Our #1 Struggle - Charles R. Swindoll

it's too light to have our Chancellor back on our campus in our structure here people ask me what's the role of the Chancellor it is a non administrative role that is a role on some college and university campuses but as Chancellor he has a role of encouragement representation influence to the broader community through his presence there is writing through his speaking and all of us have been challenged and God has used him to minister to all of us at various levels and various depths as he challenges especially as he leads with his gifts through the Word of God would you join me in welcoming back to campus our Chancellor dr. Chuck Swindoll good morning I want to speak today on our number-one struggle and it is not financial stress it is it is not an academic challenge it is not even personal conflicts as difficult as those may be to work through it isn't pride or anger or impatience or discouragement in my opinion the number one struggle that all of us have is anxiety called by other words stress is a word commonly used worry is even more more popular I'm often tempted to say that all worry is sin until I come to a day like today and I think you would agree with me that the anxiety of parents of the students at Virginia Tech would be most understandable in fact without concern you would wonder about their love for their their children it's hard to believe that really just a little over 24 hours ago 16th of April 2007 America's greatest tragedy to happen within the context of our life and lifestyle occurred I have like you have put myself in the place of those who were in those classrooms and tried to imagine what I would have done how would have felt and then I've transferred those feelings to the parents who would have gotten word of it by television or over a broadcast on the airwaves and it is it is impossible for me to imagine that so with that laid aside and in all of the understanding that goes with that I'm referring to another kind of worry and that's the kind that has no business being a part of our lives though it seems to crowd its way in and take a place in our thinking that pushes aside and a confidence in God that we otherwise should have and longed to have it's that kind of stress I have in mind the kind that eats away at us the anxiety that that chokes us and strangles the otherwise fruit of God's Word occurring in our lives all kinds of things have been written about stress someone passed along a little little piece with the big word stress at the top and I smile when I read II stress is that confusion created when one's mind overrides one's body's desire to choke the daylights out of some jerk who desperately needs it that's stress that's one kind of stress we've all been there so it doesn't seem to bother some people children are a classic example art Linkletter who was known for his interviews with children often got them to say the most amazing things and was himself surprised by what came out of the children's mouths he was talking to one little kid that looked kind of tough and he said what does your dad do for a living the kid said my dad's a cop grabbed the microphone from art Linkletter and he said really he said yeah he catches crooks and burglars and he and he can he spread he goes to many cuffs him and he and he drags him down to the slammer and throws him in really I bet your mom worries about your dad's work no he doesn't worry he always brings her lots of watches and rings and jewelry not worried about that at all I met a lady in Chicago after I'd spoken one evening at moody for their founders conference we were sitting around having coffee and she was a lady getting up in years by then and had a terrific sense of humor in the war I was around her more contagious I found her charm to be and so I said to her as I have you always had this kind of great attitude about life and you don't seem to worry about a thing she says Chuck she says I learned years ago not to worry about a thing she said I didn't even get married till I was 36 and then she said in the next nine years we had eight kids she said we had two sets of twins along that not never worried I never worried about getting married she said I actually did a simple little thing when I was a student at Moody she said I got a pair of men's pants and I threw them over the bed and I prayed Father in heaven hear my prayer and grant it if you can I've hung a pair of trousers here please fill them with a man although that's a pretty clever idea so the following Sunday when I was at our church I decided to use it in my message it didn't necessarily fit but I jammed it in and I didn't I didn't realize that we had half a family there that day there was a mother and daughter homesick and dad and son teenage son were there and and a week or so later I had the mother who had missed the message write me a note and she said I'm concerned about my son boy was about 15 years old she said for the last two three days there's been a bikini hanging over the head of his bed what's that about my our younger daughter is so soon to be 40 years old and she is a wonderful mother of three children oh one of them is 10 year old Jonathan and then she has she has a 12 year old boy in the middle of Austin who is a pretty insecure and struggling and and then she has a 14 year old daughter Ashley whose whole world revolves around her hair and boyfriends and so Colleen is is forever drawn on how to pull back and forth their husbands in ministry and so she's she's forever looking for help and how to handle life and she told me the other day she said dad I put up I put up something on our refrigerator that I read every day and she said it's the words of Corrie ten Boom and I wrote it down just the other day it reads Woori does not empty tomorrow of sorrow at empties today of strength um that's the kind of worry that concerns me but eats away at me I'd love to tell you that I have all the answers and I'm a marvelous model of a dad who doesn't worry about his kids or grandkids and a pastor who doesn't worry over I act like I don't but I do on and I find myself when I come to graduation time for Dallas seminary I look across the faces of those in cap and gown and I have a I have a mixture of feelings one is great delight and gratitude that you have finished the course here your beginning the real course out there then I find a little twinge of worry where are you going to be in ten years will you still be walking with him in 20 30 40 years when this place is a distant and somewhat foggy memory will he still mean to you what right now he means to you will his words still speak with with power to your own heart and through your voice box to the classes you teach and the the congregations you serve and the the territory of the world that you influence and reach and so I come to sections like Philippians chapter 4 where we come to the words that are so familiar to all of us and yet they need to have the dust blown off they never once in a while so they come back to rest in our minds Philippians 4 in a context of several staccato like commands that the Apostle gives then he gets to verse six he just comes right out and says it be anxious for nothing now you understand this is the kind of anxiety that has no business dragging us down and siphoning the strength from our lives be be anxious for nothing before we go any further I want you to look at the word anxious at its root it's the idea of being divided or distracted like separated in your mind pulled in two directions several directions at one time something happens when we are mentally emotionally distracted pulled apart came across an interesting comment from a physician at first glance he writes there seems to be little connection between the physical act of strangling and the mental process of worrying however the word worry is derived from the old German worgen WR GE n wergin which means to choke somehow by extension the term came to be used to denote mental strangulation and then to describe the condition of being harassed with anxiety or care good word and here he says don't choke be anxious about nothing let me pause right there some of you are on the cusp of your of your ministry career and all of us in this room applaud you for doing your best and finishing the work you're very close to the end and soon we'll be there really you're close to the beginning now with that in front of you if you are not careful you will begin your ministry with a list of worries where will god take me where is it God has in mind for me to serve Him how will it work for me and how can I pull it off and all the things that relate to evangelistic enterprise or the kind of ministry that you have on your heart mission work that God's called you to do pastoral work counseling work whatever it may be maybe on to further study into the academic world and you'll be engaged in education in your future if you were not careful the worries will drain they will act like a siphon in your strength tank and so the Apostle writes with a real understanding he says do not allow that to happen in any area worry about nothing but in everything by prayer there's the antidote I think he's saying as the Living Bible reads worry about nothing pray about everything I often have congregations repeat that when I'm speaking from this passage worry about nothing pray about everything let's say that together worry about nothing pray about everything now the task is to carry that out both are commands but in everything by prayer supplication with Thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God he is ultimately the secret of overcoming this in our lives he is the secret there is a deburr denis can't handle there isn't a need he can't meet there isn't a concern on your heart the first of all he isn't already aware of before it ever comes into your mind he knows it altogether says Psalm 139 before there is even a thought you know it all now because of that he says bring it to me come to me with those those needs and I challenge every one of us to make a habit of that regularly tragically our worry list is often longer than our prayer list and they ought to be of equal length matching one another the worried situation met with a prayer specific prayer that says Lord this is beyond me I cannot handle this I can't work my way through it and of course the marvelous hope and the promise that the peace of God will march sentry duty around your heart go back to mark chapter 4 next if you will mark 4 we mentioned earlier that worry tends to strangle choke us but I love the parable of mark 4 not only because it's very simple in its in its word picture but the Lord doesn't leave you to interpret it and to work it out as best you can with the skills of exegesis he he answers each of the four kinds of soil for us Jesus is teaching in verse 3 he listened to this he write he says behold the sower went out to sow now there are four kinds of soil as he was sowing some seed fell beside the road the birds came in and ate it up the second kind other seed fell on the rocky ground where it did not have much soil and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of soil the Sun had risen after that had risen it was scorched and because it had no root it withered and a third kind of soil notice the seed is always the same it's the God's Word but the soil is different the the third category other seed fell among the thorns and the thorns came up and choked it and it yielded no crop and then there's a fourth kind of soil in verse eight fell into the good other seed fell into the good soil and it grew up and increased and yielded a crop and produced thirty sixty and a hundredfold now if you look as is my Bible across the column you'll see the verses that answer are interpret each of the soils verse fifteen interprets the soil mentioned in verse four look closely actually he starts at fourteen the solar so is the word so the seed is the word of God Jesus interprets it 15 now the first kind of soil these are the ones who are beside the road where the word is sown when they hear immediately Satan comes and takes away the word which has been sown in them the second is in verse 16 that answers to verse five in a similar way these are the ones on whom seed was sown on the rocky places who when they hear the word immediately receive it with joy but have no firm root in themselves are only temporary then when affliction persecution arises because of the word immediately they fall away in each case there's an immediate falling away it's the third category that is of interest to us and this is verses eighteen and nineteen interpreting verse seven eighteen and nineteen I have an arrow pointing up to verse seven in my Bible the others are the ones on whom seed was sown among the thorns these are the ones who have heard the word but look closely the worries of the world the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke there's our word worried chokes the word and it becomes unfruitful I don't know that you've ever really connected the two it was a long time in my life and ministry before I did that worried chokes out the life of the word it takes the fruit of what can be produced and it shrivels the fruit it cuts the plant back so that there isn't a producing of healthy juicy delectable and delicious fruit that comes notice the end of verse 19 it becomes unfruitful the it modifying the word the word having been sown and ready to bear its fruit in a life gets choked out by those things mentioned in verse 19 the the cares of the of the aged the deceitfulness brought on by riches and the desire for all the other things these are areas that you will deal with the balance of your years they will never go away you can't find a place where these things will be absent even if you are in the most remote as two places you will carry in your mind these things that will keep coming back keep strangling the word I've written down several thoughts regarding why worry is wrong and and each of them leads to something that becomes for us a drag a an anchor that holds us back from God's best in our lives number one anxiety highlights the human viewpoint it strangles God's viewpoint and we become fearful when I get only a horizontal perspective on something it isn't long before fear encroaches and I began to see things like statistics trends I began to read the signs of the stuff around me and much of that begins to build fear and God isn't the author of fear already I have I have faith choked and fear taking its place anxiety highlights the human viewpoint and it strangles God's viewpoint secondly anxiety chokes our ability to distinguish the incidental from the essentials so we get distracted we're not able to filter out what is really essential what would be called priorities the room of the Matthew 6:33 kind of things and and the other things that are mentioned in this 18th and 19th this these two verses become more important we get distracted the first result is fear the second is distraction third it twists worries around our minds so we cannot relax and we become unfruitful impatient when I am caught up in worry a patience flies away I am I Drive too fast I am I am NOT thoughtful of others I am I'm rude to my wife and I am Curt and short with people it happens because I have the worries strangling what would otherwise be the fruit of the Spirit in my life and when I analyze it I realize Here I am again same song can't verse forth weary siphons our energy and our joy making us judgmental of others so we become negative see the fruit we become fearful distracted unfruitful and negative as one man put it we are perhaps unique among the Earth's creatures we are the only animal who worries we worry away our lives fearing the future discontent with the present unable to take in the idea of dying unable to sit still I would be easy just to close it up and say well may the Lord you know bless his word today but we're not going to do that I want you to go - oh you're not getting off that easy we're going to go to Luke chapter 10 and we're going to see an example of how this worked its way out in a domestic setting the end of Luke 10 verse 38 down through verse 42 when we turn the pages we move from a scene in the field where the sower sowing a word we're moving now to a domestic setting in the little hamlet of Bethany where Lazarus and Martha and Mary are living their lives and what is interesting is the the interplay between the two women in the home they were apparently none of them were yet married if they did marry and apparently they were all still living together and Martha seems to be the oldest she has what I call the head nurse syndrome that we see come to the surface here look at 38 as they were traveling along he entered a village and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home that's why I suggest she may be the oldest of the three it's called her home had a sister called Mary who was seated at the Lord's feet listening to his word but Martha was distracted now you know what would I speak on this I've often had women named Martha write me a note so don't do that okay if you if you are named it just so happens that her name could have been Sally or could have been you know barb but it happens to be Martha so don't don't take it personally however take it personally if it's if it describes you regardless of your name Martha is unlike Mary what's she doing was she's all up in out of shape they're under wearing a wad she's concerned about what's happened here and how can I take care of feeding all these people that had just come along and and they're hungry and and here's Mary sitting down there on heard of and I'm in here in the kitchen trying to get everything ready on time and it isn't coming together and so Mary's drinking in all the good stuff Martha's distracted what with all her preparations so she came up to him this is a good point a good scene and she said Lord do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone tell her to help me see she says that to the Lord she's really saying it to Mary and it's easy to do that you can do that in prayer lord I pray for so-and-so who is right now a real bother to me and a concern to others and on and on we go we sort of tell the Lord on him just tell them if you have a problem with it so Martha could have very easily said Mary I need help come in here and help me out but she doesn't do that she says to the Lord I tell her what does she's distracted she is preoccupied with her worrying tell her to help me I often thought that took a lot of guts to command Jesus to do something I mean I expect that kind of a lightning bolt to break through the windows a moment like that until I realize I've done that I haven't you done that it's Heidi's Lord hurry up you know when he just takes forever to get something done or step in Lord meet this need and we kind of we sort of grit our teeth with our prayer she's saying tell her help me I love the answer Lord says to her Martha Martha you are worried and bothered about so many things all of the incidentals what does it matters bunch of guys you know just throw anything at him they'll eat it we allowed we had a UCLA plate on the UCLA championship team years ago and live with his name is Kip Tucker we were in Irving and Kent was a student at seminary at the time and catch stood about stands about six feet six played defensive end for the Bruins and we knew him in California so when we were here he lived with us in Irving and and he stayed with us that summer and here's to stand and open the refrigerator and he would just stare and it is his glasses would walk over he'd be there so long and I'd say you're hungry says yeah he's I tell you Chuck I'm not particular what I eat I just need a lot of it and so he would eat uh usually four meals a day and then polish it off with three two or three peanut butter and jelly sandwiches the entity serious peanut butter spread on this on the bread that that was that's the way guys are and so she's all worried about napkins matching the tablecloth and then Martha get a life just throw it in a trough or they'll throw their face in it and suck they lead it doesn't matter she's all worried about everything matching and and fitting together and coming out just right and and Jesus is rebuked is so wonderful Martha Martha it's kind of like when your daddy says that to you sometime Martha come on Martha you you're bothered about so many things only one thing is necessary dr. Pender College teaches in this I've heard him say this it could very well have met one dish would have been sufficient what just one thing the Pentecost is a man he understands man you just just did it you know Fritos dip is anything one thing mary has chosen the good part which will not be taken away from her implying you haven't now there's everything right about wanting to serve the meal as everything right about wanting it to come out nice and and it's so it's a way of expressing oneself if that happens to be your realm of giftedness we all love that but easy to be distracted I've shared this story and dr. Hendricks has said through it each time his wife Jean writes this in a wonderful book called a woman for all seasons she calls us the tale of two sisters and very vulnerable e says frustration is a very real problem some years ago I was hostessing a Thanksgiving dinner in our little home which happened to be short on kitchen counter space the Lord and I had many conversations about the fact that the house was just too small but he kept saying wait I was doing the best I could I thought shortly before it was time to serve the meal I slipped into the hot kitchen to check on my roasting turkey as I was lifting it from one place to another in a space too tight for efficient operation it slipped and fell right down on the floor the turkey on the floor two thoughts flashed one the floor is clean is that good and the second one fits fits in nicely nobody's here floors clean nobody's seeing it I grabbed it lifted it to the platter grateful that no one had witnessed my clumsiness suddenly I felt this huge surge of self-pity I leaned up against the wall and tears of frustration came to my eyes I mean there are a hundred times in my life I understand her in my heart I said Lord I told you so see we do that kind of thing as if the Lord goes oh I didn't know you're gonna drop that I mean Lord I told you so now look at what's happened it's all your fault then I heard the laughter and the talking from the other room and I suddenly felt so ashamed what if somebody should come and see me crumpled in such dejection I grabbed newspaper put it over the mess on the floor and decided I'd have it hot with the Lord later on I I think I know a little of how Martha fell before we get too stuffy and kind of proud of our patients let's be careful about criticizing Martha a lot more of us in the Martha category than the Mary you're going to find yourself in ministry sometimes just with your fists clenched you're going to find people won't change like you would pray for them to change and you poured your life into them and you've done everything but get on your knees before them and beg him to take this seriously this is this is life and they're right on in their carnality they'll go right on with their gossip they go right on with their caustic comments a negative attitude and you'll you'll just kind of have it out with a lorry as if he doesn't know all of that and you start thinking things that aren't true like his word isn't effective or like prayer doesn't work or like the Holy Spirit is not able to handle this situation although that is heretical you know why you do it because worry strangles us Mary chose the thing that was best and none of that will be taken away from her so I want to close the message with a little mathematics okay here's my way of applying it I worry when I add I I worry when I add more things to an already full schedule that I have no business adding when I add pressure by thinking my image and reputation are involved in this when I add expectations to what hasn't happened I worry when I add and that makes me angry I say to my own shame that makes me angry when I do those things I worry when I subtract when I subtract God's presence from my crisis I worry when I subtract his presence from my crisis I worry when I subtract prayer from my day I've noticed when my days are with less prayer those are days with more worry without exception the day of more prayer is a day of less worry exactly like Philippians for teachers I worry when I subtract perspective from the moment of difficulty perspective plays such a major role in our lives and that makes me doubt when I add I get mad when I subtract I doubt third I worry when I multiply when I multiply my problems by inserting human solutions especially too quickly and I'm so good at that I'm so creative when it comes to solving issues and almost without exception I regret stepping in I worry when I multiply human solutions so rapidly that I missed the perspective when I multiply my fears with imagination what if maybe this could happen and that makes me afraid when I multiply I become afraid and I'm not the leader God would have me be I'm reluctant I'm hesitant I went through about a year of this and another church and I was not the man God wanted me to be the first one to notice it and perhaps the one who noticed it best and most often was my wife and she very graciously but very pointedly said to me you're sort of losing ground here seems like you're afraid and I sobbed I said you are exactly right she says let's go with this together let's see what it is and I realized that I had multiplied my imagination to the situation which had sort of set fire to the field and I had painted in my mind thing which by the way they never happened it's the way it is with worry rarely happens like the woman who worried for 30 years that she'd die of cancer finally died of pneumonia never had cancer spent 30 wasted years worrying over cancer I worry when I divide when I divide life into the secular and the sacred when I divide my day into the Lord's part and my part there isn't any such thing and that makes me forget and so angry and doubting and afraid and forgetting I feel a lot like Martha and I have a lot of understanding for her I've stopped criticizing Martha's because of the things I have experienced in my own life I like us to bow our heads just sit quietly right there I think I've spoken a day to people who under understand the math and I say to you without any judgment whatever I understand why don't you and I just agree together that prayer will have first priority so that the Lord gets it early on whatever may be that situation that we're worried about and then we're going to leave it with him and that part will never be taken away from you I know I speak to some of you today in desperate situations some of you have domestic needs that are beyond anybody's comprehension I think of our friend Greg Hatteberg right now it was one of my heroes day after day lives with what he lives with I think of others of you who have lost her mates I've never gone through that how lonely it must be how easy it would be to worry let's agree that we'll pray worried about nothing pray about everything our Father we do commit to you this list of things that has taken precedence over our better judgment and certainly eclipsed our faith and today we pause and we laid in before you you know the end from the beginning you know the answer far better than we even know the problem and we know that you are at work right now it'll come to pass before they call I will answer and while they're yet speaking I will hear and we trust you for the things that we have been worrying about and we leave the results with you in the name of Jesus everybody said amen you

Channel: Dallas Theological Seminary

Views: 118,566

Keywords: doubt, anxiety, difficulty, trust, Dallas Theological Seminary, Dr. Charles Swindoll, Philippians 4, Luke 10

Id: 3M0ZgCWvN0o

Length: 41min 58sec (2518 seconds)

Published: Tue May 08 2012