Life Is Beautiful

INTRODUCTION

SLIDE #1

How many times do we let things cause us to focus in on the difficult times of life?

We see war, murder, theft, and other bad things along with job uncertainties, families falling apart among other things.

There is so much going on around us that is ugly it can be hard at times to remember that life is beautiful.

We can look around us and see beauty; I wake up each day and see beauty when I look at my wife.

We see beauty in nature. If you have never been to Yellowstone National Park, you will see some things that will just put in you a state of awe.

I see beauty in my daughters and in my grandchildren.

There are times that the world so beats us down that we fail to see the beauty of life.

Life becomes a chore instead of a pleasure.

I know it can be hard to realize that at times, but we need to always remember that life is beautiful.

Life is too short to let everything ruin our lives; life is too short to allow circumstances and people to make us see life in a bad light.

As Christians, it is of the utmost importance for others to see that we enjoy life.

We will never win people to a Jesus who makes our lives sad and miserable.

Today, I want us to focus in on the forth chapter of the book of Philippians. We are going to look at verses 4-9 together as we look at how we can see life as being beautiful.

Putting these four principles in our lives can make us see life as we never have before.

SLIDE #2

The first thing we see is that life is beautiful when we can rejoice in the Lord always!

SERMON

Life is beautiful when we can:

I. REJOICE IN THE LORD ALWAYS. (V4-5)

Let us look at verses 4-5 now to see what God is telling us.

SLIDE #3

Philippians 4:4 - 5 (NASB) 4Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! 5Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near.

This can be difficult to do because we are told to rejoice in the LORD ALWAYS!

Paul is in prison when he writes this.

Our outward circumstances do NOT have to control our inner joy.

Paul was full of joy because he knew that no matter what happened to him, Jesus Christ was with him.

Paul faced false teachers, severe people problems, and threat of death, yet several times in this letter, he urged the Philippians to be joyful, probably because they needed to hear this.

When you start to find yourself being about to have joy in your heart when the outward circumstances would tell you not to, you are starting to see that life is beautiful!

You know you serve a BIG God. In our bible study lesson Wednesday, the writer of the bible study pointed something out that was interesting concerning the story of David and Goliath.

When Goliath was challenging the nation to send out a warrior to settle the fight man to man, the nation saw a how big Goliath was and thought they served a small God.

David by comparison saw how Big God was and Goliath looked small in comparison.

When you serve a BIG God, your problems are not so terrible because you know God is bigger and He can help you.

Paul did not call believers to an empty, put-on show of happiness, for Christians should not be insensitive to the sorrow of others; he called for genuine joy, which is possible only ¡§in the Lord.¡¨ It is only through a believer¡¦s relationship with God that he or she finds joy in pain, suffering, persecution, and sorrow. (Life Application Bible)

Joy is not always visible, but our gentle spirit will become evident as we deal with people.

We are motivated to joy and gentleness by remembering that their Lord is near. This ¡§nearness¡¨ refers not to his presence in their hearts, but rather to the nearness of the Second Coming.

The promise of the second coming motivates us to act as though we know He is going to return.

SLIDE #4

The second thing we can do in order to see that life is beautiful is to control our anxieties.

Life is beautiful when we can:

II. CONTROL OUR ANXIETIES. (V6-7)

This is something that is VERY hard for some people. I know people who get anxious over EVERYTHING even down to what they are going to wear the next day.

Let us see what verses 6-7 tell us.

SLIDE #5

Philippians 4:6 - 7 (NASB) 6Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.