Release The Pressure - Stand Alone

Sometimes we feel the pressure of life, to hold everything together and always know what to do.
But God never intended for us to carry it all on our own.

Watch as Pastor Andrew Strand takes us through what the Bible says about releasing the pressure of life and finding peace in God’s truth.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Amazing. If you have a red haired child, you are the winner of this morning. Man, yeah, there you are. I see you. I see you. Man, happy Mother's Day. It um it is a real real joy uh to be together. And we're gonna be in John chapter two today. If you have your Bible or your device, you can open up there. I want to also welcome those of you who uh are joining us online today. I want to share a message with you uh today called Release the Pressure. Release the pressure. And uh this is an idea that stemmed from a conversation uh that I had with my mother-in-law Amy, she's sitting right over here today. Uh, we had this conversation about 15 years ago, I believe, and we actually uh kind of recounted it this week, and she was talking about uh a conversation that she had had with an older, wiser woman uh many years ago, who was kind of saying, if I could go back and talk to my younger self, I would tell her, stop being so hard on yourself. Stop being so hard on yourself, young mamas. And she went on to say, I I just put so much pressure on myself. And so today I want to spend some time uh looking at an account in John chapter 2 uh that Jesus had with his mama, and I want to uh share a few observations and a few key truths uh that I believe we find in the Word of God today. This is not so much an exegetical sermon on John chapter 2. This is more so gonna be a pastoral word uh and an encouragement to really all of us, uh, but I believe it specifically is gonna minister to the mothers in the room today. I am aware that uh I am not a mom. And uh so I am going to be speaking and preaching uh about something that I am not, however, uh I do know this that being a mom is a calling, and it is an incredible honor. I know that at times uh it is impossible, it feels really, really hard. A lot of days it's full of joy, uh, but at times it can feel like so much pressure. And so today uh I want to encourage us with a few things because some of you today walk in here feeling the pressure. You feel the pressure to keep everything together. You feel the pressure to always know what to do, you feel the pressure to keep a perfectly clean house when the children don't care at all about a perfectly clean house. In fact, at the worst possible times, they decide to start on elaborate art projects, all while building a giant pillow fort, while simultaneously leaving shoes in every single room throughout the whole house. You feel the pressure. You feel the pressure to uh keep everyone properly clothed with the latest fit and the latest style. For those of you who have older kids, you feel the pressure of trying to schedule a vacation, even though these children have the nerve to have their own schedules. You feel the pressure uh to keep everyone fed with meals that are healthy and yet meals that little people actually want to eat because meals come around with alarming regularity. You feel the pressure uh to keep up with all the kids' extracurricular activities. You feel the pressure to be a working mom and yet a stay-at-home mom. You feel the pressure, the pressure, the pressure. And I do think that Jesus has some things to say to us today. And I think the first thing from the very beginning is that he would encourage us to release the pressure of having it all together. In fact, some of you, uh, we're gonna do this a few different times today. You need to just take a big old deep breath in and then release it nice and slow. Release the pressure that you feel today. John chapter two uh is a place in the gospel, uh, where one in one of the gospel accounts where Jesus and his mama find themselves in a bit of a pressure cooker situation. And so uh at this time I'm gonna ask you to stand with me for the reading of God's word. John chapter 2, verse 1, says this. On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. And when the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, They have no wine. And Jesus said to her, Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come. His mother said to the servants, Do whatever he tells you. Now there were six stone jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. And Jesus said to the servants, Fill the jars with water, and they filled them to the brim. And he said to them, Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast. So they took it. And when the master of the feast tasted the water, now become wine, and did not know where it came from, though the servants had drawn who had drawn the water knew. The master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now. This is the first of his signs. Jesus did at Cana and Galilee and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him. After this, he went down to Capernaum with his mother and his brothers and his disciples, and they stayed there for a few days. This is the word of the Lord, you may be seated. I want you to uh just imagine with me for a moment uh that you were Mary, the mother of Jesus. And if you've read the gospel accounts, or if you've ever been uh around a church service around Christmas time, you're probably aware that Mary was let in before Jesus was ever born. She was let in on what his true identity was, that uh that she was visited, visited by an angel, and she was told, Hey, your kid is the son of God. Can you imagine for a moment the pressure that she felt in that moment? And then how she surely, like I have done with other moments in my life, never quite the same moment that Mary experienced, but replayed that moment over and over and over again, going, Did that really happen? Is this baby that I'm carrying in my belly? Is this really the son of God? And you have to just imagine that she felt the pressure. Some of you know exactly how this goes, uh, because Mary and Joseph, of course, they relocated from uh the the the area of Galilee down to Bethlehem so that the prophecy would be fulfilled. Uh, and so surely that added some pressure. And then just a few months later, maybe up to a year later, crazy King Herod was killing all the babies, and so they had to relocate again, and they relocated down to Egypt. Surely that added some pressure. Some of you know you have been relocated to the Permian Basin in the middle or just after a pregnancy, and you know the pressure that it brings. And then once everything was safe, they relocated once again, moving back home, and surely people were murmuring about the family situation. Joseph's not his daddy. They say his daddy is God. Can you imagine the pressure? It had to feel like pressure all the time. So much of the story of Jesus the kid is lost in obscurity. We actually don't know a whole lot about what Jesus was like as a kid, but we do get one account uh when Jesus was 12 years old. It's in Luke chapter 2, and the only account that we find out about Jesus the kid is that his parents lose him for three days.

SPEAKER_00 8:52

The pressure.

SPEAKER_01 8:54

I know uh Allie and I at times uh we just built a little playhouse for our girls, and at times they won't tell us where they're going. You know, they're just going out to the backyard, and we lose them for like four minutes, and we're spazzing out. You know, where are the kids? Can you imagine losing your kid for three days? The pressure that they must have felt. And Mary, cultural norms at this time would say she was probably just a kid herself, probably somewhere in uh her teenage years, had to be thinking, what if I mess this kid up? Any of you mamas, you don't have to raise your hand, but have you ever felt that way in your mind? By the things that you say, by the things uh that you might have done by that decision or that decision, you think about the pressure that comes with, oh no, I might mess this kid up. Surely Mary had those moments. Or maybe, maybe maybe Mary handled it with ease. I don't know. Maybe she was the cool mom pulling up in the first century swagger wagon, right? With the latest Tay-Tay track playing on the stereo. Maybe she was the mom who handled everything with ease. She showed up with her Stanley Cup in hand. Or maybe Mary, maybe she was a boss lady, maybe she was type A. She had it all together. I don't know. I can only imagine the pressure of raising the creator of the universe. The word became flesh. Surely it had to at times feel like a pressure cooker. Now I know uh you're not raising Jesus, and everybody says amen. But you do know what it feels like to feel the pressure. And our text for today, we pick up uh in uh at the beginning of a story, Jesus has uh just recruited his disciples when all of a sudden Perimenopause's age Mary is at a wedding celebration just outside of Galilee. And Jesus is somewhere in uh his early 30s when Jesus and his crew they show up to the same wedding, and by verse 3, guess what? We already have a problem. And this is a big problem. Some of you know uh you're thinking, yeah, this is a big problem, right? Mary says, they have no wine. This is a big problem in this day and age. Of course, first century weddings were a huge celebration, like way bigger than a celebration than the celebrations that we have now. They would often last up to a week. And here was the issue that people would be invited, and then they would show up for a certain amount of time, and then they would leave, and then they might show up again. You never quite knew how long that they were gonna be there for, and so the amount of supplies that you would need for this party was always a bit of a mystery. And on this particular occasion, the host of this wedding had failed miserably. Can you imagine the pressure that that family felt in that moment? You see, if Mary was alive during our time and she was texting her cousin Elizabeth, and Elizabeth was like, yo, how's the party? Mary would have texted back this meme right here. It's fine, everything's fine. They've run out of wine. This is a huge issue, and we don't get all the detail, but for whatever reason, Mary decides that she's going to take on this problem as her own. She's gonna take on this problem as her own. You see, this was a huge cultural faux pas, and so I wonder if Mary doesn't do what all of us probably at one point or another. Certainly, some of you mothers have done this in this room. Mary takes on the pressure of somebody else's problem. Anyone ever done this? Anyone else anybody else ever taken on somebody else's problem? And you decide all of a sudden it's gonna be my problem too. You see, this is not her problem to take on. And some of you have taken on this kind of problem before. All of a sudden there was no room mom. You're not really the room mom type, but you're like, all right, I guess somebody's gotta do it, right? It's somebody's problem. I'm gonna take it on myself. Maybe uh some of us in here uh we've actually given way to the pressure of our children. They want to do this thing, they want to go to this thing. We know that we don't really want them to do that, but we just finally just went, fine, I tap out, go do it. And then you find yourself regretting that decision. It becomes a problem. I know Allie and I um we were talking about this uh this point earlier this week, and how many of you know, some of you group leaders know exactly what I'm talking about that ministry at times is full of other people's problems. And we were talking about how we both have had these moments where we have failed at this. Specifically, there was one moment where uh Allie said yes to something, somebody was having a problem, and then it became more problems, and it became more problems, and I watched her and I watched her just begin to like kind of like crater. And I've done this too, and I find myself in these moments realizing that on some level this is a biblical idea that we are called to bear one another's burdens. You know this is true, and yet at the same time, when we begin to feel it take us under, the word that you're looking for is no. Everybody say it with me. No. Some of us have said yes one too many times, some of us have said yes twelve too many times. Because we're taking on somebody else's problem. One of the biggest things that you can take away from today's message is no. I'm not gonna take on somebody else's problem. That's not my problem, that is somebody else's problem. And here is the real reason that we don't take on somebody else's problem. Are you ready for this? You're not God. Amen. You can't fix the situation. You might be able to lean in, but if you feel yourself starting to be pulled under, if that problem is starting to weigh so heavily on you, say no. It's okay. You're not God. You see, he's the first encouragement that I would tell you, mamas, today release yourself from the pressure of figuring out other people's problems. It's not your responsibility, it's actually a false responsibility, and it adds unneeded stress. Somebody say amen today. See, when Mary says they have no wine, Jesus, the always non-anxious presence, he replies, Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come. All right, listen up, man. I know uh when you read this, that you and I, in our cultural context, um, this idea of replying with the word woman. Now, I would not recommend it. Uh, it does have a different cultural uh meaning in Jesus' time. And you know, for if I were to say woman to Ali, like she might kick me in the shin, as she probably should in our cultural context. Here, uh, Jesus is uh, on some sense, as I was reading through some of the commentaries this week, uh, Jesus is sort of rebuking her. He releases the pressure in the moment with this statement. In other words, he's saying, Why are we involving ourselves in other people's business, in other people's problems? And the pressure that Mary was feeling in that moment wasn't going to bleed on to him. And there's a reason for this. It's not because Jesus doesn't care about the situation, it's not because he doesn't want to solve the situation. He actually addresses why he doesn't want to deal with that problem in the moment. He says, My hour has not come yet. Jesus knows in this moment that once he does his first miracle, the clock towards Golgotha begins. And so in this moment, Mary wants Jesus to reveal his true identity now. It's time. Let's go. Start doing the miracle thing. I know you can do it. It's right now. I want you to do it right now. Mary wanted Jesus to step into his real identity, but she wanted him to do it on her timetable. Oh, this is helpful. It wasn't about his true identity, it was about when. She wanted him to step into that identity right now. And some of you mamas out here today have been watching your kids walk in an identity for a very long time. And here's the problem: you know what your kids' true identity is, you know how you raise them, and unlike Jesus, who just was not ready to reveal his true identity at this moment, your son or your daughter is not walking in their true identity in the way that you train them up, like Proverbs talks about, and it is breaking your mama heart. Because you know that you raise them in a different way, and you feel like it is your fault. Can I speak some truth to you this morning? Release yourself from the pressure of getting your kids to walk in their true identity on your timetable. This is not about them beginning to walk in their identity. I believe that God is good. I believe that God is always working on people, but it is not probably likely going to be on your timetable. Sometimes it takes days. Sometimes it takes months, sometimes it takes years for our kids to step into the true identity that God has for them. And today I would say release yourself from that pressure. Release the pressure that you are the one who can turn their heart and let me let you in on something. You applying pressure to your child's heart won't change that heart. Only God can do that. Putting pressure on them. To walk in the way that they should. As the son or the daughter of the Most High God. Of course you want that. Of course you want them to stop in that pattern that is destructive to them. Of course you want them to start to walk in freedom. Of course you want that. Why? Because you're a good mama. So what can you do? You be a praying mama. You be a praying grandmama. You be uh the kind of mom who speaks life over that child. You be the kind of mom who loves well, listen to this, while holding on to God's ways. And you release that pressure that you feel is on you to be the one who changes their heart. Because deep down, they know how you raise them. And deep down, I believe that God is the one who ultimately changes their heart. And as we see in this text, Mary doesn't get it all right. We don't get all the details of how everything went, but I will say this for Mary: she had incredible faith. She held on to that truth about who Jesus was from when uh she was probably likely a teenager. And even when she took on someone else's problem, even when she wanted it to be on her own timetable, when push came to shove, she released the problem on to Jesus. And she had the faith. This is important. Faith often is tied to miracles. She had the faith. Here's what she says she tells the servants, do whatever he tells you to do. And she goes to the one who can actually do something about the problem. And I think that this teaches us listen, mamas, release the pressure that you feel, offload it onto Jesus and watch him do the miraculous. He's the one who changes the heart. This one is so incredibly profound, and yet it is so simple. Jesus tells the servants to fill the ceremonial washing jars. We don't have time to go into all of the meaning of this. There's so much imagery going on here. But these jars that once that once held 20 to 30 gallons of ceremonial washing water, all of a sudden, when the servants do what they are asked to do, it's changed to wine. And this is the first sign that Jesus would do. And the clock towards Golgotha began to tick. Now I know not all of us are wine drinkers in here, but for those of you who are, I want you to just imagine the taste of this Barolo. Imagine the taste of this Cabernet. Imagine the taste of this Pinot, whatever it is that you like. This wine was better than anything you could ever imagine. And the pressure was fully released in that moment. And Jesus began his journey towards the cross, where the ultimate pressure would be relieved. Where the ultimate problem would be dealt with. The problem that we all, this is what the scriptures tell us, that we all create for ourselves. The problem of sin was dealt with at the cross once and for all. Somebody say amen today. And this, the cross, is why we can release the pressure that we put on ourselves. This is why we can release the pressure and we can receive, listen to this, this is important, the peace of God. We can walk out of here today feeling differently because God offers us his peace. But listen, we have to practice this. We have to do it in the car line when we're picking up our kids. We have to carve out even just a moment in the morning to say, God, I receive your peace and I give you all the things that are weighing me down. We have to just find little moments in the day. Don't feel the pressure like I gotta have an hour to spend time with Jesus. Although that will be great. And there will probably be a day where you can do that. But while you have young kiddos, find little niches, little moments where you can release those things to God. Now, let me give you a couple of practical scriptures. Some of you may want to pull your phone out right now and take a picture, or you might want to uh put these in the notes section, or if you're taking notes, there's a couple of scriptures. When you feel the pressure coming on, I would encourage you to memorize these scriptures. I would encourage you to pray these scriptures because they will help you release the pressure. The first one comes from 1 Peter chapter 5. It says this in verse 6, it says, humble yourselves. This is a great first word. It reminds us that I am not God. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all of your anxieties on him. Why? Because he cares for you. He cares for you. Second uh scripture that is great to memorize, great to pray, comes from Philippians chapter 4. It says this in verse 6. It says, The Lord is at hand. You can even practice this, remembering that God is with you. He goes on to say, Do not be anxious about anything. That sounds so much easier than it actually is, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Mamas, I want to tell you today, before our time is done, I'm almost done. First of all, Jesus delights in you. You're probably doing far better than you think you are. And there may be one or two areas that are like weighing you down, but you got 15 other areas where you're crushing it. He's given you everything you need. Everything to raise that kid. He's given you everything you need. So today, thank him for that. And release yourself from other people's problems. It's okay to say no. Release yourself from the pressure of making your children step into their true identity on your timetable. Finally, release the pressure that you feel, offload it onto God, and you watch. He can do the miraculous. So to end our time today, uh, I want to just take a minute and pray over our mamas today, our grandmas. Would you stand with me if you are a mother, grandmother, stepmother, any kind of mother?

SPEAKER_00 27:52

Alright, I want you to just bow your head for a moment. I want you to take just a big deep breath right now and release it slowly.

SPEAKER_01 28:06

Alright, I want you to do another one, but this time I want you to just receive the peace of God as you take that breath in.

SPEAKER_00 28:15

Alright, one more. As you breathe out, I want you to breathe out that pressure. God, today, uh, I thank you for these amazing women. God, thank you that it is your great joy to give us peace.

SPEAKER_01 28:36

Father, thank you that there is no pressure that is too heavy for you. So, God, for those of us who have been so incredibly hard on ourselves, Father, I pray that you would just speak life over these women right now. Father, that they would um feel the release of other people's problems right now. God, that you would release them from the pressure of getting their own kids to walk in the identity that you are the one who has the timetable. And Father, I pray that you would help them today and going forward to offload all of these pressures onto you. And God, we're anticipating miracles in our kids' lives. You're so good. We ask this today in the name of Jesus. Amen.