How to Stand Strong in Stressful Times - Charles R. Swindoll

you're listening to dallas theological seminaries chapel podcast because of our association at dallas seminary because of our friendship when i'm out on the road and even in town people often ask me what's chuck really like and they often follow that statement he seems so real when we listen to him on the radio and it gives me great pleasure to say he is what you hear in his private world as well as his public world and there are many reasons why i appreciate our speaker personally professionally but I especially appreciate the fact that in light of the multi gift package that God has entrusted to him and for which he will be held accountable through it all he has obviously retained a phenomenal sense of humor but he also has retained a sense of humility that God would choose to use him he has been the voice of insight for living since its beginning his ministry has heard around the world his books have been read by millions he has been the pastor of thousands and he's been the friend of a number of us at an individual level Chuck were delighted that you continue the relationship as Chancellor here at Dallas seminary I know that those who listen to you at Stonebriar are glad you stay in the pastor it and for many of us who get to listen to him via the airwaves there are millions who appreciate his combination of keen insight into the Scriptures was a passion for application would you join me in welcoming to our campus again our Chancellor dr. Charles window you need to cook thank you I saw Jean Merrill walk up here while ago and I realized he's the one who parked beside me this morning I was sitting in my pickup going over my stuff for this morning and I looked over and here was the guy on a baseball cap stepped out of his car I thought he was second base for the New York Yankees when he's walked out there for the 1949 team that played so well huh oh my well if you never forget anything else I hope you won't forget the sound of singing at Schaefer Chapel it's like no other place on the planet and you take that with you when you leave as a living and vibrant I hope vibrant memory of your years at the school you're sitting where many of us before you have said in fact while driving here this morning I did a little math and realized it was 48 years ago at this time I was beginning my first year at the school the faculty was much smaller just as bright but they were smaller in number and the student body was about 340 as I recall and so you couldn't hide I mean you were just out there I remember they accepted me on probation my first year I was sort of slow academically and didn't have all the stuff that is expected of a up-and-coming minister in the making I was fresh out of the Marine Corps and so it takes a year on probation to get all the dams and hell's out of your vocabulary after you've been in the Marine Corps all that time well at least all the dams you can use the hells and your preaching but you I remember I remember dr. Campbell saying to me as I was going through the process of being registered and and ultimately accepted by the grace of God he said you know young man we are sitting there about 75 pounds lighter and a flat top and my wife sitting beside me and I'm shaking he said we expect you to give this your best I said yes sir I I plan to do it I promise and I thought he's going to take blood next to my anyway he looked at me over the top his glasses he said you know there are two or three other men that would like to have the seat you're going to be occupying and I'll say yes sir I know and Here I am all these years later and I look back and I have to tell you scouts honor there's hardly a week that passes that I don't deliberately pause and give thanks for my training at this school nobody asked me to say that nobody promotes that kind of thing I tell you that from these years in ministry sometimes I go to passages like Deuteronomy 8 verse 2 you shall remember all the way which the Lord your God led you these 40 years in the wilderness to Humble you to put you to the test to know what was in your heart whether you keep his word or not as the years pass in your life you will have the opportunity to go through the same three gates in your reflection have you been humbled are you being tested and how's your heart now this comes as no surprise to anyone in this room or in the rooms that are watching by closed-circuit television it comes as no surprise to hear that you are in the crosshairs of the adversary scope he has one great goal and that's to bring you down he knows you better than you know yourself he knows you better than your partner in life he knows you better than the parents who reared you he has made a study of you he knows you in your weakest moment and coward that he is knowing he's a defeated foe he will take advantage of you especially in your days of weakness he has done that in my life he's still doing that this was the worst summer of my life we went through tests that we've never gone through before I don't ask for pity I simply declare that so you will know you never get to the place where you are above the fray or you have sort of arrived with an invisible shield around you that keeps the enemy's darts away he despises what you were learning to love he hates the god you serve and the Christ you preach and if he could possibly discourage you even in your training years there will be applause all over that hellish place where he and the demons will ultimately go so while I applaud your decision to begin your semester and to study at this great place at the feet of the people of whom the world is not worthy Hebrews 11 38 you have the chance to study deeply great theological thoughts learn the languages go through the rigors and discipline that's all part of the training I hope you will remember the goal of your enemy is the opposite of you that's to cut your legs out from under you and bring you down to a place of disqualification so stay at it now I've learned over the years that one of his favorite places to attack is in times of stress and this place breeds stress it just breeds it we had profs tell us when we were in school you know when you get out of here the stress will be even greater that's a crock it can't get it can't get greater than it is in here here you have a deadlines you have the demands you are being graded you are being watched you are accountable you are visible out there you can hide and fake it and get two or three great sermons and preach them all over the country and and get away with it but I can tell you the stress will still be there for various reasons and so today I decided to address it I decided to talk about how to stand strong in stressful times I chose the one who could sit for the portrait better than any other I find in the scriptures aside from job and that's the great apostle I'd like you to turn to the last letter and the last chapter of the letter he wrote that would be the forth of second Timothy and I want to pull a section out that will focus our thoughts on but I want to set the stage for it with a little background the verses I'm looking at with you are verses 9 through 18 9 through 18 of 2nd Timothy chapter 4 I'm not the first to say that when you look at the letter of second Timothy you're reading dungeon talk the man is bearded wrinkled bruised barefoot and cold if you ever go to Rome get away from the tour guide long enough to find your way to the mammer tine dungeon and stoop over and crawl down and sit on that floor it's even better now than it was then back then it was dark and dank depressing and the age of Apostle has reached the end and he's full of memories he's reflecting on the years the Lord has taken him through ministry to people all over and so in his thoughts he writes these words to Timothy by the way what is before him is an inescapable journey to a beheading James stalker the Scottish theologian and biographer of yesteryear toward the end of the 19th century has written a fine work on the life and the letters of Paul and I draw a paragraph or two from his writings in all history there is not a more startling illustration of the irony of human life than this scene of Paul at the bar of Nero on the judgment seat clad in the Imperial purple said a man who in a bad world had attained the eminence of being the very worst and meanest being in it a man stained with every crime the murderer of his own mother of his wives and of his best benefactors a man whose whole being was steeped in every nameable and unnameable vice that body and soul of him were as someone said at the time nothing but a compound of mud and blood and in the prisoner's dock stood the best man the world contained his hair whitened with Labor's for the good of men and the glory of God such was the occupant of the seat of justice and such the man who stood in the place of the criminal picture it in your mind TR Glover has added a succinct statement that sort of says it all as he portrays the irony of history the day was to come when men would call their dogs Nero and their sons Paul but at this time and in this place the dog sits on the throne the greatest of men on earth set awaiting death I call that a stressful time there are no parades there is no band there is no music there are few friends there was a man alone if he had a candle under that light finishing his hours in a dungeon knowing he would never escape with his life so with that as the setting I turn your attention to some of the things I find within and between the lines that help all of us handle stress so the enemy doesn't win a victory Paul writes in verse nine to the man he loves who is hmm in his early 40s has traveled with Paul has loved Paul has been mentored by Paul Paul says to him make every effort to come to me soon a little later he writes those very emotional words come before winter Kent Hughes in his fine book on on the letters of Timothy and Titus adds that that would have taken Timothy about five months to journey from where he was to where Paul was I think he immediately upon getting the letter began his journey the first thing I want to point out is that you stay close to at least one friend when the stress level is high write that down the reason I ask you to do that is because in the months to come you will find yourself trust me increasingly more isolated this Chapel will begin slowly but surely too empty little by little the crowds will dissipate little by little even faculty members will be absent little by little the the blows the demands the requirements the workload will take its toll on you and the worst possible thing you could do is to close off your friendship just as you needed friends in your university years just as you needed them in your high school years you really need them now that you're engaged in a work that will by the very nature of the work isolate you everything about my responsibilities tends to push me to be alone to do the kind of work in my study I study alone to do the kind of thinking that this responsibility or see of responsibilities required calls for time alone there's nothing wrong with time alone but there's something wrong when that's all you have you need a friend why it will help keep you accountable a word I never heard once in my four years of Davel seminary but now thank God you hear it a lot you need to be engaged in spiritual formation you need to be involved in learning how to relate no one is going to ask what your score was in Hebrew when you're out nobody is going to check on how well you did in your theology classes or for that matter how high you graduated in your graduating class those things are important but they are not the things that will mark your ministry if you're not careful you will make those things a higher priority than a friendship with even one close friend don't let that happen at the end of his life knowing it would require months of travel realizing he could really make it on his own he had the Lord and Luke was there as well he says to Timothy come I miss you I need you hopefully through these four years and for some of you it's three years for others it's one more year and you're out you will cultivate at least one close friendship that will go with you hopefully more than one more than one so stay close to at least one friend verse 10 why does he ask Kenneth E to come look for yourself the connective is an explanatory connective because for one who was once close to me is no longer demas having loved this present world has deserted me gone to Thessalonica crescens has gone to Galatia Titus to Dalmatia only Luke is with me I want to say this carefully but I think it will help you because when you are disappointed by those who were once close to you it will easily be a time of bitterness for you so my word of counsel from this section where Dimas has left him interesting term in the original having loved this now age there was something that was alluring to Deemas that pulled him away from the stringent demanding role of serving alongside Paul and he just sort of slipped into an easier life in Thessalonica doesn't say that he defected the faith it just says he left Paul he left him when Paul really needed him so the council I draw from it is get over those who disappoint you your ministry will be strewn with the litter of people who disappoint you I could name three dozen today and without much effort I finally learned after about the first dozen that this is going to happen again this is going to happen again so while I want close friends I must realize some ultimately will drift away if I am NOT careful their drift will so disappoint me that it will have it will affect my ministry it will soften the blow of my voice weaken the conviction of my heart especially as I try as best I can to draw them back Dimas decided to leave for whatever reason we're not told here or anywhere else there was just a spiritual erosion silent subtle and the next thing Paul knew Dimas was gone people who walk away usually don't announce their departure they just quietly leave the pressure is high the demands are great the pay is low the critics are always there not everyone can handle life when it comes to ministry leadership get over those who disappoint you Paul continues saying only Luke is with me then adds if you will on your way will you pick up mark meaning John Mark and bring him with you for he is useful to me for service now that makes me smile I'm glad to read Paul here at the end of his life saying make sure mark comes remember the day when he stood toe-to-toe with Barnabas and they duked it out verbally Barnabas said he failed us when we were at Pamphylia but he was young inexperienced immature he he was afraid and he saw the rigors is only getting greater ultimately it would have been too much for him and he he sailed back home Paul said in return will not take a man with us who defected we need those who are strong a spirit now in your heart and in mine when we kick in the compassion we go with Barnabas and and we remember our saviors words that have to do with coming to him we who were weakened and overburdened and he will give us rest and we we want to say to Paul listen to Barnabas on the other hand we understand Paul Yoakam could have even quoted a verse of scripture out of Proverbs confidence in an unfaithful man in a time of trouble is like a broken tooth and a foot out of joint there Barnabas would have to listen and blink and realize he was a man in whom we lost confidence and so the story continues Barnabas and Paul separate Paul chooses Silas and travels north barnabas gets on the boat and set sail for crete his homeland with his cousin john mark his arm around him telling him there will be a better day this is the better day Paul at the end under stress is big enough to lift up and encourage one who has recovered from a fall that's the third thing I want you to remember as your stress grows as ministry pressures intensify some of those who have disappointed you will in fact defect and it will be your great great temptation I know what I'm talking about to write them off and to remember their fall rather than realize God's grace is at work in their lives and if you will forget that the goal is to restore such a one in a spirit of meekness considering yourself lest you also be tempted galatians chapter 6 verse 1 the goal is not judgment for ever it is ultimate restoration and Paul I'm sure realizes by now mark has proved himself and his goal is to lift up and encourage a man he wants rejected it takes broad shoulders to do that especially if you are a powerful and influential individual especially when you have those that you really don't need quote-unquote who could fall again and sometimes do all this to say that as you grow older and as the stress intensifies may you grow in grace as well as truth someone forgave you once remember or twice truth be told all of us have stories that would surprise those sitting right next to us not only our stories but the stories of our children and we go on may your ministry be characterized as one who stays close to at least one friend long term that you're able to get over the disappointment of someone who walks away and you're big enough to lift up and encourage those who fell but have now recovered ticka cos I have sent to Ephesus when you come bring the cloak which I left at Troas with Karpis bring the books especially the parchments I remembered some faculty members here old enough to remember with me when we a dedicated Moser library it was called then we formed a chain of bodies namely students who worked their way down from Davidson third floor all the way down out on the pathway and into the library handing books as we move the library from that dreadful third floor of Davidson down to the air-conditioned beautiful facilities of what was then our new library Moser library and we dedicated it in dr. Ryer II Charles Rory came to do the dedicatory address as we dedicated the building his words were shaped around the three words out of second Timothy four especially the parchments especially the parchments as you get older in your ministry and as you grow you will tend toward laziness things that work for you you'll become better at more adept ed you'll get better at faking it if you're not careful before long you can be an out-and-out professional hypocrite and they'll love you the problem is you have to live with yourself and you have to give a count so don't go there keep loving the books keep doing original works and the parchments keep longing for those opportunities when you can make the most of your time by feeding your mind on the great truths read widely read deeply read often I just finished a great book this summer great preparation for ministry snakes in suits it's a great book it's not a Christian book so I warn you ahead of time it talked about the kind of people who are in the workplace who take advantage of other people and help me understand some people that I have worked with over the years and and people I've lived near and tendencies that I see on occasion anyway the reason I mentioned that it's it's it's a book that broadened my mind and made me aware of a of another slice of life outside my world but my point here is he adds Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm the Lord will repay him according to his deeds be on guard against him yourself for he vigorously opposed our teaching at my first defense no one supported me but all deserted me may it not be counted against them the point I want to make here is to watch out for those who would harm you watch out for those who would harm you by holding close to a friend you will guard against isolationism by getting over those who disappoint you you will guard yourself yourself against bitterness by putting your arms around and encouraging those who have been restored following a fall you will guard against pride and if you watch out for those who would harm you you will guard against disillusionment everywhere you serve you will have enemies I used to think that I kind of drew them like flies I thought there was maybe something wrong with me and so I remember I was ministering at Irving at the time and we had a dreadful relationship with one of our elders and I remember deciding I'd come to somebody neutral so I came to the chaplain of the seminary and it was a wonderful few moments with him dr. Richard Sumi many of you know the name and the man now gone wonderful godly man and I spelled out my story to him and I thought I thought he would kind of be surprised and he smiled and he said Chuck I call those people savages I thought well that's that's helpful I I never I'm not the only one and then he gave me a litany of situations in his own life where savages came after him there isn't a week of my life I don't receive hate mail there isn't a month of my life someone doesn't deliberately and personally criticize me unfairly inappropriately they knew the whole facts they they wouldn't at least say it that way no that's par for the course I'm no martyr I'm nothing I I probably never faced a man who's mean as Alexander the coppersmith on the other hand no it's another subject but you'll be disillusioned you'll be disillusioned if you put your arms around everyone because some will deceive you and some will take advantage of you and they'll misquote you and they'll misrepresent you and they will want to harm you you need the discernment to saying that's a warrant that's one I need to stay free of stay away from watch out for at the end of his life Paul says that and then finally the Lord stood with me and strengthened me in order that through me the proclamation might be fully accomplished that all the Gentiles might hear and I was delivered out of the lion's mouth the Lord will deliver me from every evil deed finally keep the Lord in full focus keep the Lord in full focus keep the Lord in full focus continue to let your heart be broken continue to let the words of Horatio Spafford bring tears continue to sing from the very pit of your being continue to love him with your whole heart continue to talk to him often pouring out your soul to him continue to release the things you would want to cling to even those closest to you make the Lord your full focus and your ministry will be timeless not to mention timely I think what it takes is a willingness a willingness to let him lead let him call the shots let him do the guiding let him do the defending and you stay at the task of serving him one man wrote it like this anonymous writer I am willing to receive what you give I am willing to lack what you withhold I am willing to relinquish what you take I am willing to suffer what you inflict I'm willing to be what you require what a way to live what a way to minister stand strong in stressful times they are coming the honeymoon will soon be over and when it hits watch out watch out the enemy will convince you in a very brief period of time you need to bail on this place you need to go back to that job that crummy job you decided to leave to come to this calling you'll be tempted to bail on your calling don't go there our Father we thank you for the joy of serving you thank you for the exemplary model of a man who not only lived like that but died like that thank you for the reminder that it is doable now help us all we're all just sinners not a person in here is is that far from a fall we're one decision away from the beginning of a weakness that could lead to a habit it could result in a fall so use these words especially during stressful times that we might be able to say throughout our years it is well with my soul in the name of Jesus pray everybody said you you

Channel: Dallas Theological Seminary

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Keywords: stress, anxiety, paul, Dallas Theological Seminary, Dr. Charles Swindoll

Id: elk6m1YDHiw

Length: 37min 48sec (2268 seconds)

Published: Fri May 11 2012