Happy Friday Friends!
I hope & trust this post finds you having a great day on this rainy Friday on the Texas Gulf Coast.
Before diving into this Happy Friday I want to ask you to please say a prayer for the people being impacted by Hurricane Florence at this very moment. The storm, fear, anxiety and danger are real...but our God is greater! Thank you.
This morning I want to share some excerpts from a sermon I watched last Sunday. My Beautiful Bride and I absolutely loved our church in Arizona, Sun Valley Community Church, and we will often watch the sermons on-line. The church has been going through a sermon series titled, "PEACE." While I am going to share excerpts from this past Sunday's sermon, you can find this specific sermon, and all the sermons from the series, at www.sunvalleycc.com. Scroll down to "Current Series", click "See Archive" and you can watch a whole bunch of great sermons.
Last Sunday it was the Teaching Pastor, Robert Watson, who spoke. I will share several of the excerpts and some thoughts of my own.
The entire series has been based around Philippians 4: 4 - 9 which says,
"Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me - put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you."
While the other sermons had focused on the 1st paragraph above, the sermon last Sunday focused on the 2nd...the things we think about.
The first thing to note, and if you don't remember anything else, please remember this; peace is not situational - it doesn't depend on our circumstances - it is relational. Having the deep, abiding peace that goes beyond all understanding depends on our relationship with God and the people in our lives. I pray we will always remember and live this!
So now let me share some excerpts, things I made note of as Robert spoke:
"So much of the Christian peace comes down to the mind, what we think about."
"Rejoice always, no matter what is going on."
Dang, that is so hard to do! 100% honesty? I literally had a hard time even typing that here...seriously!!!
"Battle plan for the mind:
- Rejoice through anything.
- Be anxious about nothing.
- Pray about everything.
- Give thanks for something."
And then Robert noted, "And the peace of God will guard your hearts & minds."
A great battle plan! This really resonated with me...maybe you too! :)
"Take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ."
Robert explained that to Hebrews, meditation means "fill your mind, think about these things."
"To win the battle for peace of mind, we must think about what we think about.
- What are you marinating your mind with?
- What do you think about most in a given day?"
"There is no link between peoples circumstances and their happiness/joy/peace."
He then cited a Harvard/UC Berkley study that reported the 5 things found to cause joy:
"1. Meditation & prayer
2. Gratitude
3. Kindness towards others
4. Giving money away
5. Healthy relationships."
I promise you he really did say #4 and it has nothing to do with me being a development professional! :)
"We can choose how we think.
- We can change the way our mind works."
"God promises He will be there in every season.
- He doesn't promise answers or explanations. He does promise He will be with us and He will give us His peace if we trust Him."
There is some really good stuff here! The reality is however that you and I have to choose what we will believe, think & do. This will then determine where we end up...peace or anxiety, hope or fear. All I can tell you is this sermon really resonated with me and I decided I would apply it to my life this week. I wasn't going to let my thoughts just run wild all week. When thoughts that are not true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent or praiseworthy came to my mind I pushed them back. I then thought about such things. I can testify, I felt a difference. And you want to talk about being...awed?! Wednesday night my Beautiful Bride said, "You know, you are really handling things well...I can tell a difference in you." A couple of things: 1. As a husband, her words of affirmation touched my heart in ways that are truly indescribable. 2. I hadn't said a word to her about really trying to walk out the sermon from last Sunday. I was just doing my thing and she gave me this completely unsolicited feedback. God is good!
During the sermon Robert gave a visual that I want to share with you verbally...hopefully it is as impactful to you reading about it as it was to me seeing it. He had one of those skulls you can order on-line. He took the top off and filled the whole skull with whipped cream and then put the top back on the skull. The question is, what are you filling your mind with? I pray we will all continually fill our minds with what is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent & praiseworthy.
Please don't hesitate to contact me if there is ever anything I can do for you or your family. I will always help you any way I can. You can reach me at kevin@whatwillyourinfluencebe.com.
And please continue to pray for all those impacted by Hurricane Florence. As a veteran of a hurricane I can tell you that they will continue to need our prayers for several days and weeks. This isn't a one day type thing...it is a journey to walk with all those impacted, people just like me & you.
Have a great day, a wonderful weekend and please cherish your precious families.
Kev
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