The Habits of Happiness - Part 5

  • Philippians 2:19-30
  • To be Happy:
    • 1) Shift the focus away from myself.
      • "I have no one else like him, who takes a genuine interest in your welfare. For everyone else looks out for his own interests…" Phil 2:20-21
      • "Don't be so obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand." Phil 2:4 (MSG)
    • 2) Become someone that people trust.
      • Everyone around you is constantly doing a credit check on you and on your life. Are you what you say you are?
      • Live with integrity. Integrity = what you see is what you get. Your actions and what you say match up.
      • Keep my promises.
        • "They always do what they promise, no matter how much it may cost." Psalm 15:4 (TEV)
    • 3) Learn how to work well with others.
      • The skill of being a team member, of collaboration.
      • Learn to cooperate.
        • Esp with people of very different personalities.
        • If you don't learn to work well with others, you will be shutting out most of the rest of the world, and you will be unhappy.
      • Epaphroditus is a "brother," a "fellow worker," and a "fellow soldier."
        • Life and ministry is a family, a fellowship, and a fight.
        • Must be learned in a small group.
      • Learn to be considerate.
        • Jesus: "You're blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight." Matt 5:9 (MSG)
        • Epaphroditus wanted to get back to let people know that he was okay.
        • "You must get along with each other! You must learn to be considerate of one another, cultivating a life in common." 1 Cor. 1:10 (MSG)
        • Learn to stop and think… "How will this affect somebody else?"
        • "I don't just do what I like or what is best for me, but what is best for everyone so they may be saved." 1 Cor. 10:33 (NLT)
    • 4) Live for something worth dying for.
      • People are giving first class allegiance to second class causes.
      • One guy said he climbed the ladder of success only to find that it was leaning against the wrong wall.
      • The best use of your life is to invest it in that which will outlast it.
        • Epaphroditus gambled his life on God. He took a gift from the Philippian church and took it to a guy in prison 800 miles away.

 

  • Discussion (small group): What can we do to start thinking about other people?
    • Every time I think:
      • "I want…"
      • "I wish…"
      • "If I could just have…."
      • It becomes a trigger for me to stop and think about what I just said… to reassess whether what I said was self-serving or whether it serves God or some other bigger purpose, i.e. the people around me.
    • When I talk to other people, if I haven't asked them how they are doing or what's going on in their lives, then I am NOT doing a good job of not thinking about myself.

 

 

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