Worry tells you whether you're going to sleep tonight. Worry is concern on steroids. And although worry can control you, Dr. Tony Evans says you have the final say over it. If you want to get victory over worry, you must decide to rejoice in the Lord.
This is the alternative broadcast featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans. Even though we can't control the future, or even see the future, that doesn't stop us from worrying about it. But that's a habit we can stop. In today's message, Dr. Evans tells us how.
Let's join him as he begins. There is so much today to worry about. We've got our personal issues to worry about, health issues to worry about, financial issues to worry about, career issues to worry about, terrorism to worry about.
I want to tell you today, not only to be happy and don't worry, but I'm going to try to tell you how to be happy and not worry. Worry drains you. It sucks the blood out of you.
It incapacitates you to function like you know you should function. We got the pain of the past we worry about, the problems of the present, and the unexpected of the future. And it just keeps on coming. And now, with everybody being able to talk to everybody else all the time about everything, folk want to dump their worry on you. One man said, I've got so much to worry about, it's going to take me two weeks to get around to it.
I got a backlog of worry. Another man was so overcome with all the stuff to worry about, he says, I will pay somebody $1,000 who will do my worrying for me. The man volunteered. He said, I'll take that $1,000 to do your worrying for you. He said, okay.
The man said, okay, well, where's the $1,000? He said, that's the first thing you need to worry about. It drains our emotional tanks. And so I want to tell you today to be happy and don't worry.
I know that's easier said than done. Now, let me clarify what I mean by worry or its nickname anxiety. Worry is when a person, place, thing, or an idea controls your life, your thinking, and your function. Worry is different than concern.
There are a lot of expressions of concern in the Bible. Concern means that there is a person, place, thing, or idea that is negative in nature, that needs to be addressed in some way, and you're trying to figure out how to address it. Worry is when there is a person, place, thing, or an idea that you are no longer dictating to.
It is now dictating to you. Concern you control. Worry controls you. Worry tells you whether you're going to sleep tonight. Worry tells you whether you're going to cry. Worry tells you whether you're going to be depressed or discouraged. Worry tells you whether you need to pop some pills because worry is the dictator. Worry is concern on steroids. Concern is legitimate.
Paul was concerned for the churches. So if you're concerned about some things, but you are controlling the concern, you're telling it when to come or go. You're telling it, I can't deal with you now, I'm checking with you later.
Okay, you're good. But if that thing that you call concern is owning you, that's worry, that's anxiety. And Paul says in Philippians chapter 4 verse 6, be anxious for nothing. Worry about nothing.
And we all know that nothing from nothing leaves nothing. Whatever is worrying you, Paul says, is out of order. And he says, you are out of order for letting it happen. He says, be anxious for nothing, which means whatever is messing with you is not allowed to be made an exception by you. You cannot say, well, you don't know what I'm going through. You don't know how bad this is. You don't know how deep it is.
You don't know how long it's gone. Paul says, be anxious for nothing. It is not a request.
It is a command. He says, it is unacceptable for you to be anxious about anything which makes anxiousness and worry a sin. So when you or I allow something that concerns us to grow to become a worry for us, we have in actuality rebelled against God. Because we're told to worry about what? Nothing. So I don't care what your something is, whatever your something is that is causing you to worry, something is out of order.
Because we're to worry for nothing. The book of Philippians is a book about joy. All through the book, he keeps on bringing up this word joy. He says in chapter one, for example, verse four, always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all. He says in chapter one, verse 25, convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith. Says in chapter two, verse two, make my joy complete. Verse 29, receive him then in the Lord with all joy. So he's consumed with joy.
But notice the context in which he is consumed with joy. That context is given to us in chapter one, verse 12. Now I want you to know, brethren, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel so that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known throughout the whole Praetorian God and to everyone else, and that most of the brethren trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear. Some, to be sure, are preaching Christ even from envy and strife, but some are from goodwill.
The latter do it out of love knowing I am appointed for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition rather than from pure motives thinking to cause me distress in my imprisonment. So Paul is writing about joy from prison. He's in jail.
In fact, Paul doesn't know if he's going to live or die, and yet he writes to the church at Philippi and to the church at Oak Cliff, keep your joy. Not only was he imprisoned on the inside, but he had folk working against him on the outside. He says, some are preaching Christ to increase my stress, to bring me more distress. So he's in a prison, locked up, can't get out. He's got folk outside working against him in the name of Christianity.
He's not in a good situation. His circumstances are not in his favor, and yet he writes about joy. He says, be happy, don't worry.
And Dr. Evans will walk us through the steps we can take to beat worry when he returns in just a moment. First though, I want to let you know the lesson you're hearing today is one of the top 24 of 2024, and we're bundling it along with 23 other powerful messages from the alternative broadcast this year. When you make your year-end contribution to support this ministry, we'll send you the top 24 of 2024 on either CD or digital download.
It's our way of saying thanks for your investment in us, which enables us to continue investing in you. And as an added bonus, we're also including The Greatest Gift, a nine-track Christmas album from renowned gospel artist Anthony Evans. Just visit tonyevans.org for details on how to get The Greatest Gift Christmas album and the top 24 of 2024. And when you do, you'll also see an opportunity to add a hardcover edition of the Tony Evans Study Bible. Find out how to do that at tonyevans.org or by phone any time of the day or night at 1-800-800-3222.
I'll repeat that contact information for you after the second part of today's message and this word from Dr. Evans. Let me start off by thanking all of our friends for how you've walked with us and stood by us all year long. We've thought your prayers, and they've made a difference in the lives of people that we've had the privilege of ministering to. And as we anticipate the new year, we want to not only end this year strong, but go into the new year able to take advantage of all the opportunities that God has brought our way for the building of strong, biblically-based families, for strengthening churches so that they're able to do the work of kingdom building God has called them to do, and for speaking into the culture. This culture needs to hear a word from God and a word that works, and that's what we're committed to do. Stand with us with your generosity and your prayers because you know this word, a word that the world desperately needs today.
I want to walk you through now how to get over your worry. The first thing he says, in verse 4 of chapter 4, is to rejoice in the Lord always. And again I say, in case you didn't hear me the first time, rejoice. There is worldly happiness and godly happiness. Godly happiness is called joy. The word joy in the Bible is a celebration term.
So he's calling for celebration. But here's the difference between joy and secular happiness. Secular happiness depends on what happens.
In other words, it's circumstantially driven. So, if things are going up, I feel up and I'm happy. If things are going down, I feel down, so I'm sad.
Which keeps you on an emotional rollercoaster because I am now being governed by the circumstances. But that is not the definition of biblical joy. Biblical joy has to do with celebration on the inside regardless of circumstances on the outside. Joy, from God's point of view, is not tied to circumstances, which is why Paul, who's in a bad situation, he's in prison, has folk working against him outside of prison, can talk about his joy and can tell these folk to be joyful because his definition of joy has nothing to do with what's happening around you. This church was even going through some difficult times because Paul tells them in chapter 1, verse 28, don't be alarmed by your opponents. They had folks working against the church. They had two women, chapter 4, verse 2, who were in conflict in the church and it was bringing problems in the church and he has to tell the folks in the church, verse 3 of chapter 4, help these women because they're causing a problem with the gospel. So there was some disunity going on and there was some opposition to the church going on and in midst of challenges, he says, keep your joy.
So whatever this thing is, joy is not tied to circumstances. I remember one day I took one of my kids to the doctor when they were children and I took them to the doctor because they were sick. They were sick. They weren't feeling well. But this particular doctor at this particular office had a playground, toys, in the playroom.
Well, we went to the doctor because they were sick. But in the middle of a sick environment, there was a playground. And I remember the kids playing with the playground while sick. In other words, on the inside of the location of the sickness was a playground. Joy is having a playground on the inside regardless of the things sickening you in your experience. Can anybody use a playground here today?
Well, let me tell you how to build a playground in your situation, even while you have to deal with your sniffles of your circumstances. You see, the way to get joy, even if things are not joyful right now, is in the Word. He says, rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice. Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice.
Okay, let me reread it in a way it's not reading. It doesn't say rejoice in your circumstances always, and again I say rejoice. Because if you're rejoicing in your circumstances, it depends on how those circumstances are. He says, don't rejoice in your circumstances, rejoice in a person.
Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice. Well, notice the word joy is in the word rejoice. So the way, watch this, you get joy is by rejoicing. If you're not rejoicing, then don't expect to have joy because joy is in the rejoicing. You see, a lot of people want joy who refuse to rejoice. But you must rejoice to have the joy that's in the word rejoicing. And you must do it more than once, again I say, rejoice. Rejoicing is celebrating God.
You must, watch this, if you want a playground in your heart, regardless of the sickness in your life, then you must, in the midst of your circumstances, become a rejoicer. Paul and Silas were in jail at midnight, and midnight is a dark time. They're in jail and it's dark. And it says Paul and Silas, at midnight, got their praise on.
They celebrated God at midnight. They praised God in the midst of their problem. This is why there is so much in the Bible about not grumbling and complaining, because what grumbling and complaining does is it reinforces your focus on the problem. Your problem doesn't need more help, okay? It's already a problem. But we actually help the problem out by focusing on the problem through complaining and grumbling about the problem. Now you can't ignore the problem. It's a problem. But what he says you must do is you must decide to rejoice or celebrate God no matter what the circumstance is. You engage God. You don't ignore the problem. He says, I'm in prison.
That's a reality. Habakkuk spends two and a half chapters talking about how bad things are. It's only three chapters in the book of Habakkuk. He spends two and a half of the chapters talking about how bad things are. He comes to the end and says, but I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. In other words, he doesn't ignore the fact he's got all of this dilemma that he doesn't understand. He doesn't know why this is going on, why God is letting me going on, why God is letting it going on this long.
He said, I don't understand this, but I'm making a decision to get my praise on in the middle of what I don't understand. What the enemy wants you to do is so focus on how bad it was, how bad it is, and how bad it could be that it gets your full attention and you never get around to building a playground in your soul, a place of celebration, because you want joy while refusing to rejoice. You get joy by rejoicing in the Lord.
That is, in who God is, in what God has done in other scenarios, you are rejoicing in the Lord. A woman in labor has a dual challenge, a conflict, because one, she's in pain. She's hurting because of the labor. So she's hurting. She's crying out. She feels the pain.
So that's a negative. But the negative is counterbalanced by the life. In other words, she's getting ready to give birth to life. So it's like a bittersweet thing. She crying. Tears are flowing down her face.
But she's also celebrating inside, knowing that she's giving birth to life. It's a bittersweet experience. Life will make you cry.
Situations that you've caused or others have caused you will bring tears to your eyes. But God says, in the middle of your pain and imprisonment, in the middle of your discomfort, I want you to make a big celebration about me. And that's something you must choose to do.
It will not happen out of nowhere. You've got to decide. He's not talking about when you're in church, because he's talking about when I'm in prison. I'm going to rejoice in who he is, in spite of where I am. So, number one, if you want to get victory over worry, because you've been commanded to worry about absolutely nothing, you must decide to rejoice in the Lord.
You must decide that. It will not just happen. Dr. Tony Evans, sharing important insights on keeping reasonable concerns from growing into overpowering anxiety. You know, life presents many challenges and fears, but there's one particular source of dread you have the power to completely avoid.
Here's what Dr. Evans has to say about it. One of the great fears in life is the fear of death. And the uncertainty that lies beyond the grave.
Well, you can change uncertainty into certainty, and you can do it right now, right where you are. Stop what you're doing, go to God, and say, God, I want certainty about my eternal destiny. I acknowledge Jesus as the Son of God who died on the cross for my sins, and I'm believing in Him now for my salvation, which He promised to give me if I came to Him for it. Thank you for giving me of my sins and for the new certainty of eternal life.
Learn more about what surrendering your uncertainty to Jesus Christ can mean for you. Visit tonyevans.org and follow the link at the top of the home page that simply says Jesus. Today's message, Be Happy, Don't Worry, is part of our special year-end series, The Top 24 of 2024. As I mentioned earlier, all 24 messages in this collection are our gift to you when you make a contribution to help us keep Tony's teaching on this station. Drop by tonyevans.org to make your donation and request The Top 24 of 2024. For a limited time, we're also including the greatest gift Christmas album from gospel artist Anthony Evans. You'll even have a chance to sweeten this year-end package with the Tony Evans Study Bible. Get all the details at tonyevans.org, or call our 24-hour resource center at 1-800-800-3222 and let one of our team members help with your request. The number again, 1-800-800-3222. There's never a shortage of things to be anxious about, and tomorrow Dr. Evans will dig deeper into the plan God has for us when anxiety seeks to take hold of our thoughts. Be sure to join us.
