What a great day! I’m so excited about tonight’s word. It’s going to be a good one and yes I mean good as in short. If you will listen and open your hearts tonight, I know that this word will change your life and given time change those around you. If you have your Bibles you can turn to the book of Acts and hold your place on chapter 16 as we will be looking at Paul and Silas and an encounter they had while in the will of God.
As Christians, what do we focus on in life; the good, the bad, or the ugly?
I read about a fascinating research study done by Vicki Medvec, a professor at Northwestern University. She studied Olympic medalists and she discovered that Bronze medalists were happier than Silver medalists. Here’s why. Medvec found that Silver medalists tended to focus on how close they came to winning gold so they weren’t satisfied with silver. Bronze medalists tended to focus on how close they came to not winning a medal at all so they were just happy to be on the medal stand at all.
I think that study reveals a fascinating facet of human nature: your focus determines your reality. How we feel isn’t determined by objective circumstances. If that was the case, Silver Medalists would be happier than Bronze medalists because they had an objectively better result. But how we feel isn’t determined by our objective circumstances. How we feel is determined by our subjective focus.
Your internal attitudes are more important than your external circumstances
John Milton said it best: “The mind is its own place, and in itself, can make a Heaven out of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.”
All of us know people who can find something good to focus on even in the worst of circumstances. And all of us know someone who can find something bad to focus on even in the best of circumstances.
There is a universal principle I need to share with you right out of the gate: we tend to see what we’re looking for.
I think there are two basic types of people (Christians) in the world:
Complainers - Complainers can always find something to complain about.
Worshippers - Worshippers can always find something to praise God about.
All of us develop hypotheses about everything all the time. Then we look for evidence to support our hypotheses and ignore evidence to the contrary.
For example, if you decide you don’t like someone you’ll notice everything that is wrong with that person. And you’ll probably ignore anything you could potentially like about them. The flipside is true as well. If you’re head-over-heels in love with someone you tend to only notice those things you love about them. We see what we’re looking for.
What does that have to do with worship? A worshipper makes a pre-decision to look for something to praise God about even in the direst of circumstances.
Acts 16 shows us a picture of how to have an outlook even with a bad day.
In Acts 16, Paul and Silas are in a prison cell in Philippi. I’d encourage you to read the entire chapter yourself, but for the sake of time, I will paraphrase it. Paul casts a demon out of a fortune-teller. Her master doesn’t like it because she loses the ability to predict the future so he has Paul and Silas arrested.
Acts 16:22 says, “A mob quickly formed against Paul and Silas, and the city officials ordered them stripped and beaten with wooden rods. They were severely beaten, and then they were thrown into prison. The jailer was ordered to make sure they didn’t escape. So he took no chances but put them into the inner dungeon and clamped their feet in the stocks.”
Anybody ever had a day like that? I’ve had bad days before, but nothing like this.
If I’m Paul or Silas I’m emotionally and physically and spiritually spent. I’m drained to the last drop. I’ve got nothing left to give. Their backs are bleeding from their beating. They are black and blue all over. And they had to be ticked off. I’ve never had a mob form against me, but I’m guessing that’ll set you off emotionally. And to top it off, they land themselves in the maximum security cell in stocks!
It just doesn’t get much worse than that. And that’s why this next verse is so amazing to me. Acts 16:25 says, “Around midnight, Paul and Silas were complaining about their circumstances.” That’s not what it says. It says,
“Around midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening.”
Let me share something I’ve learned from personal experience. When I get into a spiritual or emotional slump, it’s usually because I’ve zoomed in on a problem. I’m fixating on something that is wrong. I’m focused on the wrong thing.
Nine times out of ten, the solution is zooming out so I can get some perspective.
Sometimes you’ve got to zoom out and look at the big picture. I found this example online and want to share it with you. A college student wrote this letter to her parents:
________________________________________
Dear Mom and Dad,
I have so much to tell you. Because of the fire in my dorm set off by student riots, I experienced temporary lung damage and had to go to the hospital. While I was there, I fell in love with an orderly, and we have moved in together. I dropped out of school when I found out I was pregnant, and he got fired because of his drinking, so we’re going to move to Alaska, where we might get married after the birth of our baby.
Your loving daughter
PS: None of this really happened, but I did flunk my chemistry class and I wanted to keep it in perspective.
Sometimes you need to zoom out and look at the big picture. You fail a chemistry exam and it feels like the end of the world. But it’s not.
Let me give you a one word answer on how to zoom out:
Worship
Worshipping is taking our eyes off of our external circumstances and focusing on God. We stop focusing on what’s wrong with us or with our circumstances. We start focusing on all that is right about God.
Paul and Silas could have zoomed in and complained about their circumstances. God, we cast out a demon and this is what we get? We’re on a missionary journey and we get beaten and thrown in jail? Instead of “watching our back” our backs are bleeding from a beating! They could have complained till the cows came home. But they made a choice to worship God in spite of their external circumstances.
Here’s what worship does:
Restores spiritual equilibrium
Regains perspective
Enables God to intervene
Worship is zooming out and refocusing on the big picture. It’s refocusing on the fact that two thousand years ago, Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for my sin. It’s refocusing on the fact that God loves me when I least expect it and least deserve it. It’s refocusing on the fact that God is going to get me where God wants me to go. It’s refocusing on the fact that I have eternity with God to look forward to in a place where there is no mourning or sorrow or pain.
Worship is refocusing on the fundamentals of our faith. And here is what happens: God restores the joy of our salvation. We regain our spiritual equilibrium.
Is it easy? Absolutely not!
Nothing is more difficult than praising God when everything seems to be going wrong. But one of the purest forms of worship is praising God even when you don’t feel like it because it shows God that your worship isn’t based on circumstances. Worship is based on the character of God.
Worship is reframing our circumstances to line up with the Word of God.
Victor Frankl was a Holocaust survivor who wrote a book about his experiences in a Nazi concentration camp. Everything was taken away from these prisoners. They were stripped of their clothing, their pictures, and their personal belongings. They even took away their names and gave them numbers. Frankl was number 119,104.
Frankl said in his book, “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances.”
The outcome of your life will be determined by your outlook on life.
If you have a critical or complaining spirit you’ll complain till the day you die. Your life will get worse and worse because you’ll accumulate more and more negative experiences. But if you have a worshipful spirit, life gets better and better. Why? Because you accumulate positive memories and know everything has purpose.
Your internal attitudes are more important than your external circumstances.
At the end of the day, one way or the other, your focus determines your reality! We have free choice. We are responsible. In other words, we have the ability to choose our response in any set of circumstances.
Paul and Silas were in prison. Their bodies were chained. But you can’t chain the human spirit. That’s what Victor Frankl discovered in the concentration camp. That’s what Paul and Silas modeled two thousand years ago. Their bodies were chained, but their spirits soared as they worshipped, and that choice to worship set off a chain reaction.
Albert Einstein said, “You can’t solve a problem on the level it was created.” I think problems created on a human plane are solved on the supernatural plane. That’s what happens when we worship God. It changes the spiritual atmosphere.
I don’t think Paul could have planned this miraculous jailbreak. To make a long story short, there is an earthquake. The prisoners are set free, but they don’t leave! The jailer who is about to kill himself gets saved and his entire family is baptized in the middle of the night.
You can’t script that kind of thing. You can’t plan miracles. But when you worship God in the worst of circumstances you never know what is going to happen. Worship sets the stage for miracles! Worship causes spiritual earthquakes that can reshape your life. God can make bad things become good things.
Worship is the way we stay positive in negative circumstances. And it’s not denying the truth, its reshaping your reality. No matter how bad things get, as followers of Christ, we have eternity in heaven to look forward to! My pain is real. But so is heaven. The good news is that this reality is temporary. The reality of salvation lasts forever!
The key is to: Focus on the right reality
By now you know I love statistics and studies. Here is one. Research indicates that the average person talks to himself or herself about 50,000 times a day. Research indicates that 80% of self-talk is negative.
We say negative things to ourselves. I’m not good enough. I’m not smart enough. And, doggone it, people don’t like me. So here’s what happens: we let what’s wrong with us keep us from worshipping what’s right about God. We’re focused on the wrong reality. We tend to see what we’re looking for.
A pessimist will always see something bad in a good situation and an optimist will always see something good in a bad situation.
Paul gives some priceless advice in Philippians 4:8. It’ a list of eight premeditated cognitive commitments. He says,
“Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”
A worshipper always finds something to praise God for because they’re looking for something to praise God for. Worship is a premeditated cognitive commitment based on ultimate reality.
The circumstances you complain about will become the chains that imprison you.
It was worship that set Paul and Silas free physically. And it’s worship that will set you free emotionally and spiritually. Worship sets off a chain reaction. The prison doors fly open. The chains break free.
Are there circumstances that you’re allowing to imprison you? Have your complaints about someone or something become chains?
Stop focusing on what’s wrong about you or your circumstances. Start focusing on what’s right about God. Here’s an assignment. Keep a gratitude journal this week. Find something everyday to be grateful for. It’s a spiritual discipline.
Psalms 103:2 says, “Praise the Lord and forget not all his benefits.”
“Count your blessings. Name them one by one. Count your many blessings. See what God has done.”
It’s not what you go through, its how you go through it. Go through life as a Worshipper!
