Enjoying Life Part 4
This newest series of messages on Internet Pastor is called “Enjoying Life”. I almost called it “SMELBORP - Learning to enjoy life by turning your problems around!” but I think Enjoying Life works better.
In today’s discussion we will be talking about enjoying people. We were created for relationship. Relationship with God and relationship with others. And yet, it is often in relationship where we seem to get the most frustrated. Sometimes people are hard to get along with.
“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.” Albert Einstein
Who is wise? He that learns from everyone. Who is powerful? He that governs his passions. Who is rich? He that is content. Who is that? Nobody. ~Benjamin Franklin
“Some people are like Slinkies - not really good for anything, but you still can’t help but smile when you see one tumble down the stairs.” Author Unknown
However, it is in our relationships that we learn the most about ourselves and it is those relationships that we grow and mature into the people we were created to be.
“The people and circumstances around me do not make me what I am, they reveal who I am.” Laura Schlessinger
“There are two types of people - those who come into a room and say, “Well, here I am!” and those who come in and say, “Ah, there you are.”” Frederick Collins
In his natural desire for pleasure, man enjoys the whole gamut of sources of happiness, from the pleasures of the five senses to the entertainment of the arts to the possession of worldly things. Eating in restaurants, listening to classical music, going to the theater or the cinema, traveling to foreign countries, attending organized sporting events, swimming on the beaches of Hawaii, and reading great literature all represent rational worldly pleasures that civilized men savor. In Western societies, where materialism and consumerism run riot, expensive gifts, modern conveniences, and new technologies multiply the sources of pleasure to include new cars, video games, e-mail, cable television, and cell phones. A person is never at a loss for amusement or diversion, whether at home, in the car, at the mall, or in the city. But in this pursuit of pleasure and entertainment, the greatest source of happiness, the enjoyment of persons, is downplayed and underestimated. The gift for enjoying people has become a lost art. The New Oxford Review
It is very common in our society to just see people as part of the scenery or machinery in our lives. As part of the scenery, people are just there, we never stop long enough to find out who they are and realize that they have a story. As part of the machinery people are just there to make our universe work (center of the universe thinking). How do you treat the people who serve you?
One of the ways I find out what people are really like is by taking them to lunch. How they treat and interact with the waitperson is perhaps the most telling thing about what someone is like.
Rather than treating people like scenery or machinery we need to learn to enjoy people.
Learning how to enjoy people
1. Look for the good in people.
Philippians 1:3 “I thank my God every time I remember you.”
When the Apostle Paul thought about someone he thanked God for them.
Who do you need to be thankful for? Is there anyone in your life that you just take for granted? Is there someone whom you need to just share a kind word with? When you think about people are you looking at the positive or the negative. One way to tell, “Oh, he is a good guy, but…anytime there is a but the emphasis is on the negative and not the positive. It is like when someone prefaces a statement with “I don’t mean to be rude but…” it means they are about to be rude.
Paul had been through a tough time in Philippi (read Acts 16, Paul was stripped, beaten and put in prison) and yet when he remembers the people in Philippi he thinks about the people who stood by him.
Philippians 1:5: “You have helped me from the very first day until now.”
If you want to enjoy others, you’ve got to focus on their good points and not their weaknesses.
2. Pray for them to be blessed specifically
Philippians 1:4: “In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy.”
When you say to somebody, “I’ll pray for you” what do you pray? Sometimes we are very vague in our prayers, “God, just bless them!” is all we can come up with. That’s so general. The more specific you are in prayer the more specific you get an answer. In today’s passage Paul demonstrates for us a model of praying for people in a practical and positive way.
Paul spells out specifically what he’s praying for people.
Philippians 1:9-11 “And this is my prayer, that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight so that you may be able to discern what is best and be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.”
Three things Paul prays for people.
1. Love may abound … abound means to overflow, like a tidal wave.
2. Discern what is best … make wise choices
3. Be pure and blameless. .. live doing the next right thing
3. People are a work in progress
We have to learn to be patient with people. Paul was good at this.
Philippians 1:6: Being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
God finishes what He starts. As believers He is working in our lives but none of us is finished yet. We need to be patient with people’s progress. To enjoy people we have to enjoy them in the process, not when they have arrived. You have to enjoy the people you are in relationship where they are right now, not wait for them to perfectly fit all of your conditions and expectations. No one will ever meet all your expectations, not even you! We tend to judge others by how far they have to go, not taking into account how far they have come.
4. Are people on your heart or your nerves?
I’ve discovered that if people are not on my heart, they’re on my nerves. If you aren’t able to look beneath the surface with people you will never be able to enjoy them. We have to make an effort to understand people. How do you do that? Ask questions and listen! As we learn who people are underneath the surface we have them in our heart.
Philippians 1:7 It is right for me to feel this way about all of you since I have you in my heart.
Life is too short to not enjoy the people in your life. If you don’t learn to enjoy the people that God has placed around you in your life you will never be able to really enjoy life.
Come back often to see the latest sermons or bible studies on your Online Pastor site. We are blessed to be your Pastor Online!
About the Author: Stephen Lawes is the current 
