Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation
Speaker 1: Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank
Speaker 1: you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope
Speaker 1: it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective to
Speaker 1: see God as moving in your life. Enjoy the message.
Speaker 1: If you don't know me, my name is Wade Joy.
Speaker 1: I'm the worship pastor here at the church, and I
Speaker 1: have the incredible honor and privilege to preach and bring
Speaker 1: God's word to you this weekend. I am excited. So
Speaker 1: are you ready for the work? All right, I'm ready
Speaker 1: to preach. Here we go. We're going to be in
Speaker 1: Philippians chapter four for our short time together. This is
Speaker 1: verse verse six through thirteen. It says this, stay standing,
Speaker 1: do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation,
Speaker 1: by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God.
Speaker 1: And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will
Speaker 1: guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Now Finally,
Speaker 1: brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever
Speaker 1: is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable,
Speaker 1: If anything is excellent or praise worthy. Think about such things,
Speaker 1: and whatever you've learned or received or heard from me
Speaker 1: or seen in me, put it into practice, and the
Speaker 1: God of Peace will be with you. I've rejoiced greatly
Speaker 1: in the Lord that at last you renewed your concern
Speaker 1: for me. Indeed, you were concerned, but you had no
Speaker 1: opportunity to show it. And I'm not saying this because
Speaker 1: I am in need, for I've learned to be content
Speaker 1: whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be
Speaker 1: in need. I know what it is to have plenty.
Speaker 1: I've learned the secret of being content in any in
Speaker 1: every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in
Speaker 1: plenty or in want. I can do all this through
Speaker 1: Him who gives me strength. So the title the message
Speaker 1: that God's given me for our church today is chasing contentment.
Speaker 1: Chasing contentment. Lord, I pray that you speak to us
Speaker 1: through your word. I pray God that you will give
Speaker 1: us hearts to believe. God, give us ears to hear
Speaker 1: in the faith to obey, and Jesus name, we pray. Amen.
Speaker 1: All right, go ahead and give about five or six
Speaker 1: hugs before you head to your seats. So, like I said,
Speaker 1: I'm the worship pastor here at the church, so naturally
Speaker 1: I love music. I'm a retired worship leader, retired songwriter.
Speaker 1: I used to dabble and all that. And so I
Speaker 1: was with my three kids, have free little girls, and
Speaker 1: I was trying to give them a history lesson of
Speaker 1: music and specifically the evolution of my love for music.
Speaker 1: And really this was just an excuse to make them
Speaker 1: listen to all my favorite high school bands from the nineties.
Speaker 1: So we listened to Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Pearl Jam. I
Speaker 1: think we've got some fans in here. Also, Foo Fighters,
Speaker 1: one of my favorite bands. There's actually there's there's a
Speaker 1: debate in our family. I have twins, Adlie Leanna. Adley
Speaker 1: loves pop music. She's not a huge fan of rock. Leanna,
Speaker 1: She's my rock, my rock kid. And her favorite band
Speaker 1: at eleven years old is Food Fighter. So if I've
Speaker 1: done nothing right as a parent, I've at least done
Speaker 1: that one thing right. So we were talking about all
Speaker 1: these bands, and I realized that I really fell in
Speaker 1: love with music, you know, way earlier before high school.
Speaker 1: And I think I remembered the very first song I wrote,
Speaker 1: and it was back in second grade. I grew up
Speaker 1: in Columbia, South Carolina. Go game cos It's probably the
Speaker 1: only time I can ever say that was confidence from
Speaker 1: this age is this weekend. It's probably heresy to say this.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, Pastor Stephen, but I grew up in Columbia
Speaker 1: and had a great childhood, amazing parents. They were a
Speaker 1: tad over protective, maybe a lot over protective, but I
Speaker 1: didn't get it at the time. But I'm a parent now,
Speaker 1: so I'm kind of overprotective and I saw that. There's
Speaker 1: now I see there was love and wisdom behind some
Speaker 1: of their rules. But my second grade year I did
Speaker 1: comprehend that because my second grade year was full of
Speaker 1: angst and frustration due to certain bike riding limitations that
Speaker 1: were imposed upon me against my willth So I would
Speaker 1: come home from school and me and my friends did
Speaker 1: what every elementary school boy did back in the eighties
Speaker 1: before the internet. We actually went outside. We rode our bikes.
Speaker 1: It was awesome. You should try it. And so, you know,
Speaker 1: my parents say, let me ride my bike on this
Speaker 1: one small stretch of road right in front of our house.
Speaker 1: We lived on Mountain Book Drive, and I could ride
Speaker 1: my bike all the way up to the stop sign,
Speaker 1: but I couldn't go past the stop sign. And at
Speaker 1: first that was great. I mean, me and my friends,
Speaker 1: we just tore up the pavement right in front of
Speaker 1: my house, showing off all of our tricks. It was great.
Speaker 1: But then I think my friends started to get a
Speaker 1: little restless because their parents were a bit more liberal
Speaker 1: with the rules than mine. So one day we rode
Speaker 1: up to the stop sign and then instead of my
Speaker 1: friends turning around to go back to my house, they
Speaker 1: just kept going and they I want you to imagine
Speaker 1: poor little second grade Wade just standing at the stop sign,
Speaker 1: just so sad, just wondering what you know, treasures and
Speaker 1: wonder and joy awaited my friends in this huge neighborhood.
Speaker 1: And so I pedaled my bike back to my parents
Speaker 1: and I'm begging, I'm pleading, I'm trying to reason with
Speaker 1: them with all of my second grade wisdom while I'm
Speaker 1: responsible and I can handle it, and my friends are
Speaker 1: doing it, and none of it worked. Tried a new tactic,
Speaker 1: and I was like, you know, who's going to mess
Speaker 1: with a man or boy of my stature. You know,
Speaker 1: I was very intimidating at second grade. God didn't work either.
Speaker 1: So every day ride to the stop sign, waved to
Speaker 1: my friends. I was just sad, just pouting. So one
Speaker 1: day I'd had enough and I just rode my bike
Speaker 1: back to the house and I threw my bike up
Speaker 1: against the fence. I sat down up against the fence
Speaker 1: once again, picture a little second grade Wade, which was
Speaker 1: about the size of forty three year old Wade. I'm
Speaker 1: just sitting here at the fence. May have been tears involved.
Speaker 1: And then a song began to rise from my spirit,
Speaker 1: cried to the Lord. This, to the best of my knowledge,
Speaker 1: is the first time I remember writing a song, and
Speaker 1: it went something like this, Nobody understands me. Nobody understands me.
Speaker 1: It's real complicated. If you catch it sing along, nobody
Speaker 1: understands me. Big finish, nobody understands me. So you could
Speaker 1: tell its second grade. I had a talent for simplicity, repetition.
Speaker 1: I knew the power of that in songwriting. And you know,
Speaker 1: eventually I made it past the stop sign in third grade.
Speaker 1: But I don't think I ever made it past that feeling,
Speaker 1: whether in second grade or at forty three, thinking like
Speaker 1: there's something that I'm missing out on, just beyond the
Speaker 1: stop sign. How in the world could I be happy
Speaker 1: or content on this small stretch of road when a
Speaker 1: whole neighborhood await. So if I could just get there,
Speaker 1: if I could just be that, if I could just
Speaker 1: achieve that, then maybe I would be happy, Maybe I
Speaker 1: could find joy, maybe I could be content. And so
Speaker 1: Paul's writing in Philippians about contentment, and I think I've
Speaker 1: always thought contentment was one of two things. Either my
Speaker 1: life had to be perfect, which I don't know about you,
Speaker 1: but mine's never been that way. Or I have to
Speaker 1: pretend like it's perfect and fake it and be happy
Speaker 1: with decisions that are made that I had no control over.
Speaker 1: And somehow that was contentment. And you know, full disclosure,
Speaker 1: I have a very blessed life. I love my life,
Speaker 1: I love my family, I love my church. I'm getting
Speaker 1: to live out my dreams. But how many of you
Speaker 1: know that the struggle for contentment is not just when
Speaker 1: you're in the valley and you wish you were on
Speaker 1: the mountain. Sometimes you're on the mountain and you're satisfied
Speaker 1: and you're happy that you're on the mountain, until you
Speaker 1: look over and you see your friend on another mountain.
Speaker 1: It's just a little bit taller, a little bit bigger,
Speaker 1: a little bit sexier than your mountain, and you feel like,
Speaker 1: you know, I was satisfied, but now I'm not. Because
Speaker 1: we all want this. We all want that feeling of contentment.
Speaker 1: We want to be content with our relationships, our friendships.
Speaker 1: We want to be content with our career. We want
Speaker 1: to be content with our bank account and our finances.
Speaker 1: You know, we want to be content. We have this
Speaker 1: picture perfect image of what our life should be, and
Speaker 1: if it could just be that, then I'd be content.
Speaker 1: But I didn't really know how to be content. When
Speaker 1: I got the call from the doctor seven years ago
Speaker 1: that my five week old daughter, Sidney had sys fibrosis,
Speaker 1: I wasn't sure how to be content with that, and
Speaker 1: I wasn't sure how to one day tell her to
Speaker 1: be content with that. I mean, how do you be
Speaker 1: content with the fact that your husband just walked out
Speaker 1: and left. How are you content with the fact that
Speaker 1: you raised your son in church and now they're hooked
Speaker 1: on drugs? How are you content with the job that
Speaker 1: you hate? How are you content with the things in
Speaker 1: your life that you really wished you had the power
Speaker 1: to change, but you can't. So we keep chasing it,
Speaker 1: and we keep struggling with it, and we keep thinking,
Speaker 1: if we can just get my life to look this way,
Speaker 1: then I'll finally get it. Then I'll finally be content.
Speaker 1: And sometimes for me, in the chasing, I've made some
Speaker 1: of the dumbest decisions of my life chasing this fleeting
Speaker 1: feeling of contentment. And I really believe God put the
Speaker 1: strongly in my heart. Some of you are on the
Speaker 1: verge of sabotazing your life, trying to find contentment because
Speaker 1: you think it's in the next marriage and you're about
Speaker 1: to abandon this one. You think it's in the next career,
Speaker 1: and you're about to make a choice to find contentment
Speaker 1: and ruin your life in the process. And so somewhere
Speaker 1: along the way, I think I've caught the wrong thought
Speaker 1: about what contentment really is. And maybe you have to
Speaker 1: how many of you heard the sermon last weekend? I
Speaker 1: caught a thought. Incredible sermon, wasn't it. If you haven't listened,
Speaker 1: you need to go back and listening. But I think
Speaker 1: I've caught the wrong thought. I think our culture has
Speaker 1: caught the wrong thought about what contentment is. And I
Speaker 1: think Paul's trying to explain it to us right here.
Speaker 1: And if you don't know, Paul was writing this whole
Speaker 1: treatise on contentment from a prison cell, which is not
Speaker 1: the ideal place in my mind to write about contentment.
Speaker 1: But I think it's exactly where God wanted him to
Speaker 1: write it from. See, Paul's not saying I'm content with
Speaker 1: the prison. He's not saying I'm happy about it. He's
Speaker 1: not saying I'm content with the lack of resource. I'm
Speaker 1: content with the fact that I'm being persecuted for the Gospel.
Speaker 1: That's not it at all. And I think if you
Speaker 1: don't read verse twelve carefully, you'll miss it. This is
Speaker 1: what Paul says, says, I have learned the secret of
Speaker 1: being content in any and every situation. So Paul is
Speaker 1: not saying there's a secret to being content with your season,
Speaker 1: because honestly, sometimes I don't think God's content with our season.
Speaker 1: I don't think God wants us to hurt that way
Speaker 1: or to suffer. But Paul saying there's a secret of
Speaker 1: being content in it, it's not with it, it's in it.
Speaker 1: I had the wrong preposition there. The whole time, Paul
Speaker 1: is saying there's a secret of being content in your trial,
Speaker 1: not with your trial. And I think that is what
Speaker 1: caused the first century world to take notice of these
Speaker 1: people like Paul who claim to follow this this self
Speaker 1: proclaimed messiah named Jesus, and they're facing down death and
Speaker 1: persecution and they still have joy and they're still rejoicing.
Speaker 1: And the first century world didn't understand that. And honestly,
Speaker 1: sometimes I don't understand it either. Don't understand how to
Speaker 1: be content in any and every season. And so that
Speaker 1: was the message that I really wanted to preach today,
Speaker 1: that it's not with, it's in because it sounds cute
Speaker 1: and it's true at face value. But the more I
Speaker 1: started thinking about it, and the more I started thinking about,
Speaker 1: you know, how do I explain to Sydney one day,
Speaker 1: how are you content in cystic fibrosis? How do I
Speaker 1: explain to the person who doesn't have a job, how
Speaker 1: are you don't just just not being content with it?
Speaker 1: Just be content in it. It doesn't change how you feel.
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter what word you put there, it doesn't
Speaker 1: matter you know what sounds cute. I still feel miserable,
Speaker 1: I still feel frustrated, I still feel like there's just
Speaker 1: something missing in my life. So maybe that's part of
Speaker 1: the secret, but maybe it's not all the secret. And
Speaker 1: so last Sunday after church, I was sitting on my
Speaker 1: couch two thirty in the afternoon and I was just
Speaker 1: looking at Philippians four, and I was like, God, what
Speaker 1: is the secret? I really I want to know because
Speaker 1: I struggle with this. And here's what I love about
Speaker 1: the Word of God. You can read a passage for
Speaker 1: years and then in a moment, the Holy Spirit can
Speaker 1: just illuminate a truth that you needed to hear at
Speaker 1: that exact right moment, at that exact right time. And
Speaker 1: when God showed me this, I wanted to come to
Speaker 1: balance on write then and preach. And normally I'm usually
Speaker 1: really nervous to sail on the stage. I'm nervous right now.
Speaker 1: But I couldn't wait to share this with you because
Speaker 1: it started to help me, and I really pray it
Speaker 1: helps you. And I think the secret is in verse nine.
Speaker 1: Here it is Paul says, whatever you have learned or
Speaker 1: received or heard from me or seen in me, put
Speaker 1: it into practice, and the God of Peace will be
Speaker 1: with you. So I think God sent me here to
Speaker 1: tell you to stop chasing contentment. Practice it. Contentment is
Speaker 1: not a chase. It's not a magical download. Contentment is
Speaker 1: a practice, and it takes work, and it takes repetition,
Speaker 1: and it's not normal. It's a practice. Turn to your neighbors, say,
Speaker 1: we're talking about practice here today. I feel the spirit
Speaker 1: of Alan Iverson coming over and me. We're talking about practice. See,
Speaker 1: you can be content in your situation, but it takes practice.
Speaker 1: It's not your default setting. See. I love guitar, my
Speaker 1: favorite guitar player, Stevie Ray Vaughan. And you know, I
Speaker 1: wish one Stevie Ray fan right over there, And I
Speaker 1: wish I just came out of the womb with a
Speaker 1: guitar in hand, just playing his version of Little Wing.
Speaker 1: First of that would have been a very awkward and
Speaker 1: painful birth for my mom. That was the case. But no,
Speaker 1: I didn't know how to. I didn't know anything about
Speaker 1: a guitar. It took years and years and years in
Speaker 1: high school, just closing the door, playing along with my
Speaker 1: favorite bands, my favorite music, practicing my scales, learning a
Speaker 1: C chord and a D chord and a G chord.
Speaker 1: And now I don't play anywhere near Stevie Ray. If
Speaker 1: I did, I'd be taking Joey's spot over here every
Speaker 1: single weekend. But I know enough courts to get the
Speaker 1: job done, and I don't have to think anymore about
Speaker 1: how to play a C or how to play a
Speaker 1: D or an E minor. It comes naturally. And so
Speaker 1: it took practice to make something that wasn't natural feel natural.
Speaker 1: And so Paul is saying, you are not prone to
Speaker 1: make the choice that leads to contentment. It is not natural.
Speaker 1: But as he looked at his life and looked at
Speaker 1: some skills that he had put into practice day after day,
Speaker 1: month after month, and year after even when it didn't
Speaker 1: feel normal, he began to learn the secret of being
Speaker 1: content in a situation he is telling the church in PHILIPPI,
Speaker 1: if you practice these things, you can learn it too.
Speaker 1: So I think there's three skills that we can practice
Speaker 1: or the rest of our time together the next twenty
Speaker 1: two minutes. It's not a sermon, it's practice. So get
Speaker 1: your sweats on, stretch, get loose. We're going to practice
Speaker 1: together three skills that we're going to practice to help
Speaker 1: cultivate a heart of contentment. And the first is this,
Speaker 1: So note takers, write this down. It's practice, the petition,
Speaker 1: practice the petition. So one of my daughters ADLEI. It
Speaker 1: doesn't matter if it's breakfast, lunch, dinner. If I ever
Speaker 1: asked her where she wants to eat, doesn't matter if
Speaker 1: it's a daddy daughter date. We're in a hurry on
Speaker 1: the way to church. Her response is one hundred percent,
Speaker 1: without fail, without a doubt, always the same. Ginghis Grill
Speaker 1: loves ginghis Grill. I mean she loves everything about ginghis Grill.
Speaker 1: She loves the selection on the menu, the variety, she
Speaker 1: loves the dining experience, the ambiance, the atmosphere. She just
Speaker 1: graduated from a small bowl to a big bowl, and
Speaker 1: she loves everything about Ginghis I enjoy gingis. I feel
Speaker 1: like I've said yes to gingis enough to show my
Speaker 1: love for Adley and the great dining establishment of ginghas Grill.
Speaker 1: But there's also not a gingas close to our house.
Speaker 1: So I've also exercised my fatherly Vito many times where
Speaker 1: we're in a hurry and I'm like, we can't go
Speaker 1: to Guineas Today. Weeks ago, I came home from church.
Speaker 1: I had been visiting some campuses and Ferris and the
Speaker 1: girls had beat me home and Adley is just smiling.
Speaker 1: Her face is just beaming ear to ear, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: oh gosh, like one of her friends must have given
Speaker 1: their life to Christ. Somebody must have gotten baptized at church,
Speaker 1: like Ali, what happened? And she's like, Mommy took me
Speaker 1: to Ginghis. I watched it easy to please. And she's like,
Speaker 1: you know, we were running errands on the way home
Speaker 1: from church and we stopped at a place that was
Speaker 1: really close to Ginghas, and I wanted to ask Mommy
Speaker 1: if we could go, but I figured she'd probably say no,
Speaker 1: and I kept almost asking, and then I did, and
Speaker 1: I almost asked, and I thought she'd say no. And
Speaker 1: finally we were walking out the door and I was like, Mommy,
Speaker 1: there's Ginghis and she said yes. And at first I
Speaker 1: was really shocked that she's surprised that Ferris would say yes,
Speaker 1: because our bank account shows that she says yes to
Speaker 1: Adley a lot. But I didn't quite connect. But I
Speaker 1: realized that I think the exact same thoughts about God,
Speaker 1: who that it doesn't matter how many good things the
Speaker 1: Lord has done for me over my life. For some reason,
Speaker 1: I think his disposition towards me is no. And I
Speaker 1: might tell you yes, God is good, but I have
Speaker 1: a hard time believing that He actually wants good things
Speaker 1: for me. I mean, he might take me to McDonald's,
Speaker 1: but not ginghis I mean, it's so hard for me
Speaker 1: to believe the truth that God wants something good for me.
Speaker 1: And sometimes I feel like if I want something enough,
Speaker 1: it's probably an idol and there's no way God would
Speaker 1: want me to have it. And I've misdefined contentment as
Speaker 1: believing for a no, so I'm not disappointed when I
Speaker 1: want a yes and I don't get it. And all
Speaker 1: that does for me is I lower my level of expectation,
Speaker 1: I lower my level of faith, I lower my level
Speaker 1: of belief, and I claim it's contentment, and it's really
Speaker 1: just complacency. I've just settled. And I don't think Paul
Speaker 1: says contentment is found from just accepting your situation, no
Speaker 1: questions asked. I think Paul says God wants us to ask,
Speaker 1: He wants us to ask him to move, ask him
Speaker 1: to work. Look at Philippians four six one more time
Speaker 1: says do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation,
Speaker 1: by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
Speaker 1: So Paul says, offer up prayers and petitions, and prayer
Speaker 1: is one of those words we say a lot in church,
Speaker 1: and we can become numb to it. So I want
Speaker 1: to focus on the word petition because it sounded like
Speaker 1: a strong word and I was drawn to it, so
Speaker 1: I looked it up. And the definition of petition is
Speaker 1: to make or present a formal request to an authority
Speaker 1: with respect to a particular cause. So contentment isn't found
Speaker 1: in just accepting things as they are. It's found when
Speaker 1: we recognize that there's actually someone in our life with
Speaker 1: the power and authority to make it better, and that
Speaker 1: person is not us. It's appealing to a higher authority
Speaker 1: who has the power to act, but also the wisdom
Speaker 1: to know when and how to act and sometimes when
Speaker 1: not to act. So the first step is recognizing that
Speaker 1: I am not in authority over my life. There are
Speaker 1: some things like he might be discontent because everyone else
Speaker 1: is getting the promotion, and it's really because you're late
Speaker 1: and you're lazy and you don't actually work hard. That's
Speaker 1: when things are in your authority. I'm talking about the
Speaker 1: things that are actually out of your control and realizing
Speaker 1: that there's nothing we can do to fix this. So
Speaker 1: we have to appeal to a higher authority, and so
Speaker 1: to make petitions. We have to stop hiding our emotions,
Speaker 1: hiding our desires, hiding our requests from God. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's the worst game of hide and seek ever. You
Speaker 1: can't hide anything from the Lord. And you know, my
Speaker 1: twins are right here, And I feel like I need
Speaker 1: to confess in front of thousands of people right now
Speaker 1: that all those times growing up when we played hide
Speaker 1: and seek and I was like, where's Leona, where's Adley?
Speaker 1: I knew where y'all were the entire time. To forgive me,
Speaker 1: dad lie. But that's the way it is. We try
Speaker 1: to hide what we want from God and he knows.
Speaker 1: And here's what actually makes that dangerous is when we
Speaker 1: do that, we begin to believe the lie that God
Speaker 1: doesn't listen and God doesn't care. And when that happens,
Speaker 1: we start to lose hope. And there's no way you
Speaker 1: can have contentment without hope. The Bible says that hope
Speaker 1: deferred makes the heart sick. We have to hope that
Speaker 1: God wants to move and can move if we're ever
Speaker 1: going to cultivate a heart of contentment, and so petitioning
Speaker 1: God is also cultivating hope. So here's what that looks
Speaker 1: like in my life right now. This is just a
Speaker 1: window end of my prayer life. And I wish I
Speaker 1: could say that I wake up at five in the
Speaker 1: morning and spend an hour of uninterrupted communion with the
Speaker 1: Blessed Lord Jesus, and I just hear his audible voice.
Speaker 1: I'm barely saved the morning. I'm in. I'm not away.
Speaker 1: I'm not one of those I wake up at five
Speaker 1: and go work out. I'm not that person. I get
Speaker 1: my best prayer time done in the car, and that's
Speaker 1: not just praying blessings over people in Charlotte traffic. It's
Speaker 1: it's actually I can be still and quiet and alone
Speaker 1: and actually talk to God. Because prayer for me right
Speaker 1: now it's kind of messy and it doesn't feel very churchy,
Speaker 1: and it starts with trying to be brutally honest with God.
Speaker 1: So I'll just try to get all my feelings out
Speaker 1: and I'll say, Okay, God, I'm I'm really really nervous
Speaker 1: about this meeting today. I feel like everyone's going to
Speaker 1: finally realize that I'm not that smart and I don't
Speaker 1: have what it takes, or I'm nervous about this conversation
Speaker 1: because I really want this person to like me. But
Speaker 1: I know you want me to say this. You know,
Speaker 1: I feel like no one understands me. I'm still that
Speaker 1: second grade kid, you know, mad about the bike, and
Speaker 1: I just get all the emotions out, all of it,
Speaker 1: and then I try to move past the emotion to
Speaker 1: truth and say God, but I do know, no matter
Speaker 1: how I feel, that you were for me, that you've
Speaker 1: called me, that you've equipped me, and so I try
Speaker 1: to say it out loud, so I actually like get
Speaker 1: that in my heart, and then I make the petition.
Speaker 1: And the petition doesn't have to be very big. In fact,
Speaker 1: just you know, a month or two ago, I was
Speaker 1: driving home from work and I had a day where
Speaker 1: I felt like just one of those days I didn't
Speaker 1: feel like I was winning, and I remember just praying
Speaker 1: to God and telling them all that, saying, you know, Lord,
Speaker 1: I know that You're supposed to be the source of
Speaker 1: my encouragement and my validation, and I'm not supposed to
Speaker 1: need other people's encouragement, but just this once, if just
Speaker 1: I could hear your approval of me through the lips
Speaker 1: of another. That would be awesome. But if you say no,
Speaker 1: I get it, you're probably trying to teach me that
Speaker 1: I don't need that. And then I just kind of
Speaker 1: threw the prayer out, kind of like, hey, Genghis, it's
Speaker 1: right over there, and I didn't think about it well.
Speaker 1: That night, I get home and I get two unsolicited
Speaker 1: texts from two people who are not prone to give
Speaker 1: me encouragement. But it was very specific, it was very timely,
Speaker 1: and it was almost like God heard my prayer and
Speaker 1: answered it. And it started to like stir up faith
Speaker 1: in my heart. And you might call it coincidence, and
Speaker 1: maybe it was, but that doesn't change the fact that
Speaker 1: it made me think, Okay, God does listen to me,
Speaker 1: and maybe I'm starting to look over here and say, well,
Speaker 1: maybe that's God working there, and maybe that's God working here.
Speaker 1: And I started to begin to make bolder petitions about
Speaker 1: bigger things. And I remember that, yes, my daughter Sidney
Speaker 1: has cystic fibrosis and she's healthy now, but i'd kind
Speaker 1: of gotten complacent and praying for her healing and life
Speaker 1: expectancy for that is age forty, and so God was
Speaker 1: like stop stop just accepting that, but like, be bold
Speaker 1: in your petition, be bold in your faith, start hoping again.
Speaker 1: And I wonder if there are things in your life
Speaker 1: where you've given up hope and God has sent a
Speaker 1: five foot six inch blonde man to tell you to
Speaker 1: hope again. That God, he's an authority over your life.
Speaker 1: He has the power to act. But we've got to
Speaker 1: bring our whole heart, our whole self to him. We
Speaker 1: have to stop hiding from God, start hoping in God.
Speaker 1: That's the only way we're ever going to be able
Speaker 1: to cultivate a heart that's content, because even when the
Speaker 1: answer is no, the posture of forgiveness is just submitting
Speaker 1: to our authority and saying God, I trust you, I
Speaker 1: love you, I know even if your answer is know
Speaker 1: now that you can work all things together for good.
Speaker 1: So we've got to practice the petition. Here's the second
Speaker 1: skill to practice, and that is practice the pivot. Practice
Speaker 1: the pivot. So here's Paul in prison, not denying the
Speaker 1: reality of his situation, but he's trying to teach the
Speaker 1: church that even in the worst situation possible, you can
Speaker 1: still choose your focus. So you can say, either I'm
Speaker 1: going to focus on the thing that feeds my fear,
Speaker 1: or I'm going to pivot my heart and my focus
Speaker 1: to the thing that fuels my faith. I can focus
Speaker 1: on the source of my worry and I can obsess
Speaker 1: over that, or I can pivot my heart to the whatever.
Speaker 1: And this is the whatever that he's talking about. Verse eight.
Speaker 1: I love this verse. It says, whatever is true, whatever
Speaker 1: is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely,
Speaker 1: whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praise worthy,
Speaker 1: think about such things. Paul is saying that there is
Speaker 1: a whatever in any season, in any circumstance, no matter
Speaker 1: how bad it is. We can find a whatever if
Speaker 1: we learn to pivot. One of my favorite series, Pastors
Speaker 1: E when ever taught is God's Will is whatever. Any
Speaker 1: of y'all are around for that. It's an amazing series.
Speaker 1: And I would like to humbly just suggest and propose
Speaker 1: that maybe this could be a sequel. And that is
Speaker 1: your contentment is whatever. It's whatever you feed, whatever you
Speaker 1: focus on, whatever you gaze at with your heart. We
Speaker 1: have to learn the art of the whatever, of the pivot,
Speaker 1: because it's not whatever feels true or feels right, it's
Speaker 1: whatever is true. Whatever is, there's a big difference. Contentment
Speaker 1: is not a feeling, it's a focus, and that heart
Speaker 1: pivot is not natural. It takes practice. So, you know
Speaker 1: Paul saying, don't just say this situation isn't good. Pivot
Speaker 1: your heart to say, but I know God is good.
Speaker 1: He's not just saying, you know, obsess over the betrayal.
Speaker 1: He's saying, pivot your heart to say, I'm going to
Speaker 1: actually act on and move on forgiveness. Yes, you can
Speaker 1: recognize this is the hardest thing I've ever been through,
Speaker 1: but learn to pivot your heart to remember that I
Speaker 1: can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me. It's
Speaker 1: the art of the pivot. And that's why what we're
Speaker 1: doing in here right now, and what we do every
Speaker 1: single weekend is so so in because your greatest weapon
Speaker 1: and the fight for contentment is worship. Because there's no
Speaker 1: greater thing to help you pivot your eyes off of yourself,
Speaker 1: your eyes off of your circumstances, and onto Jesus and
Speaker 1: onto God and onto the higher authority. Then worship this
Speaker 1: atmosphere of faith. We have to make sure we prioritize
Speaker 1: that because this is it's pivot practice. It's contentment practice
Speaker 1: every time we're in the House of God. So Friday,
Speaker 1: I came in here to practice my message because this
Speaker 1: is not my default setting, and so I wanted to
Speaker 1: run it. I was hoping there'd be nobody in here
Speaker 1: and so I could work out some things. And I
Speaker 1: start the message, and then all of a sudden, somebody
Speaker 1: walks in and they were hired to fix some things
Speaker 1: in the auditorium. And at first I was pretty bummed
Speaker 1: out because I was like, Ah, this is gonna be awkward.
Speaker 1: Now I'm gonna have to like mumble and I'm over
Speaker 1: here kind of whispering the message to myself. And so
Speaker 1: halfway through the message, he raises his hand and he says,
Speaker 1: excuse me, sir, are you practicing the word for this weekend?
Speaker 1: And I thought if I told him yes, then maybe
Speaker 1: he'd actually leave, and so I just honesty and I said,
Speaker 1: yes I am. And he's like, well, you don't have
Speaker 1: to mumble to yourself. I love a good word. I'd
Speaker 1: love to hear it. It's like, okay, change of plans.
Speaker 1: So then he comes down and he sits right here
Speaker 1: where Philip is, and so he is right here looking
Speaker 1: at me, right there, empty auditorium. Imagine how awkward it is.
Speaker 1: This whole sermon is just you and me. It was great.
Speaker 1: So I looked down at my notes and it says
Speaker 1: practice the pivot. I'm like, of course you would, God,
Speaker 1: thank you. So in that moment, practice what you preached.
Speaker 1: I had to pivot away from frustration to this new
Speaker 1: assignment God had given me. And so I finished the message,
Speaker 1: and I ended up talking to him when we pray together,
Speaker 1: and he said, you know, I watch Pastor Stephen on
Speaker 1: TV every week, but I feel like God said, you know,
Speaker 1: it's time for you to get back in church. And
Speaker 1: we had a conversation about how important it is to
Speaker 1: surround yourself with the right people because people help you
Speaker 1: pivot to one way or the other. And I realize,
Speaker 1: I realized if I just stayed focused on my frustration,
Speaker 1: I would have missed that moment. And so many of
Speaker 1: us were missing opportunities for contentment and opportunities for purpose
Speaker 1: because we're so busy focused on the frustration. We have
Speaker 1: to practice the pivot. And here's the final thing. Here's
Speaker 1: the final thing we're going to practice together, and that
Speaker 1: is practice the present, Practice the present. So I think
Speaker 1: one of my greatest struggles every day is just being
Speaker 1: present in this moment and the season God has me in.
Speaker 1: And if I'm honest, I think it's probably one of
Speaker 1: the biggest struggles of our generation because we're just staring
Speaker 1: at this all day, looking at everybody else's moment, everybody
Speaker 1: else's season, just standing at the stop sign, just scrolling. Oh,
Speaker 1: I didn't know. I don't know there was a party
Speaker 1: this weekend. I guess I wasn't. I guess I wasn't invited.
Speaker 1: Nobody understands me. Oh, man, we couldn't go on a
Speaker 1: vacation this year. That Disney cruise must have been nice.
Speaker 1: Nobody understands me, Oh she got a ring? Man, Am
Speaker 1: I ever gonna? This has become my new stop sign?
Speaker 1: And if I could just get through this screen to
Speaker 1: their life, to their job, to their family, to their situation,
Speaker 1: then just maybe I could be content. But I think
Speaker 1: God is telling us today contentment is never in the
Speaker 1: next season if we can't cultivate it in the present one.
Speaker 1: Contentment is not in the net. It's to now. So
Speaker 1: we've got to practice being present, which is so hard
Speaker 1: because there's some legitimate situations that are hurtful, and they're painful,
Speaker 1: and we want to escape from them. But Paul's writing
Speaker 1: from one of those right here in Philippians four. Because
Speaker 1: Paul was not some super Christian who was immune from struggles.
Speaker 1: I mean, if you read Paul's writings a lot of times,
Speaker 1: it looks like he actually struggled with depression and he was,
Speaker 1: you know, it was hard for him to believe the
Speaker 1: things he was writing. But I have to think as
Speaker 1: he's in his prison cell and he begins to stop
Speaker 1: chasing and stop scrolling and really quiet his mind and
Speaker 1: pivotou his heart to Jesus and just be present because
Speaker 1: he had to. He's in a prison cell. There's nowhere
Speaker 1: he could go. And as he quieted his heart, I
Speaker 1: wonder if he started to recognize that there was another
Speaker 1: presence that was with him in that prison cell and
Speaker 1: had been with him in every part of his life,
Speaker 1: because he writes about it in verse nine. And these
Speaker 1: are just a couple words that you could miss if
Speaker 1: you're not careful. But this, I think is the hinge
Speaker 1: that Contentment swings on verse nine says the God of
Speaker 1: Peace will be with you, Paul saying, as I look
Speaker 1: back over my life. If I look at when I
Speaker 1: was on the platform, when I was being persecuted, when
Speaker 1: I was being celebrated, when I'm in the prison cell,
Speaker 1: in every single season, God was there. God never left me.
Speaker 1: His presence was there with me. And I believe that
Speaker 1: part of being present and practicing being present is not
Speaker 1: trying to bypass how we feel. Because sometimes all you
Speaker 1: can feel is hurt, all you can feel is pain.
Speaker 1: There are some horrible things that you may be walking through,
Speaker 1: and the Bible says, mourn with those who mourn, weep
Speaker 1: with those who weep. Sometimes you just have to feel it,
Speaker 1: and there's no other response but crying out to God
Speaker 1: saying God, I do not understand this, but I think
Speaker 1: contentment is realized, saying that even when I don't feel peace,
Speaker 1: the God of Peace is with you, and He's with
Speaker 1: you in your situation. And there was nobody who knew
Speaker 1: the Old Testament better than Paul, so I have to
Speaker 1: believe he was thinking somewhere in the back of his
Speaker 1: mind Psalm one thirty nine. And I want you to
Speaker 1: get this truth deep in your spirit today says where
Speaker 1: can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee
Speaker 1: from your presence? If I go up to the heavens,
Speaker 1: you are there. If I make my bed in the depths,
Speaker 1: you are there. If I rise on the wings of
Speaker 1: the dawn, if I settle on the far side of
Speaker 1: the sea, even there, your hand will guide me. Your
Speaker 1: right hand will hold me fast. If I say surely,
Speaker 1: the darkness will hide me, and the light become night
Speaker 1: around me, even the darkness will not be dark to you.
Speaker 1: The night will shine like the day, for darkness is
Speaker 1: as light to you. In your story, You're not the
Speaker 1: only one who's been doing the chasing. I think God
Speaker 1: is wanting to remind us that even in the seasons
Speaker 1: when you're chasing after contentment and someone else chasing after
Speaker 1: contentment in a new job, in a new relationship, in
Speaker 1: every season, God has been chasing after you. You have
Speaker 1: never once escaped his spirit. You have never once escaped
Speaker 1: his presence. And you can stop chasing contentment because contentment
Speaker 1: has been chasing you in the person of Jesus Christ,
Speaker 1: and He is offering that up to you today. You
Speaker 1: don't have to like your situation to recognize that Christ
Speaker 1: will never leave you in it. He's always there. You
Speaker 1: don't have to be good with it. To recognize that
Speaker 1: there is good in it. And if you are having
Speaker 1: trouble finding your whatever, Christ is your whatever. He's whatever
Speaker 1: is good, whatever is pure, whatever is noble, and He
Speaker 1: is there with you. And even if you are in
Speaker 1: a dark season right now. The word of the Lord
Speaker 1: if you today is this. He sees you, he knows you,
Speaker 1: He is for you. His grace covers you, and he
Speaker 1: is with you, and he loves you. So I want
Speaker 1: us to stand together. We're going to close with a
Speaker 1: little contentment practice. I want to give you just a
Speaker 1: short prayer, two sentences that you can pray every day
Speaker 1: this week. You can pray it multiple times a day.
Speaker 1: You can pray it in your car, you can pray
Speaker 1: it in your cubicle. But this is just a tangible
Speaker 1: way that we can pivot our hearts to God. So
Speaker 1: this is what you say to him this week. I
Speaker 1: want you to say, you are good and you're with me.
Speaker 1: Say it like you believe it. You are good and
Speaker 1: you are with me. You can say this even under
Speaker 1: your breath in the cubicle, so people don't look at
Speaker 1: you weird. Say you are good, you are with me.
Speaker 1: You can say that even after you leave that meeting
Speaker 1: and you just lost your job and you have no
Speaker 1: idea how God's going to provide. You just need to
Speaker 1: remind yourself say you are good, you are with me,
Speaker 1: even if you have to say it through tears. Say
Speaker 1: it out in faith. That's not faking it, it's faith.
Speaker 1: Just believe it in your heart. Come on, you are good.
Speaker 1: You're with me. You're good in the valley, You're with
Speaker 1: me on the mountaintop. Come on, you are good, you
Speaker 1: are with me. Thank you for joining us. Special thanks
Speaker 1: to those of you who give generously to this ministry.
Speaker 1: Is because of you that this ministry is possible. You
Speaker 1: can click the link in the description to give now,
Speaker 1: or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more information
Speaker 1: and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe. You
Speaker 1: can share it with your friends. You can click the
Speaker 1: share button, take a screenshot and share it on your
Speaker 1: social stories and tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks again
Speaker 1: for listening. God bless you