How to Resist Anxiety & Joylessness

Hey everybody, I'm Pastor Jeff Durbin with Apologia Church. I want to thank you all so much for watching the content right here on Apologia Studios channel.

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So thank you again so much for watching these and sharing them. God bless you. Open your Bibles to Philippians.

Philippians chapter 4. We're in this final chapter here. We have been going through a series called the

Kingdom of God. It's an exposition of the gospel according to Matthew. We finished the section of the Olivet Discourse, the

Great Tribulation, and I've taken a sidestep series through Philippians. It's a letter written by the apostle

Paul while in chains. And it really is a letter that you cannot avoid seeing joy and rejoicing in.

The constant challenge to not be worried, to not be anxious. It's a challenging letter because it's very short and it's written by a man who, as I often say, did not choose his best life now.

It's written by a man who was lowered out of windows, who started riots as he preached the gospel.

He was beaten so many times that he actually forgot how many times he was beaten. He was falsely accused.

He was slandered. He was in constant danger and he calls all of it a light and momentary affliction compared to this eternal weight of glory ahead of him.

It really is a powerful and challenging letter and we chose as elders to go into this letter for the health and life and transformation of our body.

You see there's one thing. We're good Calvinists here. Amen. Yes. Oh, come on, that wasn't good enough.

Yes. Yes. Okay, good. Calvinists are notorious for being good at theology, strong reformed theology.

We care about, you know, crossing the t's, dotting the i's, but a lot of times reformed folks are just jerks.

Not happy, right? Sad saps. Right? A lot of theology, not a lot of life at times.

That doesn't go for everybody, but it can be a theme is that you sort of love to talk about the finer details of theology, but you can't live the life that the apostle

Paul lived knowing that reformed theology about the sovereignty of God, his sovereign grace to elect, his powerful saving grace, the fact that Jesus is a mighty and perfect savior, that he keeps all of his people, that Jesus had a perfect atonement.

Paul knows all that. Paul taught all of that, but Paul lived a life of authentic joy, and he's challenging the church to live that life of authentic joy.

And as we go to the text here in Philippians 4, this is now the application portion of this particular text.

I'm going to go a couple different places to try to say, how do we apply what we've learned thus far, because we're almost done with the letter.

But as we come to this, I want to challenge you, as I have, that the call to joy and rejoicing and to not be anxious cannot be merely external for a believer.

And you know that I've challenged myself and you as my brothers and sisters, as the body here at Apologia, that we cannot be the kind of believers who see this and we come to church or to fellowship and we put on the shell, the outside, the external, the plastic smile.

We see the call to joy and rejoicing in the Lord always. Again, I will say, rejoice.

And at times, believers can say, well, deep down, I don't have any of that. I'm struggling.

I'm in darkness. I'm lonely. But I'll come to the gathering of God's people, at least for a little while, out of obedience,

I'll pretend. Well, brothers and sisters, pretended obedience is hypocrisy.

Pretended obedience is hypocrisy. So if the challenge from the Apostle Paul is to rejoice in the

Lord always and to be anxious for nothing, then we need to be transformed as God's people.

We need to dig deep and be willing to be cut and challenged and really receive the conviction of the

Holy Spirit and then actually move to the place where we're transformed and renewed. I've pointed back to this a few times already, and I want to challenge you with this.

Pastor James really encouraged us a couple of weeks ago on a Sunday with a message that really talked about the

Apostle Paul in this particular letter, not looking back, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead.

He presses on towards the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. And our pastor challenged us, do we think like that every

Lord's Day? Do we come to the worship, the gathering of God's people, and do we actually reflect on how have

I been transformed over the last week? How have I been changed by God's word and in relationship to my

Savior since last week? Or do we think that this is it? I'm saved.

I'm regenerate. I have a new heart and a new mind. But this is sort of my baggage that I'm never getting rid of.

Pornography, addiction, anger, and wrath towards my spouse or my kids, impatience, anxiety, loneliness, depression, sadness.

Are these just part and parcel to our lives as saved, redeemed children of God?

It's something we're never really going to get over. We hate it. We're convicted over it. We want to get free from it, but we just sort of said,

I guess this is about as far as I'm going to go in my walk with the Lord. He loves me, and I love him.

But I cuss a lot. You ever seen that shirt? Like, I love Jesus, but I curse a little, you know?

Sort of thing. Like, you know, just sort of accept it. It's just the way things are. It's just the way things are.

I want you to think about that as we talk about application today of what we've done so far throughout this amazing letter.

Philippians chapter 4, starting in verse 4. Hear now the words of the living and the true

God. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say, rejoice.

Let your gentleness, 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.

Thus far as the reading of God's holy and inspired word, let's pray. Father, please bless the proclamation of your word and the teaching of your word.

Pray, Spirit of God, that you would challenge, convict, change us. All of us come to you knowing that we, apart from you, can do nothing.

Nothing. And so we ask God that you would get the pastor out of the way today, that you would teach.

You let your word be what challenges us and transforms and renews us.

We pray that you would expose any idols in our hearts and any unbelief, and help us to put that unbelief to death for your glory and in the name of Jesus.

Amen. So this letter, short, four chapters, of course, those weren't there when the

Apostle Paul wrote them. It's a letter, he says that he's writing in chains, and as I emphasize and have been continually emphasizing, the

Apostle Paul keeps talking to this church while in chains about having joy and rejoicing in the

Lord always, and not being worried about anything, not anxious, and you sort of have in this letter things that from a human perspective do not make any logical sense.

Anybody else who thought that this is all that we have is this life, this world, would not be in the kind of position the

Apostle Paul is in, in constantly encouraging other people to rejoice in the

Lord. Don't be worried about anything. All this is working out exactly the way God wants it to. You see, the

Apostle Paul isn't looking at what is seen, but what is unseen. The Apostle Paul is a changed man.

Of course, he was the man who was trying to destroy the church. He says that, I tried to destroy the church.

That's how zealous I was. He didn't believe in Jesus as the Messiah. He's an antagonist towards the

Christian faith. He meets Jesus alive from the dead, and his life is fully transformed. And he continued to be sanctified and grown, and what we see here through the inspiration of the

Holy Spirit of God is a man who is in Christ just like you.

You gotta accept that. He is saved by the same blood as you and I, filled with the same

Spirit of God as you and I. Is this inspired revelation from God? Yes.

Is that special? Yes. But what does Paul have that you don't have in terms of a righteousness that is from God, that is not his own?

He's in Christ the same way you are, and dwelt by the same Spirit. And here is a sanctified man who lived a life of poverty, difficulty, beatings, and all the rest, and ultimately had his life taken because of his faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and King of the world.

Here he is telling us in chains to rejoice in the Lord always. So I've talked about authentic joy, not the plastic smile, not the pretend hypocritical kind of joy, where we think this is sort of a

Christian cultural thing. We should be joyful. So we'll come in here and pretend like all is well. We'll put on the plastic smile.

We'll pretend like our families are doing well and my life is fine. We'll pretend like I wasn't up all night last night, fearful and anxious and worried.

We'll pretend like I wasn't this week drinking heavily because I was lonely and in despair.

I'll come and pretend like all is well because there's a command to be joyful, to rejoice in the Lord. That's not what authentic joy is.

That's hypocrisy. It's a mask. It's a pretender, which is what hypocrite means in this book.

It's an actor. It's a person who wears a mask and plays a part. You know that the person is not really that character because they wore masks.

Hubakrite. It's an actor, a pretender. Not pursuing authentic joy means we are pretending to obey.

But what is the source of authentic joy? I've tried to highlight as much from the text as I possibly can gather.

How does he have it? Why is he asking us to have joy in God, to be glad in God?

I've talked about three things. Number one, God's character. The apostle Paul is constantly pointing to and standing on in the midst of very, very violent and difficult circumstances

God's character. That's the anchor for the apostle Paul. Get this. It's not his circumstances because there isn't anything to rejoice in when you're being beaten with rods in that moment.

The circumstance is painful. The circumstance is bloody when you have shackles around your wrists and ankles and you're standing in a little hole in the ground where you can barely get up all the way without banging your head against the ceiling.

In the circumstance itself that's not a joyful thing. It doesn't feel good. But the apostle

Paul is constantly pointing as a source of his rejoicing to the character of God.

What else does he point to? Well, throughout his letters and in this letter, he points to God's promises.

Just as an example, we can't redo the whole letter again today, but you know I'd love to. Philippians chapter 1, as the letter starts, just take a peek back for a second.

If you look at what he says here in Philippians chapter 1, as he starts in verse 6, he says, and I am sure of this that he, that's

God, who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

So the apostle Paul is saying be joyful, rejoice in the Lord always. You're like, but wait, you're in chains.

Wait, you've been beaten. Wait, you're about to be killed for your faith in Jesus and rejoice. He says yes.

Because he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. He is going to finish what he started.

You see that's essential for the Christian position. You got to get this. Man -made religion doesn't like this message.

It can't embrace this message. At times it despises this message. Even people who put the veneer of Christianity over their religion and use

Jesus speak. They talk about Jesus. They talk about biblical language, all the rest. They don't have a perfect savior like Paul.

When people talk about, oh, yes, we need to believe in Jesus. But you know, our ultimate salvation is based upon a life well lived.

My savior is so much better than that. His righteousness is so much better than that. The life that he gives is eternal life.

When he saves a person, he saves them perfectly. Are there false professors out there?

Yes. The bible talks about that. They went out from us, John says, in order to show they were never really of us.

If they were of us, they would have remained among us. Because God saves perfectly.

Paul knows the promise of God. He started it. He's going to finish it and nobody's going to thwart his purposes.

That's my God. Is he yours? That's the God that we're talking about.

Authentic joy in the midst of difficult circumstances. I know what is unseen here and that's behind this is an eternal first and last, none before, none after, beginning in the end, sovereign

God who can't be thwarted. And in the midst of a fallen world, he is working out his perfect plan over everything and then on a micro level, he's working it out in my life.

He will finish what he started in my life. Nothing's going to stop him. The apostle

Paul is also pointing in this letter to God's plan for the future. What is

God going to do? He has promises. We can hang on to that. But he also has a plan for the future.

History is going somewhere. You may have seen the video that we dropped today responding to the looting and the riots with the gospel, not with social justice, not with critical race theory, not with neo -marxism and what comes from the

Frankfurt school. You're going to need to know all that stuff in the days ahead, brothers and sisters. You are going to need to know it.

But ultimately what we have is a world around us that talks about chaos. It's chaos.

It's time and chance. There's no sovereign God wielding this thing. It's chaos and what we've seen all this week and the week prior and really the last couple of months is sort of a moment where it appears the

Lord has sort of drawn back his hand for a moment to show you the sinfulness and depravity that has actually been underneath the surface all along.

It's not new. God in his grace restrains people from their evil, but God in his perfect justice can release his hand and allow everybody to see the sin and the depravity that is there the whole time.

And when you have a world view that ultimately says everything is chaos, then ultimately that is what will come out of you in your life and you'll see it in culture and society round about you.

The apostle Paul knows history is not just time and chance acting on matter. Get this, because it is the glory of your worldview and the beauty of this book.

There is a storyteller of history and there is a story of history that he is telling.

He's in control of the narrative and history is going somewhere. He keeps his promises and even in the midst of difficulty, brokenness, death, viruses, looting, rioting, this

God is not thwarted by any of that. He is sovereign and Paul knows in the midst of his very difficult circumstances at the genesis of the

Christian church in the kingdom of God in the first century, he knows that God has told us history is going somewhere.

Jesus is the resurrected God -man and we are going somewhere in history where he is going to transform this into a body like his and in that I can rejoice.

You can take my body, but Jesus is going to raise it again. There is no grave that can hold this body down,

Johnny Cash. It's a good song. You should get to know that song, right? Go listen to it on the way home.

We'll all pump fists together alongside Antifa or whatever.

See, God's character is the root of authentic joy. God's promises are the root of authentic joy and God's plan for the future is the root of authentic joy.

Paul says here in Philippians 4, he says rejoice in the Lord always. Rejoice in the

Lord always. I've tried to emphasize this. It's just a bullet point on this. It's hard to embrace that.

I talked about tragic circumstances in our life as believers. And by the way, I need to say this because I was reflecting on it this week.

You understand brothers and sisters in our body as we walk with Jesus together, we're going to face more grief, more death, more difficulty together as God's people.

All of our suffering is not just behind us. We have more to come.

This is a fallen world and we're going to die. We are.

We're going to be at each other's funeral. If this is where God keeps you, this is where we're going to be together. We're going to grieve alongside one another.

We're going to hurt together. We're going to suffer. We are. So we have to get a hold of this.

What does it mean to rejoice in the Lord always? I shared with you a story of losing a little boy in our congregation instantly without notice.

And I shared the most amazing moment of my life, my Christian life, in seeing a mother and a father rejoicing in the

Lord in the midst of the most tragic circumstance imaginable. The death of their son. She comes into the hospital room singing about the goodness of Jesus.

She was rejoicing in the Lord, not the circumstance. She knows who her God is. He's the faithful God who raises the dead.

And this call to rejoice in the Lord always is not a call to pretend rejoicing.

Like for example, I love Pastor James said in a debate before, it's not like stubbing your toe and God's saying you better rejoice in that.

You're like, oh praise God that hurt, right? You know, that's not the kind of rejoicing that we're talking about. You're not rejoicing over the pain and the grief and the agony.

You're rejoicing in the Lord because he hasn't moved. And he's sovereign over that, even that.

He declares the end from the beginning. So every event in history has purpose and meaning.

There is no meaningless suffering. There is no purposeless evil in this world. All things work together for good for those who love

God and are the called according to his purpose. That's my God. And that's the source of our authentic joy and the source of where we can say it makes sense to rejoice in the

Lord. The rejoicing is in the Lord, not the circumstance. It's because of who he is.

So let's talk about it quickly. Number one, when we talk about God's character, what's he like?

What's he like in comparison to the false gods and the idols of our day? He is unique.

He is incomprehensible, but he is apprehendable and he has revealed himself to us.

He's made himself known. He is the only God. Isaiah 43 10.

Before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even

I, am the Lord, he says, and besides me there is no savior. I am the first and I am the last.

Besides me there is no God. Is there a God besides me? Indeed, there is no other God. I know not one.

He sets himself apart from the idols of the nations in Isaiah chapter 40 through 46.

Go read it later by saying I'll tell you the future before it happens because he wields it and he says and I can tell you the past and why things happen the way that they did.

False gods can't do that because they don't talk about the future because they don't do a lot of talking in the first place and they can't tell you about what happened in the past because besides being dumb and mute they don't control history.

They have no explanation for the evil that's happened in the world, but God says he'll tell you why things happen the way that they did.

The Bible tells us that God is holy. What's his character like? Isaiah 6 is this glorious scene.

If you haven't read it, go read it. John says that Isaiah saw Jesus in this moment but you have this scene where you have the angels and they're saying holy, holy, holy is the

Lord God Almighty. God is the thrice holy God. He is perfect in all his ways.

He is holy, holy, holy. Now hang on to that. You may have heard that.

Maybe you have it on a t -shirt. Maybe you've read Holiness of God.

You know that book and you know that truth, but can I just have you embrace this for a second?

Will you talk about rejoicing in the Lord always and not being anxious? Do you know one of the major things we fail in in those moments of struggle and difficulty, let's be honest, is that we often think that God is like us.

Right? My moment is terrible. This is traumatic. This is horrible. This seems like darkness.

I feel alone and we immediately flee to the darkness in that moment and we embrace it and we soak in that moment.

Why? Because deep down we think that God is like us, that he fails, that he's sinful, that he turns, that he has inconsistencies.

Well, the Bible tells us about God's character. He's not like you and he's not like me. In that moment where you're struggling with those thoughts, you are struggling with unbelief.

You are not being righteous. You're not even being honest. God is holy, holy, holy.

He keeps his promises and he cannot fail. That's the God of this book, this revelation. He is not like you and he is not like me.

He doesn't have bad days and good days. He doesn't have flashes of his temper.

Even, get this, even God's wrath, and yes, God has wrath.

Even God's wrath is not an out -of -balance, broken response to something.

Even God's wrath is his settled opposition against evil. It's a settled opposition against evil.

He's not like you. He's not like me. And I want you to see these. I'm going to give you some references so that you know where they're at.

You're going to need these in your arsenal. Go to Psalm 18. Psalm 18.

These can be multiplied over and over, but I wanted to give you some verses to put into your heart, to treasure up.

Psalm 18. My wife tells me

I need to give everyone more time to get to their verses. Trying to honor that.

Psalm 18, 30. The psalm says, this

God, his way is perfect. The word of the

Lord proves true. He is a shield for all those who take refuge in him.

His ways are perfect. Not like mine. He doesn't have my inconsistencies.

He doesn't have my failures as a father. He doesn't hold those. I know that I'm a failure as a father.

I know my dad was a failure as a father because I know what he's like. Did you get it?

We have all this trauma. We have all this hurt that takes away our rejoicing in the Lord, in our lives.

We say, well, I had this traumatic experience as a child. I had a really bad father. I've had these experiences and all of this and my life's in shambles, all the rest.

And I say amen to that and hallelujah. Praise God. It's all true. But his ways are perfect.

You know your ways are not because when you put it up against the measuring rod of him as father, as him as unchanging, of him as holy and him as perfect, you fall short.

You only know that you're broken because you have him as the standard. He does not change.

He does not move. He's perfect. The Bible says that he doesn't change. God doesn't have inconsistencies, good days and bad days.

And let's be honest, in the moments of darkness and loneliness and despair, truly, isn't that how we see him?

He feels far off, not because he is far off. I feel sad and lonely, not because I ought to or am lonely, but it's because of how

I'm actually lying about God in that moment and disbelieving his word. He says he doesn't change.

Malachi 3, 6. I am the Lord. I change not.

Therefore, you sons of Jacob are not consumed. I am the Lord. I change not.

He does not change. He is not like us. Therefore, we can rejoice because we can trust him.

His way is perfect. In James chapter 1 verse 17, some of these will go fast and some of them we'll hang out together in.

But James 1 17 says this, Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the father of light, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

That's our God. Do you believe it? Do you believe it? Do you believe it on your good days and your bad days?

Because you see that's the source of the authentic joy. It's not in you. It's not in your strength.

It's not in your ability even to interpret the circumstances correctly and somehow shape them the right way.

The answer to authentic joy and not being worried is in this God. He does not change.

Isn't it amazing? You'll have these moments of spiritual highs as a Christian. I had one

Friday. I did. I've been praying for this meeting with this senator for a long time.

Had an amazing moment with him. God was all over it. Huge encouragement, answer to prayer. I'm crying in the meeting.

I have a problem. You guys know that. I go home. I'm driving from Snowflake, Arizona home and I probably about half of that drive

I'm crying and I felt like I was driving in a car being carried by God. I was so in awe of his faithfulness and this just crazy providence and it was a moment of a spiritual high, right?

And we're thinking to ourselves as Christians, right? How do I get that all the time, right?

Like where do I inject that? Who's selling that, right? That's what

I'm supposed to have, right? That kind of authentic joy and want to feel God's presence and the truth is the reason we have that experience as believers is not because all of a sudden

God has decided to condescend because he was far off before and in that moment he says, okay, I'll show up for a moment here.

That's not the God who is. It's just in that moment my mind and my heart is focused so deeply on him and who he is and his faithfulness in that moment that in that moment that's where I get to experience all of that joy.

It's not like all of a sudden God has changed and been better to me in that moment. He's never moved and this is why it's something

I often say it does not make sense as a child of God who's regenerate with a new heart to sit in the presence of the eternal

God who says he sings over you, declares his love for you, has declared you not guilty, says there is no more condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, says you have peace with him, eternal life.

He's going to finish what he started. He calls you his child. It makes no sense for you to sit in his presence and be sulky.

Imagine, imagine a child in a home and the father is just boasting over the child saying you're lovely and wonderful.

I'll give everything for you. I'll do anything. You are so wonderful and so perfect and the child sits there with his head down sad while the father declares the love.

At some point you're going to take that child and you're going to say, hey, pay attention to what's being said to you or else you'll get a spanking.

You see the God that we're talking about, he keeps his word. Go to Numbers 23 19. Again, these are verses to arm you with as a believer, as a child of God.

This is what's true, not your experience. Numbers 23 19

He keeps his word. God is not a man that he should lie or a son of man that he should change his mind.

Here it is. Ready? Remember this when you're broken at two in the morning.

Remember this when you get the phone call. Remember this at the hospital. Remember this in the darkness of this world.

Has he said and will he not do it? Or has he spoken and will he not fulfill it?

That's our God. He keeps his word. He doesn't change. His ways are perfect.

His word is sure. It is certain and true. When God says something, he does it.

That's our hope. He's not like you. He's not like me. He is sovereign.

A couple verses here. Psalm 115 3. Go there, record it, make a note.

Psalm 115 and verse 3. Here it is.

It says our God is in the heavens. He does all that he pleases. That's a sovereign

God right there. You know what? You got to hear this. You really need to come back and you need to listen to this because this is vital.

It's really the difference between every other man -made religious concept of God and the biblical God. The biblical God is the sovereign

God over every detail. Dr.

R .C. Sproul, the late Dr. R .C. Sproul used to say there's not a maverick molecule in the entire universe.

Man -made religion hates that. They want to give excuses to God. They want to give excuses for the evil that happens in this world.

And they want to say things like God's got nothing to do with that. He's not in control. Ultimately, you know, these are people and their quote -unquote free will and they're doing what they want and God's just trying his best and he's trying his best and he's trying his best and he just can't do anything because the almighty powerful will of the creature.

And it's difficult because the moment we're in right now, you look at a global pandemic, allegedly, and you look at the rioting and you look at the looting and the difficulty and you look at retired police officers murdered in the streets.

You look at business owners losing property and money and you look at the wickedness on display all around us.

You know, listen, you're going to have a true perspective that comes from God's revelation about what's happening in the world and what he's doing and you're going to have man -made religious philosophies, bootleg worldviews to try to respond to what's taking place around us.

Here's the truth about what's happening around us right now. God's doing what he pleases. He's doing what he pleases.

We're in a fallen world. We are a nation that has turned our back on God and we deserve every inch of this.

We deserved it long ago. You kill 62 million innocent image bearers of God and you have blood flowing through your streets.

You're a guilty nation. You have blood guiltiness and you deserve to die. We have had mercy and love and grace from God as a nation for an entire generation after we've murdered all of our children.

We tell people male is not male, female is not female. Love is really whatever you want it to be.

There is no sexual standard. You can do what you want. You don't need a mom. You don't need a dad. You could turn a little boy into a little girl and we wonder why we have chaos in our streets.

God's wrath is just and it is justly deserved. And what's happening in our world today is very simply this.

Our God is in the heavens. He does all that he pleases. He is working out his perfect plan.

Job 42 .2. Go read it later. No purpose of God's can be thwarted. Isaiah 46, 9 through 10.

Isaiah 40, 23. God is sovereign. He declares the end from the beginning and nobody can thwart his purposes.

I already expressed to you that he finishes what he starts. Philippians 1, 6. That's what

God's like. But just a quick thing in terms of authentic joy in the midst of difficulty and trials and not being anxious.

Let's go briefly on this one. What are God's promises? Go to John chapter 10.

One of my very favorite chapters in the entire Bible. If you want to know what I am leaning on in the midst of challenge and difficulty and grief and pain on a regular basis, it is

John chapter 10. He is a perfect savior. What are his promises?

This is what Jesus says. This is what Jesus says. In John 10, 11, he says,

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

He was a hired hand and not a shepherd. He is who does not know, not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.

He flees because he's a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I'm the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me.

Just as the father knows me and I know the father. What? That's one of those things.

Admit it. You go, oh, that's awesome. And just let's go on to the next verse. Stop! What? John says right in this very book,

John 1, 1, in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was

God. And Arkei in ha -lagos, as far back as you want to go, no stopping.

Jesus was already there. He was prostante on toward the father, face to face, an intimate relationship with the father from all eternity.

Jesus is God and I don't understand this. Comprehend it.

Here it is again. He says, I'm the good shepherd, 14.

I know my own and my own know me. Just as the father knows me and I know the father.

That's the depth of the level of intimacy and knowledge that Jesus has brought in through his sacrifice and perfect life, his redemption that he provides.

That kind of intimacy. So why are you sulking? Why are you embracing loneliness and despair rather than rejoicing in the

Lord, not the circumstance, but him? Because this is your shepherd. If you're trusting in Jesus Christ, he's the good shepherd.

He knows you. Like the father knows him, he knows the father. That's the kind of relationship he's given and let's be frank and honest.

Let's be transparent about it. We don't deserve that. In your moments where you're like, I am broken and I'm a failure and I'm not a good

Christian and I just blew it today and I'm not a good father or mother or wife or friend or child or whatever.

The answer is, yeah, all that's true, right? And he's an amazing savior who loves you with such a depth of love, such a comprehensive love that despite all of that, he lays his life down for you to bring you into an intimate knowledge with him.

And the answer is we don't deserve it and that's why you should rejoice. So rather than embracing the darkness and the loneliness and the despair and the fear, you should be actually rejoicing in the

Lord that all that's true. I'm a failure. I blew it. My heart is broken over my sin, but he is such an amazing savior and he hasn't changed and his word is perfect and his promises are true and he can't be moved.

That's what's true. And that's what should cause us to rejoice in the Lord. He says this,

I know my own and my own know me just as the father knows me and I know the father and I lay down my life for the sheep and I have other sheep that are not of this fold.

I must bring them also and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.

For this reason the father loves me because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own accord.

I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my father.

Amazing. Stop. That's another amazing moment. Sovereignty of God right there. Jesus says no one has the authority to take my life.

It's my choice. I'm doing it. Did it look like that at Jesus' trial? Did it look like that while they were hammering into his face with their fists, crown of thorns, pulling his beard, beating him to where maybe even organs were exposed, nailing him to a cross?

Did it look like Jesus had authority? That he was in control? It didn't look like it.

All human perception would say no, you're the weak one. You're the beaten one. You're losing right now.

But in that moment Jesus was ruling the universe and bringing about the greatest redemption. It was his choice to lay his life down and those people only killed

Jesus by divine permission. And nothing comes into your life or mine without divine permission for his glory and your good and that's why we rejoice in the

Lord. It's powerful. But here we go more. This is my favorite section. Just quickly.

I love this. You got to see it. Because it's uh, 110 proof calvinism and it is lovely.

Verse 22. At that time the feast of dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was winter and Jesus was walking in the temple in the colonnade of Solomon.

So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, how long will you keep us in suspense? If you're the

Messiah, tell us plainly. I love it, right? Would you just tell us? Just tell us.

What is it? And Jesus says, I love it. I told you. And you do not believe.

He said, I did. You don't believe. He says, the works that I do in my father's name bear witness about me, but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep.

How come they don't believe? Because they're not among his sheep. His sheep hear his voice and they come.

And he says he lays his life down for the sheep to bring them to a knowledge of God.

And he says this. He says you do not believe because you're not among my sheep. My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me.

I give them eternal life and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hand.

My father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of the father's hand.

I and the father are one. Jesus says you're mine. You believe because you're mine.

I've laid my life down for you. You're in my hands. Nothing's going to snatch you from my hand. You're in my father's hands and nothing's going to snatch you from my father's hand.

I and the father are one. Try and peel that apart, friends. It can't be done.

That's the savior we have. So why should we rejoice always? I think you get the point.

Next. Just a quick point. Go to it later. Not now. Matthew 6 25.

Start there. We talk about God's promises regarding anxiousness and worry and fear. What does

Jesus say? What is Paul pointing to constantly? Why should you not be anxious? Why? Because God is sovereign.

He's in control. He's your father. You know those birds? Not one of them falls dead off a branch apart from your father's knowledge.

Can you change the color of your hair by your worry? God's in control of that too, right? How about adding an hour to your life through your worry?

Can you do that? And every Christian goes, no, that's God's business. He's the one that determines my beginning and my end.

And Jesus says, and that's why you shouldn't worry. You're of more value than the sparrows, more value than the lilies of the field or the flowers.

You are a child of God. He's your father and he will provide for all your needs. So why not be anxious about anything?

Because my father loves me. Because my father loves me and he's in control.

And he's the one that's going to control all of my circumstances for my good and his glory always.

He's a good father. He never changes, ever. Next, we talk about God's plan for the future.

I'd love to spend all day on this. I'll just point you to a few passages in terms of where we're going. It's important to recognize right now in the midst of difficulty all around us.

It isn't the first time we've had difficulty around us. We've just been experiencing a lot of mercy and a lot of grace from God for a long time.

The Christian church has had to face difficult moments through 2 ,000 years of history, some much worse than this.

But what's the promise of the future? Genesis 49 .10 The promise was

Shiloh is coming. Messiah is coming. And to him shall be the obedience of the nations.

To him shall be the obedience of the nations. You're like, wow, it doesn't look like that right now.

Not around us right now. I'd say, yeah, you know, it's a weird perspective for the moment. What you're forgetting is it was a handful of very confused disciples in Palestine 2 ,000 years ago.

And now look. The obedience of the nations is going to be Jesus. Psalm 2, the father promises the son the nations.

He says, ask of me, I'll give you the nations for your inheritance, the very ends of the earth for your possession. And then the warning to the kings of the earth is that they better obey the son or they'll perish.

Isaiah 9, 6 through 7, a son is coming, a child is coming. To him shall be all the government's going to be on his shoulder, all of it.

His name will be wonderful counselor, El Gabor, the mighty God, the father of eternity. Of the increase of his government and of peace, there will be no end.

Of the increase of his government and of peace, there will be no end. How about all the calls for justice around us today?

People say, justice, justice. And you say, what's that look like? And they say, here's a rock.

Justice, justice, justice. What's that look like? Kill that man. Justice, justice.

What's it look like? Burn it all down. They don't know. Because they refuse to bow the knee to Jesus, they don't know what a righteous statute ultimately is.

But what's the Bible tell us? Isaiah 42, that the Messiah who is coming and has come, who's seated on his throne, it says that he will not grow faint or weary until he has established justice in the earth and the coastlands wait for his law.

Why should you not be fearful or anxious about our current circumstances? Because that. And finally, 1

Corinthians 15. Where's history going? Here's the timeline, briefly.

1 Corinthians 15, can't get away from it. The inspired apostle tells you how history is going to go. Are you ready for it?

Who knows where we're at in this completely? I don't know. Maybe we have 20 more thousand years of church history.

Does that bother you? It shouldn't. It excites me, right? Maybe we have 200. I don't know.

God's sovereign. He could bring reformation and revival in the next five years. That'd be great. Fine. But probably more like 25 ,000.

Maybe. I don't know. Here it is. Paul says that Jesus, here's the gospel. Here's what he did.

He's raised and he says that he is seated and he is ruling now. And it says that he must reign until Psalm 110 .1.

All of his enemies are a footstool for his feet. And then the last enemy is death. And then when death is defeated, that's when

Jesus delivers this finished messianic kingdom over to the father. Like, look father, it's finished.

I accomplished it. So here's the timeline. He's reigning now and he must reign until every enemy's under his feet.

The last one's going to be death. So I don't know where we're at here. But all

I know right now is that Jesus the Messiah is putting his enemies under his feet. All of them. And then finally, death is defeated.

That's where history is going. And you and I are the bride of Christ, the help meat of Jesus, that through the proclamation of the gospel and our standing for truth, we bring that about in the world.

So quickly, how do we address the problem of habitual unbelief over these promises?

Because look, let's not pretend it's not going to help us. Plastic smiles and hypocrisy is not going to help any of us.

Authentic joy and anxiousness, fear, worry, loneliness, all that stuff that kind of goes throughout that.

It's a network of things. Let's be honest. We have good days. We have bad days. We have days we battle unbelief.

We have days where we embrace the darkness and what's going on around us. So how do we actually put to death unbelief and focus on what is actually true?

And let's be honest, it's frustrating at times because you know God's truth, you know what you should be believing, and yet you have moments where you feel despair and no rejoicing and no delight, and God feels a million miles away from you.

Right? We need a renewed mind. You know the passage, right?

If you don't know it, go to it. Romans 12. Romans 12.

This is to believers who know Jesus, who have peace with God, who are not condemned. Get that?

There's context to Romans. It's not just a verse that just sort of leapt out of the page there all by itself with white all around it.

There's a story Paul's telling about universal sinfulness, what Jesus accomplished. We're in Jesus' eternal life.

We have new life in Jesus. He's not going to lose us. All of that's there. And then you get to believers being addressed now, which all that's true about in Romans 12, and here's what it says.

Verse 1, I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Just briefly on this. I can't spend all day on this particular passage, but just mark that down.

Believers who have been justified, who have peace with God, who are in Jesus need to be renewed.

Renewed minds. That's you and that's me until he takes us home to be with him.

We're going to have blind spots. We're going to have weaknesses. And it's a lifelong process of transformation by God's spirit in Jesus.

You're being changed right now. You're being challenged right now. So am I. We need to be renewed.

A renewed mind. You see, here's the deal. We wonder how do we fall into the loneliness and despair and the brokenness and the anxiousness?

How do we lose the joy? And the answer is, well, you've been practicing. You've been practicing a lot.

We're good at it, aren't we? You think about it for a second. Take a particular sin that you deal with.

Now God's given you a new heart. You hate that sin. You want free from that sin. You've been grieving over that sin.

You give it to God and yet you still sort of perpetuate it, right? Like in other areas of your life, maybe God has really changed some things.

Maybe you used to have a really foul mouth, came from a really foul heart. God's fixed that up. Maybe now

God's made you a more patient person, a more loving person, a more gracious person. Maybe you were just rowdy and wrathful before.

Now all that area is cleaned up and you don't even love those things anymore and you're new in those areas.

But you've got these bits. You sort of have in these dark spaces in your heart, in the closet, tucked away somewhere that you know about,

God knows about. It's sort of a cycle that you're in, right? Like you have a moment where you hate that sin, but you really need some pleasure.

And so you go and you pursue the sin, right? And what do you do? You don't go to God. So you go to the idol.

You pursue the sin and now all of a sudden you pursued the sin. It wasn't what you wanted. You feel convicted and grieved.

You hate the sin and now you feel dark and lonely and despair because God feels far away. So now you need pleasure.

So what do you do? Not to God. Go back to the sin. And what do you feel? Conviction, darkness, despair. And now what do you need?

God. So where do you go? Back to the other thing for pleasure. You're like, God, why do you feel so far away? Because you're pursuing the idol in place of God and you've become very good at it.

You've rehearsed it and you're practiced at it. You're training at it. And here's the deal.

A lot of times people will come in to sit with a pastor and it's a believer who has a new heart. They love Jesus.

They want to be freed and they come in to sit down with a pastor and they lay it all out. And you know what they usually want?

They want the pastor to give them the magic pill. Here it is. This is what you need. It's a pill just from Jesus.

It's been passed down through church history and it's just for moments like this. I know you want free from this.

So here's the pill. Take it and now you're free. You know what truth is? That's usually what people think will happen.

I'll sit with the pastor. He's going to give me some magic talk and all of a sudden I'm going to walk out of the meeting and all of a sudden

I'm like healed. I'm healed. It's all gone now. No more fear and worry.

Why? Because that man can talk. Right? He gave me the pill or whatever it is.

But here's the deal. You're going to come to sit with your pastor and you're going to get what you get from any believer. Here's what you're thinking.

Here's what God says is true. Here's what you're thinking. This is what God says is true. And what happens is a lot of times in that moment where you're with God's people and you're fellowshipping, you're getting

God's word and you're like, yes, God, thank you, God. And then back to that quiet space at home where all of a sudden now you're so practiced and trained at responding to the seeking of pleasure or responding to the anxiousness or the fear and the worry.

You've got a life of training behind you where you've responded to sin in a particular way and you are good at it.

But now you have new hearts. And so now it's this back and forth struggle between new hearts and your old life of training.

You're good at it. You know, what's amazing? I've been talking about this a lot lately, so I'll share it with you. It's amazing because in no other area of our life do we think like we do with spirituality and walking with Jesus.

Just consider it for a moment now. You see somebody doing some amazing thing. I'll give you an example. Dennis. Sorry, Dennis.

I'm going to use you here, okay? Dennis is, you know, famous baseball player and all the rest. He can throw a baseball that would literally put a hole through a human body and still go past like another mile.

I went one day. He took the boys to go throw the ball before. I'd never actually seen him live throwing a ball.

And he was just sort of like just barely like me, like throwing the ball. And it was like, I heard it.

It was like, yeah! Have you ever heard a baseball scream? It has a mouth apparently.

It was like the ball was afraid. The ball was like, help! And Dennis was just sort of like just, he was just barely.

He was like, I'm like, are you throwing as hard as you can? He's like, I'm not barely warming up. And I'm like, oh! Wow! It's amazing as you see somebody with that kind of professional skill.

Nobody is so stupid to go pick up a ball and go, I got it.

I got it. Watch. Like I, that took years and years of training and wearing down the body to get to a place where you're so practiced and so good that you could throw a ball like that.

And what's amazing is that we don't think like this in any other area of our life. We think that it's the magic pill. I can see somebody doing something.

Where's the pill? Where's the spiritual platitude that can get me to be able to do that instantly?

We are trained. We rehearse these things. So I'm going to give you an illustration.

Okay, so Dennis, I'm using you. Come on up. So just just as an example, okay, just,

I'm not, I'm not going to hurt you. Okay. Okay. I know we're both armed right now.

Okay. All right. So things, things are even right about now, right? Just relax.

We're not going to go super fast. Okay. So just do like a fighting stance for a second. Okay. Good. Okay. We got some work to do, but all right, here we go.

Okay. All right. So just throw like a, just a punch. Like we're just right here.

Don't throw no baseball punch. Okay. Just, just put it right there. Go like this. Okay. Boom. Okay. So someone throws a punch here.

It's just a basic move and pass. And then you can hit like this. Now I want you to do it. Do it. Do what?

What I just did. No. I'll show you again.

Punch. Now you go. Go. Dennis. Where's my son?

Where's Stellar? Is Stellar here? Is Stellar in here? Come here,

Stellar. Did I lose it? All right, Stellar, come on up.

Paging Stellar. All right. So now

I've known Stellar for a while. And Stellar and I can rehearse.

This is called Hoobud. And it's just a drill. You can practice blocking and returning, blocking and returning.

And it looks super fast, but it works. So if somebody throws a punch at you one day, your first response is just to react.

Thank you. Okay. Now I wanted to illustrate that in this way.

It's not fair what I did to Dennis, right? Like if you call me on the baseball field, he'd make me look stupid.

Here, Jeff, throw it like this. Like to Los Angeles. All right. It's not fair.

It takes training and practice. And it's something like that. You can see we don't know what's the move.

How do I respond? We haven't actually made it a reflex that when I get attacked by something,

I know where to move and what to hit back with. And now I don't think about it anymore. Now when I do a drill like that, it just happens.

I don't even think about it. It's like breathing. Literally, no thought. Just happens. It just happens.

And that's how we think when we think about physical things like exercise. It becomes a natural response.

Muscle memory, because we've done it over and over and over. But spiritually speaking, listen, when the loneliness comes in and the despair comes in and the hurt comes in and the anxiety comes in, we wonder where's the authentic joy?

Where's the freedom from anxiety? And the truth is you rehearsed over and over and over and practiced responding to the despair by accepting it.

By just resting in the despair and the anxiousness. So what's the answer?

Training. Training to respond to the moment of fear or anxiousness or despair.

Training yourself so now you respond with God's truth. That's going to be hard.

You're going to have moments where it hurts. You feel like you're breaking down. Like you're not experiencing joy.

But the answer is you have to now train yourself spiritually and in godliness to believe

God over you. So in those moments where all of the world comes crashing down on you and you feel like fleeing from rejoicing in the

Lord, your response will ultimately be rejoicing in God because now you're responding with the truth.

And it becomes a reflex and a reaction. You see,

Paul actually uses that illustration. Can I point you to it? We're finished.

In Timothy, 1 Timothy 4 .8, as an example, 1

Timothy 4 .8, Paul uses this illustration. He says this, verse 7,

Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather, train yourself for godliness.

Train yourself for godliness. For while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way as it holds the promise for the present life and also for the life to come.

You see, Paul recognizes that. Like physical exercise, training yourself physically has some benefit.

It does, that's good. But you know what is better? Training yourself in godliness. And you know what it takes?

Practice. There is no magic pill. You get a life of practicing unbelief behind you.

And now guess what? Praise God, you have a new heart. Amen? Yes? Now you desire Christ. Now you love and long for his word and his law.

But you know what it's going to be? It's going to be a period of grief and training and sweating spiritually and maybe bleeding spiritually a bit so that now you respond to that trial you always responded to like loneliness and anxiety and a lack of joy.

You respond with a different response with the word of God. No, this is true, not me.

You see, here's what you have to be able to do as a believer as you train yourself in godliness and be renewed and believe

God's word. You have to be able to be humble enough to say I'm wrong, he's right.

I'm wrong about my internal monologue. I'm wrong about my circumstances. I'm wrong about my perception, my interpretation.

God's right, I'm wrong. This is what God says. You should be afraid right now.

You should be anxious. How do you know how you're going to pay your bills or feed your family or yourself? How are you going to handle this?

The response should go because I got a father who loves me. He knows every moment of my life.

He's in charge of whether I live or whether I die. And he only means good for me.

I've got a savior who loves me and laid his life down for me and he is never going to lose me. He'll never forsake me.

He'll never abandon me. He is a perfect God. He's holy, he doesn't change. His promises are true.

He'll never neglect me. I'm not condemned. Why do I not fear? Because that's the

God that I love. That's who I worship. But you know what it takes? Is the ability to repent of unbelief.

Repent of your unbelief. Put your unbelief to death and train yourself in godliness.

Have a renewed mind so you begin to see the world the way that God says that it actually is.

And not the way that you're saying that it is. Training yourself spiritually.

Now watch, last word on this because I think I can hear it. That sounds like a lot of work.

Yeah, and I'll be honest, if this was man -made religion, that's a message of despair. See, man -made religion has to train themselves for godliness with a heart that's still made of stone.

Not saved, not indwelt by God, not with God's law in their heart. But believers who know

Jesus have a righteousness from God, eternal life and new hearts and God dwelling there. He's the one causing you to desire freedom and that's your hope.

So Paul says, Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice.

And he tells us to be anxious about nothing. Brothers and sisters, my charge to you as your brother is train yourself in that.

Be renewed. Believe God over you. Believe God over your circumstances. Believe God over the enemy and his lies.

In Jesus' name, amen. Let's pray. Father, please bless the word that went out today.

We pray that you would use it for your glory and your kingdom. Please transform us, heal us.