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Pastor Chuck Swindoll | Insight for Living – What a Way to Live! │ Ms... · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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Speaker 1: I don't know if you've found this out or not,
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Speaker 1: but I've discovered that the pursuit of happiness is usually
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Speaker 1: a hunt for greener grass. If only I had we
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Speaker 1: often see, or maybe we think, if only I could,
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Speaker 1: and on and on those if only go But everyone
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Speaker 1: who nibbles on someone else's grass eventually gets a stomach ache.
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Speaker 1: What we need, then, isn't another greener lawn to nibble on,
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Speaker 1: but a completely different way of defining happiness. Happiness isn't
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Speaker 1: out there in the circumstances of life. It's really in here,
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Speaker 1: down deep in our attitudes about life. Think about that
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Speaker 1: happiness quite simply is a choice, a choice to pursue
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Speaker 1: possessions or to pursue a person that's with a capital P.
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Speaker 1: And each of us faces this choice every day we live.
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Speaker 1: A man named Paul, who lived in the first century,
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Speaker 1: gives us some insights for making the right choices in
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Speaker 1: his little but powerful letter to the Philippians. So I
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Speaker 1: want you to turn with me to this letter Philippians,
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Speaker 1: Chapter one. I want to begin reading at verse twelve
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Speaker 1: down through verse twenty one. Listen closely, Philippians chapter one,
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Speaker 1: beginning at verse twelve. Now I want you to know, brethren,
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Speaker 1: that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress
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Speaker 1: of the Gospel, so that my imprisonment in the cause
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Speaker 1: of Christ has become well known throughout the whole Praetorian
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Speaker 1: Guard and to everyone else, And that most of the brethren,
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Speaker 1: trusting in the Lord, because of my imprisonment, have far
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Speaker 1: more courage to speak the Word of God without fear. Some,
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Speaker 1: to be sure, are preaching Christ even from envy and strife,
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Speaker 1: but some also from goodwill. The latter do it out
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Speaker 1: of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense
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Speaker 1: of the Gospel. The former proclaimed Christ out of selfish ambition,
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Speaker 1: rather than from pure motives, thinking to cause me distress
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Speaker 1: in my imprisonment. What then, only that in every way,
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Speaker 1: whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed. And
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Speaker 1: in this I rejoice, Yes, and I will rejoice, for
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Speaker 1: I know that this will turn out for my deliverance
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Speaker 1: through your prayers and the provision of the Spirit of
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Speaker 1: Jesus Christ, according to my earnest expectation and hope that
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Speaker 1: I will not be put to shame in anything, but
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Speaker 1: that with all boldness Christ will even now as always
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Speaker 1: be exalted in my body. Whether by life or by death.
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Speaker 1: For to me, to live is Christ and to die
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Speaker 1: is Gain. Some of you were children of the sixties
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Speaker 1: and into the seventies. Others of you were children of
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Speaker 1: the fifties. I was a child of the thirties and
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Speaker 1: of the forties. And I remember when I first said
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Speaker 1: that to our children, as they were old enough to understand.
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Speaker 1: They stared disbelieving at me across the table, and one asked, Daddy,
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Speaker 1: did they have catchup when you were a little boy. Yeah.
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Speaker 1: I was happy to tell them. They also had the wheel,
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Speaker 1: and electricity and other advanced technology. But what they didn't
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Speaker 1: have was television. No television. And if you are of
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Speaker 1: my vintage, you remember that what you did for pastime
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Speaker 1: was listened to some of the great radio dramas and
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Speaker 1: comedy shows of the thirties and the forties, like The
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Speaker 1: Green Hornet and The Lone Ranger and gang Busters and
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Speaker 1: Jack Armstrong, the All American Boy, and Lumon Abner and
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Speaker 1: Amos and Andy and Fiber McGee and Molly Edgar Bergen
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Speaker 1: and Charlie McCarthy. But if we were really good, and
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Speaker 1: if we got our homework done, we would be allowed
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Speaker 1: to sit up on Friday night and listen to Inner Sanctum,
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Speaker 1: which got us as scared we couldn't go to sleep
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Speaker 1: till midnight. But my favorite of all the radio shows
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Speaker 1: was and I don't know why, but it was was
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Speaker 1: one I always listened to. It was called mister District Attorney.
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Speaker 1: You remember that one. In fact, the announcer every time
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Speaker 1: he introduced the show used the same lines, and I
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Speaker 1: memorized those lines, and he talked about mister District Attorney,
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Speaker 1: the champion of justice, the advocate of the people, the
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Speaker 1: defender of our rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit
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Speaker 1: of happiness. And I would get up and I would
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Speaker 1: say those words, as the announcer would say. I was
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Speaker 1: sort of a snotty little kid when I was that age.
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Speaker 1: Now that I've grown up, I have discovered that those
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Speaker 1: lines the pursuit of happiness, In fact, life, liberty and
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Speaker 1: the pursuit of happiness are not just words that appeared
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Speaker 1: on an old radio show, but they come directly from
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Speaker 1: one of our greatest of all documents, our Declaration of Independence,
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Speaker 1: written by Thomas Jefferson, and the full paragraph reads, we
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Speaker 1: hold these truths to be self evident, that all men
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Speaker 1: are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator
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Speaker 1: with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty,
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Speaker 1: and the pursuit of happiness. Well, now those may be
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Speaker 1: our rights, and we may, indeed we are willing to
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Speaker 1: die for those rights. But now that I'm a man
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Speaker 1: and have had time to think about those last three words,
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Speaker 1: I question that happiness comes as a result of a pursuit.
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Speaker 1: When was the last time you really found joy outside yourself?
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Speaker 1: What is there that we can pursue that will bring
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Speaker 1: the kind of satisfaction and joy of which the declaration speaks.
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Speaker 1: I know of nothing. Nothing, nothing with a price tag,
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Speaker 1: brings lasting joy, no possession, no choice of friend or mate.
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Speaker 1: Joy is a choice. It's the result of a decision
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Speaker 1: that one makes to be happy. You see. I think
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Speaker 1: if there is any pursuit in it, it's an internal pursuit.
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Speaker 1: It is an inner journey that leads one to joy,
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Speaker 1: regardless of external circumstances. GW Target, in a fine short
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Speaker 1: story entitled The Window, illustrates this perfectly. There were once
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Speaker 1: two men, both seriously ill, in the same small room
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Speaker 1: of a great hospital, quite a small room, just large
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Speaker 1: enough for the pair of them. Two beds, two bedside locks,
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Speaker 1: a door opening on the hall, and one window looking
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Speaker 1: out on the world. One of the men, as part
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Speaker 1: of his treatment, was allowed to sit up in bed
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Speaker 1: for an hour in the afternoon, something to do with
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Speaker 1: draining the fluid from his lungs, and his bed was
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Speaker 1: next to the window, But the other man had to
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Speaker 1: spend all his time flat on his back, and both
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Speaker 1: of them had to be quiet and still, which was
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Speaker 1: the reason they were in this small room by themselves.
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Speaker 1: Of course, one of the disadvantages of their condition was
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Speaker 1: that they weren't allowed to do much. No reading, no radio,
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Speaker 1: certainly no television. Well, they used to talk for hours
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Speaker 1: and hours about their wives, their children, their homes, their jobs,
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Speaker 1: their hobbies, their childhood, of what they did during the war,
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Speaker 1: where they had been on vacations, all that sort of thing.
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Speaker 1: Every afternoon, when the man on the in the bed
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Speaker 1: next to the window was propped up for his hour,
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Speaker 1: he would pass the time by describing what he could
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Speaker 1: see outside, and the other man began to live for
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Speaker 1: those hours. The window apparently overlooked a park with a
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Speaker 1: lake where there were ducks and swans, children throwing them
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Speaker 1: bread and sailing. Modeled boots, and young lovers walking hand
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Speaker 1: in hand beneath the trees, and there were flowers and
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Speaker 1: stretches of grass, games of softball, people taking their ease
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Speaker 1: in the sunshine, and right there at the back, behind
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Speaker 1: the fringe of trees, a fine view of the city skyline.
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Speaker 1: The man on his back would listen to all this,
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Speaker 1: enjoying every minute. How a child nearly fell into the lake,
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Speaker 1: how beautiful girls were in their summer dresses. Then an
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Speaker 1: exciting ball game, or a boy playing with his puppy.
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Speaker 1: It got to the place that he could almost see
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Speaker 1: what was happening outside. Then one fine afternoon, when there
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Speaker 1: was some sort of parade, the thought struck him. Why
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Speaker 1: should the man next to the window have all the
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Speaker 1: pleasure of seeing what was going on? Why shouldn't he
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Speaker 1: get the chance. He felt ashamed, and he tried not
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Speaker 1: to think like that, But the more he tried, the
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Speaker 1: worse he wanted to change. He would do anything. In
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Speaker 1: a few days, he had turned sour he should be
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Speaker 1: by the window, And he brooded and couldn't sleep, and
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Speaker 1: grew even more seriously ill. One night, as he stared
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Speaker 1: at the ceiling, the other man with the window suddenly
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Speaker 1: woke up coughing and choking, the fluid congesting in his lungs,
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Speaker 1: his hands groping for the button that would bring the
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Speaker 1: night nurse running. But the man in the other bed
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Speaker 1: watched without moving, and never reached for his button. The
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Speaker 1: coughing racked the darkness and on and on, choked off,
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Speaker 1: and then stopped. The sound of breathing stopped, and the
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Speaker 1: man continued to stare at the ceiling. In the morning,
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Speaker 1: the day nurse came in with water for their baths
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Speaker 1: and found the other man dead. They took away his
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Speaker 1: body quietly, no fuss, as soon as it seemed decent.
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Speaker 1: The man asked if he could be moved to the
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Speaker 1: bed next to the window, and they moved him, tucked
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Speaker 1: him in and made him quite comfortable, and left him
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Speaker 1: alone to be quiet and still. The minute they had gone,
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Speaker 1: he propped himself up on one elbow, painfully and laboriously,
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Speaker 1: and looked out the window. It faced a blank wall.
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Speaker 1: One man illustrates the desperate desire for circumstances to make
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Speaker 1: him happy. The pursuit of happiness is a bed by
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Speaker 1: the window. But the other man illustrates a deliberate choice
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Speaker 1: of joy regardless of the fact that his window opens
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Speaker 1: onto a blank wall. Which one are you? What will
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Speaker 1: it take to get you smiling again? How long will
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Speaker 1: it be before you will become the source of joy
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Speaker 1: rather than the dreamer of it? How many more months
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Speaker 1: will pass as you lie on your bed envying those
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Speaker 1: who seem to have life put together or seem to
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Speaker 1: have the better portion of God's favor. No, life is
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Speaker 1: a gift from God. Liberty is a pleasure that we
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Speaker 1: enjoy and defend. But happiness, it isn't a pursuit. It
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Speaker 1: is a choice. Let me think of it in two
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Speaker 1: columns for the next few moments. Think of this mindset
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Speaker 1: of joy and happiness as a positive mindset, and think
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Speaker 1: of the mindset of needing someone or something else to
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Speaker 1: make me happy as a negative mindset. And in those
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Speaker 1: two columns, let's build a list, shall we. On the
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Speaker 1: left side, let's put the negative mindset, and on the
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Speaker 1: right the positive. And listen closely. This isn't some dreamy
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Speaker 1: story that comes out of an individual's imagination. As we
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Speaker 1: will see, it is directly linked to the truth of scripture.
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Speaker 1: The negative mindset. What's true of those people? Number one?
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Speaker 1: They need certain things before they can be joyful. If
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Speaker 1: I just had that new car, if I could just
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Speaker 1: finish my education, if I just knew what it was
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Speaker 1: like to be out of debt, if I only could
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Speaker 1: have that position of power and influence in the company,
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Speaker 1: if we could only turn the corner in our business.
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Speaker 1: They need things before they can be joyful. The positive person,
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Speaker 1: on the other hand, they need virtually nothing tangible. They
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Speaker 1: need virtually nothing tangible. Here's another Those with a negative
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Speaker 1: mindset are those who are dependent upon others to provide
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Speaker 1: them with joy. They are dependent upon other people to
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Speaker 1: make them happy. The wife who says, if I only
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Speaker 1: had this kind of husband, I would be I would
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Speaker 1: be fulfilled, I would be happy. The husband who says,
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Speaker 1: if I could only get rid of this woman, I
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Speaker 1: could really be happy again. Somebody else is my source
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Speaker 1: of joy or sorrow? No, no, no, thousand times no.
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Speaker 1: But that's the way the negative mindset works. The positive
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Speaker 1: are those who create their own reasons for joy. Whether
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Speaker 1: or not the children are healthy, whether or not the
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Speaker 1: report from the doctor was good, whether or not the
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Speaker 1: individual who lives next door is friendly, whether or not
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Speaker 1: you were chosen for that office, whether or not your
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Speaker 1: business is successful because people come to you and make
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Speaker 1: it that way. N they create their own reasons for joy.
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Speaker 1: Here's one more. The negative mindset would be those who
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Speaker 1: see joy as always out there, always in the future.
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Speaker 1: But the positive claim joy now. It's a present reality.
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Speaker 1: It's not something that's dangled at the end of an education,
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Speaker 1: or something that comes at the completion of a long
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Speaker 1: trip or a wedding at the altar. It's not something
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Speaker 1: that will someday happen. It's something that I claim today
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Speaker 1: right now. Everything of any lasting nature related to joy.
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Speaker 1: Listen to this comes from what we think on, not
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Speaker 1: what we own, not what somebody provides, and not what
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Speaker 1: will someday happen in the future. Let me show you
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Speaker 1: this in Philippians chapter four. If you have a Bible,
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Speaker 1: locate the fourth chapter of this great book on joy
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Speaker 1: and observe how the great Apostle Paul describes a joyful
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Speaker 1: mindset chapter four, verse eight. Finally, Brethren, whatever is true,
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Speaker 1: whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever
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Speaker 1: is lovely, whatever is of good repute. The Living Bible says,
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Speaker 1: whatever is true, good, right, pure, lovely, and fine. If
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Speaker 1: there is any excellence, and if anything worthy of praise.
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Speaker 1: Let your mind dwell on these things. No wonder, he
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Speaker 1: could say in verse ten, I rejoiced in the Lord greatly.
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Speaker 1: I rejoiced in the Lord. I didn't rejoice in circumstances.
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Speaker 1: I didn't rejoice because other people liked me and applauded
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Speaker 1: my efforts and appreciated me and affirmed me. I didn't
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Speaker 1: rejoice because I knew sometime in the future things would
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Speaker 1: work out. I rejoiced now today. It is a mindset.
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Speaker 1: I have a little book. It's not a little book.
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Speaker 1: It's a fat little book. It's over six hundred pages
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Speaker 1: long from an author who has her PhD from a
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Speaker 1: university in England, and it's entitled fourteen thousand Things to
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Speaker 1: be Happy About. There they are if you ever wondered,
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Speaker 1: and they're all kinds of things listening. It's a twenty
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Speaker 1: year search she's been on and she's now put this
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Speaker 1: in the covers between the covers of a book. And
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Speaker 1: I've read some of them and I haven't found one
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Speaker 1: thing that will make anybody happy, because they're all outside now.
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Speaker 1: Nothing wrong with it. It's a fine little work. It
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Speaker 1: helps you remember your blessings. In fact, we're told in
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Speaker 1: scripture to remember the things and to be grateful for them.
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Speaker 1: And here's a good way to do some remembering. But
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Speaker 1: you know, it's like that pursuit of happiness. You can
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Speaker 1: have all of these warm little fuzzies and be miserable
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Speaker 1: because you choose to be. And you can have very
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Speaker 1: few of these fourteen thousand things and be a contagious
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Speaker 1: source of joy in your community, or in your hospital
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Speaker 1: room or in your home because you think on these things.
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Speaker 1: Think of your mind as a bank. Think of the
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Speaker 1: thoughts you place in your mind as your deposits. Your
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Speaker 1: mind will not release what you have not deposited. And
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Speaker 1: the benefit of that withdrawal when you have placed those
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Speaker 1: things you've been thinking on. The benefit is that joy
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Speaker 1: comes as the interest. When you withdraw the thoughts you
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Speaker 1: have put in your mind, you have joy coming in
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Speaker 1: addition to the thoughts. Paul is a classic example. A
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Speaker 1: classic example here is a man who has written a
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Speaker 1: four chapter book, only one hundred and four verses in
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Speaker 1: the English version of our Bibles, and it pulsates with
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Speaker 1: joy and happiness. And it isn't something that he dreams
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Speaker 1: about or pursues. It's a claim. And if you don't
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Speaker 1: know the man. You wouldn't realize that he is the
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Speaker 1: man who wanted to go to Rome. But he wanted
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Speaker 1: to go as a preacher. God took him there as
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Speaker 1: a prisoner. He wanted to speak to the Emperor as
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Speaker 1: a free man, as he represented the case. Because you
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Speaker 1: may not know it, but as a Roman citizen, he
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Speaker 1: had every right to appeal to Caesar, which he has done,
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Speaker 1: and to await an audience before the Emperor, which he
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Speaker 1: is doing. But you know how he got that audience. Listen.
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Speaker 1: He was illegally arrested in Jerusalem. The Jews claimed that
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Speaker 1: he had desecrated the temple. The Romans thought he was
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Speaker 1: an Egyptian renegade. He became a pawn in the hands
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Speaker 1: of the political machinery of the Roman Empire. Nothing more
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Speaker 1: than that. He finally was granted a trip to Rome,
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Speaker 1: but it wasn't in luxury. It was on a ship
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Speaker 1: that while in the Mediterranean, it was ship wrecked. He
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Speaker 1: was washed ashore along with other people that have been
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Speaker 1: on the ship. And after a period of waiting, he
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Speaker 1: finally got to Rome. And when he was placed under
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Speaker 1: the authority of the Roman officials, he was chained to
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Speaker 1: a Roman soldier in a house arrest, where he sat
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Speaker 1: for two years and more awaiting an audience with the emperor. Now,
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Speaker 1: I want to ask you, are his circumstances enough to
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Speaker 1: make anybody joyful? He does get the wrong, but he's
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Speaker 1: a prisoner. He will get a hearing, but it will
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Speaker 1: be with chains. And in the meantime he's forgotten, like
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Speaker 1: a fugitive lost in the wilderness. And he's done nothing
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Speaker 1: illegal or wrong. You know what the word for that
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Speaker 1: is today victimized. He is victimized. He didn't bring it
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Speaker 1: on himself. It happened to him and other people were
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Speaker 1: unfair and judgmental, and they put him under arrest and
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Speaker 1: chained him to a soldier and said, now there you wait.
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Speaker 1: And he writes a letter about joy. And had you
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Speaker 1: or I had this happened to us, it's interesting to
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Speaker 1: contrast what kind of letter we would have written. I
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Speaker 1: wonder if the theme would have been joy. The man
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Speaker 1: is confident even though he's a victim. Verse twelve, Chapter one.
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Speaker 1: Now I want you to know, brother, I smile when
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Speaker 1: I read that, because that's usually what other people say
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Speaker 1: to us when the bottom drops out of our lives.
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Speaker 1: People feel the need to preach. They have these shoulds,
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Speaker 1: they have these thoughts, they have these musts. They usually
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Speaker 1: have verses to back up what they say. Now, I
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Speaker 1: want you to know, but Paul is saying, this is
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Speaker 1: the Philippians. What a change of a direction. I, the prisoner,
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Speaker 1: want you free people, my brothers and sisters in Christ,
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Speaker 1: to know something. I'm confident why. I want you to
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Speaker 1: know that my circumstances have turned out for the greater
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Speaker 1: progress of the Gospel, so that my imprisonment in the
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Speaker 1: cause of Christ has become well known throughout the whole
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Speaker 1: Praetorian Guard and to everyone else, And that most of
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Speaker 1: the brethren trusting in the Lord, because of my imprisonment,
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Speaker 1: have far more courage to speak the Word of God
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Speaker 1: without fear. Now that's not a tongue twister, that's not
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Speaker 1: a theological riddle that makes good sense. But it's so amazing.
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Speaker 1: Reminds me of the man by the window. Outside the
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Speaker 1: window is a blank wall. There is nothing on the future,
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Speaker 1: nothing on the horizon, that would cause him to say,
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Speaker 1: I can hardly wait for tomorrow. Well, he's as good
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Speaker 1: as dead. But he sees the lake and the swans
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Speaker 1: and the children, and the girls, and the ballgame, and
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Speaker 1: the rainbows and the skyline. For example, My circumstances have
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Speaker 1: turned out for the greater, not regress, but progress of
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Speaker 1: the Gospel. I love that the word he uses for
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Speaker 1: progress is an ancient word that had to do with
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Speaker 1: a group of let's call him pioneer woodcutters, who would
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Speaker 1: precede an advancing army and clear out the underbrush or
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Speaker 1: cut down the trees that would be in the way
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Speaker 1: of the marching, progressing army. He says, my circumstances have
25:53
Speaker 1: cut away through the underbrush of life, so that of
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Speaker 1: all things, the Gospel, the marching army of God's message,
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Speaker 1: is moving ahead. These circumstances have just opened doors for that.
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Speaker 1: He's actually counting his blessings. Look at verse thirteen. The
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Speaker 1: result is my imprisonment in Christ. I think it's a
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Speaker 1: play on words. Here, my chains, my bonds. He's really
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Speaker 1: what he has in mind, My bonds to Christ, my
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Speaker 1: slavery to the Lord Jesus, which is he's tying in
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Speaker 1: with his slavery to the Romans. My mutual slavery has
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Speaker 1: become well known through the whole Praetorian Guard and to
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Speaker 1: everyone else. You see, if you had been a Roman guard,
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Speaker 1: you would have heard the Gospel day after day after day,
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Speaker 1: and you would be what I would call a captive audience.
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Speaker 1: You are chained on the arm of the apostle, or
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Speaker 1: at least to his wrist, and as you sit there,
26:56
Speaker 1: wiling away your time, you would hear the apostle praying.
27:01
Speaker 1: People would come to the house while he was under arrest,
27:04
Speaker 1: they were granted privilege of visitation, and he would minister
27:07
Speaker 1: to them. He would encourage him, he would pray with him,
27:09
Speaker 1: he would lead them to the Savior. It got to
27:12
Speaker 1: where as those guards in their rotation would take the
27:15
Speaker 1: message back to the Imperial barracks, saying, you know, this
27:18
Speaker 1: prisoner's like no prisoner I've ever been changed to in
27:21
Speaker 1: my life. I mean, the guy's happy. The guy's talking
27:25
Speaker 1: about how great is God is. And it isn't Caesar,
27:30
Speaker 1: it isn't Nero. He's talking about some God of heaven
27:35
Speaker 1: whom we were never taught about as a child. And
27:37
Speaker 1: it became the buzzword of the barracks. The whole Praetorian
27:42
Speaker 1: guard got excited about and learned about the message of
27:47
Speaker 1: the Savior. How else could it have happened if it
27:50
Speaker 1: hadn't been for his circumstances Verse fourteen. And speaking of
27:58
Speaker 1: everybody hearing, most of the believers trusting in the Lord,
28:03
Speaker 1: because of my imprisonment, have even greater courage to speak
28:07
Speaker 1: the word of God without fear. That happened to us
28:12
Speaker 1: back when there was a Berlin Wall. That happened to
28:16
Speaker 1: us when word of smuggling Bibles came back to us
28:19
Speaker 1: in America. It came back to us when those horror
28:23
Speaker 1: stories out of Siberian frozen Siberian camps, when the word
28:29
Speaker 1: returned to us that there were believers who were testifying
28:33
Speaker 1: of their faith in the Savior in those adverse circumstances.
28:36
Speaker 1: And I don't know about you, but I found myself
28:39
Speaker 1: standing taller here in free America. I thought, if they
28:42
Speaker 1: could do that there, why in the world couldn't I
28:45
Speaker 1: do it here? I mean, if they would speak for
28:48
Speaker 1: the Savior in those awful conditions, what a privilege and
28:52
Speaker 1: what a joy is mine to do it in a
28:54
Speaker 1: land of free of a freedom. That's what he means.
29:00
Speaker 1: They have far more courage to speak the word of
29:02
Speaker 1: God without fear. You know what this reminds me of
29:04
Speaker 1: reminds me of Joseph in Genesis chapter fifty, when his
29:08
Speaker 1: identity has been made known to his brothers and their
29:11
Speaker 1: knees are shaking, and they're afraid he's gonna bring revenge
29:14
Speaker 1: because they're the ones that sold him into slavery, remember
29:16
Speaker 1: the story. They're the ones who lied to their father
29:19
Speaker 1: showed him garments that had blood on them, and he
29:22
Speaker 1: knew they were Joseph's garments, and the father assumed the
29:24
Speaker 1: boy was dead, which is exactly what the brothers wanted
29:27
Speaker 1: the daddy to assume. And years passed, Joseph was finally
29:31
Speaker 1: promoted to the prime ministership of the land of Egypt,
29:34
Speaker 1: and when a famine came, those brothers came with their
29:37
Speaker 1: hat in their hands, begging for help, and they stood
29:40
Speaker 1: before a man who finally identified himself as their long
29:42
Speaker 1: lost brother. Oh boy, they knew now the meaning of
29:47
Speaker 1: that little license plate border. I don't get mad, I
29:50
Speaker 1: get even. And they thought, now he's gonna get even,
29:54
Speaker 1: And Joseph says, no, no, no, no, you misunderstand Verse
29:58
Speaker 1: twenty Genesis fifty. God meant it. You meant it unto
30:02
Speaker 1: me for evil. But God meant it unto me for good.
30:08
Speaker 1: You see, Joseph was a happy man. He did not
30:12
Speaker 1: live his days as a prime minister of Egypt thinking
30:15
Speaker 1: just wait till I get my hands on those brothers
30:19
Speaker 1: of mine, those rascals. He thought, how great God has
30:27
Speaker 1: been to preserve me through all of these tests and trials.
30:32
Speaker 1: What a chance I have to display the grace of
30:35
Speaker 1: God to the ones who hurt me. And it turned
30:41
Speaker 1: out to the furtherance of the message of joy. He's
30:48
Speaker 1: joyful in spite of others Verses fifteen to eighteen of
30:51
Speaker 1: Philippians One. While counting his blessings, Paul bills on the
30:56
Speaker 1: thought out of verse fourteen. Look at fourteen again, most
31:02
Speaker 1: of the brethren have far more courage to speak the
31:05
Speaker 1: word of God without fear. Now, while thinking of those
31:09
Speaker 1: who are speaking the word of God, he now puts
31:13
Speaker 1: them in two different camps, some of them verse fifteen,
31:18
Speaker 1: others of them verse sixteen. Look at the two different camps. Some,
31:24
Speaker 1: to be sure, are preaching Christ even from envy and strife,
31:31
Speaker 1: but some from goodwill. Look at the two groups. Some
31:35
Speaker 1: have wrong motives, some have right motives. Now the latter,
31:41
Speaker 1: those who preach out of goodwill, do it out of love,
31:45
Speaker 1: meaning love for me, knowing that I am appointed for
31:49
Speaker 1: the defense of the Gospel. There are many out there
31:51
Speaker 1: proclaiming Christ as friends of mine. But then there are
31:56
Speaker 1: others verse seventeen who are enemies proclaimed Christ out of
32:01
Speaker 1: selfish ambition rather than from pure motives, thinking to cause
32:07
Speaker 1: me distress in my imprisonment. Wow. And the apostles response
32:17
Speaker 1: to that next verse, So what you see the way
32:25
Speaker 1: it reads? What? Then? Only that in every way, whether
32:34
Speaker 1: in pretense, which is the wrong motive, or in truth,
32:38
Speaker 1: which is the right motive, at least Christ is being proclaimed.
32:42
Speaker 1: And in this I rejoice, Yes, and I will keep
32:45
Speaker 1: on rejoicing. Other people will not be the ones who
32:48
Speaker 1: make me happy. I don't need somebody else liking me
32:52
Speaker 1: to find joy in life. Stuart Briscoe writes wisely in
32:58
Speaker 1: his work Bound for Joy. Whatever we may think of Paul,
33:02
Speaker 1: he was no alabaster saint on a pedestal. He was
33:05
Speaker 1: no computerized theological machine churning out inspired writing, but a
33:10
Speaker 1: very warm human individual who needed as much love as
33:13
Speaker 1: the next man. You can't hurt a computer's feelings or
33:17
Speaker 1: grieve a theological concept, but you can destroy a man.
33:21
Speaker 1: Paul was destructible. But he wasn't destroyed, but it wasn't
33:26
Speaker 1: for lack of somebody's trying. The perspective that he had
33:30
Speaker 1: discovered allowed him to say that he didn't really mind
33:34
Speaker 1: what happened to him so long as nothing happened to
33:37
Speaker 1: stop the gospel, because in his understanding, the message preached
33:42
Speaker 1: mattered more than the man preaching. Have you come to
33:47
Speaker 1: that place? I would love to say, I have come
33:51
Speaker 1: full circle. I've come further than I was twenty years ago,
33:57
Speaker 1: and I have come further than I was ten years ago.
34:03
Speaker 1: There was a time in my life where pleasing people
34:07
Speaker 1: I confess to my own embarrassment was as important to
34:10
Speaker 1: me as proclaiming the truth. I'm not there anymore. Now.
34:17
Speaker 1: I care more about the truth than making you happy
34:22
Speaker 1: or making you like me. See, I don't have to
34:25
Speaker 1: answer for how you feel about me. I have to
34:28
Speaker 1: answer for how I handle the truth. And therein lies
34:32
Speaker 1: the difference. Now, the apostle had come full circle. I
34:36
Speaker 1: mean he was willing to go all the way to
34:38
Speaker 1: the guillotine for the cause of Christ, no matter what
34:42
Speaker 1: anybody said. I feel like that on Sunday mornings, but
34:47
Speaker 1: Tuesday evenings I kind of get a little cold feet
34:49
Speaker 1: when I think about whether I'm ready to die for
34:51
Speaker 1: this or not. And you're the same. But I've come
34:56
Speaker 1: a lot further than I used to be regarding people's feelings,
35:02
Speaker 1: and I found comfort in the Apostles words. What then,
35:08
Speaker 1: what does it really matter whether I have a few
35:10
Speaker 1: enemies out there preaching the Lord Jesus Christ hoping that
35:16
Speaker 1: in some way it would turn against me, or finding
35:21
Speaker 1: delight in something I may be suffering. In the Apostle
35:28
Speaker 1: was beyond that. Now you know what you're You might
35:32
Speaker 1: be thinking, because I did. When I read this, You
35:34
Speaker 1: might be thinking, why does he answer it so casually here?
35:38
Speaker 1: Whereas in Galatians he says, if anybody preaches another gospel,
35:43
Speaker 1: let him be a cursed remember that, remember that passage. Well,
35:47
Speaker 1: if you don't hold your place right here in Philippians one,
35:51
Speaker 1: go back two books to Galatians one. I'm gonna show
35:55
Speaker 1: you where he really came on strong about people who
36:03
Speaker 1: preach the wrong message. But over in Philippians it sounds
36:07
Speaker 1: like he's casual about it. Ah, But there's a difference. Now,
36:12
Speaker 1: look at Galatians one, verse six. You there, now, Galatians
36:17
Speaker 1: one six, I am amazed that you are so quickly
36:20
Speaker 1: deserting him who called you by the grace of Christ
36:23
Speaker 1: for a different gospel means another of a different kind,
36:27
Speaker 1: a totally different gospel, which is really not another, meaning
36:32
Speaker 1: another of the same kind. You can't see the difference
36:34
Speaker 1: in the English, but the Greek word is a different word.
36:38
Speaker 1: Let me read it that way. I am amazed that
36:40
Speaker 1: you are so quickly deserting him who called you with
36:42
Speaker 1: the grace of Christ, for an opposite gospel, which is
36:46
Speaker 1: not at all like the real gospel. It's not another
36:51
Speaker 1: in a similar kind. It's different entirely. Only there are
36:54
Speaker 1: some who are disturbing you and want to distort the
36:57
Speaker 1: Gospel of Christ. Even though we or an angel from
37:00
Speaker 1: heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to that
37:03
Speaker 1: which we have preached to you. Let him be enoughma,
37:08
Speaker 1: a curse doomed for eternity. That's a strong word. He
37:12
Speaker 1: says it again. As we've said before, I say it now.
37:15
Speaker 1: If any man is preaching a gospel contrary to that
37:18
Speaker 1: which you receive, let him be enough Ema. Let him
37:21
Speaker 1: be a cursed I thought, he said in Philippians. So
37:25
Speaker 1: what see back in Philippians, verse one A, Chapter one,
37:30
Speaker 1: verse eighteen. What then, Well, it's just one of the
37:34
Speaker 1: many contradictions in scripture. Now let's go on to the
37:37
Speaker 1: next verse. No, I wouldn't do that to you. Think,
37:43
Speaker 1: Think seriously here. You know what happened in Galatia. Somebody
37:47
Speaker 1: messed around with the content of the gospel. That person
37:52
Speaker 1: deserves to be a cursed That person needs to be
37:56
Speaker 1: rejected because he changes the whole tenor of the meaning
37:59
Speaker 1: of the gospel. But in Philippians one, this person is
38:02
Speaker 1: preaching Christ, but he's doing it from a wrong motive.
38:08
Speaker 1: He's really hoping to make life miserable for Paul, which
38:12
Speaker 1: Paul says, so what when it comes to anything personal,
38:17
Speaker 1: my skin's thick enough to take that. But when it
38:21
Speaker 1: comes to heresy and not Emma, you got the difference.
38:26
Speaker 1: We get the too confused because we get our image
38:29
Speaker 1: caught up in the proclamation. Understand, when somebody rejects the gospel,
38:35
Speaker 1: they're not rejecting you, They're rejecting the truth. But also
38:40
Speaker 1: understand when someone represents a lie and calls it the gospel,
38:45
Speaker 1: that person is to be doomed. We never say to
38:50
Speaker 1: that individual, so what or well he means well or
38:54
Speaker 1: God bless you in your sincerity. No Philippians one, verse
39:01
Speaker 1: eighteen is a personal comment. Ah what then, So what
39:07
Speaker 1: a paraphrase might read. So what if some preach with
39:10
Speaker 1: wrong motives? So what if some are overly interested in themselves?
39:14
Speaker 1: So what if there are those who take unfair shots
39:17
Speaker 1: at me? What matters is this Christ is being preached
39:20
Speaker 1: in truth, and that thought alone intensifies my joy. Now
39:26
Speaker 1: verse nineteen, here's the man still looking out the window,
39:30
Speaker 1: nothing but a blank wall outside, and yet he's full
39:33
Speaker 1: of joy. I know, I know that this shall turn
39:36
Speaker 1: out for my deliverance through your prayers and the provisions
39:39
Speaker 1: of the spirit of Jesus Christ. Isn't that positive? According
39:44
Speaker 1: to my earnest expectation and hope, I shall not be
39:47
Speaker 1: put to shame in anything but that with all boldness
39:51
Speaker 1: Christ shall be even now as always exalted in my body,
39:55
Speaker 1: whether by life or by death. Here's a man full
39:57
Speaker 1: of hope, regardless regard wardless of uncertainties. I mean, Paul
40:03
Speaker 1: is smart enough to know that death is around the corner,
40:07
Speaker 1: but he says, I know this. If there'll be deliverance
40:13
Speaker 1: through your prayers and through the work of the spirit
40:16
Speaker 1: of Jesus Christ, and I refuse to live under shame.
40:21
Speaker 1: I refuse to be negative about my future. In fact,
40:24
Speaker 1: with all boldness, I say Christ will be exalted, whether
40:28
Speaker 1: he takes me off this earth or lets me live
40:30
Speaker 1: a number of years. That's why that twenty first verse
40:35
Speaker 1: is so powerful, perhaps the key verse of the book.
40:40
Speaker 1: For to me, to live is Christ, and to die
40:46
Speaker 1: is gain. Unfortunately, we've quoted that verse so many years
40:51
Speaker 1: of our lives as Christians, we've missed the significance of it.
40:55
Speaker 1: Let me substitute another word and finish the sentence another way,
40:58
Speaker 1: and you'll get the meaning of it. For to me,
41:01
Speaker 1: to live is money, and to die is to leave
41:04
Speaker 1: it all behind. For to me, to live is fame,
41:09
Speaker 1: and to die is to be soon forgotten. For to me,
41:14
Speaker 1: to live is power and influence, and to die just
41:19
Speaker 1: to lose it all. Here's another For to me to
41:23
Speaker 1: live is things and possessions, and to die is to
41:28
Speaker 1: take none of them with me. Forgive me if it
41:32
Speaker 1: sounds too harsh, but a casket is awfully narrow. It
41:37
Speaker 1: only holds a body. Nothing is buried with the dead,
41:44
Speaker 1: nothing of benefit. That's why Christ is why the centrality
41:50
Speaker 1: of Christ is the secret of joy. When He is
41:54
Speaker 1: in the nucleus of an individual's life, so what so what?
42:03
Speaker 1: He is in the center of one's life, And as
42:06
Speaker 1: the storms and disappointments and shattering experiences occur, He's in place.
42:17
Speaker 1: And I don't need someone else to make me fulfilled.
42:22
Speaker 1: I don't have to have something before I can smile.
42:28
Speaker 1: I can say in the morning's Lord, it's you and me.
42:32
Speaker 1: I can say in the noonday, Lord, it's you and me.
42:36
Speaker 1: As night falls, I can say, Lord, in the frightening
42:40
Speaker 1: shadows of darkness, it's you and me. And whether it's
42:45
Speaker 1: life or death, I just get more of You living,
42:51
Speaker 1: Bible says, for to me, living means opportunities for Christ.
42:54
Speaker 1: And dying, well, that's better. Yet Philip's paraphrase for living
43:00
Speaker 1: to me means simply Christ. And if I should die,
43:03
Speaker 1: and if I die, I should merely gain more of Him,
43:07
Speaker 1: the good News Bible. For what is life? To me?
43:09
Speaker 1: It's Christ. Death then will bring more. That's why I'm saying, folks,
43:17
Speaker 1: the secret is a mindset. Focusing fully on Christ, who
43:23
Speaker 1: is my life, frees me from needing something I have
43:27
Speaker 1: to pursue to get joy or finding the right person.
43:32
Speaker 1: And as good as that is, and as important as
43:35
Speaker 1: a friend or a partner may be, I cannot ever
43:39
Speaker 1: find lasting satisfaction by leaning on another human being because
43:45
Speaker 1: that other human being will let me down, or I
43:48
Speaker 1: will let him or hert down. So it's with that
43:53
Speaker 1: thought in mind as I look back over these verses
43:56
Speaker 1: that I focus on three particular concepts. One is circumstances,
44:03
Speaker 1: another is other people, and a third is the future.
44:08
Speaker 1: Three causes of a happiness and disappointment. And let me
44:13
Speaker 1: put Christ in the center of all three and give
44:15
Speaker 1: you three thoughts when Christ is the center. Let's start
44:19
Speaker 1: them all with that statement. When Christ is the center,
44:22
Speaker 1: he broadens the dimensions of my circumstances. When Christ is
44:28
Speaker 1: the center, he broadens the dimensions of my circumstances. I
44:34
Speaker 1: read somewhere that one of the requirements for working alongside
44:38
Speaker 1: Mother Teresa in her ministry in India is a joyful
44:42
Speaker 1: spirit toward life. Why. Of course, there's nothing in the
44:47
Speaker 1: circumstances that would make anyone laugh or feel happy, But
44:52
Speaker 1: it's an inner joy that reaches out to those who
44:55
Speaker 1: are in need and takes them in, helps them, encourages them,
45:00
Speaker 1: and washes their wounds and helps heal their spirits. When
45:05
Speaker 1: Christ is the center, he broadens the dimensions of my circumstances.
45:08
Speaker 1: Here's the second thought. When Christ is central, he delivers
45:12
Speaker 1: me from preoccupation with others. I interestingly care less and
45:21
Speaker 1: less about pleasing somebody else. It doesn't mean I live indifferently,
45:25
Speaker 1: but it means I live with my focus on Christ.
45:29
Speaker 1: He delivers me from preoccupation with others. Third, when Christ
45:34
Speaker 1: is central, he calms my fears about the future. And
45:39
Speaker 1: I have Christ. So if I die, what a I
45:45
Speaker 1: cannot find a better one to die with or die for.
45:51
Speaker 1: Think about those three statements, will you, and you'll see
45:53
Speaker 1: what they will give you. The first statement gives me confidence.
45:59
Speaker 1: When he broadens the dimensions of my circumstances, I get
46:02
Speaker 1: confidence about life. But he delivers me from preoccupation with
46:07
Speaker 1: other people. He brings back joy. I'm happy again. I
46:13
Speaker 1: don't have to have everyone like me. It'll be nice,
46:18
Speaker 1: but I don't have to have it. And Third, by
46:24
Speaker 1: having him calm my fears, he brings back my hope
46:29
Speaker 1: because the future is not foreboding and frightening. Amazing. Listen
46:35
Speaker 1: to this, it's amazing. One person in full focus, centrally located,
46:43
Speaker 1: puts the world all together, makes it all fit, gives
46:50
Speaker 1: me a reason to go on. An exhausted father stumbled
46:55
Speaker 1: into his home after dark one evening on a Monday night.
47:00
Speaker 1: He had worked hard that day, too many hours, and
47:04
Speaker 1: was looking forward to the ballgame and a little time
47:07
Speaker 1: with a sports page and the easy chair, and he
47:09
Speaker 1: focused on it. Work was a bear, Tomorrow would hold
47:13
Speaker 1: only more hours in the next day as well. As
47:17
Speaker 1: he riveted his eyes on the chair and the sports
47:20
Speaker 1: page and flipped on the channel to watch Monday night football.
47:25
Speaker 1: At the same time he landed in the chair, his
47:27
Speaker 1: four year old boy landed in his lap. Hi, Dad,
47:30
Speaker 1: let's play. Now. He has a real dilemma. He loves
47:37
Speaker 1: this boy with his whole heart, so he struggles with
47:41
Speaker 1: how to respond to his little boy's desire to be
47:43
Speaker 1: with him. Suddenly, he looks on the back page of
47:46
Speaker 1: the newspaper and he sees a color picture of the
47:50
Speaker 1: Earth taken from a moonshot that had been sent back
47:54
Speaker 1: that week from the astronaut's capsule. He gets a great idea.
48:00
Speaker 1: He says, come here, son, let's do this. So he
48:02
Speaker 1: gets a pair of scissors, and he cuts up this
48:06
Speaker 1: newspaper into one one hundred and twenty pieces. Most of
48:11
Speaker 1: the piece is looking a lot alike. And then he
48:14
Speaker 1: jumbles them all up and he drops this little pile
48:17
Speaker 1: in the kitchen table, and he gets some transparent tape
48:20
Speaker 1: and he sets it down here and he says, now, son,
48:24
Speaker 1: I want you to put this world back together, and
48:28
Speaker 1: you bring it to Daddy when you finish. Well, he
48:32
Speaker 1: walks over and he sits back down his chair and
48:34
Speaker 1: he begins to enjoy it. Five minutes later, the boys
48:37
Speaker 1: in front of him here it is dad, son, How
48:43
Speaker 1: did you do that?
48:45
Speaker 2: Oh?
48:45
Speaker 1: It was easy dad. You see on the other side
48:48
Speaker 1: there's a picture of a real big man. And when
48:51
Speaker 1: you put the man together, the world comes together. And
48:59
Speaker 1: that is exactly the way it is with Christ. When
49:06
Speaker 1: you put the man together, the world automatically fits together.
49:22
Speaker 1: You may be working on the wrong side. You just
49:26
Speaker 1: may be. Let's take care of that right now, let's
49:34
Speaker 1: bow together. You have very patiently listened to these words,
49:41
Speaker 1: some of you hurting a great deal, But out of
49:46
Speaker 1: love for you, I am more committed to telling you
49:49
Speaker 1: the truth and simply relieving your pain. You who have
49:59
Speaker 1: lacked joy are working on the wrong side of the sheet.
50:04
Speaker 1: You who have found that your joy has fled away,
50:08
Speaker 1: have focused on the world and others, and you've missed
50:17
Speaker 1: the Man. Learn a lesson from the little boy Daddy.
50:29
Speaker 1: When you put the man together, the world comes together.
50:41
Speaker 1: You may know the Lord Jesus, and it just may
50:43
Speaker 1: be simply a need to re establish that place of priority,
50:48
Speaker 1: that time of quietness. It's been a long time since
50:53
Speaker 1: you've just gotten alone with him or spent a few
50:57
Speaker 1: moments of the early morning months with him in quietness.
51:04
Speaker 1: Your prayer life may have gone by the wayside as
51:07
Speaker 1: you have fretted and worried over something that you really
51:12
Speaker 1: cannot change. How about, starting early tomorrow morning you work
51:22
Speaker 1: on the right side of the piece of paper. Instead
51:27
Speaker 1: of looking for fourteen thousand things that will make you happy,
51:32
Speaker 1: go to the one person and make him central. For
51:38
Speaker 1: one person that means one thing, and for another something
51:40
Speaker 1: altogether different. So I don't have a formula, won't even
51:43
Speaker 1: give you the steps to follow. You're intelligent, you can
51:45
Speaker 1: figure that out. But you who do not know Christ.
51:49
Speaker 1: It's not a matter of intelligence, it's a matter of faith.
51:53
Speaker 1: You are bright. You may be very well educated. But
51:58
Speaker 1: the Lord says that we are to come to him
52:00
Speaker 1: as a little child. We're to understand that his death
52:04
Speaker 1: was on our behalf because we are sinful and lost,
52:08
Speaker 1: and his resurrection was God's approval of his death. And
52:13
Speaker 1: he lives now, having paid the penalty for your sins
52:17
Speaker 1: and mine, to bring you into his family which will
52:21
Speaker 1: last forever. He's coming back. Put the man together in
52:31
Speaker 1: your life. Come today by faith to the Lord Jesus Christ.
52:41
Speaker 1: Thank you, Father for doing a work deep within our lives.
52:47
Speaker 1: Thank you for truth that sets us free. I pray
52:53
Speaker 1: that you will very patiently yet firmly work in the
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Speaker 1: lives of those who struggle with what they have heard.
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Speaker 1: Assist them is they somehow get Christ into the central
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Speaker 1: core of their lives. Once their Lord, do a work
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Speaker 1: with which only you can do, bring peace and solve
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Speaker 1: the pursuit of happiness by bringing joy. I pray in
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Speaker 1: His wonderful name. Amen.
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Speaker 2: The preceding message, What A Way to Live, was copyrighted
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Speaker 2: in nineteen ninety and the sound recording was copyrighted in
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Speaker 2: two thousand and eight by Charles R. Swind All, Inc.
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Speaker 2: All rights are reserved worldwide. In the preceding message. Charles
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Speaker 2: rswind All, Inc. Is grateful to Pacific Press for permission
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Speaker 2: to use the book The Window and Other Essays copyrighted
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Speaker 2: in nineteen seventy three by GW Target