Truth That Changes Lives

JP Jones: Paul said in Romans chapter 7, "Wretched man that I am, who will set me free from this body of death? I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but with my flesh the law of sin." The mind is critical. Romans chapter 8 says, "But the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace."

Greg: Thank you for joining us on Truth That Changes Lives. Pastor JP Jones is the senior pastor of Crossline Community Church in Laguna Hills, California, and a professor in biblical studies at Biola University. Today on Truth That Changes Lives, Pastor JP will be giving us a message from a series entitled "Where Do You Turn?" Let's listen in as JP gives part two of "When You Are Stressed."

JP Jones: It's the old fact, faith, feeling train diagram in the back of the little booklet called *The Four Spiritual Laws*. The illustration is you see a train running down the track. There's an engine, there's compartment cars, and then there's a caboose. All the power is in the engine. You can't pull the train by the compartment car; you can't pull it by the caboose.

Well, if you think about the engine being fact, and the compartment cars as faith, and the caboose as feeling, the way we live our Christian life is we put our faith in the facts, and then God produces the feelings. If we try to live our lives based on feelings, it's futile. It'll never work.

I've never met a person who was 100% all the time up. There are people who are more positive than others. I consider myself a pretty positive person. There are people who seem to be pretty resilient to hard times. But nobody is 100% positive, gracious, loving, kind. All of the fruit of the spirit and all of the positive qualities that we would aspire to, nobody has that without wavering in the full capacity of their inner psyche.

So no one, if they just lived by their feelings, could ever be experiencing the kind of life that God wants them to have or the kind of life that they want to have. There are things that stress us. That's life. We live in a stress-filled world. We can't eliminate all the stress factors. We just can't. So what are we going to do? Well, we've got to take charge of our emotions, the Bible says.

Feelings are just that; they're feelings. We don't even need to make any moral evaluation whether they're good or bad. They're just how we feel. But what we do with our feelings can lead us to love God and love people, or they can lead us into Stress City and we're the mayor.

When I was in seminary in graduate school, I had a professor, Norm Wright. He's written like a hundred books on marriage and marriage counseling and pre-marriage. He was talking about counseling an individual who had a lot of stress in their life, a lot of anxiety in their life, a lot of worry in their life, and they were being victimized by their own feelings.

So he had them follow this project, kind of a behavior modification experience. He had them wear a rubber band on their wrist. He had them write on a three-by-five card, Philippians 4:6 and 7: "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, that passes all comprehension, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."

Then on the other side, he had them write in big bold letters, "STOP." And what he had this person commit themselves to do was whenever they started to feel anxious and worry, they would take the rubber band, pull it, and go "whack," "bam." Take the card out and say, "STOP." And then turn it over and say, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be known to God. And the peace of God, that passes all comprehension, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."

He would have that person do that several times throughout the day. "Whack," "STOP," "Be anxious for nothing..." And at the end of the day, the guy didn't want to read Philippians 4:6 and 7. No. At the end of the day, the point was he had gotten himself into the habit of worry.

This was a combined behavior modification, cognitive therapy approach to basically say that's a negative behavior that you've got to replace with a positive behavior. You have been a person who's been just controlled by your emotions. You need to take charge of your emotions. Maybe even have to do something radical to reinforce that that approach needs to stop and you need to do a different approach.

Now, we have a supply of rubber bands for everybody as you walk out the door. No. The principle I think is pretty clear. We've been given commands. These commands have a payoff: the peace of God that passes all comprehension. These commands are associated with living in a stress-filled world but not being controlled by stress. These commands have to do with our emotions. We need to take charge of our emotions.

Here's a second principle from this passage: we need to take charge of our prayers. It says this in verses 6 and 7 of Philippians 4, after giving these three commands to rejoice in the Lord, and to let our gentleness be made known to all men, and to not be anxious about anything. It says, "But in everything by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

Paul in this verse, in this one verse, verse 6, gives four words or terms for prayer. One little verse, four different words that describe prayer. We need to make every effort through every means to pray about everything. We need to make every effort through every means to pray about everything.

Paul uses this word *proseuche*, which is the word for prayer in this verse. The word *deesis*, which is the word for petition. The word *eucharistia*, which is the word for thanksgiving. And the word *aitema*, which is the word for requests. You can do a word study on those terms and see all the different times in the Bible how they're used and how they're translated. They make a case for what is just kind of intuitively obvious when you read it.

We've got to pray about everything. We've got to use every kind of prayer. There shouldn't be anything in our life that is causing us stress that we haven't given over to God in prayer. That's the point. There shouldn't be anything: relational, financial, spiritual, psychological, moral. There shouldn't be anything that is causing a level of stress in our life that we haven't prayed about.

Because the act of praying about it does a couple of things. It brings God into the center of the situation. It accesses the resources of God and not just your human resources for the situation. It gives you a sense of relief that you're not facing this thing alone. And it puts you in a place where you're not just focusing on what's causing you stress, but now you're focusing on God.

The cumulative effect of all of that is you get the peace of God that passes all comprehension. You may not even get what it is you prayed for, but you get the bigger issue, which is God's peace rather than the stress that the situation is creating for you.

Gosh, this is just, on the one hand, so basic. On the other hand, so hard to just do because we have an innate sense to go back to that old pattern, which is just think about it, worry about it, try to figure it out, go into Panic Palace, become absorbed with it, be controlled by it, be stressed out by it. We need that rubber band. STOP.

It's like this: the first three commands are sort of like this is the negative thing that's been killing you and what you need to do about it. And then this is the positive thing that can give you peace, which is pray about it. Pray about everything, in every way, through every means.

When I was in college, 1975, Easter break, I was on a Campus Crusade week-long experience. We came down from colleges all over California and Arizona to Newport Beach for the Easter break. We did all these evangelism things on the beaches and put on programs and talked to people in the community. It was just a week-long outreach conference.

The end of it was at the ballroom out on the peninsula. It's been changed over the years, but there was a ballroom there on the peninsula. Josh McDowell was the speaker. Josh McDowell has spoken to thousands, millions of people all over the world. He's written the book *Evidence That Demands a Verdict*, *More Evidence That Demands a Verdict*, *Attack of Evidence That Demands a Verdict*. I mean all those apologetic books. He's written all this stuff for teens on why wait, and he's written a bunch of stuff on morality. I mean tons of books. He's an expert on so many areas.

He was the speaker, and he spoke on Philippians 4:6 and 7. And it was like one of those messages where he just read the verse. I can remember sitting there. This is 1975; that's a long time ago. I remember sitting there as a college student. He read the verse, and then he just explained the basic principle that we should pray about everything and there shouldn't be anything that we don't pray about. And when we do, the peace of God that passes all comprehension will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Then he spent about 30 minutes and just talked about stuff. You know, this issue? He goes, "You need to pray about it, and the peace of God that passes all comprehension will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." And then he talked about another issue. And he goes, "You need to pray about it, and the peace of God that passes all comprehension will guard your hearts and mind in Christ Jesus."

And then he talked about another issue. "You need to pray about it, and the peace of God that passes all comprehension will guard your hearts and mind in Christ." I mean he just went through the gamut of life's stuff, and then he just said, "You need to pray about it, and the peace of God that passes all comprehension will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."

The concept is pretty simple. It's the doing of it where we break down. But again, the payoff: the peace of God that passes all comprehension will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. We need to take charge of our emotions, we need to take charge of our prayers.

Here's a third observation: we need to take charge of our thoughts. Philippians 4:8: "Finally, brothers, whatever's true, whatever's noble, whatever's right, whatever's pure, whatever's lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things."

Now, go with me on this. When you're in the midst of stress, whether it's "Can I get my kids to school in time because we left the house late and now the street's backed up and that stupid school, the way they put these carpool lanes in is terrible?" boom. Or we're stressed about paying the bills, or we're stressed about something with the kids, or we're stressed about something with the marriage, or we're stressed about some issue in our life.

When we're in that mode, are we thinking about what is true, what is noble, what is right, what is pure, what is lovely, what is admirable, what is excellent, and what is praiseworthy? Are we thinking about that stuff? No.

We need to take charge of our thoughts. We need to take charge of our emotions, we need to take charge of our prayers, we need to take charge of our thoughts. We need to be able to have an internal timeout and think about these things. Think about these things. Think about the things that are positive and redeeming and godly and uplifting. Because when you survey the Bible and you come to the realization that we really are in a spiritual battle, you realize that ultimately it is a battle for the mind. We win or lose in the mind.

We make our moral decisions in the mind. We surrender the deep parts of our life in the mind. We cave into temptation in the mind. We believe the words of accusation in the mind. We become overcome by deception in the mind. So we win or lose in the mind.

Paul said in Romans chapter 7, "Wretched man that I am, who will set me free from this body of death? I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but with my flesh the law of sin." The mind is critical. Romans chapter 8 says, "But the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace."

Colossians 3:1-4 says, "Since then we've been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above and not on the things that are on earth. For you've died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. And when Christ, who is our life, is revealed, you'll be revealed with him in glory."

Peter said to his audience in 1 Peter chapter 1, "Therefore, gird your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior. Because it is written, you shall be holy, for I am holy."

The mind is critical. And so Paul, in a passage that is inspired by God and just gives us basic principles for successful personal psychology and stress management, says take charge of your emotions, take charge of your prayers, take charge of your thoughts. Whatever's true, whatever's noble, whatever's right, whatever's pure, whatever's lovely, whatever's admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things.

One of the things that we're going to be doing as a result of our men's retreat next weekend is we're going to be calling all the men of our church to be in a small group experience to encourage one another and sharpen one another and mutually disciple one another. Because the Bible says iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. I've put together a Bible study for that follow-up program, and here's an excerpt from one of the studies:

Run to battle. Every man faces Goliath. The strategy of the enemy is to strike fear in our hearts. Sometimes that fear produces shame. Sometimes we compensate for our fear with pride. Sometimes we mask our fear with lust. Sometimes we react to our fear with anger. Goliath challenges every man.

David heard Goliath's challenge and said, "The battle belongs to the Lord." Everyone else in Israel's army heard the same challenge and trembled with fear. What made the difference? Why did David have a confident and victorious faith? David filled his mind with great thoughts of God. David put his focus on God, not on Goliath.

In the final analysis, the spiritual battle is won or lost in our minds. Running to battle is a battle for our minds. Here in Philippians chapter 4, it says, "Think on these things." We need to take charge of our emotions, we need to take charge of our prayers, we need to take charge of our thoughts, and lastly, we need to take charge of our actions.

Verse 9 says, "Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me or seen in me, put into practice. And the God of peace will be with you." Put into practice, and the God of peace will be with you. And look how he expands the scope. He says what you've learned, what you've received, what you've heard, what you've seen, what you've observed to work. Put into practice.

So basically, God is saying whatever it is that you know to be true about your Christian experience, put it into practice. Whatever it is that you've learned up to this point in your walk with Christ, put it into practice. Whatever it is that you know God wants you to do, put into practice.

For some of us here, you know what that is? It's to make a commitment to Christ. Because we know we need to do it. We know Jesus died for us. We know the Bible promises forgiveness and eternal life. We've just never put that into practice. We've never crossed the line and said, "I want to receive Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior."

For others of us, we've made that commitment and we've actually learned a little bit. Well, whatever it is that we've learned, we need to put into practice. For others of us, we've been Christians a long time. I mean a long time. So there's a lot we've learned. We need to put it all into practice.

See, it is information plus application that leads to transformation. Information alone does not lead to transformation. I guess you could say information without application leads to condemnation, because then you feel worse about yourself because you think, "I should be better. I shouldn't feel stressed. I shouldn't be overcome by this. I should have better thoughts. I should be more gentle in the way I treat people. I should, I should, I should. Oh, I'm a terrible Christian."

We need to take charge of our emotions, we need to take charge of our prayers, we need to take charge of our thoughts, we need to take charge of our actions. All the stuff that we have learned up to this point, we're to put into practice. And here's the great promise: and the God of peace will be with you.

See, this is what God wants every person here to have as a takeaway: the peace of God and the God of peace. If we're not living in the fullness of that reality—the peace of God and the God of peace—then somewhere we're not either taking charge of our emotions, or we're not taking charge of our prayers, or we're not taking charge of our thoughts, or we're not taking charge of our actions. Because God makes a promise that we can go to the bank on in this passage. And the payoff as it relates to stress is the peace of God and the God of peace.

Greg: What a great message for all of us today. Pastor JP provides us with great insight. That is why we'd like to make it available to you on CD. Just get in touch with us and mention today's date. We'll send it your way for just five dollars.

Or if you'd like to support this ministry, you can write us at Truth That Changes Lives, 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California, 92653. Or give us a call at 949-916-0250. That's 949-916-0250. For your gift of 25 dollars or more, we will send you a signed copy of JP's new book, *Facing Goliath*.

Please join us every Sunday at 9:00 or 11:00 a.m. at Crossline Church in Laguna Hills. The address is 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California, 92653. Or check us out on the web at crosslinechurch.com. We're going to get to the address and phone number again in a moment, but before we do that, Pastor JP, do you have any insight from today's message?

JP Jones: Thanks, Greg. You know, every one of us deals with stress. There is just the stress that comes from being a human being in society. And then there is the stress that comes from the spiritual battle. And then there are the crisis-type stresses that come into our lives from the various unplanned activities. There are so many things in our lives that we don't have control over.

And when our expectations aren't met and when we face blocked goals, the stress that builds up within us oftentimes moves us beyond the abundant life that we want in Christ. In fact, if we were really honest, the stress in our lives is consistently leading us to move out of the spirit and into the flesh. And that's the struggle that every follower of Jesus Christ has.

We want to live in the peace of God, we want to experience the peace of God. Is it possible? Well, the answer is yes. Philippians chapter 4 tells us that God's peace is available to us. In fact, the God of peace is available to us. But it's our responsibility.

You see, in this passage, we are told that we're responsible for our emotions and we're responsible for our prayers and we're responsible for our actions. God holds us responsible for the choices that we make. God created us in his image, and he created us with the ability to choose. He's given us the dignity of choice. We can choose to follow him, or we can choose to reject him. We can choose to obey God's word, or we can choose to disobey God's word. We can choose to live in stress, or we can choose to experience God's peace.

There are certain things that we have no choice over: the activities, the actions, the environment in which we live. But we can choose how we respond to it. The Bible says that we are to rejoice always, and again it says, "Rejoice." The Bible says that we're to be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, to let our requests be made known to God.

The Bible says that we're to take control of our thoughts and we're to set our mind on the things above and not on the things that are on earth. And the Bible says that we are to apply and put into practice the things that we've seen and heard and learned. We are responsible for our choices. We are responsible for our feelings. We are responsible for our prayers. We are responsible for our thoughts. We are responsible for our actions.

And it's in those very areas that stress begins to build and can lead any of us to Panic Palace. What we need to do is to surrender our emotions to God, to surrender our thoughts to God, to surrender our prayers to God, to surrender our actions to God.

And you see, when we do, as Jesus promised in Matthew chapter 11, when we take his yoke upon us, then his burden is light and his load is easy and we find rest for our souls. And isn't that what we're looking for? Don't you really want the rest that only Jesus Christ can give you? I know it's what I want.

And God says that the way to experience Christ's rest, the way to experience peace, the way to deal with all the stress that we have is to fully surrender our lives to Christ, to follow his plan for our lives, to make choices of putting him first and obeying his word. To choose to rejoice, to choose to pray, to choose to not be anxious, and to choose to think about the things above, and then to choose to be obedient to the things that we know.

Every one of us, whether we're a brand new follower of Jesus Christ or whether we've been walking with the Lord for years, we know certain things with respect to what God has for our lives. Every one of us knows some things about God's will. When we obey those things, we experience peace. When we disobey those things, we experience stress. The key to a stress-less life, the key to God's peace, is by obeying Jesus Christ. If that's what you want to do, would you pray with me right now?

Lord, I want to experience your peace. I surrender my life to you. I choose to follow you. Give me rest for my soul. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Greg: We want to help you in your relationship with Christ. Please get in touch with us at Truth That Changes Lives, 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California, 92653. Or call us at 949-916-0250. That's 949-916-0250.

On the internet you will find us at crosslinechurch.com. We hope to see you at one of our services every Sunday at our new campus in Laguna Hills. For more information and directions, please go to crosslinechurch.com. Please join us next time on Truth That Changes Lives.