ReCALIBRATE | How to Enjoy Life & Live on Purpose

Good morning.

I'm back.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Man, thanks for praying for me.

Thanks for thinking about all that.

Thanks for holding the fort down for a few weeks and um give you a little health update.

I am, I don't think I realized like how much pain I was in for like probably a couple years at least, just managing it.

I have zero pain right now.

It's amazing.

Yeah.

I'm and truthfully, I I don't want to spend too much time on it, but I will just say this.

It's like I'm still recovering.

That's why I haven't been here.

I'm still recovering some of my energy.

And so uh that's also why there's a stool up here.

So I'm supposed to sit down because I got to do three of these today.

So but uh I, you know, um I know I think most everybody knows, but if you if you missed it, if you didn't know, I I had surgery a few weeks ago.

I had I had basically bone spurs from a um parachuting accident from 15 years ago that were growing into my spinal cord, and I was uh losing function of my left arm.

I was it was like debilitating pain.

I actually I actually was began losing function of my right arm as well.

It was a little bit scary because the doctor told me he was like, I don't know if you're gonna get it back or not.

And so I did, by the way.

I got 100%.

It all came back immediately, and so yeah, I honestly very, very good.

And and and really, I it it's it's like you know, we were praying, we're praying for miraculous healing, or we're praying for a healing through uh somebody who has a gift of healing, i.e.

the doctor, and so and and we were good with either one.

And and truthfully, I I I just being transparent with you, I got you a place where I was like, I have no idea how the next year is gonna, like, I don't know, how is this gonna go?

Because you know, the doctor, it's like, well, it's six months, four to six months out just to get a consultation, and just praise God for some friends.

Thank you for that.

We knew some people for some favor.

And the doctor calls and says, Can you be here in four days?

I mean, who does that?

First of all, like that never happens to anybody, it seems like, and uh, and it did for us.

And I was like, Yeah, I'll walk there if I have to.

Yeah, I was like, I don't know, I'll figure that out, you know.

And uh, and uh we did that, and then it was um operating five days later again.

Just how does that happen?

I don't know.

And um, anyway, I'm super grateful.

You know, and I'm I'll probably mention it at some point here this morning, but I think it's worth saying, this is our last Sunday here, guys.

Can you believe that?

This is our last Sunday in this building.

I I I'm I'm um, you know, if I cry today, it's not because I'm gonna miss the building.

I'm not gonna miss this building.

Curtain walls and low ceilings and no space for our kids.

And it's just like, no, I'm I'm not gonna miss the building.

But um, you know, I I was thinking about this right as worship started.

I just thought, you know, the last day is is way more important than the first day.

Do you know what I mean by that?

You your first listen, you for all the married people, the first day can be rough.

The first year can be rough.

It's how you end that matters, right?

It's it's the end that that's that matters the most.

And I just look around here and there's a lot of you, you weren't here on day one.

And just because you're here the last day in this building is way better than the first day in this building.

And and I'm so grateful for how we're finishing here.

And I'm I'm grateful to all of you.

So this is I I have some teaching for you today.

I'm I am gonna teach you, I'm gonna preach a little bit, and and uh we are we have been in this recalibrate series on Philippians.

We kind of abandoned that for a couple weeks because well, we had video messages, and I just that was a lot of work to find somebody who was like in the vein that we were in.

So I was just like, whatever, we're just gonna teach on what is appropriate for this season.

But I am gonna I am gonna finish that just what I had originally had planned for you uh on ending this series.

And so I'm gonna teach a little bit to you, and then and then I have I have stories for you.

I can't wait to these are just these are stories of what's happened here at our church, and and uh this is by this isn't by no means five years of stories.

This is like a handful from the last year and several from the last month or I mean few months, and so uh not five years worth.

There's if I if it was five years worth, we'd have a stack probably this high of just what's happened here, and um, and so I'm gonna end with that today, and I'm eager to share a lot of that um with you.

But my goodness, we're what we're two weeks out, two weeks out from moving into a new building.

And um, and it's not just that we're excited about buildings, we're excited about like the next season of life and the next season of our church, and not just for the church and and and the building's sake, but also for our own lives.

We we've been saying that for uh well over uh a year that moving into a new building is not just about us, it's about you.

And I think it represents the next iteration for spiritual growth and relational growth in your own life too.

And so anyway, we we had a bunch of open houses last week with all of our serve teams, and so there's a lot of people, a lot of you in the room.

You've you've seen the building, you've walked through it, and you kind of know what to expect.

We still got a little bit of work to do.

Praise God.

Uh plumbing inspection, electrical inspection, HVAC, those are all passed.

We're all good to go.

We we've had a few uh delays, and just you know, that's just how things go.

So we're hoping to have our fire final CO done by Tuesday.

That's what we're hoping for.

So, and uh no nobody's worried.

I'll just say that.

Nobody's concerned, and uh, we got a little bit of work to do, and um, but I we believe it's gonna be ready to go in two weeks, and so March 1st.

There's no church next weekend.

I'll remind you of that at the end of this day.

But oh, you need to know this.

I'm gonna do this at the beginning.

Parking's gonna be a little different in our new building.

Pull up my parking slide, would you guys?

This is parking's gonna be a little different in the new building, and just because we don't have a huge parking lot, and so if you missed this last week, take notes of what this is gonna be.

The orange at the top is the parking lot that we own.

It's right behind our, it's our it's our parking lot.

It only fits like it's only gonna fit like 25 to 30, 30 vehicles in there.

This, the school record has been is being really great working with us.

And so this is a this is a uh this is an open field area that's just on the east side of their football field.

They got like a practice football field out there, and so there's gonna be signs and cones, and so this is gonna be another parking lot here.

The blue zones there, the one on the left side of that building there, that is gonna be reserved for ADA accessibility and first-time guest parking.

And so that's what we're setting up there.

And then the blue in the front, if we're gonna set up like a drop-off zone.

So here's what we're asking you is especially for those of you that come with your families, or there's a few of you that come together, we're saying this utilize the drop-off zone at the front of the building, drop your passengers off, and then you're gonna go ahead and park.

Everything else, all the street, is open parking.

There's plenty of parking, but it's all street parking.

And so we've we've done the math.

We've gone out there, we know how many cars typically show up, we know it's available on the street.

So there is parking available, but and we we recognize this.

You might have to drive or park a little ways away.

And we have golf carts for that.

And so we got a couple golf carts that are gonna be making a loop, but it's gonna be a lot better if it's only one of you parking a vehicle and not a family of five parking a vehicle, okay?

So, anyway, that's what I'm encouraging everybody to do.

Our serve team members are actually gonna be utilizing the school parking lot down here as well.

And so, anyway, we got a whole plan, but take a mental note when you get there, okay?

It's gonna it's gonna feel a little bit different when you get there, especially starting it with the parking and stuff like that.

So, thank you in advance for being gracious with us.

And also, by the way, we have plans.

You can tell we got a whole loop.

That's what the arrows are.

It's our golf cart loop we're gonna make.

And so, um, if you park a little ways away, if you're forced to, if you start walking, I promise you the golf cart's gonna be coming by and it'll pick you up.

So um, we're asking you to be kind to our neighbors, okay?

We don't I we we've been saying this.

We didn't we're not moving into this neighborhood and into this church in spite of the neighborhood.

We believe we're moving there for that neighborhood.

We believe we're here for Williston.

We don't think Williston's in our way to do church.

We're here to do the church is here for Williston and honestly a lot of the surrounding area.

And so we want to make sure that we love our neighbors well, like don't park in their for in front of their driveways.

That's what we're really asking.

Please don't, please don't do that.

Because we're also giving them a number to contact if somebody does.

And we I don't think our staff just doesn't want to feel that kind of wrath and anger.

You know what I'm saying?

Like, so be be kind to our neighbors, don't block their driveways.

But uh anyway, I'm excited.

You excited about this?

Yeah, it's it's gonna be cool.

It's gonna be really cool.

I I we thought about giving you pictures and I thought, nah, they can just show up in two weeks.

You can see what's what's coming.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Two weeks, okay.

All right, guys.

I'm gonna I'm gonna talk to you today.

I want to talk about um I want to talk about contentment.

This is this is toward the end of that toward the end of the book of Philippians and this this theme of contentment.

So the last few weeks, you know, I've been I've been recuperating, I've been at home, and so really, you know, I I'm I'm uh listen, I know everybody, everybody's got their little their bad habits, okay?

Everybody's got their thing they go to.

Mine is that I'm I'm always gotta keep it in check.

It's YouTube.

I just I will admit it.

This is me confessing my sins one to another here.

It's just like I have my moments where I'm like, man, alive.

I've been how many, I don't even want to look at my phone.

How many, how many, how long have I been on YouTube?

I don't even know the scroll, you know, the the algorithms, they know how to get me.

And so anyway, so I find myself, it's well, one of them, I one video I watched on YouTube the last few weeks.

I was watching this thing on castles.

You're gonna get some insight into my life right now.

Okay, some of you are gonna be disappointed, some of you are gonna be happy about it, but I'm watching a YouTube video on castles throughout Europe, and it's I found it fascinating because you can actually go and live in some of these castles right now.

They will pay you to live in some of these castles.

It's crazy.

And um, and so there was this, they're taking a tour through this castle, and you know, from a distance, you're like, wow, that's amazing.

And then you can't start getting in it, and you're like, This is horrible.

That's what you're it's got a moat around it.

It's like it sounds cool until you get in it.

You're like, this is this is a terrible way of living, is really what it is.

It's a you're going through that.

And the guy on there, he said he makes this comment.

He says, What people don't realize is that ordinary people, specifically in First World Nations, he's like, ordinary people are living exceedingly above, like their standard, our standard of living is exceedingly higher than the majority of even a royalty of the like pre-industrial age in the world.

I mean, just with the conveniences and what we have, our food, my goodness, our access to things.

And it's just like, and I'm like looking at that, I'm like, you're right.

I would much rather be in pretty much anybody's house than that, than that castle.

It just got me thinking.

I thought, you know, how easy is it to just get discontent?

You know, how easy is it to look around and to think to yourself, things aren't big enough, things aren't fast enough, things uh we don't have enough.

It's amazing our propensity to focus on what we don't have, to focus on what we think we need, to focus on uh to focus on the shortcomings that we feel like we have in our lives.

And I'm gonna tell you, this this idea of discontentment, it is really destructive.

In fact, we don't give it enough credit.

We don't, I think a lot of times we we don't, we really lose sight of of what it has, the potential that it has to rob us of opportunities, rob us of our joy, rob us of peace in our homes, to be quite honest with you.

And uh, so I want I want to give you, there's a few, like I this is not what I'm gonna teach you today is not exhaustive.

There's a I could we could probably spend quite a bit more time, but I'm just gonna give you some some observations and then and then we're gonna go to Philippians.

I want to teach you some some things that Paul says about this.

I'm gonna give you a couple enemies of of discon or of contentment.

Here's the first enemy of that of contentment I think is worth mentioning, and it's it's distraction.

Distraction.

This is a pretty broad category.

This is this is pretty broad.

Um look at this.

This is Luke 8.

Pull pull this verse up for us.

It says, Now the the ones that fell, he's he's interpreting a parable that he gave.

This is Jesus.

He's interpreting a parable that he just taught on.

And so some of you'll be familiar with this verse.

He says, The ones that fell among the thorns, he's talking about the seed that's sown, that's the word that that's being taught.

Those who've uh fell among the thorns, who when they have heard, so when we've heard the teaching, we go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life.

And then they don't produce any fruit.

Cares, pleasures, and riches, pleasures of life.

And I I'll give you another way to think about those.

It's like cares, it's like worry, it's worry about tomorrow.

That's what that is.

Rich is.

It's not that, it's not that God is opposed to you even having some success in your life and acquiring and having wealth.

And no, no, no.

It's it's a desire for more.

That's what that is.

Pleasures of life.

God's not against you enjoying your life.

Don't misinterpret that.

That's not what he's saying here.

What he's saying is he's going, he's talking about the things in your life that bring you comfort and satisfaction and have this way of getting in between your relationship with the Lord.

Those things that we go to to cope with, that we cope with instead of going to the Lord.

That's what he's talking about.

And distractions, these things that we, these ways that we live our life.

And I mean, we get busy, we we cope, we we get we get distracted.

And and really, when we live our life this way, what happens, what it is, is it it's us unanchored.

I love that phrase, unanchored.

That's a Bible way of talking.

Now, Paul talks about that.

It's it's this way where you're where you're unanchored.

So whatever comes your way, you're just sort of like tossed here and there, consumed with the things that are happening around you.

I I found this this uh I this like diagnostic deal.

And so I didn't make this up.

I found this online and I thought, well, this is kind of fun.

So I'm gonna go through this.

So if you if you're going, I'm I'm trying to I'm trying to identify my am I in this?

Am I distracted?

So here I'm just gonna go through this and see if you can see yourself in this a little bit.

What the distraction diagnostic, that's what I named it.

All right, here we go.

Uh, what do you reach for first when you feel pressure?

Phone scrolling, shopping, come on.

Let's we gotta be honest.

You're like, well, I I got pretty good habits.

It's like, and then and then we then we see your Amazon app.

You know what I'm saying?

It's just like, okay, okay, well, you're getting a little personal, I guess.

Shopping, Amazon, uh, food and drink, porn, work and productivity.

By the way, I'm not putting these aren't all in the same category, right?

These aren't all the same.

It's not like being hyper-productive is the same as having a habit of watching porn on a regular basis.

We're not saying that.

But we are saying that all of these things, like we we have a propensity to like go-to, shutting down and isolating.

I mean, that's not these aren't just habits, these are coping mechanisms.

And the Bible says that's a thorn.

And when it says, by the way, when this says that it doesn't produce like fruit, it doesn't come to maturity, it actually says it chokes it out.

It chokes it out, meaning it it pushes it, it pushes it out.

Here, look, I'm gonna keep going.

What what thought keeps looping in your mind when you try to be still?

Like, what well what if I'm I'm behind, I'm missing out, I need more.

Like that loop, that loop that keeps going on, that that is actually telling you something.

It's not just stop thinking, stop thinking.

No, no, no.

That's that's I that's helping you to you're identifying the place and the things and the cares of the world and the pleasures of life and and the things that we cope with.

And it's identifying that that question, that loop is identifying in the the place you're being like it's choking the word out of your life.

How about this?

What do you keep telling yourself you need more, you need before you can be content?

Come on, this is what do you need before you can be content?

The first one's the most obvious one.

You know, if I just had more, come on, just say, yeah, say it, money.

Come on, we've all had that thought many times, I'm sure.

Some of you are like, Yeah, I still think that that's true, Pastor.

Right?

But if I just had more money, then you fill in the blank.

If we just got more, just got out of the season.

Come on, how big confession, I've said that probably more than I should have said that in the last two years.

If we just get out of this season, if this building project just gets done on time, then I'm just being honest with you.

If my spouse changed, then I mean, I don't say that, maybe you say that, but you know, I believe it or not, I actually tried to preach.

I was like, I'm last week, I was like, I was determined, I'm gonna be here last week.

I was like, no, I gotta be.

We got two weeks left.

I'm gonna preach, you know.

And then I talked to my doctor and I talked to Bethany, and Bethany was like, You're an idiot.

Can you believe she talks to me like that?

That's unbelievable.

I'm kidding, she didn't say that to me.

I just made that up.

But that's what I heard when she looked at me.

That's what the look communicated to me.

I was like, Well, that kind of hurts my feelings a little bit, you know.

So if my spouse changed, I was you know, you're just saying, if if my job was different, if my job was different, that if-then statement that's that desire for more.

That's riches.

How about this?

What consistently steals your attention from what you say matters most?

Oh prayers kind of get crowded out.

Oh man.

Nothing like a Bible reading plan on your phone to just remind you how many days you've been distracted.

Come on, anybody else been in that spot?

You're like, wait, four days, six days, two weeks?

Catch me up.

Let's just ignore this, right?

Okay, come on.

Anyway, scripture becomes when I have time, family, our family start getting our leftovers, church becomes optional, living on purpose gets postponed.

Listen, distraction, and this is what I this is what I believe about, I believe about most of us here.

I don't I don't believe most of us are distracted because we're caught up doing bad things.

I think most of us are distracted because we get caught up doing good things.

They're just out of order in our life.

Distraction.

Here's the next one that's worth saying.

Honestly, this is probably on the same category as distraction, but it's worth saying comparison.

That's the other, it's the other major enemy of contempt, comparison.

Yeah, here's it.

There's three things that end up happening when you compare.

You'll you'll deny, you'll dismiss, and you'll diminish.

Deny, dismiss, and diminish.

I remember, I remember our first year of launching Freedom Church.

And I remember that first Easter, and we were so excited, we decided to do three services, and and uh we did the first two, and then we added one in the afternoon, and like seven people showed up to the third one that afternoon, okay?

So that was a little bit disappointing.

You know, it's like, oh wow, seven people are in this is great.

But here's the thing, but I remember coming up here and I thought, these seven people showed up to hear an Easter message, so I better bring my best.

So I believe I preached like the room is full, you know.

So I was like, I'm gonna we're gonna bring our best.

And a couple of them were our team members, and so they hadn't been, they hadn't heard an Easter message that day yet, that day yet.

So we did it, we did it like the room is full.

And listen, it was a great Sunday.

We had like 20 some salvations that day.

It was our first year in here.

Man, we were pretty excited.

I was honestly, I was feeling pretty good.

I was like, well, we learned a lesson.

Never have a service time at that time ever again.

That it was no big deal, right?

And I remember I going home and and I got home and I started, and I don't do this.

This is a I've learned you don't do this as a as a pastor, you just don't do this after a Sunday.

You don't go home and start scrolling.

You just don't do that.

It's just not good for your soul.

But I did that, and then I hadn't quite fully learned that lesson yet.

So I went home at Easter and I scrolled, and I started seeing like friends of mine, people I I knew of their churches are popping up, and they're just like, we led 1,000 people to Jesus today.

And I was just like, What?

A thousand people?

I was like, my goodness.

I was like, that's incredible.

And just like I was so excited because we had like this, like this music set that was just a little bit different than what we normally do, feeling all good.

And then I look on there and they're like, We flew in the the Philharmonic Symphony of New York to do our production.

I was like, dear Lord, you know, I just started feeling like this small.

I was like, man, and we're in a storefront, and uh, you know, it's just like this.

I started saying things, I'm being honest, I started saying things like, and I got this dinky little church in Williston.

Nobody's even heard of Williston, you know.

It's just like, what in the world?

It's amazing when you start comparing, you start denying, you start dismissing, in that story, you start diminishing the things that are going on in your life.

I'm telling you, it robs you, robs you of the contentment.

Oh, this is another one.

I this is worth saying.

How about this?

You know, if I just lived somewhere else, that you got I gotta say this because this is Williston.

I think everybody I've ever talked to at Williston at some point is either in the middle of telling themselves this, or they were at one point.

The geography lie, we'll call it that, the geography lie.

You know, if I just was in some other place, if I was just in a bigger city, if I was just out in the middle of absolute nowhere, which you are, because you're in Williston.

You don't get much more removed than this.

I mean, you're you're out there here.

But I'm just saying, we it's amazing.

It doesn't matter what it is.

You'll find a way to tell yourself if I would just get to that place.

You know, if my if my business was actually in a in a in a place where maybe the population was just a little bit higher, then then my business would be taken off right now.

I mean, we just have all these things we tell ourselves.

If I was just somewhere else, it would be a little bit better.

Tropical, right?

I need some palm trees.

You know, it's amazing.

We used to live in San Diego.

Now I know.

Set aside the fact that it's California, but it was San Diego.

Okay, so it was beautiful.

It was amazing.

I remember when we were first married, and I remember it was time to leave and was getting out of the Navy.

And I remember thinking, oh man, I can't wait to get out of here.

Can't wait to leave.

Can't wait to get it's like the most beautiful place.

It was beautiful.

I'm just gonna tell you, it took one year, one year of not being there.

And I was like, my goodness, I wish I was back in San Diego.

I was like, it didn't matter where I was, I just wished I was everywhere I wasn't.

It's amazing.

It's the geography line.

Discontentment.

And it robs you, it robs you of the calling in your life.

And honestly, it's exactly what that scripture says.

It chokes the word out of your life.

Oh, I missed the verse.

This is worth saying.

Pull up my verse here.

Let's read that.

We do not look at Paul says this.

We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves when they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves.

I mean, this is pretty blunt.

They are not wise.

And you know, it doesn't get any more clearer than that.

And it is an unwise road to take when we start looking around and comparing ourselves.

It'll rob you, rob you of your joy and your life.

It'll choke it out, choke the word out of you.

Again, I just I we think choke, but another way to think about it is like it's not all, again, with the distractions in the it's not all bad.

What it is, if you imagine, if you imagine your life as a room and you and you begin to focus on all of the other things, those things get bigger and bigger, and it pushes your calling, your family, your ideas, what God's given you, your responsibilities, the things that God actually wants to bring like joy to your life with, it begins to push all of that out to the sides, and eventually it chokes those things out of your life.

That's what it looks like.

That's what it looks like.

This is what this is why contentment matters.

We're gonna read this.

This is Philippians chapter 4, verse 9.

Philippians 4:9

I'm gonna I'm gonna start in there and for the sake of time, because I'm looking at the time, because I got stories I got I want to read to you today, and I don't I want to make sure that what I get that I get to those.

So this is this is uh Philippians 4, chapter 9.

You can follow on the screen with me.

He says, whatever.

Oh, let me give you some context first.

This church, if you if you forgot in the last few weeks, um, Philippians, this the Philippian church has been an extremely supportive church in in Paul's ministry.

And and quite honestly, hey, I I love the story of the Philippian church because they got started with like a girl that was like just delivered from like demonic influence.

It's got like a guard that was like suicidal at one point.

It's just not not your dream team, you know, launch crew for starting a church.

You know what I'm saying?

I love that.

I'm like, man, if they can do that there, man, we can do anything, you know.

I mean, there's hope.

That's right.

It's like, my goodness.

So I love that that part, and it turns into this like joy-filled, encouraging church that is just super generous in funding the ministry of for Paul and encouraging him, and it's amazing.

So that's what this is.

That's the context of this.

And he's writing back to them, and honestly, he's encouraging them and he's telling them thank you all at the same time.

He says, Whatever you've learned or received or heard from me or seen in me, put it into practice.

That is bold.

Come on, let's be honest.

If you had to say that, you'd be like, Well, minus what you heard and seen in me on Thursday.

Let's forget Thursday ever happened.

Come on.

You're like, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Whatever you've seen and heard and received, except Thursday.

Everything else is good to go.

Not Paul, though.

He's just like, yeah, whatever.

Do that.

Do that.

Listen, I I'm gonna I'm gonna be honest, I I'm not where Jesus wants me to be entirely.

I'm not there yet.

I'm definitely not the person I was 10 years ago or 20 years ago.

And I'm really grateful he's patient.

Really, really, I know, and you are too.

I mean, grateful he is so patient with us.

You know what we didn't tend to do?

We tend to put high expectations on people who are just getting going in their faith, and then we don't have high enough expectations on ourselves when we are farther along in our faith.

And I'm not talking about guilt and shame.

I'm not talking about that.

I'm talking about, yes, Jesus loves us how we are and the way we are.

He accepts us the way that we are and how we are, but membership in heaven is not the end goal.

Becoming like Jesus is the goal.

He keeps going.

He says, and the God of peace will be with you.

He says, I rejoiced greatly in the Lord that at last you renewed your concern for me.

Indeed, you were concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it.

They were giving to him, is what they were doing.

They're trying to financially support him.

That's what he's talking about.

He says, I'm not saying this because I'm in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.

I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty.

I've learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want, I can do all things through him who gives me strength.

I love this.

Let me give you let me give you some keys, because he kind of gives us some keys, some insight into contentment.

Here's the first one.

First of all, contentment is learned.

It's not automatic.

That's what he says.

He says it twice in here, actually.

He says, I have learned to be content.

And then he says it three lines later, I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation.

It's learned, it's not automatic.

And I think that goes, I think that's a twofold lesson for for a lot of us.

I think, I think, first of all, it's a lesson for those of us who are just getting going.

Like this isn't automatic.

And you maybe you maybe you you started following Jesus in the last year or even just the last few years, and you got things that you're you're figuring out.

And I'm gonna tell you what the devil will do.

He will, he will, he will convince you that you should be different, you should be farther along.

That's always the lie.

And I'm just gonna tell you, nobody expects that of you because it's a learn.

It's learned.

You this isn't always automatic.

These things we learn over over time.

And I think for the rest of us, I think that's always a good thing to remember too.

It's just like we don't stop learning these things either.

Come on.

We don't stop.

This is soul stuff.

I think sometimes when we think contentment, we hear that word, we instantly start thinking about possessions, finances, what do we have and not have.

No, no, no.

This is a soul issue, it's not a stuff issue, it's a soul thing.

I love this.

So, I mean, I'm how many I I think about there's a couple things I think about it when it comes to learning this stuff.

One, you got to be present to learn.

You know what I mean?

It's hard to learn when you're just not present in the moment.

You know, you're you're thinking about what's coming, you're thinking about what's ahead.

That's the cares of the world, the worries about tomorrow.

You start thinking about this stuff and and being fully present.

How many times, how many of you ever talk to somebody where you're like, I'm talking to you, but I like you're present, but you're not present.

You know what I'm talking about?

You know, you don't have to raise your hand.

How many times you find yourself doing that?

And then you think back and you're like, Yeah, you know, oh yeah, I forgot.

I did have that conversation.

But you know, you just weren't present.

You're thinking about other things.

And you know, I I know I've had whole seasons of my life where I've thought, I need to be better about that.

I need to, I need to think more about that.

When I'm talking to you at church, I need to be fully locked in and fully present with you.

And yeah, why?

But what because you're not gonna be able to learn if you're not good, if you don't start getting present, if you're not present.

Yeah.

Here's another one.

Here's another one.

Contentment comes from right thinking, not right circumstances.

He says that right in here.

He says, I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty.

He says that twice.

I know what it means to have to be in need, I know what it means to have plenty, I know what it means to to have very little, I know what it means to have a lot.

Like he's it's just like he's been there.

He says that twice.

He knows that's not right circumstances, that's that's right thinking.

I'll even say this God doesn't have a problem with you having stuff, he has a problem with stuff having you.

It isn't it isn't about I know that if then scenario is so common, it's um for a lot of us, it's almost reflexive.

We just sort of like we just think that.

And I'm just telling you, it's not a circumstance.

Contentment is a thinking.

In fact, he gives us some insight.

I didn't read this in verse eight, it's right before where we started.

Look what he says here in verse eight.

Look how he addresses before he says all of this.

Look what he says in verse eight.

He says, Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, noble, whatever is right and pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things.

He's not talking about your circumstances, he's talking about what gets your attention, what gets your focus, what do you think about?

Unfortunately, the default for for most of us is what we don't have.

I will be totally honest with you.

My health stuff came up, and it's amazing.

I, you know, maybe I'd even said that this at times in the past, I thought, thank you, that I'm healthy.

Thank God I'm healthy.

And I and maybe I've even said it, but the truth is that didn't really sink in until I lost it.

And I think that that's too bad.

I think that that's too bad that that's kind of how we are wired a lot of times.

Let's be people who don't have to lose something in order to be grateful for something.

Do you know what the key is?

Do you know what the key is inside of that?

How you're thinking?

How do I how do you find contentment in what you're like in in little and a lot?

Gratitude is just woven all throughout what Paul is saying.

What is lovely and pure, like what gets your attention?

He that's gratitude.

It's laced through the whole thing.

What he's grateful for.

You can just tell reading it.

You just go, you can tell right there.

You don't even have to meet the guy.

You just read it and you go, Man, this guy is grateful.

He's just thankful all the time.

I love that.

Some of you need to make a better habit of that.

Man, I love this.

Bethany's been great about this in our family.

She does it with our kids.

She does this.

We'll be on a, we'll go on, we'll go out together, just the two of us.

She'll ask me these questions.

And she's just like, what are you grateful for in this season?

And we'll talk about that.

I'm telling you, it's like water to your soul when you start thinking about what I am grateful for?

What are we grateful for?

That's happening in our lives.

I'm telling you, it's it's a key to a contentment.

Um, it's a key to contentment.

All right, here we go.

Here's the next one.

Here's the next one.

Contentment is reliance on Jesus, not self.

This is probably one of the most popular verses in the whole Bible.

I can do all things through Christ.

I mean, you you've all heard it, we've all said it.

Listen, I the way it's used is not necessarily wrong.

I want to make sure you you hear what I'm saying.

It's not necessarily wrong the way people use that verse, right?

We we think about that, we apply that to everything.

But but I'm gonna I'm gonna show you something you you need to see.

First of all, in the context of what we're talking about, that's where this verse lands.

Look at this verse.

Pull up, pull up my pull up my my slide.

Where's my slide?

There you go.

I can do all this through him who gives me strength.

Look at look at this.

Most of us always we always think it's the I can I can do.

That's what we always get our attention.

I can do.

But I'm gonna tell you what that it's through him is the key to this.

I can do through him.

And he and think about this, he's talking about contentment, he's talking about right thinking, he's talking about learning to be content.

I can do this.

This is hard, but I I can do this.

I can do I can do I can do this.

That's reliance on Jesus.

This, you know, I I I find a lot of times we get super worried, anxious about things in our life.

A lot of it's it's just kind of like a propensity.

We just kind of some of us have kind of like even conceded to it.

Well, it's just kind of my personality.

And a lot, and here's why here's why we do that, here's where anxiety often comes from, not always, but often comes from, is we're thinking about what's ahead in the future.

Right?

We're thinking about tomorrow.

We're thinking about, we're trying to figure out how how the future is gonna work out considering our current circumstances.

We're we're concerned about what we're going to lose considering what we're having to face today.

And and that's understandable.

But I'm gonna tell you why you have such high anxiety when you start doing that.

Because you don't have any grace for that.

What do I mean by that?

Look at that verse.

Oh, bring my verse back out.

It says this I can do all this.

What's this?

This is what you have on your plate right now.

You know, you have grace.

God, God will give you grace for today.

You know, He's not giving you grace for tomorrow.

He will give you grace for tomorrow, but He doesn't give you grace because you ain't there.

You're here.

This is that whole fully present stuff.

Some of us, we're so worried about tomorrow, we're so worried about how things are gonna work out down in the future, and it's just like, and you're wondering why you're anxious.

I'll tell you why you're anxious, because you're not wired to carry that yet.

You're not you there's probably things that he needs to do in you so that you actually have the ability to even navigate that season.

Of course, you're worried about that next season.

You're not prepared for that next season yet.

You're being prepared.

You don't have grace for the future yet.

You have grace for today.

I can do all of this that's on my plate that I have.

I can maximize my day.

I can get I can get the most out of it.

I can do this today.

I'm not in tomorrow.

I'm not even guaranteed tomorrow.

I don't even know if I'm gonna be here tomorrow.

None of us do.

So I got grace for today, and I can do this.

Whatever's on my plate, I can do that, and I can be content.

I'm gonna give you one one other aspect of being content.

One other aspect of being content, and maybe I'll just read this to you.

Your ability to live on purpose isn't mainly about your talent or your hustle.

Who wants to live on purpose?

You want to live on purpose?

You want your life to count?

Believe it or not, it it's a there's a direct correlation here between your life counting and you living on purpose and your ability to get a hold of the contentment that God wants you to have for your life.

It's actually about staying steady, living on purpose.

I can't tell you how many times I've almost robbed my my lot my own life and my family of purpose because you just get a little bit unsettled and you think, well, maybe I ought to just go do something different.

It's like, oh boy, if I would have done that, boy, I would have really missed out.

That's discontentment that does that.

One of the biggest enemies of discontentment is uh one of the biggest enemies of you being effective in your life is discontentment.

And I've never met anybody that doesn't want their life to count.

We want to be effective.

We want to say it on purpose.

And I'm gonna say it really plainly, discontentment makes you less effective.

It makes you less effective.

I said, I'm a, I'm a I'm a I'm a doer a lot of times.

Like I've I've got always I've always had a reputation.

Everywhere I've been, I, you know, we've been here, we've been living here for six years, five years now at freedom, and a pastor at another church in Oklahoma, and um telephone company before that, Navy before that.

Everywhere I've ever been, I've always been known as the person that that gets things done.

And I know you can I'm telling you this because I know you can relate to this.

Because we're that kind of people, that's the kind of town we live in.

We're people who get stuff done.

We just have a way.

It's like, well, we don't know what to do, man.

We don't know what to do, Jan.

Come down.

It's like, okay, let's let's take care of business.

I'm just gonna tell you right now, um, um, your ability to be effective in your life is gonna come down to whether or not you're willing to obey and do the things that are hard and seem, they seem, they seem like they're not accomplishing much.

And that, but this is how this is how meaningful things are built in our lives.

Marriages aren't built on the first year.

Thank God they're not built in the first 12 months, right?

It's built over the long haul.

You don't raise your kids in a week, you don't raise your kids in a year, you raise them over a many, many, many years.

You don't, I'm just telling you, you talk to anybody who's actually like built something like organizationally, something that's meaningful and that's gonna last.

That wasn't built in a day, it was built over time.

And I guarantee you, there's a lot of those days you don't feel like anything's happening.

So I'm gonna read some things that have happened in our church.

Uh, this isn't even five years, this is just the last year and even then, even the last few months.

And I want to just say this two things.

The people's stories, these are these are people that said, I'm gonna do, I'm gonna say yes to Jesus when it doesn't make sense and it doesn't seem like anything's happening.

And I want, and I want to say to all of you who've been a part of Freedom Church for the last five years, there's been a lot of Sundays where we've come in here and we're like, man, this is kind of a light Sunday, didn't really feel like anything's happening, but because we continually came back and just said yes and we keep moving forward and taking the step that's in front of us, I'm just gonna tell you fruit, maturity, effectiveness.

Why?

A willingness to be content with what God has given us now, right now, today.

Look at this.

This is a lady in our church, her and her husband have been coming to freedom for months, plugged into teams.

They have a daughter and a son-in-law who had really not been to church in a while.

They invited them, now they're attending regularly, and uh they're just like, it's cool to see.

They're our family legacy is changing, is what they said.

What the heck?

This certain lady she says, I grew up in church whole life, but never felt at home or desire to even prioritize church.

Um, honestly didn't even like church, is what she says.

But since coming to freedom, not only does she say she loves being here, she feels more at home.

She says she never really wanted to go anywhere by herself.

She does, she actually says, I want to come to church.

Even if I'm by myself, I don't care.

I'm coming to church.

I mean, how cool is that story?

Here's another one came to church.

This is just a couple weeks ago.

Came to church a couple weeks ago, and uh experiencing some health issues, couldn't express how much freedom has meant to her.

Um, she's been coming longer than that.

I'm sorry, I misread that.

She says she's never felt more at peace and more joy than she does now.

She's she loves freedom, feels at home and welcome.

She doesn't like going, I love this, doesn't like going places by herself, and normally that would have kept her from coming to church, but she says now she looks forward to coming to church and can't imagine missing.

She said she's never experienced anything like this before.

Come on now, ain't that good?

Here we go.

I got more.

Let's go.

Come on.

I I never knew what spiritual family was really all about.

I grew up in church and served because it was just the thing that you were supposed to do, and I found purpose in serving Jesus' church.

And I have a community of people who walk with me and care with me, and I couldn't be more grateful for Freedom Church.

Come on.

My life has been forever changed by freedom here at Freedom.

Before here, I didn't I didn't fully understand my place in Jesus' church or realize that he had given me unique gifts to help reach lost people and build their lives on him.

Since being part of freedom, I've discovered a deeper sense of purpose, fulfillment, and joy than I've ever thought possible.

I've grown both relationally and spiritually, and now know Jesus in ways I didn't even realize I was missing.

I'm forever grateful for Jesus and the church.

Since joining Freedom Church, I've found true freedom in Christ.

I didn't realize how much uh more God had in store for my life.

But through serving and being part of this church, I've discovered my purpose.

I love that.

Freedom Church has introduced me to some of my dearest friends and given me a spiritual family I'm so grateful for.

Since being at Freedom Church, I've grown spiritually, built lifelong relationships, and have been truly cared for in the hard seasons of my life.

I am forever grateful for the love, care, and encouragement that Freedom Church pours out so selflessly.

It's truly a place that wants more for me than it does from me.

I don't even, I'm just gonna keep on going.

We're gonna keep on reading.

Here we go.

I just hope this builds your faith a little bit for where you're at.

I got a few minutes.

We're gonna be okay.

All right, here we go.

I don't, I didn't even know I needed community when I came to Freedom Church.

And serving at freedom has changed how I show up for God.

Having a purpose in serving has helped me dive deeper in my relationship with God.

Walking through these doors, I felt like I was home.

Like I'd been to I'd been to church before, but freedom was different.

Being a part of a Bible-teaching church has transformed my life.

We were newly married and struggling in our marriage.

This is Logan and Casey leading leading freedom because this is their story, part of their story.

We were newly married and struggling in our marriage.

We both knew we needed something bigger than us to get through the rough patch.

Logan grew up in church and I didn't.

The Sunday we walked into freedom, the message was marriage in the way of Jesus.

If that ain't the Lord, I don't know what it is.

And it was like Pastor Jason was speaking directly to us.

At the time, I didn't know it was the Holy Spirit, but now I do.

Since that Sunday, we both have gone all in at freedom.

Logan serving on the worship team and myself serving in kids.

My faith has grown stronger with every yes we have said at freedom.

We have made some huge faith steps, and God has provided in ways I never thought were imaginable.

Almost three years later, we lead ministry together.

Our marriage is stronger, our children love Jesus and love to pray.

Come on, how about that?

We have been blessed with amazing spiritual family and community, not only for us, but our children too.

Freedom Church has changed our lives, and we are truly grateful for it.

Unbelievable.

Her husband decided to commit to coming to Freedom Church in the last few years.

They made Freedom Church their home.

She says she's never missed a sermon, even it was, even if it meant listening on the podcast.

Says she's uh she's had to cut ties.

There's been some like dysfunction in her family, but she's been craving for community.

And she says the support that's come from this community now.

She's getting plugged in, building community, finding family.

That's called redemption, right there.

I can't get through all these.

I got how much time do I got?

Okay.

Let me skip ahead.

Let's read some stuff from students.

You want to read some students?

Come on now.

I love this.

We just found this out this last week.

Since launching, we've had 45 students either give their life to Jesus for the first time or recommit their lives to Jesus.

How about that?

How about

Them.

These are things that students, these are students.

The church has made me grow closer to God.

Also, it feels like a place I can talk to people.

That's uh the leaders are always so my animals are crying.

The leaders are always so welcoming and kind.

I've made so many lifelong friends here.

I can totally tell God is moving and has amazing plans for our church.

I knew God existed, but and I and but I left him in the background.

When I first came to Freedom Students, there was about eight of us around the table.

We hadn't even launched Freedom Students.

That was just like a small group around the table.

I didn't know it.

I didn't know it then, but this place is going to change my life.

I feel that ever since I came here, I felt welcomed, and I haven't felt that anywhere else before.

When I came to Freedom Students, um, or hold on, seriously says, we had just moved here and left all my friends and most of my family behind, and I was so nervous and scared.

But when I got to Freedom Students, I was greeted with hugs, and all the leaders were so nice, and they started conversations with me.

I've never felt so welcomed.

I've never felt so welcomed.

I've made so many friends and I've got new opportunities to move to the toward the Lord.

I owe so much to Freedom Students.

I love that way to go.

I gotta skip ahead.

I'm just gonna lose time and they're gonna be mad at us if I don't.

All right.

Here's a student one.

I made a decision to follow Jesus here at Freedom Students.

Let's go.

I got baptized here at Free Church, is what he says.

He says, I've been through some hard times.

But he goes, but my I feel like he says, I feel like lately I've been through some hard times, but my faith is high.

I got a smile on my face, and I'm dunking on Carson.

Let's go.

Where are you at, Carson?

I love that.

He's like, it's been a year.

I love it.

Here's a nice one.

He says, God, this is in quotes.

This is I this girl says this.

It's in quotes.

She says, God loves me from the day I was born.

That's revelation.

Look at that.

She says, My life experience at freedom is one of the best in my life.

Especially meeting and seeing Miss P is what she says.

That's Cassidy right here.

How about that?

Oh my goodness.

I love that.

I went too long.

Okay, here we go.

I got two more.

I gotta read two more.

Okay, here we go.

Some of you need healing in your life.

Here's two stories.

I'll end on these right here.

This is great.

You don't know this.

People come down here for prayer.

This lady was dealing with stomach pain for four years.

Four years of stomach pain.

And she came down here and she prayed.

She prayed with some members of our team, and we prayed for either answers or immediate healing.

Whatever, whatever comes, whatever.

She saw a doctor that very week, and they actually diagnosed her that week.

They treated her that week.

No pain.

Four years.

Oh, right up there.

So, in case you are wondering, that's happening here.

Here's one more.

She comes from a past of pain, started coming to Freedom Church with her daughter after her daughter invited her.

Come on now.

Sons and daughters inviting their parents to church.

She says each time she would come, she would just ball, like just moved.

She says she's taking steps, joining a team, slowly letting people in, trusting people has been very hard for her, but she's found so much healing here at Freedom Church.

Physical healing, emotional healing.

I got more.

I had to skip some.

Guys, guys, come on.

The last day is way more important than the first day.

So encouraging.

Let's pray.

Father God, we love you.

Thank you for what you're doing here.

If you're in the room and you've never committed your life to Jesus, He died for your sins, he rose again on the third day.

And the on the in the way, and this is this is eternal life.

It's not go to heaven so you don't go to hell.

It's know Jesus and be with him.

And if you don't know him and you don't know what it's like to be with him, and you haven't experienced what the Bible would call being born again and experience salvation, and you haven't committed your life to him and made him Lord of your life, then I want you to do that right now.

Just make this prayer your own.

Jesus, I give you my life.

Be the Lord of my life.

Thank you for saving me.

I'm going to follow you from this day forward.

I love you.

We love you, Jesus.

And it's in your name we pray.

Everybody said, Amen.

Hey, one more time.