Now you may not be used to hearing this because you’ve heard the opposite on television.  I was listening yesterday to a panel.  They were talking about how bad it’s going to become in America.  But that doesn’t mean it has to be bad for you, and it doesn’t have to be bad for me.  It’s only going to be bad for us if we decide we’re going to listen to all that and believe what they say, instead of believing what God says.  Now I’ve chosen to believe that I’m going to live above that.

This is a divine moment in my life.  And I’ve got news.  God is no respecter of persons.  If it’s going to be a divine moment in my life, then it can be a divine moment in your life.

Now there are several things I want to share with you tonight.  But before I do, I want to tell you one more story from the Bible because there was a time in the Bible when they faced exactly what we’re facing right now.

It was in the time of Isaac.  Now if you go back in the book of Genesis, you’ll find that Abraham and Sarah had a son named Isaac, the son of promise.  And there came a time when there was a great famine, a great recession that came in the land of Israel.

Now, Ron, when times get tough, that’s when people become stingy with their money.  That’s when they hoard things.  That’s when they hold on to things, trying to make it.

Isaac wasn’t like that.  In the middle of a recessional time, the Bible says he sowed.  He sowed in famine.  Or in our terms we would say, he sowed right in the middle of the recession.  And what happened when he sowed?  The Bible says that he reaped a hundredfold in the same year.  It was a divine moment in Isaac’s time.

Let’s go over to Tiger Woods.  His current worth is $212 million.  He won eleven tournaments in 2000, nine on the PGA Tour, earned him $9,188,000; on the PGA Tour, $11,034,000 worldwide.  He broke his own PGA Tour record of $6,616,000 in 1999.  He increased his total record on the PGA Tour on the career money list to $33,103,852, and now they are estimating that he’s won over $41,213,162.  And at that pace, he will be the sports first golf billionaire by the age of 50.  Would you like to know what he does to calm down?  Buddha meditation.

Baywatch.  Who’s really watching the bay anyway?  Come on.  Next one, Exodus 20:4-6, listen very carefully.  How many of you watch the Oscars?  ”You shall not make for yourself a golden image, nor any likeness of anything that is in heaven, above the earth, or beneath it.  You shall not bow, nor shall you serve it.”  That is the statue that was built outside the Academy Awards.

The next one, “Dude, you’re getting a Dell.”  Remember him?  “Dude, you’re getting a Dell,? Benjamin Curtis, the actor who gained fame and occult following known as the slacker Steven in the commercials for Dell Company, was now arrested for buying marijuana.  That was February 11, 2003. A day in the life of.  My Bible says, “This is the day that the Lord has made.  We will rejoice and be glad in it.”  Howard Sterne, A Day in the Life Of, earned $16,949 per hour that he is contracted out. Shoes, I love shoes.  I’m wearing a pair of Stewart Weitzman shoes. Stewart Weitzman has women buying over 1.5 million pairs of his designer shoes every year.  He’s famous for his $2,500 multicolored jeweled shoes that are at the Emmys.  This year he did a million dollar diamond shoe, and next year he’s promised the Emmys the same million dollar ruby shoes.

Somebody come up.  Wait a minute, wrong shoe.  Now I bought these shoes-they’re Stewart Weitzman.  They’re brand-new.  They’re the jeweled version.  They’re not the big fancy, but they’re a very, very fancy version of Stewart Weitzman.  And I bought them brand-new.  You can see by the bottom of the heel they’re new.  And, Brenda, can you read that? Come here.  I want you to see what I paid for them.  I bought them at a resale shop.  You all think, “Oh, my word!”  No, they’re were brand-new, in the box.  How much did I pay for them?  Can you read the price?

Some people say, only believe. I prefer to say the words of Jesus, believe only. That means, don’t do anything else. Not just only believe, but believe only. I, Richard Roberts, want to ask the Oral Roberts University Singers to get ready to sing. In a moment I’m going to introduce them to you. And I do want to say this to those of you who have need at the City of Faith. Here we are outside the City of Faith today and it’s a wonderful, beautiful day here in Oklahoma.

You can see the healing hands behind us. And I, Richard Roberts, hope that those hands, as you see those hands on this program today, remind you of God’s healing power and also be reminded that the City of Faith is standing by to serve you. If you have a need to come to the City of Faith, then I want you to call and make an appointment, area code 918-493-8000 or 493-8181. Someone will answer your call.

They will help you in arranging an appointment. Don’t just show up. Call first before you come and that way we can, we can get you scheduled properly and we can take care of you in just the way that you need to be taken care of. And Lindsay and I have had a fantastic experience in the childbirth center. If you’re getting ready to have a baby, I can’t think of a better place for you to have that baby than in the City of Faith Childbirth Center.

That’s the truth. They cared for me and they loved me. But you know what? They were that way with everybody. You know something that happened to me. Now looking back, sitting in front of the City of Faith, it dawned on me that, you know, I entered the City of Faith with absolutely no fear whatsoever. During the entire birthing process I never had a moment’s fear.

You know, that’s probably one of the most important things in having a baby or going to the doctor or going to the hospital. If you can set your mind that God is going to work a miracle for you and do it without fear, there’s something about coming to the City of Faith that for me it removes fear. I was not afraid in any way of the entire process. And I think that’s a miracle.

All of us deal with stress at some time or another. But God wants us to live a peaceful life–Jesus came to give us His peace. John 14:27 says, Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

There are a lot of underlying causes of stress, things that need to be dealt with in the spirit realm. The world tries to deal with it from only the physical and mental side, but they leave out the spiritual side. And the only way that we can live in the peace that Jesus gives us is to live according to the Bible. Here are eight ways we can beat stress according to God’s plan.

1) Make the first move. Don’t wait for God to do it all; He already delivered you and set you free two thousand years ago when Jesus finished the job on the Cross. It’s up to you to move toward Him and receive what He’s done by faith.

2) Turn your problems over to God. Don’t turn your problems over to someone else—turn them over to God.

3) Plug into the power. God is our power source, and if we plug into Him, He can plug into us. If we plug into the wrong power source, we may become supercharged, but we’ll be supercharged with the wrong stuff!

4) Listen for a word from heaven. Sometimes we get the wrong information from people around us, and we just need to shut that off and let God speak to us. Go to Him first. He speaks to us through His Word, by His Spirit, and through His ministers.

5) Act on faith just like Richard Roberts. We can’t see or touch or taste faith, but it’s the only thing that’s going to get us through every situation we face. Hebrews 10:38 says, The just shall live by faith.