The Secret To Contentment (With Greg Laurie)

[Music] you know ever since i was a little kid i've always wanted to be an athlete but the problem was i was never really good at any sport in particular when i tell you i was the last one picked for the team i'm not kidding actually but i did go out for football when i was in high school i was a pretty fast runner and so i went through all the training and i even shaved my head which was hard because i had really cool surfer blonde hair i had like a nice little wave that i would do this all the time you know and to sacrifice that hair to be in the team i thought well it's worth it i'm going to be on the team and i shave my head and like literally the day after i'm called into the principal's office and they said you can't be on the football team i said why not they said your grades are too low my response is okay could you have told me that before i shave my head but you know one thing i was pretty good at was running i could outrun most people uh not long distance running though sprinting was what i was better at whenever there would be a race i would be ahead of everyone but of course i would quickly lose steam and then people would catch up with me and sometimes they would lap me and periodically turtles would pass me but i was good with that initial burst of steam uh but you know the christian life is really a long distance run and it's something we engage in each and every day and you know there's a lot of people want to get out and run but a lot of people don't follow through even after they buy running shoes which are very expensive now by the way in case you haven't noticed i read that 87 of those who buy running shoes never use them 87 percent hey check out these running shoes have you gone for a run no but i walked from my car to starbucks and i'm looking good right so you know that's how it is in real life now i am not naturally the kind of guy that wants to go have a workout that's the thing i want to get out of doing it's so bad i don't even like to jog my memory it's you know but the last week i i was at the gym and i was stretching and i was bending and i was lifting and i was just getting out of the car that's what's so sad about that but no seriously though i i go to the gym uh seven days a week i do yeah it's on the way to krispy kreme donuts just i go by the gym i should say all right well anyway but you know if you want to be a real athlete you have to be committed you have to work at it i read that the average olympic athlete works out four hours a day 310 days a year for six years to compete for the goal and then once if you are selected to be on the olympic team which is a great honor of course uh you know you have to discipline yourself and a very important thing you must play by the rules you know it's a funny thing we have sort of a trend i think in children's sports especially today where they say you know we don't really keep tabs on who's winning because everyone's a winner by the way that is i don't think that's a good thing to do for kids because that's not the way it is in the real world okay we give kids you know trophies for showing up it's a participation trophy okay news flash in the race of life god wants us to win he doesn't want us to just show up it's not just about running it's about winning and you know when they say everyone's a winner that's actually not true everyone is not a winner there are losers in the race of life because they bail or they break the rules or they don't finish what they've started god wants us to win in this race first corinthians 9 24 it says remember in a race everyone runs but only one person gets the prize so run in such a way that you will win every athlete practices self-control they do it to win a prize that will fade away but we're doing it for an eternal prize so i discipline my body like an athlete training to do what it should otherwise after i have preached to others i myself would be disqualified and we could illustrate this with a lot of examples of athletes who maybe won an olympic event but it was found out later that that they'd been um using steroids or in some other way they broke the rules and so they even had their gold medal taken from them on some occasions well anyway we want to run this race of life and we want to run it well so there are things that sort of slow us down in the race of life things that impede our progress what are they let's go back now to philippians 2 and look at verse 14 and 15 and i would point this out complaining and bickering can hinder us in running the race let me say that again complaining and bickering can hinder us in running the race of life and also impede our happiness and joy look at verse 14. paul says do all things without complaining and wait a second i have to take this jacket off i can't do it i'll just do this because i'm hot okay we're done all right here we go look at verse 14 and 15 do all things without complaining and disputing that you may become blameless and harmless children of god without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom you shine as lights in the world another translation of 14 and 15 goes as follows do everything readily and cheerfully no bickering no second guessing allowed go into the world uncorrupted a breath of fresh air in this squalid and polluted society provide people with a glimpse of good living and the living god i love that translation now when paul uses the word complaining a better way to translate it would be murmuring it's not speaking of loud boisterous screaming but rather low-toned discontented muttering does that make sense so it's not a person who says i don't like what's going on it's more the person who's like this i don't like what's going on until you're like do you like what's going on i don't agree with that do you agree with that don't you know they're always complaining sort of like popeye remember popeye ever watch a popeye cartoon he's always muttering what is he saying no one knows but he's muttering right that that's the idea here you know and that's how some people are they're always muttering or complaining or or jumping to conclusions i'm amazed how people will jump to conclusions you know the only exercise some christians get is running down others and jumping to conclusions they think they heard something which maybe they didn't hear at all or they misinterpreted it then they'll build a whole case on that thing that really uh wasn't even true and then they'll get angry about it and this can fester and go on for a long period of time don't let that be you heard a story of a man who decided to join a monastery and become a monk and he had to take a vow of silence and at the end of the year he would be allowed to appear before the head priest but he could only say two words so after one year of being in this monastery the monk said bed's heart another year passes he meets a head priest and he says food's cold after the third year he comes before the head priest and he says i quit the head priest says well it's no wonder since you've arrived you've done nothing but complain but people are like this and i found that people who liked him complain are never happy to keep it to themselves they kind of want to spread it around you know what do you think if you agree that that we should do that i don't think this is right and that's just the sort of person they are but yes verse 14 says do all things without disputing this speaks of arguing an argumentative person is always looking for fault and wrong with others they're always looking for a verbal fight do you know any argumentative people i do they're just looking for a thing to get upset about they just go from conflict to conflict the bible is saying don't be that person and this is the very opposite in fact of what a christian ought to be because first corinthians 13 says love believes the best of every person but some people believe the very worst about every person they think their motives are always wrong and they're second guessing and challenging it and then we are to also be blameless look at verse 15 be blameless and harmless children of god without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation by the way the word blameless means to be unblameable unblameable in other words people can't blame us because we don't do things wrong it speaks of moral integrity manifesting itself externally of course jesus modeled this for us he's able to turn to his accusers in john 8 46 one day and say to them can you prove me guilty of any sin if i'm telling the truth believe me why don't you believe me in other words he's saying hey what have i done wrong what sin have i committed well there was none at all you say well that was jesus yeah but what about daniel the prophet he was a guy just like us and he was such a godly man that when his enemies wanted to trip him up because they were jealous of his power in influence with the king we read in daniel 6 4 his enemies couldn't find anything to criticize or condemn because he was faithful always responsible and completely trustworthy we are to be blameless and the second word that is used here is be harmless and a better way to translate this would be inexperienced in evil i like that inexperienced in evil this is not a stupid person this is not a naive person this is a person who has simply not chosen to be experienced in evil this is the person who maybe when the dirty joke is told they don't get it uh what oh sorry your mind isn't perverse like everybody else right so this is the idea and we are to be without fault number three it says in verse 15. this means no blemish or indication of disease and you say oh greg you know this is nice you stand up there behind your stupid light up pulpit and you tell us these things you know but i can't live at this level and besides god loves me and accepts me it is lit up tonight isn't it yeah okay um because it is a line of pulpit right you see god accepts me and god loves me just as i am god knows my heart so i don't have to live at that level hold on that can be an excuse yes god accepts you as you are but did you know he doesn't want to leave you that way see a lot of times in the name of god accepts me as i am we continue in a path of maybe sinfulness or we never grow spiritually and we just rationalize it by saying well god accepts me and loves me as i am but god wants you to grow up spiritually god wants you to become more like jesus and remember we already read in philippians 2 it is god that works in you both to will and do of his good pleasure god will not ask you to do anything he will not give you the power to do the calling of god is the enabling of god and if we live this way verse 15 says we'll shine his lights in this perverse world if you really want to see a light shine brightly turn it on in a dark place let me put it another way you ever see someone check their texts on their cell phone in a movie theater i don't care how far away they are it's noticeable and quite honestly it's distracting so in the same way when we're a light in a dark place we really stand out from the crowd and people notice us for sure but it's very important verse 16 says holding forth the word of life so i may rejoice in the day of christ in other words you don't want to just be a good example and not tell people why you're living the way that you're living so someone might say to you you know i notice you're you're a happy person you're a kind person you're always serving others what is it about you why do you live that way well i i believe in you know having a strong family and living by a set of morals really where do you get your morals i i believe tell them where you got them i get them from the bible and by the way i wasn't always this way in fact that was the opposite of this before but christ has come into my life and thank you for that compliment but anything you see in me is a result of my relationship with jesus christ see we want them to know why we are the way that we are and that's what uh is being said here by paul in philippians holding forth the word of life okay so having said that now let's shift gears and talk about this race we are to run very familiar words in verse 12 of philippians 3. paul says not that i've already attained or i'm already perfected but i press on that i may hold lay hold of that for which christ has laid hold of me brothers i do not my count i do not count myself to have apprehended but this one thing i do forgetting the things which are behind and reaching forward to the things that are ahead i press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of god in christ jesus therefore let us as many of us are mature have this mind and if any of you think otherwise god will reveal this to you so i started with the idea of the race of life we're all in this race we need to run this race to win we've got to play by the rules but what principles do we learn here about running the race of life if you're taking notes here's principle number one and we put all of this on the screen so you can write it down you must be dissatisfied with where you presently are spiritually you must be dissatisfied with where you are presently are spiritually paul says in verse 12 it's not that i have attained or i'm already perfected another translation of verses 12 to 14 would go as follows i'm not saying i have it all together or that i haven't made but i'm on my way reaching out for christ who has wonderfully reached out for me friends don't get me wrong by no means do i count myself an expert in all this but i have my eye on the goal where god is beckoning us onward to jesus i'm off and running and i'm not turning back you see paul was satisfied with christ but he wasn't satisfied with himself so he's saying i have a long ways to go do you realize that about yourself do you think you have a long ways to go are you thinking not me man i've arrived well i'm sure you've made a lot of progress since you first believed but oh my it seems to me the more you know the lord the more you realize that you have a lot of changing to do and if anyone could have thought that he had arrived it would be the apostle paul i mean this is a man who has led countless people to christ he's established churches he's written epistles and yet he is saying i have so much to learn and so far to go can you imagine a group of christians sitting around with the apostle paul someone might say well you know what god inspired me to share something with someone today another might say the lord led me to give the gospel to someone today and paul could say well god gave me inspired letters called epistles that make up half the bible that will last forever oh wow okay you win i don't think paul would have ever said that but i'm just saying for a point think of the comparison someone could say oh i heard god speak to me once another might say well i sensed his presence as we were worshiping the other day and paul said well actually i died i went to heaven and then i came back from the dead to write more epistles oh by the way did i mention i raised someone from the dead i mean who can top this guy this guy was at the top of his game but yet he says i have so far to go and it's just a reminder that no longer how long you've known the lord no matter how long you've known the lord i should say there's always room for growth and i think one of the problems is we become satisfied with where we are and one of the reasons that you might be self-satisfied is you're comparing your running without of other christians see the other day i did a race with my grandchildren they all wanted to race me we want to race papa and uh i thought wow this i could lose today because a couple of them are getting older but uh we'll give it a go so we picked a spot my wife went a ways away three feet nose further but so we're all getting ready to run and we take off and and i beat them and uh and you know now that's so what i beat a bunch of grandkids you know that's kind of sad i should have let them win but it was game on okay but that's the point i beat children in a race okay so i can say i'm pretty fast yeah i beat old christopher he's four years old so what now if i race with someone who was younger and athletic i would have done horribly if i would have raced against an athletic runner if if hussein bolt came over and we had a run together uh i would have done horribly so my point is simply this if i'm comparing myself to people much weaker than me i'll always seem like i'm doing better but if i compare myself with other people who are really running well i'll see oh man i have a long ways to go and that's what'll happen well i'm not as bad as that guy well he died a year ago i know i'm not as bad as him try comparing yourself with someone that's doing well see that sense of self satisfaction is not a good thing paul did not compare himself with others he compared himself with himself and with jesus christ the plan here is progress not perfection we will never be perfect ever point number two get rid of extra weight in the things that would hinder you get rid of extra weight and the things that would hinder you verse 7 what things are gaining me i counted loss for christ yes i can all things lost for the excellence of the knowledge of christ my lord for whom i have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish that i may gain christ paul's saying look i'm looking back on my life i was a pretty accomplished guy you know i was raised in an incredible family i studied under gamalio i i knew culture i knew languages i knew scripture i was an intellectual i was an orator i was a great debater that stuff to me now it's rubbish that's sort of the british word i love the word rubbish just rubbish absolute rubbish actually the word that paul uses here for rubbish is uh translated from a word that means excrement if you don't know what that is i'm talking about poop folks that's what i mean so we could put it in another way dog dung if that makes you feel better but you get the idea right that's what it is to me all these accomplishments it's like dog dung and the doggy bag who cares about it i don't want it anymore and then he says but i'm i'm laying aside this weight hebrews 12 says lay aside the weight and the sin that so easily besets you and the race of life we don't want excess baggage when we're running this race this is hard for me because i am the rich the original pack rat i over pack i don't even want to admit this but i will when we go on a trip i take more stuff than my wife i do and it's just stuff it's just things you don't need like you know we may need a vacuum cleaner let's put it in the suitcase and and we need this and we need that and you know so i have all this stuff now sometimes my wife doesn't have a jacket and she i don't have it well i have four on my trunk so aren't you glad that i'm a pack rat tonight right but um so you know when i i check in my luggage i always cringe when they put it on the scale because i know it's going to weigh too much and they're going to look at me give me that look like loser and then the x then the little tag that says heavy extra heavy which is their way of saying you are so lame we hate you you know so i over pack i take too much stuff that's just the way that i am well in the race of life we want to run as lightly as possible so you need to ask yourself periodically as you're running this race as you're walking with christ is there someone oh is there something that's slowing you down see if i'm on a diet and i'm hanging out with a person that likes to eat pizza and mexican food 24 7. they're a bad influence on me it's better if i'm with someone else who's on a diet maybe even the same diet and will kind of hold each other accountable but i'll tell you what if i'm watching someone else eat it's torment to me okay i want what they have so maybe there's someone who's a bad influence on you spiritually you know you're trying to walk with god but when you're around them they're saying oh come on chill out relax let's try this let's do that they're not a good influence or there's something that's slowing you down maybe it's something you're doing that's impeding your spiritual performance in the book of genesis we have the story of abraham god told him to leave his homeland and go to a land that the lord would reveal to him and also to leave his family and abraham obeyed sort of he brought along his nephew lot he was like a spiritual dead weight on him and it caused a lot of friction and a lot of problems and finally after a conflict developed abraham and lot parted ways and then the lord spoke to abraham again my point is lot was a bad influence on abraham and is there someone that's a bad influence on you or even worse are you a bad influence on someone else don't be that person be a good influence because we're running the race and we want to run the race well we want to run from what is wrong we want to run toward what is right and we want to run with like-minded people what is the theme of the book of philippians happiness yes that's the title of the series happiness paul refers to it many times with different words rejoicing joy etc and if you want to be a happy person there are certain things you should do and there are certain things you shouldn't do someone sums it up perfectly it says happy or blessed happy is the man who walks not on the council of the ungodly or stands in the way of sinners or sits in the seat of the scornful so if you want to be a happy person don't hang around on godly people who influence you to do ungodly things but happiness is not comprised merely of what we don't do it's also comprised of what we do do i didn't mean to say do do but you know what i'm saying because someone's focusing he said do do yeah okay i did you caught me so i don't walk in the counseling of the ungodly i don't send the way of sinners but instead i get into the word of god it says his delight is in the law or the word of the lord and in it does he meditate day and night so if you want to be happy stay away from godless people doing godless things leading you away from god and hang around godly people and get into god's word that's what we're doing here tonight so periodically i have to ask myself the question this thing that i'm doing is it a wing or is it a weight is it a wing or is it a weight is it speeding me up or slowing me down is it building me up or is it tearing me down and check this out what may be a weight to one may not necessarily be a weight to another lay aside the sin or the weight and the sin that so easily beset you see one thing might slow one person down more than it slows another person down like we have different metabolisms right and some people can eat whatever they want and never gain weight i hate those people no i don't i love them because i'm not to hate i am to love i love them but i i'm upset they have that metabolism i want their metabolism i mean i used to eat things when i was younger had no effect on me i after church when we were starting our church many years ago there was a takeout restaurant i've mentioned this before called nuggles anybody remember noggles wow a lot of you it was really good it was really good take out mexican food so they had a thing called a macho combo burrito this thing was so stinking big it was the size of a sleeping bag okay it was just massive burrito and so after church i would eat it and even when i'm preaching i'm getting toward the end of my sermon i'm thinking macho combo burrito much become a burrito preachers think these things trust me uh i'm so yes i want the lord to bless but much a couple burrito too you know so i'd be done with church i'd drive over i'd order the macho camo burrito eat it fantastic no issues no problems i couldn't even look at a macho cama burrito today i'd gain weight looking at it and for sure i would get acid reflux from eating it late at night i've gone from acid rock to acid reflux it's a very sad thing but then somebody else could go and eat that and it wouldn't affect them at all i say that's not fair well i don't know if it's fair or not but you just need to know what you can do and what you can't do okay so just because they can do it doesn't mean you should do it and so you have to ask yourself is that thing slowing me down number three in the race of life we must run with the right motive run with the right motive paul speaks of only one receiving the prize running for the gold if you will i mean i don't think most olympians want to win the bronze i mean the bronze is great i'd be thrilled if i won the bronze but the gold's better everybody knows it silver's good too but the gold's best because if you win gold you get the top position and they play the national anthem of your country so you run for the top award but our primary motive is not running for an award or a reward but there are rewards promised to christians but our primary motive is found in philippians 3 10 paul says that i may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed to his death that's our motive that i may know him the amplified translation which is an expanded greek translation states that verse as follows paul speaking my determined purpose in life is that i may know him then he defines what that means that i may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with him perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of his person more strongly and more clearly that i may know him our mission statement at harvest is knowing god and making him known paul say my determined purpose in life is to know him notice he says it's to know him he doesn't say it's to know about him now you need to know about god but that should not take the place of knowing god we know a lot about a lot of people we have a celebrity obsessed culture today you know media breathlessly follows they're every step here's the celebrity coming out of starbucks here's a celebrity going to lunch here's a celebrity going to rehab here they are going to lunch and back to rehab and to dinner and back to rehab and here they are and aren't they wonderful and look at them and you know so we watch them and maybe we follow them on facebook we say yeah i'm friends with them on facebook i know them you're not their friend they have 10 million followers or friends you're not their friend i know you have a picture they posted you're not their friend you know about them and i fear that a lot of people know about god instead of knowing god they can say things about god even say things from scripture but is there that deep fellowship and relationship with him jesus said many will say to me on that day lord lord did we not prophesy in your name in your name did we not cast out demons in your name did we not do wonderful miracles and then jesus says i will say to them i never knew you you workers of iniquity i never knew you they knew about jesus but he didn't know them at all number four paul had a clear objective and focus on life paul had a clear objective and focus on life verse 13 this one thing i do david of course had it as well we brought this up when we looked at his life recently he said one thing have i desired of the lord that will i seek after to dwell in the house of the lord all the days of my life mary of mary and martha fame also had this one thing in her life the lord came over to their home for a meal and martha was frantically trying to prepare something in the kitchen and she got upset because mary wasn't helping her and so she complained to jesus and i love what the lord says martha you're so upset about all these details he says there's only one thing worth being concerned about right now and mary has discovered it don't take it from her martha i appreciate it i love your meals you're a fantastic chef but you know what mary's kind of tuned into what really matters right now we're talking together so if you were smart you'd tick off the apron and sit down and listen in i'm sure you'd learn something so sometimes you know we're all frantic and all these things we're doing many things let's not forget the one thing sometimes the many things can take the place of the one thing and as i've often said the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing principle number five we're almost done here don't look back don't look back have you ever tried to run and look over your shoulder behind you more than one race has been lost when the person who was in the lead position could not avoid the temptation to see if that other person was there and boom they hit the finish line or the ribbon just a little bit before so we can't look back paul says in verse 13 forgetting the things that are behind and reaching forward to the things that are before what does that mean to forget does not mean to fail to remember i mean there are things that i remember that i can't necessarily forget when paul uses this word uh forget it means don't be influenced or affected by it any longer i read an interesting article in the paper about a group in new york city that decided to shred their regrets for new year's so they brought photos of ex-boyfriends bad medical reports stacks of unpaid bills they put them all in a giant shredder in times square where a garbage truck would cart them off forever and in the article one person was quoted to say i feel liberated after shoving a photo of her ex-fiance with his new girlfriend into the industrial size machine the article says another lady visiting from ecuador sees the opportunity to banish three unpleasant thoughts her high cholesterol her high blood pressure and her bills so that's fun but guess what the pills still have to be paid and you probably still have high blood pressure and your boyfriend is still with that girl now you can shred all you want it's a nice sentiment but it isn't going to change anything but when the bible says we can forget these things that means we don't have to be influenced by them any longer and to be effectively forgetting something i must first be forgiven there can be no forgetting without forgiveness for the bible says in ecclesiastes 3 15 god requires that which is past because god forgives and forgets we can do the same let me say that again because god forgives and forgets we can do the same because the lord says their sins and iniquities while i remember no more now this does not mean that god is having a lapse in memory what god is saying is i'll no longer hold your sin against you in other words your sins no longer affect your standing with me or influence my attitude toward you let me say it again when the lord says your sins and iniquities will i remember no more he is saying that your sins do not affect your standing with me or influence my attitude toward you to forget means we break the power of the past by living for the future put things behind you jesus said remember lot's wife why should i remember lot's wife ah because she made a big mistake you remember her story god was delivering lot and his wife and his family out of sodom and gomorrah which he was judging and the angel of the lord said come on this is the way out and don't look back all right so they're walking away and now god's judgment is reigning on the city and quite honestly that would be very tempting to look at okay so we might say god's being a little hard on lot's wife i mean she looked back yeah she looked back and the bible says she became a pillar of salt so she's like walking along she looks you know frozen in time like one of those people of pompeii that were caught in the explosion of lava from i think mount vesuvius uh but anyway so this is lot's wife looking back but it's interesting because the phrase that is used for her looking back means to look with longing it was deliberate it's not just oh wow no it's like i'm looking and i'm gonna look if i'm supposed to or not it's intentional have you ever looked at something with longing coming back to krispy kreme have you ever walked in there when the signs lit up and see those little glistening donuts come that little conveyor belt here they come first thing you know they go in the little grease thing get kind of cooked and then now the glaze they come from this way you just wait for them it's amazing and you look with longing at least i do or you go to the pet store and you see that cute dog oh i want him you look with longing or you walk through the mall and you see the cute outfit in the window you look with longing or you look at something else the idea is that's what she was doing don't look back jesus said no man having put his hand on the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of god so look if you're going to run the race of life you need to put the past behind you stop living in the past don't revisit the so-called good old days because that's what defeated israel in the wilderness remember they say oh we remember the old days back in egypt when you know we used to eat garlics and leeks and onions and all we have is a stinking manna we're so sick of it garlic sleeks and onions man their breath must have stunk but they had sort of taken the life of bondage in egypt under the whip of the pharaoh and and sort of imagined it as the greatest life ever when it was the worst life ever and sometimes you know when we've turned our back on our old life or we're walking with christ the devil will come to you and maybe bring back one of those memories or he had a little fun hey remember that time that this happened you're like i remember yeah my old girlfriend oh i remember my old girlfriend i'm gonna look her up on facebook who's that old lady nope i'm as old as she is don't live in the past live in the moment and look to the future the devil won't remember of the misery you used to have he won't say hey remember that time you know you drank a lot you threw up all over the place remember that no hey remember that time you were so despondent you actually thought of killing yourself remember that no he won't remind you of that he'll remind you of a few fleeting pleasures because the first step to going back is looking back you see so forgetting the things that are behind and reaching forward to the things that are before let me add one other thing to this forgetting the past it's also for getting past victories and by that i think it's a good thing to reflect back on what the lord has done but listen to this sometimes successes are harder for people to get over than failures what do i mean by that success says oh man we had this great success it was just fantastic go get good but uh that was then and this is now and i'll have people come up to me and say oh man remember the old days the old days jesus movement days remember those days those are awesome days remember that it was so great yeah well just remember hey you know what that was like over 40 years ago god's doing some amazing stuff right here right now and i'm excited about that and i'm looking forward to what the lord will do so let's sum up and conclude number one you must be dissatisfied with where you are number two get rid of extra weight and things that would hinder you thirdly run with the right motive fourth have a clear objective and focus five don't look back one last point and i'm done you must press on even when it gets hard in the race of life if you want to be a happy person press on when it gets hard hey you'll be happy after you win the race oh you know when you're you're running a race and if it's a long distance run and you're in the last lap it's like your arms and legs are made out of rubber you feel like your heart is going to burst out of your chest you can't even imagine finishing this but somehow you press on and then you win and then you know what it was all worth it wasn't it even though you wanted to walk off that track even though you wanted to quit that race press on verse 13 i pressed toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of god in christ jesus the word that he uses there for pressing comes from the greek word agonizo can you guess what english word we get from that agonize yes sometimes it's hard sometimes it's painful but what's that expression no pain no gain that's true in the spiritual life too to some degree yeah the theme of philippians is happiness and joy 19 times and four chapters paul mentions joy rejoicing or gladness and that includes running and finishing the race of life paul said to his friends at the church of ephesus in acts 20 24 i want to finish my race with joy finish my race with joy listen it's not enough to start the race of life we must finish it otherwise we've been running in vain in this last epistle the apostle paul wrote in second timothy 4 7 i fought a good fight i finished the race i've kept the faith henceforth there remains a crown of righteousness for me and all who love his appearing that's the objective you finish this race that you have begun okay let's be honest how many of you have a problem with worry raise your hand up would any of you describe yourselves as a worry wart you're very prone to worry raise your hand up i'm not going to mock you i get that we all know what it's like to be gripped by fear you know the feeling when your blood goes cold shiver down the spine here standing up on the back of your head for me that's singular i only have one hair on my head uh your stomach sinks your mouth goes dry what amazes me is uh people will pay good money to be frightened you know we'll go to that scary movie because we we want to be scared out of our wardrobe we'll go on that radical roller coaster i pretty much gave up roller coasters a while ago i'd gone to magic mountain a few times and those are not roller coasters they're those are torture devices okay uh and i saw i'm not going there anymore i'm just going to go back to disneyland you know and i'll ride the rides there and then even last time i was at disneyland i wrote the matterhorn which has been there forever ever since i've been a kid and i'm thinking does this thing have suspension or what i felt every bump you know and and so now i'm on the storybook land ride where you go through the mouth of monstron you just cruise very slowly but you know we'll pay money to be frightened we we enjoy being frightened but then there's another emotion that is paired with fear and that of course is worry and there's a lot of things that one can worry about especially today the state of our country the safety of our country the economy terrorism nowadays we even worry a bit like about we worry a bit about war i mentioned earlier that there was a number one google search i don't know if it's still the number one google search but for a few moments and number one google search was is world war iii close so there are things that are scary a time magazine did an interesting article on the topic of fear and they said the following you might worry about flying but did you know that 600 americans each year die from falling out of their beds then there's a fatal plunge down the stairs the bite of sausage lodged in your throat the tumble on the slippery sidewalk as you leave the house and those are things you should be afraid of so i figure well as long as you don't eat sleep or go downstairs and walk inside bucks you're good right and then there's a fear of sharks have you heard there's a lot of sharks out right now there's a video i saw earlier today uh it's from the helicopter from the orange county sheriff's department they made this announcement these are people paddle boarding and they they made this announcer very calmly they said you are paddling you that are paddle boarding next to you are 15 great white sharks and then they say we advise you to get out of the water calmly what i'm out there probably it's a great day 50 i mean one great white is bad two is even worse three is just earth shattering 15 great white sharks i mean they should have just i mean maybe put a little more energy into they were so calm we advised you to leave the water calmly they should have just said shark or or better yet uh you that are paddle boarding near you are 15 great white sharks you are going to die pray this prayer after me our father who art in heaven would be your name i mean that'd be pretty accurate but uh here's a funny thing about shark attacks there's nothing funny about shark attacks but an interesting stunt i should say did you know more people die from taking selfies and people dying from being attacked by sharks that's absolutely true how do you die from taking a selfie you take selfies in dangerous places the most recent i read about a tourist fell down the stairs of the taj mahal snapping a selfie so you know there's a lot of things to be afraid of in life and then there are personal fears and worries fear for the safety of your family fear that you'll be able to pay your bills fear uh that or that fear that you won't be able to pay your bills i should say fear for your children so what's bothering you what is causing you anxiety i read that a study was done and people asked what do you worry about the most i was surprised by the answer it was a nuclear war it wasn't shark attacks the number one fear of most people was my appearance really my appearance oh you know i may die in a nuclear blast but how do i look in this outfit does this make me look fat right i mean crazy the things that we'll think about there's a lot of things that people do worry about modern medical research has proved that worrying is actually harmful to you physically because it breaks down your resistance to disease experts tell us that worry diseases the nervous system specifically the digestive organs and the heart it was revealed that 79 to 90 of all visits to primary care physicians are stress related complaints and i just had one of these incidents i'm a pretty healthy guy but i was feeling kind of pressure around in my chest and i thought wow am i having a heart issue so then i googled you know signs of a heart attack pressure around your chest yeah i feel that shortness of breath all of a sudden i'm like slight nausea oh i mean i'm literally i'm feeling these things as i'm reading this so i call my doctor i got to come down there i'm not the guy that goes to my doctor over and everything but i had this little bit of pressure and uh so i went down they did an ekg in me he says you're fine and i walked out there feeling good again i'm telling you i psyched myself into it now if you do feel any of those signs you should go see a doctor my doctor said it was good that you came to see me but you are such an idiot no he didn't say that but uh but a lot of times we psych ourselves into things charles mayo the founder of the famed mayo clinic said he never knew anyone who died of overwork but he knew many who died of worry isn't that interesting and here's what worry is because a lot of times we'll rationalize it well it's just because i care now listen to this worry can actually be a sin it really can because to worry is really a failure to trust god the word worry comes from an old german word that means to choke or strangle i was playing with my grandson today and he was coming up from behind he's getting pretty strong and choking me he thought that was a lot of fun and i had this no don't choke papa you know and that's what worry does it chokes you out and it makes things worse because when you worry about the future you yourself in the present let me say that again when you worry about the future you yourself in the present listen worrying does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow it empties today of its strength and that is why jesus said don't worry about tomorrow tomorrow will worry about itself each day has enough trouble of its own there's an old fable that's told of a man who came face to face with the dangers of worry one day he was walking toward his town and and the man saw excuse me one day death was walking toward his town it's a fable right okay so this didn't really happen so you're not alarmed death was walking toward his town the man stopped death and said excuse me what are you going to do dad said i'm going to go into town and i'm going to take a hundred people and the man ran ahead of death and warned everyone that death was coming as evening fell he met death again and the man said you said you were going to take a hundred people why did a thousand people die death responded i only took a hundred worry took the rest and that's how worry works it just whips us into a frenzy you could write this epitaph on many american tombstones hurried worried buried you know i kind of like the way australians view life how many of you have been to australia it's a beautiful country and they have this expression they use and the expression is no worries mate so you'll ask someone for directions hey do you know the way to this place yeah they'll seem right go on down there and then chin right over here and you might see a kangaroo and get into a boxing match with them you know throw another shrimp on the barbie and then they'll say all that stuff and then they'll say hey no worries mate no worries mate i like that no worries made nothing to worry about and in a way that's theologically correct it's been said worry is the advanced interest you pay on troubles that seldom come worry is the advanced interest you pay on troubles that seldom come so what is the cure to worry i have no idea good night and god bless all right there is a cure and it's right here in the bible philippians 4. let's read it together philippians 4 13 and verse 4 paul writes rejoice in the lord always and again i say rejoice let your gentleness be known to all men the lord is at hand be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to god and the peace of god that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through christ jesus i love those verses don't you and by the way paul was not in some ivory tower spinning off in practical theories remember that paul wrote this under house arrest he's under house arrest he's constrained he cannot come and go as he pleases and yet the theme of this book the book of philippians is happiness and joy and rejoicing how can you be happy under circumstances like that because circumstantially paul had nothing to be rejoicing about i mean he went to rome initially to be a preacher and he ended up there as a prisoner and he didn't know what the future held you know he might be acquitted and he might be beheaded and then if that wasn't bad enough some of the believers were turning against them some were for paul some were against paul but instead of worrying paul was rejoicing and living in great peace and now he gives to us the secret of victory over worry he says don't be anxious for anything in verse six by the way the word anxious means to be pulled in different directions don't be anxious for anything our hopes pull us in one direction our fears pull us in the other he says don't be anxious for anything so what am i supposed to do don't be pulled in different directions what do we do instead this is very important verse four rejoice in the lord always and again i say rejoice let's say that together rejoice in the lord always and again i say rejoice so what are you going through right now what are you facing right now here's what the bible says you should do rejoice in the lord always and again i say rejoice i love how he says and again i say did you hear what i said rejoice in the lord always don't by the way did you hear that again i say rejoice just do that you have a craig it's easy for you to say standing up there you know i'm going through hardship he didn't say rejoice in circumstances always he said rejoice in the lord always that's the key and by the way in the original language it's a command the lord's not saying hey you know if you're in a good mood things are going well if all the bills are paid and the sky's blue would you mind rejoicing in me always although god says i command you to rejoice in me always it's a scriptural command and to not rejoice is disobedience to god we justify worry in a number of ways but in fact god commands us to rejoice and you know what some christians need to just lighten up a little bit you know some believers they're just always down on something they have no sense of humor we all know these people like debbie downer here comes debbie downer debbie downer hey how's it going oh it's okay i just have a burden from the lord hey debbie downer when's the last time you smiled i don't know but i'm just so burdened and here comes bobby buzzkill right after debbie downer and bobby buzzkill you know he loves to quote scriptures out of context right scripture's out of context i'd be like oh man bobby check out that incredible swell isn't god good love not the world neither the things that are in the world bobby that i don't know if that really relates to a nice set of waves i yeah will love not the world hey bobby i was just sharing the gospel with a friend the other day and being out and equally yoked together with non-believers well bobby buzzkill i'm not yoked i'm just talking to him about jesus for what fellowship does light have with darkness bobby listen how am i going to reach people if i don't talk to them about jesus come up from among them and be separate now i'm going to separate your head from your body bobby busking you need to chill you need to lighten up you know some people just have this personality then they blame it on their christian faith this has nothing to do with christianity this is because you are a drag stop being that person rejoice in the lord always and again i say rejoice paul had the worst circumstances imaginable and he's saying that certainly you can rejoice and i can rejoice solomon writes in proverbs 15 15 a cheerful heart has a continual feast not a great picture a cheerful heart a happy person is always having a great meal an affected saying you know it's all about your attitude and the way that you look at things any idiot can be happy when things are going reasonably well and there are even people that have things going very well and still they're miserable but the christian can rejoice when things are going well the christian can rejoice when things are not going well the christian can even rejoice when they're being persecuted listen to this passage habakkuk 3 17 even though the fig trees have no blossoms and there are no grapes on the vine even though the olive crop fails and the fields lie empty and barren even though the flocks die in the fields and the cattle barns are empty yet he writes i will rejoice in the lord i'll be joyful and the god of my salvation hey we could update that verse along these lines even though the economy is bad and they're downsizing at work my insurance rates are up and the car is out of gas i'll be joyful and the god of my salvation says it's not about circumstances this is about you and god it's rejoicing in god not in the way you feel it's rejoicing in god not in how well things are going it's rejoicing in the lord always i mean look at paul and silas who were imprisoned for preaching the gospel their backs were torn open with a roman whip their feet were fastened in heavy metal stalks in acts 16 25 says at midnight paul and silas prayed and sang praises to god and the prisoners heard them and this happened at midnight i love that when you're in pain the midnight hour is not the easiest time for a worship service is it nor is the doctor's office when you're waiting for those lab tests nor is a hospital room when you're waiting for your loved one who's having surgery or a thousand other scenarios i could cite so what are we to do there are three steps you need to take if you want to find the cure for worry how many of you want the cure for worry raise your hand okay then write these notes down write these words down write praying write praying the next time you're tempted to worry pray instead we need to get into the habit of turning to god when we feel worry approaching so it will become a conditioned reflex there's a difference between a normal and a conditioned reflex a normal reflex no one has to teach it to you if even the smallest child touches something that's hot they pull back maybe they scream maybe they cry but they naturally know to pull away from something that causes pain you didn't have to teach your child to do that they knew to do that already imagine the story of the guy who went to a doctor with two burned ears two burned ears the doctor said sir i've never seen anything like this both of your ears are burned very badly how did this happen the man said well doc i was ironing and my phone rang and i answered the iron instead of the phone the doctor said that's horrible i get it you burn one ear but what happened to the other well he called back so how many of you have heard that joke before okay how many of you are sick of the joke you never want to hear it again how many of you have never heard that joke you've never heard it how many of you are tired of raising your hand okay so that's an uh you know an automatic reflex i touch a hot iron i pull back then there's a condition reflex uh it's something we learn for instance when we sing the star spangled banner we stand up right or maybe when we say the pledge of allegiance we put our hand over our heart or when we pray we bow our head in reverence we don't have to bow our head we don't have to close our eyes but it's an act of reverence it's something we've learned to do and see if there are things that you learn to do and then later they come naturally like do you remember when you first learned how to drive i failed my driving test three times did anybody else fail they're driving today it was horrible and i did and i always got the same instructor and i got so psyched out and i really had trouble with that parallel parking right i remember that but uh and i remember when i first drove a car especially when it was a um you know a stick shift and manual transmission so you know i had to think about everything it's like okay let's see clutch goes in uh put it in gear let out gas and then shift with the clutch in and now now oh wait break break is different than clutch don't hit clutch instead of brake and you know you're figuring it all out you're conscious turn right turn on the little turning signal here we go turn it on turn turn turn off the turning state no you know okay here we go look in rearview mirror you think about all that stuff do you think about all that when you drive your car now you just get your car drive check your cell phone send texts which you should not do you know you're running your radio now you're making a call now you're eating a burrito sometimes all at the same time you're shifting or you've got anime transmission whatever but now it all comes naturally but it didn't come naturally at first you taught yourself how to do it you say well greg i have no idea what you're why are you telling us this this is how we need to deal with things that frighten us we need to teach ourselves to pray it's not natural when something scary happens when there's a threat against your life or or something is said to you that alarms you the natural inclination is to freak out right but the spiritual reaction should be to pray so someone says just happen let's just pray about it right now let's just everybody bow our head let's pray right now start teaching yourself to do that and here's another thing instead of panicking you can pray instead of worrying you pray you intentionally place the matter in god's hands as someone wisely said quote when your knees start knocking kneel on them often when we face adversity the first thing we turn to our friends oh you know i need your help i need your encouragement or i need a loan or whatever it is you need you go and there's nothing wrong with having friends and asking for their help but honestly the first place you should turn is to god in prayer oh lord help me oh lord i don't know what to do here lord i need your wisdom in this situation and notice that paul says in everything by prayer in everything by prayer verse 6 and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to god notice he does not say in only the big gnarly things by prayer because you know what everything should be brought before the lord and by the way nothing is too big to pray about and nothing is too small to pray about because sometimes small things ultimately turn into big things you know when our children are small we we may not pray for them all that much because we're watching over them uh you know we of course hope no harm comes to them and we're concerned for them but maybe we don't pray for them as fervently as we do when they enter the pre-teen years because nowadays the pre-teen years are like the teen years and they're like little miniature teenagers already and all these things are happening with them and and they have an interest in things maybe they shouldn't have an interest in or they're saying and doing things that alarm you well you should pray for them for when they're little you should pray for them when they're pre-teen pray for them when they're teenagers pray for them when they're young adults you never stop praying for your kids even when they're adults and you're getting older now pray for them that they'll take care of you but never stop praying that's why we read that the mothers kept bringing their children to jesus they were rebuffed by some of the disciples don't bother jesus he's busy do you have an appointment the mom's like no we're bringing our kids to jesus and jesus said you let those little children come on to me for such as the kingdom of heaven are you having problems with your kids right now start praying about it stop worrying about it start praying about it and get other people to pray with you that's what we need to be doing in everything verse 5 says by prayer let your requests be made known to god and notice it says with thanksgiving with thanksgiving it doesn't say excuse me offered thanksgiving after the prayer is answered in the affirmative but rather it says in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving i think an excellent example of this is daniel the prophet of course allah had been passed that nobody could pray to any god except the king and then you heard about that and he went and prayed anyway and the bible says that in daniel 6 10 he he prayed and gave thanks before his god what gave thanks it would have made more sense if we read and daniel screamed in fear out to god nobody he gave thanks lord you're in control see when i give thanks i'm just reminding myself that god is in control and the lord's prayer which is really the temple model and model for all prayer jesus said after this manner therefore you should pray our father who art in heaven hallowed be your name your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and on it goes but notice the prayer starts our father who art in heaven set apart and glorified be your name your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven so before i offer a single prayer of petition i just acknowledge the power the sovereignty of god and that's important because it puts your problems into perspective so in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to god what does this mean supplication is when you pray for others supplication is when you pray for others so when you're gripped with fear and worry i need to focus on god and others prayer supplication and thanksgiving here's a way to sort of remember how to pray it's summed up in an acronym a c t s acts so sort of an idea of how you should pray a stands for adoration c stands for confession t stands for thanksgiving s stands for supplication so think about this when you're praying always when possible start with adoration just offer praise to god rejoice in the lord god's in control then confession confessing any personal sin and then thirdly there's thanksgiving thanking god for all that he's done in your life and then supplication where i'm praying for others so if you want to find god's cure for worry it's right praying and number two it's right thinking right thinking look at verse eight finally brothers whatever things are true whatever things are noble whatever things are just whatever things are pure whatever things are lovely whatever things are of good rapport if there's any virtue if there's anything praiseworthy meditate on these things another translation of that verse goes as follows summing it all up my friends i'd say you will do your best by filling your minds and meditating on things that are true and noble and reputable and authentic and compelling and gracious the best not the worst the beautiful not the ugly things to praise not things to curse listen to this maintaining personal peace involves the heart and the mind you have to learn how to think biblically isaiah 26 3 says you will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee because he trusteth in thee that's king james your mind is stayed on god because your emotions can mislead you do you know that you can't trust your emotions people will say well i you know i just i want to go with my heart man my heart and god knows what's in my heart my heart stop with the heart let me tell you something about your stinking heart the bible says it's deceitfully wicked of all of all things above all things who can know it so don't say god knows what's in your heart that's the problem your heart is dark my heart is dark well my heart says well yeah but what does the bible say well my heart tells me it's okay what does the bible say does the bible say it's okay i don't care what your heart tells you learn how to think biblically not emotionally so it's right praying and it's right thinking and paul gives us a very clear focus on what we pray about now look i've put this biblical principle to the test the worst day of our life was when our son christopher died in an automobile accident i i mean your life has changed overnight it's very hard to comprehend the death of a child uh you never plan for it you never play it out in your mind at least i never did and i was in the state of shock initially and i mean that night how do you go to bed like you know i'm going to go to bed now and just wake up tomorrow wait wait what i'll just have a meal no i didn't want a meal i didn't want to go to bed i was just in complete anxiety like cranked up to a hundred and i didn't know what to do i couldn't sleep i'd sleep for three minutes and wake up i felt like i was living a nightmare so i came back to philippians 4 8. whatsoever things are true and lovely and of good rapport and i sort of set this little what i call a grit of grace up a grid of grace and the idea is i would run all of my thoughts to this grit of grace or through philippians 4 8 and when these thoughts of anxiety or these thoughts of fear or these other thoughts would come into my mind i'd ask myself the question is this true but i'm thinking is it true is it helpful is it pure and lovely or is it ugly is it the worst and if it was not pure if it was not true i would reject it i would say i'm not going to let that thought in and i'm going to let another thought come in in its place say i don't get what you're saying okay so a thought comes you'll never see your son again you'll never hear his voice again okay that's a thought how do you refute a thought like that wow that's kind of true in one sense but then i come back with this thought my son is more alive than he's ever been because jesus said i am the resurrection and the life and he that believes in me though he were dead yet shall he live so this thought you're out of here this other thought you come on in see i replace one thought with another that's learning to think biblically it really matters what you think about just as it matters what you eat right certain foods have a certain effect on you you know they say there are brain foods that encoura you know help you think better and other things obviously have the opposite effect the same it's true of thoughts i let certain thoughts in they can take me down other thoughts can build me up because what you think about ultimately affects what you do because proverbs 23 7 says as a man thinks so is he you remember the first temptation in the garden was when satan came to eve and genesis 3 1 says the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the lord god had made and he said to the woman has god indeed said you shall not eat of every tree of the garden notice he doesn't come to her and say hi i'm the devil maybe you've heard about me i'm going to hell one day i hate you i want to destroy your life so want to hang out who's going to do that nobody comes suddenly like a serpent when you least expect it and the same happens with us he comes with these thoughts in fact we're told in second corinthians 11 i'm afraid as the serpent deceived eve in his craftiness your mind should be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to christ see the devil will come to you and say look i know you would never do this but why don't you just fantasize about it i know you would never do this but just entertain this thought for a little while because the devil knows the first step to doing something wrong is getting you to think about something that is wrong and that's why you got to keep the door closed to thoughts that are harmful and we're told over in second corinthians 10 bring every thought into the captivity of the obedience of jesus christ so the next time you're troubled the next time you're afraid i have a suggestion for you try talking to yourself some of you are thinking now i know you've lost your mind you're telling me to talk to myself yes i am in a way i am but i'm also telling you to talk to the devil just like you talk i'm not talking to the devil well you can say a couple things to him you can say get behind me satan right you can say i reject that thought he's the only person you can legitimately say go to hell to and not be in trouble but the idea is you you remind yourself of what is true in psalm 42 the psalmist was troubled his emotions seemed to be getting the best of him causing him to cry out why are you downcast oh my soul why are you disturbed within me then he talked to himself and he said put your hope in god and i will yet praise him he's my savior and my god i love that says man i'm getting down i don't know what to do hey listen self remember this so in effect he talked to himself he quotes a scripture out loud he reminds himself as of what is true because we all have moments where we doubt we all have lapses of faith we all have moments of despair where you don't understand what's going on in your life so you need to learn how to pray and you need to learn how to think and there's one last principle you need to live right so it's right praying verses six to seven it's right thinking verse eight and the third and final principle it's right living verse nine these things that you've learned and received and heard and seen in me these do and the god of peace will be with you look hearing what i'm saying tonight isn't going to do you any good if you don't do it right you've got to do it the bible says don't just be a hearer of the word but also be a doer of the word because if you're just a hearer of a word you're like a person that looks at the reflection in the mirror and walks away and forget what they look like okay so the idea is take these truths and start applying them in your lives you can't separate outward action in inward attitude i mean if christ is really living in you it should affect you in the way that you live it doesn't mean you'll be perfect it doesn't mean you'll be flawless but it does mean that people will see in you results or fruit as the bible calls it that would indicate you were a true follower of jesus christ so it's right living so god wants us to live right with him and then he promises that we will have peace the god of peace will be with you he says you see living right with god results in having the peace of god let me ask you in closing do you have god's peace right now he said what do you mean god's peace i mean an inward tranquility an inward calm a sense that everything is right between you and god because the bible says that the peace of god that passes all understanding will keep your heart and mind in christ so it's like god puts his peace in your life so when you don't worry but instead you pray god says i'll put peace there and it's interesting because the word that is used here to describe peace as a military term where god says i'll post a century on your heart or a guard on your heart so when you don't worry but instead you pray god says i'm gonna put sergeant peace in front of the door of your heart and he's going to watch over you and keep those other things at bay do you have that peace inside listen to this before you can have the peace of god you first have to have peace with god and the problem is before we're christians we're at war with god we're fighting with god we're running from god and there's no peace there's no inward tranquility that's why people get high that's why people drink and that's why people are constantly distracting themselves constant stimulation for the brain you know because they don't like to be alone with their thoughts and be reminded of the fact that deep inside they're afraid and they're full of anxiety and there are a lot of things that concern them in life especially the fear of death and listen if you're not a christian you should be afraid of death i'm telling you don't be afraid i'm talking to christians if you're not a christian be very afraid because death is not the end that's just the entrance into the afterlife and after that comes a judgment you don't want to face the judgment of god god will forgive you of all of your sins why did jesus die on that cross for you 2000 years ago the bible says the punishment for our peace was upon him and by his stripes we are healed so what that means is jesus died on the cross in my place so i can have this peace with god i was reading the paper today and i noted that there is a 24 million new york lotto ticket waiting to be claimed so somewhere i presume in new york is some person walking around with a ticket in their pocket in their wallet in their purse who knows they may have thrown it in the trash if they can retrieve it and get it in on time they will win 24 million dollars that's a lot of money have you ever wondered what it would be like to win the lottery i read about one person a couple actually won 217 million 158 million after taxes one day you don't have that much money the next day 158 million and then the experts or the lottery officials told these people take the money and hush because the moment it's announced that you have that much money people come out of the woodwork i read about one woman named evelyn bayshore who won the lottery two times she won 3.9 million dollars the first time and 1.4 million dollars the next time her observations she said everybody wanted my money and then she said winning the lottery isn't all that's cracked up to me i won the american dream and i lost it too it was a hard fall and i hit rock bottom end quote curtis sharp won 5 million in the lottery and according to the article he blew most of his cash on booze babes and bad investments and he concluded a fool in his money are soon parted honey i acted like a fool then there's the sad story of jack whitaker you may have heard of him he won 315 million dollars in the lottery eight months after his big score he was robbed of 545 000 in a strip club you know it's it's a bad idea to go to a strip club okay can we just establish that but to go into a strip club with 500 000 in a briefcase even a worse idea so he got robbed a month later tragically his granddaughter died of an overdose of drugs bought with an allowance that he gave her after he won the lottery and a short time later his daughter also died of a drug overdose he told reporters i wish i'd torn that lottery ticket up and i bring this up because i think sometimes we may think man if i just had that much money i know i would be content if i just had this relationship i know i would be content and so here's my question are you a happy and content person tonight because the theme of this epistle of paul to the philippians to the church of philippi is how to be happy how to be fulfilled and how to be content and you think well if i just had this i know i would find contentment i heard the story of a wealthy employer who once heard one of his employees say if i had a thousand dollars i know i'd be content he said really he walked over he said you know i've never found contentment for my money and i'm gonna reach in my pocket here and give you a thousand dollars there you go and and he walked away and overheard the person saying i should have asked for two thousand dollars right i mean that's uh human nature for you isn't it uh experts have proven that getting more stuff does not bring happiness or contentment one psychologist who had done a lot of study on what brings contentment concluded quote if people shoot for a certain level of affluence thinking that will make them happy they find that on reaching it they become very quickly habituated and at that point they start hankering for the next level of income property or good health so it just goes on and on the bible says hell and destruction is never full and so is the heart of men never satisfied but here in philippians is a man who found satisfaction and he's sharing the secret with us now remember that uh the theme of this book because i've already pointed out has been joy and happiness and paul had nothing to be happy about he was actually under house arrest at the time he didn't know how things were going to turn up for him he might be acquitted or he might be beheaded yet in the midst of all of this he writes in the book of philippians rejoice in the lord always and again i say rejoice so what is the secret to paul's happiness and contentment well the answer to that is found in a word that is often repeated in the book of philippians it's the word mind he uses the word mind 10 times and also the word think five times add to that the times he uses the word remember and you have 16 references to the mind so simply paul is telling us we need to learn how to think right we need to learn how to think biblically we need the right mind attitude and outlook as we have god's joy in a troubled world so let's read together philippians 4 starting at verse 10. but i rejoice in the lord greatly that now at last your care for me has flourished again though you surely did care but you lacked opportunity not that i speak in regard to need but i have learned in whatever state i am in to be content underline that verse i've learned in whatever state i'm in to be content for i know how to be a base verse 12 i know how to abound everywhere and all things and i've learned both in being full and being hungry when i'm abounding and when i'm suffering need verse 13 i can do all things through christ who strengthens me great verse we think we're gonna find that contentment from a bigger home a nicer or faster car a higher sp a higher salary or maybe a new spouse or a new face or a new body because the grass is always greener on the other side right but real contentment according to the bible is not a state of account it's a state of heart let me repeat that real contentment according to the bible is not a state of account it's a state of heart there's a japanese proverb that says quote even if you sleep in a thousand mat room you can only sleep on one mat and that's true and as i pointed out paul was uncertain about his future and if this wasn't enough uh the believers were sort of divided on paul many would think everyone would think paul was the greatest thing since sliced bread i mean he's like the living breathing apostle reading giving scripture to us but some had turned against paul some were critical of paul there was some division about paul and then others of course loved him deeply and so he's facing all of this yet he has found this great contentment listen contentment can come not just because we have conquered our circumstances but because we have learned to live with him i want to say that again contentment can come not because we have necessarily conquered our circumstances but because we have learned to live with them i read about a man who had this very beautifully groomed front lawn it was just absolutely perfect and then a heavy crop of dandelion showed up and uh he tried everything he could to get rid of them and nothing worked and so he wrote a letter to the school of agriculture uh telling them all the things he had tried looking for some advice of how to get rid of the dandelions and they emailed him back and said he where he said what should i do now and they emailed back this response we j we suggest you learn to love them and sometimes we we have dandelions in our life we have problems in our life when we say how do i get rid of this problem maybe you need to adapt it was on this very platform that i interviewed johnny erickson tada you may recall in fact it's on the radio today yesterday and today my conversation with her and as i re-listened to it i was just stunned by what she said sitting in that wheelchair is a quadriplegic for so many years now she said i thank god for this wheelchair i'm thinking wow and the reason she can say that is because she has come into a such a deep relationship with jesus that she's saying i wouldn't have it any other way boy you talk about adapting so i don't know what you're facing right now i don't know what new problem has come into your life but i want you to realize that you can adapt to it and you can find a state of contentment listen paul says i've learned in whatever state i'm in therein to be content notice he says i've learned know this contentment does not come naturally selfishness comes naturally just watch children you can have a child playing with a couple of toys just as happy as can be content another child walks in the room with a different toy and suddenly that child with the other toys is no longer happy right boy i'm sure glad we outgrow that aren't you oh wait a second we don't what's that saying the only difference between the men and the boys is the price of their toys haven't you ever had somebody say i love this this is so great i'm so happy with it and then you see someone with maybe a newer version a faster version and suddenly you're no longer happy with yours maybe you go to a store and there's something there you don't really want it but there's only one left and you think i might buy it i don't think i'll buy it i don't really care and as you walk away someone else reaches and grabs it and suddenly you want it why because it became more valuable no because somebody else wanted it this is human nature let me restate it it's sinful human nature but we have to learn how to be content you have to teach a child how to share and in the same way we need to be taught we need to learn how to be content it's interesting the word paul uses here for i've learned to be content is a word in the original language that could be translated i've attained or been initiated it's sort of a phrase that would be used at the time of by the pagans even to talk about attaining sort of a hidden truth so paul's almost having a little fun with this and he's saying hey i found the hidden truth i've been initiated i know the secret what is it i've learned in whatever state i'm in therein to be content but but how did you learn this paul verse 12. i know how to be a baste and i know how to abound in other words how to be low and how to be high everywhere and in all things i've learned to be full and to be hungry to abound and to suffer neem another translation puts that verse this way actually i don't have a sense of needing anything personally i've learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances i'm just as happy with little as with much or with much as with little i found the recipe recipe for being happy whether full or hungry hands full or hands empty yeah i've learned what paul says and he wasn't angry when he couldn't make ends meet at the same time he he was not uneasy when god was blessing him with more than he needed he had found the balance it reminds us of what he said in proverbs in proverbs 30 verse 8 it the writer says give me neither poverty nor riches give me just enough to satisfy my needs lord if i go rich i may deny you and say who's the lord and if i'm too poor i may steal and insult god's holy name listen god knows just the right amount to give us in every area of our life okay so what is the secret of his contentment it came down to who he knew not to what he had the secret of contentment is found not in what you have it's found in who you know hebrews 13 5 says let your way of living be without coveting and be content with such things as you had for he has said i will never leave you or forsake you when you have christ in your life and you're having a close friendship and relationship with him praying and digging into his word and becoming more like him each and every day you'll find that contentment because he is with you this is what david meant when he wrote the lord is my shepherd i shall not want only the person who can say the lord is my shepherd can then say i shall not want and if you're saying to me right now you're always wanting it always has to be the next thing the bigger thing the latest thing or whatever is the lord really your shepherd have you really come to know him the way you need to contentment is not a state of account as i said but a state of heart real contentment is found in making the most of the least real contentment is found in making the most of the least now look what paul says in verse 13 i can do all things through christ who strengthens me i can do all things to christ who strengthens me now understand paul had the very unusual experience of dying and going to heaven and coming back to earth again which you know actually wouldn't be that great of a thing i mean can you imagine dying and going to heaven and having to come back to earth you know we often wish our loved ones who have preceded us to heaven would come back to us but they can't and they and i don't think they would if they could and i don't think if you were in heaven if given a choice you would want to go back either but here's paul he he dies we don't know when exactly it happened we assume it may have been a stoning in antioch where he was thought of as dead so maybe at that moment he entered into god's presence and there he is and he's welcomed by the lord himself welcome to heaven paul well done good and faithful servant lord it's great to be here paul i've got some good news and some bad news what's the good news lord well you're coming back again back again yeah that brings me to the bad news i'm going to send you back to planet earth but lord why well there's some believers down there praying that you will be raised from the dead lord don't listen to their prayers paul might have said they're sinners i don't want to go back oh lord paul i have a work for you to do still so meanwhile back there in antioch maybe they're praying for paul oh lord help paul lord we love paul and all of a sudden you know the the color comes back into his face and his eyes flutter and his hand turns into a fist and boom he hit someone i mean that's what i would have done like what are you doing praying for me to come back but he had been to heaven interesting he didn't write a book about it so many people have gone to heaven i'll put that in quotes and written books about it do you believe these stories greg you want my honest opinion generally no well don't be a doubter well how about if i be a skeptic the only reliable source on the topic of heaven is the book i'm holding in my hand the bible this is trustworthy someone writes a book and says i went to heaven i saw unicorns and rainbows and ice cream you know wonderful maybe that happened maybe that didn't happen i have no way of quantifying your statements but i know this book is true so i'm not really going to attach a lot of importance to what you are saying but i am going to attach a lot of importance to what the bible is saying and here's what paul said he he went into god's presence he says now look if i was in the body or out of the body actually i'm not really sure but i'll tell you this i heard things that that i can't even explain and what i saw was paradise he uses an interesting word in the greek it was a paradise which was a word that was used to describe the royal garden of a king so think of a magnificent estate with beautifully manicured gardens that went on forever paul uses that picture to describe what he saw but then he goes on to say in the book of corinthians that the lord sent him a thorn in the flesh to keep him humble after having a revelation of this kind and three times he asked the lord to take it away and the lord said my grace is sufficient for you and paul says so i'll boast of my infirmities that the power of christ may rest upon me so are these the words of a madman no they're the words of a man who had found contentment and fellowship with god regardless of problems or circumstances listen contentment is not the fulfillment of what you want contentment is a realization of how much you already have let me say it again listen to this contentment is not the fulfillment of what you want it is the realization of how much you already have contentment is understanding that if i'm not satisfied with what i have i'll never be satisfied with what i want here's what the bible says first timothy 6 6 godliness with contentment is great gain we brought nothing into the world will carry nothing out so having food and clothing be content do you have a meal in your stomach you have clothes on your back some form of transportation that got you here to this service be content stop looking over your shoulder and say if only i had this or i had that because i could just as easily say why don't you come with me over to the hospital and we'll visit this person that is facing cancer right now or why don't we go over here and have another conversation with johnny erickson tata who has spent most of her life in a wheelchair and after that we can go over here and talk to someone who just lost a child and you're talking about how hard you have it look we all have our trials and tribulations but no matter what we can find our contentment and our relationship with god be content again it does not come from what you have it comes from who you know there's an arabian proverb very profound i'll put it on the screen here so you can take it in arabian proverb better to have a handful of dry dates and be content there with than to own the gate of peacocks and be kicked in the eye by a broody camel is that not awesome better a handful of dry dates and content there with than to own the gate of peacocks and be kicked in the eye by a broody camel i have no idea what that means but i just like the idea of being kicked by a broody camel i think the gist of it's pretty clear that's a real proper by the way i think that just if it's clear just be content with what you have i'm not sure about what the gate of peacocks is or who this broody camel is i've met a few moody camels i've met even more spitting camels if you've ever been to israel they'll spit right in your face um but be content with what you have now verse 13 a a keeper verse every believer should commit this one to memory let's say it out loud together verse 13 i can do all things through christ who strengthens me let's say it again i can do all things through christ who strengthens me love that verse don't forget that verse you might need it before the night is over the jb phillips which is a paraphrase puts it this way i'm ready for anything for the strength of the one who lives within me ready for anything i can do all things through christ take out the word christ and put in another word and everything fails i can do all things through drugs and alcohol that strengthened me some actually believe that something if i just had a good stiff drink if i smoked another joint if i had another hit everything will be fine but of course it isn't fine i just read about a lead singer of a rock band that just committed suicide and he uh talked about the fact that he had been using drugs ever since he was a young man here's a guy with his fame and his fortune and and just did a concert last night and then he took his own life and when are we going to get the memo that these people in hollywood have nothing to tell us nothing uh we admire them we follow them on instagram we think they're our friends and we talk about them and and you look at the empty lives so many of them live and how some of them become strung out on drugs and alcohol some of them take their lives they can't keep a marriage longer than like a day and why do we look to them as our examples these people really have so little to offer us i can do all things through drugs and alcohol no i can't do anything to drugs and alcohol in fact they'll make my problems even worse how about this i can do all things through education that strengthens me well i have a good education i have my degree that i can face anything no not really i won't do it either as wonderful as a good education is how about this i can do all things through money that strengthens me well you can do some things with money but you can't do all things can you i can do all things through success that strengthens me no that doesn't work either i can do all things through friends who strengthen me well sometimes friends abandon you don't they how about this one i can do all things through politics that strengthen me not at all you can do some things through politics there is a place for politics i think it's a great thing when people want to run for office and help our country though i have to wonder why anyone would want to be in elected office these days and the political climate that we're in and and the rancor and the hostility and the venom that's out there but there's some things you can do but not all things but christ fits perfectly i can do all things through christ who strengthens me that fits doesn't it haven't you found that to be true because no thing or no one can empower and enable us to do what god wants us to do except him it's him working through us and this by the way brings the perfect balance it shows the place of god's power and man's response it does not teach the christian does everything for themselves nor does it teach that god does everything for the christian it teaches that the power and resources that we need are there but i must appropriate them i can do all things through christ who strengthens me it doesn't even say christ does everything and i do nothing it says i do all things through christ but the flip side of that is according to jesus in john 15 apart from me you can do nothing so on one side of the coin apart from him i can do nothing on the other side of the coin i can do all things through christ who strengthens me i love it it's just the perfect balance as we learned earlier in philippians work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for it is god that works in you both who will and do of his good pleasure so there's god's part and there's my part work out my own salvation conveys the idea of going into a mine discovering the gold or the silver and bringing it out so work it out not work for your own salvation that's impossible it's a gift but work it out work it out in your life but then it goes on to say for it is god that works in you both the will and dew of his good pleasure so god will give you the power but you must appropriate that power in your life if you get the fastest car on the road you know most horsepower of anyone on planet earth if you don't fire that car up and put your pedal to the metal nothing's going to happen and a lot of us are in this fast car so to speak this wonderful christian life with all the resources we need and we never start the car and accelerate and god has given you what you need but you need to apply it listen to this this might surprise you there are some things only god can do and some things only you can do some would disagree no god does everything no no actually it's not true maybe i should restate it another way there's some things only you can do and some things only god will do it's not that he can't but he's given you a free will let me illustrate only god can guide god will point me in the direction say go there but is god going to airlift me over there even if i don't want to go i don't want to go in there lift it over there you go no he points i follow only god can guide only i can follow only god can convict me of my sin only i can repent of my sin god will not repent for me and the problem is we often try to do god's part instead of letting him do it and by that i mean if we know someone is not a believer you know we get a little impatient with them and so we start manipulating a little bit or or pressuring them too much and actually make the situation worse we need to leave it in the hands of the lord now we get down to some nitty gritty stuff as we wrap up the book of philippians because we can talk all day about walking with god being strengthened by him but if it does not affect the way that we live and specifically according to paul the way that we give it means nothing philippians 4 verse 14 nevertheless you've done well that you shared in my distress now you philippians know that in the beginning of the gospel when i departed from macedonia no church shared with me concerning giving and receiving but you only even in thessalonica you sent aid once and again for my necessities not that i seek a gift but i seek the fruit that abounds to your account and indeed i have all and i am abound and i am full having received from epaphroditus a friend of paul the things that you sent to me which were a sweet smelling aroma an acceptable sacrifice well pleasing to god and god shall supply all of your need according to his riches in glory by christ jesus you know we quote that verse a lot that god will supply all of our needs according to his riches and glory but we need to see it in its context now i mentioned earlier getting more stuff does not bring happiness and contentment let me make another statement now giving more stuff does getting more stuff will not make you happy listen giving more stuff will oh yes some would say oh no no it's all about getting getting kidding no actually it's about giving giving giving jesus said it's more blessed to give than to receive or a better way to translate it it's happier to give than it is to receive it's a happy thing to give and so paul is bringing this up now as he's talking about these believers he's commending the believers in philippi who were not that well-off financially for helping him out at a pinch he needed some help financially he needed food clothing other things and uh and he's saying man you guys came through for me even though you really couldn't afford to come through for me and i want to just thank you and tell you this fruit is going to abound to your account verse 17. it's not that i want the gift but i seek the fruit that abounds to your account see what we need to understand is when we give of our finances to the work of the kingdom we invest spiritually and that will be spiritual fruit to our account some are very able to do a lot and they don't do much heard about a wealthy man who was approached about making a contribution to some cause the urgent need was stated to him and and he said no i know why you think that i can write you a check for a hundred thousand dollars because i'm a man with my own business and and i have all the signs of affluence but maybe there's some things about my life that you did not know he said for instance did you know that my mother is in an expensive nursing home right now they said no we didn't know that sorry yeah well maybe you didn't know that my brother recently died and left a family of five without insurance wow we didn't know that either yeah you probably didn't know that my son who has a lot of faith has gone on the mission field and makes hardly any money and he needs the needs of his family met no we didn't know that either and then he says well if i didn't give any of them a penny why should i give you anything oh there's people like this lots of people and they miss out on the blessing that's all i'll say but i have found that often those that have the least will give the most and sometimes those that have the most will give the least so what paul is saying is hey remember the work of the lord you know you set money aside if you're smart for taxes you set money aside for savings uh and i hope you set money aside for the lord's work you know when you go and you get your latte in the morning as i do you know you give a tip to the server the barista right here's the tip thank you very much or in the restaurant you give a tip but then when we're in church and the offering is being received you're like mystified by these weird bags what what what are these and why are they here and what does this mean you're supposed to put money in them that's what it means so you can have fruit abound to your account so you can be invested in the work that god is doing and every believer should give that's what paul's pointing out and he's commending them for giving now with that backdrop we understand verse 19 which is a very important verse my god shall supply all of your need according to his riches in glory by christ now understand this verse does not float out in space all by itself for every promise of god there is a premise let me say that again for every promise of god there is a premise this promise is embedded in the context of chapter four what is the context the context is be content with what you have be generous give to the work of the lord and my god shall supply all of your needs according to his riches in glory in christ now we generally apply this verse to financial challenges you know maybe when an unexpected bill comes due or there's some financial crisis we'll say well the lord will provide because he promises my god will supply all of my needs according to his riches and glory in christ and that's true but it's not limited to finances you could apply it in other areas as well for instance if your marriage is in trouble you could also say my god will supply all of my needs according to his riches in glory in christ hey if you're a single person looking for the right person you could apply this verse my god will supply all of my needs according to his riches in glory in christ jesus if there's a need for maybe a physical healing you could apply it there as well my god shall supply all of my needs according to his riches in glory in christ jesus and certainly you can apply it to your financial need as well my god will supply all of my needs according to his riches in glory in christ jesus so this has been all about happiness and contentment and here's what we've learned happiness does not come from seeking self-fulfillment it comes from seeking the fulfillment of others it doesn't come from seeking self-fulfillment because then you're like the proverbial dog chasing its tail because when you get what you think will make you happy you'll just want something more or you can find it in your relationship with god and serving others happiness does not come from seeking happiness it comes from seeking god when you seek him first in his righteousness which means his rule and reign in your life all these things will be added to you and what are those things what you'll eat what you'll drink what you wear jesus says i'll take care of that for you you just put god first and you honor the lord first and he'll take care of that happiness does not come from getting it comes from giving contentment does not come from getting it comes from giving listen to this no one has ever been honored for what he received but rather for what he gave think about it has anyone ever been honored for a great gift they received no but they are honored when they gave something and that's the point that is before us listen you can't take it with you but you can send it on ahead and the way you do that is when you live your life for the glory of god and dedicate every aspect of it to him

Channel: Pastor Greg Laurie

Views: 63,267

Rating: 4.826087 out of 5

Keywords: harvest, Harvest Christian Fellowship, Greg Laurie Sermons, bible study for me, bible study, youtube sermons, greg laurie live, greg laurie, The Secret To Contentment, what is the secret to contentment, how to be content, how to be content with life, how to be content with life christian, how to be content with yourself

Id: l7bIAmjXOeI

Length: 117min 50sec (7070 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 02 2021