Rick Warren - Feeling Stressed？ Find Peace with God's Message for You

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In verse 7, we have the promised guarantee. Here's what it says. If you do these things, you will experience God's peace. There you go. You will experience God's peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. The Bible calls this the peace that passes understanding. How do you know when you have the peace that passes understanding? You're in a situation when you have no logical reason to be at peace and you are. That's the peace that passes understanding. When you're in a situation where you're in total chaos, total meltdown, total stress, total tension, everything is going wrong at the same time and yet you're at peace inside. That is the peace that passes understanding. God says, I guarantee this to you. If you do these things, you'll experience God's peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will keep your thoughts quiet and keep your heart at rest. Wouldn't you like that to have your thoughts quiet and your heart at rest as you trust in Christ Jesus? Now God promises a more peaceful, less stressed mind. Is anybody interested in this? Yeah, yeah, I think so. Now, you know that there are over 7,000 promises in the Bible, but with every promise there is a premise. God says, if you do this, then I'll do this. There is a condition. And I want you to circle the premise for this promise. And it is those first several words. If you do these things, it's going to keep you from stressing out. You will experience God's peace. His peace will keep your thoughts quiet, keep your hearts at rest as you trust in Christ Jesus. If you do these things, what things? Well, that's what we're going to look at today. And there specifically are five things that God says to do in this passage. He says, I want you to worry about nothing. I want you to pray about everything. I want you to thank God in all things. I want to keep you to keep your mind on good things. And I want you to be content in all things. Now we're going to look at these in detail. So let's get right into it. If you're taking notes, here's the first step. If I want to keep from stressing out, number one, refuse to worry about anything. Refuse to worry about anything. Why? Because the number one source of stress in your life is not work. It is worry. You may be overworked, but it's more likely you are over worried. Work doesn't keep you up at night. Worry does. And most of you are over worried. Now God is very clear in the Bible what he thinks about worry. And that's the first verse, verse six, the first part of the first verse, verse six, Philippians 4, it says this, never worry about anything. Question, is there any wiggle room in that verse? No. Is there any exception? No. Is there any exemption? No. Is there any reason where God says it's okay to worry in this circumstance? No. Never worry about anything. That's about as big a blanket statement as you can make. Jesus thought worry was such an important topic that he's been a major section of his most famous sermon. It's called the sermon on the mount talking about worry. And in that sermon on the mount, he gives us the four reasons you should never worry about anything. You might want to write these down. Number one, Jesus says about worry, worry is unreasonable. It's illogical. It is unreasonable. It doesn't make sense. Matthew 6, 25, Jesus says this, don't worry about your life. Don't worry about your life. What you'll eat or drink or about your body or what you wear is not life more important than food. And there's not the body more important than clothes. He's saying this is not logical. You got your priorities out of order. It's irrational. It's, it doesn't make sense. It's unreasonable. Now, why is worry unreasonable? No, there's a couple reasons. First, because worry exaggerates the problem. It never makes a problem smaller. It always makes it bigger. See, to worry about something, you can't change is useless. And to worry about something, you can change stupid. Just go change it. In either case, worry is not the answer. Worry doesn't work. It's unreasonable. Second, Jesus says worry is unnatural. There are no born warriors. You might think you are, but you're not. You're not a born warrior. You learned it. Worry is something you learned. Now, the good news is if you learn to worry, it can be unlearned. Now, Jesus says in Matthew 6, 26, look at the birds of the air. They don't sew a reaper storeway in Barnes. Yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Look at the birds of the air. They don't sew a reaper, but he says, your heavenly father feeds them. Notice, you're having the father. He's not talking about the birds, heavenly father. He's saying you're having the father. Now, if God is your heavenly father and you are his child, children get special privileges. And children of royalty are treated royally. And he says, what are you worrying about? Birds don't worry. And they're not even God's not their father, God's their creator, but not their father. God's your father. Don't worry about it. Verse 28, 29, Jesus says, and why do you worry about clothes? Why do you worry about clothes? Look at the lilies of the field. The field lilies. They don't worry about theirs. Yet King Solomon in all his glory was never clothed as beautifully as they are. He's saying in all of God's creation, in the entire universe, only human beings worry. We are the only thing God made that doesn't trust him. He says, "Worry is unnatural." He says, God says, "You're valuable or valuable in these things. I take care of them." By the way, since worry is unnatural, it's also unhealthy. Your body wasn't designed to handle worry. It wasn't designed. When people say, "I'm worried sick." They're telling the truth. And see, what I'm saying is it's not so much what you eat. It's what eat you. It's what eat you. That makes you sick. It's the worry in your life. It's not just unnatural. It's unhealthy. It causes all kinds of health problems. The Bible says this. Proverbs 12, 25, "An anxious heart weighs a man down." You know that one. And you feel like you're just pulled down by the worries. You know the word "worry" actually comes from an old English word, which means to strangle or to choke. That's what worry comes from. To strangle or choke. And every time you worry, you are strangling and choking the life out of your life. An anxious heart weighs a man down. The only thing that worry changes is you. It makes you miserable. It's never solved the problem. It's unhelpful. And then the the fourth reason why The Bible says, "Never worry about anything is because it's unnecessary." God says, "What in the world are you worrying about? Don't you think I'm going to take care of you? Don't you think I'm going to meet your needs? I made you, I created you, I saved you, I love you, I put my spirit in you. Don't you think I'm going to take care of your needs? It's unhelpful, but it's also unnecessary. There's no need to worry." Jesus says this in Matthew 6.30. If God cares so wonderfully for flowers that are here today and gone tomorrow, think of all the beautiful flowers that are never seen by human beings, but God takes care of them. He said, "If God cares so wonderfully for flowers that are here today and gone tomorrow, won't he most surely care for you, oh you, of little faith?" The Bible says this, 1 Peter 5.7. "Unload all your worries on God since He is looking after you." And I love that word unload because literally in the original Greek it means to just drop. It's not like take a long throw of it, like you're throwing a baseball or throwing a rock across a lake. It just says unload it means let it go, let it go. And God says, "You know all those things you're stressing about this morning, all those things you're anxious, you're worried, you're fearful, you're uptight about, let it go, let it go. Never worry about anything because it's not going to do any good anyway." So what do you do anyway? You do the next step. And that's the second part of this verse. First part of verse 6 says, "Never worry about anything." The second part is, "Talk to God about everything." That's the second step. You talk to God about everything. Don't panic, pray. Don't worry, worship. Stop talking to yourself about all the stuff that's stressed you out and start talking to God. Talking to yourself won't do anything, but talking to God will. He's saying, "Talk to God about everything." This is the second part of this verse, Philippians 4.6. "Never worry about anything. Instead, in every situation, let God know what you need in your prayers and in your request." You know I got to think in yesterday, if you pray as much as you worry, you'd have a whole lot less to worry about. And by the way, God has promised to care for you. If it's not worth praying about, it's not worth worrying about. He says, "Talk to God about everything." God knows what you need in your prayers. It's not your job to figure out how God's going to do it. It's your job to ask. To ask your Heavenly Father, "Father, I need this help." You see, when you worry instead of asking, you're acting like an atheist. Worry is practical atheism. That's what it is. It's acting like, "I don't have a Heavenly Father in my life." It's acting like God doesn't exist. It's acting like I'm a spiritual orphan. God says, "I'll take care of you." It's acting like God can't be trusted. Now, here's what the Bible says. Look in your outline. James 4.2, "You do not have because what?" You do not ask. You do not ask God. So here's the second key to stress management. Worry less. Ask more. Worry less. Ask more. Instead of worrying, pray. Worry about nothing. Pray about everything. He says, "Well, I don't want to bother God with this little bitty, tiny little thing." There's nothing tiny to God. Every problem in your life is tiny to God. There's no big problems in your life. There are no little problems in your life because all of them are tiny to God. Now, here's what the Bible says in Romans chapter 832. "Since God did not spare even his own son, Jesus, but gave him up for us all," he died on the cross for us. "Won't he give us Christ?" "Also give us everything else we need." What's he saying here? "Follow the logic. Your biggest problem is getting into heaven because heaven's perfect and you're not. And neither am I. I stopped batting a thousand about breath number three." And so God came up with plan B. He came to earth in human form and He said, "I'll live a perfect life and I'll die for you and you can get into heaven on my ticket." It's grace. I don't work it. I don't earn it. I don't deserve it. I don't buy it. It's just grace. If God solved my biggest problem, everything else is small by comparison. "If God loved you enough to die for your sins, don't you think He loves you enough to help you with your finances?" Don't you think He loves you enough to help you with your health, with your relationships, with the career decision, with the work that's closed in a deal, with making a sale? Yeah. There is no area of your life that God is not interested in. You want to lower the stress in your life. Worry about nothing and pray about everything. You're on a GLP1. But now you're wondering, how do I manage my side effects? What do I eat to stay strong? Because reaching your weight loss goals can take more than meds. That's where Weight Watchers Med Plus comes in. Access to trusted experts, food plans that work with your body, and habit coaching to keep you on track. Plus access to GLP1 medication. Get started at WeightWatchers.com. 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Zippercrooter, the smartest way to hire. And right now, you can try Zippercrooter for free. That's right. Free at zippercrooter.com/zipp That zippercrooter.com/zipp Number three, the third thing he tells us to do is to thank God in all things. Thank God in all things. I didn't say thank God for all things because there's a lot of things you shouldn't be thankful for. There's pain in the world. There's evil in the world. Somebody gets cancer. You don't think God for cancer. Somebody dies. You don't think God for their death. But it says in all things, give thanks. Which means even in the bad times I can find something good. Now here's the third part of that verse. Philippians 4.6, he says, you know, worry about nothing. And then he says, when you ask God for what you need, also thank him. Circle that. Thank him for all he's done. Always ask with a thankful heart. You cannot be happy and ungrateful at the same time. Happy people are grateful people, unhappy people are ungrateful people. Study after study after study is shown that the healthiest emotion known to human beings is the attitude of gratitude. And the more you build gratitude in your life, the more happy and the more healthy you're going to be. And the fact, studies shown that having an attitude of gratitude actually raises your immunities. And being ungrateful and being resentful actually lowers your immunity to other things that are not good. Other things in life. We know that gratitude is one of the remedies for depression because it gets my eyes off myself and gets it on other people. Instead of looking at what I don't have, I look at what I do have. It's a stress reliever. It gets the focus off me. Ungrateful people are unhappy people. He says, when you ask God, don't just ask, but also thank him. And the fact is, I can always find something to be grateful for. Now, I used to think that life was a series of hills and valleys, mountain tops and low times. And you know that you have all of these good times and you have all these bad times. But that's not really true. The fact is you get them both at the same time, all of your life. In other words, there's no time in your life when everything is good. And there's nothing bad in your life. life. And there's no time when everything is bad and there's nothing good in your life. No matter how good things are going on in your life, there's always something you need to be working on. And no matter how bad things are in your life, there's always something you can be thankful for. Be grateful for. And so I can always find something, and this is the third step for stress reduction. Be thankful, and thank God in all things. This is exactly what the Bible says. First, this is only in 5, 8 Keens as this. In everything, circle that. It doesn't say in most things, it says in everything. Not for, but in everything, give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. You know, people ask me on time, Rick, I'm just trying to figure out what God wants me to do with my life. What is God's will for my life? There it is right there. This is the will of God for you. And before God shows you step two, you need to take step one. God does have a will on a plan for your life, your marriage, your career, your education, and everything else. But before we get to those specifics, God says, let's work on the general. The first thing is, I want you to learn to be grateful in every situation. If I want to reduce the stress in my life, I worry about nothing, I pray about everything, I thank God in all things. And number four, I think about good things. I think about good things. Now this is extremely important because the stress and your war with stress in your life, that war, that battle is going on between your ears. The stress isn't out there. It's in here. It's inside. It's between your ears. The battle is in your brain. It's in your thought life. It's in your mind. And your war with stress or one are lost in your mind. And what you fill your mind with will determine the level of stress in your life. If you want peace of mind, now listen closely. If you want peace of mind, you're going to have to start controlling what you allow in it. Most people, they just, their mind's like a freeway. Anything can drive through it. And they fill their mind with poison and garbage and stuffing and all kinds of things. And you know, the mind is like a computer. It's GIGO, garbage in, garbage out. Whatever you put in your mind is going to come out in your life. And so they go and they see movies, they shouldn't see and they watch shows, they shouldn't watch and they read novels, they should, and they listen to gossip, they shouldn't listen to, and they just let anything in their mind. They worry about water pollution, they worried about food pollution, they worry about air pollution, but they're not worried at all about mind pollution. And yet that's the most serious pollution. I said, well, I'm just trying to be open-minded. Some people are so open-minded, their brains fall out. And they will allow anything into their lives. And let it, now here's what the Bible says, Philippians 4.8, "Fill your mind with those things that are true and good and right. Think about, there it is, fill your mind. Think about things that are pure and beautiful and respected. If anything is excellent, if anything is worthy of honor, think about those things." Now notice the Bible gives us eight tests on whether we should allow something in our mind or not. It says, if you want to lower the stress, you're going to have to change what you think about and control what you allow into your mind. And they test our, before I listen to our watch or talk or say or hear this, I should say, is it true? Is it good? Is it right? Is it pure? Is it beautiful? Is it respected? Is it excellent? Is it worthy of honor? Now he says here, "Think on things that are good and pure and right." Let me give you a verse to write down. Proverbs 14.9, this is in your outline. Proverbs 14.9, "Sear on the screen that says this, "Fools make fun of sin." That's foolish. That's foolish. Now when you think about these things, true, good, right, pure, beautiful, respected, excellent, worthy, you know what that is? It's picture of God. And what he's really saying is, "Think about God." Here's what Isaiah says there on your outline. "You, Lord, will keep in perfect peace." Wouldn't you like to live in perfect peace? Wouldn't you like to be less stressed out? "You, Lord, will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, whose thoughts are fixed on you." If you fix your thoughts on God, he says, "I will keep you in perfect peace." You see, what you think about is going to determine how stressed and how worried you are. Now there's one other step. That's number five. Be content with anything. The Bible tells us to be content with anything. This is the fifth key to living a reduced stress life. Where God says, "If you do these things, you'll have God's peace in your life." Now let me explain contentment because a lot of people misunderstand the meaning of contentment. A lot of people think means contentment means I have no ambition. No, no, no, no, no. Paul who wrote this book, remember, he's probably one of the most ambitious men who ever lived. He single-handedly takes the good news, the gospel all across the Roman Empire. He's one of the most ambitious people ever and he says, "I've learned to be content." So there's nothing to do with ambition. That's not contentment. Contentment is not laziness. Contentment is not apathy. Contentment is not complacency. Contentment is not fatalism. What will be will be? Case or or or. Contentment is not lacking ambition. Here's what contentment is. It's enjoying what I have right now rather than waiting for something else to happen in order for me to be happy. Does that make sense? It's enjoying what I've got right. Doesn't mean I don't want to progress. Doesn't mean I don't have goals. The Bible says you should have goals. It means I'm not waiting for something to happen in my life in order to be happy. Contentment is the opposite of coveting. Taviting is when and then thinking. When this happens, then I'll be happy. And when that happens, then I'll be happy. That's when and then thinking. Contentment is actually independence from circumstances. It means my joy is not connected to what's happening in my life right now. My joy, my happiness is not based on my happenings. It's not based on my circumstances. It means I've learned to enjoy whatever I've got right now and I'm not waiting for something or someone to make me happy. Now here's what Paul says in the next few verses, verse 11 and 12. He says, "I've learned to be content." Circle the word learned. Contentment is not natural. I'm about my nature content. You're not by nature content. You have to learn it. Just like you have to unlearn worry and you have to learn happiness. You have to learn contentment. Something that we get educated on. I've learned to be content whatever the circumstances. He says, "I know how to live on almost nothing." Or, "I know how to live with everything." And in the original Greek, he said, "I know how to live in poverty and I know how to live in luxury. I know them both." He said, "I know how to be happy in either. In poverty and luxury and nothing are with everything." I've learned the secretive contentment in every situation. Whether I'm well fed or hungry, whether I have more than I need or when I don't have enough. Now, he says there, "I have learned to be content." How do I learn contentment? Let me give you a couple of three ways. You might just write these down. They're not in your notes or just write them down. The first way you learn contentment is this. Stop comparing. Stop comparing. That's so important because the source of all this content is comparison. I remember many, many years ago when I was a little boy and got up on Christmas morning and my parents had given me the gift of my lifetime a stingray bicycle. Okay. Well, these butterfly handles. Get your motor running. Banana seed. I thought it was so cool and I thought I was so cool until I saw my neighbor got a better one. My happiness went out the door. Now, the Bible tells us over and over and over. It's foolish to compare yourself to anybody else. Why? Two reasons. One, you're always going to find somebody who's doing a better job than you and somebody who has more than you and you're going to get discouraged. Two, you're always going to find out. somebody, you're doing a better job then and you have more than and you get full of pride. Either way, you're dead in the water, God takes you out of the game and you sit on the sidelines for the rest of the game. Discouragement and pride are the two things that take you, knock you out of life. So he says, don't do that. God says, I called you to be you. I made you to be you. If you don't be you, who's going to be you? When you get to heaven, God is going to say, why won't you more like your sister? Or why would you more like your mom or your dad or what God's going to say, why didn't why didn't you be you? Most of us start off as originals and end up as carbon copies. God never makes copies of anything. No two snowflakes are alike. No two human beings are like you have a unique thumbprint, handprint, voice print, footprint, eye print. You are unique. Even identical twins aren't really identical. They're different millions of ways. God never makes a repeat. God, man makes clones. God never makes clones. When God made you, he broke the mold. God wants you to be you. And if you don't be you, who's going to be you? And so he says, stop comparing. Because when you compare, you get jealous and you get envious. Now the Bible says this. Look at this verse on your outline. Peace of mind makes the body healthy. But envy is like a cancer. In other words, it eats you up. It will eat you alive if you get envious. Now that phrase peace of mind makes the body healthy. That phrase, that word peace of mind actually and other translation is the word contentment. Contentment makes the body healthy. So stop comparing. Here's a second little tip for learning contentment. Stop thinking that having more is better. You see, there are three myths that we're taught by advertising in society. Having more will make me more happy. Having more will make me more important. Having more will make me more secure. None of those are true. They're all lies. Having more will not make you more happy. Having more will not make you more valuable. And having more will not make you more secure. First place you can lose it all. You can lose billion dollars on a lot of ways. And your value is not based on your valuables and your net worth is not based on your self worth is not based on your net worth. It's based on who you are and not what you own. So stop thinking that having more will make me more happy. You need to find your security in something that can never be taken from you. Well, I can't, if I put my security in my job, it can be taken from me. If I put security in my bank account, I can lose that. If I put my security in my health, I can lose that or my good looks. I can lose that. It has to put security in something that can't be taken from me and that is my relationship to God. You cannot control everything that happens in your life, but you can choose how you respond. That's your freedom. Ecclesiastes chapter 4. It's better to only have a little with peace of mind than to be busy all the time with both hands trying to catch the wind. We go out and we buy things we can't afford with money we don't have to impress people we don't even like. And then we get in debt. We have to, we have to become workaholics to pay for all the things we bought. And if you own something and God told you to give it away, you don't own it, it owns you. A lot of people are possessed by their possessions. There's nothing wrong with possessions, nothing wrong with them. But unless you make it your God and you cannot be possessed by your possessions. And he said, you know, if your whole life is trying to work harder to pay for stuff, he says you're missing the point. A third thing, and I'll end with this, is learn to learn to admire without having to acquire. I've found this personally fun for me. Learn to admire without having to acquire. In other words, I have learned that I don't have to own it in order to enjoy it. Now, these five strategies that I've just mentioned, they're very easy for me to explain, but they're very hard to do. It's not easy to worry about nothing. It's not easy to pray about everything. It's not easy to thank God in everything. It's not easy to think about good things. And it's not easy to be content with anything. So we're in the world, am I going to get the energy to do these things that reduce the stress in my life? God says this, you come to me, you come to me. And I will give you the power and the ability to do what will help you do what is best for you. Paul ends this passage with verse 13. One of the most famous verses in the Bible is verse 13. I have the strength to face anything and everything by the power that Christ gives me. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I can worry about nothing when Christ strengthens me. I can pray about everything when Christ strengthens me. I can thank God in everything and all things when Christ strengthens me. I can keep my mind on the right thing when God strengthens me and I can be content with anything. I'm going to close with this last verse, Job 22 verse 21 says this, obey God and be at peace with Him. This is the way to happiness. You see, the real reason you're not at peace is because you're at war with God. And until you make your peace with God, that's what the Bible says, God sent Jesus to do is to make peace with God for us. When you make peace with God, then you get the peace of God and then you can have peace with others. There are going to be peace in the world, though the Prince of peace is raining in our hearts. So in order for you to have the peace of God, you have to first have the peace with God.