Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:04 Welcome to all of you who are joining us here today. I know some of you are joining us online. Thank you. I know some of you were probably anybody up late last night. It's okay. Confession time. Keep going. All right. Up late. And you're here. Good for you, Dan. See you there. Yeah. Good. Thanks for coming. Uh, also a special welcome to the Village kids. So there are a lot of younger folks that are here today because we don't have Sunday school on this special, uh, first day of the new year. And so if you're in like, oh, let's say I love fifth and sixth graders too, but let's say fourth graders. Are you in fourth grade? Raise your hand or third grade or maybe down fourth grade, third graders. Raise your hand. I wanna see somebody. I see some <laugh>. I see one. Barry, you're not fourth grade.
Speaker 1 00:00:45 Um, or you second grade. First grade on. I see you. Great. Put your hands down for a second. Now I have a picture. I wanna show you the younger ones here. There's a picture we have for you and the little test. Now it's, it's pretty easy test. I think it's pretty easy. Maybe it's not. If you think now you fourth graders on down, if you think that that young child up there is happy, raise your hand. Not a lot of hands going up. How about now? Fourth graders on down third, second graders. If you think that child up there looks sad, raise your hand. Really? Okay, why? One of you tell me why do you think he looks sad? Why doesn't want something? Yeah. Well you see that he said he wants something. Now there's a lot of things about the picture, but that's great.
Speaker 1 00:01:31 See the hand going like this saying I want that. Yeah. You ever been there? Have you ever done that? <laugh>? Really? You're awesome. I've done that a lot. Chris. Ask my wife. I've done that. Well, so this is the new year. Today is January 1st, right? 2023. It is the new year. And what I want to try to do is work on that frown a little bit because what do we say the first day of the new year, happy New Year. Why not? So I entitled this sermon, happy New Year 2023. Or maybe another way to say it is the Road to a Happy New Year in 2023. And that's what I'm gonna talk about today. And my name is Dean Anon and I'm the discipleship pastor here at Village Church. And if we haven't met yet, I'd love to meet you. I'll be right down here afterwards.
Speaker 1 00:02:19 So it might seem a little weird, and I know there's a lot of pain here today too. So I'm not brushing over any of that. Believe me, I know there's pain here today. At the same time, what I know is if I were to ask you a question and say whether you're young, whether you're young, I see some of your young ones here. If I were to ask you this question or maybe the teenagers are older, do you want to be happy? You'd probably say yes. Right? Most of the time people say, yeah, they want to be happy. Happiness is an emotion and it comes from us wanting everything right or as it should be. And I have a very, very short definition for you on happiness, and I'll just stick with this today. It's a sense of wellbeing, joy, or contentment. Isn't that interesting?
Speaker 1 00:03:02 Contentment, joy. These are in what I call the happiness camp because really you could try to pick apart the difference between these things theologically if you want to. But for me, I today, I just wanna say these are in the happiness camp. And why do children, um, open Christmas presence as if the very key to their happiness is they're under the tissue paper. You ever see 'em rip across? Okay, I've done it too, but rip open the boxes. It's either under the tissue, paper, paper, the key to happiness or maybe under the socks they keep looking. Is it there? We've all done that. We've all been there. We're all looking. And one of the things I love about the Bible is it doesn't leave any subject, um, unaddressed. The Bible is so real in every single way. And many times there are unhappy people in the Bible.
Speaker 1 00:03:49 You see the Apostle Paul who went through so many ups and downs in his life. Sometimes we forget that King David in Psalm 22, he struggled with whether God had left him or not or abandoned him. And he was depressed in the Old Testament. Naomi, also in the Old Testament, Naomi, who's in the book of Ruth, you see something's happened to her that are just awful. She lost her husband, she lost her sons. And then she said this, this is how she felt inside. She believed in her mind that the hand of the Lord had gone out against her. The Bible addresses all this unhappy, happy, all of this. The Bible is just wonderful in that way. So is it okay for us as Christians to want to be happy? Three points today I wanna look at first is the wanting of happiness. The next is the warnings of happiness.
Speaker 1 00:04:45 And the third is the way to happiness. And at the very end, what I'll do is try to come up to a, a main point or theme or a big idea, and we'll put that at the very end. So although this question where it says here, is it okay for a Christian to want to be happy? Although that answer may seem may seem obvious to you, but it's not always obvious to everybody because it depends on sometimes how we define happiness. It depends on how much weight you put on. It depends on how much important or how important it is to you. So just hold onto that question. Is it okay for a Christian to want to be happy? And we're gonna look at our main passage today. We're gonna look at it now and then at the end we're gonna look at it again.
Speaker 1 00:05:27 It's Philippians chapter four. So if you can turn on or maybe turn two. Philippians chapter four, Philippians is after Galatians, an old friend of mine used to say, go eat popcorn Christians, <laugh> Galatians, Ephesians, get it. Philippians Colossians. So this is in the New Testament. If you're not too familiar with the Bible, you can go to the table of contents. Great place to go. Great place to go to. Look it up. Philippians chapter four. And Paul is writing will start halfway through verse 11, just a few verses. And, and he says this, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low and I know how to abound in any and every circumstance. I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. And then verse 13, he says, I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
Speaker 1 00:06:25 A couple of words right away I just, just kind of pop out. I don't wanna talk about content. Being content is satisfied or showing satisfaction with the current conditions. What's happening again, this is in the, in the happiness camp. It's very, uh, much like being happy. And I'll probably interchange these words a little bit in my sermon today. Learned also pops out here a couple times. I think it's in there. And he's talking about he has learned about contentment through what? Through his experiences over and over again. He's talking about that. And even in the New Testament, he talks about these experiences. The Apostle Paul is one of these people that faced many, many dangers. He went hungry at times and had many problems in his life that he faced. Now when he's writing this book, this little letter of four chapters to the church of Philippi, at this time he's in prison, right?
Speaker 1 00:07:15 He's been, uh, stoned, he's been beaten, his enemies are hounding him, he's facing death. And yet he's talking about being content and not just content. If you go back a few verses, if you're following the along, verse 11, go back a few to uh, verse four, verse four, Philippians four, four says this, rejoice in the Lord. And that's key, of course. But just the word Rejoice. Rejoice in the Lord. And again, I say rejoice. Paul is talking about being glad. Rejoice again, being glad. That's another happiness word. And not only that, this word joy or rejoice or rejoicing comes up 16 times in this short letter to the church at Flip by. Its one of the themes again, joy. Joy here actually means this to feel happy or joy. That's joy, to feel happy again. Another happiness word. So is it okay for a Christian to be happy?
Speaker 1 00:08:13 To want to be happy? Seems the apostle Paul is saying yes. Well, how about the creation account? Let's look at what God's doing in the creation account. Going way back to Genesis. We learn that we're made in God's image. That means a lot of things. But one of the things it means is that we have this great desire to be happy, to wanna be happy, to wanna be satisfied. Why? Cuz God is a God of order not chaos. He's not a God of disorder. He's a God of order. Remember he said over and over again, he, as he made something, he said, it is good. He made something again. He said, it is good when God made you, he said, it is good. When God made his creation, he said, it is good. Over and over again in Genesis chapter two, verse nine, it says this, and out of the ground, the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant, not ugly <laugh> or not something we don't use.
Speaker 1 00:09:09 It's, and it says to, to this sight and good for food. Not bad, but good. This is God's design and it's his delight for Adam and Eve, certainly to be with them, for Adam and Eve, to experience God, to be with them, to be fruitful, to be, to multiply, to have all the things they need to be happy. This was God's design. So is it okay to want to be happy in 23, 20 23? Yes. Can we just say, oh yes. Can we just land there <laugh> and please it's okay to want to be happy, although that's not always our experience. Certainly it's okay. That's the first point. Second point, the warnings of happiness. These are the pitfalls. And of course we're gonna need to get there, right? There's a lot of things we probably shouldn't be doing. Some of this is obvious, but I know some of you are up late, right?
Speaker 1 00:09:59 Dan, you should have gotta bed earlier. <laugh>. I know. So I'm gonna give you just four, four warnings, the short list. Before I talk about the four things, I want to gain some clarity and then talk a little bit about a disclaimer. Clarity. God's purpose in his creation and redemption is to make for him a family that's you, that's me, to bring us. And not only that, he wants us conformed to the image of his son. He sanctifies us. Meaning that through the power of the Holy Spirit, we are changed and being changed more to the image of his son. So we can be that family that he wants us to be. That's his ultimate purpose. To make a family of us, his people. It's a beautiful thing. That's the clarity on purpose, but also a disclaimer. Now we want to be happy, right? But if happiness, here's the disclaimer is our ultimate goal in this life, it will always, always leave you empty.
Speaker 1 00:10:59 If you want to be happy more than anything else in this life, it will leave you empty. Now to the first warning of the forewarns, happiness is elusive. And you've probably seen that maybe, maybe it's something like ease or comfort, something that's one of my go-tos, ease or comfort. For other people, it's praise or success. These are the things you might go ever. What happens? What happens if you don't get those things? Then what happens? Despair, maybe depression. Or maybe this is worse. What if you do get those things and you still don't feel happy? What do you do then? Well, I watched an old interview this week going back, not that old <laugh>. Some of the older people are looking at me saying, Hey, that's out the 2005. Yeah, that's not that old <laugh>. Back to 2005, there's an old video clip I watched of a man named Tom Brady.
Speaker 1 00:11:52 Some of you love Tom Brady, some of you don't. Some of you don't know who he is if you're not into football, he is by any stretch of the imagination, a great leader and a great football player. And by now he's won seven Super Bowls and nobody's come close to him. Super Bowls is the ultimate championship in professional football. By the time in 2005 of this interview on 60 Minutes, he had won three Super Bowl rings. And ever since, a little kid, guys like Tom Brady and these other professional football players, they've been dreaming about winning the Super Bowl. And he's won three by the time he's 27. Now, he's been asked the question here, and he's responding to this question about how he's feeling about all this, about this ultimate success. Everybody's praising this man for what he has done in his leadership of the team.
Speaker 1 00:12:38 And here's what he says. He says this to the interviewer. He says, is this all there is? Some of you remember this. You might have seen this. This wasn't, this was a famous while back. And then he says, is this how I'm supposed to feel? And you could see the pain, actually see the pain in his eyes when he said this, is this how I'm supposed to feel? And then he says, there has to. And this just actually made me sad. It still makes me sad right now thinking about this, so I wanna try to hold it back. But he says there has to be something more. The man who has ultimate success by all standards of the world, knows there's something more. Eventually he goes on to talk a little bit about relationships and he, he kind of is leaning towards that. So he knows there's something about relationships that make you happy, but he still didn't quite nail it down.
Speaker 1 00:13:26 Why? Because happiness is elusive. It's elusive if you're looking for it in the wrong place. So do you feel, or do you see with a little self-reflection in your life, have you been popping around too much maybe to different stores, too many places on Amazon? Or maybe it's, uh, relationships, whatever it is, think about that this year. Where are we looking? Because if we're looking in the wrong place for happiness, it will always leave us empty. Well, that's happiness is elusive. That's a first warning. A second warning about the warnings of being happy. It's not found in money. Do I have to say it's not found in money to us as believers in Christ? We know that, right? But, but functionally, do we believe that? Is it true in our own life?
Speaker 1 00:14:12 Do you feel more content when the stocks are up? Yeah, maybe <laugh>, we do a little bit. Sure it's not bad. Money's not bad, right? But having more of it and then more than we actually need over and over again, that cycle is not gonna bring happiness at all. I spent too much time this week, uh, reading research, uh, research on the relationship between, uh, income and happiness. And I read a bunch of old, uh, research in a bunch of more current research. Now, some of the older, uh, research says this about the relationship between income, wealth, and happiness. And here's what it says, says that there's no relationship between income and daily happiness depending on how you look at the data, but it's basically, that's generally where most people fall. There's no relationship. The more current research, I think is interesting. It says this in the relationship between wealth and daily happiness, it says this. And, and I'm gonna give you a, a summary, actually a quote from one of them. It says, overall our results provide some evidence that individual attainment in terms of income may not equate to the attainment of an individual happiness and could even be associated with less daily happiness depending on how income is measured in English. I think what that's saying again, is no, the money's not gonna give you happiness. And they found that actually higher income does not lead to higher daily happiness. And maybe as a follower of Christ, you already know that.
Speaker 1 00:15:46 But the reason for this is because money's not designed. Money's not designed to give us happiness. No. It's, it's the bride for your needs and to provide for the needs of others to help others and to provide for your needs. That's all it's designed to do. So no happiness is not found in money. And I love this, this verse here and we have it for you. Hebrews 13, five says this, keep your life free from the love of money. Not saying money's bad from the love of money and be content with what you have for. He has said meaning. God has said, I will never leave you. Norse forsake. You see money can't love you back. It's, it's like a, it's like a, a young boy and a young girl and the boy just loves this girl and he's just pursuing her and he's just after her.
Speaker 1 00:16:34 But this girl, she doesn't love him. Matter of fact, she doesn't want anything to do with him. She can't return the favor and she can't return the love. There's no future for them. Money's the same way. It can't love you back and it leaves you eventually and leaves you empty if you pursue it in love. Many, many years ago, I worked for what was the leading research and development telecom company. And for a number of years, they were giving us no raises, the engineers, and they were giving, uh, stock options, stock option after stock option after stock option. And it was worth a lot of money. And then many of you know what happened during that time. It crashed. All of our stock was worthless. All this money we no longer had, it was barely worth wallpaper. Actually, the stock options were less than wallpaper.
Speaker 1 00:17:30 The money was ripped away. But by contrast, what I love about this verse is God will never leave you. He says he will never crash. He will always be there. This promise, actually the quote there comes back from Deuteronomy chapter 31, God has never failed his people. He will never leave you. He will never crash. He will always be with you no matter what. That's the happiness is not found in money. The second point of these happiness, um, warnings. Let's go to the third. The third one is this, happiness is not found in sin again, functionally, how do we live? Christians, you might believe this, of course, happiness is not found in sin. But functionally mo most of us make decisions based on happiness, right? In general, uh, a spouse maybe, or a video game or relationships. You choose those things because they'll make you happy in general.
Speaker 1 00:18:29 But then what happens when we don't experience the happiness? We despair and we re aim and refire again at happiness. Do you remember the big problem I mentioned earlier? Big problem. I said was this pursuing happiness as the ultimate goal in our lives will always leave us empty. But now I want to add something to that. If we assume God's ultimate goal for us in this life, again, God's ultimate goal for us in this life, if it's to make us happy, then we'll, if we believe that, then you and I will too easily be tempted to follow after sin and then justify saying, well, God wants me to be happy. So we want to be really careful to think that God's ultimate goal in this life now for us is to be happy in everything and every way and at all times. It just pushes us to sin.
Speaker 1 00:19:22 And then justify our sinful choice when we believe that, you know, here's a, a picture that have of a kid, you know, Chris was saying earlier that my wife, that was me, that that was not me, but I have felt that pain more than once. This is a kid in the floor of a supermarket. If you can see it in his left hand, you may or may not be able to see what's there, but arguably it's the greatest mass-produced store bought cookies of all time. The it's not a joke. The fudge striped cookies. We can all agree on that. Those are great. I love those. Alies has a, I always talk about food, don't I? Um, <laugh> Aldi's has a version of these fudge stripes cookies and they're great. And you know, I'll buy some groceries, put it in the trunk. And some, you know what happens sometimes the passenger seat, the cookies end up there.
Speaker 1 00:20:09 Yeah, <laugh> don't know how that happens. This is a miracle. Um, and some of them make it home alive and some of them don't <laugh>. But apparently this, uh, meltdown here, he's thinking in that carton. Maybe it's the mom and dad or somebody, grandma, grandpa who did not or did not want to buy them those cookies for him. But in that carton of goodness is happiness, isn't it? Yeah. Honestly, I feel like that sometimes. But let's be real teenagers, you little ones and adults, we, we've been there, right? You may not have laid on your back, but you've probably been there. Some type of tantrum, whatever, it's maybe it's control actually in your life. You want control of things and it comes out then as anger, these sinful choices, whatever, because if my family would only respect me, then I would be happy. It's another lie. I've been there.
Speaker 1 00:21:05 So for us to be happy in 2023, justifying sinful choices, whatever they are, is not something that will give you happiness. And don't, let's not friends assume that God's ultimate goal for us is to be happy in this life. Certainly happiness is beautiful. It's a design, it's a desire. It's in us. It's an innate thing we have. But every single time we choose sin to move towards happiness, we will be let down every single time. Now, there's a, there's a foundational lie that I want to put on the screen for you. And it says this, sinful actions can usually be traced to one foundational lie. That we will be happier if we do this thing or if we have this thing. You know, I was thinking about just even social media to some degree. If, uh, maybe some of us in 2023 need to cut down or cut back or maybe cut off social media.
Speaker 1 00:22:05 Why? Because it at times steals your joy. Why does it steal your joy? Because it brings anxiety. How does it bring anxiety? Because you and I compare ourselves. Comparison robs us all the time. And honestly, sometimes we don't know why we keep clicking and going through this social media. Oftentimes we want to, we're looking for happiness. We, we think we see it in the Joneses or the Smiths or whoever they are, but it's not there. We think if we have this or if we're like that. But also Adam and Eve, when you think about that in the garden, you know, what were they doing? They were not putting God at the center. They were not putting his commands at the center of their life. The sin that they pursued. What did it do? Brought death, destruction, brought them away from happiness. Bar, uh, banishment from the garden.
Speaker 1 00:22:55 It infiltrated all of us, all humanity seeking sin, no happiness is, is not found in sin ever. Wanna go to the fourth warning, and this is just the last warning and I'm just gonna lay this out here, all right? Not found in the prosperity gospel. Now some of you know what I'm talking about, but the reality is not everybody does. Just recently I had a conversation. Not everybody is familiar with that term or what it means. So I'm wanna throw it out there cuz uh, there's about a hundred things I wanna say about this false gospel. First, the way I feel about it when I was thinking about it this week is this false gospel talk about it in a minute, has ravaged and destroyed millions of souls across the globe in the recent decades. And I will say this word, and I'll choose my words very carefully.
Speaker 1 00:23:53 I hate with every fiber of my being the prosperity gospel. It is utterly evil in every way and completely contrary to the gospel. We know and love it promises happiness at every turn. It will promise you happiness. But believing in the prosperity gospel will not only send you to hell, it will do something else too. It'll actually ruin your happiness. Now it seems momentarily there's something there. Boy, those people, they look so good how they talk. They promise happiness. But at every turn your faith will be destroyed eventually. And I say that because I know that I've talked to too many people whose faith has been destroyed, families have been torn apart by following these false teachers. I don't know if I can be more clear or not happiness. No, not at all. Just a false theology and false gospel that promises nothing but the pastors getting filthy rich more and more.
Speaker 1 00:24:53 Don't buy their books, don't watch 'em on tv. Never. What? So what is the prosperity gospel? Just a little bit here again, in another warning, put a few things on the screen. And the prosperity Gospel uses God. In other words, God is not the authority, he is not God in his right place, he is being used. And certainly it's filled with greed. Everything from A to Z, not time for that now. But there's multiple heretical teachings, there's a lot here. And I'll list only a couple faith they use not in Jesus for salvation. Faith is used as a formula to manipulate God to get what you want. You've probably seen this over the, have something called positive confession, which is by speaking your words and believing your words to the right amount, you can create a new reality. Your new reality. Wait, that sounds like God, that's not us.
Speaker 1 00:25:47 They focus of course on health and wealth. That's why sometimes it's called the health and wealth gospel. You've probably heard that before. Those are the main two tenets of their faith. And they teach literally. This must be a shock to some of you. I don't know if you've dug into this very deep, the theology of the prosperity gospel and the word of faith movement, but they, they teach that you are a God. I don't know if you know that. Not made in God's image, you are a God. That's what, that's why through positive confession, they say you can create a new reality if you have the right faith. And what's missing, what's missing here in the next uh, slide I think we have it is sin. They don't talk about sin. They're talking about need for redemption. And they don't put Jesus as who he rightly is, the godman who has come to save you.
Speaker 1 00:26:34 It's missing every time. Why? Because it just doesn't fit their narrative. It doesn't grease their pockets with money. So one of the things that you will find if friends or if you're ever tempted to move this way, is they will tell you this, that if you just have more faith, you won't be sick. You won't have that disease if you, again, false, right, false teaching. If you just have enough faith and pray the right way and give more money to their church, you'll never struggle financially again. As a matter of fact, you'll be wealthy and then when it doesn't happen, they blame you and your faith. This is what Rex people over and over again, no, not even the prosperity gospel can give you happiness. Let me talk about the real gospel, the gospel of Jesus Christ. You know, Paul will put a few on the screen here with some of these references that you're familiar with.
Speaker 1 00:27:31 Uh, if you've spent a little time in Bible study, you know some of these references up here. But just in a short way, very short description. When you look at Paul's theology, you'll see the gospel is the atoning of the talk about that word a little bit. The gospel is the atoning, death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. And atoning simply means a substitutionary sacrifice that Jesus died in my place. This is the substitution substitutionary sacrifice that satisfied God's demand against sin. That the penalty must be paid. Jesus took it and atoning death, a substitutionary sacrifice that satisfied God's wrath against sin. But God in his great love sent Jesus to take that hit, not you and me. Isn't that amazing? That Christ took the penalty? This is the gospel. You'll never find that anywhere else, anywhere else, any philosophies, any religion, any ideology. We'll never talk about this.
Speaker 1 00:28:28 It's only this gospel then that can give us eternal happiness. And when I say eternal happiness, I'm not talking about just eternal happiness in heaven. I'm talking about when we are saved by the blood of Jesus Christ and have come to him for forgiveness in that moment we're saved. Our eternity begins with him. So this matters, this gospel matters even now. It matters right now in our daily lives. No matter how hard your day is today, know that he loves you this much, this gospel, much God's ways are higher, they're different actually. And they're not fleeting than man. As a matter of fact, Isaiah way back in the Old Testament said this, for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways, says the Lord higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. So that takes me to my last main point from the wanting of happiness to the warnings of happiness, to the way of happiness.
Speaker 1 00:29:29 Now before I get into the details of the the way to happiness, there's just a couple words that pop out for me first, and it's this word trouble. <laugh>. We talk about the way of happiness. I wanna talk about trouble for a minute. Why? Because Jesus said in John 1633, in this world you will have, remember this trouble. In this world you will have trouble. Whoa, sounds like a promise. It is. But then he says right after that, but take heart. In other words, be encouraged. I have overcome the world. Thank you Jesus. That is so true. But that doesn't change the fact that there's trouble. There's trouble in this world. Second is there's this paradox in the New Testament we hear about and this contradiction it seems because in the New Testament, Jesus says, he says that to deny yourself. And then he says to take up your cross, follow him.
Speaker 1 00:30:15 And then later on in the apostle Paul says, consider yourself dead to sin. So the question is, God, how can I be happy if there's gonna be trouble and that's promised, and how can I be happy then if it seems like I need to choose the opposite thing of what I want? Doesn't seem to make sense. It sounds like a paradox to me. But remember Jesus also said this and John 14, verse six, he said, I am the way, the truth and the life. Certainly he's talking about eternal life. The way to eternal life with God is through Jesus the way. But really this encompasses our very experience even today in everything we go through. I have to define this maybe better by understanding that we live in a dual existence. You've seen this before. You've heard this before. Maybe yes, we're, we're Christians, we're citizens of the kingdom of God.
Speaker 1 00:31:11 But right now, number one, we are in this world. We are just in this world. And this is a hostile world. It's a painful world. And we've been told that we will have trouble. So your existence is a dual existence. You are in the world. But second you are. The Bible says this, a lot of times you are in Christ, meaning that's your other existence, which is just as real, actually more real for you believers because Jesus has overcome. He says. And also he gives you power and strength. I wanna talk about the power and strength, dual existence. We are in this world of pain, but we are also in Christ and through and in Christ. He has overcome, we can overcome. But also the power and strength he gives us is so beautiful. And yes, even power to move towards this. Can I say it? Happiness? Absolutely. So now let's go back to the main passage. This is where we were earlier, Philippians four. And he's talking about being content again. Remember about being content, this happiness word, even in all these circumstances that were low, he had many, many of them. But he learned over time, and here's this word secret,
Speaker 1 00:32:28 He gained through experience, not just experiences, but the apostle Paul was taught by Jesus also. Now he has something he wants to share. It's a secret, not a secret that he's gonna keep hidden forever. No something that's special knowledge. He wants to make sure we know that in verse 13 it says, I can do all things through Wait, all things you mean even be content. Through all of these circumstances, I can do all things through him who strengthens me. The secret here is this, the supernatural divine strength that comes from Jesus Christ. Paul had it. Did he manufacture it? Was it because of his goodness? How about all of the rabbinic teaching He had any of that? No, not any of it. The divine strength, the through him that strengthens me, he's talking about to be content came, he learned over experience and time that only that power comes from Christ.
Speaker 1 00:33:25 Only from Christ. And that's so good. That's such good news because the Christian life friends is impossible. It's just not possible to, to find happiness, resemblance of peace or joy unless, unless we look to the divine supernatural strength of Jesus Christ. Not you manufacturing, but rely and depend and accept and believe in the divine strength of Jesus Christ to get you through. No matter what. If you've been there, you know exactly what I'm talking about. It's only in those times when you rely on him. That is the secret Paul's trying to tell us He doesn't manufacture. It wasn't because he gave more money, none of that made him happy. He was relying on Christ's strength. And so when that day comes, and if it hasn't yet, the day will come where you'll say something like, God, I can't, or God, why I hate this. I've had it. Some of you've been there, remember this verse 13, I can do all things through him who strengthen me, strengthens me. And that's the way to happiness in 2023.
Speaker 1 00:34:33 He loves you that much. He'll meet you even in your time of despair and your time of trouble. He will meet you. And that's the secret Paul's talking about. So as I conclude here, um, remember this, that the experiences matter. It helped form the experiences and through the ups and downs and the teaching of the Lord to Paul so that he formed this secret that he could give us and he could share. And also remember that being made in the image of Christ means that by design it's okay to pursue happiness. It really is Christians, it really is. But also being made in the image of God means that our greatest and ultimate happiness will come as we lean into him in intimacy and in worship, worshiping the Lord. And that's by design. So if I had to land on one main theme or idea today, a big idea, I would say real happiness requires strength that only Christ can give anywhere else.
Speaker 1 00:35:36 And anything else will fail you eventually. So just be careful, be careful where you go. So let's create experiences in 2023 for you and me. Let's, let's be careful to move towards God. Let's be careful to fully depend on the power of God. And so what are some things maybe we can do? And I'll put a few. So what's up there? First of all, believe that God has not abandoned you. He has not abandoned you. He's not done with you. If you have trusted in Jesus for salvation, then what he's doing is that word sanctification or he sanctify you. The power of the Holy Spirit in you is conforming you more and making you more into the image of His son. So even when it's hard, there's something coming out of it that God is doing in your life. No, he has not abandoned you.
Speaker 1 00:36:22 Second, depend on Jesus' power to get you through everything, really get you through everything. And not choosing sin and not believing in these false ideologies. All of these philosophies, all of these other religions, everything else will always let you down and take you further away from God. Instead, depend, it's a choice in the heart. Every time. Depend on Christ this 2023. And third is create experiences. And what I mean by that is you can do things, create experiences with God and with others through what is so important, these spiritual disciplines, oh, I'll never devalue them. Study the word of God. Know the word of God's scriptures, read it every day. Because when our happiness is based on something that cannot be ripped away, cannot fail, you cannot be taken away reading the word of God, prayer and intimate time with him. How about worship together or worship privately? How about serving? We're gonna talk about it a little that a little bit in the next few weeks about serving opportunities. Because remember, the universe doesn't revolve around me. And the universe doesn't revolve around you, revolves around our Lord God who is glorious. And we're to step out and serve others, serving others in time of fellowship. Friends, God loves you. And once we get these things down, we have a road. We have a road to happiness in 2023.
Speaker 1 00:37:55 So as we move to a time of communion, we celebrate communion because of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the gospel of Jesus Christ. I just wanna be clear again is not just about our salvation, it's about the living now. And when we get those two things right, it changes everything. And so we're gonna celebrate communion, not just for the fact that he has saved us by dying on the cross, being buried, raising again the third day and by trusting in him and him alone for salvation will we be saved? But it actually changes our attitudes and our heart affections. So even when we're going through hard times, we can see that there is time and room. Maybe not perfectly, maybe not every moment, but we can praise the Lord because of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so we'll be taking communion and celebrating that with the bread and with the cup.
Speaker 1 00:38:47 And if you don't have the bread, uh, if you don't have the uh cup yet that has the wafer, you can go during our song. You can get up where you are if you're a follower of Jesus Christ, right back behind those double doors is the cup and over, uh, to that column, to my right and that column to my left. And so if you haven't said yes to Jesus yet, if you're not sure about Christianity and who Jesus is, come up and talk to me afterwards. Instead of taking communion now or, or perhaps at this moment, if you know that the Holy Spirit is tugging on your heart or maybe you're watching from home and Jesus is tugging on your heart and you know that you're a sinner before a holy God, trust in him right now. There's not a fancy faith formula I can tell you or I would, but it's trust in him solely.
Speaker 1 00:39:36 Tell him you're sorry for what you have done. Come to him in faith because he is God and man, he can pay for your sins and he has just received that gift. Believe in him and you will be saved. The Bible says do that today and you can take community with us also. Let's take a moment like we often do. Just a moment of silence right where you are, thanking God for what he has done through Jesus Christ while you look forward to this new year and confessing sin that's in your heart. Let's do that now.
