Well, we want to welcome all of you who are watching online, at our location in Marina, and tonight at Padre Drive at the evening service, all over the country. But we always say a special welcome to prisoners in Soledad and locally, because it's not easy to be where you are. And especially today, I hope this message encourages you. And by the way, thank you for all of your letters, because they just lift my spirits as I hear how you deal with your situation. God bless you. Almost everybody you know is procrastinating on being happy. Legions of people do that. They refuse to be deeply happy until there are no more bad things happening in their life. It's what I call "when and then" thinking. When my boss moves to the moon, then I'll be happy. When I make a lot of money, then I'll be happy. When I get a great big house, I'm going to be happy. Oh, when my spouse shapes up, I'm going to be happy. When my pastor gets a haircut, I'm gonna be happy. You see, you could wait a long time for some of these things to happen. Jesus said, "In this world, bad things happen, but be happy anyway." In John 16:33: "In this world, bad things will happen." He doesn't promise that they won't; the opposite. But be happy anyway. Jesus is saying you'll never get your first choices always in life. There are things that are going to happen that are not good. Pain is inevitable, but being unhappy is only optional. That's what Jesus is saying in that verse. It's only optional. Jesus was saying, you know, this world is not heaven. That ought to be obvious. And the people around you, at work and in your family, are not Jesus. They may think they are, but they're not Jesus. And that means they're going to do sinful things. They're going to be part of the problem in life for you. So we have to adjust our expectations to reality. We're not living in heaven. And Satan is roaming this world, and he's provoking people to do things that are hurtful to others. And yet Jesus said, "Stop being a victim. Stop giving circumstances and people control of your happiness." Never make other people responsible for you being happy or not. That's a weak way to live. Don't you think it's a weak way to live? Now your happiness is in the control of someone else, or upon the chances of life. So Paul says in chapter 4:11, "I have learned." That's so critical. He wasn't born this way. It's not a gene in him. He said, "I have learned." Remember, he was a Pharisee before. He wasn't this way. He has learned; that means we can too. "I have learned in whatever situation I am in to be content." You could translate that "independently happy." Independently happy. The Greek word that's translated "content" here literally means "nothing makes me cancel my happiness." Nothing. I'm not going to let you cancel my happiness. I am independently happy. But almost everybody, you know, is letting other people cancel their happiness every week. "How can I be happy when they do that to me?" Paul is giving us this great hope that yes, we can. We can be independently happy from other people. Remember, Paul's writing this letter to the Philippians from Nero's dungeon. He wants to be in Spain, planting churches and preaching the gospel. But instead, he's chained to two Roman soldiers, knowing that soon Nero is going to chop his head off, because he's been preaching that Jesus is God, not Nero. Nero claimed he was God, but Paul went around saying, "No, only Jesus is God." And that's going to get his head chopped off. Bad things are happening to Paul. And add to that, the Christians in Rome, he says in the first chapter of Philippians, are backstabbing him. They're saying that he preaches heresy. They're saying that he's not a good pastor and good leader. Imagine that. And add to that, Paul is losing his eyesight, one of the most precious gifts he has. He's going blind. But then, in one of the most amazing and encouraging verses you will ever read in the Bible, Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 6:10, "We know sorrow, but our happiness is inextinguishable. You can't take it away from me." Wouldn't you like to be that way, instead of vulnerable to how other people behave? This is a strong way to live. But to allow yourself to be unhappy because you're not happy about people's behavior is a weak way to live. In today's language, Paul would say he was no longer codependent. His life was not dependent upon the fickleness and behavior of other people. But my guess is almost everyone here is living in a weak way. Somebody does something bad, you lose your happiness. Something happens bad in your life, you lose your happiness. That's a weak way to live. And Paul is saying we don't have to live that way. So let me show you how the Bible says to rise above bad things happening in your life, and to be happy anyway. The first thing is: tell yourself there is always, always, always something to be thankful for. Focus on that. The problem is, we don't focus on what is a blessing in our life. We focus on what we don't like in our life, and that's what makes us unhappy. Focus. I once counseled a man whose life had been shattered by his wife saying that she didn't love him anymore, and she left him. She had come from a very wealthy family, but he didn't make a lot of money, and he could not provide the kind of life she was used to. So she just discarded him like out-of-date clothes and went looking for a man who could give her that kind of life. She left him and their six children. When he came to counseling, he just talked about how much he loved her. And then finally he came to the real question, and that is, "How can I ever be happy again without her?" What would you have said? "How can I ever be happy again without her?" I was quiet, and then I said, "I want you to go home, take a legal pad of paper, and I want you to start to write down, one by one, the good things that are in your life, the blessings that you still have. And I don't want you to stop writing till you get to 100. A hundred blessings. Keep thinking, what are good things in my life?" And of course, he said, "I can't do that. I can't think of anything that's good in my life now that she's gone." And I said, "Yes, you can. You go home, and you start that pad, and you just keep going, and you're going to find a hundred things." So he did. And he came back two weeks later, and after worship he showed me his notepad. He had more than 100 things that he was thankful for. He had things on there: "I'm thankful for my health. I'm thankful that my kids are good kids and living with me. I'm thankful that I can play golf. I'm thankful for the place I live in." He just went on and on, all these things that were still good within his life. And he was smiling ear to ear. He had found defiant happiness, because of his focus, from the one thing that was bad to all the things that were good in his life. Perspective. His life story was bigger than his wife leaving him. There was a lot more to his story that he finally began to see. He did what Paul said in Philippians 4:8: "Whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is worthy of praise," anything, "focus on those things." Do you know how most of us read that? Whatever is bad, whatever is not good, whatever is sinful, whatever bad things people have done to me, I focus on those things. Focus, focus, focus. That's life, and whether or not you're happy defiantly or not. Don't you know people who have many good things happening in their life, but most of the time when you're around them, they're complaining? They're talking about the bad thing somebody did, the bad thing that happened over here. If you listen carefully to the conversation of a lot of people, it's pretty much absent of praise for the good things in their life. They don't talk like that. They talk about all the problems they have in their life, and they wonder why they're not happy. Focus, focus, focus. Notice that Paul says in verse 6, "By prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be known to God." The prayers of many of us are just gimme, gimme, complaining prayers. "Fix this, Lord. Fix this." We should ask the Lord to fix things in our life. But we should start with thankfulness for the things He's already done. The thankful prayers, before we move into the gimme prayers, because that builds our confidence that God is going to be good to us again. Brett Favre broke Marino's record for touchdown passes. But then just two weeks later, he also broke the record for the most interceptions thrown in NFL history. Which should he focus on? Which record? It'll make all the difference in how happy he is. Thankfulness is a happiness habit. The things you take for granted and don't bother to thank God for, someone else is praying for. Think about that. You know, that's why I recommend getting out of the country and going to third-world countries. Go to where people really are poor, really have problems, and you'll learn to be thankful for so many things you just take for granted here, like clean water. Dostoevsky, the great Russian novelist, was arrested for his political views, and he was put in front of a firing squad. At the last minute, with the rifles raised, the tsar forgave him and canceled his execution. And this is what Dostoevsky wrote: "There is nothing like almost dying to make you grateful for ordinary things you've taken for granted. I never knew how blessed I was until I almost was shot." I wonder if it'll take a firing squad to make us grateful for things that we just take for granted, like friends, and the smell of coffee in the morning, and the weather, and health. Is it going to take a firing squad? Years ago, I read a proverb that is tattooed on my brain. And it said, "I complained that I had no shoes until I saw a man who had no feet." Think about it. So if bad things have happened to you, take a notepad and start listing all the good things in your life, and don't stop till you reach 100. And you will reach 100. Yes, you will, because you have so many blessings. Secondly, never, never, never let your problems blind you to your blessings. But most people do. Problems blind them to the good things. So I ask us: last week, did you focus on the bad things in your life, or the good things? Really, what do you think about mostly? It's your choice. No one compels us to think any way we choose. As for me, every morning I have learned to thank Jesus that I woke up and have another day to live. I say to myself, not everyone made it through the night. Every morning, I thank Jesus for another day of life. The alternative is to complain. They wake up complaining, fearing what's ahead of them, the bad things that happened yesterday. Complainers are never happy people. Why? Because the definition of complaining is hugging your problems. It's hugging them. And you can't be happy if you're hugging your problems. No, you can't. I know what some of you are thinking. See if this is true. Some of you are thinking, "I've always been this way. I'm a melancholy person, and I am a complainer. But that's the way God made me. God made me this way." No, He didn't. You made yourself that way, through years of practice. You were never created a complainer, but you've practiced over the years to see the negative things in your life. And no one has ever talked to you like I'm talking to you today. You think it's normal. You think you can't help it. But yes, you can. You can learn to practice and build another habit rather than complaining. It'll make all the difference. You see, Christianity is more than a creed. It's a religion of power. And that's the promise. Did you know this? The promise is that if you become a Christian, the power that raised Jesus from the dead is put inside of you. That's amazing. I'm not on my own. I have the very power of the resurrection, miracle power, within me. That's why Paul says, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." And that's why a Christian who understands this stops saying "I can't." "Yes, I can," because the power of Jesus is within me. As long as you're saying you can't, you won't even step out. You've got to take the first step for the power to flow into you, and for you to do what you've never been able to do before. And that's to be thankful. Did you know being thankful is a commandment? 1 Thessalonians 5:1, we are commanded. It's the shortest commandment in the Bible: "Be thankful." That's in the imperative. What does that mean? If we're not thankful, it's sinful. Not to be thankful is a slap in God's face. It's actually breaking a commandment, and it's sinful. And that's a place for us as Christians to start. God would not command us to do what we couldn't do. We can do this. Don't say you can't. Yes, you can. Begin to be thankful, even in hard times. Reminds me of the guy at the dentist. The hygienist was cleaning his teeth and said that he needed to brush more often, and floss. And the guy said, "I can't do that. I have never done that, and an old dog can't learn new tricks." The hygienist said, "Yes, it can, if it wants to keep its teeth." It really is a parable. Yes, we can, if we want these blessings, if we want to be happy instead of discouraged and in despair. And that's what Paul is saying. If you want to be happy, choose to be thankful for good things, and don't focus on the bad things. That's a choice that we can make. So it means stop complaining that a rose bush has thorns. Be thankful a thorn bush has roses. Do you see that? It's perspective. Be thankful a thorn bush has roses. You can apply that all week this next week. Isn't that what you saw in Stella and Todd and Suzanne this morning? They are thankful for what Jesus has done in their life, and Compass. And they have shown it by their tithing. Stella shows it by giving $100,000 out of a million. Thankful people are always generous givers. If a person is not a generous giver, you know they're not a very thankful person. They want more and more, and think that somehow God has not blessed them enough. If we are thankful, we will be generous. Anne Frank famously said, "No one has ever become poor by giving generously to God." Now, honestly, do you know anybody who's become poor because they tithe? No. In fact, my promise over the years has been: step out on faith and tithe, and see if God doesn't bless you for that. And if you are not blessed, if you start to enter poverty, call us. We'll give you all your money back. That offer still stands. Take the risk. We'll give your money back if you're not blessed. Thirty-four years, nobody's ever called. I hope you're not the first. Be blessed. The Word of God says in Proverbs 3:9, "Honor," that's the word for worship. Tithing is part of our worship. "Honor the Lord with your money by giving the firstfruits of all of your income. Then your barns will be filled." Tithing is part of worship of God. But it also honors Him, because the first check we write is not to Macy's, or our payment on our car. It's to God's church, which is doing the ministry of God. The first check. That's what firstfruits says. That's what honors God above all the other things that our spending could do. We spend it on God. And that's how you keep tithing. You don't give leftovers. You give firstfruits to Jesus. And you'll find that God's going to provide for all the other things that you need in your life. If He doesn't, call us up. We'll give your money back. Just try it for a year. I want to let that sink in, because I think it's a shock that God promises that there are things He will give us, blessings, if we tithe. That if we do not tithe, we will not receive those blessings. We receive those blessings because God won't let us outgive. So when we are not giving, we really are impoverishing ourselves in the blessings of God. And that's what you heard up front here today, and you hear from all tithers. That's why I don't think I've ever met a tither who hasn't gone beyond a tithe. They enjoy it so much. There's so much meaning, blessings that come from it, they even increase their tithe to above it. C. S. Lewis gave 90% of his money away. You might be thinking, "I don't want to tithe. Am I still welcome here at Compass?" Sure you are. I never know what anybody gives. Nobody knows what you give. You are welcome here. But you won't get the blessings that Proverbs 3 talks about, because they're conditional upon us giving back to God generously. When Susie and I lived in Denver, I was a pastor there. We had a 25-foot sailboat that we sailed on a lake there, and we made many happy family memories on that boat, often escaping death, since I had never sailed in my life and knew nothing about it. Kind of learned by mistakes. In fact, I bought the boat and asked the guy to take me out and show me how to put up the sails. I didn't even know how to do that. So it was an adventure. And one of the biggest things of sailing on that lake was the races that were held. And I want you to know, there are serious racers, and there are unserious racers. They're easy to spot. Serious racers spend a lot of money on special paint on the bottom of the boat, to make it as slick as possible, fast in the water. And before a race, they'll put their mask on, jump in the water, get down underneath there, and scrape every little bit of moss off the bottom of their boat. Nothing to hinder their speed. And you can tell a serious racer, because they're jockeying at the starting line for the best position. It's an imaginary line across the water, and there's a guy out there with a horn, and, you know, they pick a time, like 1:00. That's the start of the race. And when that moment comes, he blows the horn, and you're off. And what you want to do is be around that starting line, so that just before 1:00, you're sailing at full speed and hit it at just the right time and get a jump on everybody else. So everybody's jockeying back and forth. You can tell an unserious racer, though. They are the ones with a barbecue on the back of their boat, and smoke coming up from their steaks and hamburgers. I'm not making this up. They would be out there just circling like this. They would have the rope of the sail, the sheet, in one hand, and a margarita in the other. And they'd be laughing, and the music would be coming off their boat. And I would look at these boats, and I would say to Susie, "That's an unserious racer. Not a factor. That guy's not a factor either. That guy's not a factor either." They're unserious. They're not going to make any difference in that race and who wins. There are a lot of unserious Christians. We're in a war, a spiritual war, against evil in this country and against the work of the devil. Division and [unclear]. There is a spiritual war, the Bible says, that is happening between Jesus and the devil. And a lot of Christians are unserious about it. They're sitting this out. What they're most interested in is their piña coladas, not winning the race against the devil. This church has been a prevailing church, saving marriages, bringing people into a saving relationship with Jesus. There are people who are going to be in heaven because of the ministries of this church. That's significant. But it's been funded by serious Christians, thankful Christians, like you saw on the stage, who have given back to God. The church is the army of Jesus. But so often, the army of Jesus is underfunded, and it's low on ammo, because not enough people are thankful enough to give generously to Jesus. Unserious Christians. But many of you are serious, and you're in the group of serious Christians whose giving is making all of this possible. Sacrificial giving, tithing. And I want you to know, you're a factor in the spiritual war that's happening in this country. And I just want to say thank you. Thank you. Thank you for being a factor in this church. Lord Jesus, I pray that we would be doers of what we've heard. I know there's battles going on mentally right now in our hearts, as Satan opposes every truth said today. But I pray that people all over this worship center would take the risk and see that You keep Your promises, and find the joy that they saw in the people up front this morning, and be a factor. Let us be a factor for You, Jesus. We pray in Your name. Amen.