https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BwKpi_S9JTCNRExwOUY3WmpibU0

Stress worry and anxiety. Is it okay? Is it a sin? That is a little bit of a complex question. Let me start by saying The Bible doesn’t tell us not to experience emotions. Anxiety itself is a natural response to stress, say – like sadness or anger. The key is what we do with those emotions once we feel them.For example, the Bible says “Be angry, but don’t let the sun go down on your anger.” Anger is the natural response, but we are not supposed to hold on to it. When anger becomes bitterness, we’ve fallen into sin. Anxiety itself is not the sin.Jesus says to us to cast our cares on to God – He wouldn’t say to “cast” (or throw) them if we didn’t first experience something that needs to be tossed . In other words, when we feel that anxiety, we have a decision to make. We have to decide to obey God and trust in him

We repent of the anxiety – meaning we think differently about it. The Word of God ministers in our souls, and we know God is in control and working all things for his good. Romans 8:28. 

We know our anxiety can’t fix anything. Matthew 6:27-33. So when we feel anxiety, it is good to be with brothers and those who can encourage us in the Word of God and in the Holy Spirit. Likewise, when we see others anxious, we should go to them and minister in love and encourage them. Now I’m not saying that each of us in this room has a problem with stress worry or anxiety. We all experience it at different levels. The level and frequency to which this happens is usually based on peoples personalities and how they handle their emotions. Personally I happen to be one of those people who don’t really worry or stress out that much. Now part of that is because I happen to be easy going. I just don’t let things get to me. However the main reason is due to the fact that I put my trust in the lord. I believe that he has an ultimate plan for my life. That means that stressing will do nothing but hurt my relationship with God and bring down my quality of life. Not everyone is this way. For those of you who have had the opportunity to meet my fiancé Jessica you may know that she is not so easy going. Now I’m not saying that in a bad way it just happens to be a personality difference. Some people worry more than others. That being said please don’t tell Jessica I said that. Just kidding, I always get her permission before talking about her. This last weekend Jessica and I took a trip to San Diego with the main campus at SBC. Now every time we go on a trip the same thing tends to happen. Were about to get in the car and take off after all bags are packed and all the prep work is been done. We have gone through the list and checked it all twice. It’s time to leave, but before we can even move the first words out of my fiancé’s mouth are always without fail “I think I’m forgetting something.” Can any of you relate to this feeling? Thus is an example of a small worry. However even the small things should be given up to God. If not you will end up like a crazy Janga game with all your peace’s on the floor.  Then there is the bigger worries. The kind that keep you up at night. When I was in the hospital in 2016 my family was filled with this kind of worry. I personally felt this worry when I was 18 and was tod I may have cancer. Durring that time it was super difficult on me, but I prayed to God and put my trust in him. I brought my sin to him and trusted that he had a plan for me. Again anxiety is not the sin, the sin is not bringing it to God. God wants us to come to him with our stress and our worries. You see if we don’t then it is us flat out NOT trusting that God has it covered. Not trusting that God will take care of us. There are many verses in the bible where God tells us exactly how he wants us to handle the stress. 1 Peter 5: 6,7 “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” Now we serve a mighty big awesome God. Amen! We serve under the God of the universe. The same God that created everything that is before us. That same big God who held the oceans in his hand. But the beauty of our God is that he will never be too big for us. He wants us to enter into a relationship with him And that same God wants you to live a stress free life. Now why does he do that? Why would he ask us to come to him. Because he loves you despite all our mistakes. God is the ultimate provider. He wants to give you everything that you need. And let us not forget the ultimate gift that God gives us. The gift of LIFE in eternity with him.

Matthew 6:25-27 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?”Lets break this down a little. There are 3 major points that stick out to me

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life,

Does this mean that we should just sit and do absolutely nothing and expect God to provide. Absolutely not.

• Boat Story – There was a man who was drowning, and a boat came, and the man on the boat said ‘Do you need help?’ and the man said No ‘God will save me’. Then another boat came and he tried to help him, but he said ‘God will save me’, then he drowned and went to Heaven. Then the man told God, ‘God, why didn’t you save me?’ and God said ‘I sent you two boats, you dummy!'” 
All you do when you worry is stress yourself out. Also you make it so that God no longer has the opportunity to step in and be there for you. So how do we do this. How do we give our anxiety to God. Again I will point you directly to the bible.

Philippians 4:6,7. “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Wait a minute, it can’t be that easy. All I need to do is pray and God will relieve me of my stress. WHAT! YES!!! YES!!! It absolutely IS that easy. Why. Because Our God is that Great!!! His knowledge and understanding surpass ours. So bottom line, spend time in prayer with God and you will begin over time to feel a relief from your stress. Remember Jesus himself went alone to pray with God. 

Matthew 14:23 -“After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone

Now am I saying that this is super easy and as soon as you go to pray to God all life will be ok and nothing bad will happen. Absolutely not. For example If you didn’t STUDY for that test God won’t just fill your head with the knowledge. 
• I will close with this final verse. 

• Proverbs 3:5,6. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.”

Hey Everyone,

This past week I was blessed enough to tell my story at Scottsdale Bible Church. They did what was called a my story and filmed me talking about my hospital experience and how God helped me to make it through this difficult time.

My story is very unique, and I have been called by God to share it. The story I have to tell is all about the importance of counting your blessings.The story teaches kids, teens and adults that they should thank God for all of the little things He blesses them with. It is also all about learning to use their gifts to glorify God here on this Earth.

As stated previously, my story is very unique. Long story short, I have an autoimmune disease called ALPS; this disease makes it much easier for me to get sick. Because of this disease, last year, I was sent to the hospital with a diagnosis of Strep pneumonia and sepsis. I was on all kinds of life support and had to fight my way to stay alive. It became so severe that they put me in a medically induced coma to keep me alive. This lasted for a total of two weeks. After waking up, I was in the hospital recovering for a total of three months. During that time I was forced to amputate my fingers and my toes and went through a total of about 10 different surgeries. Unfortunately, I also lost kidney function and am now on dialysis.

What got me through this time was my belief in the Lord and His plan for me. It is with hope that I may share my story with the people in your congregation; and help inspire them to strengthen the relationship that they have with the Lord.

To find out more information on my story and ministry, you can check out my website at http://www.BrianSweeney.com

Hey everyone,

This weeks blog is all about becoming an example for other people. This weeks verse is first Peter 5:2-4

You will also find below a letter that I wrote. I would be very happy if you could pass it along to your local pastor. Hopefully this will be a way for me to share my story and encourage others. I can’t do without you so please please please help me out. 

I hope that you have a wonderful and blessed week. God bless!
———————————

To Whom It May Concern,
 
My name is Brian Sweeney, and I am studying Youth Ministry here in Phoenix, Arizona. It is my hope that I may reach out to you about teaching a sermon at your church. My story is very unique, and I have been called by God to share it. The story I have to tell is all about the importance of counting your blessings. It is about understanding that a relationship with God is the most important thing in the world, and that we have been blessed beyond our belief. The story teaches kids, teens and adults that they should thank God for all of the little things He blesses them with. It is also all about learning to use their gifts to glorify God here on this Earth. It is a wonderful talk for new Christians, long term Christians and even those who have not come to Christ.

As stated previously, my story is very unique. Long story short, I have an autoimmune disease called ALPS; this disease makes it much easier for me to get sick. Because of this disease, last year, I was sent to the hospital with a diagnosis of Strep pneumonia and sepsis. I was on all kinds of life support and had to fight my way to stay alive. It became so severe that they put me in a medically induced coma to keep me alive. This lasted for a total of two weeks. After waking up, I was in the hospital recovering for a total of three months. During that time I was forced to amputate my fingers and my toes and went through a total of about 10 different surgeries. Unfortunately, I also lost kidney function and am now on dialysis.

What got me through this time was my belief in the Lord and His plan for me. It is with hope that I may share my story with the people in your congregation; and help inspire them to strengthen the relationship that they have with the Lord.

To find out more information on my story and ministry, you can check out my website at http://www.BrianSweeney.com. I look forward to hearing from you and hope that I am able to be a blessing to your ministry. 

Hey everyone. Check out the new website. 

I’m excited to be doing blog videos again!

Hey everyone! So happy to do this video today. If you haven’t heard already I was in Disneyland on vacation this past week. This is not typical vacation but was planned for a very special event. I asked my beautiful wonderful girlfriend if she would marry me and she said yes. Seeing as that is the biggest thing in my life right now, I thought that I should find a Bible verse dealing with how to treat someone in a relationship. Also Valentine’s Day just passed.  There are a few verses I would like to talk about. The first verse is below. This versus always stuck to me, and I think that sometimes people misinterpret this. 

“Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?”
2 Corinthians 6:14

Although it is important to be equally yoked just because you and someone do not have the exact same level of faith does not mean you can be together. That being said, it is important as a Christian for the other person in the relationship with you to also be Christian. I’m not saying you can’t work without that being the case, but it definitely makes it much easier. Growing up I was given a piece of advice that I did not understand until very recently. My music leader at church told me that his wife come second. I thought that was really weird. I asked him if that’s the case who comes first. He told me that Jesus always comes first in their relationship and that goes for both people in the relationship. If that was not the case I believe it would be a big struggle inside the relationship. I also believe that as Christians we could not be more right. Too often we only go to God when we need him and we forget that Jesus should be our absolute center. He should be our focus every day and every night. We should constantly be thinking WWJD.

Again just because you’re not exactly at the same level of faith doesn’t mean you can’t be together. Personally when I first met my girlfriend, I know that I was not even half the man I am today. We both were lacking in our faith and together made a decision that we were going to become closer to the Lord. We put him first in every aspect of our lives. We even sacrificed a big part of our relationship because we believed it was what God would want. First off we are both waiting for marriage before we physically progress our relationship. This is something we decided a long time ago. We also made the decision to move out and not live with each other anymore in order to grow closer with the Lord. I believe that if we had not been so close to the Lord that could’ve been something that broke our relationship. However although it was very difficult we are both grown so much and God has continued to reward us for our faith. 

Back to my engagement. I am so happy to be with somebody who is so close with the Lord. She is my world and my joy. As the verse says she is my light in the darkness. We both are constantly pushing each other to go closer than our relationship with God daily. Having someone like that in your life is going to be so great for your faith. 

I also tried to live my life by the first below. I do realize at this verse is a very typical Christian verse. It is talked about a lot in weddings and when talking about how to treat someone. The versus speak for themselves. I ask you to read on them and pray on them. Are you displaying love the way that you should? Are you doing at the way that this verse tells you to? I’m going to read it slowly for you so that you can really process it. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

I pray that God speaks to you through these verses. May your week be blessed and may you draw yourself closer to the Lord and his love daily. God bless

Brian’s Blog January 4th 2016. 

Hey everybody. I hope that you are having a wonderful Monday. Also I would like to wish you a happy new year. I hope that you had a safe and productive New Year’s Eve. I want us to set goals to have a strong relationship with God in this new year. Make a big goal and then set small easy to obtain goals to help you get there. Make sure to celebrate every little victory on the way to eep you on track. 
This weeks verse comes from Isaiah. It will be talking about how God has selected us personally as his servant to do his will. It will also talk about the fact that he will always be there for us during this time, even though sometimes it May not feel like it.

“I took you from the ends of the earth, from its farthest corners I called you. I said, ‘You are my servant’; I have chosen you and have not rejected you. So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭41:9-10‬ ‭NIV‬‬

It starts out saying I took you from the ends of the earth think about that for a moment. No matter where you are on this planet you are a child of God. That is so cool! This means we are all connected as God’s children. Next it says you are my servant I have chosen you and have not rejected you think about that. You have been chosen by God. He will never reject you but will always be there for you. Next he asked us not to fear for he will always be with us whatever he asked us not to be dismayed for he is our God he will strengthen us and help us. Final statement really spoke to me. As it says I will uphold you with my righteous hand. This means that he is righteous and good, all that we wish to be. As a child of God we have been given his qualities. Even though sometimes we make mistakes and we sin there is so much good in us that has given been given to us by our father in heaven. And times of trouble in times of turmoil we should seek God for as he says he will always be with us and will always protect us.

Share your holiday story

Hey everyone. I hope that you have all had a very blessed week! This weeks Bible verse comes out of Romans. We will be talking about the power of God’s love. As Christians we are so blessed because we have a God who loves us so much. All he wants us to do a return is to love him! 

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38-39

Hello everyone. Today’s message is a little different and special. First off let me apologize for missing the past few weeks. I got a case of pneumonia and ended up in the hospital for a weekend and then was just healing up. I’m happy to be back doing well and officially doing my videos every Monday. This weeks verse is going to be from acts And is about the importance of baptism . I would also like to talk about the power of your testimony as a Christian. This past weekend my beautiful wonderful girlfriend was baptized at Scottsdale Bible Church. She gave a profession of her faith and she shared with the world her love for Jesus Christ. I believe that one of the strongest ways that we can reach out to non-Christians is through our testimony. That is why this week I have decided to share the video from her baptism with you. Please forgive the shakiness of the video, as it was done on a camera phone during the church service. Hopefully this message touches your heart and inspires you to share your message with other non-christians. Remember it is our responsibility as Christians to share the word of Christ with all of those around us. Have a blessed week

And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name.” Acts 22:16