WORRY AND STRESS
Phil. 4:6-9
INTRO. Worry and stress. Who doesn’t experience them?
ILL.- A man went shopping for a gift for his wife and picked out a very nice sweater. After looking at it he asked the salesperson if she could show him a more expensive sweater. She said, “No, but I can put this one away and you could come back for it in a few days.”
Yes, it seems like most prices are going up and few are going down. And finances or money problems are a great stress that most people are faced with. It costs money to live! To buy food, to pay bills, to purchase anything, to eat out, go places, enjoy life, to buy gasoline, etc. FINANCIAL STRUGGLES ARE STRESSFUL!
ILL.- One father said, “My children are at the perfect age. They are too old to cry at night and too young to borrow my car.”
Well, for many parents their children are “never” at the perfect age. Raising children can be a hair-raising experience. Raising children is a stressful thing; no matter what age they are.
ILL.- I heard about a mother who said that both of her two children had been sick so long that she could only remember one month out of the last year that they weren’t sick. THAT’S STRESSFUL.
I knew of a father years ago who loved his children greatly from birth to about three years, but after that he didn’t want too much to do with them. WHY?
I don’t know for sure and I didn’t agree with him, but I guess because they become very stressful to him after the age of three. No matter how good children are, raising them is still a very stressful thing.
ILL.- A wife said to her husband, “Dear, could I have some spending money?”
Her husband replied, “Money, money, money. If you ask me I think you need brains more than you need money.”
The wife said, “Dear, I was just asking you for what I thought you had the most of.”
Needless to say, marriage can be very stressful at times. There is no perfect marriage. And many marriages are far less than ideal.
I have heard all kinds of stories about selfish husbands and selfish wives. If I told you some of the things I have heard or read, you’d choke up with emotion. No, perhaps not, because you’ve probably been there and done that. And some of you may be there right now.
ILL.- I heard about one husband who wants his coffee setting there and waiting on him when he gets up in the morning. He is laid off and is not looking for a job. He wants his food on the table at mealtime, his clothes washed and ironed, his wife to work and make all the money she can. He is negative and nasty in his attitude and actions. AND HE HAS ONE STRESSED-OUT WIFE!
You name it and there is stress in nearly every area of our lives. Marriage, family, children, work, finances, health, and so on.
And if there isn’t stress, there is most certainly worry, which goes hand-in-hand with stress.
ILL.- Someone put it this way: “If we don’t have a job, we worry about it. If we do have a job, we worry about losing it. If we don’t have a car, we worry about it. If we do have a car, we worry about it breaking down. If we don’t have any money, we worry about it. If we do have some money, we worry about losing it.
“If we are not married, we worry about it. If we are married, we worry about keeping our mate. If we don’t have an education, we worry about it. If we do have any education, we worry if it’s enough. If we are sick, worry about it. If we are not sick, we worry about getting sick.”
ILL.- Someone said, “I have so many troubles that if anything happens to me today it will be two weeks before I can get around to worrying about it.”
I had one man tell me that I worried too much about things. I said, “Worry is the least of my worries.”
ILL.- Someone said, “Worrying about the past is like trying to put the toothpaste back in the tube.”
ILL.- Someone said, “One should never try to saw sawdust.” That’s worry.
All of us are faced with a certain amount of worry and stress in life. ALL OF US. We know this, but what we can do about it? We don’t need to hear more about the “bad” news. We want the “good” news of what to do about worry and stress! How to handle it. How to keep it from getting us down.
We can attack worry and stress from a human perspective or from the spiritual perspective.
The human perspective, which can help, says: get some exercise, get enough sleep, listen to good music that calms (not creates confusion and chaos), stay away from negative and nasty people (they drag you down even more), and learn to laugh (don’t sweat the small stuff - laugh at it.)
The spiritual perspective says that we must look to the Lord in order to overcome worry and stress.
PROP.- Our text in Phil. 4 gives us some specific answers for our worry and stress. To overcome worry and stress, there must be:
1- Right praying
2- Right thinking
I. RIGHT PRAYING
ILL.- In 1989 while flying from St. Louis to Boston, MASS, to run the marathon there, I met a man on the airplane from Kansas City, MO. We struck up a friendship and he told me that he would run the Huntsville, AL, marathon the next year. I had hoped to meet him there.
And sure enough, that next year, there was Burt Brown. He brought his girlfriend along with him because she had a cousin in Huntsville, AL. I met both his girlfriend and her cousin. I didn’t think I would ever see them again or even remember them, but they remembered me.
About halfway through that marathon, at about 13 miles, I saw both of those ladies standing on the curb and they asked, “How are you doing?” I responded with, “Not very well. I’m hurting.”
The cousin shouted out to me, “JUST SAY ‘JESUS!’”
If nothing else, I got a big kick out of her recommendation. And I did say “Jesus” many times after that. I think I said something like, “Lord Jesus, get me through this thing!”
Ps. 46:1 “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.”
This verse may really be saying, “God is an immediate help in trouble,” meaning we can “just say ‘Jesus!’” in times of trouble.
ILL.- One wife and mother of three children who works outside the home full-time said, “I say a lot of quick, short prayers.” Perhaps, “just say ‘Jesus’!” kind of prayers.
And there is nothing wrong with those kinds of prayers. “God, help me.” “God, be merciful to me a sinner.” “God, forgive me.” “God, bless so and so.” “God, have mercy on so and so. Provide for them.”
But there are also times when we need to spend some time in prayer. WE NEED A SEASON OF RIGHT PRAYING!
V. 6 “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”
ILL.- When a hurricane devastated the South Carolina coast one time a group of Christian huddled together in a small-frame church. In the midst of the violent storm, an old preacher prayed, “Most omnipotent, gracious, Heavenly Father, send us the spirit of the children of Moses. Send us the spirit of the children of Israel. Send us the spirit of the children of the promised land.”
Just then the wind howled even louder and the preacher was interrupted by another old man who had less eloquence in his prayer. He prayed, “LORD, DON’T SEND NOBODY! COME YOURSELF! THIS AIN’T NO TIME FOR CHILDREN!”
When we experience worry and stress we want action, and we want it right now! And sometimes the only way to get it, is to spend some time in prayer. Have a season of prayer, even if it’s only 15 minutes. And that’s when the Lord will send in the big guns, so to speak. And we need “big guns” to knock stress.
Also, prayer is not just a matter of always asking something of God. That verse reads, “Prayer and petition, with thanksgiving.”
ILL.- “What can I do for you, Madaam?” Abraham Lincoln asked an elderly lady who had been ushered into his office. Placing a covered basket on the table, she said, “Mr. President, I have come here today not to ask any favor for myself or for anyone. I heard that you were very fond of cookies, and I came here to bring you this basket of cookies.”
Tears trickled down the gaunt face of Lincoln. He said nothing for a moment, then he said, “My good woman, your thoughtful and unselfish deed greatly moves me. Thousands have come into this office since I became President, but you are the first one to come, asking no favor for yourself or somebody else.”
DID YOU HEAR THOSE WORDS? Lincoln said, “Your thoughtful and unselfish deed greatly moves me.”
Do you suppose that if we were to come into the Lord’s presence to bring Him something, namely praise, that it might greatly move Him? It could be. It just might do it.
ILL.- Someone put it this way, “A coffee break is good. A prayer break is better. BUT A PRAISE BREAK IS BEST!”
Heb. 13:15 “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise - the fruit of lips that confess his name.”
It makes a whole lot of sense that when we pray, we should first of all, praise God for who He is and for what he has done for us!
ILL.- Did you hear about the man who got up from his seat on a crowded bus so a lady standing nearby could sit down? She was so surprised by his actions that she fainted. When she revived and sat down in his seat, she said, “Thank you,” and then he fainted.
We live in something of a thankless society. People are not nearly as thankful or as grateful as they should be.
ILL.- I received an e-mail note last week from my preacher friend Ruben Casas in East Los Angeles, CA. Sometime back he told that his salary is $25,000 a year and that’s in East LA! He said, “We drive a used car, we don’t eat out, and we don’t buy new clothes.” AND WE UNDERSTAND WHY. Most of us make far more money than Ruben does.
However, Ruben has the right attitude about the whole situation. He is extremely grateful for everything he has. He said, “It’s still better than where I came from.” Most of us could say that, but we don’t. Most of us could be more thankful to God for all our blessings, but we aren’t. AND GRATITUDE IS THE ATTITUDE THAT MAKES THE DIFFERENCE.
It makes the difference in our relationship with other people and with God. A grateful person is a humble person. A grateful person is not a selfish person. A grateful person receives from the Lord.
Right praying will relieve us of much of our worry and stress, because right praying centers on giving thanks to the Lord and blessing others.
II. RIGHT THINKING
ILL.- One night last week I nearly got the tar beat out of me. Huh? What’s that? Where were you, preacher? What happened? I was home in bed, minding my own business, sleeping. All of a sudden, I woke up and Elaine was kicking the daylights out of me. She apparently was having a wild dream.
Well, I nudged her a couple of times to wake her and said, “Hey! Stop it! You’re kicking me.” By then she woke up and I said, “If you don’t stop kicking me I’m getting out of this bed.” THEN, WOULDN’T YOU KNOW IT, SHE STARTED LAUGHING. Then she turned over and went back to sleep.
I could make several applications to this true story. Perhaps about spousal abuse, etc., but I won’t. But the one I will make is this: WHAT YOU THINK IS WHAT YOU DO!
In her dream, Elaine said she was sitting at the top of some stairs and someone was coming after her and she started kicking at them. HER THINKING LED TO HER ACTIONS! And this really holds true when we are awake.
If you think about something long enough and hard enough, eventually you’ll probably do it!
ILL.- Could anything be more boring than sweeping floors? Murray Spangleer, a department store janitor in Canton, Ohio, didn’t think sweeping floors was boring, even though the dust made him wheeze and cough.
Spangler thought, however, there had to be a better way. He wondered, “Why not eliminate the broom? Maybe something that would suck up the dirt?”
Spangler’s thinking led him to make a crude but workable vacuum cleaner, which an old friend in the leather business financed. HIS FRIEND’S NAME WAS H.W. HOOVER. Hence, the Hoover vacuum cleaner was born.
Right thinking or perhaps ingenious thinking led Murray Spangler to invent the vacuum cleaner. BUT RIGHT THINKING WILL LEAD US TO DO MORE THAN JUST INVENT THINGS AND MAKE MONEY!
Right thinking will also lead into a deeper and more satisfying relationship with the Lord.
V. 8 “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right (there it is), whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things.”
If we don’t think right, we won’t do right. And if we don’t think right, we won’t be relieved of our worry and stress.
ILL.- EVER HEARD OF THE TERM “GIGO?” Most people who have been around computers for a period of time knows the term GIGO, Garbage In, Garbage Out. A computer only does what it’s told and while the computer gets the blame for any problems, the responsibility usually lies with the programmer. Most computer glitches are human glitches.
The human brain is the greatest computer ever designed. It also relies upon programming in a sense. Conscience, talents, common sense, and gut instincts were programmed in at the factory.
Put in it hatred, unbelief, jealousy, lust, greed, etc and you will get garbage for output. Input faith, hope, charity, selflessness, contentment, etc and you will get high quality output.
Many times Christians see garbage output in their lives and they blame the devil, the world, the flesh, or something else. Sometimes it is due to poor assimilation of the data received, but more often than not, it is that they have been putting garbage data in and they can only get garbage out.
ILL.- Remember serial killer, Ted Bundy, who murdered about 33 women until Jan. 24, 1989 when he was executed? Ted Bundy was said to be a man of many faces. He hid his murderous "hobby" from all those who knew and loved him. He was a law student, a crisis counselor, a governor’s campaign worker, but also a rapist, and a murderer.
ILL.- Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family interviewed Bundy while he was in prison and then wrote a book entitled A Dying Wish About a Lethal Habit. Dobson said, “ In 1989, I conducted a video-taped interview with Ted Bundy just a few hours before he was executed for killing at least 28 women and girls. During that candid conversation in the shadow of the electric chair, Bundy described how he had been addicted to pornography since finding detective magazines in a dump when he was 13 years of age. He then became addicted to violent images that led to the murders of many women and a 12 year old girl. Bundy was convinced that pornography has a horrible effect on men who are particularly susceptible to it. He argued passionately, there in the last hours of his life, for additional limits on material that was available everywhere.”
This is a portion of Bundy’s last words: "...I can only hope that those who I have harmed and those who I have caused so much grief — even if they don’t believe my expression of sorrow and remorse — will believe what I’m saying now, that there is loose in their towns, in their communities, people like me today whose dangerous impulses are being fueled day in and day out by violence in the media in its various forms, particularly sexualized violence.... And what scares and appalls me, Dr. Dobson, is [that] when I see what’s on cable TV, some of the movies, some of the violence in the movies that come into homes today [is] stuff that they wouldn’t show in X-rated adult theaters 30 years ago.... But I’ll tell you, there are lots of other kids playing in streets around this country today who are going to be dead tomorrow and the next day and the next day and next month, because other young people are reading the kinds of things and seeing the kinds of things that are available in the media today."
Ted Bundy’s thinking was wrong and that’s why his actions were horrible and horrifying. Garbage in, Garbage out. Wrong thinking, wrong actions. But also right thinking, right actions.
This is why Paul says in our text to think about things are: true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, and excellent.
ILL.- Woodrow Wilson once said, “I not only use all the brains that I have, but all that I can borrow.” But we have to borrow the right brains.
ILL.- Someone wisely said, “Let the mind of the master be the master of your mind.”
If we want to do right, we must think right. And to think right we must set our minds on good things. We cannot always be watching TV or going to movies or reading worldly magazines and books. WE MUST SET OUR MINDS ON THE WORD OF GOD AND CHRISTIAN MATERIAL IN ORDER TO DO RIGHT AND OVERCOME WORRY AND STRESS.
The world adds worry and stress to our lives. THE WORD RELIEVES US OF IT.
Isaiah 26:3 “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed (or set) on thee.”
CONCLUSION-----------------------------------------
ILL.- He’s a nosey neighbor. He’s an unwanted visitor. He’s an obnoxious guest. “Hey Bob, got a few minutes? I’ve got a few questions for you. I don’t mean to be obnoxious, Bob, but how can you believe that a God could ever give a hoot about you? You don’t really believe that God wants you in heaven, do you?
“You may think you’re on pretty good terms with the man upstairs, but haven’t you forgotten that business trip to Atlanta? You think he won’t call your cards on that one? How do you know that God cares about you anyway?”
Do you have a neighbor like that? He’ll pester you, irritate you, criticize you and get you down on yourself. He’s negative and nasty, down and depressed and he’ll try to drag you down with him.
Do you have a neighbor like that? You sure do. AND HE IS CALLED “WORRY.” And you need to lock the door on him.
Matt. 11:28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened (or worried and stressed out), AND I WILL GIVE YOU REST.”
