June 10, 2001

Stress? Or Peace?

Phil. 4:4-9

Today I want to talk about a problem that I think just about everybody here has. I have been here long enough to get to know everybody pretty well, and I think it's safe to say, most of you have this problem.
It's not bad breath, or smelly feet. It's not how you drive, or the kind of TV shows you watch. It's not what you eat or what you drink. It's stress.

I don't know how many times over the last several years I have heard people ask for prayer because of some situation causing stress in their life. Stress because of your kids, stress because of your parents. Stress because of your job, or stress because of your lack of a job. Stress from the people you work with, stress because of your neighbors. Stress because of your spouse, not to mention the stress your spouse gets from you. Most of us live with stress, and I suspect some of us are entirely too good at creating stress that somebody else has to live with.

Is this normal? Yes. Is it what God wants? No. Not only that, God has a solution for stress. We can live without nearly so much stress in our lives. Or live without creating as much stress in the lives of others.

If you have your Bibles with you today, and I hope you do, turn to Philippians 4:4. "Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice.
Phi 4:5 Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.
Phi 4:6 Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
Phi 4:7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Phi 4:8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
Phi 4:9 Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you."

God has a solution for the problem of stress. Not only that, He tells us that He is going to replace our stress with His peace. Does that sound like a good deal? Would you like to lower your stress level down to minimum, and increase His peace in your life to maximum? Good, because that's what He wants you to do.

Verse 4: "Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice." Isn't it neat how the Bible is frequently so very simple, so uncomplicated, and cuts right to the chase? Sometimes God gives us the answers very simply.

Back when I was a still an air traffic controller, we would get pilots come and visit the control tower, and some times we would get some good ol' country boy that was learning to fly, and he'd be having no trouble at all flying the airplane, but when it came time to pick up the microphone and talk to the tower, or talk to radar, he was scared to death. The way he talked, you'd have thought that microphone was a snake.
"Uhh, Uhh, Tri-City Approach, this is Cessna 560!" (Shakey voice)
"Cessna 560, Tri City Approach, go ahead."
"Uhh, Tri City Approach, Cessna 560 is at 3,000'." (Sounds uncertain...)
"Cessna 560, say your position."
"Uhh, 560 is over Chimney Top." (Sounds more uncertain...)
"Cessna 560, say your intentions."
"Uhh, 560 would like to go to Abingdon." (Sounds sort of resigned to his fate...)
"Cessna 560, radar contact over Chimney Top, report Abingdon in sight, advise any altitude changes."
"Uhh, 560, roger." (Audible sigh of relief)
And then one day he would come up to visit the tower, and he'd tell you that when it was time to talk on the radio, he would get mike fright, couldn't remember what he was supposed to say or anything else. STRESS! I always told guys like that to keep it simple and use the "4 W" method. Tell the controller: "Who I is, What I is, Where I is, and What I wants," and the controller can take it from there.

In this passage here in Philippians, God does not use the "4 W" method, He uses the "7 R method" to reduce our stress level. Let me tell you about the 7 R's: the first one is Rejoice.

Rejoice in the Lord always. It is repeated twice for emphasis. Whenever the Bible repeats something twice in a row, then it's extra important. Notice what we are to rejoice in. Not our possessions, because we can lose them. Not our health, because we can lose that too. Not in wealth, or friends, or anything on this earth, because it can all go away from us in an instant.

But if you have God, then you have eternity, you have everything there is, and it cannot be taken away from you. It touched me this last Wednesday how Angel shared with us how Toby told her that they were rich, because they had heaven together. That is a lot of wisdom in very few words.

Notice the frequency of rejoicing in verse 4: always. Constant. Continuously. All the time. Even if you are having troubles? Troubles come and go, good times come and go, the Lord is always there, He does not come and go. If you rejoice in good times, and stress out in trouble, then you are up and down, like a yo-yo. God is constant, and you can rejoice in Him constantly.

Perhaps you are thinking that it is difficult to rejoice in the Lord when there is trouble in your life. That depends on whether your focus is on the trouble, or on the Lord. It needs to be on the Lord. This is where practice comes in. If you are not in the habit of focusing on the Lord, then you will have trouble doing it under pressure. If you make it your practice to focus on the Lord as a normal, regular part of your life, then it becomes easier to do under difficult situations.

Verse 5 is the second R, Relax: "Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand."
Moderation. What does that mean? Gentleness. Fairness. Being contented. Patient. Being reasonable. Big hearted, generous. Whatever is happening, your actions and attitude are appropriate to the situation.
And it is known unto all men. Your reputation. Do you have a reputation of being easy to deal with? Do you have a reputation of being easy to get along with? If you have a reputation of being a person who is difficult, or that people are kind of put off by you, you might want to stop and take a good look in the mirror while you think about this verse.

It is not good enough if you think you are a moderate person, what do other people think of you? This verse deals specifically with your testimony in your church, your workplace, and your neighborhood. Do other people see you as mild, gentle, contented, fair, reasonable? Last week we spoke from the verses in Titus 2 that exhorted us to live soberly, righteously and godly in our world, our community. Here today we are told that we should have a public reputation for that sort of lifestyle, and the reason why, is because the Lord is at hand.

God is not somewhere over the rainbow, Psalm 145 tells us that God is near unto all that call upon Him in truth. Not to mention that the rapture could take place at any moment, and we could find ourselves instantly in the presence of the Lord.

When I first got saved, the Lord led me to a wonderful church, and one of the elders there kept a little wooden plaque on his desk. It said: "Don't go anywhere you don't want to be when Jesus comes. Don't do anything you don't want to be doing when Jesus comes. Don't say anything you don't want to be saying when Jesus comes." We called him Uncle Henry, and he was truly a man whose moderation was known to all men. He lived every day with the knowledge that the Lord was at hand.

Verse 6 is the third R, Refuse. Refuse to be a worrywart. "Be careful for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God." Refuse to worry.
This word "careful" really says a mouthful here. It means to be anxious about something, to be troubled with care, to be looking out to see what is getting ready to happen. Trying in yourself to provide for some particular solution, or trying to promote your own interests, trying to get something to happen that you want, and you are really involved in it up to your eyeballs.

Let me give you one of my Blountville translations for this verse: "Quit worrying about stuff! Don't worry about anything! Be anxious for nothing!" God says: "Lighten up!" Instead of worrying about things that we can't do anything about, give them to Him. Refuse to worry.

The verse continues: In everything - not some things, not just the important things, not just the things that are too big for us to handle, but in everything, ask Him to deal with it, and that is the fourth R: Redirect.
When problems and needs come your way, redirect them to God, and let Him deal with them. Tell God what your needs and problems are. How? "By prayer and supplication," and we'll pause right there - supplication is a wonderful word. Supplication has the idea of asking for something when you have nothing. It has the idea of being totally poor, totally broke, having nothing to your name, all you have is the clothes on your back, and they aren't much, and you are asking someone to help you out. And if they don't help you, you go under. You are asking for help, and if help doesn't come, it's over. That is our true relationship to God. That is what we are really like. And that is all we need. We have nothing, and we have everything.

Think about what this verse is saying: "By prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God." God is going to meet your need. God has always sought for a people that would trust Him to meet their need, keep your place here in Philippians and turn to Psalm 81:10. In this Psalm, God is disappointed in His people Israel, because they would not trust Him to meet their needs, instead they tried to take care of things themselves. Listen to what God says about that: "I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt: open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it." When a baby bird is hungry, does it have any ability to feed itself, to get it's own food? No, it is totally dependent on it's mother. That is how God wants His people to see their relationship to Him.

Verse 11: "But my people would not hearken to my voice; and Israel would have none of me.
Psa 81:12 So I gave them up unto their own hearts' lust: and they walked in their own counsels.
Psa 81:13 Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways!"
Israel could have had God give them everything, but they wanted to do it themselves. Their own lusts, their own counsels, their own decisions, their own judgements about what to do or not do. God says in everything, pray. Realizing that you have nothing - and expecting everything. You don't need to turn there, but 1 Peter 5:7 tells us: "Casting all your care upon Him;" -Why? "Because He careth for you."

Get in the habit of talking to God. Talk to Him all the time as if He was standing right beside you, because He is. The best thing that could happen to all of us would be to start practicing the presence of God on a constant basis. Be specific. Ask for what you need. Tell God exactly what you think, He knows it anyway, and it will help you to be more honest with yourself. And then be grateful for God hearing you, and expectant for how He will provide for you. And then thank Him when your need is met. Remember what your need was, and then recognize how God met that need. And be polite and thankful. Thanksgiving shouldn't come just once a year, it ought to come several times a day. Maybe you are not like this right now, and this means a total change in who you are and how you act. Then you better get started, you have a lot of catching up to do.

Reading parts of Psalm 81, Israel went through a world of grief, and is still going through a world of grief, and God was lamenting their behavior, and it's results. What does God think about you, and your behavior? Are you careful for everything, and God never gets a chance to give you anything? Are you like a baby bird that is determined to make do for itself, and meanwhile the mama bird is waiting, frustrated, because you won't ever open your mouth so that it can be filled? It doesn't have to be that way.

If we would do what God tells us in verses 4,5, and 6, then we get the 5th R, Refreshment. And that is what you find in verse 7: "And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."

That is where each and every one of us fall short. I do, you do, each and every one of us fail to get what God would like to give us, because we fail to take God at His word, and we think we can make it work ourselves, and it doesn't work, and instead of the peace of God, we have stress instead.

If you check the dictionary, stress is defined as a "physical, mental or emotional factor that causes bodily or mental tension and may be a factor in the cause of disease."

The cure for that is the peace that God gives. It keeps our hearts, our minds, and our understanding, it says that right here. God has the refreshment for our physical, mental and emotional problems and that is His peace. Maybe you think that doesn't make sense, maybe you think that is naive or simplistic. I can't help that, it says right here in verse 5 that it passes all understanding.

How does prayer work? I don't know, it passes all understanding. How does God order the universe and reality so that we pray, and things happen? I don't know. How does it work that we go to God in simple faith and make our needs known, and He supplies them? I don't know. But I know that it works, and when I see it work, it gives me a wonderful peace to know that God is in control, and all my needs will be met. I don't understand it, and neither do you, but I know it works, and I'm glad it does.

I don't care if I don't understand it, or if I don't know how it works, I don't understand how automatic transmissions work either, but I got in the car this morning and came to church, and I didn't worry about it a bit. I don't know how microwave ovens work, but I heated my coffee, and didn't give it a second thought. I haven't got a clue how that keyboard works, but I know that when Barbara plays the keys, it makes wonderful music and I can praise the Lord, and that's all I need to know.

God tells us to rejoice in Him, all the time, keep a good testimony, quit worrying about all our various problems and trust in Him to meet our needs, and if we do - He will give us His peace that we can't possibly understand, but it works, and it will sure be whole lot better than our stress.

What are we waiting for? We are waiting to reprogram our way of thinking, and that is the sixth R; Reprogram, verse 8: "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things."

Did you know that God tells us how to think, what to think about, and what not to think about? What we think about and let our mind dwell on makes a huge difference in the quality of our life. Isaiah 26 tells us; "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee."

The chorus that we sang earlier from Psalm 19, that is so very true. When we keep our mind stayed on the laws and ways of the Lord, it has an incredible effect on us. Meditating on God's character and what He is like gets us out of thinking like the world, and into thinking God's thoughts after Him. God tells us to think about certain things, and notice how different all these things are from the way the world works: "whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." I am not going to elaborate on all these items, we could make a good sermon just on this one verse, so you just take all these things at face value.

Meanwhile, one thing we could do is to look at this list of things as positive values, and based on that, we could make up a list of opposite negative things that we should not be thinking about. It would probably be a list like this: "whatsoever things are false, whatsoever things are corrupt and dishonest, whatsoever things are biased and slanted, whatsoever things are dirty, whatsoever things are ugly and perverted, whatsoever things are known to be sleazy, if they are evil and of a bad testimony, don't be thinking about them." Much less doing them. We want to reprogram our minds away from any and every kind of those things, and into the things that God says are worthwhile.

And finally, the 7th R, Reproduce. Verse 9: "Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you." Reproduce. Find a role model and copy them. Paul is telling the Christians to be imitators of him. Coming from anyone else, that might seem sort of conceited, but the Holy Spirit told Paul to use himself as an example, so he must have been successful in living the life he describes here. Paul emphasizes here that it was important for people to learn from him, and receive the things that he was trying to teach them.

Sometimes I get frustrated because I know that I have understood the Scripture correctly, I have taught it plainly, I have expressed it clearly, and I have seen people listening and paying attention, and then as near as I can tell, people go right on with nothing happening. No change. That's frustrating.

Paul tells us that what you learn and receive, what you see and hear, should affect how you act and think. Bible truth is not something that you just sit and listen to, like the evening news. It is not just something to tickle your ears and stimulate your brain on Sunday morning. It is something that affects how we live, what we think, and how we behave. What we do. As we hear the Word of God, as we see others who have learned to walk with God, we need to let God reproduce in us that transformed life. As we move toward God, in faith, as we obey what He tells us to do, we put ourselves in a situation where He can bless us, where He can transform us and make us more like Jesus.

Quit being stressed out by trying to meet your own needs in the world's way. Rejoice. Rejoice in the Lord always.

Relax. Let your moderation, your gentleness and your fairness be known unto all men. And if you are not moderate, ask God to have His way with you until you are.

Refuse. Quit worrying. About anything. Stop it. God says so.

Redirect. Do you need something? Tell God about it. Do you have a problem? Tell God about it. When problems come to you, redirect them to Him.

Refreshment. Exchange your stress for His peace.

Reprogram. You don't have to think the way the world thinks. Really. God has specific instructions on how to think. So Reprogram your minds.

And finally, Reproduce. Find some positive examples of Christians that are doing these things that God says to do, and imitate them. It is good to have role models, find a godly one and watch them, and then imitate them. Like it said in the old Nike commercial; "Just do it."

We cannot always control the source of our stress, but we can control our response to stress. God knew before He ever created you that you would have stressful events and situations come into your life, and He had a plan for you to deal with it. Being a Christian is never a golden parachute to let you escape from the disasters of life, but it has a solution for dealing with those problems.

God does not promise to keep us from all the storms and disasters of life, but He does promise us a way to ride the storm out, a way to go through the storm without being swept away. All of us here are going to have good days, and bad days. Some days you eat the bear, some days the bear eats you. None of us are ever going to be free of stressful situations, but God has provided a way of escape.

I'm not going to tell you that if you do everything that these verses say, that you will live a totally stress free life. But I believe that if you do what God tells you in these verses, the effects of stress in your life will be wonderfully less than they would be otherwise.

The peace of God which passes all understanding. That sounds like the opposite of stress to me. That sounds like something I want, and I believe that it is something you want too. Take God at His Word, and act on His Word in faith. I think you will be delighted with the results.