Rick Warren - How to Keep from Stressing Out—Part One

Hey, thanks for joining us today on Pastor Rick's Daily Hope,

the Bible teaching Ministry of Rick Warren. And today we're

continuing our series called the Habits of Happiness. In this series,

Rick dives into the Book of Philippians and helps you

discover God's path to true and lasting happiness. And now

let's get to Rick. Here's part one of a message

called how to Keep from Stressing Out.

I read a headline that said that personal stress worldwide

is now at near record levels, near record levels, the

highest it's been really since about World War Two.

So I decided to do a little.

Research on this, and I found out that today suicide

has now passed car crashes as the number one injury

death in America. The number one injury death in America

is now suicide. I read another statistic that the top

seven stresses in life are number one your job, number two, money, three, health, relationships,

poor diet, media overload, lack of sleep, and parking at saddleback.

I made up that last one. Obviously, maybe you could

identify with this. I got this note Pestorick. A few

weeks ago, I went to a doctor for some chronic

aches and pains that seemed to be getting worse. I

don't sleep well and I live in a constant state

of fatigue. I told my doctor that I started a

business seven years ago that's become very, very successful, but

I now mist forced myself to go in to work.

I feel overwhelmed. I feel overloaded. So my doctor asked

me to list the stresses in my life and then

think up some possible ways to reduce those stresses, and

then write down a plan of attack. I'd like to

know what the Bible says about stress management.

Today.

We're going to look at the classic text in the

entire Bible on how to keep from stressing out. We've

been in this series through the Book of Philippians, and

as we come to chapter four, Paul gives us in

verses six to thirteen the classic anti stress management recipe.

If you have a Bible, you can open the Philippians

chapter four. If you then bring a Bible, that's okay,

just pull out these notes. All the verses we're going

to look at are inside your bulletin on this text

passage outline. Now, the key to this is that this

passage actually comes with a stress management guarantee and guaranteed

by a doctor. It's guaranteed by God, So you really

want to pay attention to this one if you want

to lower the stress in your life. In verse seven,

we have the promised guarantee. Here's what it says. If

you do these things, you will experience God's peace. There

you go, you will experience God's peace, which is far

more wonderful than the human mind can understand. The Bible

calls this the peace that passes understanding. How do you

know when you have the peace that passes understanding.

You're in a.

Situation when you have no logical reason to be at peace,

and you are. That's the peace that passes understanding. When

you're in a situation where you're in total chaos, total meltdown,

total stress, total tension, everything is going wrong at the

same time, and yet you're at peace inside. That is

the peace that passes understanding. And God says, I guarantee

this for you. You do these things, you'll experience God's peace,

which is far more wonderful than the human mind could understand.

His peace will keep your thoughts quiet and keep your

heart at rest. Wouldn't you like that to have your

thoughts quiet and your heart at rest? As you trust

in Christ Jesus. Now God promises a more peaceful, less

stressed mind.

Is anybody interested in this? Yeah, yeah, I think so.

Now you know that there are over seven thousand promises

in the Bible. But with every promise there is a promise.

God says, if you do this, then I'll do this.

There is a condition, and I want you to circle

the premise for this promise, and it is those first

several words. If you do these things, circle that. If

you do these things, it's going to keep you from

stressing out. You will experience God's peace. His peace will

keep your thoughts quiet, keep your hearts at rest as

you trust in Christ Jesus. If you do these things.

What things, Well, that's what we're going to look at today.

And there specifically are five things that God says to

do in this passage. He says, I want you to

worry about nothing. I want you to pray about everything.

I want you to thank God in all things. I

want you to keep your mind on good things, and

I want you to be content in all things. Now

we're going to look at these in detail, so let's

get right into it. If you're taking notes, here's the

first step. If I want to keep from stressing out

number one, refuse to worry about anything. Refuse to worry

about anything. Why Because the number one source of stress

in your life is not work, It is worry. You

may be overworked, but it's more likely you are over worried.

Work doesn't keep you up at night. Worry does, and

most of you are over worried. Now, God is very

clear in the Bible what he thinks about worry, and

that's the first verse, verse six. The first part of

the first verse, verse six, Philippians sport says this, never

worry about anything a circle, never encircle anything, never worry

about anything.

Question. Is there any wiggle room in that verse? No?

Is there any exception? No, is there any exemption? No

is there any reason where God says it's okay to

worry in this circumstance. No, never worry about anything. That's

about as big a blanket statement as you can make.

He says, in no circule, Well what about no, never

worry about anything? But what about no, never worry about anything?

But what about no?

Never worry about anything? Now, Jesus thought worry with such

an important topic that He's spent a major section of

his most famous sermons called the Sermon on the Mount

talking about worry, and in that Sermon on the Mount,

he gives a the four reasons you should never worry

about anything. You might want to write these down. Number one,

Jesus says about worry. Worry is unreasonable. It's illogical, it

is unreasonable. It doesn't make sense. Matthew six twenty five.

Jesus says this, don't worry about your life. Don't worry

about your life what you'll eat or drink, or about

your body or what you wear. Is not life more

important than food, and is not the body more important

than clothes. He's saying, this is not logical. You get

your priorities out of order. It's irrational, it's it doesn't

make sense. It's unreasonable. Now, why is worry unreasonable? No,

there's a couple of reasons. First, because worry exaggerates the problem.

It never makes a problem smaller, It always makes it bigger.

Have you know somebody says something bad about you, The

more you think about it, the bigger it gets. Are

you got a problem you start worrying about. The more

you worry about it, does the problem shrink with your worry?

No, it always gets bigger.

Worry exaggerates. It's irrational, it's unreasonable. It makes it bigger.

It grows the problem out of proportion. And not only

does is worry exaggerating your problem. Worry doesn't work, it

never has worked. It is worthless. It is stewing without doing.

It doesn't make any difference.

In your life.

See, to worry about something you can't change is useless,

and to worry about something you can change stupid. Just

go change it. In either case, worry is not the answer.

Worry doesn't work. It's unreasonable. Second, Jesus says, worry is unnatural.

There are no born worriers. You might think you are,

but you're not. You're not a born warrior. You learned it.

Worry is something you learn now. The good news is

if you learn to worry, it can be Yeah, unlearned.

Now you learned it. And actually to get good at it,

you gotta practice it. Some of you are pros at worry.

You have practiced it so much. You are so good

at worrying.

You are you?

I mean, you get the PhD if you if they

had Olympics on worry.

You'd get a ten.

Okay, because you have practiced it so much, but it's learned.

Worry is not natural. No baby is born worrying.

They pick it up from everybody else. Now, Jesus says

in Matthew six twenty six, look at the birds of

the air. They don't sow a reeve or store away

in barns, and your heavenly father feeds them.

Are you not much more valuable than they?

If anybody's on God's welfare program, it's birds. They don't

do anything except birdie things.

Tweet that's it. Well, I tweet.

Maybe they tweet too. Look at the birds of the air,

they don't sew a reeve, But he says, your heavenly

father feeds them. Notice you're heavenly fathers talking about the birds.

Heavenly father. He's saying, you are heavenly father.

Now, if God is your heavenly father and you are

his child, children get special privileges, and children of royalty

are treated royally. And he says, what are you worrying about?

Birds?

Don't worry, and they're not even God's not their father.

God's their creator, but not their father. God's your father.

Don't worry about it. Verse twenty eight, twenty nine. Jesus says,

and why do you worry about clothes? And why do

you worry about clothes? Look at the lilies of the field,

the field lilies. They they don't worry about theirs. Yet

King Solomon, in all his glory, was never clothed as

beautifully as they are. He's saying, in all of God's creation,

in the entire universe, only human beings worry. We are

the only thing God made that doesn't trust him. And

he says worry is unnatural. He says, God says, you're

valuable or valuable than these things.

I take care of them.

By the way, since worry is unnatural, it's also unhealthy

that He wasn't designed to handle worry. It wasn't design.

When people say I'm worried sick, they're telling the truth.

And doctors say a lot of people could leave hospitals

today if they knew how to get rid of guilt, resentment,

and worry, because that's what puts most people in. And

see what I'm saying is it's not so much what

you eat, it's what he's you. It's what he's you

that makes you sick. It's the worry in your life.

It's not just unnatural, it's unhealthy causes all kinds of

health problems. The Bible says this Proverb's twelve twenty five.

An anxious heart weighs a man down. Oh you know

that one, and you feel like you're just pulled down

by the worries. You know, the word worry actually comes

from an old English word which means to strangle or

to choke. That's what worry comes from, to strangle or choke.

And when every time you worry, you are strangling and

choking the life out of your life. An anxious heart

weighs the men down. Look at the opposite Roberts fourteen

thirty says, but a heart at peace gives life to

the body.

You want to be healthier, You need to.

Stop worrying, never worry about anything. Why it's unreasonable and

it's unnatural. The third thing, Jesus says, it's unhelpful. It's unhelpful.

Worry cannot make you one inch taller. Worry can't make

you one inch shorter. Worry can't take ten inches off

my waist. If it could, it would have. Worry cannot

lengthen your life. It can shorten your life. Though we

know that worry cannot change the past, and worry cannot

control the future. It messes up today. That's all it does.

It doesn't change the past, it can't change control the future.

It just messes up today. It's kind of like sitting

in a rocking chair. You expend a lot of energy,

but you don't make any progress. You're just It's useless.

The only thing that worry changes is you. It makes

you miserable. He has never solved the problem. It's unhelpful.

And then the fourth reason why the Bible says never

worry about anything is because it's unnecessary. God says, what

in the world you're worrying about? Don't you think I'm

going to take care of you? Don't you think I'm

going to meet your needs. I made you, I created you,

I saved you, I love you, I put my spirit

in you.

Don't you think I'm going to take care of your needs.

It's unhelpful, but it's also unnecessary. There's no need to worry.

Jesus says this in Matthew six thirty. You know, if

God cares so wonderfully for flowers that are here today

and gone tomorrow, think of all the beautiful flowers that

are never seen by human beings, but God takes care

of him. He said, if God cares so wonderfully for

flowers that are here today and gone tomorrow, won't he

most surely care for you, oh you of little faith.

The Bible says this one Peter five seven. Unload all

your worries on God, since he is looking after you.

And I love that word unload because literally, in the

original Greek, it means to just drop. It's not like

take a long throw of it, like you're throwing a

baseball or throwing a rock across the lake.

It just says unload. It means let it go, let

it go.

And God says, you know, all those things you're stressing

about this morning, all those things you're anxious, you're worried,

you're fearful, you're uppied about.

Let it go. Let it go. Never worry about anything,

because it's not going to do any good anyway. So

what do you do? Anyway?

You do the next step, and that's the second part

of this verse. First part of verse six says never

worry about anything. The second part is talk to God

about everything. That's the second step. You talk to God

about everything. Don't panic pray, don't worry, worship, stop talking

to yourself about all the stuff to stress you out,

and start talking to God. Talking to yourself won't do anything,

but talking to God will. He's saying, talk to God

about everything. This is the second part of this verse

Philippians four to six. Never worry about anything. Instead, in

every situation, let God know what you need in your

prayers and in your request. You know, I got to

thinking yesterday, if you prayed as much as you worry,

you'd have a whole lot less to worry about. And

by the way, God, since God has promised to care

for you, if it's not worth praying about, it's not

worth worrying about. He says, talk to God about everything.

God knows what you need in your prayers. You know,

when I was a kid, anytime I had a need

in my life, I would I'd go talk to my dad,

say Dad, I need this. And sometimes it was something

that cost, something that's expensive, and I said, Dad, I

need I can distinctly remember that not once as a

kid when I said God, Dad, I need this. Never

once did I worry about where my father was going

to get the money. Never once, because that's not my job.

It's my dad's job to figure out where the money

is going to come from. It was my job as

a kid, as a child, to simply ask. It's not

your job to figure out how God's going to do it.

It's your job to ask, to ask your heveny fellows, father,

I need this help you. See, when you worry instead

of asking, you're acting like an atheist. Worry is practical atheism.

That's what it is. It's acting like I don't have

a heavenly Father in my life. It's acting like God

doesn't exist. It's acting like I'm a spiritual orphan. Worry

is practical atheism. God says I'll take care of you.

It's acting like God can't be trusted. Now here's what

the Bible says. Look in your outline, James four two.

You do not have because what you do not ask,

you do not ask God. So here's the second key

to stress management. Worry less, ask more, worry less, ask more.

Instead of worrying, pray, worry about nothing, pray about everything.

He said, Well, I don't want to bother God with

this little bitty, tiny little thing. There's nothing tiny to God.

Every problem in your life is tiny. To God, there's

no big problems in your life. There are no little

problems in your life, because all of them are tiny

to God. Now here's what the Bible says in Romans

chapter eight thirty two. Since God did not spare even

his own son Jesus, but gave him up for us.

All he died on the cross for us. Won't he

give us Christ? Who won't he who give us Christ

also give us everything else we need?

What's he saying here? Follow the lodge?

Your biggest problem is getting into heaven, because heaven's perfect

and you're not, and neither am I. I stopped batting

a thousand about breath number three, and so God came

up with plan B. He came to Earth in human form,

and he said, I'll live a perfect life and I'll

die for you, and you can get into heaven on

my ticket. It's grace. I don't work it, I don't

earn it, I don't deserve it, I don't buy it.

It's just grace. I told you last.

Week that one of my mentors was Peter Drucker, and

I asked Peter one time. Peter, at one point, did

you step across the line and accept a relationship with Jesus.

He said, you know, Rick, the day that I understood

Grace for the first time, I realized I'm never getting

a better deal. There was no way I'm getting into

heaven on my goodness. I'm not good enough.

He says.

If God did not spurs on Sun but gave him

for us, won't he give us everything that Christ has

given to us? Won't he give us everything else we need?

If God solved my biggest problem, everything else is small

by comparison. If God loved you enough to die for

your sins, don't you think he loves you enough to

help you with your finances?

Don't you think he.

Loves you enough to help you with your health, with

your relationships, with the career decision, with closing a deal,

with making a sale. Yeah, there is no area of

your life that God is not interested in. The Bible

says he has the hairs on your head number now

for some of this that's not too hard. But God

knows every hair in your head, and even the ones

you left in the sink this morning.

That's how detailed. I don't even know how many hair

is on my.

Head, but God does. God says, I all care for you,

and I'll care for all of your life. So one

of the dumbest things you can say is God, I'll

handle this. Really, when he's offered to take care of

every air of your life, to say, God, I'll handle this.

Why you want to lower the stress in your life.

Worry about nothing and pray about everything. Number three, The

third thing he tells us to do is to thank

God in all things. Thank God in all things. Now,

I doesn't say thank God for all things, because there's

a lot of things you shouldn't be thankful for. There's

pain in the world, there's evil in the world. Somebody

gets cancer, you don't have to thank God for cancer.

Somebody dies, you don't have to think thank God for

their death. But it says in all things, give thanks,

which means even in the bad times, I can find

something good. Now here's the third part of that verse

Philippians four to six. He says, you know, worry about nothing,

and then he says, when you ask God for what

you need, also thank him. Circle that thank Him for

all he's done. Always ask with a thankful heart. Today's

English version said, now, I'm not going to belabor this

point because twice already in this series, we've talked about

the connection between gratitude and happiness. You cannot be happy

and ungrateful at the same time. Happy people are grateful people.

Unhappy people are ungrateful people. Study after study after study

has shown that the healthiest emotion known to human beings

is the attitude of gratitude. And the more you build

gratitude in your life, the more happy and the more

healthy you're going to be. And the in fact, study

is shown that having an attitude of gratitude actually raises

your immunities, and being ungrateful and being resentful actually lowers

your immunity to other things in life. We know that

gratitude is one of the remedies for depression because it

gets my eyes off myself and gets it on other people.

Instead of looking at what I don't have, I look

at what I do have. It's a stress reliever, gets

the focus off me. Ungrateful people are unhappy people. He says,

when you ask God, don't just ask, but also thank him.

Always ask with a thankful heart. Now, the fact is

I can always find something to be grateful for. We've

talked about this for on the cover of K's last

book on choosing joy. There is a pair of railroad tracks,

and it's representative of life that on in your life.

You're always you've got two rails at the same time.

One rail of the good things that are happening in

your life, and the other rail are the bad things

that are happening in your life. Now, I used to

think that life was a series of hills and valleys,

mountaintops and load times, and you know, you have all

of these good times and you have all these bad times.

But that's not really true.

The fact is you get them both at the same

time all of your life. In other words, there's no

time in your life when everything is good and there's

nothing bad in your life, and there's no time when

everything is bad and there's nothing good in your life.

No matter how good things are going on in your life,

there's always something you need to be working on. And

no matter how bad things are in your life, there's

always something you can be thankful for. Be grateful for,

and so I can always find something. And this is

the third step for stress reduction. Be thankful and thank

God in all things. This is exactly what the Bible says.

First Thessalonians five eighteen says this in everything circle that.

Now it doesn't say in most things. It says in everything,

not four, but in everything give thanks for This is

the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. You know,

people ask me, not time Rick, I'm just trying to

figure out what God wants me to do with my life.

What is God's will for my life? There it is

right there. This is the will of God for you.

And before God shows you step two, you need to

take step one. God does have a will and a

plan for your life, your marriage, your career, your education,

and everything else. Before we get to those specifics, Gods says,

let's work on the general. The first thing is I

want you to learn to be grateful in every situation.

This is the will of God for you. You know.

One of the things you ask about us most here

on Daily Hope are the Bible scripture cards. We get

a ton of requests for them. So Pastor Rick has

created another deck of scripture cards with fifty two key

verses from his Habits of Happiness teaching series. These verses

will help you discover God's path to true and lasting happiness.

They're colorful, eye catching cards, and they make it easy

to memorize the Word of God so you have it

when you need it most. Something you hear Pastor Rick

talking about all the time, so be sure to ask

for the Habits of Happiness scripture cards. When you support

Pastor Rick's Daily Hope with a gift to help share

the hope of Jesus Christ with people all around the world,

it's our way of saying thanks. Just go to Pastorick

dot com to get your copy of this great resource.

That's Pastorick dot com. Or you can just text the

word hope to seven oh three oh nine. Again, that's

the word hope to seven oh three oh nine, and

thank you so much for your support. Your gift to

Daily Hope helps us share the Hope of Christ with

people everywhere.

Be sure to.

Join us next time as we look into God's Word

for our daily hope. This program is sponsored by Pastor

Rick's Daily Hope and your generous financial support.