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The episodes are the weekly sermons from 922 Ministries (St. Peter and The CORE) of Appleton, Wisconsin.
Promise Land
Week 3 - The CORE
Pastor Mike Novotny
Well, happy Sunday. Good morning everyone. Welcome back to week number 3 of our sermon series “Promise Land. Wow. What a great way to start the service. It is as a pastor, it's super cool seeing anyone in church but sometimes when you see a family like this in church where there's just like generations of Christian faith and commitment when you have people in their 20s here in America, just like so all in for Jesus and his love knowing his promises. So okay, family, this service, not about you, but can we all just honor you right now for being a family that keeps Jesus at the center of everything. It's a really beautiful thing to see. Awesome. I'm so excited that you're here. As we continue this series on the promises of God.
So this morning when you woke up, did you think? God has given me a really good life.
As an interesting question, we often talk in modern culture about living my best life. I think that's kind of a standard that's really hard to reach our best life every single day. So that's not my question. My question is, when you woke up the juices, have that, that feeling that sense. Deepen you. God has given me a really good life. Like I can be good with this life and might not be flawless, it might not be perfect, but God is giving me a life to be grateful for a life that I can be satisfied with God has given me something really, really good.
It was an interesting question. I was actually thinking the other day, what is the recipe for how most of us would define a good life? And I came up with three things. If you're taking notes in your program today, here's what I think. Most people would say makes a good life that I can be grateful, content and satisfied if God makes me relatively healthy. Second, if God makes me relatively wealthy.
And third, if God gives me a relatively happy family,
Which agrees with that definition. Like if I can wake up, I don't need to be an Olympic athlete. I don't need like a ripped six-pack. If I'm healthy, if my body feels good. If my mental head space is strong and if I don't get up with a healthy body, just to like scrape by, and try to collect, pennies and beg on a street corner, but I have enough in my bank account to cover the basics, maybe a little bit more to go to eat. Have some fun with friends, travel a little bit. And if I don't have to do all that stuff alone, because God has given me a happy family. Like I'm close with my parents or my siblings. If my partner and I love and respect each other. Like if I could have that I don't need the world. I don't need to win a lottery. I don't have to live in a mansion God if you give me health and wealth and if I'm close to people that I should be closest to, that's a pretty good life.
But I'm guessing even as I say, those things, you probably recognize the problem with that modern definition.
The problem in my experience is that it's really hard to make all three of those things happen at the same time.
And that even if you, by chance, have that perfect moment when you're healthy and wealthy and your family is happy, it's really hard to stay in that spot without something going wrong.
You don't talk about cook shelf, answer, how many of you in the last let's say year have had some issues with your health. The handstands hands-on sense. Yes. My wife actually I was like randomly having lunch yesterday and my wife popped this question out of the blue is it about time for you to get a call and ask me I love you, too. Thank you.
As I'm, you know, hitting that spot in life. I'm statistically over halfway dead and I noticed that like, I see it in the mirror, I'm like increasing the resolution of the discernments, as I type them on my computer screen, stuff goes wrong with our bodies. There's allergies and there's cavities, and there's injuries. And they're surgeries, there's depression, and there's anxiety, there's cancer, and there's chemo. There's all these things that happen and even if you work hard on your health, even if you're trying to sleep enough hours, monitor your screen time, if you're careful with social media and your diets, it's really hard to like, get your body in that spot where it's healthy and it stays that way. And for those of you who are getting older or our older than I am, you know this like twice as well as I do like you just can't stop time. Your health is a thing that has a diminishing return. It's hard to be healthy
And I would attest even in America, it's hard to be wealthy.
Another quiz. How many of you have had an unexpected expense in the last six months? Can I raise two hands to that? My daughter. Just had her wisdom, teeth taken out on Friday, I called the insurance thinking, they're going to cover half. That's what my wife had implied when she talked to the dentist, that was not the case. We'll cover 80%. They said up to $2,000.
Okay. All right. You know, cars break down the landlord wants the rent money, there's credit card bills, tuition statements, you don't get the raise that you thought, the promotion that you thought, inflation happens? You thought that you were ahead. Like you can have a lot of money. Living First World America, you can be healthy, but it's hard to be wealthy. It's hard to be both at the same time.
But maybe the hardest part of that recipe is the last part. The happy family to be close to your mom and your dad is no simple task. And lots of you know that I have brothers and sisters that you're close to. They don't just put up with but you're excited to see during the holiday season that It's way more difficult than most of us would believe.
To find someone and to fall in love to take a vow and then to keep it to be close to to see that person, you wake up to in the morning and just be excited about marriage. You think that'd be simple according to the Hallmark movies, but it isn't right or closest relationships to get them close and to keep them close. Super challenging. Yeah, I'm thinking about friends of mine whose lives have changed because of a sickness that probably won't be cured, unless God works a miracle. I think of people who can't go back and like redo their education and invest when they're 18 years old. That like they'll never be rich compared to their peers that. Think about relationships where people are trying but it's just not working.
It's kind of a depressing part of life. We have this basic recipe, you know, God, please help. Give me health. Give me wealth. Give me happy family, but it's really hard to get there. It's just as hard to stay there. And I think that's why a lot of us. Woke up this morning. I didn't feel that feeling. There wasn't like this profound level of contentment or peace in our hearts because either we knew we're missing something or we knew something could happen to make us miss something that we currently have.
It's kind of my premise here in our culture. It's really hard to be grateful, satisfied, and content.
Which is why I'm so excited that you're here today.
Because today, we get to study. What I think are maybe some of the most famous words in the New Testament, like a coffee cup. Put it on a t-shirt, tattooed, kind of Bible verse from the book of Philippians. And we're gonna find out that there was this guy 2,000 years ago, his name was Paul, he was a famous Christian who had found this profound level of contentment and satisfaction and peace in his heart. And if you think it was because he was healthy, wealthy and had a happy family, you'd be totally wrong. In fact, 2,000 years ago, when Paul writes this letter to the Philippians, which are Christians in the Greek city of Philippi, he was financially broke. Physically broken. Single. And separated by about a thousand miles from his closest family and friends.
You know the story Paul was kind of a big deal in his career until he met Jesus. Following Jesus cost him almost everything. He's taking these missionary journeys. Actually got arrested, even though he didn't do anything wrong, he got caught up in this corrupt, hypocritical money, loving legal system. He sat in a prison cell separated from those that he loved for years, and then they shipped him off to Rome. Hundreds of miles away, and when Paul writes this letter to the Philippians, that's where he is. But he hasn't been free in years has no way of making income. All these plans he had to spread the Gospel are totally out the window and yet. Some of you Bible readers know this. Philippians is famous for the level of inexpressible joy in Paul’s heart. Like he's bursting in every chapter on every paragraph with this joy, contentment and satisfaction that he had discovered. Philippines is the book where Paul says “rejoice in the Lord always. I'll say it again, rejoice.” It's the same book where he says, “Don't be anxious about anything.” It's the book re talks about the secret of being content. And so if you want to know how to have a good life, even if you're not healthy, even if you're not wealthy, even if you don't have a happy family, to me, Paul wants to share a secret with you. It's something that very few people find. That's why Paul calls it a secret. It's something that even church people miss out on when they think that the purpose of church is to just make me healthy and wealthy and give me a perfect family. Paul's going to reveal what he calls the secret of being content in any and every situation.
And I thought you open your ears and your heart to it today.
I mean, people every single month who get mad at God because he doesn't film the blanks the way they think.
They give up on church because their mental health doesn't immediately improve. Look at disillusioned with religion and Christianity because the Jesus who works miracles doesn't give them a miracle.
I'm hoping my prayers, that God would save you from that.
And not just that but he would swing you to this place that very few people find that Paul found a place of supernatural contentment and joy. That's my hope for you today. As we grab our Bibles and open now to Philippians, chapter 4,
Is a plus size in verse 10.
He writes, “I rejoice greatly in the Lord that at last you renewed your concern for me. To indeed, you were concerned but you had no opportunity to show it.”
So you pick up Paul's emotion there. He's not just rejoicing but he's rejoicing greatly. He's super happy. He's doing a happy dance over in Rome. Why is he doing it? Well you might think because quote “you Philippians renewed, your concern for me.” And we find out in the context of this chapter that a mutual friend had traveled the 800 miles from Philippi over to Rome and it is hands he brought a fat check.”
The Philippians had gathered an offering to support their friend Paul who was the pastor that started their church. And when this mutual friend showed up, he had a bunch of money to help Paul during his imprisonment.
Which would make you think. See you need money to be happy. Paul's rejoicing greatly because he just has more money in his pocket. But Paul doesn't want you to think that way. Look at verse 11 explains, “I'm not saying this because I'm in need, I'm not telling you I'm happy because I needed your money. I'm grateful for it. I didn't need that to rejoice. Here's why. For I have a learned to be content whatever the circumstances.”
I want you to notice a really important word in that verse the word “learned”.
So if you think Paul just came out of his mother's womb with a natural, cheery disposition, That the glass was always half full for Paul when he was growing up, that he just always saw the bright side of things. Paul was a no no. Now, I used to think that I needed the health and I needed the wealth. But then, I learned someone taught me a different way to think about my life.
To me, this is incredibly empowering because Paul is saying, no matter what your story, or how you were raised, you too, if you listen to the message that Paul listened to, you can learn the same thing that Paul learned a way to be content, to be satisfied, whatever the circumstances.
And verse 12. Paul takes it to the extreme. He says I know what it is to be in need and I know what it is. That’s plenty. As on the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether welfare or hungry, whether living in plenty or wants.
So notice Paul picks three separate pairs of words that are kind of on the extremes of living. I've I've been in total wants and need and I've had plenty and abundance. There's been times when my stomach hurts because I was so well fed. And other times my stomach hurt because I don't have anything to eat. Like, I've been free, I've been in prison the system to work for me. The system broke down on me. I've had the best and I've had the worse but that wasn't the source of my contentment where I wasn't on the scale. He says, no, I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation.
I'm actually in the original Greek in which Paul wrote this, there's this interesting phrase when he says, I have learned the secrets, Was actually using some words that were commonly used for this mysterious like cult in the first century.
That these special initiation rights would happen in public. That happened in secret, that not many people knew, but behind closed doors, just a few people, had been initiated had figured out. And Paul kind of uses that phrase, it's his way of saying, you know, Christianity offers something that isn't immediately evident. Just walk by a church. You might assume. Oh, that's for the good people. Go or maybe God will help me be healthy or wealthy. Pulse isn't? I don't know. That's not what it is. Let me initiate you into the secret club of content Christians.
And then, over 13. Paul reveals the secret.
Its a big verse. Are you ready for it? Are you, are you mentally and emotionally prepared for this moment, I'm about to drop like, top 10, famous New Testament. In fact, turn to someone, who's next to you, give them a fist bump real quick. Look, when the eye gets your eyebrows roll up, and tell them this is big. You didn't sound the impression, right? One more time. This is big. This is, yes, this is super big. Thank you for that. I needed it. Philippians 4, verse 13. Actually, I want you read this verse with me, Are you all ready? Let's put it on the screen. Paul says this, I can do all this through him who gives me strength.” A few days ago, a man, left me a frustrated voicemail. Its about this verse. I don't think I ever met him before he called the church. I wasn't there. So he left a voicemail. The first thing I noticed was how long it was.
Three minutes plus seconds I noticed that he never introduced himself. He just started talking with emotion.
You figured out what I was going to be preaching on today. And so I think, two weeks before I even got up here to preach, he was mad about the sermon, he's frustrated. He says that's not true, I tried and I couldn't do all this.
I tried to keep my family together, I worked and it didn't happen. So don't give me some like simple platitudes, some pastor speech about how God can help you do, whatever. That's not true, I tried it, but it doesn't work. And left his name at the end and hoped that this sermon would fix it.
So I'm about to fix it.
This verse is equally powerful and misunderstood
It's famous but sometimes it's famous for the wrong reason.
So they break it down for you. Paul is saying I can do all this.
Now, that's the operative word in this famous verse, What is the “this” Paul is referring to? It is not his bucket list of things that you wanted God to do for him. If I wasn't saying I'm gonna get out of prison, and then I'm gonna get on Christian Mingle, and then I'm gonna meet the girl, and we have twins and I'm gonna name them. It's like I can do all this through. Actually saw video a couple years ago of a Christian football team. They're about to, you know, bust through one of those big banners run out for like, the playoff game, and thumped their crosstown rivals. Cheerleaders are holding this giant banner. And what did the banner say? I can do all this through him. Who gives me these testosterone-driven teenage boys. Bust through the banner. Yeah, let's get them. But it's now, someone named Paul saying at all.
Now, a better interpretation would be if that Christian football team busted through the banner and then got totally smashed. Quarterback got sacked 15 times, tears his ACL misses the rest of a senior season. Kid gets back in the car. He's sitting in the backseat. Paul would say, hey, You can do this through the one who gives you strength.
In context, Paul is saying I can be rich and content. I can be poor and content. I can be healthy and content, I can be hungry and content. The, “this” is Paul's level of content. He says I can do this.
And he's sharing the secret because he believes that you can do this too.
That you could still cry and you could still grieve and you could still pray for healing and you could still work to restore a relationship. But whatever happens with that, Paul would say you can do this. And here's how you can do this through him. It gives you strength.
Paul's foundational belief was that if Jesus made God not far away but right here.
In fact, God is kind and compassionate and powerful and forgiving, saving and patient. If God doesn't just like show up in my life on the big occasions but every second of every moment, he's right here. That I can do this.
If Jesus is the one who bled and died for the forgiveness of my sins, Paul believes that everything that would make God frustrated or disappointed or angry at me has been washed away by the blood of Christ. And God has made this promise. I will never leave you and I'll never forsake you. If God is not somewhere out there, but he is right here to help me.
I can do this.
If I'm not sitting there going through chemo just by myself hoping it works out, but God is in the room. I can do that.
If I have a birthday party and all the friends show up and they bring beautiful food to share like I can do that. And if something goes wrong and it's just me and no one remembers my birthday. I can do that too.
I can do it at the top of my career game. I could sit in a cell under an unjust charge. I can do that.
Imagine for a second, if there was like a really fast forward version of your whole life. Your, boom, there you are as a baby in your mother's arms and it's going through all the school years and you're growing up. All the ups and all the downs, the wedding, the divorce, the friendship, the first kiss, all these things that are happening, can you imagine like seeing that fast forward thing except just Jesus is unchanging through all of it?
We forgiving, loving, patient, saving Jesus. He never zips in and out of the frame, he's just constant and there.
That was Paul's secret. It is.
I don't know what's going to happen to me today. I might live, I might die, I might be free. I might sit here for a long time. I might have more. I might have less you all might send me money. You might forget. But that's not where my contentment is. Here's what I know deep down in my soul but because of the sacrifice of Jesus, my God, and going anywhere.
So here's my lengthy summary of Paul's secrets of being content. I love reading the sound. If God is here because of the forgiveness of Jesus and if God will help because the forgiveness of Jesus and if God will use this by the power of Jesus and God will end this by the return of Jesus, I can do this.
You got all that? Some of you might have realized that those are the five weeks of the sermon series, right? God is here, God will help. God will use this, God will end this and therefore I can do this. What Paul did was practice the promises of God in his head and it led him to wake up every day that the best days in the worst days and say I can do this. I'm grateful for this. I might not have chosen this, but I'm going to be okay through this. Because I can do all things through the one who gives me strength.
My favorite Christian artist is one man named Christopher Powers. And I'm most curious at how he depicts different Bible passages. So I jumped on his website fullofeyes.com, I typed in Philippians 4 verse 13 and I was surprised at the image that he created but I loved it. Let me show you.
It is Paul.
Seconds from losing his head. Big exaggerated Roman sword raised above him. This is my friend's depiction of Christian contentment.
It's not? Why? Like my life, my death, the justice or the injustice. It all happens in the palm of my savior, Jesus.
And not just the palm of His powerful hand but the hand that was pierced for the forgiveness of my sins. You see the stone roll, the way behind Paul, that Jesus was risen, so that death itself can't separate me from the God who is here by my side. I love that depiction. Whatever happens to you in the days to come. If you're Christian, it happens in the palm of Jesus himself. The God who's here? God will help. The God who will use this, and the God, who's promised to end this.
And if you remember, thats if you practice those promises, if you come to believe that everything in your life, happens in the palm of your Lord and your savior, you can do this too.
So, where do we go from here?
I'm gonna leave you with a phrase that you're probably thinking about when you got up this morning, biblical neuroplasticity.
Was that right? No, I was not right. Okay, you don't. Neuroplasticity is it's just really, really cool discovery that's fairly recent in brain science. Scientists have discovered that your brain that's the neuron part, is like, plastic. Your brain isn't like this unmovable rock that can't be taught new things. Brain scientists have found out that if you repeat something enough in your head, if you think about a certain thought again and again your brain actually rewires itself and defaults to certain ways of thinking. So why it's so hard if you're a victim of abuse, because if you hear something that you're worthless, you're worthless or you're brains starts to like, believe that as a default setting. And the Apostle Paul probably once have used the phrase biblical neuro plasticity but that's actually what he's teaching us. He's teaching us. If you think about the promises of God, if you repeat them, if you memorize them, if then after day after day, you tell your brain,. God is here. God is here. God is here. God will help. God will help. God will use this. God will end this if you repeat these truths about God, your brain doesn't just like sit there, like a rock. No, it starts to.
It's a wonder you wake up and you say I can do all things through God who gives me strength.
If you too practice the promises of God, if you focus enough on these truths about Jesus, as most of us do in our TikTok or our B-Reel or Instagram feeds. What will happen? Your brain will be shocking.
And so I just wish I just wish there was like, some simple way that we could memorize the promises if I was shot. I don't know. Some pastor would just cut together a little, I don't know, like this big or so, to help us with the simple summaries. We don't have to read through the whole. That was a pastoral sarcasm, by the way. All right. This is a Hallmark. We've been given away for the past few weeks of these little cards. If you don't have one, you can find one at the information desk on the back. Is basically a simple guide to biblical neuroplasticity. If I promise, the ones we talked about today, five proof passages to know that I'm not making this up to make you feel good. God has promised by the blood of His son. If He's here. He'll help you. You can do this. God's going to use this. And one day, whatever you're going through, God will end it. When you see him face the face, don't be mad if you don't do this homework but I'm trying to help you. I want you to know that you're not just forgiven but you can live with an uncommon level of satisfaction and contentment. If you repeat the promises of God,
Listen, some churches and some pastors will tell you that if you believe in Jesus, everything is better. This is only halfway true.
Paul in prison would say you might not be healthier, wealthier, be close to a perfect family. But you, you can be different at the spiritual and emotional level. You can be different if you practice the promises of God.
In other words, I'm hoping you end up like an old woman named Mabel.
Years ago, there was this pastor I was visiting at a nursing home and that's when he first saw 89 year old Mabel.
He described her as quote “an absolute horror”.
He wasn't a mean pastor. He was reacting to what he saw. Mabel's eyes were clouded over, she was totally blind. Trying hearing aid on one side of her head. She was almost totally deaf. Cancer had ravaged her face actually eating away most of her skin pushed her nose to the side and it drooped. Her jaw was off center. It was horrific, her physical appearance.
But the pastor started a conversation with Mabel, which turned into a relationship which lasted for years. He came to know her heart and her thoughts. It's one-day years in their relationship. The pastor asked maybe, well, what do you think about all day? Can't go anywhere. Can't do anything. Just sitting in a wheelchair. What do you think about?
I'm able to think about Jesus.
Oh curious, the pastor says. Well, what exactly do you think about Jesus?
Enable with her distorted smile said, I think about how good He's been to me.
Jesus has been so good to me? You know most people around here to gesture towards the nursing home. Think I'm old-fashioned. But I don't care. I love Jesus.
And then this old woman distorted by the years. She started to sing out of her heart, words that she had memorized about Jesus, but his compassion and forgiveness, and his presence in her life.
Years ago, I read a book that told that story, and the first line after the description of Mabel, the author said this is not fiction.
And some Chicken Soup for the Soul story that a pastor made up to make you people actually live this way, Mabel did. Paul discovered it too. And today, God wants to reveal this secret to being content. It's not a couple extra days in the gym, it's not an investment that works out well. It's not a new government or election. There is a piece that goes beyond understanding. If you believe God is here, he's here to help. He's going to use this and he will end this. Then you and I can say with faith, I can do this. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.
That's right.
Oh God, I'm no one tells us this he really is a secret in our culture. And we think if we just found the right doctor, or the right hospital, or the right medicine, We think if we just elected the right president, the right Congress, at the right mix of people on the Supreme Court. We assume that a few would just do this or she would just do that or they would just change this that we'd find contentment but that's not true.
I can send it is only found in you. And not some small diminished version of you. But a magnified, glorified, God was promised to be about our side because of the sacrifice of Jesus. To asking you today to send your Holy Spirit to open the eyes of our heart. That we would believe that these things are true. Help us to fix our eyes and our thoughts on Jesus, the author and perfect of our faith, that we could discover what Paul did in that jail cell. That there is a piece that can guard our hearts and minds a piece that was beyond most people's understanding. If we just think about things that are true and noble and beautiful, if you don't waste our time seeing the panic-stricken headlines but instead, focus on the promises that you made through the blood of your son, we can do this. So God helps us to encourage each other. With what's true? The promises that you made through your son, Jesus. It's in his name that we pray and everyone said, Amen.