“Let’s start a Movement!”
Philippians 1: 9-19
For those of us who really enjoy reading your probably will aware that there is a book out there on every topic you can imagine. Many offer self-help; advice on how to change your life for how to achieve a particular goal. If you want to be wealthy the book think and grow Rich by Napoleon Hill has been read by over 100 million people. A lot of people apparently want to be rich. If you need friends and want to make a greater influence on others there is the book how to Win friends and influence people by Dale Carnegie and it has sold 15 million copies. All of us want more friends. But here’s one you may not have thought of... If you want to learn to be truly happy then read the book of Philippians written by the apostle Paul.
Napoleon Hill became a millionaire, was a great success story and taught 13 principles on how to become wealthy. He went from having nothing to becoming quite wealthy so I suppose if that is your goal in life, he would be someone you would want to listen to. I mean if someone became a millionaire because their daddy gave them $1 million they don’t have much to teach me. I want to learn from someone who is actually done it. Even though the odds were completely against them.
So if I want to learn to be truly happy, I want to learn from someone who didn’t have everything just handed to them, I want to learn from someone who is had some struggles, that life wasn’t always easy for and somehow they overcame all of. So I choose to learn from the apostle Paul. This is what his resume looked like...
• Beaten with rods three times
• shipwrecked three times
• often without food
• beaten, received 39 lashes five different times
Placed in prison at least four times. Probably would never have found a church in our day that would’ve hired him yet Paul said these things….
• Rejoice in the Lord always
• I can do all things through Christ
• In Acts 16 Paul was imprisoned-the jailer went to his cell see what all the noise was about it he and Silas were singing songs of praise to help the other prisoners.
For Paul, happiness was never based on his circumstances. For most of us it is... If we can just overcome this or we can just deal with that one family member... You know who I mean-everybody has one-then everything will be fine. Paul had the ability to know happiness regardless of his circumstances. And here is why. Paul had focus and he knew how to focus on the things that really matter in life. Listen to what Paul says in Philippians 1:9-19.
So we’re talking about pursuing happiness and we are traveling together down this road; this path called life and as we travel down this path is always our desire that this path is going to take us to our destination which is to be happy. But on that journey it is not unusual at all to hit some bumps in the road, to get sidetracked. And when those problems step in and they may come in the form of him bump in the road, a pothole, a flat tire or even a complete breakdown. It is at that point that we must make some important decisions. And we have to ask questions like, is it worth it for me to continue on this path? And I thought it was. It looked like he was going to get me to my destination but now look what has happened. Maybe it’s best for me to just turn around and go in a different direction. A different path. So what happens to so many of us, so many times is that even though we are on the correct path when roadblocks get in the way, too often we come to one of two conclusions...
1. Life is not supposed to be this difficult. So I must be on the wrong path. So we get off the path and we turn in another direction.
2. Overcoming the roadblock just doesn’t seem to be worth it. It takes too much time and energy so we don’t run but we just decide to drop out for a while—kind of sit on the side of the road and try to forget about it. Or sit there and wait until someone comes along and says, hey you need to move
So Paul has some good advice for us when we are stuck in this area and here it is. Look at verse 10. So here’s my paraphrase of that passage.
(1) Grow up and realize what really matters in life. Focus. Narrow down the number of things you are trying to do and begin to prioritize what really matters. Most of us are pulled in too many directions by too many people and let’s face it—not all of these people have our best interests at heart. Other people cannot usually determined for you what ought to really matter in your life. If you’re like most people, you allow your agenda to become too large... Too many items on your to do list. As odd as this might sound, you may need to develop a “don’t do” list. And this is why-what you choose not to do is often more important than what you choose to do.
What is important is learning to focus on what really matters. In chapter 3, Paul will remind us of this again by saying this one thing I do. What is the one thing you desire to do more than anything and once you find it eliminate the other things and get to work doing that one thing. Focus on what really matters.
(2) Realize that trials are actually necessary for growth. What most of us want is a problem free life and we think that is what will create happiness for us. The guess what. In Angola happen. And even if it did, you wouldn’t produce the result you think that it would. Trials are a necessary component to finding happiness. Because trials produce growth. James said the testing of our faith makes us mature and we then become complete as people. As strange as it may seem, have everything in life when our way, we would become lazy, nothing would challenge us and we would never learn the joy of being an overcome her. Trials are necessary. They help us move forward.
Edison attempted 10,000 different times before he created a lightbulb. He said I didn’t fail 10,000 times—I just learned 10,000 things that don’t work. Recognize that your trials and mistakes are necessary. They are a part of the path to real happiness.
(3) Realize that confidence in life often comes from strange places. So does happiness. Paul mentions three things here that he found happiness and all three of them are unexpected.
• His imprisonment. Verses 13-14. Paul’s imprisonment actually made his friends more confident in the faith. He said it caused them to speak out with the message of Christ and to do so without being afraid. Your example of how you handle hardship can build confidence in the lives of other people and can actually help further the gospel message.
• Rivalry. Competition. Versus 17-18. People sought to hurt Paul and how does he respond? He’s happy. He rejoices because what is happening here is all for the greater good. Paul’s main focus is to spread the gospel and without knowing it is enemies are actually helping him accomplish that. Let me tell you. Your enemies, your competition, whatever—they will not know how to handle this kind of attitude.
Solomon said, if your enemy is hurting; if your enemy need something, then do something good for him and by doing so you will keep burning coals on his head. Gotcha. When you do something kind for someone who does not deserve it, it shames them basically so kill them with kindness-it brings great reward.
• Wrong motives from others. Verse 18. God has an amazing way of taking things that others do to work against us and turning around and do something good. Romans says all things work together for good to those who love the Lord. All things.
Paul reminds us that these wrong motives, your rivals, your enemies and even these chains that a often present, can all lead to sincere happiness. So Paul was basically inviting us to join him in a happiness movement to start something very special.
I heard of a fellow was traveling in his card to visit with some friends who live several hundred miles away you get hungry decided that he wanted to stop so he noticed that he was near a nice restaurant along the route he was traveling. One that he always enjoyed. He got out of the car dressed in khakis and a polo shirt as he went into the restaurant he was met by the maître d’ who told him that the restaurant policy required all men to wear a tie. So restore back to his car think he would just find somewhere else to eat. But the more he thought about it he really wanted to go to this one and he really didn’t have time to find another one like it. So he opened the trunk and began to dig through his suitcase. Maybe he had packed a tie. He looked and looked but there was no tie. He stood there frustrated when he looked down in his truck and he saw his battery jumper cables. He was mad at the restaurant in the maître d’ and so he grabbed those jumper cables me tight around his neck in the form of a tie. He went back to the door and was met by the maître d’. The maître d’ looked them over very closely and told them, all right you can come in but don’t start anything!!
