship tonight, we pray.

If you have a Bible we're gonna go to 2nd Kings chapter 6.

2nd Kings chapter 6 and we're gonna start at verse 8.

The Bible says, Then the king of Syria warred against Israel and took counsel with his servants, saying, In such and such a place shall be my camp.

Verse 9, and the man of God sent unto the king of Israel saying beware that thou pass not such a place for thither the Syrians are come down and the king of Israel sent to the place which the man of God told him and warned him of and saved himself there not once or twice.

Verse 11 says, therefore the heart of the king of Syria was sore troubled for this thing.

And he called his servants and said unto them, will you not show me which 1 of us is for the king of Israel?

Will you not show me which 1 of us is for the king of Israel?

So let's get some background into these verses.

So Israel and Syria are in a kind of a standoffish kind of war.

There's skirmishes going along the border between the 2 countries.

In fact, when you read the story of Naaman the leper, the little girl who is of the House of Israel, she is actually probably snatched as the Assyrian armies would run across and raid into Israel, grab people, and bring them back out.

So there were these border skirmishes going on all along, and Syria was gaining power and wanted to destroy Israel and so they were trying to plot and so they would if you understand military strategy they were placing their armies in certain places and then waiting for the Israeli army the army of the Israelites to come through so they could kind of pounce on them and destroy them.

Well obviously there'd be a great advantage if you knew what was going to happen and so every time the king of Syria set up a thing like this, Elisha would literally be able to send a message to the king of Israel and say, listen, don't go down this road because if you go down this road, they're waiting for you and they'd go another way.

And another time it would happen and he'd send a message and they'd go another way and they'd miss the armies of Israel and after a while the king of Syria just got frustrated he said wait a minute and he brings in his generals he brings in his leaders they call them servants here but these are his military leaders and he says which 1 of you is the snitch who among us is actually for them Which 1 of you is the snitch?

Who among us is actually for them Which 1 of you is the double agent?

And I love verse 12 1 of his bold servants steps forward.

He says, King, it's Elisha, the prophet that is in Israel.

He tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedchamber.

We didn't want to tell you this, but they've got a secret weapon.

He can literally hear what you're saying when you're in there taking your bath.

The king of Syria was irate and upset and so his response in verse 13 is he said, go and spy where is that I may send and fetch him And it was told him saying behold he is in Dothan now if you really understand the story and you Really get the power and life you have from God You would understand that sending someone to get Elisha was futile in Fact it showed that this king was not just spiritually blind, he was mentally quite stupid.

Because how do you send someone to get someone who knows what you're doing in advance and 1 of the problems 1 of 1 of his servants a little well we know where he is he's in Dolphin the king gets all ready therefore the king sets horses and chariots and a great host.

And they came by night and come past the city about.

Now, you've got to get this part of the story.

You see, the Syrian army was known to wear some of the most incredibly polished and shiny and strong metal in much of the ancient world at that time.

Their great rivals, in a sense, were the Babylonians.

So this is a time when Babylon was on the rise.

Syria was trying to jockey to be the other great superpower at the time.

And so between the noise of the armor and how shiny it was, and the fact that the prophet could tell where you were going to be before you got there, they decide to sneak up on Elisha.

And so they go by night to get to Dothan.

And I guess they figure if they go at night, he won't figure out what they're doing.

I'm not sure what they're really thinking here.

In other words, they circle the entire city of Dothan so as Elisha and and his servants are asleep they're setting up can you imagine they set up they put up their shield they spike their swords into the ground, if that's what they did.

They're just trying to get 1 prophet of God.

Verse 15, and when the servant of the man of God, Elisha's servant, gets up in the morning to go and make Elisha his morning tea, the scripture says, as he goes forth, behold, a host come past the city with both horses and chariots." So you got to be a licensed servant.

Now he gets up to go do what he normally does every morning and as he comes out of the tent and he looks around as the Sun is coming up over the horizon and the sun hits the metal, the shiny armor of the Syrian warriors, he gets up and what he sees is this blinding metallic force all around, not just where they are, but it's all around the city, meaning there is no road of escape.

Just looking at the polish, the shine of the armor, looking at the number of men, you can imagine a servant, whatever he's carrying, he drops to the ground, he turns and he runs back into the tent where Elisha is, and he asks this question.

Now, you know, if this was a brother from the states, he'd run back and say, listen, Brad, what in the world are we gonna do?

Because I don't think there's a way out of here.

We are trapped, we're stuck, there's no way out.

Elisha, we're dead, you've been telling the man secrets, you've been setting him up, and now he's come to get us.

And he begins to be so afraid that he challenges Elisha as to what their next step would be.

You'd think with all that he and Elisha had been through, he'd have a little more faith.

But I want to show you what happens, especially for you as young people, as you're going into life, when stress really comes upon you.

1 of the definitions of stress is this, Stress is a condition or feeling experienced when a person perceives that demands exceed the personal and social resources the individual is able to mobilize.

From this we can deduce a stress equation, and here it is.

Stress equals demands minus resources Did you get that?

This is something you should remember for the rest of your life.

This is important because we know from a purely medical standpoint that when your stress levels rise, your immune system goes down.

Your immune system is important because it is what keeps you from getting sick.

It is also what keeps you from getting cancer.

So, we know that when people are stressed out, they stop making the antibody in their mouth and down their nose and throat, mucosal layers, the antibodies that grab viruses before they ever infect you.

So when you get stressed, those antibodies aren't made, and that's why when people are really stressed, they get the cold, they get the flu, they get little virus bugs like that.

But we also know that the immune system is important.

If 1 of your cells mutates, You do not become an X-man.

You don't grow claws of steel and start healing when people shoot you in the forehead and you can't pass through walls.

Your cells start mutating, you usually get cancer, sick, and Death is very likely with many of those cancers.

But your immune system, when it sees a mutated cell, has the capacity to go find the mutated cell and destroy it before it becomes cancerous.

So how you manage stress in your youth is important if you want health as you grow up in fact enough stress in your youth Can give you cancer in your youth But stress equals the demands placed upon you whether they are real demands or perceived demands minus the amount of resources you feel you can bring to deal with those demands.

The Stress Factor

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