Bill Johnson - How Worry Chokes God's Promises For Your Life
Verse 18: These are the ones sown among thorns. They are the ones who hear the word, and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word. Listen to me carefully: You and I, with our thoughts, our attitudes, and our appetites, have the capacity to put a stranglehold on the promise God has given. He talks here about giving ourselves to allow weeds to grow. Is there anybody, anybody a gardener in here? I’m not, but my wife is. Although we are in the process of creating a wonderful garden, I’m cheering her on: Go, Penny, go!
As soon as my hot peppers are in full bloom, I will help her harvest—that’s my responsibility. We also have a little orchard of about 30 trees, and I’m going to pick the apples too—that’s my gardening part. Go, Benny, give me an apple! Why do weeds grow bigger, faster, and stronger than the plants you want to grow? It’s a strange thing that happened because of the fall. Here, he says weeds grow and choke the word of the Lord. The promise of your life can actually be choked, strangled by the deceitfulness of riches, the cares of this world, and the desire for other things. Let me break down those three things for you: The cares of this world. That word for cares actually comes from two words: number one is divided, and number two is mind. The cares of this world create a divided mind.
A lot of people experience—not you, it’s the others—experience anxiety, confusion, and stress because their minds are divided, juggling too many options: Jesus and all these other choices. Years ago, I remember hearing a story—I read a story actually—in a book about a gentleman who was a great athlete and loved competition, loved sports of all kinds. He ended up in a horrible accident and lost an arm. He spent considerable time afterward trying to find some kind of sport he could be involved in with only one arm. For some reason, he picked up the sport called handball. Anyone ever played handball? Man, that’s painful! Give me a racket; I’d rather hit the ball with one! It’s this hard little ball, almost as hard as a golf ball, that you hit with your hand, which has a thin layer of leather over it. You hit it off the wall, as in racquetball, and it’s a very intense and competitive sport.
So he picked up this sport called handball, and over time he became the club champion. His club entered him in the state championship, and he competed on a statewide level, ultimately taking first place in his state for handball. Following his championship match, a newspaper writer wanted to interview him. During the interview, one of his questions was, «How is it that a man with only one hand can defeat all your opponents who play with two hands?» He said, «Oh, it’s easy: options.» The newspaper guy asked, «What do you mean, options?» He explained, «When the ball comes off the wall, my opponent has to decide which hand to use. I only had one option.» The decision had been made. Too many Christians have too many options, and we invite confusion. When you invite confusion, you create an atmosphere for anxiety and worry. It doesn’t mean we will never face it otherwise; it’s just that we always have the upper hand when we only have one option. When our only option is our hunger for the will of God, we ignore what it tastes like in the moment; that’s what we want.
Jesus said, «My food is to do the will of Him who sent me.» I find that the will of God can sometimes taste very sour or bitter, but it’s always pleasant to the soul. The will of man is always sweet to the taste but turns sour in the stomach. There’s something about the will of God that nourishes and strengthens. So here we have the issue of the cares of life. Think about it this way: Every moment that you and I spend in worry and anxiety, we are actually feeding the beast that strangles the promise over our destiny. Every moment I spend in worry and anxiety, I’m fueling the beast that is working to put a stranglehold over my destiny and the promises of my life. The devil cannot read our thoughts—anybody say amen to that? He cannot read your thoughts, but he can read the thoughts he suggests.
I think he can sometimes tell when one of his suggestions, called fiery darts, has made it past the shield of faith because it affects our countenance. Whenever that happens, there’s an agreement, and the enemy is always empowered by our agreement. Agreeing with the enemy empowers him to kill, steal, and destroy. I don’t want to over-exaggerate the devil’s role, but I want to make us alert to the assignment, because I believe so much—I’ve talked about this subject from different angles a lot in the last year—that we are coming into a season of unusual breakthrough. It requires the fulfillment of promise. How many of you have a whole bunch of promises over your life that are not yet fulfilled? Amen. All right, so here we have the cares of this world—the divided.