Hey, podcast listeners! Thanks for streaming today's podcast, From Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory is a nonprofit ministry featuring the Bible teaching of Dr. Robert Jeffress. Our mission is to pierce the darkness with the light of God's word through the most effective media available, like this podcast.
To support Pathway to Victory, go to ptv.org slash donate or follow the link in our show notes. Now, here's today's podcast, From Pathway to Victory. God's Word with you every day on this Bible teaching program. On today's edition of Pathway to Victory, Jesus is not saying we can live in this world without problems, but he said there is a way to live above your problems. And that's what we're going to talk about today as we continue our series, Choose Your Attitudes, Change Your Life. We're going to talk about the attitude choice of choosing relaxation over stress. Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor Dr. Robert Jeffress.
Jesus said that in this world we will have tribulation, but our response to those trials determines whether or not we experience the abundant life that Jesus promised. Today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress identifies five causes of unnecessary stress along with five biblical solutions for choosing relaxation over stress. Now, here's our Bible teacher to introduce today's message. Dr. Jeffress? Thanks, David, and welcome again to Pathway to Victory.
David, I don't know when I've seen Americans more stressed out than they are today. And just before we begin the message, I'd like to suggest a free resource that will alleviate some of your stress and help you relax a little. Over the past few years, we've developed a number of creative tools at Pathway to Victory, and I'm convinced that one of our best-kept secrets is the periodical we developed called Pathway Magazine. This publication contains daily devotional readings, feature articles about your Christian walk, and a variety of other fascinating features. It's designed so you can curl up in your favorite chair and fill your mind with soothing spiritual truth.
And to help you get started, I'm prepared to send you the first three issues at no cost to you just by getting in touch with us at ptv.org. Well, choosing to relax rather than getting stressed out is not my idea, it's God's idea. God wants to replace your fears and frustrations with faith. In addition to our teaching time today, I've written a full-length book to help you take these steps.
It's called Choose Your Attitudes, Change Your Life. One of the 11 chapters goes deeply into the issue we'll address today. And when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory, I'll make sure a copy is sent to your home. Get ready to write down our contact information because we'll say more about my book and other resources after today's study.
Right now, however, let's turn to Matthew chapter 11. I titled today's message, Choosing Relaxation Over Stress. Now first, I think it's important to differentiate between two kinds of stress. There is actually a healthy kind of stress. The stress that you adequately cope with may actually be good for you, whereas stress that you fail to cope with is most probably bad for you. What are the hazards of prolonged or ignored stress?
Well, there are physical results of that. For example, we all know the relationship between stress and high blood pressure. Prolonged stress raises our level of cortisol in our bodies that can lead to chronic depression. But there are also spiritual effects of stress. Now, again, some stress can actually be spiritually beneficial to us.
I think that's what James has in mind. When in James 1, verses 2 to 4, he writes, consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. A certain amount of stress can strengthen us spiritually. And to summarize, some stress is good for us, but stress that is not dealt with adequately can be harmful to us. How do we handle the stress mess?
Two ways we do it. First of all, removing unnecessary stress from our lives, and secondly, dealing positively with unavoidable stress in our life. Let's talk about, first of all, removing unnecessary stress. Let me mention six causes of unnecessary stress in our life. First of all, stress caused by lack of purpose.
The French philosopher, Nicolas Bollet said, he is most fatigued who knows not what to do. Secondly, stress caused by unrealistic goals. And much of the stress we have is when we instill unrealistic goals that have no basis in Scripture at all.
We're just imposing these unrealistic goals on ourself. Thirdly, stress caused by unresolved anger. Anger is a negative emotion we feel when our expectations are not met. A fourth source of unnecessary stress, stress caused by comparison to other people. We compare our houses, our clothes, our cars, our jobs, our bank accounts, our children. Next, some stress is caused by materialism. And that's why Jesus said in Luke 12, verses 22 and 23, for this reason, I say to you, do not be anxious. Do not be stressed out for your life as to what you shall eat, nor for your body as to what you shall put on, for life is more than the material.
Life is more than food and the body more than clothing. Sixth, some unnecessary stress is stress caused by physical fatigue. Stress caused by physical fatigue. There's something about just being physically tired that distorts your perception of yourself, your circumstances, and your God. Now, we've talked about some stress that is unnecessary and can be removed, but other stress is unavoidable and has to be dealt with.
Remember, Jesus said in John 16, 33, in this world you have tribulation, but be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world. How do you keep stress from paralyzing you? Let me share with you five keys, biblical keys, for choosing relaxation over stress.
Number one, gain God's perspective on problems. Remember, stress is basically an attitude. When problems come, stress says you should panic. But an attitude of relaxation responds to problems with expectation.
Panic or expectation? To choose relaxation over stress means to understand that God is in control, that's his perspective, and that he can use this for some positive benefit in your life. Secondly, live life in the present tense. That's one way to deal with unavoidable stress.
When we spend our time dwelling on material on mistakes from the past that we cannot change, or we spend our time dwelling or anticipating on problems in the future, which we really can't foresee, we're going to have a stress-filled life. God never intended for us to live in the past or to live in the future, but to live in the present tense. I think it's significant that when God revealed himself to Moses in the burning bush and told him to go to Pharaoh and then to the Israelites and say, let my people go. Remember, Moses said, well, who am I to say sent me and gave me this message? Exodus 3 14, God said to Moses, I am who I am. And he said, thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, I am has sent me to you. That was God's name, Yahweh.
I am. It was the most sacred name of God. The poet Helen Mallicott talks about the significance of that name to us.
She writes, I was regretting the past and fearing the future. Suddenly my Lord was speaking to me. My name is I am. He paused. I waited.
He continued. When you live in the past with its mistakes and regrets, it is hard. I am not there. My name is not. I was.
When you live in the future with its problems and fears, it is hard. I'm not there. My name is not. My name is not. I will be. When you live in this moment, it is not hard. I am here.
My name is I am. Now for you theologians, I understand there's some problems with that. The fact is God is not bound by time. He's not bound by the past, the present, and the future. I understand that, but we are.
We live in time. That's why when we try to live in the past, when we can't change it, when we try to anticipate the future and we really can't foresee it, we are bound to a stress-filled life. Relaxation means living life in the present tense. Third way to deal with the unavoidable stress in life, ready for this one? Take a day off every week.
Take a day off every week. I hear, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, well, pastor, that's easy for you to say. You preachers only work one hour one day every week.
But for the rest of us who have real jobs, that's just not really a possible thing. Well, think again. Think again. You know of the 10 commandments that God gave in Exodus 20.
Do you know which one has the most space devoted to it? It's not, thou shall not commit adultery, or thou shall not lie, or thou shall not murder. The single commandment that receives the most space is this one, Exodus 20, 9-11. It's about taking a day off every week, a day that the Jews called the Sabbath. That word Sabbath, Shabbat, means literally to cease, to desist from any work.
Why are we to do that? Look at verses 9-11. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them, and he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and he made it holy. The reason we're to take a day off is because God took a day off.
Now, don't misunderstand. After six days of creation, God did say, I'm worn out. This creation stuff, it's hard work. I need to take a nap.
No, no. God doesn't get exhausted, but we do. He was setting an example for us. He said, one day a week there needs to be a day that you cease your regular activity and devote it to re-energizing yourself emotionally, physically, and yes, spiritually. And that's what the Sabbath is all about. It's not a bunch of legal requirements of what you can and can't do. As Jesus said, the man was not made for the Sabbath, the Sabbath was made for man.
It's God's gift to us. He knows we were designed in such a way that we can't work 24 hours a day, seven days a week. There needs to be a day of rest. By the way, don't confuse a day of rest with a day of recreation.
Do you know people who on their day off, I mean they're just going from one activity to another, one sporting event to one meeting, so forth. That's not what is meant by the Sabbath. It's a time to rest and to re-energize ourselves and most importantly, to reconnect with God and other believers. In Luke 4 verse 16, we find this interesting word about Jesus. When he came back to his hometown of Nazareth and he went to his childhood synagogue, Luke 4 16, and he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he entered the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read.
To me, I think that's so interesting. It was his custom one day a week to worship, to reconnect with God as well as with fellow believers in worship. If Jesus took the Sabbath seriously, so should we.
Many of you know the name of William Wilberforce, the great Christian abolitionist. He was a man of great achievement, great energy, but to him, Sunday served as the balm for the stress of his life. In his journal, he wrote, blessed be to God for the day of rest and religious occupation wherein earthly things assume their true size, ambition is stunted. Taking a day off every week is vital to experiencing relaxation over stress.
Fourth, and this is so practical, spend some time every day doing something you enjoy. If you want to get through a stressful day, a stressful week, make sure you have programmed into your day some time to do something you enjoy doing. Everybody needs something to look forward to. I have an interesting book in my library. It probably calls you to raise your eyebrow if you just saw the title. It's entitled Beware of the Naked Man Who Offers You His Shirt.
It's by leadership guru Harvey McKay, but he makes an interesting point. He says, how do you overcome the inevitable drag on your spirits of doing tasks you hate but have to be done? If I have to do something I don't like, I make it a point to especially be nice to myself later by doing something I really do like the same day. Now, that's gold as well, to have something you're looking forward to every day.
Now, I don't want you to misunderstand this. The day I look forward to most every week is Sunday. I mean, I am so jazzed up.
To me, it's the Super Bowl. I get to play every Sunday. Spend all week getting ready for Sunday. I can't sleep a lot of times on Saturday night. I'm so excited about being with you all and getting to preach God's Word. But Sundays are also an endurance contest. I mean, I get up about 4.45.
I run three miles. I sit down and look over the message for today, come here and preach twice. Meet with our guests.
Meet with other folks and so forth. And I tell you, there's a little bit of time, usually about 10.30 on Sunday mornings, I begin to sag a little bit. But then I remember what I've got waiting at home for me that night. A big bowl of popcorn and a Diet Coke.
And I can just picture myself stretched out on that couch watching an old movie, cramming popcorn down my mouth. But it's something I look forward to on Sunday, and it just gives me kind of the little extra oomph I need for the 10.50 service when I think about that. Now, the fact is, we ought to have something like that every day.
Listen to me, this extra, it won't cost you anything. But you know what? There needs to be a finish line that we have that we have in our lives every week. That's what the Sabbath is. It's a finish line. It's a time when you say, I haven't done everything I needed to do for this week, but I've done everything I should do and can do.
And now I'm gonna take a day off. There ought to be a finish line. God had a finish line in His week. After six days of creation, had God done everything He could have done in creation? No, He could have done more. There are more stars, more planets, more galaxies He could have created, more kinds of animals, more kinds of human beings. Why stop with two, male and female?
Why not three or four kinds of humans? It's not that God did everything He could have done, but He was setting an example for us. He did everything He needed to do. He came to a point of closure.
He said, this is enough. We need that every week. We need that every year. That's what vacations are about. When you come to the end of the year and you say, you know what? I'm gonna take some time for myself and with my family just to relax. I didn't hit every goal I should have hit for this year, but that's okay.
There's next year, but I'm gonna relax and celebrate. But there needs to be that time every day in your schedule as well. It might be seven o'clock at night. It might be eight o'clock, but it's a finish time. When you say, maybe I haven't washed every dish.
I haven't made every phone call or written every email that needs to be written, but I've hit the finish line for today and I'm gonna pick it up tomorrow. Now I'm gonna do something I enjoy. You say, well, where is that in Scripture?
I'm so glad you asked me. Ephesians 2 24, Solomon said, there is nothing better for a man than to eat his popcorn and drink his Diet Coke and tell himself that his labor is good. This also I have seen that it is from the hand of God.
You know what? God gave you the gift of life, not just to endure, but to enjoy. God wants us to enjoy the life that he has given us. Fifth, and perhaps most importantly, how do you choose relaxation over stress? Spend time with God each day.
Spend time with God each day. You know, in my own life, I've discovered how I begin my day and how I end my day governs my stress level throughout the day. You know, I woke up this morning. I was about to bound out bound out of bed, well, crawl out of bed to start the day and I thought, you know, there's something I need to talk to God about. So I made myself stay in bed until I talked with the Lord about that. And just doing that, I mean, it just has energized the rest of my day. How you start, how you end determines the stress you feel throughout the day. Years ago, I came across a plan by the late pastor Lloyd Ogilvy that I try to follow, a personal devotional plan.
It's called 15 Minutes to Freedom. And this pastor simply says, start your day spending 15 minutes with God, reading the Bible, praying, maybe writing something down in your spiritual journal, not an hour, not 15 minutes a day, and then end your day doing the very same thing. And when you have those bookends in your life, it tremendously affects the rest of your day. You know, in John 16, 33, again, Jesus said, in the world you have tribulation, but be of good cheer for I have overcome the world. I think this was Jesus' primary secret for dealing with the stress he felt with the assignment that he had in the world, to be the Savior of the world. How did he deal with that, with the disciples who didn't always do what they were supposed to do, with his enemies?
How did he deal with it? I think the secret was, he stayed connected to his Heavenly Father. I find one of the most fascinating verses about Jesus' life comes from Mark 1, verse 35. It says, And in the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus arose, and he went out and departed to a lonely place, and he was praying there. Now, when you look at Mark 1, you'll discover that this morning that they talk about was the day after the single busiest recorded day in Jesus' entire ministry. He had started early teaching and preaching and healing people and gone late into night, but then the next morning, when he certainly had every excuse for sleeping in, the Bible says no.
He got up. He went to a lonely place while it was still dark outside, and he prayed. You see, for Jesus, time spent with God was not just some legalistic spiritual requirement to be checked off. For Jesus, time spent with God was the secret of his strength, the source of his peace. And he offers us the same strength, the same peace if we'll spend time with him.
God said it this way through the prophet Isaiah, Isaiah 40, verses 29 to 31. God gives strength to the weary, and to him who lacks might, he increases power. Though youths grow weary and tired and vigorous young men stumble badly, yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles.
They will run and not get tired. They will walk and not become weary. That's the foundation for choosing relaxation over stress. God's message through Isaiah brings comfort to those who are running ragged today. No matter the issue that's causing you to worry, remember that God is the one who offers peace to the weary-hearted.
When we keep our eyes fixed on the source of peace, we can remain calm and even relax. Well, maybe you're ready to take your next steps. Perhaps you're feeling a practical resolve to wait for the Lord and to gain new strength. I've written a book to help you do just that. It's the one that inspired our current teaching series, Choose Your Attitudes, Change Your Life. And when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory, I'll make sure you receive your copy of this book.
It comes with my thanks. When you're ready to grow stronger in your Christian walk, sitting idle is not an option. Growth begins with a choice, an attitude. And in my book, I come alongside you and show you 11 different ways to choose the high road.
Remember, you can't choose the challenges that come your way, but you can choose your response to them. Please get in touch and request your copy of my book, Choose Your Attitudes, Change Your Life, today. And thanks in advance of receiving your gift, for giving generously to Pathway to Victory. Whatever amount you choose to give will help others connect with the life-transforming truth of God's Word, just as you have.
David? Thanks, Dr. Jeffress. When you support the ministry of Pathway to Victory by giving a generous gift, we'll say thanks by sending you, Choose Your Attitudes, Change Your Life. It's the book by Dr. Jeffress that has served as the basis for this series. To request your copy, call 866-999-2965, or online, go to ptv.org.
And when you give $75 or more, you'll not only receive the book, but also the CD and DVD teaching set for this month's series, Choose Your Attitudes, Change Your Life, plus a personal or group study guide to go along with it. Call right now, 866-999-2965, or online, go to ptv.org. You could also write to us at P.O. Box 223-609, Dallas, Texas, 75222. That's P.O.
Box 223-609, Dallas, Texas, 75222. You know, society has taught us to believe that contentment comes from money, health, and comfort. But in reality, contentment all comes down to how you think. I'm David J. Mullins, inviting you to join us for a message called, Choosing Contentment Over Comparison. That's next time on Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory with Dr. Robert Jeffress comes from the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas. The Pathway to Victory Journeys of Paul Mediterranean Cruise sets sail from Rome May 5th through 16th, 2025. Join me on this trip of a lifetime. I'll be teaching from God's Word, and you'll have plenty of time to take in the beauty of Greece, Italy, and Turkey. Experience an 11-day spiritual journey like no other while enjoying world-class accommodations aboard the Celebrity Ascent, a new luxury cruise ship.
To book your reservation now, go to ptv.org. You made it to the end of today's podcast from Pathway to Victory, and we're so glad you're here. Pathway to Victory relies on the generosity of loyal listeners like you to make this podcast possible. One of the most impactful ways you can give is by becoming a Pathway partner. Your monthly gift will empower Pathway to Victory to share the gospel of Jesus Christ and help others become rooted more firmly in His Word. To become a Pathway partner, go to ptv.org slash donate or follow the link in our show notes. We hope you've been blessed by today's podcast from Pathway to Victory.
