Never Enough 1

Intro

Students lets dive into the book of Mark today!

Haha!

Nah we just finished the book of Mark — instead we are starting a new series that will run us two weeks called “Never Enough”

Never enough! The idea that we can never have enough

This is also otherwise known as Jamie 101

I throughout my life have consistently struggled with the idea of I need more, or never being satisfied

Let me give you a couple examples:

Desserts — I will consistently eat a good meal, be completely full, and then desperately want dessert to the point where I would kill myself for a slice of cheesecake

Technology — I will obsess over a new phone, laptop, tablet or whatever it might be until I finally give in and get it. Then as soon as I get it, the next one is released and I realize how badly I need the new one

Friends — when I was younger I was never satisfied with the friends I had. I always believed that I need another friend, another person to hang around, another person to think I’m cool.

This was and still is very much a debilitating problem in my life.

Because I always believed that I needed more — that I wasn’t satisfied with what I had

The problem is — we don’t just do this with stuff, we do this spiritually

The stuff that we are seeking, the cheesecake that we want, the friends that we feel like we need, all of it is simply us trying to fulfill ourself spiritually

We are trying to fill a need that we sense is there

But we aren’t running to Jesus who can fill it, instead we buy into the lie that something else will

And it’s not just us — its the entire world

The entire world is seeking satisfaction in stuff

Paul in prison

But to push back against culture — the very feeling of needing more, Paul wrote the book of Philippians

One of the things he talks about comes from Philippians 4, its this idea of satisfaction

Yet here is something that is crazy about it: he was in prison

Philippians is one of the prison books that Paul wrote

History tells us that Paul was not only in prison, but that he was chained up to a guard 24/7

He was handcuffed with a roman soldier every single day, every hour of every day

How demeaning that must have been — you can’t have any privacy

Paul could have very easily bought into the mantra that he just needs something to satisfy him

He could have very easily have believed that he just needed some alone time, food that wasn’t from jail, fresh air, a good shower

But instead Paul teaches us something beautiful about what it means to be satisfied:

God brings peace and satisfaction

Listen to what Paul says:

Philippians 4:4–9 ESV

4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. 5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 9 What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

Paul a man who is in prison — for doing nothing wrong except following the Lord Jesus Christ is telling us to REJOICE in Jesus

He tells us that we are called to rejoice in the Lord regardless of the situation we are in

Think — Paul is in prison for the Lord and he is celebrating Jesus

Every time I think about that it blows my mind because I am such the opposite

I will find any and every excuse to seek to find something that will fulfill my needs and satisfy my wants

Yet Paul tells us a truth that I want us to unpack:

God brings peace and satisfaction

Paul tells us that God brings peace and satisfaction

He says to:

rejoice for THE LORD IS AT HAND

THE PEACE OF GOD will guard your hearts in Christ

THE GOD OF PEACE will be with you

How counter-cultural is that?

Our culture says that you need more — that you will never be satisfied

It’s like a hamster wheel — you get the thing you want and then it doesn’t satisfy, but something new makes it seem like it can satisfy you

We never have enough

Yet Paul, who should be clamoring for something new something that ease his pain and burden tells us a simple truth:

GOD BRINGS PEACE AND SATISFACTION

He is the one that will fill the need in our soul

Here’s the beauty of it — Paul doesn’t just leave us with that nugget

Man I’m glad he doesn’t

It bothers me when I have a problem, need a solution, and someone is like it’s really simple: just let God be your peace

Great I LOVE IT

I want Him to

But how?

Ever experienced that?

I had a friend when I was new in the faith that kept telling me — just trust God with you sin and He will break those chains and addictions

I would walk away like “yeah I know that, but how do I do it”

The beauty is that Paul here isn’t like that friend I had

He tells us exactly how to let God bring peace and satisfaction

1. Fight your anxiety

The first way Paul tells us comes from verses 6-7

Philippians 4:6–7 ESV

6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

He tells us that if we want peace and satisfaction we must:

Fight your anxiety

Paul tells us that we must fight our anxiety

The thing inside us that makes us panic and worry, often about things that we cannot control even if we wanted to

He tells us that we are to fight our anxiety — how?

Prayer and supplication to God

What does this mean?

Prayer is talking to God

Supplication is a big church word that means make your request be known

Paul says that if we want the peace that only God can give, the satisfaction that only comes from Jesus we need to go to God with all our requests

All the things that you feel anxious and troubled with — go to the Lord!

But there is a caveat that is important for us to understand — we cannot mealy say the words

Ask for the Lord to give us peace and not believe that He can do it

Instead when we pray and bring our anxieties to the Lord, make our requests known — when we ask for Jesus to heal us and calm our spirit and anxieties that are keeping us captive we need to actually believe that He can and will

Thats why Paul says to do it with thanksgiving — you aren’t thankful to someone if you believe that it might not work:

I’m not thankful when something has a 50/50 shoot of working

I’m not thankful when I believe a lie and it falls through

I am thankful when something works

And for Paul he tells us that if we want peace and satisfaction — to feel like we don’t need to stay on that hamster wheel we must bring our requests and anxieties to God — fight your anxiety

BELIEVING THAT JESUS WILL SAVE YOU FROM IT

Full thanksgiving in your prayer — the belief that Jesus has already conquered your fears

Thats the first thing Paul tells us — fight your anxiety

2 Fix our eyes on the things of God

The second thing Paul tells us when it comes to satisfying our needs comes from Philippians 4:8

Philippians 4:8 ESV

8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

This is one of my favorite verses — one that I have quoted quite frequently recently and the second thing in this passage that Paul is teaching us:

Fix your eyes on the things of God

We are to fix our eyes on the things of God!

We are to focus our time, effort, and energy focusing on the things that are giving glory and honor to the Lord!

Think about for a minute!

Think about what that means for us:

The stuff we watch on TV — it should give honor and praise to the Lord

The music we listen to — give honor and praise to the Lord

The conversations we have with others — honor and praise the Lord

Everything! Everything should be about the good things of God!

We should be loving truth, honor, justice, purity, lovely things. commendable, and excellent things!

Listen to what Jesus says about the things we focus on:

Matthew 6:22–23 ESV

22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, 23 but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

Quite literally Jesus is telling us that the things that our eyes are focusing on will affect the way live

If we are focused on needing more, focused on our pain, focused on our trauma, focused on evil in one form or another

If we are looking at any of that we will not have what satisfaction

Nothing will ever be enough

YET Paul tells us that if we focus on the things of God that God’s peace and satisfaction will dwell in us

That’s why I am such a big proponent of this verse: memorize it!

Focus on the things of God! It will quite literally change your life!

3. Don’t be spiritually obese

The last thing that Paul tells us is maybe the most challenging:

Philippians 4:9 ESV

9 What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

Paul tells us that what we have learned, recieved, heard, and seen — practice them

Another way of putting it:

Don’t be spiritually obese

So many people think they need more knowledge, more information, another Bible study, another few years of being a Christian, before they can go and do what the Lord tells them

They believe the lie:

that they don’t pray as good as others so they can’t pray

they aren’t smart enough so they can’t read their Bible

they aren’t morning people so they can’t spend time with God

they aren’t social so they can’t share the Gospel

Guys let me be straight with you — thats lies from the devil!

Jesus took 12 ordinary men — fishermen and tax collectors and changed the world!

How?

Because instead of believing the lie that they needed more knowledge or information — more time, they instead did what God commanded them!

They followed Jesus command in Matthew 28

Matthew 28:19–20 ESV

19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

They went and made disciples

It’s what John talked about 2 weeks ago!

Go and share the Gospel!

Teach others what you learned / are learning

Want to experience the peace and satisfaction of the Lord? Paul made it real simple — go and do what God calls us to do!

Conclusion

Students I’ll be straight with you — the world wants you to indulge

It wants you to believe that you’ll only find peace and satisfaction in something new, something shiny something that promises to change everything you thought

But the reality is, when you chase those things you are only ever gonna find that you need something else

Jesus is the one that brings peace and satisfaction

Paul in prison tells us this!

We need to:

Fight our anxiety — give it all to God with thanksgiving, believing that He will take care of it all

Focus on the things of God — fix your eyes on the things of Jesus

Don’t be spiritually obese — follow and do what the Lord calls us to

If we want to have peace and satisfaction that only comes through Jesus!

Discussion Questions

What stood out to you most tonight?

How can we practically apply Paul's teachings on fighting anxiety in our daily prayer lives?

In what ways can we identify and fix our eyes on the things of God in a culture that promotes discontentment?

What steps can we take to avoid spiritual obesity and actively practice what we learn from Scripture?

Can you share a personal experience where focusing on God helped you overcome a feeling of dissatisfaction?

What are some specific examples of 'things of God' that we can incorporate into our lives to promote peace and satisfaction?