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. I frankly think Satan has a number of flaming arrows he shoots into different people's lives. One of them is labeled greed.
Another one might be labeled lust. But I think among his favorite arrows is worry. He loves to send that flaming arrow of worry in our lives. Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor, Dr. Robert Jeffress. You know, few things wreak havoc on the mind like the effects of worry.
It distracts us from the present and prevents us from experiencing joy. So, how can we release ourselves from worry's grip once and for all? Today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress shows us what the Bible says about the causes and cure for worry. Now, here's our Bible teacher to introduce today's message.
Dr. Jeffress. Thanks, David, and welcome again to Pathway to Victory. Before we begin today's message, I'm excited to announce that Amy and I will be hosting a tour next May, 2025. We're embarking on a 12-day Journeys of Paul Mediterranean cruise. The specific dates are May 5 through 16, 2025. I want you to see the historic sites in Ephesus where Paul conducted his historic ministry, and Greece where the gospel was brought to the Gentiles for the very first time.
Please take a look at all the details at ptv.org and make plans to join us. Speaking of Paul, in his letter to the Philippians, he made a very bold and audacious statement. Paul wrote, Be anxious for nothing. Now, that's much easier said than done, right? When something unwanted happens to us, worry is our natural response. Fear is the first thing we feel. Well, in our current series, we're learning how to counteract this common human response. Our series is called Choose Your Attitudes, Change Your Life.
You see, none of us gets to pick and choose the bad stuff that comes our way. The only thing we can control is our attitude. And in this teaching series and in my book, I'll give you 11 ways to experience God's exciting transformation in your life. My book is called Choose Your Attitudes, Change Your Life. And today, when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory, you're invited to request your copy of my book. I'll share more details later in today's program. But right now, let's shift our attention to the study of God's Word.
Find yourself overwhelmed but about a pressing problem right now? There's an empowering verse in Paul's second letter to Timothy that says, For God has not given us the spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline. Today, we're talking about choosing faith over worry. Someone has written, A thief is running loose in our midst. He's a dangerous thief intent on stealing our most precious possessions, our joy, our peace of mind, even our health.
The name of the thief? Worry. Arthur Rochas has described worry as a thin stream of fear trickling through the mind. If encouraged, it cuts a channel into which all other thoughts are drained.
Have you ever had that happen? You've been at work, been watching television, babysitting in a worship service when out of nowhere, this alien thought comes into your mind. Something to worry about, and you try to dismiss the thought, but it won't leave, and it grows larger and larger and larger until it drains every other thought and concern that you have. You know, that word worry, the English word comes from a German word wergen that means to strangle. And that's what worry does. It strangles out the joy, the emotion of our life.
The late Corrie ten Boom said, Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, instead worry empties today of its strength. This worry can have a devastating emotional impact on us, but it also affects us physically as well. Did you know that during World War II, 1941 to 1945, 400,000 Americans were killed in combat? But during that same period of time, 2 million Americans died from cardiovascular disease. Doctors say half of those deaths were directly attributable to hypertension induced by worry.
I mean, think about it. During World War II, more people died from worry than died on battle. Dr. Charles Mayo, the founder of the famed clinic said, Half of our hospital beds today are filled with people who have worried themselves there. Worry not only affects us emotionally and physically, it affects us spiritually as well. Do you remember in Luke chapter 8, Jesus told the parable about the sower who went out sowing seed, and the seed fell on four different kinds of soil? And of course, he went on to explain the seed represented the word of God.
The four kinds of soil represented the four conditions of the human heart that received God's word. And in verse 14, Jesus said, The seed which fell among the thorns, these are the ones who have heard. And as they go on their way, they are choked with worries and riches and the pleasures of this life and bring no fruit to maturity.
This seed fell on soil, it began to grow, but then there was a weed system underneath that choked the life out of this plant. Jesus was saying for some of us, as we try to grow in our spiritual maturity, our spiritual interest is choked out by three things. He talks about a love of pleasure, a love of money, but at the top of the list that chokes out spiritual growth in our life is worry. Worry can strangle the spiritual life out of us.
What's the antidote to worry? Well, Jesus said in John 14, 27, My peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you, not as the world gives do I give to you, let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful. Christ's legacy, his gift to us was peace, no matter what happens around us.
How many of you would have like to have that kind of peace that no matter what happens around you, you're at peace all as well? Well, the way we experience peace, the conduit through which it comes into our life is through faith. You know, the Bible says in Hebrews 11, one faith is not some hope or wish. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for.
It is the conviction of things not seen. Faith is the assurance that God is in control of our lives, no matter what is happening around us. But faith is an attitude we choose in life. And it's the attitude choice that we're talking about today in our series, Choose Your Attitudes, Change Your Life. You know, in this series, we've said we don't get to choose our circumstances. Many times we can't change our circumstances, but we can choose our response to those circumstances.
That's what an attitude is. It is our emotional and physical response to the circumstances of life. Today, we're gonna talk about that conscious choice we have to make when troubling situations come into our life. We choose faith over worry. Now, before we talk about how to choose faith in our life, let's look at some common causes of worry. In fact, as I look through Scripture, and after 40 years of talking to people who worry constantly, I've identified three major sources of anxiety in our life.
Cause number one, a wrong value system, a wrong value system. I want you to get into your minds right now, something you're worried about. What is the thing right now you are most worried about? I could probably guess that it has to do with the loss of a person, a position, or a possession. Most worry involves a fear of losing something important to us.
It may be losing a person, a mate, or a child through death or desertion or unfaithfulness. Some people are fearful of losing a position like a job and the prestige that goes along with it. Some people are fearful of losing a possession. It may be money.
It may be their health. But most people have an anxiety that is caused by the fear of losing something important to them. Somebody has said the cause of worry is building your life around the temporal instead of the eternal.
Whenever your heart, your affections are built around things that can be taken from you, there's going to be a low-grade anxiety that consumes your life. Chuck Swindoll quotes the great Scottish preacher Alexander White, who talked about our tendency to hang very heavy weights on very thin wires. For example, we hang the very heavy weight of our security in life on our job only to have it snapped by a failing economy. Or we hang our happiness on the very thin wire of our health only to have it snapped by a bad report from the doctor. Or we hang the very heavy weight of our purpose in life on our family only to have it be snapped by a traffic fatality.
Hanging very heavy weights on very thin wires. How do you deal with that? You know, some people deal with that fear of loss by trying to indemnify themselves against any kind of loss. If they're fearful of losing money, they'll stockpile all of the money they can to protect themselves from any downturn in the economy. If they're fearful of losing their health, they will exercise and diet and go to the doctor with the first sign of any ailments.
Or if they're fearful of losing a maid or a child in some way, they will smother that person with affection and attention. But the truth is, we cannot protect ourselves against every loss in life. And that's why Jesus said in Matthew 6 verses 19 and 20, Do not lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust destroy, for thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal.
D.L. Moody, the great evangelist of yesteryear said, Trust in yourself, and you are doomed to disappointment. Trust in your friends, and they will die or leave you. Trust in money, and it will be taken from you.
Trust in your reputation, and some slanderous tongue may blast it. But trust in God, and you are never to be confounded in time or eternity. Sometimes our anxiety reveals a wrong, not a sinful, but just a wrong value system, building our affection around the temporal instead of the eternal. A second cause of worry in our life can be unconfessed sin. Whenever we are consistently and willfully disobeying God, the byproduct of that disobedience is anxiety, worry. For example, we may be afraid that our sin may be uncovered one day. That was certainly true of David.
We'll talk about him more next week. But remember, he committed the twin sins of adultery with Bathsheba, then killing Bathsheba's husband. And for six months, he dreaded the prospect of that sin becoming made known to the Israelites. And so he tried to hide it.
He tried to cover over it. Psalm 32, verses three and four, he wrote about that period of six months up to a year. He said, when I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long. For a day and night, thy hand was heavy upon me.
My vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer. Other times, our disobedient lifestyle just produces the sense that somehow God's going to get even with us, we think. God is going to punish us.
We don't know how he's going to do it, but it's like we're living our lives with a sword of Damocles hanging over our head. We're fearful that disaster is going to come into our life at any moment because of our disobedience. It reminds me of what the Puritan preacher Jonathan Edwards said, the unrighteous tremble at the rustling of the leaves.
Unrighteous people are just naturally fearful because even though they may not proclaim to believe in God, deep down they know there is a God and that he is unhappy with them. Conversely, righteous living produces a peace of mind. In Isaiah chapter 32 verse 17, the prophet writes, and the work of righteousness will be peace and the service of righteousness, quietness and confidence forever. You know, such peace of mind is beautifully illustrated in the Old Testament story of Daniel. Remember, Daniel had risen to prominence under the reign of King Darius and Darius's court counselors had become jealous of Daniel because of the king's favor, so they plotted against him. And remember, they convinced Darius to sign a decree that anyone who prayed to any other being except King Darius would be executed.
They knew what they were doing. They knew that Daniel was faithful in prayer, but in a moment of pride, Darius signed that order. And when Daniel heard that that order had been signed, which very probably could have been his death warrant, I want you to notice how he responded to the news. Daniel 6 10 says, now when Daniel knew that the document was signed, he entered his house. Now in his roof chamber, he had windows open toward Jerusalem, and he continued kneeling on his knees three times a day, praying and giving thanks before his God as he had been doing previously.
Daniel had complete peace of mind. Even though he knew he would probably be killed, that's what righteous living does. It gives you that supernatural peace that contrasts that to how Darius responded. Daniel 6 18 says, then the king, after signing that decree, went off to his palace and spent the night fasting, and no entertainment was brought before him, and his sleep fled from him. Even though Darius was a pagan, even though he had every right under human authority to sign that decree, deep down, he knew it was wrong. He knew there was a God in heaven, the God of Israel, who demanded exclusive worship, who's unable to sleep over his misdeed. What I'm saying to you today is, the fact is, unconfessed sin can often be a cause of anxiety in our life.
There's a third cause that we don't talk about often. Some of our worry is the direct result of satanic attack in our life. Now I know that sounds extreme, so don't write me off before I explain what I mean by this. You know, in Ephesians chapter 6, Paul describes the spiritual armor that is available to every Christian to fight against Satan's attack. Remember, Paul reminds us that our struggle in life is not against flesh and blood. It's really not against other people.
We think it is. We think our struggle is against our maid, or our children, or our employer, or somebody else. No, our struggle is not against flesh and blood, Paul says, but against the unseen forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Spiritual warfare demands spiritual weapons. And remember in verse 16, he describes one of those pieces of armor available to us. In addition to all, taking up the shield of faith, with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming missiles of the evil one. What does Paul mean, the shield of faith? Well, a Roman soldier had this shield made of wood.
It was about two and a half feet wide, four and a half feet long, and it would be covered in leather that had been soaked in water. And the enemy would often shoot an arrow, but before shooting the arrow, he would dip the tip of that arrow in pitch and then set it on fire. And when that flaming missile, that flaming arrow would come toward the Roman soldier, all the soldier had to do was lift up that shield.
And when that flaming arrow made contact with that shield, cover and leather that had been soaked in water, immediately it was extinguished. Now, Paul says, when you are under attack from Satan, hold up that shield of faith with which you can extinguish Satan's flaming arrows in your life. I frankly think Satan has a number of flaming arrows he shoots into different people's lives. One of them is labeled greed.
Another one might be labeled lust. He knows exactly what arrow to use at the right time on the right person. But I think among his favorite arrows is worry. He loves to send that flaming arrow of worry in our life. And the reason I say that is because of the effect it has on our life. I mean, worry is like being hit with a stun gun. You know what a stun gun, you've seen that operate before. I mean, it just paralyzes somebody. They can't move, they can't do anything.
Again, have you been in that situation where all of a sudden out of nowhere you think this worry comes into your life? And the result is you don't feel like doing anything, including you don't feel like reading your Bible. You don't feel like praying. You don't feel like talking to God's people.
You are absolutely paralyzed. Now, yes, some fear comes from God when we're not living righteously or have the wrong value system. But much of the worry we have in life comes from Satan himself. 2 Timothy 1.7, Paul says, For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of love, power, and of a sound mind. How do you know if this is coming from Satan? Whenever this worry drives you away from God rather than closer to God, you can know that's not coming from God, it's coming from the evil one. You know another way I know most anxiety in our life comes from Satan and not God?
Because it's based on a lie. I read this study by a guy named Dr. Walter Calvert. He did a study about worry and he concluded that 92% of the things we worry about never actually happen. Have you known that in your life? I can go back and read my spiritual journal from decades ago.
The things I was consumed about, the things I was so fearful of, they never ended up happening. That's just like Satan. John 8.44 says, Satan is a liar, Jesus said, and he is the father of all lies. Many times our worry can be attributed to Satan himself. We've talked about the causes of worry. Now, how do we erect that shield of faith in our lives to extinguish the flaming attack of anxiety? Well, let me give you just four positive steps that you can take all based on God's Word. Number one and most importantly, repent of known sin in your life. If some of our anxiety is because of a wrong value system, that worry is like a headache.
It shows something else is wrong in our life. Maybe for you, you realize that you have built your life around the temporary, not necessarily the sinful, but things that could be easily taken away from you and you need to change where you're putting your affections and your desires. Colossians 3, verses one and two say, if then you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things that are above, not on things that are on the earth. Know that word repent, and again, we're talking about this next week when we talk about choosing repentance over guilt, but I'll give you a sneak preview.
The word repentance, metano, eo, means a change of mind that leads to a change of direction in life. Well, I promised to give you four positive steps, and we've only had time to cover one of those steps today. Please make it a point to listen again tomorrow when we'll talk about three more ways to move forward.
This is what Pathway to Victory is all about. We're entirely focused on helping you take your next steps in a healthy relationship with Jesus Christ, and to that end, I'm highly recommending that you request a copy of my book on this topic. Like the teaching series, my book is also titled Choose Your Attitudes Change Your Life. In my book, I'll come alongside you and address 11 different obstacles that keep you from experiencing God's best in your life. It begins with choosing things like faith over worry, humility over pride, and companionship over loneliness. This book would stimulate great conversation in your small group Bible study or Sunday school class.
Ask for a copy of Choose Your Attitudes Change Your Life. It's yours when you give a generous gift to support the growing ministry of Pathway to Victory. As we close today, I want to personally thank those who give faithfully and generously to support Pathway to Victory.
We're in a season of wonderful growth and opportunity. Stations are inviting us to join their lineup of Bible teachers, but we can't seize these opportunities without supportive friends like you. Please give generously so that others hear the good news of Jesus Christ, just as you have. And when you give today, be sure to request a copy of my book.
It's called Choose Your Attitudes Change Your Life. It comes with my thanks. Through your generosity, you are helping us pierce the darkness with the light of God's word.
David. Thanks, Dr. Jeffress. Today, 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. Now, when you give $75 or more, you'll not only receive the book, but we'll also include the CD and DVD teaching set for this month's series, Choose Your Attitudes Change Your Life.
Plus, you'll get a personal or group study guide. Call right now, 866-999-2965, or online, go to ptv.org. You could also mail your gift to P.O. Box 223-609, Dallas, Texas, 75222.
That's P.O. Box 223-609, Dallas, Texas, 75222. I'm David J. Mullins, inviting you to join us again next time for part two of the message, Choosing Faith Over Worry, here on Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory with Dr. Robert Jeffress comes from the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas. 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.
