Untitled Sermon (3)

Ice Breaker

I was a senior in high school when I really began be hungry to learn more about God. I read books and studied His word with the goal to learn more about Him so that I could know Him better. My high school was planning a trip about that time to go to Israel. When I heard about that I just thought it was so cool. Israel is the place where Jesus lived and loved and did ministry. Oh that would just be so cool to go there. My parents heard about the trip and asked if that is something I would want to do. They said they thought it would be a great way for me to learn and grow.

So I went on this trip with a bunch of people I went to high school with. My 2 best friends even went. It was just so cool. There were many old churches and mosks all around. On our way to Israel, we flew into a country called turkey. They had a 1500 year old building hey turned into a museum. It was incredible to see how differently things were built that long ago. Everything was solid stone and hand carved. The floors were built out of massive solid stone blocks that were 10 to 15 feel long and 5 to 10 feet wide. One of the rules in an ancient building like this is DONT TOUCH ANYTHING! Well, as our group made our way through this old mosk, my best friend looks down as something on the floor and stops in the crowd to get a closer look. He noticed that a piece of the floor stone was chipping off and he thought that he could pull it off the rest of the way and have a little souvenir piece of this ancient building. Obviously this is not allowed because if everyone that came into the building chipped off a little piece and took it, then there would be nothing left after a while. Well here we are, my friend is trying to chip off a big chink of rock. He begins by pulling lightly. I said dude you need to stop before the police come over there. Just leave the rock alone. He just keeps pulling to the point that he has both hands and he is yanking on it with all of his strength. I get some distance and then just walk away becasue I didnt want to get in trouble. I look back at our tour guide and then hear some yelling. It turns out that a police officer came over to my friend and asked him to stop, but my friend did not listen to him. After that, the cop called in back up and there was a swarm of turkish police officers around him.

everything turned out okay and we all made it back home safe, but I want to remind you all that this friend of mine got himself into all this trouble because of something as silly as a piece of a rock. There are some things that are worth fighting for, but let me tell you. that piece of rock was not worth almost getting locked up in a foreign prison.

Introduction

I tell you that silly story to help lead us into one fo the great men of the Bible today named Paul

Paul was a preacher some time after Jesus died, rose, and return to heaven. One outstanding things about Paul was that he let nothing stop him from preaching the great news about Jesus.

Nothing would stand in the way of Paul and what God called Him to do. believe me, many people tried to keep Paul from preaching or even talking about Jesus at all. There were times when His close friends disagreed with him, there were times when his life was threatened, there were even times when he stood before rulers and boldly preached the gospel to them as well. One day Paul was thrown into prison because of how outspoken he was about sharing Jesus with the world. You see, Paul was not thrown into prison because of some meaningless rocks like my friend almost was, He was thrown into prison because he was sharing Jessu with the world around him that desperately needed Jesus.

As paul Sat there in prison he recieved a gift from some good friends of his that lived in a place called Philippi. After recieving that gift He wasted no time. In fact, God was still using Him. Sitting there in prison, God gave Paul these words.

Philippians 4:11b

11b) For I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances

12) I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.

13) I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength

I think anyone who reads and thinks about this would be challenged by what Paul is saying here. He says that he has learned to be content whatever circumstances are. Paul is saying that he has come to a place in his life that NO MATTER WHERE HE IS OR WHAT IS HAPPENING TO HIM, HE HAS EVERYTHING HE NEEDS. This is such a foreign idea. There are very few times in our lives when we would say

Here we are

- Yes! I have everything i need. Im good. I dont need any help. I dont need any support. I have everything I could possibly need.

There are so many things we feel like we need at any given moment and we are starting off with many things that Paul didn't have

food

heat/ ac

a bed

sope

cars

We have so much compared to most of the world, but still we dont feel like we have all we need.

When Paul writes something like this it causes us to wonder we he knew that we dont. Did he have somethign that we dont? did he know something we dont?

These are great questions to ask because I think we would all like to be content with our lives. I thin we would all like to not have to depend on

how many likes we get on instagram

What other people think or say about us

how good we are in sports

how great our grades are

what things are going to be like at home

Dont get me wrong, all of those things are BIG, but Paul is saying that it is possible to be content even iff all of those things fall apart.