Mentally Thankful

I love y'all's introduction.

Every week I pay them all.

Happy Thanks living.

Hope you had a good holiday, and man, it has been good.

I have so much to be thankful for.

I just feel like we should stand up for a second and give some thanks.

Can we take a minute and give thanks to the good God that we have?

Some of you stood up last night on a seven-point touchdown.

Let's give thanks.

Amen.

Amen.

Thank you.

Man, God has been so good.

And uh what a good time.

Had uh our former pastor who we served with for 10 years came from Indiana, and Heather and I got to spend some time with them playing games, eating, and uh just doing what you should be doing over Thanksgiving.

So it's been a good time, and uh, I'm so glad to be sharing God's word.

I want you to turn your Bibles to Philippians chapter 4.

Philippians 4 · chapter mention

And uh so glad to have our DOM here this morning with us, uh worshiping with us, and then I wanted to share a prayer request just before I jump in this morning.

Please be in prayer for Rochelle and Sadaka Hall.

Rochelle uh lost her father this morning, and so um just be in prayer for them.

He went to be with the Lord peacefully, uh, but we want to pray for Rochelle and Sadaka and their family, and uh, we are so sorry if you're watching.

Um Philippians chapter 4, we have been looking at thanks living for the last four weeks through the eyes of Paul, who is in a prison cell, and um so we're looking this morning in chapter four, how to be mentally thankful.

Philippians 4 · chapter mention

I came across this uh letter that a young woman wrote to her mother from college.

It says, Dear mom, sorry I haven't written any sooner.

My arm really has been broken.

I broke it.

My left leg, too.

I jumped from the second floor of my dorm when we had the fire.

We were lucky, a service station attendant saw the blaze and called the fire department.

They were there in minutes.

I was in the hospital for a few days.

Paul, the attendant, came to see me every day.

And because it was taking so long to get our dorm livable again, I moved in with him.

He's been so nice, I admit, that I am pregnant.

Paul and I plan to get married soon.

As soon as he can get a divorce.

Hope things are okay at home.

I'm doing fine and will write again when I get a chance.

Love your daughter, Susie.

P.S.

Mom, none of the above is true, but I did get a C in sociology and an F in chemistry.

Just wanted you to receive the news with proper perspective.

Don't we have so much to be thankful for, Mom?

See you soon.

And I was thinking about that letter and our perspective of thanks.

And uh man, we have so much to be thankful for.

And I praise God for all that he's doing.

And uh let's go to the Lord in prayer.

Father, we love you this morning, and we pray that your word would be felt, Lord, that it would move our hearts, and God, that we would be drawn closer to you.

Lord, help us not to just observe uh a one-day holiday.

Lord, I pray that our lives would be worthy of praising you, Lord, that we would lift you constantly and we would be full of you, overflowing with thanks and gratitude for all that you do and all that you are in our life.

Lord, I pray that CCW, Lord, that people all around this region would say, Man, those people got something different than anywhere else I've ever been.

And it's because of the joy of the Lord.

So help us, Lord, this morning in Jesus' name.

Amen.

The first point this morning is this a mentality of praise.

So in your blanks, you can write mentality of praise.

And this is uh what you know about man.

Man is a tripart type being, meaning man is body, soul, and spirit.

Three parts.

The body allows us interaction with the physical world, the soul is a response to the intellect and emotion, and the spirit allows us interaction with God.

And so we're gonna be looking really diving in this morning to the soul, the mind.

Uh and we know this that the Lord, the flesh, and Satan are in a battle for our mind.

Why?

Because Proverbs 23:7 says, as a man thinks, so is he.

Proverbs 23:7

And so we're gonna be looking at that.

I want you to look at Philippians 4, verse 4 this morning as we jump in.

Philippians 4:4

It says this rejoice in the Lord always, and again I will say, rejoice.

So letter A this morning says, Praise begins with mentality.

Sixteen times in the letter of Philippians is the word joy or rejoice written.

And so we see that it's written over and over and over.

There's a theme that we're getting, and he says here, rejoice always.

And he says, again, I will say rejoice.

And that first rejoice in verse four is plural.

And so it's not a singular rejoice, just one person, it's plural for all listeners.

And what we see in this scripture, rejoice in the Lord.

Hang with me.

Commentators get really caught up with that in the Lord in that verse.

And they want to go back and forth to say, you can rejoice in the Lord and all that the Lord is doing, but then it's okay, I guess, to grumble and complain about anything else.

But they say, we can rejoice in the Lord, but I want you to look at what's repeated.

It doesn't say in the Lord twice, it says, rejoice, and then rejoice.

It's a future promise, Paul is saying, if I come again, if I write you again, I'm gonna tell you again to rejoice.

And so you gotta understand it's not just saying in the Lord, because in this letter there's plenty of hardships.

If you look at verse two and three of chapter four, I want to read it to you.

It says, I implore Udiah, and I implore you, Syntiche, to be of the same mind in the Lord.

And I urge you also, true companion, help these women who labored with me in the gospel.

So the first thing that we see right there, there has been a dispute between two women in the church.

There's a hardship.

He's saying, Rejoice always, and again I say rejoice, not just because the Lord is good, but even in difficulty.

And if you go back to chapter one, it says there was uh there was outside of the church issues.

Paul is writing the letter, where?

In chains.

And so he's not just saying, You can rejoice in the Lord.

He is saying, You, listen to this, you who are in the Lord, always rejoice.

Not just rejoice in what God is doing and then grumble in anything else.

He says, You are a Christian, and a marker of your Christianity to the world is your capacity for thanks.

You should be a thankful people at the job place, at the work, at school.

If anybody's gonna be thankful, it has to be you.

And so he says, you have the capacity of continual thanks.

You say, Well, how, Pastor?

Can I do anything always?

Well, the human mind is a marvel, it's an amazing thing.

There's a molecular biologist named Dr.

Leuquitus who says humans are made up of four basic nucleoptides.

What is that, Pastor?

It's a small chemical molecule chain within you with a pulse.

Basically, he says this all humans are dirt with a little bit of electricity.

Look at the person next to you and say, You're not dirt.

You're not dirt.

You're not dirt.

But the Hebrew word Nefesh says that God spirated, God breathed in Genesis into dirt.

He breathed into the dirt, dirt, and it became a living soul.

We're talking about that soul, the mind.

And so he says that we're a living soul because God breathed into dirt.

Neurons transmit responses in your brain like a phone line, okay, that is connected to a power source.

And so sometimes you'll pick up the phone because you're thinking about somebody, and as soon as you go to call them, they say, I was just about to call you.

And you go, huh, that's a coincidence.

And God goes, No, it's not.

Because you're connected to the same power source.

We are connected today, are we not?

We got some power sources, and we all gotta get connected for information and for our mind, right?

To get connected into all kinds of things.

And so, since we're tapped into the same power source, and the Bible says He is joy, and we're living souls connected to the source of joy, then if you breathe and go, you can rejoice evermore.

Always, you can always be rejoicing.

You if you can think a thought, you can rejoice.

It's the same thing with prayer.

It says in scripture to pray without ceasing.

You say, How can I do something all the time?

Well, because you're alive and you're connected to the power source.

And so it's all about your mental process, the intellect and emotions, that soul, it's all about how you think.

So to live right outwardly, you have to input the right data.

That takes us to letter B.

And I want you to go down to verse number eight.

Verse number eight, letter B is this positivity is worthy of meditation.

Meditation, thinking on the right things.

Look at verse eight.

Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of a good report, if there's any virtue, and if there's any praise worthy, meditate on these things.

So he said, if there's anything worthy of thinking on, this is what it is.

Understand this, church, that to meditate on positive, you have to take a hard pass on pessimistic.

Right?

That's difficult for some people.

It's almost as difficult as like uh passing on Thanksgiving dessert.

Right?

Anybody struggle with that a few days ago?

Pastor said he didn't pass.

Why would you pass?

Right?

And so I did really good this Thanksgiving at eating one plate of food.

Okay, I had one plate of food, but Heather had pumpkin roll and key lime pie and black raspberry pie, and there was pumpkin pie, and there was Texas sheet cake, and there was apple cookies and chocolate chip cookies, and Susan didn't think we had enough, so she came over and brought a caramel cake.

And I didn't take very much passes on any of that.

I had all of it except for pecan pie.

It's not my favorite, I'm sorry.

I know we're in the south, and you can pray for me, but that dessert was tantalizing, and when I seen it and walked by it, I just couldn't walk by and leave it lonely sitting there on the counter, unuseful.

And so I would grab me another piece.

And I don't know why our ears work this way and our flesh work together, but when someone drops a negative word, it's tantalizing.

We go, oh, did you say that the weather is bad today?

I know that weather sure is bad.

That's terrible, the weather.

Have you been in the traffic lately on 280?

Isn't it the worst?

And we just, our ears and our flesh jump together at the opportunity.

We say, Did you speak of the government?

Oh, the government is terrible, horrible, no good.

It's the worst.

And for some reason, when we hear negativity, it's like that dessert.

We're like, ooh, I gotta jump in.

I gotta, and did you hear what so-and-so said?

Oh no, she didn't say that, did she?

She said that.

Oh, because I and we just can't help ourselves.

And I want you to understand something that in chapter 2, verse 14, there's a command that we probably don't like.

But it says, do all things without complaining and disputing?

You know, it is really difficult to complain and smile.

Oh, this is such a terrible day! It's really hard to be positive and grumble.

Remember what he said to think on?

You're thinking all that stuff.

Man, when's the last time you were in your car full of worship music and you cursed out somebody that cut you off?

Oh, praise the one who if you're thinking on the right things, it's hard then to act out the wrong things.

He says you can't grumble and complain.

And this is what it says in chapter 3, verse 18 through 20 about who we are and why this is so important.

Listen to this verse.

For many walk of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of Christ.

Listen to this, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and who is whose glory is their shame, who set, listen to this, their mind on earthly things, but not us, verse 20, for our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

He says, We are citizens of heaven.

That goes back to that in the Lord, in chapter 4, verse 4, he says, Rejoice in the Lord.

Those that are in the Lord, citizens of heaven.

Christians, he says, because you are in the Lord, you can rejoice.

Because you're not like others.

Your belly is not your end all, your appetite is not your end all.

You can constantly be thankful because, again, you're connected to the right source.

You don't expect the lost world out there to be thankful.

They're not thinking on the same things that you should be thinking on and filling on.

It made me think of uh, I was thinking uh of this verse eight of the things that we think on, like a car filter.

All right, I think there's four car filters.

There's some mechanics in here I might mess up on.

But I know that you have an air filter, I know that you have an oil filter and a transmission filter, and I think a fuel filter.

Am I missing any?

Darren gave me this, so I'm doing good.

But this is the purpose of the filter.

It is to enable the right flow and catch all impurities.

This passage is the filter.

Y'all hearing me?

He says, is it true?

Is it good?

Is it right?

Is it helpful?

If your air filter gets clogged on your car, guess what happens?

It impacts the temperature of your vehicle.

Impurities set in and it keeps airflow from getting through.

Hear me?

If we're not thinking right, Christians, it impacts the temperature of your Christianity to the world around you.

What you're putting in impacts your temperature.

You say, Pastor, I don't know why, but I just feel like I've been a cold Christian lately.

Well, what's your filter been doing?

Have it been full of wrong thoughts?

Have you been entertaining a lot of critical speaking about so and so and this and this, and the church did this, or this person did that?

And hear me, it impacts your Christianity.

Complaining.

When David found out that his heart was wrong, church, you know what he did in Psalms 51?

He said, Create in me a clean heart, oh God.

Renew a right spirit within me.

It's like that old song, the old hymn.

Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power?

Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?

Are your garments spotless?

Are they white as snow?

He wants you clean and washed.

And that happens through that filtration.

What are you thinking on?

You can't be rejoicing if mentally you're not fixing your thoughts on the right things.

So that takes us to letter C in verse number five.

Letter C is this we'll see patience towards men.

He says, if you rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice, then your gentleness will be known, verse five, to all men.

The Lord is at hand.

And so that word gentleness is the word eugenia, which means sweet, soft, and fragile.

How many men here today will raise their hand up and say, Preacher, I want to be known as fragile?

That's what I thought I'd get.

Zero, right?

We think that fragile means weak.

We don't want to raise our hand up and say, ooh, yeah.

When my wife describes me to all her friends, I hope he's just really fragile.

He's very fragile, he is.

Right?

But this is what it says.

It says that we should be known for our gentleness.

When we're constantly rejoicing, when we're thankful, our gentleness will be known to all men.

Galatians 5 lists it as a fruit of the Holy Spirit to be gentle.

It's a result here of being thankful.

Remember in verse 2, I want you to understand, he was telling there was a dispute.

Two people were not getting along on something, and Paul was writing back to a letter he probably received and saying, please, let's get this dispute right so that our gentleness can be known.

As Christians, we don't want to come across as harsh or bitter or angry or upset.

And he says, So solve this.

And this is what I believe.

You can't think wrong thoughts, remember back to the mental, towards a brother or sister and be right with God.

We start looking for our own way to solve it.

And the Bible says, Vengeance is mine, says the Lord, I will repay.

It's not yours or mine to hand out.

And so we get done wrong, and our gentleness falls behind us.

But Paul says here, thankfulness lends to a natural increase of gentleness.

Paul understood, I think, this, his pre-Christian life.

See, Paul's pre-Christian life included a real harsh character, a real brash character, a character that probably only wanted to see his own way and do his own thing, be the lead dog.

He was inflexible and he was coming after Christians.

Probably not a very patient man.

And now a changed man sitting chained between two people is writing a letter and he's saying, Listen, I'm not outraged that I'm in prison.

It's for these bonds that the gospel's going further.

He says, The mentality now is this that I have been found in Christ.

And he says, Don't be like I used to be.

Be gentle to the world, because if you will, they'll see Jesus.

Not only a mentality of praise, but number two, we'll see this this morning, is a mentality of prayer.

The second thing is a mentality of prayer.

We enter into his courts, we enter into the prayer closet, we come into that place with praise.

But I want you to look down to verse number six this morning.

It says, Be anxious for everything.

No, no, no.

It says, be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving.

Let your request be made known to God, and then the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

So letter A this morning is this it guards your head from stress.

It guards your head from stress.

How many here today raise their hands and say, I know one thing about this life?

Stress is real, preacher.

How many of you right now you've been a little stressed?

Just be honest, you've been a little stressed.

You've been under some stress.

Walter Kelly said this stress is faith in the negative, trust in the unpleasant, and assurance of disaster, belief and defeat.

Worry is wasting today's time to clutter up tomorrow's opportunities with yesterday's troubles.

Let me say that again.

Worry is wasting today's time to clutter up tomorrow's opportunities with yesterday's troubles.

It gets all in this mind, and we get wrapped up in it, and we lose sleep over it, and we lose time over it, and we get ate up over it.

Listen to this.

I read this the other day.

A dense fog can cover a seven-city block area, 100 feet deep, composed of less than one glass of water, divided in 60 million droplets.

There's not much there, but there's enough to cripple an entire city.

Man, there's not much to worry, there's not much to anxiety.

Usually it's nothing that we just let run our minds, and then it cripples us.

And Matthew 6, we don't have time to go through it, but all through it, he says, Don't worry, don't worry, don't worry for anything.

And let me tell you something, church, some of Satan's best weapons is worry and anxiety.

He wants to render you helpless by worry.

I want you to turn your Bibles for a second to Luke chapter 10 this morning.

Luke 10 · chapter mention

I want you to look at the story that many of you know of about Mary and Martha.

Just a quick couple of verses that describes a situation where some stress is real.

Now it happened as they went, verse 38 through 42, as they went that he entered a certain village, and a certain woman named Martha welcomed him into her house.

And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus' feet and heard his word.

But Martha was distracted with much serving.

And she approached him and said, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone?

Therefore tell her to help me.

And Jesus answered and said to her, Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things.

But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.

Listen, Martha is having a time getting things ready.

She's serving, she's going, she's cooking, she's cleaning, she's getting everything just right and just perfect.

And here's, you know, we would say this in modern day.

Martha's not stressed.

She's just concerned.

She's not a worrier.

Worry's a sin.

She's just a concerner.

If you do enough being a concerner, it'll eat a hole through your gut.

What's wrong with Martha?

She's got a hole in her gut.

Oh, she's just a concerner.

You're like, I will I'm thinking I'm getting concerned.

And so we see, I was looking through something, I read this this week.

The problem is we have modern day Martha's.

You know what modern day Martha does?

Modern day Martha at the end of her day gets in bed and scrolls the Facebook.

And she looks and sees a picture, and uh it's some friends gathered together, and modern-day Martha goes, Oh, that's a nice dress.

And our mind is so in overload.

She sees dress and then she googles because she's got input and data flowing.

And she says, Oh, dress store.

And she looks back at that and she goes, Oh, dress is too expensive.

And then she's stressed about that.

She goes back and checks the bank account.

Yup, dress was too expensive.

She sees that and she goes, Oh, I forgot to deposit the check today.

And her mind's just going in overload, which reminds her when she forgot to deposit the check, oh, I gotta pay for the kids' uh uniform because they always got a uniform to pay for if they're in any kind of sport.

There's always something, and she remembers that and she thinks, oh, and her mind keeps going, and and I gotta get the kids a ride.

I forgot about practice tomorrow, and she thinks about the ride, and and she says, Oh, I just want a vacation.

So she googles vacations.

And then she's reminded back to the thought, I don't have enough money for the dress, so I definitely don't have a money for vacation.

So she gets back to the original post and she notices, huh, my friend is with somebody else.

I wonder if she's become better friends with that friend.

Huh?

Then she sits there and thinks, I gotta think of a clever comment for this post to remind my friend that I still exist.

So she thinks of clever comment and then she waits.

10, 12, 15 minutes.

Why hasn't she liked my comment?

Why, why, why hasn't she liked and her mind is sizzling and smoke is billowing out of modern-day Martha's head?

And she goes, What do I do?

And that's the world we live in today, folks.

Our minds are so rolling through information and an overload, and we're scrolling and smoke, and we have a hole growing.

Why?

Because God said, think on these things, and we just don't think on those things.

God said, think on these things, and we keep not doing that.

I know that about three days into COVID, I had to stop looking at Facebook.

I could not.

It was hurting me on the inside to read all of the information.

And I kept seeing it, and everything, and everyone that I was talking to kept bringing up, and it still comes up sometimes.

The first thing you could, and I'm like, I can't take all of this negative.

Let's just talk about the Lord being good.

Let's talk about the kids, let's talk about something good because all of the negativity makes me feel sick.

And this is what Jesus said.

But Mary, Martha, she chose that one good thing.

There's a good part, and it can't be taken from you.

You're serving.

Yeah, you can get so busy serving that you forget about Jesus, church.

You can get so busy doing that you haven't spent a morning all week in his word.

Well, I'm providing for my family, preacher.

You're not providing if you're not providing spiritually.

Well, I'm trying to make a nice home, preacher.

Your home can be a mess, but you better have Jesus.

And so we go and we go and we go, and we're in overload.

He says, if you think through these things, you will guard your head from stress.

The right things.

And so the second thing is this.

In just a moment, we'll be looking at gardening a heart from sorrow.

But it reminded me, there's a picture I wanted to show you.

Maybe some of you guys have seen this movie, White Christmas.

This is the season for everybody to be watching White Christmas.

And so, as I was thinking about White Christmas, there's a scene.

Um, and here's the words of the song that's sung in that scene.

It says, When I'm worried and I can't sleep, I count my blessings instead of sheep, and I fall asleep counting my blessings.

When my bankroll is getting small, I think of a time when I had none at all, and I fall asleep counting my blessings.

Just count your blessings instead of sheep, and you'll fall asleep counting your blessings.

We think on so many things to get anxious and worried and struggle.

When God says, Man, count your many blessings, name them one by one.

Let it be this morning is this that that mentality of prayer will guard your heart from sorrow, in sorrow.

It'll guard your heart in sorrow.

It doesn't say that peace that passes all understanding will guard your heart from it.

It says in sorrow.

It doesn't say you will have none, but from it.

How do you get through cancer?

How does a person get through the loss of a family member?

How do you get through church hurt or family pain or divorce or financial strain?

How do you get through dark days when you wake up and you just say, I don't even want to be awake?

I don't even know why I'm sad, but I'm sad.

How do you get through this?

The Bible says we got to enter his courts.

We enter his courts with praise because those courts, that place is a prayer closet.

You have to transport yourself.

Remember the three parts I talked about.

You have to transport yourself mentally from the physical to the spiritual through your mind.

And so you take your mind to what a place where God settles things through the spiritual.

God settles things in the physical world through the spiritual.

What will be accomplished?

That's why he says where two or more are gathered together, entering the spiritual, God will do things in the physical.

Matthew says, whatever we bind on earth together will be bound in heaven.

So when we enter physically through our mind to the spiritual, God changes things in the physical world.

And so we pray.

We pray with thanksgiving, and that activates God.

I don't know why it's God's button.

God can do all that we need done without us ever asking, but God moves via your request.

It says, we have not because we ask not.

He can do it anyway, but he is activated through your voice.

And so let me tell you, church, you better be sharing your voice.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Thinking on the right things, praying and sharing our voice.

So when we pray with thanksgiving, we activate things like Psalms 91.

He said, He'll guard your heart from sorrow.

Have you read Psalms 91?

Let me tell you some of the words.

We can't read the whole Psalms, but let me tell you some of the words that describes what he'll be for you.

It says he'll be your shelter, your shadow, your refuge, your fortress, your covering, your shield, your rampart, your dwelling, your guardian angel, your rescuer, your protector, your deliverer, your satisfier, and your savior.

And if we pray, it says, then that peace will pass all understanding.

That's what it'll be for you.

But if you don't pray, you're not activating.

And if you don't come to him with the right thoughts, focused in the right way, mentally, you're going to be stressed.

Your mind is going to be a field for Satan of stress.

That takes us to the third point this morning: a mentality of peace.

Third thing is a mentality of peace.

One of the names for our God is Yahweh Shalom, which means the Lord is peace.

I want you to hear something, church.

You can't be with him and be without peace.

You can't be in his presence and be without peace.

I'm not saying you won't be living in a storm, but you'll be guided in the storm.

You'll have a shelter, a covering, a fortress, a rampart, a shield in the storms of life.

And so you'll have a mentality of peace.

Look at verse number nine in Philippians 4.

It says, the things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do.

And the God, listen to this, the God of peace will be with you.

That's interesting.

It's not saying that peace will just be with you.

The God who creates the peace will be with you.

Not just the peace.

Even better than the peace is the presence of the one who creates the peace.

He will be with you.

He says, if we're weekly, daily, hourly practicing right thinking, rejoicing again, consistently rejoicing, and that's letter A this morning.

Consistency brings God's presence.

Constantly doing it, he says again and again and again.

I know this.

If you do anything with great consistency, it starts to become a part of who you are.

Great consistency becomes a part of who you are.

If you're called a hard worker, it's because at some point you started working hard, and now it's known it's become a part of you, and you don't want to lose it.

I know that my preacher, there was a time where he didn't play pickleball.

But guess what?

He's been consistently practicing his pickleball.

And guess what?

It's in him.

He loves it, and so he's consistently doing something.

And when you rejoice again and again and again, you start getting filled with the presence of God, and it changes you.

It says, not just that you'll have peace, but you'll have the God of peace.

That reminds me, there's another picture I want you to see.

I love this picture that's gonna be coming up, and it's a picture of Callie and Wyatt together.

I love this photo.

It's been on my Facebook page for like 10 years.

But we were in Gatlinburg in this picture, and I said, I need you guys to get some guns.

We're gonna go hunting in the woods.

So we got a BB gun, and we got a Nerf gun, and we went off in the woods.

But on that vacation, and I said, I need you guys this serious face.

I'm about to take a picture, and that's what I got in the serious face.

So, but on that vacation trip, some of y'all have heard this story, but I I don't I can't see anything better than the picture of who God is with us.

One morning at six in the morning, I got up early and I had been reading, doing devotions, and I actually was reading a hiking thing, and Callie had woken up and I said, for whatever reason, I said, Do you want to go out and take the trash with me to the trash?

Kids a little walk.

And so she came out and we walked hand in hand, that little sweet face, and we're walking.

And up over the ridge across the way, there was a bear walking out.

And I said, Callie, Callie, shh.

I said, Look, we can stand here and just watch this bear.

And so there the bear was, and everything was good.

Got my sweet little girl, and it's all and and the bear was walking, walking, walking.

I just, this is great.

It's gonna walk around the back side.

It walked down the back side of the cabin, and then it walked around the side of the cabin, and we're just standing there, and then it walked to the driveway that we're on, and it was paying attention to the porch, but then it turned, and my heart changed.

And Callie just stood there with me.

I was just just be quiet, it's no big deal.

But then when it turned, all I could remember was what I had read about hiking.

I was reading about hiking that morning, and it said on the hiking to for different trails if you come across a bear, you must appear to be big.

And I'm like, oh.

All right.

I said, Callie, here goes.

And I said, we gotta raise our arms real big.

So I went like this.

That's all I had.

And the bear did not run away.

Like I thought, and we were by that trash can, and I thought it started taking steps towards us, and I thought, it had a lock on it.

I thought, I'm gonna have to put Callie in the trash can and fight the bear.

That's what I it took a few steps, it took a few steps.

I'm like, it was getting very close, and Callie just stood there.

Nothing was wrong with Callie.

My heart was racing to the point of you want to talk about stress in life.

I retched down very easily, keeping my eye towards the bear, holding Callie's arm, found a little rock, threw it, did not come near the bear, but the bear ran.

And today we're living.

But I want you to understand something.

Callie never shuddered for a second.

She stood there, and she will tell you today, I didn't feel at all scared.

And I'd like to believe that because she was standing next to her daddy, she just believed everything was gonna be okay.

I don't have nothing to worry about.

Daddy's here, and look, he's big.

But this is what I know.

I know that the peace of God comes when his presence is right with you.

Church, he is daddy, he is Abba.

He wants to be right there with you, and so we be consistent and we'll find his presence.

In fact, James talks much about the opposite.

James 4.8 says that a double-minded man is so unstable.

There's no stability in that wavering back and forth.

And so it says in verse 1 that a double-minded man basically results in wars and tensions and trials and stress.

That is to say, inconsistency.

Inconsistency, church.

Paul reminded them here in verse 9 what you see and hear in me, that you do.

Parents, can you say that to your kids?

Can you say before God, children, do all that I am doing.

Children, all the things that I am doing, that you can emulate.

All the ways that I am being, that's what you should be doing.

Everything.

Because Paul said, what you see and hear in me, that you can do.

Consistency.

You're not double-minded, are you, Church?

Are you one way on Sunday and then the rest of the week?

What are you living for, Church?

Look, I'm gonna tell you this, my kids don't let me get away with anything.

My boys want me to speed through a light, but as soon as I get home, they're running in.

Guess what, Daddy did?

Oh, he was speeding.

They won't get you let you get away with anything.

But when you think about that, is there conviction?

Can you say to your children, do all that I'm doing?

Double-minded.

There's no peace if you're double-minded.

You can't dangle church mid-fense, one foot over here, and say, I'm gonna be spiritual when I get around the church, but the rest of the week, my goals and the things that my life are pursuing doesn't show spiritual.

You say, Well, it's okay for Christians just to have a little bit of fun, isn't it, preacher?

Yeah, you can have fun, but you can have fun and be spiritual too.

That's right.

Bible says you're for me or you're against me.

We don't get to juggle that.

But God helps CCW to be consistent.

That these people, that these families, grandparents, that will be consistent, that people will see our consistency, and the presence of God will be right there.

Isaiah 26 3 said this He whose mind is stayed on thee has perfect peace.

Perfect peace.

You say it says, stayed consistent.

It's constant, it's always on him.

Galatians 6 9 gives us this promise, church.

Don't be weary in well-doing.

In due season, you will reap if you faint not.

So he says, keep going, keep going, keep going, don't stop, keep going, keep doing it every day.

Get up and get in that word.

Every day, he said, rejoice and rejoice and rejoice.

When they start talking negative, just walk away.

Rejoice.

You got so much to be thankful for.

Don't talk about the bad weather, don't talk about the bad traffic, don't entertain negativity.

He says, rejoice and rejoice.

If you are persistent, listen, if you're persistent, you will get it.

If you are consistent, you'll keep it.

Let me say it again.

If you are persistent, you will get it.

Whatever it is.

If you're persistent, you'll get it.

If you're consistent, you'll keep it.

Consistency brings his presence.

That takes us to letter B.

Contentment brings God's power.

Contentment.

Are you content today?

Are you okay right where you're at?

Look at verse 11 through 13.

Paul said, Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I'm in to be content.

I know how to be abased and I know how to bound.

That means I know how to be high or low.

Everywhere and in all things I've learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

You see, Paul, this is the most abused Bible verse in the whole Bible to me.

People use it.

And what Paul is saying from prison is I can have little, I can have much, but I can be content in everything through Christ's strength.

I can be content with great, I can be content in sorrow, but I can be content because of the strength that God gives to me.

Contentment brings God's power.

Paul says from shackles, it's okay to be low.

I'm low right now, and it's okay.

I want you to think about what you have in your life now.

Is there anything if it were taken away you wouldn't be able to move forward?

Anything.

If you're not gonna be good without certain things in your life, certain status, certain wealth, certain occupation, if you're not okay, then in the spiritual, you're not content.

Paul said, I'm good.

I'm good because of God.

Philippians 4 19 says this.

He says, and my God shall supply all your need, not all your wants, all your need according to his riches in Christ Jesus.

You see, God is the great supplier for contentment.

The other day we were in Walmart and we were feverishly getting all the groceries ready for cooking and all this, and we'd made our stops, and we'd been to Aldi, and we'd been to Sam's Club, and we go into Walmart, and it may have been the third time, I don't know, and there we've been looking for buttermilk because you gotta have buttermilk for certain things.

I don't know what we even needed it for, but we need cake.

So we had to have some cake, of course, and so we're looking for buttermilk, and there was none.

This is the third place, and there at the bottom on the floor, some great person, the Holy Spirit moved their heart to put buttermilk on the floor, hidden from everyone.

And so I looked down, and Heather said, Take it.

And it said, Bulgarian buttermilk.

I'm like, we can't get stuff from America to the Walmart, but we got Bulgarian buttermilk.

But we have buttermilk, but this is what I know suppliers are having difficulty because they can only do what is within their power.

There's only so many drivers driving trucks, so only so much is getting to places.

But let me tell you about your supplier.

2 Peter 1 3 says according to his divine power, he's given us all we need for life and godliness.

We have everything we need from our supplier, but a lot of people don't tap in.

They're so empty.

And why?

There's a song that I stopped singing the words to, and it's not because I'm some whatever legalistic about it, but there's a song that says, Christ is enough for me.

And I got singing that one day, and I'm like, it didn't sit well.

I'm like, Christ is enough for me?

That's wrong.

Christ is so much more than enough for me.

Why would I even think that something about just Christ could possibly just barely fill me?

Christ is enough.

He is so much more than enough for me.

And that's why Paul could sing in his shackles.

Paul was leading men to the Lord as he was chained.

And this is what Paul said.

He said in another place in Scripture that one day we're going to enjoy an eternity of pleasure unparalleled.

So I consider the current sufferings nothing compared to the eternal weight of glory that one day we'll have.

You can be content in all things with God's power.

Well, contentment also brings hope.

It shows hope to the world.

Romans 15, 13 says, if you trust God, joy and peace will result in an overflow of hope.

If you have peace and you're content in your walk with God, you will overflow that to the world around you.

I don't know a lot about the kitchen.

I'm just be honest.

I don't do hardly any cooking.

I can make a mean toast and a bowl of cereal.

And so, but Heather, you know, this is what I know.

If I'm filling something into a receptacle, that container, whatever I'm filling in, that's the thing that's gonna come out.

Whatever I'm filling into a receptacle, and this is what I know about God, He wants a clean and empty receptacle that He can fill in, and so the world around us will have this thankful perspective.

But many today are discontent, church.

There's many people everywhere that are discontent.

They're discontent about finances, discontent about marriages.

It's it's all about the next thing, the next shopping trip, the next vacation, next, next, next.

It's not anything is enough.

And you're right to be discontent because those things are not enough.

All that stuff the Bible says is fading.

It's earthly treasure that's all gonna fade away and it fills a hole for a minute and then it's back empty again.

All of it expires except for Jesus.

He is satisfaction, he doesn't expire, he is life.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And we know it sometimes, we know it sometimes here, but it doesn't translate into what happens.

He went, church, all the way, he gave all he had for me and you.

He didn't hold anything back so that in him we could be complete.

The gospel in Ted Words is Christ died for our sins and rose from the dead.

He went to Calvary's cross, giving everything.

And we can have hope.

And sometimes we place our hope on just about anything else.

I don't understand that.

I want to close with a section of a book.

Louis Giglio wrote this book called I am not, but I know I am.

God is called the great I am.

I am not.

I am not, but I know I am.

And Moses turns back to God fearful when he says, Who shall I say sent me?

He's fearful when he says, Who are you?

And he says, I am.

I need hope.

I am what will work?

I am what will last?

I am.

I need a fresh start.

I am.

I need a bigger story.

I am.

I need something new.

I am.

This isn't working.

I am.

Who can I trust?

I am.

My marriage is sinking and I don't know where to turn.

I am.

I'm not sure why I'm here.

I am.

I need a fix.

I am.

I need a drink.

I am.

I need someone to love me.

I am.

I just need someone to hold me.

I am.

I'm the first, the last, the beginning and the end.

Church, he is.

He's what you don't even know you're looking for.

He's our peace.

He's our joy.

He is the reason that we can give thanks, not just today or Thursday, but every day.

He's the strength of our joy.

I want you to bow your heads this morning.