How to Rise Above Circumstances

I don't know if you've sensed this over the last few months. I've sensed that God is. He's stirring in our church, preparing something. Have you noticed? Have you sensed this in your spirit?

When we gather that there's something happening that God is doing, he's working something in our church. I know some of you believe it. Some of you have come to me, you said, I believe God's doing a thing in our church. I've been praying for this. Some of us have been praying for years for just a great.

I don't want other word revival, just something of spiritual fervency, something of fruit that would be born of the Holy Spirit through this church for the glory of Christ. And I sense that some of that's happening now. I don't know if you know this. How many of you know that when you begin to see God stirring and moving among a people, the very next thing that happens is spiritual warfare. Have you noticed that?

That's true. When we invite people to go on a mission trip, as soon as they say, yes, we form a team, we look at them and we say, you need to prepare for battle. There's a spiritual battle. Because anytime God has a good plan to do good work in the world, there is a real enemy. And he seeks to undermine every good thing that God wishes to do.

He wants to do that. So we tell our teams, you need to prepare your mind. You need to prepare your heart. You put on the, you know, Ephesians 6, the armor of God. You need to get ready because there are going to be things in your life that come and you're going to go, I, we've seen this, we've experienced this.

But how many of you know that's not just with mission trips, but that's every day in the life of a Christian. If you seek to walk in a manner worthy of the calling of Christ, if you seek to walk by faith and not by sight, there are things that are going to happen in your life in which you're going to go. I don't know if it's worth it or you're going to go, I don't know that I have the energy. I can't. You're going to be attacked.

And when God is stirring and moving in a church, we should be prepared that there is spiritual battle in front of us. And the reason I want to talk about this today is because we've been in this series in the Beatitudes, studying the Beatitudes, and through these statements that Jesus gave and Each of them he says, blessed is the person who says, who's poor in spirit, who comes to the end of himself and says, God, I have nothing and all I need is you. You I have you and nothing else. I have everything. And blessed is the person who mourns over sin and our life and brokenness in the world.

And blessed is the meek. And blessed is the person who hungers and thirsts after God's righteousness. And if you and I are leaning into those things, then we should expect very quickly, by many means, there will be things that come in our lives to where we look up one day and we go, I don't feel blessed. You know, I'm trying to walk in God's way. I'm trying to be obedient.

I'm trying to be faithful. I'm trying to walk in a manner worthy of the calling, poor in spirit. I'm not claiming anything. I'm depending on him fully. But I don't feel blessed.

I don't feel joy, I don't feel contentment. I don't feel peace. I feel like I'm getting kicked in the teeth every Monday. And it just keeps happening. I'll give you a confession this morning from my life.

I complain way more than anyone ever should, and I don't know if that's you. I would imagine I'm not the only one like this. It's in us, it's in people, but it's in me. Last night, Lindsay and I were having dinner. We get the rare occasion where we left the kids at home.

We ran over to dinner with some of our dear, dear friends. And in the middle of dinner to, like, stir conversation, I said, hey, I got an idea. Let's talk about what sounds like fun. And we started talking about what sounds like fun as a prompt for our conversation. And like 30 minutes later, I said, I think all I've done is talk about what isn't fun in my life right now.

That's all I've done the whole time. I said, what sounds like fun? And I told you 125 things that are not fun right now. You know, And I realized that some of this is spiritual attack happening in my life where there's just this. Do you have discontentment in your life and dissatisfaction over things that aren't the way you wish they were, things that aren't the way you think that they ought to be?

And you dwell on it or you talk about it a lot? You know, in this series, we define blessed like this. We said, it's A promise that Jesus is giving of inner satisfaction. Inner satisfaction and sufficiency in Christ that doesn't depend on outward circumstances for happiness. That's what we've been talking about.

Being blessed is not about outward circumstances that make us feel good, but it's about an inner satisfaction. I'm content in Christ. The fact is, a lot of days and a lot of seasons, this is the way that I live. Whatever my outside circumstances are, they will dictate my inner feelings. And then my contentment and my peace and my joy and my countenance and my outlook on life will be dictated by whatever my circumstances are.

You know what I'm talking about. That happened in your life. That's spiritual attack. That's a spiritual battle that we have to fight. So what I want to do today, we're going to come back to the next four Beatitudes after Easter.

But I want to pause for just a moment, because if we're going to be in a battle for walking in God's blessing, we need to know how to fight that battle. How to fight for joy, how to fight for contentment, how to fight for peace when there's an enemy that wants to undermine all of those good things in our life. And it's not a fight that Jesus would give us these things. We're not fighting that he would give us his blessing. No, that's a gift that he gives us in Christ.

It's just his gift to us. And it's free when we depend on Him. But we have to fight to walk in that blessing because everything in life is trying to kick it out from underneath us so that we will fall today. I want to talk about how to fight that battle. And so grab your Bible and turn to Ephesians.

No, sorry. Turn to Philippians. That's the one we'll be in today. Philippians chapter 4. I want to be in Philippians 4 because the apostle Paul is writing here, and he says something, a verse that I've known, I mean, virtually my whole life.

And every time I read it, I think there's something in me that goes, oh, that's cool for you. And then I just move on, like, what's next? But it's like a magnet that keeps drawing me back in in Philippians Chapter four. And I want to describe to you Paul's circumstances. Paul's writing from these circumstances.

He had been in Jerusalem. He was preaching the Gospel. He was falsely accused, and he was imprisoned. He was taken to a place called Caesarea. And in Caesarea, he.

He's in prison. And he's being brought up on trial after trial after trial. Two years. Two years Paul is in prison in Caesarea and going through this, like, circus of trials that are getting him nowhere. So Paul says, I appeal my case to Caesar, which, as a Roman citizen, he had the right to that.

So they put Paul in a ship to take him from Caesarea around to Rome. But guess what happens on the ship to ship ride to Rome. The ship goes down in the middle of the sea. So they scoop Paul up and they put him on another boat, and they get him eventually to Rome, which is a place that Paul always wanted to go to. It was on his bucket list to go to Rome, but he thought he would go as a preacher, and he came instead as a prisoner.

And I don't know if it's in God's, like, divine humor. God wanted Paul to get to Rome, but instead of making Paul pay for the trip, he got the Roman government to pay for the trip. He found a way. He finds a way where there is no way, right? So Paul is in prison, and his situation is he's physically chained to a rotating guard.

All day, every day, 24 hours a day. They change the guard out, and he has shackles attached to a guard. And he's here, and he's waiting for his trial. He doesn't know if he's going to be acquitted or if he will be beheaded. But he's given an opportunity to write a letter.

And he writes a letter to his friends in Philippi, to a church that he had planted. And he writes something to them that just draws me to his attention in this moment. I'll start. In verse 10 of chapter 4, Paul says, But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at last, you have revived your concern for me. Indeed, you were concerned before, but you lacked the opportunity.

And the situation is, they have sent a financial gift to Paul in Rome through a man named Epaphroditus. He delivered it. And Paul says, thanks for the money. In verse 11, he says, not that I really needed it. I don't speak from want or need.

Here's the line. For I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I'm in. That just pops off the page to me. Yet how many times have I read it and said, cool, what's next? I have learned how to be content.

It's a secret. And I learned the secret how to be content in every circumstance. I know how to get along by humble means. And I also know how to live in prosperity in any and every circumstance, I've learned the secret of being filled and of going hungry, both of having abundance and of suffering need. I can do all things through him who gives me strength.

And that's the verse that, you know, you. You put on your gym shorts before you went and played basketball because you said, I can win because Christ is in me. Right? You didn't study for the test, but you go, you know what? I claim it in the name of Jesus.

Without studying, I will ace the test. But then you failed the test. You know it doesn't work like that. Exactly. It's this verse that we've used as a catch all to claim anything we want.

If we put his name on it, I will have victory. But that's not what he's saying. It's all about verse 11. I have found a way to be content in every circumstance, whether I have everything I would ever dream about or nothing at all. The secret is I can be content and at peace and enjoy because Christ is in me.

It's about spiritual abundance in his life. It's about enduring joy. It's about enduring contentment and peace, regardless of what outward circumstances come in his life. That is what he's talking about in verse 13. Now, I want you to turn back to chapter one, because I want to take this line, I have learned the secret of being content in all circumstances, and I want to apply it into the situation Paul's in right now and see how does he work through the circumstances he's in to experience that contentment in Christ.

And I want you to see that there's this inward battle that he is fighting in chapter one. Now, before we get to it, have you ever heard someone, like, say, you need to choose joy? You've seen that. I've seen his book titles. Choose joy.

Just a warning, if you say to me, kevin, choose joy, I might just choose to punch you in the face. Like, I. I can't stand that statement because I can't choose how I feel. You know, it sounds dumb. It sounds absolutely impossible.

Choose joy. Like, I can't choose this in my life. And yet Paul has made a choice. And here's the crazy thing. What he shows us is that choosing contentment or choosing joy in Christ, it's a focus before it's ever about a feeling.

It's not about choosing to feel joy. It's about choosing to focus on the joy that God has placed in your life. To focus before. It's a feeling. It's a point of view.

It's a way of looking and seeing at the things that you're in, which helps me because now I'm free from having to feel a certain way. It's a focus that I have, a focus that I place myself on. And for Paul, there's three choices he's made from his prison cell. Three choices that he has said, in spite of everything I'm involved in, I'm going to look at it this way. And the first choice he's made is to look at what's actually happening to him.

Look at verse 12. He's imprisoned, but actually God was at work. I want you to know, brothers, that's another way of just saying, christians, friends. I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really has actually served to advance the gospel. I love this because he says, there's what's happening to me, but then there's also what's happening through all of this.

Like, he can look with his natural eyes and see the discomfort and the difficult situation he's in. But he goes, but actually there's another level, there's another layer. There's a supernatural thing that's happening. In spite of the natural things that I'm seeing, I'm going to choose to look deeper, to see what's actually happening. We serve a God who causes all things to work together for good, for those who love him and who called according to his purpose, his purpose and our good, right?

And if that's true, he says, there's what's happening and then there's also what's happening in the middle of the happening. Because I believe God is called causing all things at all times. He's always doing this to work together for my good and his purposes, which are the same thing. And if I want to be absolutely crushed in my life, if I want to be utterly destroyed, I will fix my eyes only on what's happening to me, right? I will focus on what they said about me.

I will focus on the diagnosis. I will focus on all of the unmet expectations and the disappointments of my life. I will focus on that relationship that I always want it to turn, but it will never turn. And every time I try, I get disappointed and hurt and crushed by it. That's heavy stuff.

It's crushing, soul crushing stuff. If I want to be crushed, I'll fix my eyes only on what's happening to me. And I'll never ask God, but what's really happening? What are you doing in the midst of this? And Paul looks, he goes, God help me to see what's Happening.

And what's happening, God, I believe that you're always working all things together for my good and your purposes those things. There's not a good thing in my life that's not according to his purposes. Right? You're always doing this. So help me to see what's actually happening to me while I'm in prison and.

And while I'm being carted around and while I'm being chained to prisoners. I thought I was in prison. I thought I was being shut down. But no, actually what was happening is new doors were being opened for the gospel to be advanced. And the question I think it begs for us is, do we believe that God is in control of all circumstances?

Do we actually believe that? Or is that something we sing about when the lyrics are on the screen? But we don't really believe that God is in control of all circumstances. And we have a choice here. Like, there's one of two things that we can think.

We can think that all of these things that make up my life are just a series of coincidences and happenstances that are strung together, and there's no deeper purpose, no deeper meaning to them. Or we can believe that God has assigned deeper purpose and deeper meaning in our lives and that he is actually working all things together for good in and through our lives according to his purposes. And if it's the second one that we choose, if it's the second one that we believe, then that calls us to look at every circumstance as an opportunity for God. It causes us to then ask, God, what are you really doing? You know, what is it that you're really doing in the middle of whatever circumstance I find myself in, That's a choice to make, to ask that question and to wait on the answer and understand that sometimes the answers don't come overnight.

Usually they don't come overnight. Paul was in prison for how long? In Caesarea. What did I tell you? Two years.

You know, two years and then a shipwreck and then a second boat. And now chained to other prisoners in Rome, he had been praying for a long time, like, God, what are you really doing? And he had to wait a couple of years to get any sign of what was actually happening. And then I think about the number of things in my life that I may not understand even until Jesus returns. Some of the deeper things, the deepest things, I may not know them until Jesus comes and makes all things new and says, now I want to show you what I was doing all along, actually, what I was doing.

And so what we do in the meantime is we ask ourselves, do I believe that it is true that he is working all things, everything together for my good? And according to his purposes. Paul says, I, I thought they were trying to shut me up, you know, they didn't want to hear Paul preach anymore. And he got a piece of paper and he began writing and the Holy Spirit began speaking and he kept writing. And Paul's still preaching today.

Paul didn't see that coming, you know, he was in prison. They're trying to shut me up. No, my sermons will live on because the Holy Spirit has inspired them and protected them, preserved them and moved them on. In 2024, Paul's preaching and we're listening. You know, that's what actually was happening.

So Paul chooses to look deeper from what's happening to what's happening in the happening. And the second choice he makes is to continue to trust God. Which sounds like, oh, you gotta trust God, right? It's a choice that I will continue to trust God with the things that I don't understand and the things that I don't see. Look at verse 13.

He says, really the Gospel was advancing so that it has become known throughout the whole Imperial Guard. History books say that the Imperial Guard in Paul's day might have had like 9 to 10,000 soldiers assigned to the Imperial Guard. And Paul says it's become known throughout the whole Imperial Guard and not just them, he says, and to all the rest, I don't know who they are, but they're more than the whole Imperial Guard. It's become known to thousands of people that I am here because Christ has placed me here. And it is so worth it to me.

Jesus is so infinitely valuable. I trust him even in this place and in this moment. In verse 14, what would you expect would happen with other Christians when they hear Paul has been beaten and imprisoned and he's just been feels like shut down. You might expect that they would begin to cower in fear or hide their faith and not talk about Jesus out loud in the street. Because it might happen to me too.

But Paul says no. And most of the brethren, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, now they're a lot bolder, now they're much more bold to speak the word word without fear. I thought it was going this way, but God was going that way and his way was better. I thought I was just trying to do this thing over in Jerusalem, but God by many means brought me to Rome. And the Gospel is exploding and Christians faith is encouraged and everyone is preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the streets.

And it is overwhelming what God is doing in and through my imprisonment. I thought they were shutting me down, but it was exactly the opposite. I was going this way, God was going this way, and his way was better. And you get, like, whispers of stories throughout the Bible. You get whispers of Joseph in Genesis 50.

He says, you know what? The enemy meant for evil, God meant for good. Right. And he's talking to his brothers in chapter 45 of Genesis. He says, you guys sold me to slavery.

Yeah. But you know what? Actually, what was really happening is God put me in this place so that I would come up and at God's appointed time, he would use me to bring salvation to many. Right? There's what was happening, and there's what was happening in the happening.

It reminds me of Isaiah 54. No weapon that is formed against you will prosper. Yeah. It reminds me of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego who are just trying to make meekly walk by faith to hold to their guns, but do so in a humble way. And they were put in the fiery furnace.

But they continued to trust God. You know, they didn't say, oh, never mind, never mind. We were just kidding about the whole, you know, Jehovah thing. We're good. We'll bow down before you now.

We continue to trust God because they knew they were not alone and they would not be forsaken, and that God's promises ultimately, ultimately would be true over their life. They were not alone. God was with them. He was for them. He was working all things together for good, for those who love him and who are called according to his purposes.

Right? The Bible is full of what's happening in the happening. The Bible is full of, I was going this way and then God was going that way. And God's way is better. It's full of this.

And Paul, I think, in this moment could have been like, God, where are you now? Two years, God, you know what I could have done for you out there for two years? Where are you now in my life? He could have said, well, I guess it's all over then.

You haven't been faithful to me when I was trying to be faithful to you. God, I give up. He said, I continue to place my trust in you. I continue to wait upon you. Now I can see you're redirecting things.

I was going away. You were going a different way. I'm in chains. But other believers are being encouraged and they're sharing their faith and the gospel is advancing. This is what living a surrendered life is about.

You know, we talk about that. This is what it looks like. This is what it looks like to have open hands in life, to be poor in spirit, right to go. I'm not holding anything for myself. I'm living like this because I trust God.

I trust everything that he said. He will not leave me nor forsake me, though I'm with you always. I trust that I will come again for you. I trust that I will wipe away every tear. I trust that the amount of suffering you experience now is nothing compared to the glory that is to come.

I trust in that. That's how I live an open handed life. Because I trust that the things that Jesus promised are true for his people, will be true ultimately and perfectly in my life. And so I don't have to close my hands, what I think is mine or what I think should be mine. I don't have to pull back and protect myself.

I surrender my life to him, trusting him fully. You can rise above circumstances when you live your life like this. You can rise above circumstances when you're willing to be redirected. You can experience contentment and peace and joy. The book of Philippians is often called the book of joy.

It's a theme throughout. Paul uses the word joy and the word rejoice over and over and over and over again. And I looked up the word joy that's used throughout Philippians. And it's related that the same word that is translated grace. His words have a relationship.

And the true definition, the literal definition of this joy or rejoicing that Paul talks about is to be aware of God's grace in your life. That's what joy is according to the Bible. According to Paul in Philippians, joy isn't a feeling. It's an awareness of God's presence and of his grace in and upon my life. We can rise above circumstances when we're willing to put our focus on what's happening in the happening and continue to trust him.

Why? Because when we continue to trust him, it's a place of communion with God. It's a place where we go to him and say, God, I don't know what's going on, I don't understand. He says, I'm with you. Maybe he doesn't yet say, and I'm advancing the gospel to the whole imperial guard through you.

Maybe it's time before we understand any of those things. But it's a place where we go to God and we say, God, I'm hurting God, I'm not Satisfied and I want to be. And you say, I can be in you. And we go to Him. That's why we can rise, because we commune with Him.

Him. We experience Him. We're reminded of his presence when the world has told us he doesn't care for us. We're reminded of his grace that we've experienced in the past. And we're reminded of his promise that we'll experience it once again.

Proverbs 3. This is from the message paraphrase I want you to hear, because I love the way this was translated. It says, trust God from the bottom of your heart. Don't try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God's voice in everything that you do, everywhere that you go.

He's the One who will keep you on track. It's not about Me being strong enough to endure or understanding all of the things that I'm doing. It's about him keeping me on track. It's a choice to continue to trust him, to guide us in our steps. Third choice that Paul makes is to have an eternity mindset.

People tend to think of their lives in terms of hours or days. And smart people tend to think of their lives in terms of years. But God's people think in terms of eternity. Right, here's verse 18. Let me set this up.

Verses 15, 16 and 17. He says, look, there's all these people talking about Jesus around Rome right now. And some of them are talking about Jesus because they have sheer delight in knowing Jesus and being known by Him. And it is the overflow of the heart. Their mouth speaks.

That's true of some who are preaching Jesus. But then there are others who claim to be Christians who are preaching Jesus, and they have bad motives. He says, they're preaching Jesus, but they're trying to use Jesus to earn something for themselves. I don't know if that's at all familiar to our day or not, but that's what it was in Paul's day. There were some who have a true confession and some who were trying to use Jesus.

Verse 18. Paul goes, who cares what then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, that Christ. Christ is proclaimed. That's all I care about.

In that I will rejoice. Again, I'll say it. I will rejoice. Just that Christ is proclaimed. That people would hear the grace of God in Jesus Christ.

I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayers and the provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ according to my earnest expectation and hope. I won't be put to shame in anything but that with all boldness, Christ will now, as always, always be exalted in my body. Whether by what, by life or by my death. Christ will be exalted. That's all I care about.

I have an eternity mindset. I'm not counting the hours. I'm counting eternity. For me to live as Christ, to die is gain. Yeah.

You can't choose what life throws at you. You can choose how you respond to it. You can't choose what life throws at you. You can choose what you focus on when life is throwing fastballs and you don't have a bat. You can't choose the circumstances that you're gonna find yourself in.

But you can choose where you place your focus. If anyone had a reason to complain, I think it's Paul. Consider Paul. When he first turned to Christ, his conversion came with physical blindness. And then he immediately, in seeking to follow Christ, lost all of his family, all of his friends and his career.

Not many of us have had that situation. Maybe a couple of you have lost a lot for following Christ. But he lost everything that his life he wants held dear. He says in Philippians 3, right? He lost it all.

Then the rest of his life was spent in some ways being chased by robbers, chased by former co workers, chased by new converts. He was imprisoned. He says at one point in first Corinthians, he was beaten too many times to count, many times to the very inch of death. He was shipwrecked multiple times. He was snake bitten.

He was in every way betrayed over and over again. And yet when you look at him, he says, what does it matter? What does it matter? Only that Christ is proclaimed. And in that I will rejoice.

He has an eternity mindset. He'll go through anything. He doesn't care about my life or by my death, by my life or by my death. I won't be ashamed. Only that Christ is proclaimed by all things.

Cool little summary. Warren Wiersbe wrote of what Paul has said here in the life of ministry, of Paul's ministry. Because of Paul's chains, Christ was known the whole imperial guard and beyond. And because of his critics, Christ was preached. Is Paul legit or not?

And because of his crisis, Christ was magnified.

I think most of us at times, if not a lot of it, time. We live functionally as if this is all there is. Even if our words are not there. Our lives often are dominated by the concept that this is all there is. It's just these, these days and they're gone.

And we had our shot. We had our chance. That's why we're fear of missing out, right? That's why we're yolo. That's still a thing.

I don't know. That's why we live in this way, because we're afraid this is all there is. And if this is all there is, then, by golly, we should live like everyone else in the world. And we should be frustrated every time our plans fall apart, and we should be deeply discontent with all of the brokenness and the sadness in our lives. And we should be crushed by it all if this is all that there is.

But if we believe in eternity and all the things that Jesus said and all the things the Bible teaches about eternity, all the things that we talk about here often, and if we believe that our identity. We're made new creatures in Christ. And now we're new, we're marked by Him. I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. I have a new identity that I'm rooted in and being built up in.

And it's not just that I'm living my life as happenstance, but now my life has deeper meaning and purpose, right? I'm joining in the great mission of God to build a massive family that will enjoy his pleasures forever. That's what my whole life is about. And God wants to use, use even me to impact the world through the gospel. He wants to transform the world.

He wants to change lives through me being present with people. My goodness, then doesn't matter what happens in a day, it doesn't matter what happens in an hour to me. It doesn't matter if I get all of my wishes in this moment, because the glory ahead is so great. And I'm living for more than my personal pleasure in this moment right now. And that's where Paul is here.

And there's so many things that are going to fill your lives. Church, your life is going to be full of so many good things, because every good and perfect gift comes from above. And you have a heavenly Father who loves you and he blesses you. And my eyes are too often just closed to the everyday mercies and graces he gives in my life. God is going to bless you in so many good ways, but you're also going to have so many bad days and seasons and heartbreaks and disappointments.

It's called living life in a broken world. It's the time between Christ's first coming and his second coming. You're going to have a whole mix of all of it. But I Guarantee you this in eternity, which we cannot even measure. But like a billion years from now, when you look back on your life, the only regret I think that I'll have is that I didn't make this gospel known to more people.

I won't regret the car I didn't get. I won't regret the game I didn't go to. I won't regret that this relationship never worked out perfectly. I won't regret the sickness or the difficulty or the physical pain. I won't regret those things a billion years from now.

I'll only regret that I didn't make this grace known to more people. Our lives count for more than the days and the months that we live. One of the greatest things that you can do and that I can do is we can rehearse God's goodness over our days. When Paul says the word rejoice, think about it this way. It's rejoy.

I know that's cheesy. When he's rejoicing, he's rehearsing joy. He's rehearsing the awareness of God's grace in his life and God's goodness. God, you've been good to me in the past. And you promised you'll be good to me in the future.

You promised you you'll never leave me nor forsake me. That's where my story lies. That's the story that I'm living in. It began with the grace of God, right? It will carry me through.

And it ends with the grace of God. That is my story. And because of that story, who cares? I found the secret to contentment in all circumstances. Christ in me.

If you want to know how to really rise above all circumstances. Circumstances. There's one line from Hebrews 12. It says, who? For the joy set before him, he endured the cross.

Jesus didn't have any joy in the physical cross. He had joy in seeing what was happening in the happening.

Jesus didn't have joy in nails and hands and feet. He had joy that he could continue to trust his Heavenly Father and that he had a good plan he didn't have. He had every anguish you could imagine on the cross. Like there was nothing held back because he was the Son of God. It was all of it.

And it was worse than we can ever comprehend. Because the Bible says he took on the sins of the world.

Yet who for the joy set before him? Because he knew what God was doing through it all, he knew God had a plan and a purpose. Through it all, he had contentment in every circumstance. Paul Says I learned the secret. It's not about me being tough or wise or brave or full of grace.

It's not about me having any of those things. It's about being Christ's. I belong to him and he is in me, who for the joy set before him, endured the cross. It's a focus before it's a feeling. It's a focus before it's a feeling.

Do you know though that when someone's hurting, it doesn't always help to hear the truth?

There's people going through real things. In our church, we have a 10 year old with lymphoma. We have folks who've lost family members in the last 10 days. We have people who've had multiple people who've had cancer surgery in the last few months. We have people who have, who have lost jobs.

We have people who have lost friends. We have people who keep feeling like they're getting kicked in the teeth. Walk up to them right now and say, choose joy.

You know, sometimes you hear this and you go, well, yeah, I agree. I understand those things. I believe those things. But Kevin, you don't understand what it's like. And I don't.

I know what my burdens feel like. I don't know what all of your burdens feel like. Such a good thing that we have in the Bible, things like cast your cares on the Lord because he cares for you, because he does. Now Hebrews says that he was tempted in all things, was tried in all things as we are. That's why it's good that he's our great high priest.

He suffered betrayal, he suffered pain and loss, ridicule gave his life. Cast your cares on him because he cares for you.

Lay your burdens down at the feet of Jesus, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest, take my yoke upon you.

I think probably a lot of days we can be like the dad whose son was demon possessed. Take that for a circumstance, right? Some of your parents imagine your child like demon possessions. Feels like a movie to us. But spiritual warfare, it's a real thing.

And there's a guy whose son is demon possessed and the demon would throw him down on the ground violently destroying his life in every way. This guy turns to Jesus and he says, jesus, if you can do anything, if you could do anything to help us. Jesus goes, if I could do anything. The Father looks at Jesus and he goes, I believe, but I'm also holding unbelief. And in the broken human heart, we can hold both belief and Unbelief on some days.

He says, lord, I believe, but help my unbelief. And I think that's one of the best places that we can be on some days. Honest before God, and too long we've been in cultures. Maybe it's because we're trying to compare, which, by the way, comparison is the thief of what joy. We're trying to compare our lives to other people's lives.

And so we're always pretending, always putting on, I'm better off than I am. I'm more okay, I'm okay, you're o okay, we're okay. I'm blessed, you know, highly favored.

And so when we're holding the space that deep within we've got I believe and I have unbelief, we go, I'm not allowed to have that. I believe, blessed. And on the inside we're falling to pieces and we're losing hope. Maybe the best place we can be is with that dad. Lord, I believe, but I believe that your God is big enough to hold my unbelief, to sustain me.

That's why I will trust in you. What I believe to help my unbelief. It's the place of communion with him, where he says, I am with you, my child. I will not leave you, nor will I forsake you. I will love you with my everlasting love.

Never giving up, never stopping, unbreaking, always and forever love. And in the end, ultimately wiping away every tear. It's the best place we can be in many days. What I want to do for the next few moments is give you a little bit of space to acknowledge that you hold both belief and disbelief in your heart. If you're not, then you just might be a robot.

I don't know. All of us humans, we wrestle with these things. And so you have full permission. If we didn't have permission to struggle with unbelief, we wouldn't have the Book of Psalms. We wouldn't have half of the prophets who go to God and say, you're not very good at being God.

But they go to God with it, right? They go to him with it. And in that, God brings joy and healing and peace and contentment. So I want to ask our band to come. I'm going to pray over us.

I want to give you some time to sit with God, to be like the Father. What I believe, but help my unbelief and be specific. God, I'm in prison. I'm in chains. Help me to see what's really going on and wait for him.

And maybe you don't get the answer this morning, but you get God this morning is what you could. And I'll be up here. A couple of other pastors and prayer partners will be here and in the back if you guys want to move there and take a few minutes to be honest and see what God might do. Let's pray.

God, we're a people who are accustomed to memorizing scripture because we've had it so available to us in our lives. And we're accustomed to singing songs of worship because we listen to them on Spotify and on the radio, and we know the words and we lift up these praises and these declarations. And at times they are the true overflow of the heart. The mouth speaks and. And at times we're hiding under these words, broken hearts and fears of I don't feel blessed.

And we don't know what to do with that. And I thank you that you've shown us in your word that you've never demanded that we come perfect, but that we just come, we're invited to come before you. And this morning I pray that there would be freedom in this place, there will be freedom in your people to be honest before you about both the victories and the failures of our life and how we feel about it. And in that place of communion with you that you might speak over us. I am with you and I love you.

I will not forsake you. My promises are sure. Hang on.

And I pray that as we come as a body, in one spirit, one heart and one mind, Holy Spirit, would you encourage the hope and the faith of those in this room? Because we realize that we're not alone. We have you and we have each other. So would you remind our hearts of these truths, even when it's hard to hear them? Would you remind, remind them to our heads and to our hearts that we might be a people who say, I can be content in any and every circumstance.

And the secret is I'm not alone. Christ is in me. I can do all things through him who gives me strength in Jesus name.