Dr. John Goetsch: Stress Busters

let's turn to Philippians chapter 4 tonight if you will Philippians chapter 4 and we'll read a few verses starting with verse 4 and go down to verse 9 Philippians chapter 4 and starting with verse 4 we see the theme of this entire book in verse 4 rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice let your moderation be known unto all men the Lord is at hand be careful for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God and the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus 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 those things which you have both learned and received and heard and seen in me do and the God of peace shall be with you life in the 21st century is filled with stress now anxiety has been around for a while we're not the first generation we're not the first culture that has experienced stress in our life in fact I think you could trace stress all the way back to the Garden of Eden the Bible says in Genesis chapter 3 that the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made and the serpent said unto the woman hath God said ye shall not eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden and the woman said we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden but of the fruit of the tree that's in the midst of the garden God has said you shall not eat of it neither shalt thou touch it lest you die and the serpent said you shall not surely die for God the snow and the day you eat thereof then your eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as God's knowing good and evil when the woman saw the tree was good for food and pleasant to the eyes and a tree to be desired to make one wise she took of the fruit thereof and gave also to her husband with her and he did eat and the eyes then both were opened and they knew that they were naked and they hid themselves amongst the trees of the garden and they heard the voice of the Lord God calling in the midst of the garden where art thou Adam and he said I heard thy voice in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself fear shame anxiety grips the heart of man as he recognizes he has sinned against God we face stress anxiety today in large part because of that very first sin now we think that maybe if our circumstances would change stress would be gone and we think perhaps a better job maybe if we made a little more money or could live in a nicer house or perhaps had a new car or maybe a different husband or different kids or different parents maybe life would be better you know as I studied the life of Solomon in the Old Testament it seems that Solomon had that thought process that maybe if he could have just something more maybe if he could add another wife or some more concubines or maybe if he could possess this or that that somehow peace would come to his heart he says in Ecclesiastes - I made me great works i builded me houses i planted me vineyards i made me gardens and orchards and had trees in them of all kinds of fruits i made me pools of water to water with the woo to bring forth the trees I got me servants and maidens and had servants born in my house I had possessions of great and small cattle above all that were before me in Jerusalem I got me men singers and women singers and musical instruments and that of all sorts so I was great and increased more than any that were before me in Jerusalem also my wisdom remained with me and whatsoever my eyes desired I kept not from them I was held not from my heart any joy and then I looked at all that my hands had wrought and all that I'd labored to do and behold all was vanity and vexation of spirit there's no profit under the Sun Solomon and his search for a peaceful life a stress-free life anxiety free life he tried to find it in all of these things but it all came up empty now how do you and I in this age in which we live deal with this matter of stress biblically after all we do have some bills to pay and we do have kids to raise and we've got relationships to deal with and we've got decisions about the future and and the condition of the world around us causes us concern and and we have our health to consider and and yes even death is coming so how do we deal with stress now if we're not careful the cares of this life entering in choke the word and we become unfruitful it's not that any of us tonight want to disappoint God it's not that any of us tonight want to live an unproductive life for God we all want to finish our course well we all want to hear him say well done thou good and faithful servant but the very cares of this life the stress of the day-to-day can rob us of the fruit that God desires that we have so how can we abolish anxiety well the truth is tonight we need a change on the inside rather than the outside and Paul in Philippians chapter 4 gives us seven stress-busters let's look at him tonight first of all in verse four he speaks of a cheerful attitude the way to defeat stress is to rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice now the world can make you happy but only God can give you joy you see it's the fruit of the Spirit that brings love joy peace and joy starts with salvation no one is truly happy until they come to know Christ as Savior Isaiah 60:1 says I'll greatly rejoice in the Lord my soul shall be joyful in my god for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness as they were singing that song a moment ago my mind went back to the day I got saved and the joy that comes with just knowing that your sins are forgiven that you're on your way to heaven and no matter what happens in this life thank God when it's over to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord joy starts with salvation but joy is also found in surrender as we yield to God as we hear his word and we obey his word there's joy that comes with that the Bible says in the book of Acts chapter eight that Philip went down to Samaria and preached Christ unto them and in verse number six it says in the people with one Accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake in other words they heard the preaching they gave heed to it they decided guess this is what I'm going to do in my life and verse seven says and there was great joy in that city why did the joy come because there's joy in surrender but not only is their joy and salvation and joy and surrender but there's joy in the scriptures if you want to rejoice in the Lord you've got to stay in this book Jeremiah has said in chapter 15 and verse 16 thy words were found and I did eat them and thy words were the joy and rejoicing of my heart for I'm called by the name o Lord God of hosts proverbs 3 and verse 13 says happy is the man that findeth wisdom and the man that getteth understanding for the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver and the gain thereof than fine gold she's more precious than rubies and all the things that thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her length of days is in a right hand in her left hand riches and honour her ways of the ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace she is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her and happy is every man that retain a--the her there's joy and salvation there's joy and surrender there's joy in the scriptures there's joy and sacrifice now that may seem a little bit contrary to the way we normally think but the example is given in the book of second Corinthians chapter 8 of the people of Macedonia and Paul writes there in verse 1 moreover brethren we do eat a width of the grace of God bestowed upon the churches of Macedonia how that in great trial of affliction and their deep poverty the abundance of their joy abounded unto the riches of their liberality here were a people in Macedonia that did not have the material wealth that others had they were poor in the sense of material things and yet Paul looked at their lives and recognized the great joy why because of their liberality because of their sacrifice for the Lord's work there's joy in soul-winning the Bible tells us in Psalm 126 and verse 5 he that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with rejoicing bringing his sheaves with him you see nobody has a right to joy like the child of God listen the devil likes to make us think that he's got a corner on all the fun in this world but nobody has a right to joy nobody has a right to rejoice like a person who knows Jesus Christ as Savior and we need to start living with a cheerful attitude thou shall rejoice before the Lord thy God in all that they'll put a sign hand unto how many of you have some things at work you'd rather not do how many get some responsibilities perhaps in your home or in your life you'd say oh I wish I didn't have to deal with this I wish I didn't have to deal with this or I wish I didn't have to work with this person or whatever but God says hey we can rejoice in all that we put our hand unto happy as the people that's in such a case yeah happy as the people whose God is the Lord happy as the man that hath the God of Jacob for his help whose hope is in the Lord of his God it starts with a cheerful attitude but next he talks about a constant abiding in verse five he says here in chapter four let your moderation the word moderation here carries the idea of forbearance or patience let your moderation be known unto all men the Lord is at hand sometimes in the midst of the stresses of life it's hard to stay connected to God we are prone to wander we're prone to leave the god we love where we're prone to go astray but God says come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I'll give you rest take my yoke upon you learn of me for I am meek and lowly of heart and you shall find rest unto your soul for my yoke is easy and my burden is light I love what it says about the man in the Old Testament by the name of Enoch it says Enoch walked with God and he was not for God took him and God says here let your moderation be known let your endurance let your patience let it be known to everybody why because the Lord is at hand would it be wonderful that when the Lord comes back for us we're just walking stride for stride with him as Enoch was and just that next step then is to be with the Lord I love that song constantly abiding Jesus is mine constantly abiding Savior divine he never leaves me lonely whispers oh so kind I will never leave thee Jesus is mine a constant abiding but notice thirdly a condemned anxiety in verse number 6 and we pointed this verse out this morning in our message be careful be full of care for nothing be careful for nothing do you realize that God here is condemning stress he's condemning anxiety be anxious be careful for nothing you are commanded I am commanded to be stress-free be careful for nothing we saw this morning casting all your care upon him for he cares for you the letter I is right in the middle of the word anxiety and all of us if were honest we have stress we have anxiety we have things that steal our peace we have things that cause us to worry to fret to to become fearful or fatalistic but but in the middle of all of that is a is an eye problem anxiety because you see we're looking at how am I going to deal with this how am I going to put up with this situation how am I going to put up with this person how am I going to possibly get all this work done we're looking at the wrong thing we have an eye problem Paul said I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live yet not i but Christ liveth in me you see when we're focused on the human eye of our life when we're focused on what I have to do and what I have to deal with and the things that I have to go through we're gonna have a stress filled life but when you die to self when you die to I and you give your life over to Christ you can live that stress-free life that God has commanded us to live to trust in the Lord with all thine heart to lean not to thine own understanding but in all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths they'll keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed upon thee because he trusted in thee trust in the Lord forever for the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength most of you have heard of Mayo Clinic up in up in Minneapolis area of Minnesota Charles Mayo was the founder of that wonderful health institution Charles Mayo made this statement he said I've never seen a person die from overwork but I have seen hundreds die from worry as a child of God you and I are commanded to cast our cares upon the Lord we are commanded to be worried to be stress-free in our life why because he cares for us in Luke chapter 12 are not five sparrows sold for two farthings and not one of them has forgotten before God but even the very hairs of your head are all numbered fear not therefore for you are a more value than many sparrows now if God has the hairs on your head numbered I think he knows how much money is in your bank account I think he knows which part of your body is working and which isn't I think he knows about the stress of the difficulties that may come this week at work or what may hit us as a trial or difficulty God knows and God understands and God cares and so he condemns anxiety and with it he makes number four a conditioned appeal in verse number six he goes on to say be careful for nothing but in its place in everything by prayer and supplication here's the condition with Thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God now let me tell you something if you have a little god you're gonna have big problems but if you have a big God you're gonna have little problems and God tells us here that we are to bring these things to him we have access to God through prayer seek the Lord and his strength seek his face continually ask and it shall be given you seek and you shall find knock and it shall be opened unto you isn't to have yes nothing in my name ask and you shall receive why that your joy may be full there's any among you afflicted let him pray but notice the condition with Thanksgiving before you appeal to God make sure you appreciate Sullivan times in our stressful life we hurry to our knees if we think to and we immediately begin to appeal to go oh god help me oh lord please I'm in a mess I've got to solve this problem Lord this difficulty I don't know what to do and we make our appeal but God says hey I want you to come with this condition of Thanksgiving in everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you when the heartaches come when the difficulties come when the problems come in everything give thanks enter into his gates with Thanksgiving and into his courts with praise be thankful unto Him and bless his name are you gratefully praying or are you grudgingly praying fifthly we see a cognitive admonition in verse 8 finally brethren whatsoever things are true honest just pure lovely of good report virtuous praiseworthy think on these things a cognitive admonition what do you think about what's on the forefront of your brain tonight is it all the problems of life is it all the people that are against you is that all the things that that you've got to concern yourself with you know sometimes we need to check the inventory of our mind do I have true thoughts do I have pure thoughts do I have just thoughts do I have honest thoughts lie a virtuous thoughts do I have thoughts they're lovely thoughts that are full of praise most stress comes from mind sewage most of the time we have stress because we're thinking about the wrong things we're allowing the pollutions of this world the garbage of this world the things of this world that the devil tries to put in our mind to drag us away from God we allow ourselves to dwell that we think about the critical and we think about the that which we can complain about and we we think about all the negative things and we allow our mind to go through this exercise of well I wish they do different I wish they would change that I don't like the way they did that and our mind is full of stress because it's full of sewage and that's why God says were to renew our mind be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind every day listen if you're not careful the the mind it can become polluted with all kinds of things in this world and you take on all the all the stress and all the things that are wrong in this world and if you allow yourself to dwell on that and think about that listen all you have to do is think about Jesus he's true he's pure he's holy he's virtuous he's a good report you started thinking about Jesus you start thinking about the Bible you started thinking about heaven you start thinking about what God has for his children and you know what all of a sudden that sewage we're clean through the word which I've spoken unto you our mind is renewed why is that so important because as he thinketh in his heart so is he you see sin in your mind brings stress to your manor a polluted brain will not produce a peaceful behavior and so we must have a cognitive take this cognitive admonition to think on these things and then he goes on number six to to command us to adherence in verse number nine he says those things referring to the things he's taught us to think about those things which you have both learned and received and heard and seen in me do do you know knowing and doing are two different things I used to preach a sermon called the sin of knowing your Bible and I would start the message by asking is it possible to is it possible to to sin in knowing your Bible could it be a sin to know the Bible and the answer is yes it could be a sin to know your Bible because James 4:17 says therefore Diem that knoweth to do good and do if it not timid us in fact Peter said it'd be better not to know the way of righteousness then after you have known it to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto you the most miserable people I've ever met in this world are people who knew what God told him to do and didn't do it I meet people in their 60s who were called to preach at 16 that never did it never went to Bible College never never obeyed the will of God they are absolutely miserable I think one of the most miserable men I have ever met my life was in Chicago sat on the second row of every service of every every every revival meeting his wife was the secretary of the church most miserable man I think I've ever met bitter angry frustrated pastor told me had never held a job for over six months in his life at a time at the time I met him he was working at Walmart but he'd had job after job after job after job just couldn't hold a job in his 60s and one night in tears he came to me and he said John God called me to be an evangelist when I was 16 and I said no to know is good but to do is the life of stress-free are you doing what you know Jesus said in John 13 17 if you know these things happy are you if you do them I'm glad you're in church I'm glad you're here for the service I'm glad you're in a connection group I'm glad you're studying the Word of God many of you in discipleship and you're learning the Word of God and that's a wonderful start but the real peace comes to your life when you do when you obey what you know be doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving your own selves and we see he closes this text in verse number nine with a certain attainment in verse nine he says and the God of peace shall be with you another blessing God says you follow these stress-busters you follow these keys to your life and you're gonna have a certain attainment of peace the disciples learned early in their ministry with Christ about stress turn if you will you can leave your place here and turn just for one moment over to mark chapter 4 if you would I want you show this this was early in their journey with the Lord but mark chapter 4 we find an incident that would be pretty stressful in mark chapter 4 starting in verse 35 the Bible says in the same day when the even was come he saith unto them his disciples let us pass over unto the other side he's speaking there of the Sea of Galilee the sea of Tiberias let's go over to the other side and when they had sent away the multitude they took him even as he was in the ship and there were also with him other little ships and there arose a great storm of wind and the waves beat into the ship so that it was now full and he Jesus was in the hinder part of the ship asleep on a pillow and they awake him and say any a master carest thou not that we perish and he arose and rebuked the wind and said unto the sea peace be still and the wind ceased and there was great calm and he said unto them why are you so fearful how is it that you have no faith and they feared exceedingly and said one to another what manner of man is this that even the wind and the sea obey Him sometimes we feel like we're in a boat that's sinking do we not sometimes we feel like there's wind blowing on every side and the boat is filling up with water the waves are splashing against us and we're living a life that seems every which way we go there's contradiction and we just can't seem to get to the other side we can't seem to get to the other side of that problem or that need that difficulty in our life and that's where the disciples were but suddenly they realized hey Jesus is here and all Jesus had to do was speak and there was a great call so it's Jesus in the boat if he's in the boat you're okay you're okay and the water may be coming up it may be rising up the wind may be beating against you you may not be able to see the other side of the problem but if as long as Jesus is in the boat you're gonna be okay cuz all he has to do is speak and the troubles gone the trials over the difficulties past is the in the bull if he is there's peace stress-free worryfree my family and I were preaching a revival in San Francisco years ago in fact I don't remember the dates of every revival I've preached but I remember this one being the second week of January 1990 I remember it because Sunday afternoon of that meeting we came back from lunch and I turned on the television in our trailer in the parking lot of the church and the NFC Championship game was was on between the San Francisco 49ers and the Los Angeles Rams it was a blowout halftime had come and gone and the final score I believe in that game was 32 3 in favor of the 49ers and they were on their way to their third straight Superbowl totally demolished the Rams I watched the second half it was boring it was over there was nothing really exciting about it but as soon as that game ended the streets of San Francisco I mean we were right downtown on Mission Street and I mean the streets of San Francisco filled with people people came out of everywhere and they started yelling and screaming and blowing car horns and shooting off fireworks and I mean the place was going crazy and I thought okay you won great I'm not a 49ers fan I thought you'd been to two Super Bowls act like you belong you know I mean it's not that great we went into the service that night is six o'clock and all through the service during the singing during the preaching you could still hear the people out there in those streets just celebrating this victory and long into the night the next morning about eight o'clock I was sitting there in our trailer in the parking lot of the church and I was doing some work and all of a sudden I heard these firecrackers going off again and I thought come on people it's Monday morning there's people still asleep others up start trying to work lay off the celebration go to the Super Bowl enjoy it leave me alone you know it was my thought but I was soon to find out it wasn't firecrackers I had heard the Calvary Baptist Church where I was speaking at a Christian school the building was somewhat constricted for a Christian school as an older building the hallways in the building were very narrow and as a result the school had a policy that at eight o'clock a bell would ring and all of the junior high and high school students would go inside they would go to their lockers they would get their things and they would head to their homeroom at 8:15 a second bell would ring and at that time all of the seniors a senior high and junior high had to be in their homeroom and at that point all of the elementary students were allowed to enter the building that way to different groups would use the same hallways I guess was the idea and so the elementary students would line up outside of the building they would line up by grades their teacher would stand in a spot and all the first graders would line up behind their teacher and the second graders and in that 15 minutes they would line up and the teacher would kind of talk to them and get him settled in and then when that second bell would ring they were able to go into the building well that first Bell it wrong and the upper students had gone in and the grade school students were lining up outside a mom brought her third grade son a nine-year-old boy to school that morning it was difficult to find a place to park around the church they had really just one parking lot and we were taking up all the places in it and so they had to park on the streets in various places and she had to park about a block away and she got her son and for him to be safe she walked him across the street and up to his line his third grade line there at the school she she accompanied him up to make sure that he would be safe unbeknownst to her her former husband had followed them to school and as she got out of the car and was walking their son to his line he got out of his car and as they reached that line of third graders he ran up behind his wife grabbed her by the shoulder pulled her around took a pistol out of his pocket and shot her five times through her head several dose bullets went right through her skull into the building wall right over the heads of those third-grade children I was inside a trailer hearing these popping sounds thinking it was more celebration from a game but outside chaos was taking place immediately the administrator of the school mr. Steve Ashton who was witnessing all of this he he he quickly began to ask the teachers to get her buddy inside and locked the doors and call some call 9-1-1 and commands were being given and students were being rushed inside and the man who had done the shooting he he ran from the scene mr. Ashton did not want him to get away before the police arrived and so after giving some quick instructions to his staff he ran after the man down the street my brother was teaching at that school at that time and was in his homeroom with the seniors and heard the sounds of gunfire and went outside and seen the chaos he saw the lady lying in a pool of blood went to her had some experience with CPR and different things and turned her over to try to minister to her but there was no hope he simply held her until she died mr. Ashton chased this man down some crowded streets and they ran several blocks and all of a sudden this man seemed to disappear in thin air just kind of ducked behind some cars and was gone Steve kind of cautiously going down that Street looking behind each car wondering where is he then looking up and looking around to see if he had made me climbed a fence or a wall or something he he's cautiously going down that Street what he did not realize was the man had ducked behind some cars and was reloading his gun and as Steve got about two car lengths from him he jumped out from behind that car and pointed that gun at Steve and said I have a gun and Steve Ashton put up his hands and he said I'm going to heaven and the man upon hearing those words lowered the gun duck back behind the cars and shot himself as the news media rolled through that situation for the next several days one of the things that was constantly reported in the San Francisco Chronicle and on the television news was this administrator standing in the face of death saying I'm going to heaven are you living that kind of a life is God in the boat do you know that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord if you do you can be stress-free in that situation Christian I don't know what you and I'll face this week but if we're walking with Him and he's in the boat we can just say I'll be fine I'm casting all my care on him he's in the boat you and I are commanded to be stress-free

Channel: Lancaster Baptist Church

Views: 5,954

Rating: 4.8545456 out of 5

Keywords: preaching, sermon, Christian, God, Jesus, Lancaster Baptist Church, Lancaster Baptist, Pastor Paul Chappell, Paul Chappell, Dr. John Goetsch, John Goetsch, stress, busters

Id: ckcLKb_ms38

Length: 38min 2sec (2282 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 21 2017