back to index2018-08-26 Joy in and to a Fallen World
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If you guys have your Bibles, I encourage you to turn them to Philippians chapter 4. 00:00:08.760 |
We're going to be… and keep them open to Philippians 4. 00:00:11.640 |
We're going to be looking at that passage intensely today. 00:00:16.520 |
So turn in your Bibles to Philippians chapter 4. 00:00:23.360 |
But I encourage you actually to follow along in your personal Bibles if you can. 00:00:37.700 |
Be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. 00:00:45.640 |
And the peace of God which surpasses all comprehension will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ 00:00:51.760 |
Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever 00:00:56.440 |
is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence in 00:01:01.400 |
anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. 00:01:04.600 |
The things you've learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things 00:01:13.040 |
Heavenly Father, we ask that you would feed your sheep today, that we being fed will live 00:01:20.480 |
lives that reflect your kindness and your goodness. 00:01:25.040 |
And Father, that the world will know that you indeed are a good and faithful God. 00:01:30.840 |
And we pray that our lives will be characterized by what we learn. 00:01:36.360 |
And we thank you, Father, for just your kindness that calls us here and I pray for just us 00:01:43.340 |
all to leave here having understood what you desire for our… just our lives and our worship. 00:01:54.760 |
This is a passage that many of you guys, especially if you've grown up in church, you're familiar 00:02:02.120 |
A bunch of these verses are hanging on people's walls. 00:02:05.640 |
And as a kid, you know, you end up memorizing some of these passages. 00:02:11.400 |
And rightfully so, these verses are powerful and uplifting. 00:02:16.440 |
But just a background to the letter to Philippi and to the church there. 00:02:21.240 |
The Philippian… the letter to the Philippian church is one of Paul's prison epistles, one 00:02:26.140 |
of the letters written toward the end of his life. 00:02:29.640 |
The chief purpose of this letter is to encourage the people in that church. 00:02:35.440 |
And so Paul wants to encourage the Philippian church to be steadfast and joy-filled, to 00:02:42.320 |
He desires that they conduct themselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, which 00:02:46.040 |
is our theme for this year at Berean, and to live in a manner befitting of the gospel 00:02:54.720 |
They are to follow Christ's humble example and to live in proper response to the gospel 00:03:03.040 |
So I'm going to just kind of go through these passages… through these verses and just 00:03:11.880 |
So the first verse, verse 4, "Rejoice in the Lord always." 00:03:20.360 |
The Philippians and all who are to read this letter are commanded to live joyfully as kingdom 00:03:27.160 |
And in this book, you will see the word "joy" repeated again and again all throughout the 00:03:35.560 |
And in chapter 4, Paul gives some exhortation on how to do that. 00:03:40.760 |
So in verse 4 it reads, "Rejoice in the Lord always." 00:03:45.360 |
And this is the only place in the book of Philippians where Paul repeats himself. 00:03:50.660 |
And actually this is the third time he said this. 00:03:52.960 |
Okay, so in chapter 3, verse 1, Paul has said, "Rejoice, finally, my brethren, rejoice in 00:04:01.720 |
When we repeat ourselves, it is usually to emphasize something we believe to be very 00:04:07.640 |
We do not repeat something that is of insignificance. 00:04:10.040 |
So if I said, "Good morning, everybody," I will say it again. 00:04:17.380 |
But if I say, "Hey, our SEEDS meeting is at 1.30 p.m." 00:04:26.840 |
There is an expectation that I'm communicating to you that you guys come on time. 00:04:33.560 |
So when Paul is saying, "Rejoice in the Lord always," let me repeat this, "Rejoice," he 00:04:45.000 |
Joy is not an uncommon theme in Paul's writing. 00:04:47.760 |
And I do want to pause and have us reflect on this. 00:04:50.660 |
How do we just apply chapter 4, verse 4 in our lives? 00:05:02.320 |
Because when a command of Scripture, when we read it, it looks impossible or impractical, 00:05:09.380 |
what we usually end up doing is we just gloss over it, don't think to apply it, and we move 00:05:21.620 |
Are guilty of reading this passage and not thinking about it? 00:05:24.240 |
Okay, "Rejoice in the Lord always," I'll say it again, "Rejoice." 00:05:27.640 |
Okay, give me something more meaty, something more applicable. 00:05:33.760 |
Is it possible for you and me to be joyful always? 00:05:40.080 |
And one of the greatest consequences of the fall is that you and I have a hard time enjoying 00:05:50.640 |
You and I have emotional and spiritual ADD, and we're unable to enjoy something for an 00:06:03.880 |
The first time I ever heard about Poke Bowl was June 2017. 00:06:08.240 |
I was late to the game because I haven't been in the country for nine years. 00:06:11.960 |
So that was the best thing I've ever eaten at that moment. 00:06:16.120 |
I was like, "Whoa, this yellowtail and the salmon with the sriracha with this crab and 00:06:20.000 |
the avocado and the seaweed with the sesame seeds and the oil." 00:06:27.240 |
And then I ate it again like a couple days later, and then I flew to Korea. 00:06:30.480 |
And from June to March, I was preaching how good Poke Bowl was to all of my friends who 00:06:36.120 |
are living abroad, who are going to visit the States. 00:06:42.440 |
And I was like just excited to eat Poke Bowl when I got back here in March. 00:06:50.480 |
And I started getting sick of it really quick. 00:06:53.560 |
Because even if something is very good, you get tired of it. 00:06:59.980 |
My first Apple product was a graduation gift given to me in 2009. 00:07:07.280 |
I had an iPod Touch, and I thought this was the coolest thing ever. 00:07:11.680 |
I even downloaded like a lemonade game on it. 00:07:13.720 |
And I was like, "Yes, there's a calculator and everything in one." 00:07:17.120 |
And then I went to China, and one of the brothers that were there had an iPhone 3. 00:07:21.440 |
I was like, "Ooh, there's a calculator and a game player and a music thing and a phone." 00:07:28.240 |
So then there's a desire in me to have one of those. 00:07:33.000 |
Then came the 4 and the 5 and the 6 and the 6+, 7, 7+, 8, 8. 00:07:39.440 |
And when something new comes out, the thing that we enjoyed, it loses its luster. 00:07:50.920 |
You start seeing the blemishes in the home that you craved to have. 00:07:58.240 |
The first time I went on business class on a plane, I did what my wife did the first 00:08:08.800 |
And then she was taking pictures of all the food that came out, even the silverware. 00:08:16.120 |
I've gone enough where now I'm on business class, I don't think about all the amenities 00:08:22.400 |
But occasionally I think of, "What would it be like to be on first class?" 00:08:33.360 |
Do you still feel that pull, that excitement to come worship? 00:08:42.380 |
Do you guys remember the first time that girl you liked or the guy you liked, they called 00:08:47.840 |
you on your phone, it rang, and it read their name, and you're like, "Hello?" 00:08:56.120 |
Eleven and a half years later, I do love my wife a lot more than I did then. 00:08:59.840 |
But sometimes when she calls, I don't have that same... 00:09:09.760 |
One of the tragedies of the fall is that our enjoyment of things is tainted, it's broken. 00:09:16.620 |
We get tired of our relationship, even with God. 00:09:21.620 |
When someone asks you, "How are you doing spiritually?" 00:09:23.980 |
You usually will answer depending on how you feel, whether you feel close to the Lord, 00:09:30.140 |
whether you feel distant from the Lord, whether you feel guilty before the Lord because you 00:09:33.480 |
haven't done your quiet time, whether you've prayed enough or a little. 00:09:40.920 |
And after you've been a Christian for a while, there are seasons where prayer is hard, worship 00:09:45.720 |
is routine, serving the church is a struggle. 00:09:50.900 |
And even though we love God more deeply than we did before, we can't help but feel a distance, 00:10:01.500 |
So when we read a passage like, "Rejoice always," Thessalonians 5:16, and we find out that that's 00:10:08.080 |
God's will for our lives, we actually just kind of tend to gloss over it, don't think 00:10:14.000 |
much of it because it seems too ideal, too impractical, impossible to follow. 00:10:20.240 |
Because in our brokenness, in our broken ability to enjoy things fully, being joyful always 00:10:27.240 |
seems too ridiculous of a command, so we actually don't think about it. 00:10:35.620 |
Even if it was just spiritual ADD that we struggle with, it'd be hard to enjoy. 00:10:42.560 |
But add in sickness, tragedy, persecution, and death, we look at commands like, "Be joyful 00:10:51.920 |
Because in a broken and fallen world full of vanity, pain, sorrow, and strife, this does 00:11:04.040 |
This is God's will that you and I be unceasingly joyful, and it's all over Scripture. 00:11:11.340 |
And I emphasize this because this is a super important question. 00:11:19.500 |
Can you and I in our spiritual ADD with all of our tainted emotions obey this command? 00:11:35.620 |
It reads, "Let your gentleness be known to all men. 00:11:42.460 |
If you read through Philippians 4, 4 through 9, that verse seems and feels so awkward and 00:11:50.100 |
I've seen verse 4, 6, 7, 8, and 9 on a frame or shared on a Facebook. 00:11:59.380 |
But verse 5 is the most important verse in this whole section. 00:12:06.120 |
And so we're going to spend a little bit of time looking over this. 00:12:21.220 |
In the Greek, the word is, well, if you look up there, I put the word gentle spirit in 00:12:30.040 |
Depending on the translation you use, you will get a slightly different take on this 00:12:49.240 |
This is an important word and we're going to come back to this multiple times. 00:12:54.320 |
In this form, it's here in the nominative, neuter, singular, adjectival form of epiakis 00:13:02.680 |
But this is a very difficult word from the Greek to translate into English. 00:13:08.240 |
So in every single one of your Bibles, there is an interpretation included in this translation. 00:13:15.040 |
So if you look at this, in the King James Version, it says, "Let your moderation be 00:13:27.120 |
And the Living Bible says, "Let your unselfish and considerate spirit be evident to all." 00:13:33.540 |
So every, if you try to apply this, depending on what version you use, you will get a slightly 00:13:53.360 |
"Steadfastness, grace, and calmness that comes with experience, involvement, and age." 00:14:00.800 |
"Steadfastness, grace, and calmness that comes with experience, involvement, and age." 00:14:12.000 |
In any sport, let's say the finals or a championship game in the playoffs, there's a lot of pressure. 00:14:18.120 |
So if you have a team full of rookies, if you have a team full of young people, a lot 00:14:23.640 |
But if you have someone who's an experienced veteran, usually they stay calm and poised 00:14:34.640 |
Players can easily get caught up in the moment. 00:14:38.360 |
That's why highly competitive teams fill their rosters with veteran players, people who've 00:14:41.800 |
been there, who can remain calm in crunch time. 00:14:47.920 |
The experience to people, they don't get rattled. 00:14:51.000 |
In fact, there's a steadiness, composure, and grace about them. 00:14:55.280 |
So if you're a rookie, you want to be like that championship-tested player. 00:15:04.840 |
The elderly handle disease and death with much more dignity, poise, and grace than a 00:15:18.640 |
They've embraced it as a natural part of life. 00:15:22.100 |
So they're not rattled when friends pass away, when someone gets sick. 00:15:37.020 |
I like to call it battle-tested Christian common sense, Christian wisdom. 00:15:50.920 |
Let your battle-tested Christian common sense be made clear to everybody around you. 00:16:06.080 |
There's two Greek words here, kyrios, which means Lord, and engos, which is near. 00:16:12.760 |
And this near is not the near as in physical closeness. 00:16:18.240 |
This near is in reference to it's coming soon. 00:16:23.080 |
So it's actually should be translated, the Lord is soon. 00:16:25.760 |
But that's kind of awkward English, so you won't see that in your translations. 00:16:31.840 |
Because we've been battle-tested, we know and we have a grace and a calmness that God 00:16:38.480 |
is good and He is sovereign and that He is coming soon. 00:16:54.000 |
Let your battle-tested Christian wisdom be known to all men. 00:16:56.880 |
The Lord is soon and all the tainted, ugly, corrupted things are going to quickly pass. 00:17:02.960 |
So be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving 00:17:11.480 |
Do you guys see why verse five is so central to this whole section? 00:17:17.400 |
In short, verse five is suggesting to us that believable joy, more than an emotion, it's 00:17:27.000 |
So I'm going to show you some other passages so you're not – I'm not like talking 00:17:37.920 |
James chapter one verse two says, "Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter 00:17:58.720 |
If someone did that, I would slap them in the head. 00:18:03.360 |
Or I would assume they're being super sarcastic because that's not an appropriate response. 00:18:10.040 |
First Peter one, three to six, or and six, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord 00:18:17.080 |
Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living 00:18:22.600 |
hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. 00:18:26.360 |
And in this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you 00:18:32.080 |
First Peter is wrought with cases of abuse, oppression, suffering, persecution. 00:18:42.220 |
People are being tortured because of their faith. 00:18:51.640 |
For it has been granted to you," earlier it says in Philippians, "for Christ's sake, not 00:18:57.400 |
only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake." 00:19:15.640 |
So biblical joy is more of an attitude of the heart than an emotional response. 00:19:21.200 |
So sometimes in joy, I will have a delighted, happy emotion. 00:19:31.280 |
Biblical joy is more an attitude of the heart than an emotion. 00:19:34.940 |
"Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set 00:19:39.260 |
before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand 00:19:45.160 |
And the word joy is not explicitly written in Job chapter 1, but there is joy there. 00:19:49.800 |
And Job arose, tore his robe, and shaved his head, fell to the ground, and worshipped and 00:19:55.940 |
demonstrated his joy before his almighty creator. 00:19:59.440 |
Matthew 13, 44, "The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which 00:20:06.560 |
And from joy over it, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field." 00:20:16.040 |
It's an attitude of the heart found only in kingdom citizens that delights in and willingly 00:20:24.420 |
submits to the goodness and the sovereignty of God. 00:20:31.480 |
The attitude of the heart found only in kingdom citizens that delights in and willingly submits 00:20:51.900 |
You can be joyful when you're under heavy stress or persecution. 00:20:57.020 |
You can be joyful in the face of tragedy while living in a very fallen world. 00:21:04.860 |
You can be joyful when someone you love goes through tragedy. 00:21:11.540 |
You can be joy-filled in any and every circumstance. 00:21:16.460 |
So joy is characteristic of the children of God. 00:21:19.080 |
It is actual proof of your kingdom citizenship. 00:21:25.500 |
If you look at Galatians 5, you guys know the fruit of the Spirit? 00:21:28.420 |
The fruit of the Spirit is love, and then what? 00:21:35.040 |
That is evidence of the Holy Spirit living in you. 00:21:38.900 |
And joy again and again in Scripture, it's commanded. 00:21:42.900 |
So if you are a Christian and you don't have joy in your life, this is disobedience. 00:21:48.620 |
You are in sin if your life is not characterized by joy. 00:21:54.540 |
Do you see why you can't just gloss over rejoicing the Lord always, I'll say it again, rejoice, 00:21:59.580 |
and not think about it, not think to apply it? 00:22:04.220 |
You can't just treat it like an impossibility, an impracticality, something just left in 00:22:21.980 |
Joyless and Christian should never be used together except in a sermon. 00:22:27.860 |
But you know, so many church people are mired in joyless routine. 00:22:41.500 |
Yes, Jesus died for my sins, so I have to serve Him and obey Him. 00:22:46.820 |
I have to go abroad and share the gospel because He died for my sins. 00:22:55.220 |
Because if I don't, He's going to throw me in hell. 00:23:02.060 |
A lot of times, joylessness in your life and mine looks like that, religious routine. 00:23:09.620 |
Otherwise, my accountability partners are going to, like, discipline me or rebuke me. 00:23:20.460 |
It's supposed to be in worship and in awe of God. 00:23:22.980 |
It's what we were created to give glory to God. 00:23:28.900 |
But a lot of times, our evangelistic messages start with, "When you die, are you going to 00:23:37.540 |
Evangelistic messages need to start with, "You were created for a relationship with 00:23:52.220 |
This apakea, you and I need to make known to all men. 00:24:08.460 |
So Christians are going to, non-Christians are going to be looking at your life, if you 00:24:12.560 |
have no joy, if you have no zeal, they don't see any desire to know this God that you profess 00:24:25.940 |
A joyless church will do a horrible job at being salt and light to a decaying and darkened 00:24:44.420 |
A joyless church will do a horrible job at being salt and light to a decaying and darkened 00:24:57.420 |
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, 00:25:05.460 |
And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and 00:25:12.460 |
There is, be joyful always, I will say it again, rejoice. 00:25:20.700 |
So here, this is how you maintain your joy, pray. 00:25:26.300 |
And verse 6 is an often memorized, frequently quoted verse of the Bible, but this is coming 00:25:38.060 |
So we are exhorted to pray, to lift up everything with gratitude to the Lord. 00:25:42.820 |
All of our burdens, all of our anxieties, all of the prayer requests that we have, to 00:25:49.820 |
And we're going to go into this more on Friday night when we have our All Church Praise and 00:26:02.780 |
The peace of God, which is a mystery beyond all human understanding, will come and guard 00:26:21.860 |
It means the military guard, the sentry, will come and protect like they come and protect 00:26:32.980 |
So if a king is standing there, his soldiers will surround him. 00:26:37.340 |
If he's in danger, they will surround him with their shields, with their spears, and 00:26:43.940 |
they will make an impenetrable wall of defense around the king. 00:26:48.620 |
That's what the peace of God will do as we lift up our prayers to him. 00:26:56.780 |
And those who have walked with the Lord, they can have their hearts filled with peace no 00:27:02.840 |
The first application that we read is to pray. 00:27:04.980 |
The second one, verse 8, "Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever 00:27:14.100 |
is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is good repute, if there is any excellence 00:27:19.340 |
in anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things." 00:27:22.260 |
You know, whenever – early on when I first studied this passage many years ago, I always 00:27:27.660 |
thought of like raindrops and roses and whiskers on kids. 00:27:31.340 |
You guys – when the dog bites, when the bee stings, when I'm feeling sad, I simply 00:27:36.540 |
remember my favorite things and then I don't feel so bad. 00:27:42.500 |
It's talking about make an obsession of something. 00:27:49.940 |
What are the things that we are called to dwell and obsess over? 00:28:04.140 |
The first application really that we see here is to pray. 00:28:10.580 |
Now some of you guys, if you're like me, you're tripping over this Word finally. 00:28:19.100 |
Let your epiakia be known to all men, that's the why. 00:28:22.780 |
And then you're coming up with three howls, but there's a finally in the middle of this. 00:28:27.100 |
As I was – whenever I do sermon prep, I actually memorize the passage I'm going to 00:28:30.500 |
preach on and I go over it again and again and again. 00:28:32.660 |
But this section I started maybe three months ago, two, three months ago, just memorizing 00:28:37.160 |
every day about two, three times, just going over this. 00:28:40.140 |
And every time I go over this, there is this logical flow, but then I get to this finally 00:28:48.700 |
So I looked at the Word, it was loipan, which is actually better translated, "Furthermore, 00:28:58.100 |
And you see that actually in chapter three, verse one. 00:29:00.860 |
And then he goes on to – finally – and then he goes on to write another half of the 00:29:05.900 |
This is a second application to dwell over and obsess with the Word of God. 00:29:11.500 |
So verse eight is pointing us to eating the Word. 00:29:18.180 |
Reflecting on the centrality of Christ through the intake of the Word of God. 00:29:30.660 |
And you guys will all probably give me textbook answers from your head. 00:29:35.140 |
After all, our church's second vision is equipping every saint with God's inerrant 00:29:40.540 |
But here's how you can really answer the question, how important is it the Word of 00:29:47.580 |
How desperate are you each and every day to feed off His Word? 00:29:51.900 |
How much or how little time do you invest to the study of His Word each day? 00:29:58.500 |
How much or how little of His Word did you eat this week? 00:30:08.180 |
And there is a correlation between our intake of God's Word and our joy. 00:30:27.200 |
This is a village sitting on a stone quarry just outside of Kampala, Uganda. 00:30:36.840 |
Children as far as little as four years old, they break rocks all day. 00:30:43.420 |
And when these little children break enough rocks into little smithereens and they collect 00:30:48.580 |
a two-gallon bucket of these rocks, they'll get 90 cents. 00:30:58.080 |
And one of those little girls that we met was a little girl in green shorts. 00:31:04.880 |
And she's one of the kids who breaks these rocks all day. 00:31:09.760 |
Two weeks prior to our visit, her father was beaten to death. 00:31:19.000 |
Because there's nothing in it for the police to help a little child living in these quarters. 00:31:24.260 |
So we felt so bad that we went to pray for her and her family. 00:31:41.740 |
She was bone thin and weighed about 80 pounds. 00:31:46.460 |
In Uganda, there are many people who are suffering from AIDS. 00:31:51.480 |
And the government of Uganda actually supplies AIDS patients with free AIDS medicine, which 00:32:00.520 |
So Angela's mom took the AIDS medicine regularly every day. 00:32:08.040 |
But the problem was that she was eating one small meal every two to three days. 00:32:19.560 |
And we sent $200 of groceries to be sent to her family. 00:32:30.140 |
Seventeen days later, I got an email informing me that Angela's mother had passed away. 00:32:46.620 |
Within AIDS medicine, Angela's mom had needed food. 00:32:50.820 |
So for AIDS patients, medical treatment is absolutely essential for those who are sick. 00:32:57.780 |
But of greater importance for these patients is a regular intake of food. 00:33:02.780 |
So when a person is actually fed and healthy, you know your bodies are attacked by viruses 00:33:11.340 |
But most of the time, we don't -- it doesn't feel like anything because it just passes 00:33:20.820 |
But if our immune systems are down and our bodies are weak, the tiniest germ can have 00:33:32.180 |
But without food, even good medicine -- actually, what happens? 00:33:37.540 |
You're not supposed to eat medicine without food. 00:33:43.380 |
Everything that is good that comes with church life -- participation in small groups, meeting 00:33:49.780 |
up with brothers and sisters in Christ, serving the church, preparing the snacks, reading 00:33:55.020 |
theology books, coming to praise nights, giving to missions, going on a short-term trip -- these 00:34:02.780 |
are all good things, but they are supplemental. 00:34:09.140 |
They are good things, but none of these things can take the place of a steady diet of the 00:34:15.340 |
Joylessness and spiritual malnourishment go hand in hand. 00:34:26.660 |
They're serving the church with a passion, but the Word of God is not their fuel. 00:34:31.100 |
Maybe their guilt, their obligation, their desire to get recognized -- that's the fuel. 00:34:39.340 |
But worse than that, they explode like poison, and then they leave the church. 00:34:46.420 |
Malnourishment is a dangerous, dangerous thing. 00:34:55.460 |
And I think just a little more than half of it I've done ministry out of the U.S. 00:35:01.040 |
So most of my ministry -- more than half of my ministry has been away from Orange County. 00:35:09.860 |
I feel a greater spiritual warfare here in Orange County than anywhere else I've visited. 00:35:18.820 |
There are more spiritual landmines, more spiritual booby traps, and spiritual explosives here 00:35:25.200 |
that are out to maim you than in most parts of the world. 00:35:32.300 |
The enemy is actively, hungrily prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for souls to 00:35:41.180 |
But here, he is wearing Orange County upper-middle-class material and comfort-based happy clothes. 00:35:51.840 |
You know, there was a survey taken in 1988 on Navy SEALs. 00:35:56.260 |
And this is 30 years out of date, but I felt like, well, this is the only thing I could 00:36:01.340 |
But 1988 survey taken of 267 Navy SEALs, the average Navy SEAL consumed 3,887 calories 00:36:11.860 |
An average male who is 6 feet 185 pounds needs 1,728 calories a day. 00:36:19.620 |
So an average Navy SEAL consumes more than double that of a 6 foot 185 pound man's necessary 00:36:27.860 |
And during hell week training, these Navy SEALs consume 7,000 calories a day. 00:36:43.220 |
They go to where the fighting is heavy, so they need to eat. 00:36:48.060 |
So common sense will tell you that they need to eat a lot because they're going to go fight. 00:36:56.820 |
The closer you are to war, the more you need to eat. 00:37:00.980 |
First Peter 211 reads, "Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers in the world to abstain 00:37:05.560 |
from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul." 00:37:10.220 |
I found that in Orange County, there are more things that are waging war against the soul 00:37:21.060 |
So you tell me how much Bible intake is enough each day. 00:37:26.860 |
I'll tell you this, you cannot spiritually survive with one sermon a week. 00:37:36.260 |
You cannot survive on doing two or three cute little quiet times over the course of the 00:37:46.340 |
You can take in all the spiritual medicine that you want, but if you don't take a steady 00:37:54.580 |
diet of God's Word, you're going to have a hard time fighting. 00:38:20.020 |
In short, and you've heard this before, preach the gospel to yourself every day. 00:38:25.020 |
I just don't like how it's become trendy and how that gospel starts with, "Jesus died for 00:38:30.020 |
That's not the best place to start the gospel message. 00:38:33.460 |
The gospel message does not start with, "Jesus died for your sins." 00:38:37.140 |
Yes, preach the gospel to yourself daily, but the gospel starts with, "In the beginning, 00:38:52.120 |
Man was created in the image of the triune God and was also therefore good. 00:38:57.260 |
God and man had a perfect fellowship in sin and to the world, but God had a plan. 00:39:04.380 |
And I'm part of that plan, and He will return and redeem fully one day." 00:39:13.660 |
Preaching a biblical gospel to myself does not start with, "Jesus died for my sins." 00:39:16.620 |
It starts with, "God had a purpose and a design in creating man, and He is sovereign, and 00:39:22.620 |
And God still has a purpose and plan for the redemption of mankind." 00:39:26.580 |
I've been doing a one-year Bible plan this year, and I haven't missed a day. 00:39:35.100 |
And it's almost September, and I'm only in Ezekiel. 00:39:40.420 |
According to my plan, I won't get to Matthew until October 5th. 00:39:45.660 |
And as of today, I'm still 40 days and 174 pages in my Bible from getting to the birth 00:39:54.300 |
So remember that all Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, correction, 00:40:02.540 |
And he's talking about the Old Testament, actually. 00:40:06.180 |
These are the things that are true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, excellent, and of good 00:40:26.420 |
And lastly, the things, verse 9, "You have learned and received and heard in me. 00:40:31.820 |
Practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you." 00:40:37.920 |
Love the Word, live the Word, eat the Word, practice the Word. 00:40:43.700 |
So my question is, are you living in obedience to this command to be joyful always? 00:40:49.980 |
Have you been fueling your joy in the redemption that has come through Jesus Christ by feeding 00:40:58.160 |
If you haven't, the point of this is not to drive you to feel guilty or to grieve, okay? 00:41:03.900 |
It's not to feel like, "Hey, you're not being joyful? 00:41:10.780 |
I want to look at Nehemiah 8, 8 through 12, and we're going to close with this. 00:41:19.780 |
They read from the book, from the law of God, translating to give the sense so that they 00:41:28.020 |
Then Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who 00:41:32.700 |
taught the people, said to all the people, "This day is holy to the Lord your God. 00:41:40.540 |
For all the people were weeping when they heard the words of the law. 00:41:44.580 |
Then he said to them, "Go, eat of the fat, drink of the sweet, and send portions to him 00:41:52.780 |
Do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength." 00:41:58.180 |
So the Levites calmed all the people, saying, "Be still, for the day is holy. 00:42:05.820 |
All the people went away to eat, to drink, to send portions, and to celebrate a great 00:42:09.540 |
festival because they understood the words which had been made known to them. 00:42:19.300 |
Ezra and some scribes are reading God's word to the people from dawn until noon for like 00:42:26.660 |
The people responded by weeping in repentance as they realized how badly they had failed 00:42:33.780 |
But Nehemiah and Ezra and the other leaders tell the people not to mourn or weep on this 00:42:43.980 |
God has deemed this day holy, and the joy of the Lord is to be what fuels them, what 00:42:51.780 |
And I want to close with just us looking at Philippians 4, 4 through 9 again. 00:43:01.780 |
Rejoice in the Lord always, again I will say, rejoice. 00:43:07.260 |
Let your battle-tested Christian wisdom be made known to all men for the Lord is near 00:43:16.940 |
And be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving 00:43:27.180 |
The peace of God which is beyond, surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and 00:43:41.140 |
And brothers, finally, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever 00:43:45.780 |
is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence in 00:43:50.460 |
anything worthy of praise that you find in the truth of the gospel message of Jesus Christ, 00:44:01.180 |
And the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in the likes of Paul and 00:44:10.500 |
other heroes of faith in the scripture, practice these things and the God of peace will be 00:44:19.820 |
My prayer is that the joy of the Lord fuels everything in this church. 00:44:35.900 |
Not the burden, not the guilt, not the call, but may His joy be the strength of all that 00:44:56.060 |
Father, we thank you that our salvation is not based on how faithful we are, that eternal 00:45:16.540 |
And Lord, we all have spiritual ADD, all of us have hearts that are prone to wander, but 00:45:21.620 |
we thank you that you saw this, loved us anyway, and opened up an invitation that we come. 00:45:34.780 |
Lord, I pray that you would renew our strength, that you would give us joy. 00:45:41.380 |
And Lord, I pray that as we feast on the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, that the world 00:45:48.020 |
around us will know that you indeed are good, worthy of trust, worthy of worship. 00:45:58.540 |
Thank you for giving us a reason to be joyful, to be hopeful, and to persevere in this walk.