May/23/ 2021 Filed in:
hey SiriHey Siri
Part 8
How Can I Be Happy?
Matthew 20:1-16 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 He agreed to pay them a DENARIUS for the day and sent them into his vineyard. 3 “About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. 4 He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ 5 So they went. “He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. 6 About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’ 7 “‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered. “He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’ 8 “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’ 9 “The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a DENARIUS. 10 So when those came who were hired first, THEY EXPECTED to receive more. But each one of them also received a DENARIUS. 11 When they received it, they began to GRUMBLE against the landowner. 12 ‘These who were hired last worked only ONE HOUR,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’
13 “But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a DENARIUS? 14 Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. 15 Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ 16 “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
3 ways be be unhappy…
1. EXPECT
Matthew 20:10 “So when those came who were hired first, THEY EXPECTED to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius.”
2. COMPLAIN
Matthew 20:11 “when they received it they began to GRUMBLE”
Proverbs 18:21 “life and death are in the power of the tongue”
3. COMPARE
Matthew 20:12 “These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.”
Philippians 4:11 “I have learned the secret of being content in every situation”
3 habits to cultivate…
1. REJOICE in God’s goodness to OTHERS
Matthew 20:15 “Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you ENVIOUS BECAUSE I AM GENEROUS?”
Romans 12:15 “Rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn”
2. RECOGNIZE God’s goodness in YOU
Matthew 20:13 “But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? 14 Take your pay and go.”
Ecclesiastes 6:9 “Better what the eye sees than a roving of the appetite. This, too, is meaningless. It is a chasing after the wind.”
3. REMEMBER you are not that GOOD
Romans 3:23 “All have sinned…”
Romans 6:23 “The wages of sin is death…”
Philippians 4:12-13 “I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13 I can do all this through him who gives me strength.”
May/02/ 2021 Filed in:
hey SiriHey Siri: How do I Measure Up?
Philippians 2:3-4 NIV
“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility, value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of others.”
What happens when we try to measure up to others?
We lose focus of our purpose.
Psalm 23:2-3 ESV
“He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.”
Ephesians 1:11 TPT
“Before we were even born, he gave us our destiny; that we would fulfill the plan of God who always accomplishes every purpose and plan in his heart.”
Romans 12:3 NIV
“For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.”
James 3:14-16 NIV
“But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. 15 Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. 16 For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.”
We forget who really does the measuring.
1 Samuel 16:7 NIV
“But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
How do we stop comparing ourselves with others?
1. We learn to be Content
2 Corinthians 5:14-16 NIV
“For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.”
2. We learn to get in the Word
Ephesians 5:8-9 ESV
“At one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true.”
1 Corinthians 15:58 NLT
“So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.”
Galatians 5:26 NLT
“Let us not become conceited, or provoke one another, or be jealous of one another.”
3. We learn to Serve Others
Matthew 20:26-28 NIV
“…whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave—just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
May/02/ 2021 Filed in:
hey SiriHey Siri
Part 5
Why Don’t I Always Feel God
Psalm 88:13-14 NIV “But I cry to you for help, O Lord; in the morning my prayer comes before you... Why, O Lord, do you reject me and hide your face from me?”
WHY DON’T I FEEL GOD?
1. Maybe your attention is DISTRACTED.
Luke 10:38-40 NIV “Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was DISTRACTED by all the preparations that had to be made….”
Psalm 46:10 NIV “Be STILL and know that I am God.”
2. Maybe your heart is HARDENED.
Matthew 13:14-15 NIV “You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people’s heart has become CALLOUSED; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.”
3. Maybe your lifestyle has become SINFUL.
Isaiah 59:1-2 NIV “Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your INIQUITIES have separated you from your God; your SINS have HIDDEN HIS FACE from you, so that he will not hear.”
1 Timothy 4:2 NIV “…their consciences became seared as with a hot iron.”
James 4:8 ESV “If we will DRAW NEAR to God, He will draw near to us.”
4. Maybe you felt God and didn’t RECOGNIZE it.
Genesis 28:16 NIV “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.”
5. Maybe you're too FOCUSED on FEELINGS.
THREE PROMISES…
1. You will FIND God when you SEEK God.
Jeremiah 29:13-14 “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord…”
A. Seek God through his word
B. Seek God through prayer
C. Seek God in worship
D. Seek him with other Christians
2. God’s presence is EVERYWHERE.
John 14:16 ESV “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper to BE WITH YOU forever— the Spirit of truth.”
3. You can experience God NOW.
Acts 17:26-27 NIV “From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.”
