Rejoice and Be Not Anxious

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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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What you're about to watch is a sermon, a message from Apologia Church's worship service. And again, I want to thank you all so much for watching, for liking, for commenting, for sharing the sermon itself.

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So thank you again so much for watching these and sharing them. God bless you. If you would open your Bibles to Philippians chapter 4.

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Philippians chapter 4. We're in the final portion of this letter of the apostle

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Paul to the church while in chains, and as you all get there,

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I'll remind you that we took a step off of the gospel according to Matthew after the great tribulation passage,

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Matthew 24, because we specifically as elders wanted to focus in upon a study through the word of God that would transform us, that would grow us, and in particular getting into Philippians would get us to a place where we are changed and made to be and look like Jesus in the area of authentic joy.

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Authentic joy. And as again you get there, I want to encourage you to consider even at this moment before you even begin opening this text, you may have been in Christ for 40 years or 100 years like Pastor James.

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Just kidding. I've got the mic. No, I'm just kidding. Okay, I'm teasing. You may have been in Christ for a year, six months, 30 years.

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There's something that we have to embrace when you come to a passage like this, and that's that you may know this passage is in the

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Bible. You may be able to have it in your heart and mind. You might have it committed to memory truly, but it's a portion of scripture that all of us need to daily be transformed in.

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Rejoice in the Lord always. Be anxious for nothing.

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Those are tall orders, and I think if we're all honest, those are areas where we struggle. We have struggles, daily struggles in this area.

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So I want to encourage you as you come to this text today, let the Word of God cut you where you need to be cut, challenge you, and change you.

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So we're in Philippians chapter four, starting in verse four.

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Hear now the words of the living and the true God. Rejoice in the

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Lord always. Again, I will say, rejoice.

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Let your reasonableness, gentleness, be known to everyone.

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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.

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And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

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As far as the reading of God's holy and inspired Word, let's pray together as his people. Father, we come into your presence grateful for this gift of your

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Word. This is your revelation. It's you speaking. We pray that you would allow those in this room that do not have living faith and not truly trust in Jesus.

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Lord, I pray that you'd open the eyes of the blind today, give soft hearts, grant repentance and faith.

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Lord, it's a gift from your hand and we ask for that. And for those of us, Lord, who do know you are in Christ, we pray that you would allow your

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Word to penetrate today our hearts and our minds, bring healing. So many of us need to be healed in this area of anxiousness and to have peace.

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Help us, Lord, to learn what it means to rejoice in you always. I pray that you get me out of the way.

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Let everyone be changed by your Word and not mine. I pray that you would guide by your spirit today the teaching of your

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Word and the proclamation of it in Jesus' name. Amen. So we're in this, again, it's a short, short letter and you can't really get far into the letter without seeing the theme, right?

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Joy, joy. It's everywhere. It's on every page as you're moving through it. It's joy, joy, joy, rejoice, and it's total confidence in God and what

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God is doing in the world, in the life of Paul and other believers. It is just this very short letter that Paul writes while in chains.

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Now you've got to emphasize that because today we're going to be talking about anxiousness and rejoicing in the

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Lord, and you might immediately start sort of in the back of your mind resisting the idea of rejoicing in the

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Lord always and be anxious about nothing because you may think, well, you don't know my plight.

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You don't know what I'm struggling with. You don't know what I'm facing on a daily basis. You don't know what I have around me.

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I think it's a glorious thing and a reminder about the power of God and our need to depend on his grace that God gives us this inspired revelation from the apostle

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Paul, a person that had endured much more than you or I ever have and probably ever will.

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He's a person who says what? He says that he's in danger constantly. He's been beaten times without number.

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This is a man who's starting riots because he preaches the gospel. He has people taking oaths not to eat food until he's dead, right?

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He has to be lowered out of windows. He's in danger constantly, he says, and he has his own countrymen are after him.

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He's got false brethren and he considers it all a light momentary affliction.

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Is the situation with Paul that Paul is really like a first century Joel Osteen, sort of the eternal optimist?

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Is that really what it is? Is he a life coach? Is he an inspirational speaker? No. The proof of it is just where he's coming from.

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I mean, the man is in chains. He's talking to Christians about joy and rejoicing, and he has this depth of peace within him in the midst of very difficult trials.

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From a human perspective, he did not choose his best life now. He's got one of the worst lives from a human perspective than anybody could ever ask to adopt.

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It really is pretty awful. You know, he was martyred for his faith in Jesus. He's killed for believing in Jesus and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom.

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So keep that in mind as you look at these words. Let it penetrate that the call to rejoice in the

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Lord always and to be anxious for nothing is something that all of us have to recognize is a command of God.

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It's not a request. It's not a motivational speech. It's not good tips from the apostle

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Paul. This is the word of the living God. These words come from the spirit of God. This is

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God speaking. And if you're in Christ, it is God speaking to you. You might say,

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Pastor Jeff, you don't know about my health issues. You don't know my financial issues, my rent, my mortgage.

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You don't know about my family issues right now. I understand this is the word of God and this is sort of where we want to get to, but I can't at this moment rejoice in the

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Lord and I can't at this moment not be anxious about these things. I want to encourage you to humble yourself and to repent of that haughtiness.

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It's pride that elevates your position and your plight to a place where you say,

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God can't heal me or transform me in this area. He can, and he does. It's what

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God does. So we're in the last portion here, Philippians chapter four. We just heard this glorious truth last week.

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We unpacked it, that there is this thing called the book of life, the book of life, and the encouragement of the apostle

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Paul is that these fellow workers, including these two women who are in a tiff with each other, their names are in that book.

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He says to keep the emphasis on the gospel. We've fought together side by side with the gospel.

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Agree in the Lord. Your names are in the book of life. Remember that book of life discussion? Isn't that incredible? Believers who know

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Jesus have their names written in the lambs, what's called the lamb's book of life.

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Jesus is the lamb slain before the foundation of the world. Our names are written in heaven,

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Jesus says. There is a book of life we saw from revelation that has names in it.

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That's the emphasis. Names are in that book. And then there are, in the last day, books, plural, that are opened, and those books have deeds, and people are judged according to what they did.

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So if your name is not in the book of life, the lamb's book of life, there are these other books which are a record of your deeds, your life, your sin.

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It's a terrifying thing for those who don't find themselves in Jesus, but it's a glorious, hopeful, rejoicing truth for those, like these two women that are in a tiff, that need to agree in the

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Lord, and like these fellow workers. It's a beautiful, glorious, amazing thing. There is a book of life.

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If you're in Christ, your name's in that book. You will not be blotted out. So rejoice, always, in the

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Lord. Be anxious for nothing. Paul says in Philippians chapter 1, let's go back just for a moment to talk about context.

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What's his worldview? What's his theology? He says in Philippians chapter 1, as the letter starts, he says that God is going to finish what he started in you.

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He that began a good work in you will complete it. There's his confidence. He even talks about his chains in chapter 1, that what's happened to him has actually now extended the gospel.

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He's actually rejoicing in the fact that he's in chains. Why? Because now everybody's hearing about Jesus.

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Paul's in the same chapter 1, saying that there are gifts of God, gifts of faith,

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Philippians 129, and gifts of suffering, that these come from the very hand of God. So you say, is he just the optimist?

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Is he just the glass, you know, half full sort of guy? Or does he have a theology, an understanding of truth underneath all of this?

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Yes, to the degree that when he moves on in this letter, he actually says to live is

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Christ and to die is gain. To live is Christ, to die is gain.

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And he says he's hard pressed between two things. He doesn't know whether he wants to stay on to be with them, it's fruitful labor, it's all glory to Jesus, or to go home to part and be with Christ.

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And then Philippians chapter 3 talks about this amazing, glorious truth of the righteousness of Jesus Christ, a righteousness that comes from God through faith, not through works of law.

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He talks about his life and his resume, all that he built up, all that he did in Judaism, eighth day circumcised of the tribe of Benjamin.

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He says that he was a Pharisee as to the law, blameless, tongue in cheek, of course, because there's none righteous, not even one.

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But he talks about all of this. He says, I counted all his loss, scuba. It is refuse, it is nothing to me.

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He says, compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Jesus Christ, my Lord, that's the key.

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And so the apostle Paul moves through this letter in such a way as to give us an understanding of how he can say such a thing like, rejoice in the

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Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice, and to say things like, be anxious about nothing.

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But let's get to the text. So Philippians chapter 4, verse 4, he says, rejoice in the

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Lord always. Rejoice in the Lord always.

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Now, key thing here is rejoice, right? Whatever does that mean? What's it mean?

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Did you think about that? It says rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice. So what's it mean to rejoice?

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Well, key thing here, this word is in the plural. And so it's now speaking to everybody.

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He has not just to individual fellow workers, but rejoice. Now we're moving to everybody. Listen, rejoice.

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And what's that mean? It means to be glad, to be conscious, glad for God's grace, to experience

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God's favor, rejoice. But the key thing here is this, here's the words, in the

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Lord. Rejoice, be glad in God's grace, be glad in God, in the

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Lord is the key thing. As you think about this, there's a way this can be misconstrued, right?

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You could do the sort of plastic smile, right? Christians are sort of a culture of rejoicers.

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So like you could be in the car all the way over yelling at the guy next to you who almost killed. By the way, I -17, they're crazy on that road.

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Is it me or is it deadly? It is, right? You go from the East Valley where it's Mormons, Catholics, and Protestants sort of just, hey, all right, you can move on over.

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And the I -17's a bunch of madmen. What is going on? I almost died 16 times on the way here.

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But listen, there's a way you can really misunderstand rejoice to something like, well, it's just sort of a culture where no matter what's going on outside there, when you're in front of other people, you put on this happy Christian face, right?

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It's the plastic smile. It's not authentic joy. It's that Christians are supposed to have this culture of big teeth, big smiles, sort of like this outward plastic, you know, we're always happy.

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We're always joyful. Like Christians are like running along and they stub their foot on something. You're like, oh, praise God. Praise the

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Lord, right? It's a weird way to think about rejoicing. That's not what this means.

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It's not rejoicing over circumstances, right? Like we contend with a lot of things in this fallen world.

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Some of us have cancer. Some of us have heart problems. Some of us have tumors in our brains.

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Some of us get the word from the doctor that we don't have that much longer. Some of us have lost loved ones.

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This is not saying that Christians ought to, in the midst of every circumstance, rejoice and pretend to be joyful.

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There are circumstances where scripture tells us to grieve. There's a time to grieve. Jesus wept.

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Jesus grieved. But the key issue here, read it so we can be changed by it.

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Here's the answer. It's not rejoice, put on a plastic smile, create a culture where we have teeth always showing and lips moving across our face, all pretending under every circumstance.

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The key thing for Paul here is this, rejoice in the Lord, in the

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Lord. Be glad in the Lord always. And then he says, again,

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I will say rejoice. I believe that is actually the apostle Paul not simply repeating himself.

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He's letting us know about the future, what he's going to do in the future. What's he going to say to you in the future?

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I'll say rejoice. Be glad in God. So he says, rejoice in the

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Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice in the future.

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I'm going to tell you to rejoice. These are tall orders and there seems to be a difficulty in understanding it.

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When you think about the context of the world that we live in, let's just go to Paul's letter. Let's just kind of stay here for a second and think about how does this work out in a fallen world?

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Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice. If you think about just what happened above it, right?

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Is that a good thing? Is that something to praise God about? That two women are in a fight and Paul has to say, have them agree in the

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Lord. Please help me help them. Tell them to agree in the Lord. Is that a good thing that there is a internal conflict within a local church congregation?

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Is that something to rejoice over those circumstances? Or how about the fact that in Philippians chapter 1 verse 28, the apostle

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Paul says this, and not frightened in anything by your opponents.

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This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation and that from God.

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So you have opposition to the gospel, to the church. You've got internal struggle and strife within a local body.

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And then you've also got opposition, Philippians 1 28. We're supposed to rejoice over opposition.

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Oh, so wonderful. Everyone's smearing us on Facebook and on Twitter, which is about all people do on Twitter, I think.

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Right? Rejoicing that people are slandering and gossiping. Like you just rejoice over those circumstances. Put a happy face on and pretend.

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That's what we're being told. Christians have a culture of rejoicing. And so we're going to rejoice in all those circumstances, even those things.

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I don't believe that's the case. Or how about the fact that in Philippians chapter 1 verses 12 through 13, the apostle

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Paul is dealing with a difficult situation. What is it? I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel so it's become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ.

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Rejoice over imprisonment. Now, I think

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I was, I experienced being behind bars for about 15 minutes in Tombstone when my family paid for it.

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Tombstone experience. You know, they pull you off the street and put you behind the bars. I think when I was 11 years old, about that age,

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I had shoplifted from the military base BX. I stole some pocket knives, put them in my trench coats, and I was caught.

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And they took me to the base jail. And, you know, I'm a small kid in the back of a police car in a military base.

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Military bases are funny things because everybody knows everybody. And if you get in trouble on a military base, your dad can get in trouble, lose rank, lose money.

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It's a very big deal. And so my dad said, well, why don't you go ahead and put him in jail? And so it's a good move because I was terrified to be behind bars like that.

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But that's really my only experience, right? It was just short -lived. But imprisonment cannot be something in terms of circumstance where you say, this is a joyful thing.

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I'm loving every minute of it. It's not. Be honest. So what's the point? Or how about this?

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Philippians chapter 3, verse 21, same book, same letter. Philippians 3 .21,

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Paul says about Jesus, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him to even subject all things to himself.

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So what do we have in this creation? Paul's saying to rejoice in the Lord always, but it's in the midst of, of course, internal conflict, opposition from the outside, imprisonments.

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And now, of course, a reminder of our lowly bodies. We're in a fallen world.

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We have bodies that fall apart. We get cancer. We get sick.

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COVID -19 is a good example of the reminder of our own mortality. And that's what we have.

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We have these lowly bodies. And so Paul says that, even there, rejoice over that.

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Yeah. Rejoice over the imprisonment. Rejoice over the internal conflict. Rejoice over the opposition.

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Rejoice over the lowly body. But it's always attached to something, and that's this, in the Lord. The rejoicing isn't over the horrible circumstance, like banging the toe against somebody, something, or somebody.

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It's in the Lord. The rejoicing, the being glad, is in God. Just consider for a moment how that works in the last thing

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I pointed you to. Think about it. Think about it. He reminds us of the lowly body.

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Who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself?

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How do you rejoice in the Lord over a lowly body, over a broken human condition?

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You rejoice because Jesus, if you're in him, he saved you, and he is one day going to raise up and transform this lowly body to be like his.

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That's how you rejoice in the Lord in the death room at the hospital.

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You rejoice in the Lord at the grave site, because not the situation causes me to rejoice.

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Death is an awful thing you should always mourn over, but the rejoicing is in the

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Lord, that I know what his promises are. I know what his character is. It's unchanging, so I can rejoice always, not necessarily over the circumstance and its pain, but what

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God is in the midst of that circumstance. He's unchanging, even in the midst of internal conflict, opposition, imprisonments, and lowly bodies.

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Always in the Lord, he says. And a reminder, it's not the circumstance that we're being told to rejoice in, but the

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Lord and what he is and what he's accomplishing. There is a time to grieve.

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We're going to talk about that. There's an appropriate time to grieve. That's why I've tried to actually emphasize, as your brother and pastor, that we're not aiming, as you read

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Philippians, to see like rejoicing in joy, rejoicing in joy, rejoicing in joy, and to come in here putting on a plastic smile.

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We want to be truly transformed by the truth of God, so we can see our circumstances the way that God tells us that they actually are.

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We're looking at things that are unseen, not the things that are seen. And if you want to know how the apostle

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Paul can endure all these hardships and still tell Christians in the midst of hostility all around him, rejoicing the

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Lord always, it's because of what he knows about Jesus. It's because of what he knows about God's promises and God's character.

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So just backing up, I want you to consider what's going on here in the text. I'm going to hang in the text a little bit, then we'll expand from there.

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He had just said, he just said before saying, rejoice in the

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Lord always again, I will say rejoice. I'm going to keep on saying it to you in the future.

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Rejoice in the Lord always. He just said that there is a book of life, a book of life.

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So that should give them cause for rejoicing, even in the midst of that internal conflict. I reminded you last week of Luke 10.

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Let's go there quickly. Luke chapter 10, gospel according to Luke. I want you to see this book of life promise on the lips of the

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Lord Jesus. In Luke 10, he actually, the Lord has something to say about this rejoicing as well.

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And look what he says. This is, I think it's powerful. Luke 10, 19 through 20.

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He says this, behold, I've given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall hurt you.

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Nevertheless, do not rejoice. Do not rejoice in this.

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What? All this ministry success, all the power over the forces of darkness and spiritual hosts of wickedness.

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I would just admit it. That's pretty, that's pretty to use the modern vernacular. That's banging, right? We've got as believers, the spirit of God and dwelling within us.

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You have power over the enemy, over all of this. That's a powerful thing from God.

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But Jesus actually says, you are not to rejoice in all the ministry successes and this authority and this power.

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That's not where you're being glad in God should be. Jesus actually says it's here.

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Nevertheless, verse 20, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.

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And there it is. There's the rejoicing in God. In what? In what God has done.

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Who put your name there? You? Did you do that? Were you there before the

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Lord laid the foundation of the earth where the Bible says this all began? God predestining a people to adoption as sons.

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God choosing us in Jesus Christ. The father giving to Jesus a mission to lose none of all that the father had given to him.

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Nothing. These sheep that Jesus has that he says he lays his life down for and he'll never lose them.

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He'll never forsake them. This is a mission. And your name is written in heaven.

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Rejoice in that. Not the ministry successes, not that power, not that authority. But look what

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Paul does. This is actually interesting. If you go to Philippians beyond the book of life discussion, look at Philippians 1, 18 through 20.

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Philippians 1, 18 through 20. He says this.

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Here it is. He says, yes, and I will rejoice. Even over these people that are preaching

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Christ over selfish ambition. He says, yes, and I will rejoice for I know that through your prayers and the help of the spirit of Jesus Christ, this will turn out for my deliverance.

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This will turn out for my deliverance as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now, as always,

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Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death.

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For he says, of course, to me, to live as Christ and to die is gain. There's the rejoicing always, but he says it in the midst of needing to be delivered.

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His rejoicing is in Jesus. It's in the Lord. He will rejoice that Christ will be honored by his life or his death.

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Do you consider that? Here it is, that Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or death.

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So whether I live or whether I die, I rejoice because Christ will be honored, glorified.

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He will receive the praise ultimately, even in death.

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Are you fearful of death? Does it keep you up at night? Do you feel a little pain in your side?

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You start running to WebMD trying to self -diagnose? Moms, right?

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Do you do that? You're constantly in this complicated, difficult mindset where you're always fearful of death.

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And when am I going to die? And am I going to die soon? Am I going to die on the way home? Am I going to die tomorrow, next week?

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And just fear of death. Paul actually says this in terms of, yes, I will rejoice. He talks about life or death.

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Christ is going to be honored. And that's why I rejoice, because I know who Jesus is. I know what he's accomplishing.

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And that's why I rejoice, because Jesus is going to be glorified, whether by life or death.

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That's a hard thing to embrace, isn't it? Think about it for a second. Do you think about your death in that way? Yes, I will rejoice because I know that Christ will be glorified, honored, whether I live or whether I die.

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I rejoice in the Lord. Look again, another example, Philippians chapter two, just running through these examples of how

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Paul sees these things. Philippians chapter two, verses 17 through 18.

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This is powerful. He says this. He says, even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith,

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I am glad and rejoice with you all.

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Likewise, you also should be glad and rejoice with me.

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For what? Even if I'm poured out as a sacrificial offering, a drink offering?

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He says this, I'll rejoice and you should rejoice with me. Do we think about persecution and suffering and death like that?

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You see, you wonder like, Pastor Jeff, I really want to be a Christian who has that authentic joy. I really want to be a Christian who's not anxious.

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Well, I promise you this, you don't want Jeff Durbin's tips to success. You don't. What you want is the transformed heart the

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Apostle Paul had and the way that he saw the world in light of the way that God tells us about it.

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And he actually tells Christians, whatever happens to me, no matter how brutal it is, no matter how awful it is, because believe me, it would have been awful.

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Having your head cut off, being crucified, carrying a cross, doing the death march, all those things, those weren't pleasant things.

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And so when Paul talks about rejoicing, even over this situation where I'm being poured out,

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I will rejoice in that. He says, and you should rejoice with me. What's that mean? Does that mean that when we have somebody we love who has persecuted and maybe even slaughtered for the name of Jesus, that we're not supposed to grieve?

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No, definitely grieve. But your rejoicing is in the

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Lord because of what it's accomplishing, that Christ will be glorified. Christ will be honored.

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It's a powerful thing. And that's the perspective that changes us. In Philippians chapter three, in Philippians chapter three, verse eight, the

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Apostle Paul has another example. Philippians three, eight. He says, indeed,

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I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my

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Lord. For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain

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Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ.

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The righteousness from God that depends on faith. He says everything as its loss, all of it, compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing

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Jesus. So how do you rejoice in the Lord always? Rejoice in the Lord always.

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Well, here's ultimately how. Seeing everything else as insignificant and throwaway compared to knowing

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Jesus. You want to know why our lives are complicated and they fall apart and we fall into anxiousness and bitterness and fights with one another.

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We fall into jealousy and pride and all the rest. We're complicated. We get angry at our plight.

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We're anxious all the time. All those things are indications that deep down our greatest satisfaction and source of joy is not

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Jesus and knowing him. You see, he is the supreme goal of life, right?

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We say it in the beginning of our catechism, right? What is man's primary purpose? To glorify

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God and to enjoy him forever. We're talking about our purpose. That's a biblical truth, by the way.

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And that's not just a sweet little catechism question and answer. That's a biblical story.

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God creates people to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. And so the source of Paul's gladness in God and his rejoicing in the

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Lord always is that he sees the ultimate thing is knowing Jesus. It's not your car.

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It's not your house. It's not your device. It's not your goals and plans and career.

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That's not the ultimate thing. God can bless you in those things. Those things can ultimately in some way bring glory to God.

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But for me, the ability to be glad in God is not in the stuff, my accomplishments, all these things.

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It's knowing Jesus. So when Paul says to rejoice in the Lord always, how do you do it?

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Because it's in the Lord that your gladness is supposed to be. And so Paul's telling us in this very short letter, this is who

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Jesus is. These are his promises. This is who he is to me. Final word on this.

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Go back to Philippians 1 .25. I believe that this is the source. There's a ground here to sort of leap off of, and it's this.

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Philippians 1 .25. He says this, convinced of this,

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I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith.

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For your progress and joy in the faith. Faith, true faith, trusting in Jesus results in joy.

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Again, I want to be honest. I don't have any tips for you. I don't. I don't have pithy slogans because those won't save you.

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They won't help you in the dungeon, the jail cell. They won't help you in the persecution. You don't want Jeff Durbin success tips for life.

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What Paul is saying here ultimately is that Jesus is the treasure. Knowing him is the ultimate.

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Everything else is loss. And he says joy, and ultimately it's from faith.

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And so if you're saying, man, my joy is off. My rejoicing and being glad in God is off.

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I would only ask you to just look at your landscape. What are you trusting in? No, think about it.

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What are you trusting in? Are you trusting in your house? You trusting in your bank account? Is that really it?

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Now, if you've been old enough to sort of like endure this world, you know that those bank accounts go up and they go down.

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They go up and they go down. And there's been times in my life, I'll be honest, the greatest times of sweet fellowship and delight that I've had in God have been the times where I was literally looking through my couch cushions for change to find food.

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And I was more satisfied in those moments than I was when there was times of plenty. You know what

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I'm talking about? So look at your landscape. Where's my joy? Where's my gladness in God?

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Where's my ability to rejoice in him? I would just say, look at your landscape and look where your hands are. What are you holding on to?

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What is it? Daily. Like where's your focus daily?

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Like where are you going for the delight? Where are you going for the gladness? Is it finding the next new cool thing, right?

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Is it in relationships with other people? Is that what it is? You got to constantly be around other people to make yourself happy.

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Like you don't want to be lonely. So you're finding happiness in other human beings, but that's going to backfire really bad because we're all sinners.

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Amen? Now we need one another, but you can't find your ultimate satisfaction and delight in God, your gladness in God, in other people.

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It's got to be in Jesus. If you put all of it into that, these other relationships, that's where my rejoicing will be.

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That's where my happiness will be. My delight will be there. Then when that person falls into sin and wounds you and hurts you and tears your soul apart, you will feel lost.

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You will feel broken. How can Paul rejoice in the Lord always while being lonely in a dungeon?

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Because he knows Jesus. Because he knows Jesus. How can Paul do all that with a lowly body with his back beaten so many times?

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He says, I forgot how many times. How do you forget how many beatings you've had in Jesus? Well, you've had quite a few of them, right?

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And he says, I'm rejoicing because Jesus is going to turn this lowly body into something like his.

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There's a source of my rejoicing. So the joy that Paul is calling us to is a joy that is rooted in trust.

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It's rooted in faith in Jesus. Where's your faith? Where are your hands? Look at your landscape. What are you holding on to?

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Is it Jesus? Is it his character? Is it his promises? Or are you ultimately holding on to your ability to maintain physical health?

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Are you holding on to your ability to have lots of money in your account? Having the right car? The right friends around you?

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Being in the right community? Where are your hands? What are you grasping hold of? If you can't say, if I can't say like Paul, God will be glorified whether I live or die.

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To live is Christ and to die is gain. That brothers and sisters, repent of what you're holding on to in place of Jesus.

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Next portion, Paul then says in Philippians chapter four, we're going kind of word for word here.

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It's going to speed up in a moment here. And I think get into some powerful stuff, but he says this, he says, let your reasonableness be known to everyone.

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Just a quick thing. ESV is a fantastic translation. I think it's a great translation. No English translation is a perfect translation.

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If you want to know the history of the transmission, the free transmission of the text of the Bible, read King James Only Controversy by our pastor,

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Pastor James. But it's an English translation. And I've, I agree based upon my study that maybe a better word to use here would be gentleness, gentleness.

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And just a couple of examples so you can see where else that word is used rather than just in this spot.

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If you go to first Timothy three, three first Timothy chapter three, verse three, it's actually talking about qualifications and the life of the servant of God.

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And in first Timothy three, three, the word is that this servant of the

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Lord is not to be violent but to be gentle and not quarrelsome.

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And word there is the same word gentle. So you see where it's being, it's being compared to other things, not violent, not quarrelsome, and in the middle gentle, gentle.

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But I want you to consider this for a moment because there can seem to be a contradiction, right? Can you think about this for a second?

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Because we're, look, what's the name of our church? Apologia Church. What's that mean? It's not

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Apologia Church. It's Apologia. Okay. No, it is, it is technically Apologia.

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That's the right way to say it. Okay. But we like to do things wrong here. Apologia. But Apologia Church, where does that come from?

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First Peter three 15, right? And what does it say? Sanctify the Lord in your hearts, always being ready to give to everyone who asks of you a reason defense.

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So there's, it's in the name of our church. We like to provide a defense for the faith or an answer to the world.

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Pastor James has been in almost 200 public moderated debates all over the world with some of the best that the world has to offer from every category.

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We engage in on the street evangelism. We get into righteous controversy and fights.

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So how do you sort of balance that out? Well, I'm going to say you got to read things biblically and think about categories and context.

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And what Paul is saying here is don't be violent or a quarrelsome person. You have to be gentle.

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But remember, Paul argued Acts chapter nine, he went to the synagogues and argued to the degree that the

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Hellenistic Jews wanted him dead. They wanted to kill him. Why? Because he was reasoning from the scriptures, proving that Jesus is the

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Messiah. He was arguing for Jesus. Don't forget the person that told you here to be gentle.

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Let your gentleness be known to everybody is also the guy that in Acts 19 started a riot for Jesus.

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Riots can be good in the right context for the right mission, for the right person.

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Paul started riots. Was he being gentle? He was being faithful. And Titus 3 .2

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is another example of that word gentle. Same word there that Paul uses and talks about Christians to be gentle and to be courteous.

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2 Corinthians 10 .1 is another example of this word being used.

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And Philippians 2 will end here, two through eight. Pastor James focused on that text for us.

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And what is that? How are we to be gentle? He gives us the example.

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I'm just going to read it. If you don't know it, you need to get to know it. He says this in chapter two, verse one. So if there's any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord in one mind, do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility, count others more significant than yourselves.

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Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

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Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God, a thing to be grasped.

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Jesus isn't fully God and saying, leave them to their sin. Who cares?

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Jesus gives himself up. He's humble. He's a servant. He takes on human form and becomes obedient even to the point of death, even a death on a cross.

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So when the apostle Paul is telling us how to be in light of the world or as light to the world, he's telling us to be gentle.

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And he says, let your gentleness be known to everyone. Let your gentleness be known to everyone.

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What's that like? It's to have the mind of Christ, his mind, giving yourself up, humbling yourself.

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But he says specifically, see the words? He says, let your gentleness be known to everyone.

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The reputation that Paul calls us to have is a reputation of gentleness, gentleness to those in the outside world.

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He actually says something like it in Philippians chapter two, 14 through 15. You can go there and see that for yourself.

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He says, do all things without grumbling or disputing, without grumbling or disputing that you may be blameless and innocent children of God without blemish.

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Here it is. Here it is. In the midst of a crooked and twisted generation among whom you shine as light in the world.

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There it is again, right? He says, let your gentleness be known to all. Let the world see this.

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And Paul just got finished telling us to do all things without grumbling or disputing that you may be blameless and innocent children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation among whom you shine as lights.

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So your light in that darkness, crooked, twisted generation of people, your light, how do you do it?

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Do things without grumbling and disputing. Now watch this. People who live lives that are constantly disputing, constantly complaining, constantly grumbling.

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Let's be honest. What's the source of your complaints? What's the source of your grumbling? Now come back, come back, come back, come back.

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Cause I hope this nails you and me. You have to think about this.

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All of us are guilty of this at points in our lives, grumbling, complaining.

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And if we're really honest, if we have some integrity for a moment and we're willing to be hit by this truth, can we be honest?

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If you're grumbling or disputing, if that's your habit, if that's what you're engaged in, the answer is you're really angry with your lot in life, right?

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You're not getting what you want. It's not playing out the way that you would write the script.

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And so you're angry. And so you go about grumbling and complaining. Why? Because honestly, you're not trusting.

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You're not trusting in God. You're not trusting in his sovereign plan. You're not trusting in his will for your life.

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And so honestly, you're angry with God. You're angry with others. You're angry with your lot in life.

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You're not rejoicing in the Lord when you're grumbling and you're disputing. You're not rejoicing in him.

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And you're not shining his lights to a twisted and crooked generation. Because think about this. Unbelievers, say humanists, atheists, agnostics, unbelievers that don't know

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God, they have a lot of reasons to grumble and complain, right? All they have is this life, this moment, right?

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I'm just a meat machine in a world that doesn't care about me, right? I'm trying to build this life, my best life that I can right now.

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And if things aren't going my way, I've got every reason to be frustrated and anxious and angry.

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Why? Because I could be out of here at any moment. And what do I have? Darkness. That's it. This is all that I have in front of me.

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And if it's not working out for me, then everything is just lost. Every reason to grumble, every reason to complain.

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For a person who doesn't know Jesus, but believers know Jesus. We know the sovereign God who starts what he finishes.

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And so Paul tells us in Philippians 2, do everything without grumbling and complaining. And he says, be light in the midst of twisted and crooked generation.

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And he tells us in Philippians 4, he says, let your gentleness be known to everyone.

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That should be our reputation. But he says next, the

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Lord is at hand. We won't go into that today, but we've done a series on that.

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Do not be anxious about anything. Do not be anxious about anything.

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And here we go. This is where this should sting a bit. Do not be anxious about anything.

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Anything? Anything, Paul? Do not be anxious about anything. Well, there are lots of things

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Paul to be anxious about. Can I suggest a few to you, Mr. Paul? COVID -19.

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There's some stuff to be anxious about there. There's a wrecked economy, there's joblessness, there's pain, there's death, there's sickness.

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COVID -19, that's something to be anxious about. Here's another thing, cancer. It's a fallen world. People get cancer.

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It hurts. People die. That's something to be anxious about, right? Be worried about cancer. Or how about this?

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Car accidents. That's something to be anxious about, especially in the I -17 with those weirdos.

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I got another thing to be anxious about. Here's another suggestion of anxiety. This is great. This will work well.

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Anxiousness around the new murder hornets, right? Causes some people anxiety.

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Another thing to be anxious about, Joe Biden's brain. That causes me a lot of anxiety when

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I watch. Another thing to be anxious about, and this is a more serious thing here, rent.

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Your mortgage payment. That's something to legitimately be anxious about, right, Paul? Paul, you say be anxious for nothing, but Paul, you're in a dungeon.

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Are you paying rent? You got a landlord, right? A mortgage? I do. I got to take care of a family, right?

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I got to feed my kids. That's another thing to be anxious about, feeding yourself or your families, right?

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Is that okay to be anxious about those things? Or how about my health?

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Or how about my job? Or how about death? Now, if we're honest, we can put all those on paper, and we can give that to the

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Apostle Paul and say, correction, there are some things that we can sometimes be anxious about.

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And the Apostle Paul, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, says this to the church. He says, be anxious.

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Do not be anxious about anything. Do not be anxious about anything. I'm going to take a pen real fast.

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I'm going to put it in this. Do not be anxious about anything. And I remind you that that is not a request. That's a command.

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Do not be anxious about anything. And every person in here that struggles with anxiety, maybe you're even on medication for it.

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You're thinking, how in the world is that possible? And the answer has got to be seen not in you, not in me, not through physical exertion, not through your own strength, your own wisdom.

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The answer is in Jesus. Why is Paul not anxious about anything? Because he knows the author of all of history.

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He knows the one who controls and wields the universe. So he says, be anxious. Do not be anxious about anything.

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Now, I want to talk to you for a second about the Lord Jesus now.

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In the midst of a fallen world, and how he rejoiced, and how he was even in the midst of a circumstance where there was death around him.

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And he has his people, the ones that he loves, around him. And they are struggling very, very hard on how to contextualize all this.

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That Jesus is here. He can do anything. I know that Lazarus wouldn't have died if you had been here.

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But they've still got this death to contend with. But how does Jesus actually work as the incarnate one in the midst of a fallen world?

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I just want you to see this as an example in the life of our Savior. So go to John chapter 11.

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I was hoping to give you an example of what does this look like for Jesus to give us an example in the midst of,

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I think, the worst situation. Can we be honest? Death is the worst situation?

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In John chapter 11. John chapter 11 is a famous story, the death of Lazarus. Now, I'm not going to read the whole passage to you, but I just want you to note that Jesus very purposefully does not show up to make sure that everyone understands that Lazarus is really dead.

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He's really dead to the point that the King James says, he stinketh.

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Right? Now, I'm going to read you the text from 17, 11 -17.

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Let's just look at the Lord Jesus work through being glad in God, rejoicing even in the midst of the most horrific circumstance, death.

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Now, when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off.

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And many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him.

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But Mary remained seated in a house. Martha said to Jesus, Lord, if you'd been here, my brother would not have died.

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But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.

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Jesus said to her, your brother will rise again. Martha said to him, I know that he'll rise again in the resurrection on the last day.

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Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.

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And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?

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She said to him, yes, Lord. I believe that you are the Christ, the Messiah, the son of God, who's coming into the world.

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When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary saying in private, the teacher is here and is calling for you.

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And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him. Now, Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him.

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When the Jews who were with her in the house consoling her, saw

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Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there.

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Think about the circumstances here. It's easy to read. This is sort of the page and the story and the text and not think about the real pain and the real tears of these believers.

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Now, Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him. Watch, man, the pain here. She fell at his feet.

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If you've ever had a death, there is just this, you know this, there is this grief, an overwhelming grief and sense of loss.

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It feels like it's surrounding you, right? It's like desperation even at times you can experience.

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And in the text, when she hears that Jesus is there, what does she do? She falls down at his feet.

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There is just desperation, trusting in Jesus. She falls at his feet saying to him,

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Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. When Jesus saw her weeping and the

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Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled.

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Oh wait, I thought you're supposed to rejoice in the Lord always. And here's Jesus experiencing pain, grief, emotional pain in the midst of death.

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This woman that she loves is falling at his feet. She's saying, if you'd have been here, this wouldn't have happened. She's weeping and Jesus is deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled.

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And he said, where have you laid him? They said to him, Lord, come and see.

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And here we go. Jesus wept. What did that sound like?

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You ever think about it? Like what's that sound like? We have a vision in our mind at times we read the text about Jesus and him working with different people and healing people, raising little girls from the dead, giving sight to blind people.

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We have all these moments where that must have been glorious to be there to see a miracle happen. And now that I've personally experienced a miracle in my life,

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I know that sense of just awe. And you're just sort of dumbstruck when God moves like that in the world, when he brings a legitimate healing into the world.

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So we tend to think about like, what was that like? And what was the experience? What were they feeling? But in this moment, this is tragic.

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You have death and she's at his feet and she's weeping. Jesus is deeply moved.

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He's hurting. And then Jesus wept, wept. And it's crazy because he's the sovereign.

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And that's, isn't that strange? Jesus is in control of whether Lazarus dies or not.

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And yet when he's in the circumstance with his people and he's experiencing what the fallen world has now offered, he weeps over this pain.

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He grieves with them. But I want you to see how Jesus actually addresses this.

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So the Jews said, see how he loved him. But some of them said, could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?

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Then Jesus deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave and a stone laying against it. Jesus said, take away the stone.

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Martha, the sister of the dead man said to him, Lord, by this time, there'll be an odor for he has been dead four days.

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Jesus said to her, did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God? So they took away the stone and Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, stop.

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Everything here to this point has been grief, pain, trauma, tears, weeping, right?

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It's all around to the degree that the incarnate son of God is weeping over death that he knows he's just about to overcome.

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You got to think about that. He is grieving over the circumstance of death that he knows he's about to overcome.

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And so what he says, did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?

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So they took away the stone and Jesus looked up his eyes and said, father, I thank you that you have heard me.

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I knew that you had always, I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around that they may believe that you sent me.

01:00:07

So Jesus in the midst of grief and death and trauma and pain, Jesus lifts up his eyes and he says, what father?

01:00:15

I thank you. I know what you're up to. I know what you've done.

01:00:22

I know what you're accomplishing. So rejoice in the Lord always. What's it look like at a funeral, at a graveside?

01:00:30

There's weeping, there's grief, there's trauma, but then there's a moment where you lift your eyes and you rejoice in the

01:00:37

Lord because you know who he is and what he's accomplishing. And you know about his control of the world.

01:00:43

And of course, you know, the end of the story here, Lazarus, he says, come forth. And he comes hopping out of that tomb wrapped up.

01:00:50

And then Jesus tells him to unwrap him. And real quick side note, isn't it amazing? Actually, Lazarus died twice.

01:00:59

That's kind of interesting, right? Like to have like him as a friend and just ask him, like, what was it like?

01:01:06

Right? What was it like? Did you see anything? Like Jesus raised you from the dead. You really were dead. You kind of needed a shower, but you were really dead.

01:01:15

And now you're alive. Like, do you think that really affected the way Lazarus viewed death after that? I'd say it certainly, it certainly did.

01:01:22

But that's how Jesus faces death and continues to rejoice in the Lord because he doesn't see death as the ultimate thing to fixate upon.

01:01:32

He sees the father, his control, his glory. So that's how the incarnate one faces that.

01:01:39

It's amazing because you can read these stories in scripture, these inspired stories, but it's another thing to experience them in the body of Christ.

01:01:48

When you experienced death years ago, some of our most treasured and loved members of our body,

01:01:55

Christian and Esther, lost their son, their infant son. And it was so unexpected and it was so traumatic and it was so painful.

01:02:06

Many of you guys were here for it, you know. And you look at this text,

01:02:14

Philippians 4, and it says, Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice.

01:02:34

And you say, how can you do that in death? So it's one thing to theorize as a

01:02:39

Christian. Well, here's the command. Rejoice in the Lord always is trusting in him.

01:02:46

So that's what we're to do. It's a trust in his promises and his character. It's another thing to see it. It is.

01:02:54

Um, one of the most powerful things

01:03:04

I have ever seen as a Christian was Esther's response.

01:03:12

And, um, it's not something that you can fully describe.

01:03:19

Those of you who were there, you know what it was like. We got the word super early.

01:03:26

I think it was Sarah that called me that morning. We got the word that something was really wrong.

01:03:34

It was unexpected. It was something that hit in an instant. There was no, no warning.

01:03:40

It was just, everything's fine. It was, I think, Saturday morning. My phone rings and it was just instant tragedy.

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And so everybody gets in their vehicles. I mean, all of the church, Apologia Church. I mean, everybody is just talking to each other.

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What's going on? How can we help? Does anybody know the status of what's going on? We get to the hospital and they have this little side room and that side room was lined with members of our church body.

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I mean, it really was. Everybody was there and everybody's waiting and shocked.

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So shocked. What is happening? This is a little boy.

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Everything was fine. And now he's not with us. And so the word came that he was no longer with us.

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And I got to experience, and so did some of you, what it means to rejoice in the

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Lord always. Where Christian and Esther came in the room and Esther just broke out singing.

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And that is what it means to rejoice in the Lord always.

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Nobody in that room had dry eyes. I mean, even reflecting on it, you can see how hard it is, but everybody was crying.

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It's on video somewhere. You can see it. Everybody was shedding tears. So how can you say that that was rejoicing?

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Because everybody was weeping. She was not singing about joy in the circumstances that God had given to her.

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She was leading us, the church, in a song to Jesus about how good he was, even in the midst of death.

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So again, it's one thing to theorize about what it means to rejoice in the

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Lord always. It's another thing to actually experience God by his spirit, giving a mother and a father that kind of strength and knowledge about who he is in the midst of the worst this world has to offer.

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I saw Jesus in John 11 rejoicing in the Father in the midst of death, and then

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I got to see it for real with Christian and Esther. It was powerful. So the command in Scripture in Philippians chapter 4 is rejoice in the

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Lord, and then the call is what? Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

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And he says, and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

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So I want to remind you that this is a command to be anxious about nothing, and I think if you ask the question, we can go on for days with this one, if you ask the question, how can

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Paul possibly say don't be anxious about anything?

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The answer is found in what Paul has always told us about God. He's sovereign.

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Now stop, because sovereign becomes just a cute little buzzword at times in Reformed churches that we don't let actually impact us.

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I believe in the sovereignty of God. I believe that He's the ruler. I believe He's in control of all things, but I want to remind you that Scripture teaches that God foreordains, chooses people.

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His plan is eternal. He declares the end from the beginning.

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His plan is unchangeable. Nobody can thwart His purposes. The promise is that all things work together for good.

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For those who love God and are called according to His purpose, the Bible teaches us that even the sinful acts of men are included in the plan and are overruled for good.

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An example is Joseph and his brothers. Joseph, of course, is sent into slavery. You know the story. It's a powerful one, but if you get to Genesis 50, you have this epic moment where, of course, now

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Dad is dead, and the brothers are like, yeah, Dad just wanted you to know that, you know, don't kill us kind of thing.

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And he weeps, and he says this about their evil, treacherous act.

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He says, as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it.

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What? Them selling him into slavery, them lying to Dad about his death, all the evil that happened to him,

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Potiphar's house, Potiphar's weird wife, all the strange stuff that happened there, all of it was to do what?

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To bring glory to God, and to do what? To rescue not only Egypt, but his family as well.

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What you meant for evil, God meant for good. So that's what, of course, we have to understand when

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Paul says, don't be anxious about anything, is it's this, it's rooted in this. And I don't know how Molinists and all the people who are open theists can possibly read what

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Paul says here with any understanding at all. If you don't have a sovereign

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God who controls every detail of the world for his purposes, I don't know how you're not worried and fearful.

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If you have a God who can be thwarted by the quote -unquote free will of men, then I say you've got some stuff to worry about because there's some wicked people out there.

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And if they can thwart God, then we have a lot of things to be anxious about. But Paul knows the truth, and he says, don't be anxious about anything.

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Why? Well, let's start in Philippians 1. He who began a good work in you will finish it. How about Philippians 1 .29?

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You want to keep going? We can go all day with this, right? It's been gifted to you to not only believe in Christ, but also to suffer.

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Well, I'm really anxious because I'm suffering right now. Yes, that's a gift from God, right?

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Well, it hurts. I'm not saying to rejoice in the pain. I'm saying rejoice in the Lord because of what he's accomplishing and because what he's doing.

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Don't be anxious for anything. That's a command. You want to see another time it's commanded in scripture?

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Go read Matthew 6, 25 through 34. Jesus says to his people explicitly, do not be anxious about tomorrow.

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Do not be anxious. And it's rooted in what? Same thing for Jesus. Oh, it's amazing. God's word's consistent here.

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What's it rooted in for Jesus when he tells his people not to be anxious? Same thing, the sovereign

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God, there's not a bird that falls from a branch apart from your father's knowledge.

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A bird, little birds, you're worth more than the sparrows.

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Can you change the color of your hair through your worry? No. Can you add a single hour to your life?

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And there's the death blow argument to your anxieties. Can with all your anxiousness and all your worry and fear, can you add a single hour to your life?

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Every Christian steps back and goes, let me reflect on that. No, I can't do that. Why can't you do that?

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Because I'm not the creator. I'm not the sovereign. He's the one that determines my days and when they start and when they end.

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Oh, so God is sovereign. And that's why you're not anxious. So Paul says, don't be anxious about anything. Why? Because God's got a purpose.

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He's the sovereign. He makes it work together for your good. Even your suffering in Jesus is going to bring him glory.

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It's all for his purpose, whether you live or whether you die. To live as Christ, to die as gain, it's all for Jesus.

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The answer is that you seek to know him in the midst of all of that difficulty.

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So what? Faith is the answer to rejoicing in the Lord always, to not being anxious.

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The call, of course, from the apostle Paul is this, make your requests known to God, prayer and supplication.

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That is a petition from a deeply felt need to God, a petition. You bring it to God, you bring it to God.

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And he says this, he says, in the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

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Can I end on this point? This, maybe your anxieties and your fears are coming from one of two places.

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Can I just leave you with it to think about? Meditate on it. One of two places. One, you have an inaccurate view of God.

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You don't see him the way that he says he is. And so you've constructed in your mind a false

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God and false gods never satisfy real spiritual needs and they cannot save. You've constructed a false

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God in your mind, a God who's not truly sovereign. And so maybe that's the problem, is that you don't trust in God's promises to preserve you, to take care of your needs, to love you as father and to never let you go.

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Or second one, just a suggestion, meditate on it. Maybe you trust in those things in the back of your mind, you know they're true, but you're not doing a lot of talking to God, right?

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Like, you know he's the sovereign, but all you're focused and fixated on is all the pain and struggle and difficulty and a million different possibilities a day.

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And you know in the back of your mind, if you had a theological exam, you would get a hundred percent Calvinism, right?

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I got all the answers, baby. But the problem is this, you don't actually bring those requests to God.

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There's no real petitions to God. There's no intimacy with the father. Paul says this, don't be anxious.

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What do you do? You bring it all to God and what will happen? The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts.

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Is your heart fearful? Is your heart jumping? Are you freaking out?

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You need peace to guard your heart? Well, the answer, of course, is the sovereignty of God. And then this, start talking to God.

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Start talking to him like he's actually your father. Start talking to him like he actually cares, like he says he does.

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Don't be silent to your father. The command of scripture is don't be anxious about any of it.

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You bring it all to your father and the peace of God will guard your hearts. So maybe you're not trusting in the right God.

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You don't believe he's as sovereign as he says he is. Or maybe you're just not talking to him. Which one is it?

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And I'll just point you to this. Jesus taught you how to pray. He taught me how to pray.

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Go read Matthew 6, the Lord's Prayer. It's in how Jesus teaches us to pray.

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Start with glorifying God, focused upon him and his kingdom, and then it turns into my needs.

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Father, take care of my needs. Father, feed me. Father, forgive me.

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Right? But Jesus teaches us to have that kind of intimate prayer life with the Father. Do you have it?

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Because you could talk about having all the joy and rejoicing in the world and not being anxious. You could talk about it in theory, but we have to actually taste it and experience it as believers.

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And the way to that, Paul says, is prayer, supplication, intimacy with your

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Father. Talk to him. He's a Father who loves us and wants to take care of our needs.

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Let's pray. Father, I pray you bless the message that went out for your glory.

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I pray that you would use your words that were spoken today to transform our hearts and our minds.

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Lord, Pastor James challenged us a couple of weeks ago through your word and pressing on to actually believe and focus on transformation, to actually have that as a goal of our life, that Lord, you are sanctifying us.

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We can be changed in Jesus and transformed. And I just, I want to pray to that end, that in this area that you would guard us, strengthen us in the area of rejoicing and anxiety.

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I know that that's a bold prayer to pray. We ask for your mercy and power, but I do pray that you'd be glorified in giving to us that strength to rejoice and to not be anxious.