CHOOSING THE CONTENTMENT OF A CANINE
(All my sermons use illustration found at www.sermoncentral.com and all scripture is NIV unless otherwise stated.)
The introduction for this sermon is from Max Lucado’s “Everyday Deserves a Chance” pg. 23-24
“Excerpts from the diary of a dog:
8:00 am Oh boy, dog food - my favorite.
9:30 am Oh boy, a car ride - my favorite.
9:40 am Oh boy, a walk - my favorite.
10:30 am Oh boy, another car ride - my favorite.
11:30 am Oh boy, more dog food - my favorite.
12:00 pm Oh boy, the kids - my favorite.
1:00 pm Oh boy, the yard - my favorite.
4:00 pm Oh boy, the kids again - my favorite.
5:00 pm Oh boy, dog food again - my favorite.
5:30 pm Oh boy, Mom - my favorite.
6:00 pm Oh boy, playing ball - my favorite.
8:30 pm Oh boy, sleeping in my master’s bed - my favorite.
Excerpts from the diary of a cat:
Day 283 of my captivity. My captors continue to taunt me with bizarre little dangling objects. They dine lavishly on fresh meat while I am forced to eat dry cereal. I’m sustained by the hope of escape and the mild satisfaction I derive from ruining a few pieces of furniture. Tomorrow, I may eat another house plant. I attempted to kill my captors this morning by weaving through their walking feet. Nearly succeeded. Must try this strategy at the top of the stairs. Seeking to disgust and repulse these vile oppressors, I once again induced myself to vomit on their favorite chair. Must try this on their bed. To display my diabolical disposition, I decapitated a mouse and deposited the headless body on their kitchen floor. They only cooed and condescended, patting my head and calling me a “strong little kitty.” Hmm - not working according to plan. During a gathering of their accomplices, they placed me in solitary confinement. I overheard that my confinement was due to my power of allergies. Must learn what this means and how to use it to my advantage.
I am convinced the other household captives are flunkies, perhaps even snitches. The dog is routinely released and seems naively happy to return. He is, no doubt, a half-wit. The bird speaks with the humans regularly. Must be an informant. I am certain he reports my every move. Due to his current placement in the metal cage, his safety is assured, but I can’t wait. It is only a matter of time.
What would your dairy read like? Are you a person that finds the joy in life, or one that spies out the obstacles that could create problems, even before they become problems? What would the Apostle Paul think of the way you act and react toward life? If you have your Bible with you this morning, please turn with me to:
Phil 4:4-5 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.
PRAYER
You know the first thing we must accept this morning is simply this,
I. THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN JOY & HAPPINESS
So many times we think that joy and happiness are the same thing, but let us remember that happiness depends on the environment and people that surround us. We need to take into account that in order to be happy, we must be pleased with the conditions and people around us. Joy is different. So many people are surrounded by negative things and may not have much to be happy about, however, these same people may have a great deal of JOY and be able to rejoice in the midst of trying circumstances.
Max Lucado tells this story: “I have everything I need for joy!” Robert Reed said.
His hands are twisted and his feet are useless. He can’t bathe himself. He can’t feed himself. He can’t brush his teeth, comb his hair, or put on his underwear. Strips of Velcro hold his shirts together. His speech drags like a worn out audiocassette.
Robert has cerebral palsy.
The disease keeps him from driving a car, riding a bike, and going for a walk. But it didn’t keep him from graduating from high school or attending Abilene Christian University, from which he graduate with a degree in Latin. Having cerebral palsy didn’t keep him from teaching at St. Louis Junior College or from venturing overseas on five mission trips.
And Robert’s disease didn’t prevent him from becoming a missionary in Portugal.
He moved to Lisbon, alone, in 1972. There he rented a hotel room and began studying Portuguese. He found a restaurant owner who would feed him after the rush hour and a tutor who would instruct him in the language.
Then he stationed himself daily in a park, where he distributed brochures about Christ. Within six years he led seventy people to the Lord, one of whom became his wife, Rosa.
I heard Robert speak recently. I watched other men carry him in his wheelchair onto the platform. I watched them lay a Bible in his lap. I watched his stiff fingers force open the pages. And I watched people in the audience wipe away tears of admiration from their faces. Robert could have asked for sympathy or pity, but he did just the opposite. He held his bent hand up in the air and boasted, “I have everything I need for joy.” His shirts are held together by Velcro, but his life is held together by joy.
Joy is a gift, it is spiritual fruit. It allows us to take what we have and find abundant life. Remember that the fruit of JOY is mentioned as the second spiritual fruit in EPH 5, after Love. Joy is a gift because it is the ability to have the proper perspective even in the midst of trials and fear and persecution. And truly in order to display the fruit of JOY, one must simply have the proper perspective.
Typical of last minute Christmas shoppers, a mother was running furiously from store to store. Suddenly she became aware that the pudgy little hand of her three year old son was no longer clutched in hers. In a panic she retraced her steps and found him standing with his little nose pressed flatly against a frosty window. He was gazing at a manger scene. Hearing his mother’s near hysterical call, he turned and shouted with innocent glee: "look mommy! it’s Jesus - baby Jesus in the hay". With obvious indifference to his joy and wonder, she impatiently jerked him away saying, "we don’t have time for that!"
The second thing we must see in the passage we are looking at this morning is that Paul tells us to:
II. REJOICE ALWAYS
Not just when things are going the way we want, but ALWAYS. This is easier to do when we have the proper perspective. The scripture tells us to “Consider it pure JOY whenever we face trials, but it goes on to explain that the trials develop our endurance and the endurance makes us more mature. Now I am just as human as you are, and we have talked about this scripture before, it is easier to say than to do, but I believe that is because we don’t have the right perspective about being content in ALL circumstances. We should rejoice in trials only because it a necessary part of growth and because it is essential in making us stronger.
When I was much younger I was quite an athlete, I played soccer, ran cross country and wrestled. All three sports required a great deal of physical conditioning, they required me to push my body beyond a comfort zone and make it do things that I could never do today. All of us have heard coaches tell their athletes “No pain, No gain” and I must say the same thing applies to spiritual growth as well. Without pain and discomfort there will be little to no growth.
There was a woman who was going through some very difficult and trying circumstances. She was experiencing major distress in her marriage, her job was very unfulfilling and was causing her heartache. She became so distraught over her circumstances that she felt like just giving up. She felt lonely, dejected and very isolated. She had tried everything she could to better herself, her marriage, things at work but it seemed everything turned out horrible for her. Finally she came to the point of exhaustion and felt there was no way out of her terrible circumstances and there would never be any more joy in her life.
One day she was sitting in her kitchen very frustrated and lonely. She sat there for a long time and just wept. Then she noticed a small sparrow had somehow gotten into her kitchen, so she opened the door thinking the sparrow would simply fly out the door. To her surprise the sparrow kept flying into the closed window that was just above the door. This distraught woman noticed several times that the sparrow would fly directly into the top of the window thinking it was an opening to freedom and each time colliding into glass of the window. This small sparrow after each time hitting the window would become weaker and weaker. The woman also noticed the sparrow hitting the window lower and lower each time he flew into the window until he got so weak that he couldn’t even fly, all he could to was walk. Then she noticed this little sparrow very slowly, simply walked through the door to freedom. As she observed this little bird walk through the door, the sparrow began to regain his strength and he flew off into the air free again.
It was as though God literally opened her spiritual eyes. She realized in just about every area of her life she was behaving just like this sparrow. She was trying in her own way to get out of the confining situations she was in, each time being knocked down in defeat. In reacting harshly to her family members - knocked down! Not giving her best at work - knocked down! Paying back evil for evil done to her - knocked down! Saying and doing things she knew were wrong - knocked down!
She finally realized that all she had to do was do just like this sparrow - to very humbly walk in the power of God’s grace and mercy and allow Him to work out all her heartaches and difficulties.
We must walk in the grace provided by our Lord and stretch ourselves beyond the momentary pain to make gains in eternity. But we also feel like quitting when it comes to persecution. Standing firm on God’s Word will bring those that will attack us because of our faith. The Bible is clear on this issue as well. In the Gospel of Luke we read:
Luke 6:22-23 Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man. 23 "Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their fathers treated the prophets.
Rejoice when men hate us for our strong belief in the faith we have? YES! God tells us that we should find contentment when we get abuse for standing firm in His Word. We should know that our reward in heaven is great because we will not be moved, we will not be swayed when we stand for the truth. I can not begin to count the times that I have felt less then joyful because someone is upset at me for preaching the truth. I have been accused of giving messages that target and single out certain people. I have been accused of wanting my way and having no compassion for the desires of others. I have been accused of being selfish and self-centered when I preach the need to save lost souls rather then concentrate on keeping the saved comfortable. BUT, God says REJOICE when men hate you if you are standing for WHAT I SAY.
I have been accused of being a male chauvinist, of not loving older people and of not caring about younger people. I have been ridiculed for spending too much time worrying about the needs of the lost and not enough time worrying about the comfort of the saved. I have been accused of thinking that God might baptize someone at every service as if that was a bad thing. I have been told that I am unrealistic, when my God says that ALL things are possible. REJOICE when you are ridiculed, even hated by men, IF YOU STAND FOR GOD, no one can stand against you. AMEN?
Rejoice in trails and rejoice in persecution and ALWAYS includes rejoice in FEAR:
Think how they felt on the day they went to the tomb, they found it empty, but that must have brought a certain amount of worry and fear.
Matt 28:8-10 So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. 9 Suddenly Jesus met them. "Greetings," he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me."
Jesus told them, Do not be afraid, and it says they were full of joy and yet afraid. I have been scared to death and found joy at the same time. It truly is a matter of perspective. It is a matter of finding our faith and KNOWING what we can not see will happen, being certain of what we hope for, because we know we serve and follow a God who is all powerful and He loves us.
Let me tell you about Tess. Tess was a precocious eight-year-old little girl. One day she heard her mom and dad talking in a serious and somber tone about her little brother, Andrew. Tess didn’t understand everything that they were saying, but she got the gist: Her little brother, Andrew, was very, very sick… and they were completely out of money. They would have to move out of their house and move into a small apartment because Mom and Dad didn’t have enough money for the doctor bills and the house payment. On top of that, only a very expensive surgery could save Andrew now… and they could not find anyone to lend them the money. Just then, Tess heard her dad say to her tearful mother in whispered desperation, “Only a miracle can save Andrew now.”
Tess ran to her room, pulled out a glass jelly jar from its hiding place in her closet. She poured out all the change on the floor and counted it carefully. She then put the change back in the jar, put the jar under her arm, slipped out the back door and ran down to the Rexall Drug Store six blocks away. The pharmacist was talking to a man intently and at first he didn’t notice Tess standing there. She waited patiently for a while and then dramatically cleared her throat, but still, no luck – the pharmacist did not see her. Finally, Tess got his attention by taking a quarter out of her jelly jar and tapping it on the glass counter. That did it. The pharmacist noticed her and said, “Just a minute. I’m talking to my brother from Chicago whom I haven’t seen for ages.”
“Well,” said Tess, “I want to talk to you about my brother. He’s really, really sick – and I want to buy a miracle. His name is Andrew and he has something growing inside his head and my daddy says only a miracle can save him now. So… how much does a miracle cost? I have the money here to pay for it. It’s all that I have saved. If it isn’t enough, I will get the rest. Just tell me how much a miracle costs.”
The pharmacist’s brother was a well-dressed man. He stooped down and asked Tess, “What kind of miracle does your brother need?”
“I don’t know,” Tess replied, with her eyes welling up. “I just know he’s really sick and Mommy says he needs an operation. But my parents can’t pay for it, so I want to use my money.”
“How much do you have?” asked the man from Chicago.
“One dollar and eleven cents!” Tess said proudly. “It’s all the money I have in the world, but I can get some more if I need to.”
“Well, you are in luck,” the man said with a smile. “One dollar and eleven cents is the exact price of a miracle for little brothers.”
He took the money in one hand and with the other he took hold of her mitten and said, “Take me to where you live. I want to see your brother and meet your parents. Let’s see if I have the kind of miracle you need.”
That well-dressed man from Chicago was Dr. Carlton Armstrong who just happened to be a noted neurosurgeon. The operation was successfully completed without charge… and it wasn’t long until Andrew was home again and doing well. Tess’ mom and dad were so grateful. They were talking one night about the chain of events that had saved Andrew’s life. “That surgery,” her mom said, “was a real miracle.” And then she said, “I just wonder how much it would have cost.”
Tess smiled. She knew exactly how much a miracle cost… one dollar and eleven cents… plus, the skill and graciousness of a great doctor… and of course, the gracious, sacrificial love of an eight-year-old big sister!
Someone might say, “Well, it was only one dollar and eleven cents”… but, it was all she had! She gave all she had to save her little brother… and that’s an extravagant gift!
Isn’t that a great story? It’s powerful because it reminds us in a dramatic way that the spirit of Christ can empower and enable us… to be extravagant in our generosity, to be extravagant in our gratitude, and to be extravagant in our graciousness.
We have seen the difference between Joy and Happiness this morning, we have seen that we have reason to REJOICE ALWAYS and the reason is simply this:
The Lord is Near. Verse 5 from our text this morning says: Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. He is near, He is with us here this morning and He is with you in the middle of the storm. An All knowing powerful God who loves you and I and He has told us this:
Matt 28:20 And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
God is with us ALWAYS, in the trials, in the persecution and in the fear. He is with us in good times and in bad. His promise even in the Old Testament was that He would never leave us nor forsake us. He is not a God who wants us to suffer without offering us a way out. Even in temptation God shows his faithfulness to us
1 Cor 10:13 No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.
God is there, BUT the key to finding contentment is drawing NEAR to him. I love the little story of a Dad who sees the tornado coming, and he rushes the wife and kids to a corner and places them under a mattress and then goes to observe the tornado and see if it will do some damage to him and his family, and the little boy squirms away from om and goes to his Dad and attaches himself to Daddy’s leg. He tells years later that he just felt the safest place was near his Dad. Folks the safest place for us is NEAR the Father.
James 4:8 Come near to God and he will come near to you.
Have you come near to God? Are you here and you know that the reason there is no Joy in your life is because you are miles from the one that can provide Joy and peace? As we offer an invitation this morning, won’t you draw near to the Father by committing to the Son?
INVITATION
