Peace Amidst Stress | Philippians 4:4-7

INTRODUCTION

Have you come across situations where all of a sudden you are very forgetful? You are not able to think straight. You do not know where you left your keys. And you get ready, lock your home, walk to the car only to realize that you have not taken the car keys. You go to the supermarket to buy things and you have forgotten what your wife actually told you to buy. Or you go out to do something and all of a sudden you forget what you came out for. Then you worry and ask yourself, “Why am I here in the first place?”

I can relate to such times when I have gone through severe stress in my life. We all have such cycles of stress in our lives and especially with the increase of online jobs, stress is at an all time high.

According to a Gallop study in 2019: 1/3^rd of the world population reported feeling stressed.

The Hindu newspaper reported on Dec. 8, 2020; 7/10 Indians experience stress at work on a weekly basis.

Stress is one of the major contributors of Suicide. Indian National Crime Records Bureau records 61 suicides every day, documented.

Personal stress worldwide has skyrocketed from the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. More than three-quarter of adults reports symptoms of stress including headache, tiredness, or sleeping problems.

The top stressors in life:

Money

Job

Relationships

Health

Media overload

Lack of sleep

Research has found that stress increases our cortisol level (called the stress hormone) in the body which clouds our thinking, increases our heart rate, shoots up the blood sugar, blood pressure and blood cholesterol levels.

Results in: Headaches, muscle aches and pain, insomnia, low energy, contributes to diabetes, hypertension, gut problems, and heart attacks.

Do you feel stressed out? Do you feel you have more than you can handle?

HF: Today we are going to look at the classic text in the Bible on how to keep from stressing out.

Philippians 4:4-7

⁴Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! ⁵Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. ⁶Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. ⁷And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

God promises a more peaceful and less stressful mind. What are the things we need to do according to this passage?

• Worry About Nothing
• Pray About Everything.
• Thank God In All Things.
• Keep Your Mind On Good Things.
• Be Content In All Things.

Let us see this in detail:

If I have to keep myself from stressing out.

1. WORRY ABOUT NOTHING.

REFUSE TO WORRY ABOUT ANYTHING!

The No. 1 source of stress in your life is worry. You may be overworked but you maybe be stressed by worry. Work does not keep you up at night, worry does. Most of us are over worried.

Philippians 4:6

Do not be anxious about anything…

Never worry about anything.

Worry is unhealthy.

Your body was not designed to handle worry. It causes all kinds of health problems.

Proverbs 12:25

Anxiety weighs down the heart, but a kind word cheers it up.

The word worry comes from the Old English wyrgan, which originally meant “strangle,” “harass,” and “cause anxiety to.”

When every time you worry, you are choking yourself.

Proverbs 12:25

Anxiety weighs down the heart….

See the opposite verse:

Proverbs 14:3

 A heart at peace gives life to the body.

Transition to the sermon on the Mount. Jesus spent a major section on his teaching on the sermon on the Mount talking about worry. In the sermon, Jesus gives the 4 reasons you should never worry about anything,.

a. Worry Is Unreasonable

It is illogical, it is unreasonable, it never makes sense.

Matthew 6:25

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 

Why is worry unreasonable?

Because worry exaggerates the problem. It always makes a problem bigger. The more you think about the problem, it gets bigger. It grows the problem out of proportion. Worry does not work. It does not make any difference in your life.

• To worry about something you cannot change is useless.
• To worry about something you can change is foolish. Better go and change it.

In either case worry does not work. It is unreasonable.

b. Worry Is Unnatural

In the entire universe the only creations of God that worry are human beings. The animals and birds do not worry.

Worry is learned and we need to unlearn to worry. We have practiced to worry so much, we need to unlearn it. No baby is born worrying. In all of God’s creation only human beings worry.

Matthew 6:26

Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

If God is your heavenly Father, what are you worrying about?

Matthew 6:28-29

“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.

Never worry about anything because:

1. It is unreasonable
2. It is unnatural

c. Worry Is Unhelpful

Matthew 6:27

Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

Worry cannot make you 1 inch taller or can it make you 1 inch shorter. Worry cannot take down my weight. It cannot lengthen your life, but it can shorten your life. Worry cannot change the future. All worry does is to spoil our everyday joy. It messes up today. That is what worry does. Worry makes you miserable.

d. Worry Is Unnecessary

Matthew 6:30

If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?

Your worry is unnecessary. Your joy is your choice. You are joyful because you choose to be joyful. And so worry is a choice. You don’t have to worry. You are worried because you choose to worry.

So the first step in stress management is to refuse to worry about anything.

Why:

• Worry is unreasonable
• It is unnatural
• It is unhelpful
• And it is unnecessary.

ILLUSTRATION

A family had put their Grandma on her first plane flight, but she hadn’t been very confident about the experience of flying on an aeroplane. When they met her at the airport on her return, one of the family members kidded her by asking, “Well, did the plane hold you up okay?” She grudgingly replied, “Well, yes,” and then quickly added, “But I never did put my full weight down on it!”

Many Christians are like that Grandma. The truth is, they’re being sustained completely by God, but they’re afraid to put their full weight down on Him. As a result, they’re plagued by anxiety and aren’t able to enjoy the flight.

1 Peter 5:7

Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

Let it go, like casting a net into the sea.

So the first part of destressing your life is never worry about anything.

2. Pray About Everything.

Talk to God about everything.

Philippians 4:6

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

Don’t worry, pray.

Stop talking to yourself about all that stuff, start talking to God. Talking to yourself will not do anything, but talking to God will.

If you pray as much as you worry, you will have a whole less to worry about.

If it is not worth praying about, it is not worth worrying about.

ILLUSTRATION

When I was a kid, anytime I had a need I would go to talk to dad about it. When my children need something, they come to me and ask what they want. It is not their job to figure out how I am going to get the money. It is not your job to figure out how God is going to do it. But your job to ask.

When you worry instead of asking, you are acting like an atheist or a spiritual orphan.

James 4:2-3

You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

• Worry less, ask more.
• Instead of worrying, pray
• Worry about nothing, pray about everything.

Romans 8:32

He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

3. Thank God In All Things

Philippians 4:6

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

Study says that the healthiest emotion of human beings is the attitude of gratitude. There is a connection with gratitude and joy. Joyful people are grateful people, unhappy people are ungrateful people.

Gratitude Improves mental health

One 2020 study showed that regularly practicing gratitude can help ease symptoms of anxiety and depression. An older study from 2003 noted that gratitude was linked to improved mood. Practicing gratitude fosters positive feelings and can contribute to a sense of well-being when done regularly.

Benefits of gratitude (Amin, 2014).

The benefits are split into five groups:

• Emotional benefits
• Social benefits
• Personality benefits
• Career benefits
• Health benefits

Instead of looking at what I don’t have, I look at what I have and I am thankful for it.

Always ask God with a thankful heart. We always have our wish list or want list when we come to God. But, do you look at what God has already given you and thank God for that?

We can always find something to be thankful for.

What we found out is that in life you have this good things and bad things happening simultaneously in our life.

No matter how good things are happening in your life, there will be something that you need to be working for that causes concern.

No matter how difficult things are for you, there is always something you can look at and be thankful to God for.

Thank God in everything. This is exactly what the scripture says.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

What is the will of God in your life? People are waiting to know God’s will in their lives. It is to give thanks. The first thing before you seek for anything in your life is to give thanks to God for all what God has given to you.

If I want to reduce the stress in my life.

1. I worry about nothing.
2. I pray about everything.
3. I thank God in all things.

4. Think About Good Things.

I think about Good things.

The war with stress in your life is going on in your mind. The stress in in here. The battle is then your mind or brain or your thought life. Your war with stress has to be won by God’s grace in your mind. What you fill your mind with will determine the level of stress in your life. If you want peace of mind, you need to start to take control of what you allow in your mind. Most people’s minds are like a freeway or playground, anything can drive through it. Whatever you put in your mind, will come out of your mind.

What kind of people are you talking to? People who put all the negativity in your mind?

The kinds of shows that we watch, the kinds of things that we watch and let your ears to listen occupy your mind. When we take the things of the world, we pollute our mind. We have air pollution, water pollution, environment pollution but we must be more concerned about our mind pollution. What kind of stuffs do you feed your mind with?

Philippians 4:8

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

Listen, Paul here gives us 8 tests to see if we need to allow something to our mind or not. Before you listen to something, or someone or watch something you must ask these questions:

• Is it true,
• Good or noble,
• Right
• Pure
• Beautiful or lovely
• Respected or admirable
• Excellent or Praiseworthy
• Is it Worthy of honor?

Even before you watch anything on Television or your phone ask these questions. The characters displayed today in the entertainment world are not honourable: The story line itself is not worthy of honor. We feed our mind on all these things. No wonder our next generation has no interest in God, because we as parents have allowed the world to come right into our homes.

Proverbs 14:9

Fools mock at making amends for sin.

Do you know what is true, Good, Right, Pure, Beautiful, Respected, Excellent, is worthy of honor? It is the scripture of God. It is to fix our eyes and thinking on God.

Isaiah 26:3

You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.

If you fix your thoughts on God, he says He will keep you in perfect peace.

What you think about will determined how stressed and how worried you are.

Illustration

Corrie Ten Boom was a Dutch Christian young woman. They lived in Haarlem during World War II. Her family was in the watchmaking business. She wrote a book called “The Hiding Place” which was later released as a movie. During World War II this Christian family took in Jewish friends in what was called the hiding place for many years to prevent them from being captured by the Nazis and shipped off to death camps. One day the Nazis found out and not only took the Jewish friends but also took Corrie and her family, and they were taken to the death camps in Poland. Corrie lost her entire family, she is the only one who survived.

In this story she says:

“If you look at the world, you’ll be distressed. If you look within, you’ll be depressed. If you look at God you‘ll be at rest.” ― Corrie Ten Boom.

It all depends on what you have your eyes on. I want to look at Christ.

Think about good things.

5. Be Content

Be content in all things. This is the 5^th key to living a stress reduced life.

A lot of people think to be content means to have no ambition. Contentment has nothing to do with ambition. Contentment is not laziness. It is not complacency. Contentment is not apathy, lack of interest. It is not fatalism.

Contentment is enjoying what I have right now, rather than waiting for something else to happen in order to be happy.

It does mean that I do not want to progress, it does not mean that I do not have goals. Contentment is not waiting for something to happen in my life in order to be happy. It is to be happy in the journey.

Contentment is opposite to coveting. Coveting is when this happens, then I will be happy. When that happens, then I will be happy.

Contentment is actually independence from circumstances. It means my joy is not connected to what is happening to my life right now. My happiness is not based on my happenings. It means that I learn to enjoy in whatever I have got right now, and I am not waiting for something else to make me happy.

Philippians 4:11-12

¹¹I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. ¹²I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 

Paul says, “I have learned the secret of being content.”

How do we learn the secret of contentment?

a. Stop comparing.

The source of all discontent is comparison

ILLUSTRATION

I remember the time we got our first car, it was a Hundai Santro the factory first model and I am driving that car thinking that is the best car in town and then in a week’s time they release the Santro Xing which has a very different exterior and the thought that went through my mind is, “I have got an old car, I need the newer model.”

According to the scripture we are not to compare for two reasons:

Comparison leads to covetousness. When you have something, you will always find someone who has got it better than you and then you are discontent and you covet.

Comparison leads to pride. When you have something, you will also find someone who does not have what you have and then you can have pride in you.

Discouragement and pride are both dangerous. Do not do that.

God has created you to be unique. You have an unique biometrics. Our thumb prints and iris biometrics are all unique. Do not compare yourself to someone and want to be like them. Don’t compare.

Stop comparing. When you compare you it makes you discouraged, jealous and envious.

Proverbs 14:30

A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones.

Second secret to cultivate contemned.

b. Overcome the greed of having more.

The advertisers makes us believe

• Having more will make me more happy
• Having more will make me more important
• Having more will make me more secure.

None of those are true. They are all lies.

• Having more will not make you more happy
• Having more will not make you more important
• Having more will not make you more secure.

Your value is not based on your valuables.

Yourself worth is not based on your net worth.

Your value is based in who you are in Christ, not by what you own.

You need to find your security in something that will never be taken from you.

• If I put my security in my job, it can be taken from me.
• If I put my security in my back account, I can lose that.
• If I put my security in my health, I can lose that.

My security has to be in something that cannot be taken from me, that is my relationship with God.

Ecclesiastes 4:6

Better one handful with tranquillity than two handfuls with toil and chasing after the wind.

We buy things we cannot afford, with money we don’t have to impress people. Then we get into debt and then we has to work that extra to pay that money, and we are stressed in the process.

We come up with lists to own things and work hard and buy those things.

If you own something and God does not want you to have it, you don’t own it, it owns you. A lot of people are possessed by their possessions.

If your whole life is going to work harder to pay your wants, you are missing the point.

Learn to admire without having to acquire.

I don’t have to own it in order to enjoy it. Ownership is a lot of pain a lot of time. You got to own it, maintain it, you need to store it, you got to pay tax for it etc.

Learn to admire without having to acquire.

What happens when we practice these 5 principles?

Worry About Nothing.

Pray About Everything.

Thank God In All Things.

Think About Good Things.

Be Content In Anything

What happens when we do these things?

Philippians 4:4

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!

Philippians 4:7

And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

CONCLUSION

Now these 5 principles look simple, but they are not easy.

• It is not easy to worry about nothing.
• It is not easy to pray about everything.
• It is not easy to thank God in everything.
• It is not easy to think about good things.
• It is not easy to be content with anything.

We are living in a world where these things do not come easy on us. God says, “You come to me and I will give you the power and the ability to do this which can destress you.”

Paul ends this passage with v13

Philippians 4:13

I can do all this through him who gives me strength.

I can worry about nothing, when Christ strengthens me.

Pray about everything, when Christ strengthens me.

Thank God in everything, when Christ strengthens me.

Think about good things or keep my mind on the right things, when Christ strengthens me.

Content with anything, when Christ strengthens me.

ILLUSTRATION

Victor Frankl was an Austrian neurologist and author, and Holocaust survivor wrote a book called, “Man’s search for meaning.” He was standing in a Nazi death camp. He said, “They stripped me naked, they took away everything, and then I realized that there is one thing that can never be taken away from me, my ability to choose my response.”

You cannot control everything that happens in your life, you can choose how you respond.

This is talking about a relationship with Jesus. Jesus says, “If you come to me, I will help you.”

Matthew 11:28

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Job 22:21

“Submit to God and be at peace with him; in this way prosperity will come to you.”

The real reason you are not at peace is because you are at war with God. We are in sin. That is why God sent Jesus to give us peace with God. When you believe in Jesus and make peace with God, the peace of God comes to you and then you can have peace within and peace with others.

Many of us are born again, baptized but our lives are at war with God. We do not want the things that God wants, we want our way, we hold on to our sins, you are at war with God. Will you submit yourself to him first and then we will pray for the different stress that you are going through in your life.

Will you bow your heads with me and pray.

Say to the Lord, “I don’t really want to be stressed out.” I want to live a joyful life. I do not have the strength for this, help me in this area Lord.

Help me to worry about nothing.

Pray about everything.

Thank God in everything.

Think about good things.

Content with anything.

God I want to have peace with God, so that I can have your peace.

Everyday Prayer Help Based on this Sermon:

• Take time to tell God of all your worries.
• Talk to God about what is most important to you for that day.
• Thank God for something or someone.
• Think about the good things God has done for you.
• Think and meditate on the scripture.
• Ask God for the strength for all situations and His grace to give you contentment in life.