Emotional Health

3 Mindsets That Steal Your Holiday Happiness

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Philippians 1:18-19 – I will rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out…

In our study of Philippians, we have established that the main theme is joy as words such as joy and rejoice appear some 19 times in the 104 verses of the little book. The first time I preached through Philippians verse-by-verse was around a dozen years ago. In hindsight, I believe I could have done a better job teaching the book, which is why I am very excited to be preaching it this holiday season for the wonderful folks in our church family.

The first time I taught the book, I had more information about joy than an impartation of joy. What I lacked was a fullness in the Spirit who alone can bring enduring, deep, profound, and unshakeable joy. This was the experience of Jesus who, “rejoiced in the Holy Spirit” (Luke 10:21) and can be the experience of Christians as “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy…” (Galatians 5:22).

How is your joy this holiday season? Looking back, I believe there were three mindsets that seek to steal our happiness:

1. Past – We have regrets about what we have done in our past or hold onto grudges against those who hurt us in the past, which kills joy in the present.
2. Present – We believe the lie that if the person or circumstance causing us pains and problems were under control then we’d be happy, as we never see life come together perfectly until the Kingdom.

3. Future – As we frantically chase a hope or dream, we wrongly believe the myth that, “I will be happy when __________.” When we graduate, get a job, get married, buy a house, have kids, pay off our credit cards, etc. may never happen, and if it does, we are still unhappy.

These three mindsets kill your joy because joy comes from the Lord by the Spirit. Without His joy, you cannot fully enjoy anything from your past, present, or future.

Which of these three mindsets is the toughest trap for you to avoid?

Find Joy Even When You are Lonely

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Philippians 1:12-14 – I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.

Our planet has more people than ever, and oddly enough more loneliness than ever. I am reminded of this every time I sit in a coffee shop as this is where lonely people go to ignore one another.

Loneliness is becoming an increasingly significant health risk. One government study said that being lonely was as damaging to your health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day! (1)

The apostle Paul was often on the move and alone. In his roughly decade of ministry, he walked an average of 20 miles a day. Additionally, he rarely spent more than a few years in any one place, and suffered shipwrecks, beatings, arrests, and mob riots. He writes Philippians from a jail cell in Rome, as he misses his church family far away in Philippi. He has no idea what his future holds, but in the midst of what could easily be anxious and lonely days, he had joy. In fact, the letter he writes from prison is about the theme of joy.

Paul’s example teaches us three things about finding joy even when you are lonely:

1. You may not get new circumstances, but you can get a new mindset. In the 104 verses in Philippians, he mentions joy around 19 times, the mind around 11 times, and Jesus roughly 65 times. When your mind is saturated with the person and presence of Jesus Christ, there is internal joy that defies our external circumstances.

2. You need a purpose bigger than your pain. Your pain is big and, to have joy, you must find a purpose for your pain that is bigger than your pain. This is exactly what Paul did. Wrongly imprisoned, he saw an opportunity to evangelize the 9,000 elite soldiers he now had access to, starting with the ones chained to him and forced to hear him talk about Jesus every day. This explains why Paul mentions the “gospel” more times per verse in Philippians than any other book of the Bible.

3. Isolation is where you meet with the Devil and solitude is where you meet with the Lord. Paul was not lonely, because he was not alone. He held his friends in his heart as he says repeatedly throughout Philippians. Also, God was present with him. This is the secret of the Christian life. Luke 10:21 says, [Jesus] “rejoiced in the Holy Spirit”. And Galatians 5:22 says, “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy…” Because the Holy Spirit is the source of joy, it does not matter where you might be or what you might be going through as He is with you and has joy for you if you will seek Him.

Which of these three principles for joy is one you need to focus on today?

(1)https://www.hrsa.gov/enews/past-issues/2019/january-17/loneliness-epidemic

3 Things Every Christian Needs for Joy

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Philippians 1:1-5 – Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.

Tis the season when people start making their lists for holiday gift giving. What is on the list of what you are hoping to get? What is on the list of what others are hoping to get from you?

Did you know that God also has a holiday wish list for you? As we’ve been studying Philippians, we have established that one of the major themes of the letter is joy. Oddly, Paul writes the letter from prison after being illegally arrested, and wrongly imprisoned in far-away Rome. For most of us, our joy is defined by our life. If life is going good, we are joyful. If life is going bad, we are not joyful. In contrast, Paul had a joy that defied his life. His life was going bad, and he was joyful.

How?

If you could learn the secrets to Paul’s joy you could share in that joy. In the opening lines of his letter to his Christian friends at the church in Philippi, Paul tells us of three things that brought him joy:

1. Pals: A friend who loves the Lord and is for us when life is against us is a great joy. Paul mentions his faithful friends saying, “I thank my God in all my remembrance of you”. Philippians names some of his most precious pals like the men Timothy and Epaphroditus, and the women Euodia and Syntyche. Paul was a faithful friend who had joy in the faithfulness of his friends who supported him even when he could not be with them. The key to these close and healthy relationships was the fact that these people did ministry together, serving God side by side for many years. The principle is simple: if you want to get close with people, do ministry with them serving others.
2. Prayer: In mentioning “my prayer with joy”, Paul is revealing to us a secret for joy. Sometimes, joy wanes because we become focused solely on ourselves. Joy grows as we focus on God and others, in addition to our own needs, which is exactly what happens when we pray according to the Spirit.
3. Partnership: In his gratitude in “your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now”, Paul is revealing that joy comes to those and through those who open the love in their hearts and resources in their banks to work together in a church for the cause of the gospel. The partnership to which Paul refers is a generous financial gift which the church had Epaphroditus deliver to him, which we will learn about nearing the end of our study in Philippians.

Which of these three things is strongest in your life? Which of these three things is weakest in your life?

Joy To The World #2 – Find Joy Even When You Are Suffering

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Everyone on this earth will experience suffering, to varying degrees, throughout their lives. The question is not if it will happen, but how you will respond to it. In Philippians 1:15-30, Paul teaches that the Holy Spirit can empower you to have joy in suffering or even death.

Joy To The World #1 – Find Joy Even When You are Lonely

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Joy to the World is a popular Christmas song but a recent study found that 88 percent of people feel stressed during the holidays. Philippians, written by Paul while in seemingly unjoyful circumstances in jail, teaches us how God, not our circumstances, should be the greatest source of joy – at Christmas and all throughout the year. In this first sermon in the “Joy to the World” series, Pastor Mark will teach from Philippians 1:1-14 and Acts 16 on how to find joy even when you’re lonely.

Death Is Gain

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1 Corinthians 15:54–55 – When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”

John 11:25–26 – Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

Philippians 1:21 – For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 

Perhaps the strongest spirit of fear is the fear of death. Having preached in a bulletproof vest at our church and having experienced security issues at our home from critics, we understand this fear for oneself and one’s family.

If we find ourselves in danger, making reasonable efforts to remain safe is wise. However, we can find ourselves moving down a sliding scale from prepared to paranoid. In the end death will come for us all. And an unhealthy fear of death can rob us of enjoying life.

Thankfully, Jesus defeated death. His resurrection is the pattern and precedent for all of God’s people. Death does not get the last word; the risen Jesus does.

Faith in Jesus casts out the fear of death. If you believe in Jesus’ resurrection, the fact that you will die one day casts out the fear of death that can grip you on any day. Our faith says death is not to be feared because to die is gain.

Practically, how do you enjoy the presence of the Holy Spirit so that your fear is replaced with faith? Stopping to sing aloud to God? Praying to God from the heart when things hurt? Journaling out your thoughts so that you come to grips with reality and trust God for your future? Bible reading to fill your mind with truth to push out any lies? Being part of a church family where the presence of God is enjoyed with brothers and sisters in the faith who help you grow in faith?

Freedom from fear helps us live free of demonic division.

To order the new book from Pastor Mark & Grace Driscoll “Win Your War”, visit: https://amzn.to/2YuhoDn.

For the entire eight-week “Win Your War” sermon series from Pastor Mark, visit www.markdriscoll.org or the Mark Driscoll Ministries app.

Jesus Heals Father Wounds

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Jesus lived from His Father’s identity, reflected His Father’s heart, and did His Father’s work and, as His people, He wants to empower us to do the same after healing wounds our earthly fathers might’ve caused us.

The Love of God

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1 John 4:18 – There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.

John 14:25–27 – These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

Luke 23:46 – Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last.

Sometimes professional help and medication can help with fear and anxiety. Sometimes the problem is more physical than spiritual and requires medical attention.

Other times fear and anxiety are, at least in part, spiritual. A demonic spirit may be behind the fear. The way to deal with this is to cast it out and replace it with the love of God. This is why replacing worry with worship, fear with faith, and panic with prayer drives out the spirit of fear. We find the peace, presence, love, and life of God in our Helper, the Holy Spirit.

Jesus models how to overcome fear with faith. In the Garden of Gethsemane, with the cross only hours away, Jesus experienced fear and anxiety. Unable to sleep, His sweat like drops of blood, spending the entire night in prayer, He was honest with God the Father about His struggles. He asked if there were any way to save sinners without having to suffer.

In the end Jesus surrendered in faith to the Father, saying, “Your will be done.” On the cross Jesus was no longer fearful or anxious but instead had the peace that surpasses understanding, saying with His final breath, “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.”

To order the new book from Pastor Mark & Grace Driscoll “Win Your War”, visit: https://amzn.to/2YuhoDn.

For the entire eight-week “Win Your War” sermon series from Pastor Mark, visit www.markdriscoll.org or the Mark Driscoll Ministries app.

Five Ways to Feed Your Faith and Starve Your Fears

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Philippians 4:4-7 – Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

How do we feed our faith and starve our fear? Here are five ways: 

Focus one eye on each track. Most people think of life as being a series of good and bad seasons. But life is more like train tracks with good and bad happening congruently. We need to practice the discipline of also seeing the good track where bad things are happening.
Make your will your rudder. Your emotions are like a sail. They are drive your life. So when anxious and fearful, let your reasonableness be known to everyone (Phil. 4:5). Reasonableness means making wise, faith-filled decisions that drive you forward into God’s will.
Replace panic with prayer. When a spirit of fear comes over us, our mind races with all of the possible dangers. Sometimes these fears are legitimate, but often they are lies. Rather than panic, we should pray. Freaking out is not a spiritual gift; faith is.
Tell the Father what you want. Sometimes we ask God, “What do You want?” and God replies, “I was going to ask you the same question.” In a season of fear when what we want and don’t want needs to be clarified, it is reasonable to tell God what we want and see what He says. Let your requests be made known to God (Phil. 4:6). Sometimes God’s will is to ask you for the desires of your heart.
Enjoy God’s presence and peace. Like a soldier God will guard the emotional life of our hearts and the thought life of our minds if we stand with Him against the spirit of fear. It is not the absence of trouble that brings peace but the presence of God. This is the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Light drives out darkness, truth drives out lies, and the Spirit of God drives out the spirit of fear.

To order the new book from Pastor Mark & Grace Driscoll “Win Your War”, visit: https://amzn.to/2YuhoDn.

For the entire eight-week “Win Your War” sermon series from Pastor Mark, visit www.markdriscoll.org or the Mark Driscoll Ministries app.

Four MORE Reasons Fear Is a Fraud

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Genesis 3:4-5 – But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

John 10:10 – The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

James 1:5-8 – If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

Fear causes us to lose touch with reality. Like binoculars, fear becomes the lens through which we magnify and enlarge all the negative data we focus on in our lives. Eventually we start imagining things that aren’t real and let the fears drive us to a life of isolation and pointless worry.

Fear causes us to seek to be God. The devil’s first temptation was for us to be like God. We become obsessed with information in an effort to be all-knowing like God and predict the future. We can also become obsessed with controlling the future to get the results we want and avoid the results we do not want rather than accepting God’s will for our lives.

Fear robs us. Jesus spoke of the thief who comes only to steal and kill and destroy. Fear is a thief. Fear steals your joy, hope, and health. Fear kills your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Fear destroys your relationship with God, yourself, and others.

Fear makes us double-minded and unstable. When God tells us to do something, we are to obey Him as an act of faith. However, when fear grips us, we are often torn between obeying the spirit of fear and obeying the Spirit of God.

To order the new book from Pastor Mark & Grace Driscoll “Win Your War”, visit: https://amzn.to/2YuhoDn.

For the entire eight-week “Win Your War” sermon series from Pastor Mark, visit www.markdriscoll.org or the Mark Driscoll Ministries app.

Four Reasons Fear Is a Fraud

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Matthew 6:25-27 – Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?

Matthew 25:24-26 – He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, “Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.” But his master answered him, “You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed?” 

Most fears are frauds. They are not based upon reality and cause us to make unhealthy, unwise, and often unholy decisions, which in turn make us unhappy. We know of four reasons why a spirit of fear is a fraud.

Fear is godless.

A spirit of fear is hopeless because it is godless. A spirit of fear compels us to look into the future and see only the worst possible outcome, ignoring that God will be there and likely has a different plan for our good. This is what Jesus was driving at when He said, “Which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?”

Fear is a false prophecy.

A false prophet is a person who predicts a future that never happens. When we are ruled by fear rather than faith, we become false prophets in our own lives, predicting a hopeless, apocalyptic future that does not come to pass.

Fear makes us selfish.

When fear grips us, we think solely of ourselves in the same way that a person running out of a burning building is not concerned about whatever trouble a friend a hundred miles away might be going through at that same moment.

Fear makes us ineffective.

When fear drives us, we can be so scared of failing that we become paralyzed and do not do the things that God asks of us. For example, Jesus talks about a man who was given a bit of money to invest but did nothing with it, saying, “I was afraid.”

To order the new book from Pastor Mark & Grace Driscoll “Win Your War”, visit: https://amzn.to/2YuhoDn.

For the entire eight-week “Win Your War” sermon series from Pastor Mark, visit www.markdriscoll.org or the Mark Driscoll Ministries app.