How to Eliminate Stress
Tom Shrader addresses the universal problem of stress by teaching five foundational truths that Christians must move from their heads to their hearts. He explains that God is in control of all circumstances, that God is changeless and His promises remain constant, that God forgives sin completely, that God causes all things to work together for good, and that God is our only hope in this temporary world.
“God causes all things to work together for good for those who love God and are called to His purpose.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Miscellaneous
Recorded: July 31, 1997
Duration: 41 min
Themes: stress, anxiety, worry, peace, trust, control, hope, forgiveness, overwhelmed by circumstances, struggling with anxiety, facing uncertainty, worried parent, stressed professional, new believer, dealing with guilt, seeking peace
Scripture: Romans 8:28, Psalm 139, Philippians 4:6, Matthew 6, Psalm 32, Hebrews 11, 2 Corinthians 4:16, Proverbs 6
Theological Themes: providence, god's sovereignty, immutability, unchanging god, redemption, sanctification, eternal perspective, divine promises
Full Transcript
I want to take this singular week and talk about one subject. Whenever we have a week like this, and it happens maybe two or three times a year, we try to get something that is either fresh in my mind, something maybe I've just experienced, or something that is relatively universal in appeal. Today we go for the universal side of this.
We're going to talk about something that affects every person in this room because it affects every person in the world. Whether you live in the U.S. or in Russia or in South America, it doesn't matter. Whether you're male, female, black, white, Hispanic, rich, poor, it involves every human being.
The Universal Problem of Stress
Let me give you some scientific support for this, although we don't need a lot. This is Britain's National Association of Mental Health. We're going to talk today about stress, by the way. Here's what they say: the whole Western world is under stress. Our mode of living produces continuous stress from the moment we're born. It hits everyone.
Let me stop there. The Wall Street Journal had an article, cover story, about the stress, the emotional, psychological stress placed on 18-month-olds, the stress that they're demonstrating in their life and action as a result of professional child care versus natural mother. When they say it hits everybody, they mean everybody. There's no escaping it.
Stress affects the apparently happy, healthy person as much as the naturally born worrier. That's why you've got this guy, there's always been a life of the party and a great guy and then you just heard that he hung himself and nobody ever knew. What happened there? Well, no one is immune to this stuff. We're left in no doubt that stress is the fastest growing disease in the Western world.
The word stress originally was used in the connotation of physics. It meant the pressure that was applied from two contiguous forces, the external force measured in pounds per square inch. But now we use that term stress in all sorts of different areas.
Medical Evidence of Stress
It's not just something that's Britain's problem. The American Medical Association says this: 50% of all visits by patients to physicians involve stress. As a health problem, that makes stress more common than the common cold.
Dr. Michael DeBakey, the famed heart surgeon, offers the insight that goes like this: high blood pressure, cholesterol, lack of exercise, obesity, cigarette smoking, all contribute to heart disease, but more and more it's appearing that the simple greatest cause of heart attack is the stress of life.
It's an interesting issue, this idea of stress. DeBakey even touches on it. We're not talking in terms of physics, but in terms of human beings, how do we define stress? A world-famous biologist defines stress this way: It's essentially the wear and tear of living. In other words, and DeBakey kind of hints at it, what we're really talking about is part of life.
The Condition of Being Human
In my whole research for this stuff, this is my favorite quote. Lewis Thomas writes this: "The only question I'm inclined to turn aside as being impossible to respond to happens to be the one most often raised, not just by my biologist friends, but by everyone. The question is about stress, how to avoid stress, how to prevent stress. I refuse to have anything to do with this matter, having made up my mind from everything I've read or heard about it in recent years, that what people mean by stress is simply the condition of being human, and I will not recommend any meddling with that by either medicine or any other profession."
What he's talking about is the stress, I love the term, wear and tear of life. You may feel it. Sometimes, literally, I can feel it as I'm going through the day, I can feel everybody taking a little bit, and at the end of the day, it is, it's the wear and tear of life. What do you do? Dr. Thomas says, I'm not going to give you anything to do.
A Personal Medical Encounter
We're celebrating an anniversary. I didn't see it in anybody's book, but we're celebrating an anniversary. It was eleven years ago that I had my last physical. I was a young man, I was a young man of thirty-six years old, I went in to see my physician. The reason I know this is I just went back yesterday as a matter of fact to have another one.
And so I remember going in eleven years ago, and we're all done, and this guy's kind of a throwback. I mean he's a pretty neat guy, spends a lot of time talking with you. I mean he's not engaging in any real way, but he spends a lot of time talking to you, listening to you. He's a doctor.
And so we're talking, and he said, "I've got to tell you, and this is true, I don't make this stuff up, I've got to tell you, for a guy forty-nine, you're in great shape." I said, "No, no, no, no, no, I don't know this guy very well, I said, I was born in forty-nine." And he said, "Oh, well, then there's some things you need to do."
The Standard Medical Advice
Now, what do you think he told me to do? I was there yesterday again, and I said, yeah, I've been feeling, so, we're done. What do you think he told me to do? How do I avoid stress? What do I do?
Exercise. He said, "You know, it wouldn't be bad for you to get your heart rate to a hundred and twenty about three times a week for thirty minutes at a stretch. So why don't you try a little exercise?"
What else do you think he said? "Well, why don't you look at what you eat? Tom, what do you eat? What kind of diet do you have? Do you eat a lot of vegetables?" And I said, "The only thing I like that's green is chocolate mint ice cream, I hate green. I don't like green. I'm not a green guy. I don't like green. Green's, I don't even like it in the carpet."
So he said, "Well, you may want to get ahold of..." By the way, in eleven years I put on seven pounds. That's not, I thought that was pretty good. So I was pretty, but I was pretty much a pig eleven years ago, so that's the other side of that rope. There was one other area...
that he asked about that you might not relate. What do you think the other thing he said? Exactly, sleep, rest. He said, "What, do you have a consistent sleep pattern? Do you have any problems sleeping?" I said, "No, no, that's not a problem."
Well, look at this. You knew exactly what he was going to say. I mean, I could have come to you and we could have saved me some of the discomfort associated with his physical exam that perhaps you wouldn't have wanted to perform. Or some of you might have wanted to perform it. I don't know how that works.
I go through this to make this point. He didn't tell me one thing I didn't know, and he didn't tell me anything new, and that's exactly what I'm going to do to you for the next thirty minutes. I'm not going to tell you one thing you don't know, and I'm not going to tell you one thing that's new.
But here's the key. While it won't be new information, I need to get it in two places. We need to make sure it gets onto your hard drive, and we need to move it to your heart.
The Title Is Tongue-in-Cheek
There's a sense in which the title of today's session, "Five Guaranteed Ways to Eliminate Stress in Your Life," is a bit tongue-in-cheek. If by definition, stress is the wear and tear of living, the only way I can eliminate it is for you to die. We can take these incredible levels of stress and just shrink them down with five things.
Not five things that you do. Go knock yourself out, do your exercise, do your diet, sleep well, all that stuff. These are five things you need to know. Five things that need to go into your head, that need to move from your head to your heart. And when you understand them, I guarantee you that if your stress level is here, I guarantee you it goes to here. And I guarantee you we can get it down as low as it can possibly be.
For Christians Only
Having said that, we're talking to a very exclusive group today. We're talking to those men and women who are here who are Christians. If you're not a Christian, your stress level, if it's here, at the end of this day, I hope goes to here. Because we're going to have to get it to there to get it back down to here.
We're talking to somebody who knows Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. They believe Jesus is who He said He was. And they plan for their life and death accordingly. They've accepted Him as Lord and Savior. It's got nothing to do with religion or behavior in the sense of salvation. Nothing to do with cash or money. It's got everything to do with a personal relationship. And when that relationship is right, all those other things start to come together.
Number One: God Is in Control
Five guaranteed ways to eliminate stress in your life. Here's the first one. Number one, God is in control.
Psalm 139, the psalmist writes this: "Where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go to heaven, you're there. If I go to make my bed in the depths, you're there. If I rise in the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even your hand will guide me. Your right hand holds me fast." God, you're everywhere.
When we talk about God, there's so many attributes we talk about. Probably the one that everybody wants to talk about most is His love. But we're not going to talk about that today. We're going to talk about these three.
Three Attributes of God
Number one, God is omnipresent. God is everywhere. The second thing is, and these next two are important, and one of them without the other would be pathetic. He's all-knowing. He's all-powerful. Those go together. They're linked together. You don't want to separate them apart. If He was one and not the other, it would be a tragic thing.
God is all-knowing. Never in the history of mankind has God uttered these words, "I'm surprised. I never knew. Wow. Who'd have thunk it?" God's never said that. God knows everything that's going to happen.
But see how these go together? If He was all-knowing and not all-powerful, how tragic it would be if He said, "Oh, Tom, don't do that. Don't go around there. The Wienermobile's there. They don't run you over. Make a left. Don't follow that thing." That would be pathetic.
On the other side, He's all-powerful. Now, play with your brain just a little bit because we want you to think, and we know you're the sharpest people around. Can God do all things? Well, as a Christian, we say, "God can do everything." He cannot do everything.
God can't act contrary to His nature. Could God sin? No. Could God make a square circle? Well, no, because it contradicts the terms, the laws that He's put into place. He's a God of law. He's a God of order. But can God do all the things? We're talking about all-powerful things. Can He control all things? Absolutely.
But imagine if He was all-powerful and not all-knowing. And then He's watching you, and bam, it goes. You go, "Doggone, I could have stopped that, but I didn't know it was going to happen." He's all-knowing, He's all-powerful.
Everything Is Caused or Allowed by God
Therefore, here's what we can say to you. Everything that happens in your life is either caused by or allowed by God.
You and I sit on a planet, and I don't know how they figured this out, but this planet weighs 6,588,000,000,000,000 tons. It's moving in a 580 million mile orbit around the sun. It moves on this orbit 1,000 miles a minute. As it does this, it's spinning in its axis at 1,000 miles an hour.
We're part of this solar system, I guess we call it, that if you could move at the speed of light, which is how fast? 186,000 miles a second. If you could move 186,000 miles a second, it would take you 125,000 years to get from one end to the other, and this is one of what they say are 3, 4, 5 billion of these things out there.
My point is this, this is a big deal. This thing's hanging there. And yet, there's guys, I am not one of them, who can tell you exactly to the second when Halley's Comet's coming again. Who can tell you exactly, you can watch. It's so commonplace that you see it every morning on the news, they'll go, "The sun's coming up tomorrow at this." Four months from now, the sun
will be going down at this. How come? Because God holds it all together. He's in control. It's a delicate balance, and yet God is the one who started all this, and God is the one who keeps all of this going.
There's no such thing as an axis. That's why we say in all of our discussions, the thing that we have to fight most about, now it's not my mind, it's not prayer in school, fight if you want. The issue that really is fundamental is this issue of evolution. And most of the scientists now, by and large, in groups, are abandoning that idea.
Here's why. G.K. Chesterton says this, it's tough, you have to listen now. He said, it's absurd for the evolutionist to confirm that it's unthinkable for an admittedly unthinkable God to make everything out of nothing, and then to pretend it's more thinkable that nothing should turn itself into something. Now, I don't believe in evolution. I am becoming a proponent of devolution. I don't think we've been apes, but there's a shot we could make it in another 10 or 15 years. I think we're headed there.
God started this. God's in control. Nothing comes into your life but what He permits. So whatever it is that's causing this stress, whatever it is that has your attention, whatever it is that's so captivated you that has pulled you out of your game plan, and your mind drifts to it, are you under stress?
What Dominates Your Mind?
What are the things that are dominant in your life? When you lay down and you close your eyes, where's your brain go? That'll tell you. Whatever those are, I don't mean that you go, manana. But you understand God's in control.
Yesterday was doctor day. I was at the doctor. Both kids were at the orthodontist. That is just cocoon, cocoon. You can just hear that thing going on. And Susan was at the doctor.
Susan's doctor goes to one of our studies. I said, I'm seeing Susan's coming in today. He says, I got no idea. I just show up at nine and they start bringing them in. And I said, and he didn't say that in a flip way. He just says, that's how I work. A magnificent guy. And we were talking about different things. He said, stuff comes in and some of it, if we catch it early, we can do something with it. But a lot of stuff, it doesn't matter. He said, this was before the lesson, most of this stuff is really beyond my control. And I have to tell you, I don't find that alarming because I would rather have it in God's hands than in his hands. God's in control.
God Is Changeless
Here's the second thing that I think will eliminate stress in your life. It's one of those things that as you look at the list, you might have blown by it. God is changeless. What is that doing on the list? We got problems. Let's get to something real.
Well, the fact that God does not change means that He is not developing or becoming or shrinking or expanding. It means that as we deal with God, we're dealing with something that is constant and knowable. So when God says this is true, it's always true. That's why we study the Bible. A timeless God does not produce dated material.
So in Proverbs 6, when God says, seven things I hate. I hate these seven things. He still hates them today. When God says, listen, I hate divorce. He still hates divorce. When He says, I hate homosexuality. He means not until man becomes sophisticated enough to understand that. No, He means He hates it. But rather than say, oh, they're homophobic. No, not homophobic. He'd give you a whole list of them. He hates gluttony. He hates laziness. Oh, here you go. This'll kill you. He hates gossip. Oh, He hates it. When you gossip, you're a liar. You're a slanderer. He hates it.
God's Promises Are Still in Force
Now, the flip side of that on the positive thing is the promises He made are still in force today. So here's what He says. Philippians chapter four, verse six. Living Bible. Don't worry about anything, but instead pray about everything and tell God your needs and don't forget to thank Him for the answers.
Here you go. We're in the middle of stress. Things are tight. Here's what He says. Worry about nothing, pray about everything and don't forget to say thank you to Him. What do you do in the midst? Well, don't worry about it because it's beyond your control. It's in His control. So rather than do that, why don't you pray to Him? Don't worry about anything, but pray about everything. Oh, and by the way, give thanks to God. Give thanks.
About four years into my Christian walk, I was having dinner one night with a guy. I could take you to the spot in the parking lot where we were talking afterwards and I was trying to explain to him what it means to know Christ. He was a very religious guy, but he didn't know Christ. And he was talking about prayer. And I was saying, well, when we pray, the key element is to be thankful.
We were talking and he said, well, give me something you'd pray for. I said, well, it's interesting, a couple of years ago, I prayed for three things. I said, I prayed that I would have a relationship with Susan that would be the most vibrant relationship humanly in my life. I said, I prayed that God would give us enough money and not make me have to work very hard. The only thing I've ever done in moderation is work. And so I wanted to have enough money, but not be so tied up with the work aspect that I lost sight of all the other things. And I said, the third thing was that He'd give me an opportunity to share my faith.
The Power of Gratitude
As I said those three things, you know what I realized? He had given me all three of them, and I'd never said thank you. I had an unbelievable relationship with Susan, still do. I had all the money we needed, and still wasn't sucking up all my time. Could have, by the way, let me make a point. Could have, but I didn't let it. And here I was, beginning to get opportunities to share my faith. I worried about nothing, I prayed about everything. I forgot to say, you know what,
God, thank you. I had to stand right there and say, Father, thanks for this.
The point that He's saying, I think, is you and I get hung up in the worry of the day. In Matthew chapter 6, in the Sermon on the Mount, as Jesus closes out one section of chapter 6, He said this: "Don't be anxious saying, what are we going to eat? What are we going to drink? What are we going to wear?" What about stuff, is what He's saying. "For all these things the Gentiles eagerly seek."
If what you lay down at night and your mind goes to is stuff—what you're going to wear, how you're going to look, what you're going to drive—temporal stuff, here's what Jesus is saying: you're thinking like a pagan. That's what the pagan thinks about. That's what the pagan's obsessed with. Now, if you hit the pillow and your thoughts go to ideas of me, and how do you share my gospel? How do you touch my people? Now, He says, you're thinking like a believer. Very important distinction.
The Futility of Focusing on Stuff
And the more you think about stuff, I'm just telling you, the more you're going to worry. The day that Bill Gates, a week ago, two weeks ago now, made his three billion dollar guarantee, immediately—not Bill Gates, because those guys that are that rich probably don't think about it every day—but a lot of other people made a lot of money in the last couple of months. I guarantee you they're trying to figure out, should I get out now? How do I save it? And if I get out now and take this, how much tax consequence? I mean, it never stops.
But here's what He says, you want some good advice? Seek first my kingdom, and I'll take care of that other stuff. And here you go: "Therefore, don't be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will take care of itself. Each day has enough problems of their own." You don't need to be worried about that. God's changeless. And when He says that 2,000 years ago, He's speaking it to you today.
God Forgives Sin
Number three, big deal here. God forgives sin. Psalm 32, the psalmist says, "I acknowledge my sin to you. I didn't cover up my iniquity. I said, I'll confess my transgressions to the Lord, and you forgave the guilt of my sin." "Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart, full assurance of having our hearts sprinkled and cleansed from the guilt of conscience, having our bodies washed with pure water."
Now, if you're not a Christian, you've got problems. You've got major problems in this area. See, when we talk about guilt, we quickly want to eradicate that guilt. That's what so much of the psychological movement of the day is. Who can I blame? Whose fault is it? Why am I this way? We're trying to figure out all these different things.
You know, I read a book and did an interview with a guy not long ago, and he was talking about men and their sexual problems and all this stuff, and here's why they do it, and their dads didn't do this, and their moms didn't do this. You know, I said, let me run this thought by you. Maybe they do it because they like it. It's fun. Well, there may be some truth to it. Sin is fun. If your sin isn't fun and it doesn't feel good, you aren't doing it right. It's fun. It feels good for a season.
The Problem with Carrying Guilt
So, you can't stay there if you're a Christian. It'll eat you up. So, I got this guilt, and if somebody comes in and says, I feel so guilty, we're trying to figure out why. I got all these guys, and I don't mean this that I'm in an insensitive way, but I'm going to throw up if I have another guy my age come and talk about how their dads never told them they loved them. I'm telling you something, boys, they told you they loved you every night when they gave you a place to sleep and something to eat. That's all they knew. They didn't know James Dobson. They didn't know that.
I was thinking about that. My dad is in Melrose, Iowa, which is in the middle of nowhere, and they say, you know what, we got a trip for you. We're going to send you on a trip. They put him on a boat. They float him to Europe, and they say, now, go right on down this road, and you'll find the Nazis at the end of it. They never did ask how he felt about that, you know?
And I understand that, and I don't want to diminish that. I understand that not having that healthy relationship is a problem, but I'm telling you this, give it a rest. Here's a bigger question, those that are my age, are you telling your kids you love them? Are you perpetuating, if you think it hurts you so much, are you hurting your kids the same way? I understand the delicate balance here, but I'm saying get on with it. Let it go. You can't undo it. You can't fix it. And it's forgiven. That's the past. Why do you want to live there?
Let Go of the Ball and Chain
I've used this illustration a thousand times, but it's so appropriate because the Christians seem to be the worst at it. All through life, they're dragging around this ball and chain and whatever's on that chain. And Jesus comes along and sets them free and cuts that chain, and then we reach over and pick up the ball and start carrying it along the way. It's stupid. Let it go.
And one of those things for a Christian is this: it's the guilt of our sin. I had a guy having a cup of coffee the other day and we're talking and he said, I don't feel forgiven. I said, well, let's run through it. Are you a believer? Absolutely. Have you repented? Absolutely. Are you still involved in that? No. I said, well, let me help you out here then. It ain't God's problem. It's not my problem. It's your problem you don't feel forgiven. That's your fault. Well, quit blaming Him. You're forgiven.
You want to beat yourself up for it? You know what that is? Selfish pride. Because as long as I'm beating myself up, at least we're still talking about me, even in a pejorative way. We're still focused on me. Still me. Let's talk about me. Let's get on with that.
Well, one of my favorite stories on forgiveness is a guy that I used to work with. And one day his daughter came home and she said to him what probably every father of a high school daughter
Dealing with Imperfection and Shame
He sat down with her and she, like every other kid, claimed this was the only time they did it. It's amazing to me—I've got married couples that are having sex every night who can't get pregnant, and high school kids that have sex once who seem to be fertile. It's interesting. I don't understand that. So I'm suggesting they probably did this more than once, but it's irrelevant. I just like to make the point along the way.
He said, "Well, where are you with it now?" And she said, "Well, we've confessed it as sin. We haven't been together since we found this out. We're truly broken and we want to get married." He talked with the boy and they sat and figured it out and said okay. By the way, that was 14, 15 years ago. And now they've got three or four grandkids and they're doing great.
She went to school and the word got out. She was going to get buried. The kids started asking her, "What color wedding dress are you going to wear?" She was so naive. She had no idea what their implication was. She came back and said, "Daddy, they're asking me what color wedding dress am I going to wear? What are they trying to get at?" And He explained it to her. She said, "What color dress should I wear?"
He said, "Wait a minute. If your sins are forgiven, they're clean as snow. Honey, what color is snow?" She said, "White." He said, "If you wear any other color wedding dress but a white wedding dress, you're going to break your daddy's heart."
We're Not Looking for Perfect People
That's it. We are not looking for perfect people here. They aren't around. You're looking at a group of forgiven people. And what you may need to do is apply that forgiveness, get your ego out of the way, accept it, and go and sin no more.
God Causes All Things to Work Together for Good
Here's the fourth thing. I guarantee you this is a huge deal. God causes all things to work together for good. I want you to look at the verse that's up there. Romans 8, verse 28. I've done this in here, but I've done this at dozens and dozens of retreats.
Now, I want you to see this verse. When I say to somebody, "Quote Romans 8, verse 28," there's always somebody who's had their quiet time and goes, "All things work together," and they start right here. And that's what they quote: "All things work together for good for those who love God and are called to His purpose."
Here's the problem. Number one, it's not the whole verse. But it's a far deeper problem than that. If I start there—"all things work together for good"—that verse is really about me. And we love that because we're sinful, narcissistic, prideful people. I love to think that this stuff's all about us.
The Verse is About God, Not Us
If I start at the beginning, this verse is really about God. "God causes all things to work together for good." See the difference? That's the way we mess ourselves up and still stay scriptural. We only use half a verse.
God causes all things to work together for good. It doesn't say God causes all things. Does God cause all things? We know He doesn't. We know He doesn't cause sin. What it says is God is so powerful that He uses things like sin for His own good. God causes all things to work together for good.
For who? For everybody? Nope. For the Christian.
When We Don't Understand the "Why"
There's a whole bunch of questions I can't answer, but most of them are in a sentence that either starts with or ends with one three-letter word. You know what it is? Why.
"Why would God allow my spouse to die when we have these two beautiful kids? I don't get it. And then to suffer the anguish and the misery. Why would God?" "I'm here. I'm minding my own business. I'm not hurting anybody. Why would God take this away?" "I just found out I got a spot on my... Why?"
And my answer is always the same. I don't know. And we may never know. But I know this: it's for your good.
God Uses Suffering for His Glory
I can run down a list of people that you know—Joni Eareckson Tada, Corrie ten Boom. We read Corrie ten Boom's story and that whole story of the Holocaust and the concentration camp she was in, all of that, how awful that was. And yet, God has used that story to touch millions of people.
Somehow we think that God owes us a life that's free from hardship. And God says, "Oh no, no, no, no. You don't want that. You'll never grow."
I cannot tell you how many men and women I know in the studies in the church who are unbelievable giants of the faith today, who love the Lord and love the people around them. And you know how they got that way? They went through an agonizing emotional divorce. God ripped away from them something that they loved and hurt them in a way that they never dreamt possible.
And at that moment, one of two things are going to happen. You're going to cave and head south or you're going to rise up and praise Him and He's going to use it in an incredible way. I can't tell you. Chuck Colson and all the prison fellowship flows out of the greatest singular mistake of his life. You know why? God causes all things to work together for good.
The Freedom of Trusting God's Sovereignty
Do you get the sense of freedom in that? I'm in a meeting the other day and we're talking about something. And we reach this point and I say, "Wait, stop. Is this true? Is this where we are in this project?" "Yep." "Does anybody disagree with where we are at?" "Nope." "Is there anything we can do to undo this?" "No. This is it. Tom, this is where we are."
I said, "All right. Well, let's pray. Let's go." "Wait a minute. What are we going to do? What do you mean? We're not done, are we?" I said, "No. Let's pray. Let's go." "What are we going to do? We need a plan."
I said, "You just told me this is where we are. These are irrefutable facts and there's nothing we can do about it. What are we going to do? Our plan now is to sit back and wait and see what God does. There's nothing we can do here. We're wasting our time. This is only going to screw me up. I'm way better off going—"
home and sleeping than I am sitting here and talking to you about this thing that you already told me we can't fix. I've already got it in my hard drive and unfortunately, I know it's going to spit its way up for the next week or so, but at least let's not waste time. Another meeting where minutes are kept and hours are wasted is not what I mean. I'm out of here.
And it's not that I don't care. I've had people say, "Oh, you don't care." I care a lot, but I can't fix it. If I can't fix it, it isn't going to do me any good to say, "I feel your pain." I feel your pain. I can't fix it. That's the way it is. I know that sounds harsh, but that's life.
God Is Our Only Hope
One last thing. I want to encourage you to add to this list, obviously it's not an all-inclusive list. I'll bet you could come up with a half dozen things that would fit with this. I'd love to see the list when we get back or have you send it to the office.
I would add, because I realized once I wrote that, what I was really saying as well is God is our only hope - this world is temporary. They kind of go together, but you could make them two separate points. But God is our only hope. There's no other way out of the situation we're in.
First of all, with regard to our sin, if you're here, your biggest question, your biggest problem, your biggest issue to face is what happens at death? The only way through that or out of that is through the person of Christ. This world is temporary.
Paul says it this way in 2 Corinthians 4, verse 16: "Though the outer man is decaying, the inner man is being renewed day by day. Our momentary light affliction, that's this world, is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond everything we dreamt. While we look only at the things which are seen and not at the things which are unseen. But the things that are seen are temporal. The things we don't see are eternal."
The Security of Our Salvation
I had a conversation with a gal the other day, and a guy, and the issue was can a Christian lose their salvation? In other words, if I'm a Christian today, can I cease to be a Christian at a point in time? I don't believe you can. I don't even think the Bible stutters on this. I understand there's some problem passages, but I don't think this is even close to being a hard question.
But I also understand it's a tough question for these people, and unfortunately they were raised in an environment that taught them you could do that. By the way, that is why attending a church with bad doctrine is such a problem, because your kids are going to grow up with all these screwed up ideas, and you're going to have to undo them.
You can't lose your salvation. And she said, "Yes, you can." I said, "You know what? I know you're trying to do this on integrity. I want to challenge you. If you really believe this, I absolutely believe it. Then when you're sitting down with your five or six year old, and that five or six year old says to you, 'Mommy, I've come to Christ, am I going to go to heaven?' I want you to say, 'Well, you know what, honey? We don't really know. Maybe you are, and maybe you aren't. The cards are dealt. We got the hand, but we haven't taken in the last trick yet.'"
I want to see some intellectual integrity. For one time, let's see some intellectual integrity all the way down the line. You tell your kid, "Don't know, Biff. Maybe you will. Maybe you won't. Clean your act up."
You sense any hope in that? Forget it. And I don't mean psychologically. Now, I'm not trying to say it's true because I need it to be. It's true. God is a God of hope. You think He's going to come on and say, "I'll bet you what, you might go to heaven"? There's the hope of Christ, the hope of Christ forever: "You may make it." I don't feel a lot of hope in there. I feel more stressed now than I did before they said anything. I was better off before. The hope of glory, Christ, and you may make it.
Biblical Hope vs. Wishful Thinking
Hebrews 11: "Faith means that we have full confidence in the things we hope for, makes us certain of realities we don't see." That word hope, as it's used in the biblical context, when we use it, we talk about a future event that we hope or pray turns out to be specific. I hope it doesn't rain. I hope the deal closes. Hope everything works out all right. Boy, I hope this shot gets on the green. It may happen. It may not happen.
Biblical hope is something that's in the future that is a certainty to happen. Our faith makes us certain of our future. Jesus is coming again. We know that. He doesn't come and we die to be absent with the body, to be present with the Lord. That's our hope.
It also means we can be certain of realities we can't see. There are times when it looks like or feels like He ain't there. But He is. You cannot see it. There's times when I feel, "God, I went back to what we talked about. I don't even feel forgiven." But you are.
The Root of Stress
Life is essentially filled with difficult times. We're in terrible living. That's what's associated with stress. And I want to go back to what we talked about. I do think, although this is more lip service than practice, I do think it is important what you eat. And I do think it is important to get a little exercise. And I think you've got to get some sleep. And I think you've got to get rest. I think you've got to have vacations. I don't think you should work very hard. I mean, I don't think you should work hard, but I don't think you should work long.
You know, if you're working 60, 70 hours a week, I just don't think that's right. But that's between you and God. But I'll tell you this: you can do all those things and still have a stress level that's through the roof. You know why? Because you don't understand that God's in control.
You don't understand He's changeless. You don't understand He forgives sin. You don't understand that He causes all things to work together for good, and you don't understand that God is your only hope.
We don't go through this to give you a laissez-faire attitude. We go through this so you can boldly go and live for Him.
Father, please take these words, apply them to our heart. God in this world that is filled with stress and wear and tear, let us experience the peace that comes from knowing you, from knowing your Son, from being indwelt by your Spirit. God, help us understand that you are in control, that you're timeless and unchanging, that our sin as Christians is forgiven. Let us experience that freedom from guilt.
Help us understand that you work all things together for us in God. Help us understand that we have no hope but you, but in you we have the only hope that we need. Father, please take these things, drill them into our minds, and let them simmer down and permeate our heart. We ask it of you in Jesus' name, Amen.
See you in September.