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Empowering multimedia ministry for bold Christian living: Weekend Messages, Deep End Podcast, Deep Dive Bible Study. Tim Hatch, Lead Pastor, Waters Church, 26 years of pastoral ministry, book author.
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0:00 You're listening to Waters Church podcast, where faith meets real life. Where 1 church, many locations, and 1 mission, to see lives changed by Jesus. No matter where you're listening from, you0:12 are a part of Waters Church family. Now let's dive into today's message from our pastor.0:20 I wanna talk to you on the secret to contentment. The secret to contentment. Because there is a secret that Paul unpacks here as we continue our series called0:32 generational influence. Generational influence, we're doing a series talking about money, but really, it's not about money. In fact, I wanna say, I wanna celebrate you down here in Apollo Beach, for 10:43 reason, before we get started, and that is that I heard perhaps 1 of the greatest 1 of the 1 of the greatest compliments I've ever had, when talking about this series from 1 of you. I don't know, but just know that0:56 what you whisper eventually gets to my ears. That could be good, that could be bad, I don't know. Most times, it's good. And somebody said, you know, he said the series was about money, but it doesn't feel like it's1:06 about money at all. And I would like to say thank you for that compliment because it is a compliment, because it's true. This is not really about money. It's about the heart. Money is a tool. Money can fund a hospital.1:18 Money can fund a casino. And God has given us freedom to decide where that money's gonna go. That's really how it works. And we've all made mistakes with money. I've made a lot1:30 of mistakes with money. We've all had some wins with money. But here's the here's the fact. Money is not the issue. The heart is the issue. Money is an object. Money is an object. Just like your house1:42 is an object. Your car is an object. Your body is an object. Your body's not the issue. It's your heart. The old adage from the old preacher goes like this. The heart of the problem is the problem with the heart.1:54 Get the heart right, money won't be your master. Amen, somebody. Get your heart right, your body won't be your master. In fact, get your heart right, and other people's bodies won't2:06 be your master. Turn to your neighbor right now and say, you're not the issue. Let the marriage healing begin right there. Here we go.2:19 Jeremiah 17 9 says, the heart of man is the problem. He says, is desperately wicked and sick beyond cure. Who can understand it? Jeremiah 17 9. Now that is not on anybody's coffee2:31 cup. But it is the but it is the diagnosis from God the Holy Spirit through the prophet Jeremiah to inform us that the last thing you should trust is what?2:43 Your heart. How about this young people? The last thing you should follow is your heart. Now the good news for Christ's people, God's people is this. Where Jeremiah2:54 diagnoses, Ezekiel prognoses. And here's what Ezekiel says in Ezekiel 36. He says that God says, I will give you a new heart. I will remove your heart of stone. I'll give3:06 you a heart of flesh, a heart that hears my words and obeys me from the depth of your being. Come on. There's there's differences between superficial obedience to God where you're doing it3:18 for nefarious or even selfish reasons, and then there's real obedience that comes from a heart that's been changed by God. I obey God because I love God. I don't obey God to3:30 become loved by God. Amen, somebody? So God has, in Christ Jesus, poured the love of God into our hearts, Romans chapter 5. That's what that says. So that we live3:42 from the heart for God. And 1 of the things that God wants to do in our hearts is to give us a sense, to give us the secret of contentment. Now, yes, the series is is about3:54 money in some respects, and we're giving you an opportunity to practice giving to support the extensions of our churches on December 20 first. We are gonna call this a 10 week offering. It's coming up December4:05 20 first, a couple Sundays from now. And I've asked you to save. Put aside money along the way to present above and beyond your regular giving so that we can fund the expansion of this church. Not not not4:17 not just the church, but our schools. We're gonna build a school in Massachusetts. 1 day, we're gonna build a school here in Apollo Beach. I wish I had a louder amen for that, but I don't know, man.4:30 Thought you all was saved. I don't know. Maybe I need to no. No. We're gonna build a school 1 day here, but we're gonna, I believe, own the property next door by God's grace. Yeah. Amen. Oh, good. You get that 1.4:42 And then we're gonna improve this facility someday, some way. But it does we're gonna pray it through too, by the way. We've got a fasting and prayer campaign. Good news. Eat all you want for the holidays because we got4:51 a long fast coming up in January. We're gonna do the longest fast we've ever done. 21 days of prayer and fasting. January fourth to the 20 fifth. And you can practice that any way that you feel5:03 God speaking to you, but challenge yourself to go without food some manner of time. And some people have already committed. They're going the whole 21 days, no food. Praise God. Because we're gonna believe God for5:14 miracles in 20 26. Owning that property is a miracle. Can I get a good amen? But God is the author of miracles. Starting that school or building that school is a miracle. Starting a school down here will be5:25 a miracle. Starting a new chapter of Water Church in South Carolina, gonna be a miracle. We're gonna pray for it, seek God for it, and most importantly, go after the presence of God. I wanna5:37 see the presence, and I wanna experience the presence of God in our services like we have never experienced before. Yes. So ultimately, fasting is not about going out to get stuff from God. Fasting is going after5:49 God. So that's coming up in January. But before then, December 20 first, 10 week offering, safe to give, that's what we're talking about, so that we could do intergenerational, generational influence. Because as I've5:58 said several times in this series, in 2012, a group of about 500 people believed God for what this church could become, what it is today. Multilocations, multistates. We had no idea how God would blow out6:10 our church in so many powerful ways. Here we are, 13 years later, and make no mistake, it was because of the generosity of that previous generation that we're here today. So my question is, what6:22 will God do with the generosity of this generation for 12, 15, 100 years from now? Amen? So December 20 first. Now let's let's talk about the text. Philippians. We're in the book of6:34 Philippians. Make sure your Bibles are open to Philippians. We're gonna go through the whole book, and it's gonna take me 8 hours, so cancel your lunch. No. It's not. But we're gonna go through it because the book of6:45 Philippians has 2 great themes. 2 great themes of the book of Philippians. And I wanna give you the first 1. Write it up in the top right of your notes. There's no fill in the blank for it, but just write it up on the6:53 top of your notes. First thing with Philippians is thankfulness. In fact, Philippians is not a book. Does anybody know that? Philippians is a letter. It's a letter from the apostle Paul,7:06 from Paul and Timothy, and it's to the saints of Jesus Christ in Philippi. Now amazingly, a group of us from our church were in ancient Philippi just about 6 weeks7:18 ago. I'm gonna share a picture of that later on in this message. But he's writing to this church oh, I forgot to do this. Hold on a second, everybody. All my note all my scribbles from last service are there, and that's7:27 cheating. But the theme of this the book, the letter is thankfulness. Because look, verse 3. I, what, thank my God in all my remembrance of you always in7:39 every prayer. Now didn't Paul say in first Thessalonians 5 18, pray without ceasing? He did. So he's always praying for who? For the7:50 Philippians thanking them, thanking God for them. I thank God for you all. I thank god for you all. Hey. How many know8:01 people are better than possessions? Friends are better than money. Yeah? So Paul's saying that. He's modeling that here. And8:13 he says, here's why I'm thankful for you. Because of your partnership. Now this word is actually a financial term. He's gonna talk about it in just a moment. Because of your financial partnership8:25 in the gospel from the first day that you received the Lord until now. In other words, the Philippians received Jesus, and immediately it changed them8:37 in such a way that they started to fund the message that Paul presented to them in Christ. Now what you gotta know about Paul, his MO was to never charge for preaching the gospel.8:49 And by the way, our church does that. Any good church does that. You say, well, what about tithes and offerings? That's after you've already received it. You see, you come into this9:01 place, there is no cover charge to come into the house of God. Amazing how men will go nuts over a strip club9:13 and gladly pay a cover charge to see fornication. And nobody says a word. Nobody bats an eye. You come into the house of God. You come in for free, and you hear9:24 the life changing gospel of Jesus Christ that can destroy the idols of this world that will wreck you. But you do so free of charge. Amen, somebody.9:36 And we don't charge you to get in here, number 1, because we don't think you'd come. And number 2, because it's unbiblical. The gospel is free because grace is free. And so Paul9:48 but Paul but Paul acknowledges that once they receive the gospel, they turned from takers to givers. And really, that's what the gospel does. It turns a taker into a giver. And10:00 he goes on to thank them in chapter 4. Check this out. Because he he specifies in chapter 4 that they were 1 of a few. Actually, they were the only 1 of the churches that he started10:12 in acts chapter 16 and 17 that actually did this. He says in Philippians 4 verse 15, he says, you Philippians yourselves know that in the beginning of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, that would have been the region in10:23 which the Philippians lived. He says no church entered into, what, that financial giving, and he even specifies it just in case you care you don't think you don't believe me. He said, with me10:35 in giving and receiving except you only. Only the Philippians out of 1, 2, 3 churches that were started in Macedonia, only the Philippians entered10:47 into giving for the sake of what? The gospel. He says, even in Thessalonica, you sent me help for my needs, not just once, again and again. And then he says, I10:59 I'm not looking for this. He goes, I don't even ask for this. I'm just telling you because this increases to your credit. There's a heavenly credit system, and the the the the the Lord Jesus specified this, and Paul11:10 specified this, that if you lay up treasures in heaven, no moth can destroy, no rust can deteriorate. It is kept in heaven for you. Do you believe that? That that that's what Paul's talking about here to your11:22 credit in heaven. And he's thanking this church. So the first thing that you have to understand is that Paul is filled with thanks, and secondly, he's filled with joy. But there's a second there's a second11:34 theme to Philippians, and and everybody loves Philippians, and that theme is contentment. Write that down top right of your notes. Not just thankfulness, but contentment. Thankfulness and contentment. Paul is extremely11:46 content, and he's gonna get there in verse 10 of chapter 4. That's what he's talking about here that we just read because he tells them, I'm not talking about my knee.11:58 I'm not speaking like I need this money from you, but I thank you for it. But I've learned already in every situation, whether you give or whether you don't, I'm content. Hey, Waters Church, everybody listen to me.12:08 Everybody listen to You can come to this church and never give a dime, and we will love you and share the gospel with you and pray God will save you and change you and make your life absolutely better 100 percent. But12:18 regardless of your giving, God is moving in this church. Amen. He doesn't rely on any, you know, fat cat or, you know, big broker. God's gospel is enough in Jesus' name.12:30 And Paul's saying that basically here. I I don't need it, but I thank you for it, and I'm content. And so thankfulness and contentment go together like this. Here, write this out of the top of your nose. Contentment is12:41 the foundation of true thankfulness. I don't think you're truly thankful until you're truly content. Let me explain that.12:53 Thankfulness must not be circumstantial. What do I mean? Okay. Regular people, in other words, not13:04 Christians, can be thankful because they get something. Regular people can be thankful because they get a raise. They get a new13:16 relationship. They fall in love. They get married. They finally secure the house. They get the car they want. Regular people are thankful when stuff comes into their life. When people come13:28 into their life, gospel people can be thankful when stuff leaves their life. When people walk out on their life, when they lose13:39 things. Because their thankfulness is not circumstantial. Their thankfulness is a learned, settled13:51 narrative in their heart that no matter what comes in and no matter what goes out of my life, I am still a beloved child of the most high14:03 God, and he has an eternal reward waiting for me in heaven. By the way, in the Old Testament, there's a guy who practiced this really well. His name was Job. And you remember when Job had14:15 everything taken away, and he still praised God. And then this the devil came back, and the devil struck struck him with sickness and boils on his skin, and he took shards of power pottery and started scraping the boils14:27 off of his skin. And you remember the story? His wife comes up to him and says, are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die. Which is why the devil left his wife behind. Amen to somebody. She would've14:38 been a problem. And Job says what? You're talking like a foolish woman. Shall we not receive bad from God and only good? And then it says, he has taken14:50 away. He has he has give the Lord has given. The Lord has taken. Blessed be the name of the Lord. You know why? Because Job's thankfulness was not, what, circumstantial. You15:02 can't truly be thankful, and we just got done with the great 1 day out of 3 65 days in this year in this country of being thankful. But you can't be truly thankful unless you're truly contented,15:13 rooted, and grounded in an ever settled nature, posture before God that Jesus is enough. So Paul says the15:25 the the thing I need you to learn here is what I learned. I learned to be content. You can learn to be content. Now we're gonna talk about that in this in this passage, But he15:37 goes on in verse 12. He says it again, I have learned what's this word? The secret. And this word in Greek means refers to mysteries revealed by spiritual entities. Now we know that Paul's15:49 talking about the mysteries revealed by the holy spirit. He says, I've learned the secret of being content no matter what I'm going through. Now 1 thing I want you to understand too about Philippians. How many of you16:00 know your bible enough to know that Philippians is 1 of the best books in the bible? It's a great book. It is so quotable. There are so many quotes from this book, from cover to cover. It's only 4 chapters. It's a very16:11 short book. Can read it in about 10, 15 minutes, the whole book. And we got Philippians 1 6. He who began a good work in you will be able to bring it to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Love that verse.16:22 Philippians 2 verse or Philippians 1 21, for to me to live is Christ and to die is gain. Philippians 2 5, have this mind in you which was in Christ Jesus our lord. Philippians 2 12, continue to work out your salvation16:34 with fear and trembling for it is god who works in you to willing to work according to his good pleasure. Philippians 3 8, I consider all things lost compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus, my lord16:42 and savior. Philippians 4 4, rejoice in the lord always and again, I say rejoice. Philippians 4 6, be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your request known to God. And16:51 the peace of God will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4 13, I can do all things through Christ. Christ who Strength. Strengthens me. We all oh, we love those verses. But did you ever think that the17:02 reason those verses are in the bible is because Paul wrote this letter to a church in Philippi because he wanted to say thank you17:14 for a financial offering they provided for him. Let me put it this way. No financial gift, no book of Philippians, no really quotable verses for us. I say that to17:26 say that giving is generationally influential. And what he teaches us in this text is how to be content, how to be content. And I wanna give you 4 reasons from the book of Philippians, 1 point from each chapter preaching17:38 the whole book, 1 point from each chapter on how to be content. Write this down. Number 1, I learn contentment when I know God's purpose for my life. I learn contentment when I know God's17:50 purpose, somebody say purpose, for my life. Now to get to this point, Paul says in chapter 1, these are his opening comments from the book of Philippians. So chapter 1, if you've got your Bible out,18:02 you can turn and check out verse 12. Here's what he tells them. He says, I want you to know, brothers. This is how Paul lived with contentment knowing his purpose. I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to18:12 me has really served to advance what? The gospel. 4 words to get ahold of contentment. Not just for Paul, for18:24 you. To understand you've got a heavenly purpose in Christ, if you're a Christian, and that whatever happens to you can, if you let18:36 it, serve to what? Advance what? Now what is the gospel? The gospel is making Jesus known. That's what the gospel is. The gospel is telling the world18:48 that Jesus Christ, God's son, died on a cross for your sins so that you could be forgiven of all your sins, washed clean of all your unrighteousness, and stand before God. The19:00 word is justified, which we get a phrase, just as if I'd never sinned. And that is yours free through grace by faith in Jesus' name19:11 ever. There is no greater message the world could ever hear than the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And guess what? If you're a Christian, that's your purpose.19:23 Your purpose is to make Jesus known. You say, pastor, I'm not a preacher. I can't do what you do. That's not what I'm talking about. You can make Jesus known through what happens to you. I got an elder on this19:35 staff, on this church. He's not on staff. He's an elder, unpaid elder. He's just been through a year and a half of absolute struggle with cancer. You know what I you know what I do? I check on him on a regular19:46 basis. Do you know what he does? He texts back. Almost every single time, I am making Jesus known. I'm talking to my doctors. I'm talking to my nurses. I'm talking to everybody, and they're wondering where I'm getting my19:58 strength. I'm getting my strength from Christ. How many know that because of Jesus, you can take cry you can take cancer and turn it into a cause to make Christ known to other people? Because20:10 of the because of Jesus, you could take hardship and turn it into a message. You could take a test, turn it into a testimony. Come on, somebody. If you've ever gone through anything that's got you turned upside20:22 down, can I tell you there's good news? God wants to use it for his glory so that other people can celebrate Christ's work in your life. And I think about this.20:35 That's that's that's what living with purpose is about. So that whatever comes in, whatever goes out, you can be content because God is gonna use it for his glory in your life. And Paul goes on.20:47 He said, it has become what? Known throughout the whole, check this line out. The imperial guard. The imperial guard, that's where we get empire from. Imperial empire, Star Wars fans? The21:00 Roman Empire, the leaders of the Roman Empire, I just this blows me away. The leaders of the Roman Empire have come to know21:11 that my imprisonment is for Christ. Important people are hearing the gospel for the first time because I am and by the way, where is he?21:24 He's in prison for doing what? For making Jesus known. By the way, Christians, sometimes you do what God wants, you still get thrown in prison. A prison physically or a prison mentally or emotionally or21:35 relationally. You do what Christ wants, and some people will hate you. Paul understood that firsthand. All right? If you want to avoid criticism, simple. Simple way to avoid21:47 criticism. Do nothing. Have nothing. Say nothing. Accomplish nothing, and nobody will say a word. But when you start saying stuff, man, you're gonna get some prisons thrown at you. Paul says, I'm gonna let God use the21:58 prison to make the imperial guard know that I am here for Christ. I always get a kick out of this passage because I think Paul was actually under house arrest. So he was chained to a Roman centurion 2422:10 hours a day. And obviously, they would have to shift. They would have to take shifts to be chained to Paul. And I always had this thought. Like, you know, the Roman centurions getting their days duties. Right? And they22:20 pick it up and somebody says, oh gosh. I got Paul duty. Put me with the murderers and drug smugglers, please. This guy does not shut up about this guy from Nazareth22:32 named Jesus. I mean, really, like, think about that. And then and this is what you call a captive audience. Come on somebody. And he's just 24 hours a day telling these guys, I'm here because I told people about22:44 Jesus. Do you know Jesus? You need Jesus in your life. And Jesus could change your life. And by the way, you really you stink. You need Jesus. I'm just telling you. That's his whole message. And then then they made it22:54 known. How? Because what happens when you have true contentment, happens to you doesn't define your emotions. You're thankful because you're believing that God's gonna take what's happening to you to advance the gospel23:04 and make Jesus known. Moreover, he says, most of the brothers, these are my partners. These are other Christians. They've become what? In the Lord by my imprisonment. And23:15 now they're much more bold to speak the word without fear. I find that fantastic. I love this. You know, Jesus said, sometimes, you understand this, the Holy Spirit will only show up23:28 when you're the most stressed out. He says to his disciples, he says, listen. When they drag you before kings and authorities and rulers and they threaten you, don't you worry about it. That's when the holy spirit's23:39 gonna step up and speak through you. And that's what Paul is unpacking here. I'm in prison, and guess what? It didn't shut other people up. It actually caused other people to speak up.23:51 Ain't that cool? So indeed so so then he says, some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry. I always get a kick out of this. Like, there are and this happens still to this day. People preach Christ for the wrong24:02 reasons. And he says, others from goodwill. So there's 2 kinds of people out there preaching while Paul's in prison. He says the latter, the people out of goodwill, do it because they love God, knowing that I'm here for24:12 the cause of the gospel. But then he says the former proclaimed Christ out of selfish ambition. And ladies and gentlemen, there are tons of preachers, especially in America, that preach Christ out of selfish ambition.24:24 Paul says that's nothing new. People are and and then and by the way, they were trying to afflict him by preaching Christ out of selfish ambition because here's what was going down. They weren't in prison. Paul was in24:35 prison. So these false these these preachers said, I must be more favored by God because I'm not in prison, and Paul is in prison. They were trying make a name for themselves. And that would hurt me. I don't know about24:47 you, but that would hurt me. Anybody anybody ever have somebody don't raise your hand here. But anybody have somebody in your life that just loves it when you suffer? Loves it when you fail? Or maybe they're praying for24:58 you to fail. Maybe they're hoping. Right? That's Paul. That's what he's talking about here. Hey. Everybody's got haters and thankers. Everybody's got people who hate you and people who thank god for you.25:10 Welcome to life. By the way, welcome to the Christian experience. Amen, somebody. Alright? How do you respond? Well, here's how you respond. You know your purpose. And here's what he25:22 says. What will I do then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is, what? Proclaimed. And in that, I rejoice. I'm glad that somebody's25:34 hearing about Jesus, even if they're hearing about Jesus from somebody who's preaching Jesus from selfish motives, which eliminates my need to feel contentment in my25:45 circumstances because my thankfulness comes not from what the world does to me or gives to me. My thankfulness comes from Christ inside of me. Notice how he25:57 resolves this last line here in this text in verse 21. He says, I'm always gonna let Christ be honored in my body whether by life or death, verse 21, for to me to live is26:09 Christ. That's my purpose. My reason for living, and Christians, listen to me. The same is true for you. Oh, 18 year old just starting out in life thinking about college and what26:21 you're gonna study and what degree you're gonna get and what job you're gonna get, and hopefully, you'll get the internship, and finally, you'll make some money. Okay. Great. For all of it, I pray God blesses you.26:29 However, use all of that to make Jesus known. For the 50 year old man who's just finally feeling like he's reached the pinnacle in the top, but he's cruising on cruise control in his job26:41 and his occupation, and things are going so well, and you feel like you finally know what you're doing, I'm glad for you. Praise God for you. Now start to use that for Christ's glory. For every business owner, every26:53 business leader, use your position not to make you a fortune, but to make Jesus known in your company and in your organization so that people understand that you honor God with that business, and it's really not about27:04 you or the bottom dollar. It's about making the gospel more real to people who desperately need Jesus. That's how you live with purpose. And by the way, when you die,27:17 it only gets better. So how do I live with how do I learn contentment? When I know my purpose in God, and it's to make Jesus known. Amen? Number 2, I learn contentment27:29 when I'm seeking to serve others. I learn contentment now let's go to Philippians chapter 2. When I'm seeking to serve others, and this is so important for Americans to hear.27:40 America has an anxiety pandemic, a depression pandemic, and the reason why is because we are trained from birth in this society to think about us.27:53 That's really the problem. The problem is we think about us. We can't stop thinking about us and all of our problems. Now I don't know about you. Well, I do know about you a little bit because you're human, and I'm28:04 human. And what did Jeremiah say about the human heart? Jeremiah said the human heart is desperately wicked. So when I think about me, I'm thinking about a desperately wicked heart. And you could28:16 see the church me, but I know the real me. And here's a fact about me that I'm sure is true about you. The more that I think about me, the more depressed I feel.28:27 The problem with America is we are trained to think about us. Make a name for yourself. Celebrate you. And social media craze only exacerbates all that temptation upon our heart to make28:39 ourselves the center of our story. And all the psychologists and all the therapists tell us the same thing. Stop thinking about you. You'll feel better. The moment you start thinking about28:51 somebody else, you'll feel better. Here's the here's the fact. You've gotta do stuff to feel better. You can't just feel better. Is that making sense? I wake up in the29:03 morning, and I feel terrible. Anybody with me on that? When I wake up in the morning, like, ugh, the day is here again. Get me some coffee quickly. On the eighth day, God29:15 created coffee, and it was good. Yeah. And not myself until I've had 3 shots of espresso. Come on. But if I don't activate, if I just sit there and I think I navel gaze29:27 all day, I'll just feel worse. You gotta get out of yourself. You gotta you gotta start thinking about somebody else. You gotta serve somebody else, and it's the altruistic high. When you start serving somebody else, you29:37 start feeling better about you. Now guess where that comes from? I'll tell you where that comes from. It comes from the first page of your bible. Genesis 1 27. In God's29:48 image, God created man. We call it the imago dei. Now that's not just some kind of, like, divine stamp on your DNA. No. That is your calling. You30:00 are called to live in God's, what, image. Now what is God? Well, let me put it this way. Multiple choice question. Make it easier on you. Ready? Is God,30:12 a, a giver, or, b, a taker? He's a giver. Yeah. If you're made in God's image and God is a giver, you are made to be a30:23 giver. So that's why Paul says in Philippians 2, he says, if there's any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love in other words, if you have the holy spirit and listen to me, Watershed, if you have the holy30:35 spirit, then do this. Make my joy complete by being on the same mind, having the same love, being full accord in 1 mind. And and and verse 3 and 4, I call them the most ignored bible verses in all of30:47 Christendom. Because he says, do nothing from selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility count who? Others more significant than who?30:59 Jesus. Woah. Talk about 1 big ignored verse. Again, in our social media crazed generation, in our Americanized31:11 do you generation, this verse kind of just goes out the window. But yet this is God's prescription for our hearts. Who can you think about31:23 other than you today? Who can you call? Instead of worrying about who's calling you, who are you calling? Instead of worrying about who's greeting you, who can you31:34 greet? Instead of worrying about who's inviting you to their small group, what small group can you start for somebody else? Oh, now I'm preaching because you're all getting quieter and quieter31:46 and quieter. That's good preaching right there. And then he says in verse 4, let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also to the interests of who? Others. When you start serving others, you31:58 find contentment because you stop thinking constantly about what you need, what you want, what you deserve. You've only got so much mental energy every day. You've only got so many thoughts. Start asking the holy spirit32:10 to give you thoughts that are less about you and more about others. And I I was raised old school. I was raised in Sunday school. Any any Sunday school graduates in the house? I was I'm a32:22 Sunday school graduate. And, we used to have Sunday school before the real church. It was at 9 AM and then real church at 10 AM. And, the teacher would lead us in a song called joy, and it went like this. Jesus and32:33 others and you. Now that's the way you spell joy. And I'm butchering the song, but you get the idea. J o y. Jesus first, other second, you third. And there's where32:44 joy is. It was true because it's biblical. When you start thinking about others, you start having joy in your life and contentment and thankfulness. This is what Paul is doing. He's writing a letter to people while he's32:54 in prison. He's not waiting for people to write him prison letters. He's writing letters from prison to other people. Wow. That's how he found joy. By the way, there's another guy that was33:06 imprisoned in the last century for the gospel. His name was Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He was born in Germany in 19 o 6, and the Nazis came to power, but he had33:17 already left the country because he wanted to be a theological training a theological professor in a seminary. And he actually came to New York City, and he was living in New York City when World War 2 broke out, and33:29 he was German by birth. And he was going to Union Theological Seminary. Now for those of you who know, Union Theological Seminary is actually Union Theological Cemetery33:41 because they abandoned the gospel a long time ago. They don't preach the gospel. They don't teach the gospel. They're just there's a liberal woke as you get seminary in the heart of New York City. And it's nothing new33:51 because they've been like that since the 19 hundreds. And and Dietrich Bonhoeffer was going there, and he he wasn't even hearing about Jesus in seminary. So he decides to attend a church in Harlem, New York, Abyssinian34:02 Baptist Church. It's still there to this day. Totally all black church. He's the only white guy in the church, but they've got the holy spirit, and they preach the gospel. And he and he said34:14 that he felt first the holy spirit in that church received the gospel, was radically saved, and then a short while later, he felt the holy spirit say, go back to Germany34:26 and lead a resistance against the Nazis. This was in 19 42. He could have lived very comfortably for himself and become a cemetery teacher at union34:38 for the rest of his life, and nobody would have heard of his name. But he decides to live for others, goes back to Germany. He joins the confessing church, the church that opposed the Nazis, fought Germany from34:50 within. They actually even contrived the plot to assassinate Hitler because they all conceived that if 1 person died, it'd be better than, know, 1000000 other Jews. And so they tried to get him, you know, assassinated,35:01 but they were caught, and he was thrown in prison. And from prison, he wrote books. He led bible studies. He discipled men in training them to teach the bible. And 30 days before the35:13 Germans surrendered, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was executed, gone to this world 1 month before the war ended. He wrote a book called Letters and Notes from Prison.35:25 And in that book, he says this, the church is the church only when it exists for others. The church is the church only. Can we put that up35:36 on the screen? Yeah. There it is. Only when it exists for others. My word. That is that is a powerful way to live your life.35:49 Paul from prison thanking God for the Philippians. Dietrich Bonhoeffer from prison still speaking to us today. Why? Because these men decided that life was not about what I got.36:01 Life was about what I gave away. On the other end of the spectrum is a guy by the name of Solomon from the old old testament. Solomon was king David's son, and he gets the kingdom, and he gets money, and he gets women,36:12 and he gets fame, and he gets fortune, and he gets wisdom, and he's notable and famous, and everybody loves Solomon. And then he goes after pleasure and sex and, you know, you know,36:24 wine, women, and song. He even wrote a book in the bible called Song of Solomon. But at the end of his life, he writes another book called Ecclesiastes, and you know what he says? He sums up his whole life of chasing36:34 pleasure and money and stuff. Do you know what he says? It's all vanity. It's all emptiness. It's all a chasing after the wind. And in chapter 5, he says this,36:46 he who has money will not have money enough nor will he be satisfied with his income. Here's what he's saying. If you set your heart on having more, you will36:57 never be happy with what you have. Conversely, if you're never happy, it might be because you37:09 love money or stuff or things that you desperately want in your life. Write this down. Here's a fact. I will not give when I always want more. I37:21 will not give I will not be a giver if I'm always wanting more for my life. I always want the next thing, the next tool, the next car, the next real estate, the next da da da. And none of that, by the37:33 way, in of itself is bad. It's not. Things are not bad. Things are not the issue. The heart is the issue. But if you set your heart on chasing more, you'll never turn into a giver because you'll37:45 be too worried about getting more to make your life feel like it matters. And what Paul what what Solomon says is is if that's you, you're never gonna be satisfied. It's just never gonna happen because there's37:57 always somebody with a little bit more that'll make you feel like once you're like them, then you'll feel happy. You know what God is challenging me this past couple months regarding this special offering that my wife38:08 and I are going to participate in with you? We are going to give above and beyond our regular giving to this church as partners with this church. And what God spoke to me about in my own life was I have too much38:20 stuff, too many toys. So I started selling stuff on Facebook Marketplace, and I'm selling some significant things, selling away. Just selling, selling, selling. And they took the cash, and I put away. By the way, anybodyShow more
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