Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro

We have had an interesting couple of years here.

First there was a virus we began to hear about and in almost no time, the world shut down.

President Trump shut down the borders and had everyone stay home… we along with the rest of the world went into a 2 month lock down… some longer.

The isolation from this along with news of so many people dying… many of our relatives or friends.

The vaccine came out, Pastor Kathy and i got it and I’ll get the booster when it’s my time and we made great strides to eliminate the scourge of this worldwide pandemic.

Then the latest surge happened which down here has lead to more hospitalizations and deaths (among unvaccinated) than before.

This thing hit us as we went into an election year, and unfortunately the disease became political.

This has also caused a lot of emotional anguish among people.

Imagine living life where you don’t trust anyone… that’s where a lot of people are.

Then, just a few weeks ago, a Cat 4 hurricane hits our area and decimates a lot of it, so ewe are kicked into recovery mode.

Everyone was already somewhat emotionally wrung out… fighting anxiety… tempers… and fatigue before the storm.

I can’t control the weather, politics nor can I control the pandemic.

But I still believe that God wants you and I to live an abundant life.

IOW I believe God wants you and me to

Know Jesus

Find Freedom

Discover our Purpose

Make a Difference

If we do these, we can live an abundant life no matter what is going on around us.

Our immediate focus may shift in an emergency, but our goal is for you to know Jesus, Find Freedom, Discover Your Purpose and Make a Difference.

So today, I want to talk about How to be Happy no matter what.

Whenever you talk about happiness, you always go to the happy book… Philippians.

Paul, more than most, knew how to be happy in horrible situations.

Have you ever had a pity party?

I have and it’s not fun.

Some of you have thrown them as well and you know it’s not fun.

You don’t feel good when you do… it doesn’t help you to feel better and you are certainly not happy when you throw a pity party.

It’s easy right now to throw one.

You have pain, pressure, people and problems that all take away your joy or your happiness.

We will look at how Paul handled all of these and in the process we will learn how to handle them.

We have to learn that God says Happiness is a Choice.

Dr Paul Meier, the pioneer for Christian psychology many hears ago wrote a book by that title.

Happiness is not based on circumstances it’s based on choices.

You and I have to choose happiness.

Happiness is not something you go looking for.

You have to create happiness… to choose happiness.

You may not like this, but You are as happy right now as you want to be.

You cannot blame anybody for your unhappiness… regardless of the pain they have caused, regardless of pressure they have put on you… regardless of other people… and regardless of the problems in your life… you are as happy as you choose to be.

Now I know for some, chemistry impacts our ability to be happy - if that’s you, you may need to see a doctor.

One of the biggest mistakes we all make is when and then thinking.

This type of thinking says that when I get this, I’ll be happy.

When I marry him, I’ll be happy… When I divorce him, I’ll be happy.

When I get this new job, I’ll be happy.

When I have kids I’ll be happy.

When the kids move out on their won, I’ll be happy.

This kind of thinking will never help you to be happy.

Now, let me give you a little background for our passage this morning.

In the previous four years of Paul's life before he wrote this chapter we're going to look at today, in that last four years Paul had spent two years in jail in Caesarea on false charges.

False charges, two years in jail.

Then, he was shipwrecked while he was sailing to Rome for another trial under Nero, who was the Caesar at that time.

Then, in that shipwreck, he was stranded on a desert island for a while and actually got bitten by a poisonous snake.

Then when he finally got to Rome, he was imprisoned again in Rome for two years in a deep dank, dark dungeon with a 24-hour guard chained to him.

Paul had every reason to be discouraged, to be unhappy, to throw himself a pity party, even to be angry with God.

Instead, while in this prison, Paul wrote the book of Philippians.

In Philippians 1:12-30 Paul outlines four principles for being happy no matter what.

This is a practical message so take good notes because it will help you.

Here are the four principles of choices that if we will make will help us to live a happy life no matter what.

1.

You can be happy no matter what if you choose to remember that no matter what happens, God can bring good out of anything

We have to choose to remember that God can bring good out of anything.

Look at

Paul said we know… not we hope or we guess, but we know.

everything - good the bad and the ugly.

Pandemic, storm… everything.

He does not say that everything is good.

This pandemic is not good.

The politics of it is not good.

The storm is not good.

You losing your homes is not good.

There are bad things happening in our world and evil things happening in our world but Paul… God is saying that He will work good out of it.

Knowing that truth is why King David could say,

Circle - I will.

He made the choice to praise the Lord.

David made that choice and so can we.

How can you do that?

How can you make the decision to praise the Lord when your house is gone, when there is a tree on top of your car?

How do we do that?

We have to learn to look at events from God’s perspective and not our own.

Say it again… The way you make this first choice is by learning to look at everything in your life from God's viewpoint, God's perspective, not my own.

It's a life skill you're going to have to learn if you want to be happy no matter what happens in your life.

Happy people have a larger view of life than those who are unhappy.

They see the big picture.

They look past the pain, th4 people, the pressure and the problems to see that God is always working for good in our lives.

Paul’s example

Instead of having a pity party, Paul says that everything that’s happened to him in the last 4 years… false accusations, shipwrecked, snake bit, and falsely imprisoned and now being chained to a Roman guard … He says that all of that has helped him spread the Good News about Jesus.

Now that’s a different perspective.

Paul had dreamed of preaching in Rome, the center of the Empire and the world at that time.

He probably thought that he would be holding crusades and seeing people saved.

God’s idea was to make him a prisoner of Nero.

Look what happened.

He was chained to a place guard.

These were the elite, handpicked security detail for Caesar.

Paul was chained to them and guess what Paul did?

He told them all about Jesus.

Over two years with each one serving 4 hours per shift, Paul was chained to 4380 different guards… and each one of these were influential.

Who do you think was the real prisoner?

That’s right the guards were.

Two awesome things happened because of this.

Phil 4 tells us that many of Nero’s on family had come to faith in Christ because Paul was chained to these palace guards.

You oculd call this a chain reaction....