Educational Achievement Sunday
Pastor Joshua Goodin
“One More Lesson
Philippians 47:10-13 (NKJV)
When you think that you’ve just come through something, and you just learned lessons, God always has one more lesson he wants to teach you. Something he wants to add to your arsenal and development so you might be better, not just for the kingdom, but for those around you. Doing nice things for people that can’t do it for themselves will go a long way.
*Paul got locked up for sharing the word of God, because in certain places, preaching and teaching the word of God was prohibited. While you who live in America and can share the word of God freely still don’t tell anybody about the Lord. That’s problematic because when you stand before the Lord, the righteous judge on the day and he’s going to tell you that there were lives you were supposed to bring to the kingdom, and you didn’t. Instead of you being bold about what you say you believe in and profess you kept it hidden. You are like the servant that got the talent and buried it in the ground. In your walk with Christ, you don’t share with people what Christ has done for you. You don’t tell how God keeps you, regulates you, and orders your steps. How he gives you peace, provides for you, and heals you. You give credit to everything else, like your education, therapist, doctor, or other things instead of the one that ultimately all the credit and glory goes to. For every accomplishment you make in life you ought to thank God because it’s not your ability it’s God’s ability.
*Everybody has one of those Damascus Road experiences, where there was one situation in your life that set you up to call on the name of the Lord like you never have before. The situation that makes you surrender and yield, and if you are not careful you will keep having those experiences. What do you do when you’re at a place where you are bordering between death and life? Your disobedience can hinder you from where you’re trying to be.
*What about your failed moments? You don’t talk about the moments in life when you failed. The Apostle Paul had moments in his life where he failed because he wanted to do things his way until he decided to do things that God called and assigned him to do. If God can use Paul a person who killed Christians, then what makes you think he can’t use you.
*Change your thinking. If your mind is meditating on the wrong things it will always lead you to disastrous places. The mind is the battlefield. Your mind can’t stay focused because there’s a war going on in your mind, and you’re meditating on the wrong stuff. Some of you are beyond the realm of care that you put on the people that are closest to you. Consider the well-being of someone else before you unload on them. You can’t meditate on the right thing because you’re allowing the wrong stuff to fill the space in your head.
It takes maturity to grow to a place where you can find contentment. The only thing that you are owed is food, shelter, and an education. It does not have to come in name-brand form, fancy restaurants with expensive food, or luxurious homes with your own bathroom. Children feel entitled, and they feel this way, because to an extent you have pacified them. You give in to the demands of young people because you want to make sure they are in line with the status quo, that they are living like the Joneses. If you’re not living like the Joneses then neither should they. Teach your children how to be content with what they have. You can come to a place of contentment when you understand who God is. Let kids experience struggle. Learn to be content with what you have because it’s better than having nothing. Learn how to change your perspective of God so you can learn to be content where you are. Some things you find fulfillment in when you earn it, not when it’s given to you. You have to model the behavior because if you give young people everything they won’t appreciate it, they have to work for it. You have to learn how to have contentment in what you have, the car, the job, the house, even if it’s not what you want keep pressing until you get it. Don’t settle, you settle and then wonder why your kids settle.