Feelin' Fine in 99

A lot of people braved the cold. What a wonderful way to start 1999. We had a tremendous, group of brothers and sisters that were here for morning services. I was driving to work and I said, boy, It's like 0. People will be sleeping in this morning.

And, sure enough, we we were we were filled to capacity. And again, a wonderful turnout, this evening. It's very encouraging for, for everyone. Not just for the preacher, but for every member. Every I I stand back there and I watch the greeters, and I think the greeters are having so much fun.

It's I mean, there must be something wrong going on because they are having so much fun because every person that come in just increases their joy and increases their joy and then increases our joy as well to see all the brothers and sisters here. Well, we're 1999, new year begins and along with this time comes a sense of new hope. You know, calendars are man made things. Obviously, god didn't give us a calendar. But nevertheless, we still go by the calendar and we're encouraged with new beginnings.

This is why there's a lot of advertising for weight loss programs. You know, you check it out on the radio, right, TV, a lot of weight loss, Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, everybody's cause everybody makes those kind of resolutions after they've polished off a 40 pound turkey, you know. You got to make those resolutions. Or, you know, those systems to help people stop smoking, you know. Those who are smokers, whatever, to be used tobacco.

Usually, you know, you get a lot of commercials advertising for those patches or pills or whatever you wanna take to stop smoking. Because it's a time when we make resolutions with the objective usually being something that'll make us feel better or something that'll make us feel better about ourselves. You know, I mentioned this last week and I repeat again, you know, very few people ever say, Boy, this year, this year I'm gonna gain £40. Right? We don't say that.

Oh, well, I think this year I'm gonna try to get myself up to 2 packs a day. You know, we don't make resolutions like that. We don't do that. We want to be better. No matter where you are at, we want to be better.

And we wanna feel better about ourselves, and we wanna have a better estimate of ourselves. I mean, that's human nature. Well, in my lesson tonight, I'd like to share with you 7 things that you can do to feel better and feel better about yourself. And I call this lesson, How to Feel Fine in 99. How to Feel Fine in 99.

Now, there are a lot of things that we can do and a lot of things that we do do that makes us feel good. And not all of these things are bad. Having a good meal doesn't that feel good? I'm telling you, at least, around Christmas time we have this tradition she looks at me, Oh, she mentioned my name. I'm in trouble now.

But at Christmas time we have this, tradition in our home that she makes traditional French Canadian food, tortillaire we call it, and the ragu. Anyways, we feast. Boy, we have a good meal and that feels good, Enjoying a good night's rest, doesn't that feel good? You wake up and say, Boy, I slept well. That feels good.

Those are good things. Being intimate with your spouse, that feels great. That's a wonderful thing, the gift of God, feels good. Watching your children grow or watching what you're working on succeed. Doesn't that feel good?

Absolutely. Those are things that feel very good. All good things make us feel joyful and happy. But tonight, I want to go beyond merely feeling good or merely feeling satisfied. Tonight, I want to suggest things that will definitely make you feel better than you feel now.

No matter where you're at now, the things I'm going to suggest to you are going to make you feel better. No matter where you're at, no matter how low or how high you are, these things are going to make you feel better. And they're going to make you feel better about yourself, no matter where your self esteem is at. If your self esteem is high, it'll make you feel higher. And if your self esteem is low, it'll make you feel better.

Are you ready? Seven things make you feel better. Number 1, do something unselfishly. Do something unselfishly. The single greatest cause of depression, or the feeling of anxiety, the single greatest cause of marital and family discord is self centeredness.

It's not adultery, it's not money, it's self centeredness. That's what causes problems in marriages, in relationships. People focus on themselves and they are therefore easily hurt or offended. They're easily, moody. They feel moody and ill tempered and they receive little positive feedback and so they feel lonely, and they feel unloved.

When you're focused on yourself, boy, your feelings get hurt and they get hurt often. Doing something that is good and right with the proper motive for somebody else is the single greatest pick me up that you can ever experience. No matter where you're at in your life. Paul the Apostle said it this way in Romans chapter 15 verses 23. He said, Let every one of us please his neighbor for his good to edification.

For even Christ pleased not himself: but as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me. Now, the point he's making here is that acting unselfishly was the essence of Jesus Christ's character. And it was the essence of his mission. And it was the ideal that he left for us to strive for, acting unselfishly. Now, what Paul doesn't say, but what we all know from experience is that when we do this, we feel so much better.

We like ourselves so much better when we do something unselfishly. Number 2, I'm not going to belabor these. Number 2, resist sin. You wanna feel better? Resist sin.

Oh, what a joyful moment it is when we conquer sin in our lives. I know that we all sin all of us. I don't know all of you, well most of you. But one thing I know about all of you and myself is that we're all sinners. We all sin in one way or another.

And until Jesus Christ returns to transform our bodies into sinless, glorious, eternal bodies, we have to struggle with sinfulness each and every day. I'll never forget, Brother James Baird, Sr. I was in his class many, many years ago when I was in college, and he was teaching the book of Romans. And he at the time must have been 7 ish. And I remember him talking to our class and saying, Please don't ever think that you stop being sinful as you grow older.

Don't ever equate just getting older in years with becoming a better person. It doesn't work that way. He said to our class, You will have to struggle with sin all of your life. It's just the way that we are. We're sinful creatures.

Thankfully, as we get older, we gain more experience. We know how to handle things but it's always a struggle. It's always a struggle. Sometimes we lose. That's true, isn't it?

Sometimes we lose. Sometimes, man, we get beat up. But you know what? Aren't the victories wonderful? Aren't the victories wonderful?

I mean, you know those times when you see the temptation and you feel the pull of the temptation? Whatever it is, I don't know what sin is. I don't know what it is. Certainly, it's not something that's not known to humanity. I mean, it's lust, or it's greed, or it's pride, or it's whatever it is, dishonesty, whatever your sin is, whatever you're struggling with.

But you feel the pull of it and you resist. Oh, what a wonderful moment that is when you say, Man, I saw the snake. I heard the snake and I stepped on his head. I didn't give in this time. Oh, I feel good.

Oh, I feel great. When you struggle and when you succeed in doing what is right, and what is good, and what is God's will, oh, what a joy. Oh, what a joy! I never met anybody who gave into sin and after said, Man, I'm feeling pretty good about myself now. No.

If sin separates us from God, and if sin leads us to spiritual death, then resisting sin draws us nearer to God and invigorates our spiritual life. James says it this way in his epistle in chapter 4, verse 8 to 10. My wife's twice I mentioned her in the same lesson. Pretty good. She's buying supper tonight.

Chapter 4, verse 8. James says, Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double minded. Be miserable, and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy to gloom.

Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and he will exalt you. Oh, I like the last verse. And he will exalt you. The mourning, and the weeping, and the humbling, and the cleansing that he's talking about here. This is the acknowledgment and the struggle that we have with sin.

I acknowledge I'm a sinner. I'm struggling with sin. I'm fighting against my sinful flesh day in and day out. And it gets so weary and I'm so fed up with myself. But every once in a while, I win.

And, oh, what a good feeling it is when I win. This is the reward for success. That in winning, I draw just a little closer to God. That's the reward. And he draws a little closer to me.

That's the reward. That's the source of feeling good. You always feel better when you beat the devil. You always feel better. Number 3, if you want to feel better, learn something new from the bible.

See, I would hope that all of us would be regular bible readers. We have a few visitors, regular bible readers, that's over there. RBR, regular bible readers, 62. Well, that number is a little old. It should be around 75 or something last week.

We have 416, actually a little more than that, 417 people sold in our congregation. And out of those 417, 70 or so read their Bibles on a regular basis, 3 times a week. I'll tell you something, to be a christian and not to be a regular bible reader is both immature and dangerous. It's like a doctor never reading a medical journal, or a baseball player never taking batting practice. Could you imagine such a thing?

He wouldn't be in the big leagues very long, would he? You cannot survive and I don't know how, you know, how to say this to impress upon you how important this is. You cannot survive and grow as a Christian unless you read God's word regularly. It can't be done. I don't know how some of you survived.

The true measure of our growth is not attendance on Sunday. As wonderful as that is, that is not the true measure of our spiritual growth. The true measure of our spiritual growth is that number right there. How many people are into God's word on a regular basis? You know, if we have 500 people here, if we have a 1,000 people attending on Sunday morning and only 50 of them are reading their Bibles, something is terribly wrong.

Reading God's word is good and it's comforting and it's encouraging. But learning something new, or gaining a fresh insight as a result of that reading, this really makes a person feel stronger and confident. Jesus said, You will know the truth and the truth will make you free. John chapter 8 verse 32. Every time you learn more of the truth, every time you learn more about God's will, every time you learn more about the person of Christ, more about his church, more about his promises, more about the blessings to come, you are freed.

You are freed from ignorance and fear and the traps and the schemes of satan and the confinement of this world. And this freedom, once you have it, cannot be taken from you. This knowledge of the truth, once you have it, cannot be denied, cannot be removed, cannot be changed, cannot be taken from you. That Jesus Christ is the son of God will never be changed. Never.

We know that. We have something that will never change. So the genetic engineers can splice up the genes, and they can create half a man and half a donkey, It doesn't matter that Jesus Christ is the Son of God will never that knowledge will never be taken away from you. And everything else you learn from God's word can never be taken away from you. Do you see how important it is?

Knowing the truth makes you free to work for what you know. It makes you free to suffer for what you believe, to even die for what you are sure of, even if you haven't seen it yet. Are you able to die for Christ? Are you able to suffer for him? This kind of knowledge, this kind of freedom, doesn't come from Hollywood or Washington.

It comes from God and lifts one above whatever they felt and whatever they knew before has been replaced, has been eclipsed by this knowledge. And it all begins so simply, so humbly, by opening the word and simply allowing the word to come into your heart. And how do you do that? You make the time for it. You wanna feel better?

Make the time to read God's word. We say 3 times a week, but you know, my objective is that we would have, you know, 4 16 people here reading their Bibles every single day. Do you realize what kind of power that would unleash if we were all into God's word everyday? How powerful we would be? What kind of warriors we would be for Christ?

What kind of battle we could wage against the heavenly forces? If you want to feel better, if you want to really feel better, something else you can do. Number 4, be reconciled to someone. Be reconciled to someone. Has anyone here been able to go through life without offending someone else?

Has anybody here been able to manage to get where they are without somebody hurting their feelings? Mothers who have stopped talking to their sons, friends who no longer have a love for each other, Christians who are crossways because of misunderstanding. The list goes on and on and on. I want to tell you something, every person that you are separated from by anger and resentment is a burden that you have to carry. You gotta carry around that big bag on your back every single day.

Some people have been burdened so long this way, they don't even realize it anymore. That's the problem. Paul said, the apostle Paul, Romans chapter 12, he says, So far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. With all men. There's no doubting what he's saying here.

So long as it depends on you, are you the reason for the separation between yourself and whoever else you're separate? Are you that reason? We have a choice. We can continue the war of words, the war of feelings, the war of resentment, or we can begin the peace process. Being reconciled feels good, yes, But being the one that starts the process feels even better.

You wanna feel good? Be reconciled. Number 5, if you wanna feel better, reach I didn't say aim for reach a spiritual goal. Reach it. Get there.

As Christians, we realize that we are sinners and without the grace of God, we couldn't be saved, right? I've said that several times. We know that. We're all sinners. We all need, we all need God's grace to be saved.

This is at the core of our faith. But you know what? Sometimes we tend to hide behind this rather than using it to propel us forward. You know, some people, they always say, Well, nobody's perfect. They use that thing, Well, nobody's perfect.

We're all sinners. But we use that idea to excuse our lazy spiritual attitude. Or we use it to permit ourselves our bad habits, or our small vices. Well, nobody's perfect. Why should I work on that?

You know, maybe I swear a lot. Well, that's a little thing. Who does it hurt? We're all sinners, we're not nobody's perfect. And we do this because we fail to understand that grace is not an excuse.

Grace is not something that limits us. On the contrary, grace is a tremendous motivator for good. As a matter of fact, grace is a wonderful motivator for excellence. It's not something that we lean on or that we hide behind. It's like radioactive power.

It propels us forward. Again, Paul the apostle experienced the great power of grace to turn his life completely you want to turn your life around? The grace of God will do that. Listen to how he explains it. He says, For I am the least of the apostles and not fit to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God.

I don't deserve to be an apostle, he says, because I tried to kill Christians. And you can do some pretty bad things in your life. You can be sexually impure, you can be a thief, a hypocrite, a gossip. But Paul says, the top lying sin is consciously going after to kill God's people. That's what I was, he said.

But listen, He says, But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me did not prove vain, but I laboured even more than all of them. Yet not I, but the grace of God with me. 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verse 10 and 11. What's he saying? We all have the power to move ahead spiritually.

We all have the power to change our ways. We all have the power to begin new lives and to reach great heights, if we want to. In everyday terms, this means that we can give up bad habits and we can fulfill our pledges and our promises. We can learn new ways to serve. We have the ability to become kinder.

We have the ability to become more patient. We have the ability to become more pure, more loving, to cultivate all of the fruit of the spirit. And why? Because of the grace of God within us. That's why.

Releasing the power of grace, unleashing the will of the Holy Spirit in your life, instead of hiding behind excuses, will create a change. And this change will not only make you feel better, it'll make you feel better about yourself as a person. Number 6, you wanna feel better? Bring a soul to Christ, if you wanna feel better. You know, last Sunday evening, Kenneth, did a lesson on wisdom and what wisdom does in our lives.

And if I remember correctly, he said that wisdom protects us, wisdom helps us to discern, and wisdom rewards us in the end. An excellent summary of what wisdom does for us if we pursue wisdom. Well, I'd like to add something to this teaching about wisdom. Once you have wisdom, what do you do with it? What do you do with wisdom once you do you just stay out of trouble?

Is that what it's good for? Or do you use wisdom to build up your wealth? Or do you use wisdom to write a lot of books? Well, the same Solomon who wrote about wisdom also said the following in Proverbs 11, verse 30. He said, He who is wise wins souls.

He who is wise wins souls. There is no greater spiritual pleasure than being the instrument through which someone comes to know and believe and obey in Jesus Christ. That's risky. Pretty risky. I could almost mention my wife a third time tonight.

She didn't know she was such a part of this lesson. She was talking to her sister yesterday on the phone for several hours, thankful for Excel, thank you. And during this time her sister, who is not a Christian, asked her some questions about things. And they got into a serious discussion and Lee said, You know, every time I start sharing the gospel, man, my palms get sweaty and I start to sweat and shake, you know? Because I don't want to say the wrong thing and I want to turn them off but I want to say the right thing.

Why? Because it's risky. That's why it's risky. It's a lot riskier to go out and share your faith with your buddy at work than to get up here and give a lesson to them. I'm preaching to the choir here.

No risk here folks. And sometimes you get rejected. You know, I've been rejected. People have said that, I don't wanna hear it. I don't wanna hear another word.

And sometimes you feel foolish. It's like you know it, and you know the beautiful message of God, and you know how wonderful it is. And when you're about to share it, you go, Blah blah blah blah. Right? Isn't that how it works?

But whether it's by inviting someone to come to church to hear the preacher preach, and the Bible teacher teach his class, or perhaps sharing the story of your own conversion in a very casual way, or sitting in on a Bible study, or going out with one of the elders, or one of the ministers, or one of the visitation team people, to visit a visitor, or a new member, or whatever it is. As a Christian, I'm gonna tell you right now, you never feel as alive, spiritually, as when you are in the process of bringing someone else to Jesus Christ. I mean, that's the peak. You wanna feel better? Consciously try to bring someone that you know to Jesus Christ.

And whether you succeed or you fail, won't make a difference. If you make the attempt, you'll feel better spiritually than you ever have felt in your life. And then finally, number 7, If you want to feel better, give thanks often. I go back to Paul. I've only mentioned Paul more times than my wife tonight.

That's a good thing, I guess. She never wrote an epistle. Paul says that at the beginning of the downward spiral of sinfulness, there's a point where you're either going up or down. He says, The point where you stop going up and start going down and start spiraling down, like losing your faith, and then becoming immoral, and then becoming sinful, and becoming hard hearted, and so on and so forth. The beginning point of the downward spiral is the point where you begin to neglect to give thanks to God.

Romans chapter 1, verse 21. Whether we go up to a higher sense of God's presence and power in our lives, or down losing all spiritual sensitivity is dependent on our regular giving of thanks. It's the barometer of our relationship with God indicating our closeness and intimacy with him, or our separation from him. Even though David, the psalmist, lived 100 of years before Christ and encountered all kinds of successes and failures in his life, you can see how full of God's love and how full of God's spirit that he was as you read what? His many songs and psalms of thanksgiving.

The man was filled with thanksgiving. Why? Because he was close to God. Why was he close to God? Because he gave thanks so often.

Why did he give thanks so often? Well, because he was so close to you see what I'm saying? One thing follows the other. My favorite, favorite psalm, Psalm 92. Now, I only read the first four verses, but captures this essence.

He says, It is good to give thanks to the Lord and to sing praises to your name, O Most High, to declare your lovingkindness in the morning and your faithfulness by night, with the 10 stringed lute, and with the harp with resounding music upon the lyre. For you, O Lord, have made me glad by what you have done. I will sing for joy at the works of your hands. He just rejoiced because everywhere he looked, he saw the work of God. He looked into the eyes of the babies and he saw God's work.

And he looked up at the stars and he saw God's work. And he looked at the love between a man and his wife and he saw God's work. And he saw the flowers of the field. And what did he see? He saw God's work.

Don't you see how wonderful it is when everything you look at bears the imprint of God's hand? And so therefore, everything you look at, in one way or another, causes you to rejoice and to give thanks. You see, for David, giving thanks was not a burden. It wasn't a chore. It wasn't a habit.

Okay, let's pray. We always pray over food. Well, should we pray over the McDonald's burger or 2? I mean, do we do that 2? It wasn't a burden or a habit.

It was a way of life. It was how he saw life. It was a pleasure he indulged in. It was a form of closure, a response for all the many blessings and wonders that he saw around him. You know, whenever you feel you're on a downward spiral, the way to put on the brakes and turn it around is by giving thanks.

And the way to truly enjoy your blessings and gain the maximum satisfaction from them, is to give thanks for them and to give thanks as often as you think of it. Well, I'm sure that, we might all come up with things, other things to make us feel fine and 99. But these 7 alone will make a tremendous change if you put them into practice. I'll go over them real fast in a minute. The 7.

Number 1, give yourself away more often. Number 2, really put up a fight with sin. I mean, really put up a fight with sin. Number 3, grow in your knowledge of the bible. Number 4, make a bridge to someone.

Knock the wall down and make a bridge to someone. Number 5, let God's grace improve you. Number 6, share the gospel with someone this year. And number 7, show God your gratitude in prayer. One other thing that you can do to really make you feel better, and that's right now, right here tonight, and that is repent of your sins, confess your faith in Jesus Christ, and be baptized.

This will not only make you feel good, it'll make you feel relieved that your sins will be forgiven and that you have a guarantee of resurrection and eternal life. Or maybe you're a Christian and you need to be restored through prayer and feel that you are once again a faithful Christian and no longer out of service. That'll make you feel good. That'll make you feel relieved. That'll make you feel different than how you felt when you first came in.

If you need the forgiveness of Jesus Christ, if you need his love, if you need the ministry of the church in whatever way, we encourage you to respond to the invitation tonight as we stand and as we sing our songs of encouragement.