Sermon Tone Analysis

Most people don’t enjoy life, they endure it.

Happiness comes from happenstance.

This is where we get the word circumstance.

Happiness depends on external circumstances while Joy comes from within.

Too many people think life is supposed to be problem free… If I could just get rid of ....

There is no such thing as a problem free life, so if you are going to learn to be joyful, you have to learn to do that in the middle of the situations and problems of life.

Joke: A lady standing at the door of her home talking to a census taker who’s standing there with a clipboard.

She’s got curlers in her hair, she’s got a crying baby in her arms, the dog’s barking, she’s got two fighting preschoolers at her feet, she’s hopelessly fatigued, all worn out and the census taker says, “What do you mean you’re undecided?

All I asked was, Do you live here?”

We’ve all felt that way… right?

Many are unhappy because of when and then thinking.

When I get all my problems solved, then I’ll be happy.

When I get married, then I’ll be happy.

When we have kids, then I’ll be happy.

When the kids leave home, then I’ll be happy.

We’re always looking for that magical change.

If I can change my situation then everything will just be great.

If your life has to be problem free before you can be happy, you’re never going to be happy.

Life is a series or problems.

You are either in one, coming out of one or going into one.

Jesus said that in this world we will have problems.

We have to learn to be happy in the middle of grief, stress, pressure, all kinds of problems.

God wants you to enjoy life to it’s full, not jus to endure it.

Circle whatever happens.

Whatever happens… rejoice.

Paul did not write Philippians from a resort.

He wrote it in prison.

Paul for the last four years has been miserable in circumstances.

He's spent two years in prison in Caesarea for a trumped up charge.

Then he's put on a ship to go to Rome to appear before Nero who is not known for his niceties towards Christians.

On the way he's shipwrecked, stranded on an island, bitten by a poisonous snake, waits out the winter there, continues on to Rome, spends another two years in prison awaiting trial to be executed.

During this two year period in Rome he is chained to a guard for 24 hours a day.

He has absolutely no privacy.

Every four hours he gets a new guard.

And on top of that, Some were preaching and kind of putting Paul down, but here was his response to that.

What was Paul’s secret?

He tells us…

Four Essentials for Joyful Living

1.

If I am going to be joyful no matter what, I need a new perspective to live by.

Joyful people have a big perspective… they see the big picture.

We get frustrated because we see only a small piece of what God sees.

He sees it ALL.

You don’t know what will happen tomorrow, but God does.

We have to look at life with a big perspective.

All of us have problems, but the way we look at those problems is more important than the problems themselves.

Perspective makes a difference… Paul understood this.

More than anything else, Paul wanted people to know Jesus.

He wanted them to know that God loved them… that they mattered to Jesus.

So his idea was, I’ll go to Rome, which was the capital of the Empire at that time, and I’ll preach in the coliseum.

That was his idea to spread the news.

But God had another idea.

God said, You’re going to go to Rome all right but you’re going to go as a prisoner, a royal prisoner of Nero.

He was one of the worst Caesars of all times.

Paul is put in prison and chained twenty-four hours a day to a palace guard.

These are the elite crack troops, hand picked by Caesar himself.

They were his closest buddies and friends.

So, How in the world did the gospel spread that way?

Because Paul was chained to some of the most prominent influential people in Nero’s government.

In two years at four-hour shifts, Paul had witnessed to 4,380 guards.

These guards had an inside route to the emperor and as a result even some of Nero's family became believers.

History tells us that Nero had his wife, mother and children killed because they became believers.

That’s what I call a chain reaction!

Paul saw his problems as a way to encourage others.

Paul’s attitude was an encouragement to Christians everywhere.

Courage is contagious.

People became bold following Paul’s example.

Not only that, but God used prison to slow Paul downs enough to write the New Testament books he wrote.

I am not sure they would have been written if he hadn’t been in prison.

Jail look pretty bad, but God used it to give us the NT.

Everything is not good, but God will bring good out of bad.

It’s not good when someone gets sick… it’s not good when a child is hurt or abused.

It’s not good when someone is hit by a drunk driver.

God is not the author of evil.

God does not cause evil in the world.

Don’t blame him for tragedy.

Not everything is good, but God can bring good out of evil.

Key: God has a purpose behind every one of my problems.

Kathy loves to bake...

One day Kathy made a wonderful Red Velvet Cake.

It has all kind of ingredients in it.

Have you ever eaten a spoonful of Crisco?

Have you ever eaten a spoonful of flour?

Raw flour is pretty dry and tasteless.

Have you ever eaten a spoonful of sugar?

These aren’t too good individually, but working together it’s called a cake.

They work together.

Individually there are some things in your life that are very distasteful.

But when God puts them all together He bakes a cake.

And He does something good in your life that you could have never imagined.

Let me also say, this promise is not for everyone.

It’s for Believers.

If you are thumbing your nose at God saying I’m going to live my life the way I want to… things are not going to work out for your good.

This promise is for followers of Jesus.

Perspective produces hope and hope produces joy.

When you realize that God is working through your problems even when you can’t see it, even when there isn’t an explanation you have a hope and you can be joyful even in the problem because you know it’s not the end of the story.

We need to always ask God to help us see life from His viewpoint.

2. If I am going to be joyful no matter what, I need a priority to live by.

Our lives will always be guided by either priorities or pressures.

If you don’t decide what in life is important to you, others will.

You have to decide for yourself what’s important in life and go for it.