Godly Discipleship (Philippians 4:8-9)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Well good morning my name is Chad I'm one of the pastors here grab your Bible and go to Philippians chapter 4 we are working our way through the book of Philippians if you don't own a Bible or didn't bring one with you there should be one in the seat in front of you we're on page 571 in one of these blue bibles if you don't own a Bible take this one home with you that is our gift to you we want you to have a Bible uh we're going to pick up this morning reading what we read last week.
Because these ideas are tied together what we read last week talks about the peace of God and today it's going to end with the God of Peace and so he's pulling this big idea through this understanding of what peace looks like as we relate to God and as we're in God and this is what we read last week Philippians 4 starting in verse 4 rejoice in the lord always again I will say rejoice so he gives these two commands to Rejoice to feel and show Joy let your reasonableness must be known to everyone the.
Lord is at hand do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus so last week what we looked at is that we're called to rejoice and we're told to not be anxious and we're told to be reasonable and let that be known to everyone and so I just wanted to ask how how'd it go this week how was your.
First non-anxious week in a while when you felt anxious and you just thought no Paul told me not to so I'm going to stop now how was your constant joy and your rejoicing in everything how how excited was your spouse at your new found reasonableness we looked last week that these are things that we're called to do as if we have some agency in them they're not things that we're just at the whim of circumstance but they're things that we actually participate in that we are to be non-anxious we're to be joy-filled we're to be reasonable and these are things that we do that we participate in that you have some handle on the controls.
For now it doesn't mean that we never mourn it doesn't mean that we never have anxiety inducing circumstances but even in those situations what he's calling us to is to be people who know that we have a Lord that's what we looked at last week that the Lord is at hand so that even in our anxious moments we're handing those things off we're prayerfully giving them to the Lord that's his reasoning don't be anxious because the Lord is at hand he's near that we rejoice in the.
Lord and so we can't go into what he's about to say and forget Jesus he's continuing this idea but he anchored everything in we belong to Jesus we have a Lord this is specifically for Christians this isn't just good human advice it is if you don't know Jesus what we're going to talk about this morning will help you but it's Anchored In Christ and it is ultimately true in Christ for Christians and so let's look at what we are going to study this morning as he continues this idea.
So he says the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Jes in Christ Jesus and then in verse 8 and N in some ways he's answering how and what so if he just told us to be rejoicing in the Lord and to not be anxious you might want to ask well how do we do that and he's carrying this idea forward he's telling us a little bit of how we're going to do that.
But also if you just said okay I'll do that and began to approach in faith participating in what Jesus has done for you because it's not ultimately something we do but it's something we get in Jesus we participate in it and if you didn't hear the sermon last week I would encourage you to go listen to it and study back through it because it is helpful to try to understand what we're talking about today but something that Jesus has done that we participate in.
But it's also answering what so what do I do now if I'm not anxious what do I think about it's kind of what he's going to talk about all right I usually spend my time being anxious and Surly so now what do I do and well I'm glad you asked he's going to tell you finally Brothers whatever is true whatever is Honorable whatever is just whatever is pure whatever is lovely whatever is commendable if there is any Excellence if there is anything worthy of Praise think about these things what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me practice these things and the.
God of Peace will be with you so last week the peace of God which surpasses understanding will guard our hearts and minds and this week he ends with and the God of Peace will be with you that we'll be enjoying the peace of God which ultimately you want we want to be at peace we want to be guarded by his peace we want to be with the God of Peace and y'all beautifully wonderfully he's a God of Peace not of torment and destruction he's the.
God over all things but ultimately as you know him and follow him and he works things out he works them out towards peace which is wonderful but the two commands here are think about these things and practice these things those are the two commands think about these things and practice these things think about these things he hey and practice these things those are the two commands those are the two things that are actually we're told to do here everything else is just describing those ideas it's telling what these things are.
But we're to think and we to practice and y'all that's how life works you think and you do stuff and the way you think affects the way you do stuff is that new is that helpful to know uh like I coach flag football and sometimes I'm coaching excited little like six and seven year olds and sometimes I'm coaching a group of head cases that have just like spiraled in on collapsing in on themselves like a dying star like they just things start going poorly and there are times where things aren't going.
Well but they're thinking about other things or they're having fun or there times when things aren't going well and they had even noticed yet or there are times where things aren't going well but they're determined and you can see it in their body language because they're six and seven but there are other times where like the plays over and we're telling them to get off the field CU something bad happens and they're coming back like this we have one kid who really he will like crawl in on himself and he just standing there and I have to be like come on we need you it's early you can't be crying yet.
But the way he's thinking is affecting how he's going to practice what he's going to do how he's going to be on the field and that's true for you too and so this morning we're going to spend a good bit of time thinking about how we think and then we're going to talk about how that applies to how we practice but most of our time we'll be on thinking about how we think and ultimately if we could think better things would be better that's profound write that down all right.
So let's look at how we think finally Brothers Paul's going to tell us what to think about whatever is true whatever is Honorable whatever is just whatever is pure whatever is lovely whatever is commendable if there is any Excellence if there is anything worthy of Praise think about these things y he said whatever ever six times you know that's not impressive my teenager can do that too but he could have just said whatever is true honorable just pure he could have said it one time.
But he goes out of his way to shove whatever in front of each one of these things he says it six times and what he means is whatever whatever you can find that fits these categories anything he means for you to search he means for you to be uh paying attention looking for it whatever would fit in this category he means for it to be Broad and intentional find it and think about that look for it search for it also if you're like.
Well does this count does it fit one of the categories because he said whatever fits the category so meaning all truth is God's everything that is lovely is God God's everything that is pure is God's we're not to limit it to some sort of like our understanding of some sort of like he just means like Bible things now he means all of all things that fit these categories belong to him and those are the things to consider and to think about and to enjoy and to appreciate to hold in our mind.
Because the way we think affects us so let's look at this what he says he says whatever is true meaning that you should think about things that are real and right and honest that we should care about truth we should care about what's valid in situations we should search for truth we should uphold truth we should defend truth we should speak truth he says whatever is Honorable that's probably not one we think that much about we don't live in an honored culture maybe some of you are from more of a shame and honor culture and maybe you consider it more or you consider it a lot.
When your parents or grandparents are visiting but whatever is Honorable whatever upholds something good whatever lifts up whatever brings respect whatever is respectable I think sometimes we just think well you know just don't hurt anybody and as long as it doesn't hurt anybody it's okay but no some things are just dishonoring they're crude or vulgar they're not honorable and we're to think on what is honorable whatever is just whatever's right whatever's fair whatever's good whatever points to God and his righteousness whatever is pure clean holy unsullied whatever is has integrity and goodness about it and isn't marked and marred I love that lovely is in this text whatever is lovely this word is only used.
Once in the Greek uh New Testament in Philippians right here that's it it's used once in the uh Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament in Esther to describe the clothes she wears to go see the king it says she put on her this word love leas and it means whatever's fitting whatever has Beauty to It Whatever has wholeness and goodness to it whatever is delightful think about those things commendable those are the things that should be repeated and should be celebrated whatever is commendable whatever you should clap.
For whatever you should want to repeat and see more more of now what if that's all you thought about be pretty nice if you only thought about what was commendable only thought about what was lovely set your mind on what was pure and honest true just if that's all that would fit in your head if that's all that you would run through your mind and consider what if on the way to work you just thought about true commendable lovely things you're sitting in traffic people are honking and you're like that sounds like a Ford American engineering that's a good horn right there way to go Detroit or whatever like I mean you're just you're thinking.
About what's true and good and right like you you just this is what fits in your head wouldn't that be nice is that how we think no no no no no unfortunately it is not when it comes to what it's true so often we just repeat what we hear or repost what we've read Christians should care about whether or not what they're saying is true but so often we've participated in slander we we don't care at all to re research things that would take time we're supposed to be people who care about truth.
But we just repeat a thing so often we ourselves lie or skirt around the truth or avoid the truth or don't deal with the truth we can do this in a ton of ways you can do it in ways where you say things if you're a Christian like well I'm no good or I'm a failure all this is going to fall apart everything's going to go poorly if you belong to Jesus that's not true but you're repeating it so we we lie honorable and pure we'll consider those together how much of our joking TV watching upholds Purity and what is Honorable how much of the things that we participate in are crass or vulgar or.
Just repeated because they're impure and disgusting how much of what we think about is pure versus impure I mean this would exclude honorable and pure is going to take out pretty much all sexual references whatsoever because it's either dishonoring or it's impure or it's both if we wouldn't happily say it in front of the most honorable respectable people we shouldn't rehearse it in our heads you we have whole devotions to dishonorable things we have things like peopleofwalmart.com is just pictures of people at Walmart that we want to make fun of.
So much of what we've done throughout our lives is just dishonoring people and even if you're not saying it he's saying don't think about it don't rehearse that in your mind so much of our gossip if you got past slander you escaped that one because what you're repeating is true well welcome to dishonoring someone but it's real yeah but you know one of the beautiful things that the Proverbs say over and over again shut your mouth it's one of the most wise things you can do it's just keep something to yourself what's what's your point in repeating it are you talking to them about it to draw them towards.
Jesus to lead them into repentance to give Grace to help them to love them or are you just saying a thing y'all don't you know how much we love that someone goes hey have you heard you immediately lead in your heart starts beating faster I haven't heard it but I'm so excited and it's never like I heard their oldest son made the Honor rooll apparently he is a bright and talented lad you would be like why are you telling telling me that has I don't care.
But if they had told you something negative you wouldn't ask why have you told me that because that's you wanted to participate in the joyful Delight of dishonoring somebody whatever is just so often we focus on what is wrong what is evil what is broken so many of the shows that we watch so many of the podcasts that we listen to are just a deep dive into Brokenness a a vois approach to wickedness we run that around in our head lovely I'm willing to bet that the last time you use that word it was sarcastic lovely.
So often we focus on what is hateful what is rude what is ugly those are the stories that we circulate and those are the things that we focus on commendable think about the last time you left a restaurant had you spent your time focusing on what was commendable the last time you went through some sort of service or participated in anything was your job there thinking what can we what can we praise what's commendable here doesn't that just sound stupid when I said it you're like oh only idiots would do that yeah happy idiots.
But are we focusing on what there is to celebrate I love this he puts this whole list he says to stretch for it to reach for it to think about it and then he he kind of sums it up if there is any Excellence if there is anything Worthy of Praise y' aren't we so good at the opposite of that all this stuff can happen and you'll focus on the one thing that wasn't worthy of Praise or the one thing that was non- excellent and Paul says flip it you could go through the worst day was there anything excellent was there anything worthy of Praise think about it what are you rehearsing in your mind.
I will tell you most of the list and the things that we repeat to ourselves about our situations our jobs our spouses our children our houses are not the list of all the Excellence that we find all the things that are worthy of Praise if I asked you to I could give you a little notepad I could send you home I could send you home over this week and I could say I want you to write down everything that annoys you I want a list.
For your house I want a list for your children and their friends I want a list and their friends parents I want a list of the school I want a list of your spouse your roommates your boss your professors I want a list I want a list for your car I want a list for the type of shoes you wear like I want a list y'all all many of us would be doing is just writing down what we were already thinking about and we'd be.
So good at making these lists you can tell me real quick what you don't like about your house or your car or your body or the way you dress or the way you talk or the way your spouse Acts or the way your kids are because we're really good at focusing on whatever is not excellent and is not worthy of Praise but if I sent you home and said I want you to make me a list of everything you like about your house everything you like about your spouse everything you like about your roommate everything you like about your professor your school your kids you could make that list too this is what you got.
To understand you could make that list too and at the end of the week after you've rehearsed that over and over again guess who would like their house their school their car their children more did your house change oh just the way you think did so Paul says if you want to be at peace if you want to be Joy filled nonanxious people can I take tell you what to think about think about what's really really good think about anything you can find that's worthy of Praise anything you can find that is excellent repeat that rehearse that can I show you how we think about this I'm to we're going to put thinking up here.
So this is thinking we're going to take a moment to think about our thinking often the way we think about it is we don't consider our thoughts much at all actually we don't consider much at all how we're approaching in our thoughts things what we think about ours we have circumstances the things that happened to us or have been done to us or the kind of life we live and then those things affect our thoughts and then really it affects our quality of life.
But mostly we just kind of think circumstances thoughts quality of life it look like this yeah that's it quality of circumstances quality of life thinking that your circumstances affect what your life is like and that affects how you think that's really mostly what we think about and I said that backwards a second ago but I'm going to fix it in a second so I said it the fixed way but anyway if I said let's talk about how you think and you rehearsed.
For me all the negative things going on you wouldn't think that your thinking was the problem you would think that the problems were the problem and you would tell me that if you said I'm stressed out in traffic I'm stressed out at work I'm stressed out at home I'm stressed out at whatever and I said well you need to think better you'd be like no I need not traffic not work not home like you would want to work on the things that we making you no my thinking is is secondary to the circumstances.
But we know that's not actually true because you've ped it at a birthday party before your own birthday party you've cried at prom now you might say no no no no the circumstances were the problem but you know what I'm talking about you can be miserable in a mansion so it can't just be circumstances and quality of life and we know that we think in our situation that it's really just circumstances quality of life affects my thinking but we know that's not actually true.
Because Paul can sing in prison we know that too so we know you can be miserable in a mansion we know you that Paul can sing in prison and we would understand that there's a category for that but when it comes to us we think it's just circumstances quality of life affects our thinking but that's not what Paul says Paul says the Lord affects your thinking which affects your quality of life because Paul anchors everything in the Lord the reason we can think this way is.
Because the Lord is imminent he's near he's good the peace of God is prot protecting us through Jesus so it's the Lord than our thinking in the quality of life another way to put that would be the Lord changes reality which changes our thinking which changes quality of life now I'm going to explain this a little more I'm G press in on this but here's one of our biggest hurdles when it comes to think happy thoughts it sounds so stupid it's one of our biggest hurdles like.
If you're watching a TV show the character that is perennially Happy is the stupid character like one of my favorite movies is Oh Brother Where Art Thou and they find out that they're going to be arrested for a lot longer they're going to have to have a much longer prison sentence and one of them grabs the other guy and he says I'm going to be 84 years old and his buddy next to him goes well I'll only be 82 there's a there's this TV show The Middle my wife and I like watching and there's a the the middle daughter named Sue is just happy the whole time and everything terrible happens to her non-stop she's.
The most resilient character in the in the show and she's just non-stop happy but you're watching at her and going what a how could she be happy she should be miserable like us look at how awful her life is but she's just happy things are just good and so one of the things that we reject this is I'm just being real you want me to just sit around and think happy thoughts well I don't have happy thoughts to think because of the stuff going on in my life I'm just being real and I will I'll I'll give you that I'll give you that.
If you don't know Jesus if you don't know Jesus and you want to tell me your circumstances are so bad that you have to think this way I'll allow it I'll still tell you if you would think this way it would be better but I'll allow it but if you want to tell me that you're a Christian and you're just being real that's why you have to think this way I would say you don't understand reality or you don't know Jesus.
Because he has stepped in and changed reality for you that this type of thinking is worshipful thinking it's to the glory of God when you're like well I'm just being real I'm just facing up to all the stuff going on I just got to I got to set my mind to deal with all this struggle and this difficulty I just got to think about the fact that everything's bad and I just got to you know I got to get my brain wrapped around it and it's like no you actually don't you get to just think about the stuff that's good to the glory of Christ do you know why.
Because he takes the stuff that is bad that's what he does that's who he is that's why in this last passage we read it said the Lord is at hand do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication let your request be made known to God that he gets the bad stuff we get the good stuff to the glory of Christ because he's the one who redeems and works how wonderful is that how beautiful is it that.
Because of Jesus coming he takes all of our sin all of our Brokenness all of our doubt he dies on the cross and then he rises Victorious and we just get Victory not sin despair Brokenness and everything else and your Ultimate Reality if you belong to Jesus is that not your current circumstances your current circumstances do not Define reality for you Jesus does and so the idea that everything's going to be terrible and everything's going to fall apart and all of this is bad and everything's broken and everything's busted is not true.
If you belong to Jesus and at some point it becomes an assault on his character so thinking like this is worshipful Christian thinking and it makes things better so not only are we worshiping in our focusing on what is good and beautiful in the world because that's what we get and focusing on what is true and what is just and what is pure and what is lovely and honorable because that's what we're called into as people who belong to Jesus not only is it worshipful.
But it also makes life nicer in some ways Jesus has sent you out because of the work on the cross to pan for gold that's your job if if you and I went to pay for gold and we came this rocky area this little stream running through it we're going to get dirt and stuff we're going to pile it up and we're going to sift it in the Stream and you said these heels are full of gold because that's how you talk and I said looks mostly like it's dirt you might not say.
But you would think well of course and also shut up but it's going to be mostly dirt but we're looking for gold because that's what we're here for and then as we went if I kept coming over to you and going look at all these rocks I found you would be like throw them away do you think they have gold I'm like no they definitely don't have gold look at these they're rocks you would stop it leave me alone if I said mostly what I pick up is dirt you would say stop saying this to me you're the worst gold panning partner I've ever had.
If I piled all the Rocks up and if I said hey it's actually way easier to find rocks and it is gold have we thought about just being rock collectors if I said I found one piece of gold but it's not even that good of a piece and it's not nearly as big as all the Rocks I Found Jesus has set us out to search for anything excellent if there's anything worthy of praise that's what we're looking for everything else goes to him everything else that's anxiety inducing everything else that's broken everything else that's terrible everything else is sad everything else that's despair inducing everything else that's going to overwhelm us isn't ours it's his.
You get what's lovely you get what's true you get what's honorable y'all when Jesus says on Earth as it is in heaven that's what we're at work for because you know what's true and what's honorable and what's pure and what's lovely all that stuff gets to be ours for eternity because all of that stuff makes it into eternity and none of the other stuff does there are scars in eternity but they're not on us they're on Christ he gets everything broken he gets everything bad and we we get everything Joy filled and hopeful to the glory of Christ it's not silly it's worship it's not stupidity it's God-honoring and it's joyful and non- anxious which.
I'm gonna be honest with you right now you could use more of so think about these things today go pay pay for gold and every time you find anything say thank you Jesus that's what I get that's what my life gets to be about that's the goodness that I'll get to have for eternity I got just a glimpse of it now but you know we're painting for gold now the streets are paved in it that's that's how this works and it's to the glory of Christ and it's.
Because of the work of Christ and because of the hope of Christ and we get to set our minds on Christ and so the rest of our circumstances and stuff don't dictate the level of our joy and they don't dictate our anxiety because we have a king who rules and Reigns and saves and so we get to run around free y'all if my two boys were stressed out worn out if they could recite to you our financial and budget troubles if they could tell you all the.
If they if I had to if I was like all right boys come in here sit down me and your mom got to argue through something y'all need to listen and you know help us out join a team we would be taking the weight of what we're supposed to and shifting it over to them and it's not theirs to hold they actually get to be free it's to my glory and credit if my sons be bounce around happy and joyful we understand that on an Earthly level and y'all it's to God's glory and credit.
If we're joyful in the midst of circumstances in the midst of difficulty if we are able to set our eyes on him and know that he's this good because of the work that he does and because he's the one who carries everything that's difficult I think sometimes we think well I've got to be real serious and I got to take this seriously and I got to focus and I got to do all these things and he's expecting so much from me he's expecting worship from you you're free he's good and in the midst of your circumstances he's good and that's why he says this next.
So he presses them to think this way and then verse n what you have learned and received and heard heard and seen in me practice these things some of those you could find in the book of Acts a lot of them you'll find in the in Philippians he's saying do the things we talked about do the things you saw do the things I've told you what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me practice these things and the.
God of Peace will be with you Paul writes this from prison for proclaiming the Gospel he is not saying that all of your circumstances will be delightful and therefore you will be delighted he does not say hey it's all cupcakes and rainbows no he says Jesus is good Jesus is Lord we get to look for what is beautiful and lovely and true and good and then we get to go forward in this mission to proclaim the Gospel this big picture narrative of who.
Jesus is free and and full and hope filled because of Jesus so there will be suffering but not misery there will be difficulty but not Despair and some of us don't even have that much suffering but we've added and brought in a whole lot of Misery we don't even have that much difficulty but we have a whole lot of Despair and we're supposed to be flipped on that we're supposed to Face suffering and difficulty without misery and despair without anxiety and Brokenness without depression and downheartedness we're supposed to endure and long.
For what is good and hold fast to what is true and hold fast to what is right that's why the the the apostles in Acts chap 5 says this then they left the presence of the council rejoicing which we were commanded to do last week that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name they had just been beaten and they walked out going we get to bleed for Jesus I'm going to limp home for Jesus with genuine Joy because it's not about their circumstances there's a bigger story there's a bigger hope that in the midst of that they got to say you know what's wonderful you know what's worthy of Praise You Know.
What's excellent one day when we stand before the king we'll have held fast to Jesus in the midst of persecution isn't that wonderful isn't that beautiful and so some of you are facing very tough circumstances with your kids with your marriage with your home with your money some of you are facing VAR tough circumstances with your health some of us are needing to press further into the mission of God to see our neighbors and co-workers come to know Christ we're needing to step out in faith into some difficult territory and we get to do all of that saying everything that's good is a gift from the.
Lord that I'm going to receive and everything that's difficult and painful I'm going to look for what's good and I'm going to hand the rest to the Lord and I'm going to keep moving forward because Jesus redeems and Jesus is King and ultimately my story is one of Victory so if you can change how you think things will get better and for Christians it's how we ought to think as we worship our King and then we ought to go forward in all the things we're called to do.
But as people who who minds are set on what Jesus has done and the natural occurrences that happen in life that come down from them the gifts that come from all the work that he's done let's pray you are a God of Peace So for all those who come to you are welcomed into peace and so Lord where we're anxious where we're down where we're low where we're difficult to get along with frustrated and angry and fighting for our own way oh.
God may we see the Gospel may we see the hope that is in Christ and may we begin to change our thinking to be worshipful and focused on what is right and good to work towards Justice not just focus on Injustice to work towards what is true not just focus on what is not true that we might work towards honoring others in our thoughts and our words that we might work towards what is pure and good and wholesome Lord may we focus on what is lovely and commendable and by your grace may we.
See what is excellent and worthy of Praise in Jesus name Amen in all of this the hope is that the God of Peace will be with us that we will ultimately get to Delight in and enjoy him this isn't just about making our lives function a little bit better although it will but our hope is that we will Delight in and enjoy the Lord because he is good we get to celebrate baptism this morning which is a proclamation of what we've been talking about this hope that we have in Christ that he did the work that he has covered our sins baptism is not hey I'm about to get to work I'm about to clean.
Myself up I'm about to accomplish things you don't baptize yourself you don't get in here and wash yourself in front of everybody and we all go good you finally got your stuff together that's not how this works other people get in here who are Christians who are representing Christ representing the Church representing his people and you are baptized by them because baptism is a a picture of what Jesus has done that he has washed you that you have been buried and you were dead in your sins.
But that he was buried in your sins and that he rose so you get to rise and when you come up you're clean and you're made new and whole that's what we're celebrating that Jesus Christ is King that he still forgives Sinners that he still gives hope and that's our Eternal reality and so may we be joyfill people who celebrate well the goodness of Christ I'd like to ask Katie to come up now as we go into celebrating baptism.
Joy, Anxiety, and the Power of God
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning uh my name is Chad I'm one of the pastors here if you will grab a Bible and go to Philippians chapter 4 we're working our way through the book of Philippians and we've come to the place where Paul is wrapping it up and he's starting to kind of end and we're going to see as he's exhorting and calling the Church to action this morning as he writes this letter and I recently my wife and I were watching a TV show and there were these two kids trying to break into a safe um and they they break into it eventually.
And then they they pull out these documents and they're holding them and they're looking at each other and they're like do you think this means what I think it means and they kind of stare at it and there there's this like if this is real and everything is changed like this is wonderful and I feel a little bit like that when we come to this text this morning it's like if this is real then this is wonderful If this means what I think it means this is glorious.
And so we're going to look at this text this morning we're going to be in Philippians 4: 4-7 and I specifically think that there are some ways culturally and personally that we're going to want to reject this text and argue against it and so we're going to take just a moment to ask the Lord I'd like for you to take a moment to ask the Lord to just help you help you to trust him help you to believe and help you to not argue with this this whole morning.
But try to actually Step In by faith and so take just a moment ask the Lord for help and then I'll pray and then we'll we'll start reading the text Father we believe that the Gospel is good news and what we're looking at this morning is a downline good news application practically for us so we ask that by your spirit you would help us to believe and then you would help us to participate in how good this is in Jesus name amen.
So let's read these few verses together as we get started rejoice in the lord always again I will say rejoice let your reasonableness be known to everyone the Lord is at hand do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus in in these few verses Paul gives five um exhortations five commands five calls to action.
And so we're going to kind of walk through uh and just try to understand what he's calling us to before we really try to spend some time in seeing how we maybe want to argue against this and what it means for us actually to practically uh apply this so he begins his first command is rejoice in the lord always his second command is again I will say rejoice and I love that he said it twice because I think Paul knows how we hear commands like Rejoice we go a neat what a nice Christian concept moving right along you'd have just gone Stitch that on a pillow.
And then forgotten all about it and he says rejoice in the lord always and he goes no no no look at me for real for real for real Rejoice I I mean it and that's the first two commands are the same thing rejoice and rejoice means to feel or to show great joy and Delight y'all as far as biblical commands go this is a great one you want this one like we want to participate in feeling and showing great joy and delight and we're called to it and he specifically is saying no this is how you ought to be do this rejoice in the.
Lord always again I will say rejoice the third command is let your reasonableness be known to everyone all right so the word translated reasonableness doesn't have the best onew translation into English so some uh of your transl ation will say graciousness some of your translations will say gentleness reasonableness here he's getting at the idea of like if you're in an argument with somebody and you're hot and they say what do you what do you want from me what do you want me to do and you say what I want you to do is to move out of the country to the top of a mountain where you cry yourself to sleep every night.
And then die alone that's what I want and then they respond with something like be reasonable that's the reasonableness here it's like get ableness that's what my my mother-in-law says she says be getable that's what this is talking about be gracious be gentle be reasonable be able to get along with people and so the third command is get along with each other get along with others let that be something that marks your life the fourth one the Lord is at hand do not be be anxious about anything fourth exhortation fourth call to action do not be anxious about anything what are we allowed to be anxious about nothing and some of you are like oh.
Cool I'm anxious about nothing all the time no that's not a loophole it means do not be anxious do not be anxious be anxious do not be anxious about anything and then the fifth one which is paired with it but in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus so seven is a result it's a it's a state that happens it's a it's what we get pulled into as we walk through this it says in the peace of.
God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus I I want to point something out he says rejoice in the lord always let your reasonableness be known to everyone do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication let your request be made known to God Paul didn't leave any room it's not be anxious sometimes times and rejoice every once in a while and let some people who you like know you're reasonable it's it's he's all over the map saying this is the tone and tenor of the Christian life.
Now I don't think Paul means to say never be sad like we're not allowed to mourn we're actually in other places told to weep with those who weep to mourn with those who mourn like we're supposed to do that there's times for mourning I don't think Paul is saying that there's never never a time to be have some when you think about anxiety like your heart rate like I think he's like you know if there's like a bear sure feel some anxiety you know.
But this General posture of a Christian Life is joyous easy to get along with gracious non-anxious peaceful that's the the general pattern of Christian Life and y'all these are these are commands he's calling us to this which means he thinks we can do it but that's not how we think about some of this stuff that's not how we think about Joy that's not how we think about an anxiety like if you came to me for for counseling and you said I'm just.
So down I'm so depressed I'm so and it's not like a big thing I'm mourning I'm just down and I said oh well Rejoice always I'll say it twice Rejoice now hop on out of here and then I was like next you know and someone else comes in and they say I'm really anxious I just deal with anxiety and I said oh don't have you thought about stopping I'm going to get to go to lunch early today I'm putting out fires all over the place like you not think I was a good counselor that's not how we think about these things that's not how we think about joy we think about Joy the way we.
Think about the weather I can report on it but I have no control over it so I could ask you how's your joy been and you could tell me you can observe it and you can say oh it's been great or you can say no I hadn't had any lately but we're acting as if we're waiting on it to come like you're a farmer waiting for the rain for your crops we treat Joy the way we treat injoy I can notice it.
But I don't get to pick like I can't make myself like coconut so stop putting it in cakes like yeah it's like why did you do that I mean you get a just made the cake and thrown it away but you also could have not put coconut on it and then we could eat it you know I can't like you ever somebody makes something and it sounds gross and they feed it to you and you're just as surprised as anybody that you enjoy it you're eating it and you're like I mean I'm glad or they like you go to a place you you partake in like a concert or something and you're like I'm just.
As surprised as you are but I actually like this and we act like it's injy but what he's saying is that you have some agency here he's commanding it like it's something that you can do but that's not how we think about that it's not how we think about anxiety we think about anxiety like an ailment it's how we usually talk about it like I have a cousin with sickle cell and if he told you he had sickle cell you would say oh I'm sorry.
And then you'd ask questions like what do you do to try to like mitigate that and is there some medicine or is there like what's that look like you wouldn't say have you thought about stopping because that's not how it works that's how we talk about anxiety someone says they struggle with anxiety they have anxiety you say oh I'm sorry are there things that you do to mitigate that is there some sort of medicine you take we act as if it's some sort of an ailment not something that we have any agency over not something where Paul can just.
Look at you and say stop it that's not how we think about it but y'all what if we're wrong and Paul's right well that's wonderful because you actually want Paul to be right you want rejoicing something to be be to be something that you can just participate in you want being nonanxious to be something that you can just do we want Paul to be right and I know that right now there are people who were going no no but that's just like I'm that's not me temperamentally that's not me given my my makeup and my chemicals and my family history and my circumstances that's not me like I'm not I'm just this isn't me I've.
Met those people I know there are joyous people in the room right now who are just like get them I know I know you love this verse I know you quote it to your sad friends and you're like yes that's what I've been saying this whole time just you know be joyous like me PW smile and kick around I know there are peaceful people who are non anxious who are just like yeah stop it we're not supposed to be anxious you talk to your anxious friends you don't understand anxiety and you.
Look at him and you're going I don't know quit that's what I do I just don't and the B Bible backs me up to just don't and I know that for anxious people and for people who are temperamentally down and life is hard and you've just kind of always struggled with this I know this sounds unattainable or difficult or like that's not for me but don't you want it to be and what I would say is if you can actually participate in this it would be better.
For you there's more joy more peace because you've struggled so long on the other side of this and actually don't just SWAT this out of the way as if something doesn't apply to you because we don't do that with other texts we don't do that with other commands when Jesus says to love our enemies we don't go yeah the for the loving people but I have real enemies I hate these people so that one doesn't apply to me we don't we don't do that we go.
Okay no this is calling me into something that's going to be hard but good and y' I would say the same thing for someone who struggles with joy struggles with anxiety this is going to be hard in some ways but so good so don't reject it try to let's figure out how how how does he call us into this it gets to be more beautiful for it so how do we get to do this and I want to show you something wonderful that is in this text he says rejoice in the.
Lord always again I will say rejoice then he says let your reasonableness be known to everyone the Lord is at hand do not be anxious about anything but in everything with prayer and supplication and Thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus he's not banking on you he's not banking on your circumstances he's not banking on your temperament your family history your origin your genetic background it this isn't anchored in you at all it's not about you at all it's in Christ and you're invited in.
So let's take a second to talk about this Lord that he's talking about it's Jesus Christ who even though he was in the form of God did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped but humbled himself taking on the form of a servant that's what he told us in Philippians 2 that he became a man took on humanity and he came to serve and what he did when he got here is he started teaching and he started performing Miracles and he started Gathering people around him and he performed miracles to show who he was to show The Authority that he had to show that he had God's backing there's a time where.
He's going toe-to-toe with some religious leaders and there's a a person who's a a paralytic and he says to him your sins are forgiven and then they think the religious leaders think you're not allowed to say that but because he's God he reads their thoughts and answers them and says which is easier to say your sins are forgiven or to say rise and walk and then he says so that you know that the son of man has the authority on Earth to forgive give sins rise and walk and the point of his miracles was to show that he had authority to show who he was and ultimately he goes to the Cross to die to.
Pay for our sins we sang this a second ago we read it in Hebrews that he was sinless that he's tempted in every way but he's never sinned and so he goes and dies because he didn't owe death for his sin he was able to pay the death we owed for our sin and because he's God he had enough ability by his blood it's worth more he's able to pay for all that will come to him and then he rises from the grave and he proclaims that there's forgiveness and life in his name that anyone who would trust in him will be forgiven and given eternal life that is the.
Lord that he's talking about so if you're not a Christian we want you to know Jesus that all who calling his name no no one will be put to shame who trust in Jesus and if you are a Christian then look at this it's yours rejoice in the lord always a rejoicing is not found in us see what we want to say is well that you know you want to read this text and go well what was Paul dealing with is it easy.
For him to say rejoice I bet he was a real happy person y'all this this letter was written from prison he spent half of it talking about I don't know if they're going to kill me or not he even told them if they do be happy I'll be happy I'll go be with Jesus it's not anchored in his circumstances you can't go well easy for Paul to say I bet they beat him a lot and they're going to kill him so it's easy.
For him to say it's like that's not how that works he's calling us to Joy in the midst of terrible circumstances because it's not about our circumstances it's Anchored In Christ it's in the Lord okay let me here's a concept we we understand you can have the bad stuff that's going on in your life and then you can distract yourself and you know I'm distracting myself for a moment but then I'll have to return to the bad stuff like it's kind of a sad story it's not a real sad story.
But it's kind of sad last year during South Carolina's football season my wife and our Gamecock fans it was a very Gamecock football season they won some things they lost some things they should have won they won some games that they really really should have won but they barely won it so they tormented you the whole time normal Gamecock stuff and during the middle of the Season while my wife and I were sad we went and rewatched old football games that we knew the outcome.
For and we're excited about we watched them beat Tennessee in the middle of the week we just rewatched that game we we knew it wasn't this season but it made us happy inside and then when it was over we went back to being regular this season Gamecock fans who were sad we knew we had to return to reality but we at least got to watch us just Pummel Tennessee and that's going to stay on our DVR forever and whenever I'm sad I'll watch it.
But I know it's a distraction we understand that we understand that at some point I'm going to get back to reality but what Paul is saying is y'all he's been saying this the whole time look up because the circumstances you're talking about aren't your reality we have a lord who conquers we have a citizenship in heaven we have an upward call of a priz in Christ we have a king who returns and conquers all things do you think these circumstances are going to win they are not.
Because they cannot defeat Jesus do you think that your sin is going to win it cannot because it will not defeat Jesus do you think that this problem that you're facing is going to win it will not because you are in Jesus and so there's always joy in Christ there's always rejoicing in him because there's always forgiveness and there's always life there's never a time where you're like let me get ready to go hang out with Jesus what a bummer that's not how it works.
So there's joy always in the Lord that's what we get from Christ and it's ours if we're in Christ that's why he says rejoice in the lord always we get to go to him we get to have joy in him that's what he's calling us into we get to feel and show great joy and Delight because it's Anchored In Jesus not us and that's good news we'll talk more about how how do I do that we'll talk about that in a minute.
But look what he says about uh real quick on his reasonableness I don't think we argue with this one as much I think we understand that we're supposed to be like this maybe you're hard to get along with and you should repent the general tone of Christians is that we should be easy to get along with it should be said by people who don't know Jesus look I'm not a Christian I don't want to follow Jesus but if you're going to have a boss you want your boss to be a Christian they make the best bosses they should say things like.
Look I I'm not a Christian I don't understand all that stuff but when you're hiring people you want to hire Christians because they're going to work hard they're going to show up they're going to cover shifts they're going to have a good attitude they're going to be kind they're going to tell the truth you want Christians that should be how this works Christians should make the best doctors and the best t-ball coaches the best neighbors that should be this works it should be a they're easy to get along with and do you know why.
Because our hope isn't here and I'm not surprised by Sinners I understand Sinners but I'm also not so angry at them because I can be forgiven forgiving because I'm the most forgiven like we get to because of the Gospel be really easy to get along with now there's some things we have to hold firm to the Gospel but there's a whole lot of other stuff that we get to be really kind and really gracious and really uh reasonable with people.
So that ought to be how this works I said we won't spend as much time on that let's look at anxiety I love I love love the way that Paul writes this and I think that we skip it so often I think we just jump to do not be anxious about anything but that's not how the sentence Works he says the Lord is at hand do not be anxious about anything that sentence works like this your mom is trying to sleep shut up that's how that sentence Works your dad's on a zoom call go outside or your dad's on a zoom call have you lost your mind go outside that's how that sentence Works what.
Paul said is not don't be anxious like it just floats out here like just hey quit your anxiety what he says is the Lord is at hand he's near he's big he's imminent he's coming back what are you worried about he's right there what are you worried about he's right there what are you anxious over that's the way that sentence works I was talking to my son recently he's nine I've been trying to stretch him on the things that he has to do there's always that line of like keeping your kids safe and making your kids strong.
And so I've been trying to make him do some things that stretch him a little bit recently I sent him in I was pumping gas I sent him into the gas station to get some stuff and afterwards he said he said I kind of like going he said I kind of like like going off by myself like that because I can't get lost what that's what I said what are you talking about and he said well I'm the I'm the only one there I can't get lost and it took me a minute to realize what he meant was that his whole life he has gauged whether or not he's lost or not based off of.
The presence of his adult if I'm there he's not lost that's his whole life that's how he's gauged whether or not he's lost and if you'll watch kids that's how they do it like I could be lost but he wouldn't if he was with me that's the way he understood lostness you ever watch a kid look for their adult and it's real fun if you're the adult and you can see them you'll watch them be like and you're like right here you know.
But they're looking around that's all they're doing is if I can find my adult I'm okay if I can't I'm not and what Paul is saying is he's right there you're not lost you're not lost he's right here what are you worried about y the Assumption here is so beautiful so beautiful in the face of our anxiety so beautiful in the face of our worry so beautiful in the face of this weird sense of fearfulness and Dread it's so wonderful so wonderful.
Look at what he says the Lord is at hand do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving let your request be made known to God prayer is worshipfulness supplication is asking for help so prayer is the word prayer but it it includes this worshipfulness supplication is saying these are the my needs Thanksgiving we'll talk more about next week but it's being thankful that should take up some of our praying and he says let him know don't be anxious let him know.
If you started a new job and your equipment broke and you're stressing out because you're like this will be a new record for me I'll get fired on my first day so you're trying to fix it one of your co-workers comes by and goes hey what are you doing and you're like this isn't working they're like why aren't you getting your stuff done it's like this isn't working this is I I don't know it's not working and they went good luck and walked off what's the Assumption it's on you you better figure it out you better fix it.
But if they look at you and say have you called Rodney no who's Rodney my new best friend get Rodney in here what the heck has Rodney been doing all morning while I've been facing this problem what's the Assumption that's not on you and Paul right here says hey why are you anxious that's not on you you are gloriously and wonderfully small you're worried about things that aren't yours to worry about you're worried about things that aren't yours to carry you don't get you to the Finish Line you're not the one who's supposed to fix it it's not on you you're wonderfully small.
If I was about to go on a trip I've used this illustration before but it works so clearly in my mind if I was about to go on a trip and one of my sons looked at me and was freaking out and said we can't go and I said why he said we can't go cuz I don't know how to get there you ain't driving you're going to go where I take you Welly I strap you down in the car you can't even get out.
If you wanted to so sleep stare out the window play a game I don't care I'm the one in charge and that's some of what is assumed here he's right there tell him about it what are you anxious for you haven't gotten that big he's not counting on you in that way that's not your responsibility so take a deep breath and know that he's good I think Paul at some points in our anxiety would say things to us like you're like I'm just such he would say don't you know he's close you don't believe he's close I believe he's close oh you don't believe he's big I believe he's big oh you don't believe he.
Loves you I believe he loves you okay what are we anxious for like if you know he's close and you know he's big and you know he loves you this is such good news cuz one of those things has to be not true for you to have to carry this weight of anxiety CU Paul says he's right here don't be anxious now I think there's a tempation or a desire to respond when Paul just says rejoice and don't be anxious we want to say it's not that easy y'all it wasn't that easy.
But Jesus did the work it's very costly but Jesus Paid the cost and you say well it doesn't work like that yeah what if it does what if it works to where these things are ours in Christ because he's done them and given them to us what if we're the ones who are wrong in our thinking on it but because of Jesus we actually get to participate in this and it does work like this what if we can just be called in to Rejoice what.
If we can just be called into being non-anxious I want to show youall something about the the anxiety thing he says 'o not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving let your request be made known to God the downline assumption is that it's his to carry but the beautiful thing that's in here is if you're praying you're already undoing anxiety because you've begun to put it in the right context he's big I'm not so for those of you who struggle with anxiety and you think I was anxious all day yesterday I spent the whole day praying it's like no you were praying all day yesterday and reminding yourself that.
Your anxiety isn't yours to carry but it's his that he's good but I think there's a we look at this and we say it doesn't work like that but here's what I think this is I want us to see I'm going to give us some pictures because I've thought about this a lot this week trying to help wrap my head around what he's calling us into he doesn't say do these things and you'll have joy he says Rejoice participate in the joy he doesn't say.
If you do these things you'll be non- anxious he just says participate in the non- anxiety of belonging to the Lord he's here hand it over to him it's a call to participate so we're doing a thing but we're not really doing the thing what we're doing is is baked into the it happening so in just a moment we're going to have baptisms and they're going to do a thing they got to make it all the way up those two steps and over this wall it's tedious it's careful you got to hold you know hold some hands they got to get all the way under the water and all the way back out they've done.
An action but the action was not the thing the thing was done by Jesus they're just participating in what's already been done they're just getting to say I was washed clean by the blood of Christ he was buried I'm buried he's risen I'm risen but it's all because of Jesus I'm just participating in what he's accomplished it's like if you said I'm really hungry and your your parent said good I just cooked dinner and then you said great now what'll I have to do eat it.
But the eating it and the fixing the hunger the eating it and the enjoyment are taking place at the same time so you're doing a thing but the thing that really had to be done was already done that's the cooking like I've sat before my wife my wife my mom has made a meal my dad sat down her three sons sat down and we all just started eating my mom sat for a while and then said ain't nobody going to say thank you.
For the meal and we're all like thank you but we were just eating we were enjoying it but we weren't weren't being actually all that grateful we were participating in I've never once been anywhere where someone sat down started eating and then looked at the person who cooked and said you not going to thank me for eating this' are you crazy what are you talking about the cooking is the thing the eating is the participating Paul is saying participate in what.
Jesus has done participate in the fact that you have a lord who is good participate that Christians get to be joy-filled non-anxious get aable people because all the the real stuff has already been done and we just get invited in someone throws a party and they open the door and they say come on in you go I got to walk all the way over there yeah come on in it's going to be good now listen for the person struggles with anxiety and struggles with joy it's going to feel like this is that's too easy that's not how this works that's too easy it's not how it works and it just doesn't it just doesn't work.
Like that because I want to have joy and I I just it's just not how it works there's a story in second Kings chapter 5 where the commander of the Syrian Army comes and he has leprosy he finds out that there's a prophet in Israel as he comes to try to find Elisha the prophet in Israel and he first goes to the the castle he goes where the king is because he assumes that's where power would be but he's not there they find out he's got to go to some random place out in the middle of nowhere he shows up he's got gifts he's going to pay.
For this he's going to accomplish it he's got things that he's going to do he's going to try to see if this person can heal him and the prophet Elisha doesn't even come out to him the prophet Elisha just looks at the the his servant and says hey go out and just tell him here's what he needs to do I know who he is I know why he's here tell him he needs to go dip in the River Jordan seven times.
So he comes out he's like hey he doesn't want your gifts and also he's I don't I don't even know he gives an excuse he just says hey you need to go dip in the River Jordan seven times and you'll be cured of your leprosy and the commander of the Syrian Army is furious and he says let's go home because the Jordan River is not a good River he said he even says we got better rivers in Syria if that was the way this worked this is ridiculous and he goes to leave and one of his servants grabs him and says sir.
If he' to told you to do something difficult wouldn't you have done it like if it had been something that was able to be anchored in you or something you had to accomplish or something that you would do wouldn't you have done it and he says it's so easy why don't just try it so he does and he's healed and y'all we're Christians the difficult work has been done and we're invited to participate in what has been accomplished and it's really simple.
But we have to operate by faith so we don't sing to Rejoice we sing as we're rejoicing in what Jesus has already done we don't read our Bible so that we'll get to a place of Joy it's like it's participating already in the joy that we have and some of us are meant to go pray and then say Okay Lord by faith I'm going to set this down and I'm going to walk away and I'm going to try to quit thinking about it by faith and every time I think about it I'm going to try to hand it back to you by faith and I'm going to participate by faith.
If you trust if you're if you're leading an army and you pray before that the Lord will give you Victory the way that you trust the Lord and operate in Victory is you run down the hill and you fight that's how you operate in faith and so what is calling you into is not to wait for joy to show up to then Rejoice but to say I'm going to go ahead and start participating in the joy and not to wait till you feel non- anxious to say I'm going to be non- anxious and I'm going to participate in the PE in the peace that is offered and as much as I can try to press.
You into You' they've got to start working together you've got to eat to get the meal but you get to do it because it's already provided and it's not something you're doing it's something that's been done that you're invited to participate in and you get to the whole time say okay Jesus I'm trusting you okay Jesus I'm trusting that this is given to me okay Jesus I'm trusting that you accomplish this on the cross okay I'm trusting you that I'm not that big and I'm not that strong and I'm not that competent and you aren't counting on me to get all this stuff done.
But that you are good do you know that Christians because Jesus is so wonderful get to sleep all night long because he's so good it's one of the ways that you declare his glory is that people go how how do you have such peace and it surpasses knowledge but it's his and it's given to us he says a peace that surpasses knowledge it surpasses understanding that people look at and go how are you this calm and you go because I have a.
Lord who's that big and I'm not that important and if it all falls apart it's still on him and even if they cut my head off then I just get to be somewhere wonderful because I trust Jesus so right now I'm going to sing and I'm going to celebrate and I'm going to be easy to get along with and I'm going to be non-anxious because I trust my King has ultimately already done all the things that have to to happen and I'm going to do it to the glory of Christ as I participate in what he's accomplished by faith let's pray oh.
Lord there's so many hurdles in our soul to getting there and there are so many ways that we don't think that'll work and there are so many ways that this feels unattainable praise be to Jesus that you came to Ransom and to rescue and to cure and to heal and that there is joy in you that is unending and may we learn how to rejoice and not in a way that is saying okay I'm going to pause what's real and I'm going to think about.
Jesus to try to help calm myself down but then I got to look back at the problems but that we're going to say no I'm going to look to who's real and what's Eternal to reap Orient my mind so that I can understand the situation that I'm in that you're the one that gets us there and so Lord as we press into joy and as we press into peace as we seek to by faith say Okay Lord I'm going to be not anxious and I don't even know how that works may we pray may we hand things to you and may you by your grace and your goodness in the work of Christ give us.
Peace that surpasses knowledge surpasses understanding and guards our hearts and our minds because they are under assault and our society doesn't know how to help us here but you've already done all the work may we Feast on your goodness to the glory of Christ amen.
Wisdom and the Will (Proverbs 15:13-17)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. Grab your Bibles and go to Proverbs chapter 15. I am very thankful today for our community groups and for people seeking to be missionaries in everyday life. I remember Eric came and said, hey, I'm inviting my friend Parker. I'm going to try to get him to come hang out with our church, hang out with our group.
I was like, is he a Christian? Is he not a Christian? He said, um, he thinks he's a Christian. I'm not so sure. Sweet. We'll see.
Let him come on. You know, we'll be glad to have him and be a part of things. And that's that's our hope. That's what we see so often. If you saw, he said they begin to pressure me to get into a group. It's the best harassment he's ever received in his entire life.
It was to come be around people, to come join us in life and to hopefully come be known and loved by us so that you can know and love Jesus and see that he knows you and loves you. And that's our hope. That's what we talk about all the time. That's one of the reasons why we don't have an overly complex schedule as a church. We want you to go be out in the world as a Christian who loves people, who loves Jesus. We want you to join after work social events so that you can help be a missionary.
We want you to be getting to know your neighbors and hosting barbecues and doing stuff with your group to be on mission so that we can see people come to know Christ. There are people that you know right now who don't know Jesus, but maybe one day we'll all get to gather and celebrate that they've placed their hope in Christ. Not that they've become a good person, but they've been made holy and blameless and above reproach through the work of Jesus. I can testify that Parker is holy and blameless and above reproach through Jesus and that he is personally not a very good person. Just like the rest of the people in our group that we're here, just like the rest of the people in our church that we're here only through the work of Jesus, not through our work.
So we're glad to be able to gather on Sundays to study the Bible together. We're going to be in chapter 15 in the book of Proverbs. We're going to look mostly at 13 through 17. There'll be like the rest of our time in the Proverbs. There'll be other verses that we look at, but this is kind of where we're going to spend most of our time this morning. I want to start by talking to y'all about reading a quote and talking to you a little bit about a guy named Viktor Frankl.
He was an Austrian Jew. He lived in Austria in the lead up to World War II. And in World War II, he got married and nine months later, he and his entire family were taken to a German concentration camp. He would spend the remainder of World War II in a German concentration camp. And he, his wife, his father, his mother, and his brother would all die at the hands of the Nazis in concentration camps. In Auschwitz, where he was for some of his time, they would wake up at 4.30 or 5.30 in the morning.
They would give them some tea or some imitation coffee. That's what they had for breakfast. Then they would work till the middle of the day. Then they would give them some sort of soup or stew. Then they would work again until 7 o'clock at night when they would be given a ration of some bread or some cheese.
Not nearly the amount of calorie intake they needed to work 11 hours a day. Most of the time when they brought in the trains, they would immediately take the females to gas chambers and put the rest to work. Most people there slowly starved. And he lived his time through that. When he was freed over a nine-day period, he wrote a book called The Man's Search for Meaning. And this is a quote from that book.
He says, Everything can be taken from a man but one thing. The last of the human freedoms. To choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances. To choose one's own way. We're going to read another quote from that book later. But we're going to start there.
This idea that he shares and that the Proverbs agree with, which is that you have some control over your attitude. That you have some control over your internal disposition. That you have some control in how you respond to external circumstances. Now, at the simplest, kind of far inside of that, it really is just having a good attitude. Stuff that I tell my six-year-old. When he's upset about something.
I say, yeah, you can't control everything that happens to you. But you can control how you respond. You can control how you act. Well, I'm having a rough day. Yeah, sometimes we have rough days. But you can make it worse.
Or you can make it better. If you talk to your mama like that again, it's going to get worse. That we can choose through our actions and through our attitude how we're going to respond. That's the simplest form of it. Which I will tell you, you can do without Jesus. If you just do that, your life will be better.
It doesn't change your circumstances. But it will make those bad circumstances more bearable. So that's just, we're going to walk through that. That's the whole section of just wisdom. It's helpful. On the other side, when you go further into this, it actually becomes, you become internally unconquerable.
That it goes just from being able to kind of manage your own attitude to actually becoming internally unconquerable. And the reality is we'd all like to be there. So we're going to look at what the Proverbs have to say about this and hopefully grow in this together. So let's pray. God, we ask for help. So that we might capture some of this.
That we might believe some of this. That we might walk this out in light of what you have accomplished for us in the gospel. Our culture doesn't agree with this. And so we pray that you'd help us to listen well. Not as Westerners. As Americans or South Carolinians.
But that we would listen as people who belong to you. And whose story is much bigger and more eternal because of the work of Christ. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Proverbs 15, 13. A lot of times the Proverbs are just one idea.
This one seems like there's a couple of Proverbs in a row that are attacking the same idea. So we're going to work through a couple. But it says this, A glad heart makes a cheerful face. But by the sorrow of the heart, the spirit is crushed. Now at first glance, that's just kind of an obvious observation.
Thanks Solomon, you're so wise. What he said was, if you're happy inside, you'll smile. Wow. But if you're really sad inside, you're really sad inside. That's what it seems like. And so it's like, good.
You've taken this somewhere? Because that's how we're inclined to read this. But I want you to see something. Because even that statement right there is actually countercultural to what we believe. There's part of that statement that you actually, as a good American, don't agree with. So let me help you see it.
A glad heart makes a cheerful face. We're okay with that. Seems true. But by sorrow of heart, the spirit is crushed. You see, we actually are more inclined to think that the problems that we have are not internal but external. That it's actually not what's going on inside of me that crushes my spirit.
It's my parents. It's my job. It's my boss. It's my stepchildren. It's the amount of money I have in my bank account. It's the system.
It's the man. It's capitalism. It's those people who've snuck into our schools and who are indoctrinating our children. Those are the people who are the ones who are like that. We're inclined to think. That's why we read an advice article.
They never respond with, maybe you should change your attitude. They say, maybe you should change your spouse. Maybe you should change your job. Maybe you should change your financial situation. They don't ever respond with, maybe you should be a little tougher. Quit whining.
You're welcome. They don't do that. But there's a reality to this that it's our internal response. It's our internal spirit. That our internal heart, the way we think through the world that affects whether or not we're crushed or not. And there's just part of us that even now is going, yeah, is that really what that's saying?
I don't know if I agree with that. There's Proverbs 18, 14 says this. A man's spirit will endure sickness. But a crushed spirit who can bear. So again, this idea of what crushes the spirit.
Well, this doesn't really tell us, but we know it's not sickness. That sickness in and of itself can't crush a spirit. A spirit can endure sickness, can endure bad circumstances. That if we actually would just take sickness as an idea for bad things happening to us, that there's a reality to, we might can just face whatever comes our way. But if we're internally crushed, who can go on?
Let's keep reading. Proverbs 15, 14. The heart of him who has understanding seeks knowledge. But the mouths of fools feed on folly. So this is, as you have understanding, you continue to seek knowledge.
And fools just feed on folly. They continue to pursue foolishness. So if you're wise, you continue to pursue wisdom. If you're foolish, you continue to pursue foolishness. Verse 15. All the days of the afflicted are evil.
But the cheerful of heart has a continual feast. Now again, part of that, we're inclined to just think, yeah, that makes sense. All the days of the afflicted are evil. The affliction, I actually appreciate that word because it's so broad. That affliction can be sickness. Affliction can be your job.
That you can be afflicted with the attitude of another. That you can be afflicted, but it's this idea that it's very difficult. That things are hard. That stuff is hurting you. That your outside circumstances are attacking you. And so what it says is, all the days of the afflicted are evil.
And we want to say, yes, exactly. And if I could just get unafflicted, I'd be okay. But the follow-up of that proverb turns it on its head. Because if we were going to write this, we would say, all the days of the afflicted are evil. But he who has a continual feast has a cheerful heart.
Because in our reckoning, your circumstances dictate to you your joy. If you have a good marriage, if you have good friends, they're not toxic. If you have good relationships, if you have a good job, if you have a smart boss. Oh, a smart boss, who can find? If you have the right amount of money. If you have a continual feast, you'll have a cheerful heart.
That's not what it says. It says the afflicted days are evil, but those who have a cheerful heart have a continual feast. So it's actually comparing cheerful heart with being afflicted and a continual feast with evil. Meaning that you have some personal responsibility and control over your attitude that can dictate to you what life is like. And the truth is, you've seen this on some people. You've seen drastic examples of both.
Maybe you haven't seen it in yourself. Maybe you have. But you've seen examples of both. Because you've been in school, had a job, played a sport. And you've watched a crowd of people receive bad news. And you've seen some people be absolutely just crushed by it.
Oh, here we go. I knew this was going to happen. This is exactly how it always works. And you've also seen the really annoying person go, we're going to be okay here. It's like, shut up. We are not going to be okay.
We are going to choose to make this way worse. There's a reality to circumstances that keep us, that we want to act like our circumstances have dictated to us how we ought to respond. The reality is most of the time we don't want other people to think this, but we certainly want that to be how things work for us. So if I've had a bad day, I can be mean to my wife, obviously. But if she's had a bad day, she needs to work on her attitude.
But this is a general attitude that we have, that somehow our circumstances have dictated to us our response, rather than our circumstances are what they are and our response gets to be controlled by us. And look at the beautiful part of that. If you can figure out how to have a cheerful heart, you can have a continual feast. Now, if there's anything that Americans like, it's a continual feast. So let's figure out how to have a cheerful heart.
Part of you may be thinking this is unattainable for you, but let's work past that and just understand mentally that if you can attain it, life can be a continual feast. And the reality is there are people who walk through life continually afflicted and their days are evil. And there are people who walk through life with a cheerful heart and their days are a continual feast. And it doesn't have to do with what the days throw at them because often they're thrown, the same thing's thrown at them. It has to do with how we respond. That's actually extremely encouraging.
Because your joy level does not have to be set on circumstance. That's amazingly encouraging. Because we're tempted to want it to be set on circumstance. But the reality is there's hope here. So let's look at this.
I want to show you a couple different ways to try to think about this. There's a Jewish rabbi. He was also a business leader and kind of a political leader. His name was Edwin Friedman. I do not give my wholesale endorsement of him because he says some absolutely crazy things. But he does say some helpful things and he has an illustration that I think is helpful.
He says imagine that a lot of times life is like... He says an amplifier, but we're going to just use a radio. Life's like a radio with three knobs. One knob is physical reality. Circumstance. The actual reality of what is going on.
There's physical reality to your life. You only have a certain amount of money. You only have a certain amount of handsome strapped around your face. Like you've only got what you got. The second one is dumb luck. Not a Christian concept.
We'll get there. But this is what he says. Dumb luck. And the third one is the response of the organism. That's you. You're an organism.
That's how you respond. Now, he says organism because he applies this to political parties. He applies this to businesses, that sort of thing. Now, he says there are times... Oh, you're only allowed to touch the response of the organism. That's the only knob you're allowed to mess with.
The other two knobs just get set for you. You can only touch the response knob. There are times when physical reality and dumb luck are turned up so high that it doesn't matter what you do with your response. The results are going to be what they are. He says an example of this would be if we were all in an airplane and it broke open and we were flying through the air now. Un-tethered.
Unkept. One of you can smile. One of you can sing. One of you can weep. I can flap my arms like a bird. Physical reality and dumb luck are turned up so high that it really doesn't matter.
Within a few seconds, we're all going to reach the same conclusion. But he says most of the time that's not true. Most of the time, physical reality and dumb luck aren't turned up so high that your response doesn't matter. And he says often the only thing that makes a difference is the response of the organism. That's the one thing that's actually the variable that will adjust something. And it's the one thing that you're allowed to touch.
It's a little bit like growing up in your dad's house. You can't touch the thermostat, but you can put a sweater on. That's how it works. If you only focus on physical reality and dumb luck, if that's all you can talk about, if that's all you tell your group about, if that's all you tell your therapist about, if that's all you think about, if that's all you write in your pain journal about, things won't get better. Because you're not allowed to touch those knobs. You're only allowed to touch how you respond, how you think about it, how you get out of it, how you work your head around it.
Proverbs 14.30 says this, and I think it applies to the same idea. It says, A tranquil heart gives life to the flesh, but envy makes the bones rot. I think a life filled with envy is us looking at those two knobs and just wishing we could touch them and wishing that something had been different. And if I had just had this workout in life, if I had just grown up with those parents, if I had just been able to get into that school, if I had just been able to keep that job, if I had just kept that boss or not had this boss, if I just had that spouse, I wish that life had worked out this way. It's just us staring at the knobs we can't control.
I wish this had happened. I wish I had that relationship. I wish that my life had been like that. I wish I was a little bit taller. I wish I was a baller. I wish I had a girl look good.
I would call her. We can sit all we want and stare at the knobs we can't control and they will not help us. Or we can think about the one thing that we are able to grab a hold of and respond better. This isn't just the power of positive thinking. It's not going to fix everything in life. Some of your circumstances aren't going to change.
But you can make them better or worse. There's a scene in the office where they look at the boss, Michael Scott, who we use very often in the Proverbs because he's a fool. They say to him, don't make this any harder than it has to be. And then it cuts to him by himself looking directly in the camera and he goes, I'm going to make this way harder than it has to be. The truth is you do that. Something happens and you think.
You look at the camera of your life and go, I'm about to make this way harder than it has to be. My son, I try to help him think about his life, frame things up for him. It was school day. It was early in the morning. He was excited. He had put jelly beans in an Easter egg and he had hidden it.
Then in the morning he had opened his jelly beans to look at his jelly beans. I think he was going to eat his jelly beans. He put them back in the Easter egg. When he went back to open his jelly beans again after breakfast, there were four jelly beans, but there had been five jelly beans. This is a huge problem. Jesus tells the parable of the woman with the lost coin.
Well, I had the son with the lost jelly bean. He was turning the house upside down trying to find this jelly bean. Well, the clock's ticking because we've already gotten ready for school. We've already had breakfast. We only got so much hunt for jelly bean time before we got to go to school. He's distraught.
I mean, it's messed him up. I'm trying to help him find it. Finally, it's like we've got to get in the car and he's just like, you know, you know that look you get when you've lost your jelly bean. He had that. And we get in the truck. We only have a few minutes between us and the school and I'm trying to help not kick him out the door.
Like, just his day was not starting off well and I didn't want it to continue. So I'm trying to help him get out of it. So at first I was like, man, I'm sorry. That's rough. It is. I mean, that's, you know, one-fifth of his wealth gone.
It's a tough day. I'm sorry. Trying to help him, you know. And then I turned to, like, consoling wasn't helping. It was almost like it was adding to it because he's like, you're right, I should feel terrible. And I was like, all right, but you've got to buck up, kid.
But it's just a jelly bean, you know. I tried to be a little intense with him. That wasn't working. So we're just riding and I'm trying to think, like, how do I help him reframe his head? You know, how to help him learn to, like. And so we're just riding.
We've got about a minute left. We're pulling in the car line to drop him off. And I said, I said, are you tough? Something we talk about. I'm trying to help him learn that he can mentally control how he responds to physical things as well, you know. And, you know.
I said, like, you know, like a superhero, you know how, like, they're tough, you know. I said, but you know how superheroes have a weakness? Hmm? I said, I think I've figured out yours. I mean, this, he found a weakness. He's like, well, you know, he's a superhero now in his head and he's trying to think through being tough and he doesn't have any weaknesses.
I said, I think you might be like a superhero. I think I could hit you with a baseball bat and you'd bounce back. And he's, you know. I think I could shoot you with a missile. I know. But I found your weakness.
I found your kryptonite. He said, you know, looking at him like, what is it? He said, where is, what is it? You know, I'll cover it with a shield. It's one jelly bean. He just straightened up and stared at me.
He said, not a lot of jelly beans. Not five jelly beans. One jelly bean. That's your weakness. It'll crush you. All I got to do, you're like Captain America.
If I gave you a jelly bean and then took the jelly bean away, it turned into dust. And he was like, no. You know, like, I'm not weak. A jelly bean won't take me down. I was like, no, you said it destroyed your whole day. You said it ruined everything.
You said that jelly bean was the one thing that kept you sane and now everything's going. No, I'm not. No, huh? He hopped out of the car like, you know. Ain't no jelly bean going to beat me up. I'm trying to reframe for him.
What's your weakness? Extra paperwork? Traffic. How you thought a situation was going to go and then how your spouse actually responded. Your roommate and the dishes in the sink. What is it?
What's your kryptonite? What's the thing that absolutely slays you and you have no choice but to respond this way? They forced your hand. See, there's a reality to we have control how we respond to circumstances. We're going to work on a pool. And we can make life better or worse.
I learned this working on swim pools very, very distinctly. Multiple summers throughout all of high school working on swimming pools. The truth was I would go work on a pool. Sometimes it worked out well. It was nice. There were some times when you'd go to a job and you knew I was going to get paid this much.
It was going to take this long. Nice. And then something would break. And now I'm still only going to get paid this much, but I'm going to work a lot longer. And there were times where things would break and I would have to decide, am I going to do this manually or am I going to go ride back to the store, which is an hour away to get the stuff I need to actually fix it? Or am I going to do the thing that takes forever and peels all the skin off my arm as I sit and just have to fix this thing?
And oftentimes I realized that the only thing I can control was I knew I was going to be there. I knew I was going to have to fix the thing. I knew I couldn't leave until I got fixed. I knew the amount of money I was going to get was set. Everything was set. I was going to be in the sun.
Everything. I could make those next two hours way longer by feeling sorry for myself, by being really upset, by thinking through that other people wouldn't have to deal with this. Or I could take a deep breath, listen to some music, and realize that all of the things I was going to have to do were the same. The only thing I could control was my attitude and I could make it a lot better if I had a better attitude. And the truth is you get to do that too. You get the news at work, you're going to have to stay late.
Well, you're going to have to stay late. You're going to make it better or worse. Your kids spill stuff all over the floor. You're going to make it better or worse. We get to choose. And that's actually really encouraging.
But it gets better. It's beyond just attitude control that makes your day better. Take that. Use that. If you don't know Jesus, it's a gift to you. You don't have to have Jesus to change your attitude.
He helps, but you don't have to have him. But if you want to be internally unconquerable, it goes further. He says this in verse 16. Now we'll read verse 16 and 17. Better is a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble with it. Better is a dinner of herbs where love is than a fattened ox and hatred with it.
You can have good circumstances without the Lord, without love, or you can have terrible circumstances with the Lord and with love, and it's better to have love and it's better to have the Lord. So it's not just circumstances that set your life, joy, and hope. And this actually, because it's now based not just in circumstances, but based in the Lord and his love for us, may I offer you an anchor for your joy rather than a kite. So many of us, our happiness is on a kite. Is it a good day for it? Is there a nice breeze blowing in the right direction?
Everything's good. Blown too hard? Not blowing it all? It's a mess. You ever try to fly a kite when it wasn't the right weather? It's the most aggravating thing?
I did this for like an hour with my boys one time. Something's wrong with the kite or something's wrong with me, but it wasn't working. But some of us have our hope tied to a kite. It's this. But we can actually have it anchored in the Lord so that it's untouchable, so that your joy level, your response to things, doesn't have to be circumstantial.
It doesn't whip around with the wind. See, this moves now from good advice to good news. That you actually, if you place your faith in Jesus, that you can have some things eternally held for you through the work of Christ that are true eternally and that you belong to Him. That's what Jesus came to die for sinners so that all who have faith in Him might be covered by His work and made holy and blameless and above reproach through the work of Christ and be anchored in Him so that we might, even if circumstances are bad, have Him. And if we have Him, then we have everything. And so that we have something to lean into in the midst of bad circumstances to remind us that not only can I control my attitude, but I have hope in Christ.
So I've got three things for us to do coming out of this. Fight for contentment. It's one of the best ways to work on your attitude is to fight for contentment. A tranquil heart brings life. An envious heart rots your bones. If you think things should be better, and that's what you tell yourself all the time, this should have worked out differently, it should be better.
The truth is, at any given moment in life, you can look at what's good or you can look at what's bad. That's up to you. You can show up from work. I can walk in the door from work and I can look at what's good or what's bad in my house. I can walk in because my wife's been playing with the kids and they've been having fun and the house is chaos. And I can tell myself, look at how terrible this house looks.
They should have been doing this. She should have done that. What's she been doing all day? I can find ten things I want to be mad about. I can probably find twenty if you give me enough time. But the reality is, I can also come in and find ten things to be happy about.
Some of you walk in the door, the house is a mess, your spouse has been playing with the kids and having fun with them and you complain that the dishes aren't done. The next day you walk in, the house is spotless but the kid's playing video games and you say, did y'all even go outside today? You're just picking the thing to be mad about instead of finding the thing to be happy about. You can right now make a list on the way home of ten things you like about your spouse, ten things you like about your group, ten things you like about this church, twenty-five things that you loved about this sermon.
Some of you this whole time have been going, I wish Spencer was preaching and you've ruined a wonderful sermon for your bad attitude. But you can do this. You can fight for contentment. You can tell yourself things you like about your house, you like about your drive to work, you like about your job, or you can tell yourself all the things you hate about it and one of those gives life to your flesh and one of them rots your bones. And if you feel a little rotted out, it's quite possible that you're walking around doing that to yourself. Grab the knob you can control.
So fight for contentment. Control your response. It's the one thing you can control. So in a situation, start learning what's outside of my control. That's not the thing to focus on. What's inside of my control?
That's the thing to focus on. That's the thing for me to think through and decide how I'm going to respond, how I'm going to act, what I'm going to do, how I'm going to speak, how I'm going to think, what I'm going to tell myself. I think about this periodically. Paul and Silas in the book of Acts get arrested, beaten, put in jail, and then we're told that they're praying and singing hymns. Now if I asked you, good Christian, can Christians sing in prison?
Yes. Can we find joy in the midst of difficult circumstances? Yes. Can we have an anchor of hope in the midst of a concentration camp? Yes. But we can't even handle traffic.
Well, I'm not in prison. I'll sing when I get to prison. But the house is a mess. Like it's like, what? We can control how we respond. We have an anchor that helps us respond.
I want to read this quote from Viktor Frankl. He says this. He says, Life in a concentration camp exposes your soul's foundation. Only a few of the prisoners were able to keep their inner liberty and inner strength. Life only has meaning in any circumstances if we have a hope that neither suffering, circumstances, nor death itself can destroy. Now if you belong to Jesus, you have a hope that neither suffering, nor circumstances, nor death itself can destroy.
You have an anchor for your joy, for your life, for your hope, not a kite. So that you can respond with joy in the midst of anything and you can respond with hope in the midst of anything and you can control your attitude in the midst of anything. Nobody has forced your hand. Third thing. So first, fight for contentment.
Control your response. Remember the truth. Another way to say this would be to remember good news. Proverbs 12, 25, anxiety in a man's heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad. That's just a general truth about talking to each other, about how good news works, but also we have the ultimate capital G, capital N, good news in Christ. The ultimate capital G, capital W, good word in Christ.
Proverbs 15, 30, the light of the eyes rejoices the heart. I mean, the light of the eyes is the life that the Lord gives us the ability to see. But it's like the inner light of the eyes. And good news refreshes the bones. We have the good news in Christ. Proverbs 16, 24, gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body.
We have the gracious words spoken to us by God the Father through the work of Christ. Capital G, capital W, gracious words spoken to us. Remember what's true. Let's look at our radio again. Physical reality, dumb luck, response of the organism. If you don't belong to Jesus, run with that.
I would like to invite you though to place your faith in Jesus and use this next one which is if you belong to Jesus it looks like this. Physical reality, truth of the gospel, response of the organism. Can I offer you some really good news? You're still not allowed to touch that second knob. Your sin doesn't let you grab it. Your depression doesn't let you grab it.
What the enemy's telling you doesn't let you grab it. Jesus Christ has sealed that forever and ever and ever and ever and he has spoken truth to you that if you belong to him you belong and you are redeemed and you are forgiven and you are given hope that is unassailable. You are internally unconquerable because through Christ you are eternally unconquerable. You still get to troll how you respond. Are you going to believe that? Are you going to remind yourself of that?
Are you going to join a group and tell people that? Remind them of that? Are you going to join a group and listen when other people remind you of that? This is one of the reasons why we need to be around other believers so that you can say something that's completely stupid and they can say to you that's not true. You tell yourself completely stupid lies all the time. You need to get around a group and say them out loud so the people who love Jesus can go what have you been telling yourself?
No. I love you so I want to punch you. That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. That's not true for you not if you belong to Jesus. If you don't belong to Jesus run with that. You'll be crushed by your sin.
You'll be destroyed. You're unlovable. You've been unworthy. But if you belong to Jesus you've been made lovable. You've been made worthy through the work of Christ and you are forever sealed in that. You are holy and blameless and above reproach.
You are like a bride presented to Christ without a spot or blemish or any such thing that we belong and that we're loved and that we're welcomed and we don't get to mess with that. Some of you say well I'm depressed. Yeah okay we'll put that on the physical reality knob. You can't control that. You wake up feel like you have no energy. You feel down.
You can't go you know what I'm just going to choose happy today. Sometimes that doesn't work. But you actually do get to choose how you respond. You're going to stare at the depression knob and just say well you're in charge. Are you going to look at the truth of the gospel? You're going to get out of bed?
You're going to get in some sunlight? You're going to get around some people? You're going to say I'm not going to let my feelings and emotions dictate to me what life is. I can't fully control them but I can control how I respond. I don't have to believe all that. Guys this is good news.
And if you belong to Jesus it's eternally good news. Some of you right now are in some really bad situations but you can make them better. You can choose to be afflicted or you can have a continual feast as we choose to align ourselves with who Jesus is and what he's done for us. The band is going to come back up. We're going to sing. I want to say one more thing to those who do have physical depression that you just feel like it's outside of your control.
I want to tell you yeah sometimes it is. Your response isn't. There's places in the Psalms all the time where he says bless the Lord oh my soul. He talks to his soul. Bless the Lord oh my soul. He says forget not all his benefits.
Some of you need to write down we actually have some of these printed up. We will give you one but different passages of scripture that tell you things that are true about you and Jesus. Some of you need to write down things. You walk around telling yourselves lies all the time. I'm the worst. I'm unlovable.
Everybody hates me. They don't even notice when I'm not around. They wish I wasn't around. It's like your radio is turned up too much but you're not grabbing the one knob you have control over and you're not listening to the part where Jesus is coming through the frequency that he's on where he says you are loved. You are welcome. You do have hope.
You do have certainty. You do have security. If you belong to Jesus the absolute worst circumstances that could ever happen to you can happen to you. You're eternally secure. One of the ways we say this on Sundays sometimes is Jesus is alive tell your face. There's hope in Christ so there's joy for us.
That's actually one of the fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control that he gives us these things through his work not ours that we get to choose good things because he's offered them to us in Christ that no you don't deserve them but Jesus is great and we praise his glorious grace. So quit looking at the undeserving knob. Quit looking at the circumstance knob and start looking at the king of kings and start responding as someone who's been redeemed. And then tell your face. Let's pray.
God we thank you so much that you redeem that we can run to you in the midst of difficulty that we can run to you in the midst of hurt that we can run to you in the midst of pain that you have forever set reality for us through the work of Christ. Lord we pray for those who are not in Christ that they would come to you that they would repent of sin that they would ask for forgiveness that they would be covered by the grace of Christ. And we pray Lord that we would quit looking at the things we can't control that we would quit focusing on all the things that are negative that we would quit looking at the things that are difficult difficult and hard and quit acting as if circumstance sets our hearts posture rather than you through the power of your spirit and our ability to respond. And may by your grace we respond well.
In Jesus name we pray. Amen.