Think Again

[SPEAKER_02]: Philippine chapter four verse four says, rejoice in the Lord always.

[SPEAKER_02]: I will say it again, rejoice.

[SPEAKER_02]: Let your graciousness be known to everyone.

[SPEAKER_02]: The Lord is near.

[SPEAKER_02]: Don't worry about anything.

[SPEAKER_02]: But in everything through prayer and petition with things given, let your requests be made known to God.

[SPEAKER_02]: And the peace of God, which surpasses every thought or some translations say surpasses your understanding.

[SPEAKER_02]: will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

[SPEAKER_02]: Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about these things.

[SPEAKER_02]: Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me or seen in me, put it into practice.

[SPEAKER_02]: And the God of peace will be with you.

[SPEAKER_02]: If I had a tag, a subject matter, a theme of thought, that I want to tag to this little Sunday school message.

[SPEAKER_02]: I want to share with you today.

[SPEAKER_02]: I would just say, think again.

[SPEAKER_02]: Think again.

[SPEAKER_02]: Do me a favor and just turn to somebody on your left hand side and say, it's not what it looks like.

[SPEAKER_02]: You better think again.

[SPEAKER_02]: You know, that person was a little, was a little stale.

[SPEAKER_02]: So just finding the person on the opposite side of you would say, ma'am sir, it's not what it looks like.

[SPEAKER_02]: You better think again.

[SPEAKER_02]: You know what that person then gave me what I needed either.

[SPEAKER_02]: So do buffet, but talk to yourself for a moment and say, self, it's not what it looks like.

[SPEAKER_02]: You better think again.

[SPEAKER_02]: Philippians, the book of Philippians is a letter.

[SPEAKER_02]: Let me start here for a moment.

[SPEAKER_02]: If you know me, before we get into all the nitty-gritty things like that, I may teach you at heart.

[SPEAKER_02]: Before we jump into the hoop into the hall and the waves and the winds of things, we have to do some historical context.

[SPEAKER_02]: Is that all right for a moment?

[SPEAKER_02]: We understand what it is that we're talking about.

[SPEAKER_02]: The book of Philippians is written by the Apostle Paul

[SPEAKER_02]: And it is a letter to the church in Philippi, which is one of the churches that Paul established along his missionary journeys that he had.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so it is in this letter that Paul is writing to this body, this community of believers, a man by the name of Epacorditis,

[SPEAKER_02]: had brought Paul while Paul, at this time, at the time of this writing, Paul is locked up in a Roman prison.

[SPEAKER_02]: And he is in prison, one of the few times in which Paul is imprisoned.

[SPEAKER_02]: And while he is in prison, a man by the name of a patriotist brings him a financial gift or a seed or a love offering of sword,

[SPEAKER_02]: to help aid and support Paul along his missionary and ministry journey.

[SPEAKER_02]: This was one of the things that were customary for a lot of individuals when Paul would travel and he would preach and he would minister along his journeys.

[SPEAKER_02]: There were certain people, certain churches, certain bodies of people who wanted the ministry in the message of Paul to thrive.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so they would do that by supporting his ministry

[SPEAKER_02]: through sewing into it, whether it was a financial seed, whether it was giving him lodging, when he would travel, whether it was cooking him a home cooked meal, whatever it was, they wanted the ministry and the message of Paul to thrive, and so they would sew into his life.

[SPEAKER_02]: And a preferred diet is at this time is restarting a sewing campaign from the church in the Philippi.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I say restarting because the scriptures let us know that there was a period of time to which this church had kind of a cease their giving for whatever reason, whether times were hard, whether the resources were slim, they're giving and support that kind of lack of a little bit.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so, so much so that

[SPEAKER_02]: In the beginning of Philippians chapter four, Paul thinks them and is letter by saying, I'm glad that you have revived your concern for me.

[SPEAKER_02]: In other words, I'm glad that you are now back in a position to read your able to sow into the work of the ministry, not that I talked from a place of need, but really, I'm glad because when you sow unto me and you ensure that my ministry grows, you are actually crediting your own accounts.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so I'm glad not because you're doing me a favor, but I'm glad because of the blessing that you just unlocked in your life.

[SPEAKER_02]: Can I get a witness in here?

[SPEAKER_02]: And so Paul writes this letter to the church in Philippi and unlike many of Paul's other writings, this letter isn't where it has a central theme or pattern that kind of from start to finish, whereas this is more so a short collection of different topics and subject matters that Paul writes to address and to correct some of the things that are going on in this body of believers.

[SPEAKER_02]: Y'all are right so far?

[SPEAKER_02]: And so one of the things that Paul does in the beginning of this writing is he addresses an issue that is happening between these two female leaders in this church in a syllabi.

[SPEAKER_02]: Now, the scriptures don't go into the matter at hand as to what it was that the issue was between these two women, but however, if you're like me who grow up in a family full of women, there is always to be some discord when you got two women in the same kitchen.

[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know.

[SPEAKER_02]: What it is, what happens, but at any time, you get two women together in both of them leading and three is going on.

[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know about two, but I've had many of headaches when I have had two women in the same.

[SPEAKER_02]: Come on, do I have a witness in here?

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, so, I don't know what was going on, but maybe there was two women trying to cook the mirror from the man.

[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know what was going on, but the scriptures don't say, but whatever it was, there was contention between these two female leaders.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so Paul stops to address this issue first.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I think it's important that we understand God does not do anything by accident.

[SPEAKER_02]: The fact that he would take the time to address this issue first and he addressed it by name.

[SPEAKER_02]: Let's us know that there is a matter of importance that we have to pay attention to.

[SPEAKER_02]: whenever God issues or states names in Scripture and doesn't just leave it as a certain woman or a certain person when he gives us the name he gives it to us because he wants us to pay attention to what's going on and he wants us to pay attention to what's happening

[SPEAKER_02]: And obviously, whatever is going on between these two women here is having such a profound impact on the body and large that Paul and Paul thought it necessary that before we get into all the other matters here, I need to first address leadership here.

[SPEAKER_02]: Because whatever the discord is going on between you two, it is obviously having an adverse impact on the ministry and the growth and the community here.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so I need you, what Paul tells him is, I need you two to be of the same mind in Christ.

[SPEAKER_02]: Why?

[SPEAKER_02]: Because if you two as the leaders are on discord and disharmony and dysfunctional,

[SPEAKER_02]: Then guess what?

[SPEAKER_02]: Then the people look are looking at how leadership handles conflict.

[SPEAKER_02]: And when the people feel like the leaders don't know how to get along with each other, and when the people feel like the leaders don't know how to do what conflict here, it speels over into the body.

[SPEAKER_02]: And we wonder why it is that the bodies in all this array is because I'm looking at my leadership.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I'm following what I'm seeing.

[SPEAKER_02]: And if the body is to progress, then leadership has to be of the same mind.

[SPEAKER_02]: Does that make sense?

[SPEAKER_02]: And so he encourages them to be of the same mind.

[SPEAKER_02]: in Christ.

[SPEAKER_02]: And then Paul goes further into this conversation and he shifts gears for a moment.

[SPEAKER_02]: And he tells him and he gives him his first exhortation, his strong and curbagement.

[SPEAKER_02]: And he says, rejoice in the Lord, always.

[SPEAKER_02]: And just in case there was somebody in the back who didn't hear me the first time I said it.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'll say it again.

[SPEAKER_02]: I said, rejoice.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I think it's important for us to understand that this was not an optional thing that Paul was doing here.

[SPEAKER_02]: It was really written as a command.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm commanding you to rejoice in the Lord always.

[SPEAKER_02]: because the reality is that that they're going to be some circumstances in our life where we have to command ourselves to rejoice and spite of what's going on around us.

[SPEAKER_02]: And here's the reality ladies and gentlemen, he said rejoice in the Lord always.

[SPEAKER_02]: And that doesn't mean just when things are going good.

[SPEAKER_02]: It doesn't mean just when you have all you need.

[SPEAKER_02]: It doesn't mean just when everything is going right.

[SPEAKER_02]: He said, rejoiced in the Lord always.

[SPEAKER_02]: That means even in a hard times you had to find some to rejoice about.

[SPEAKER_02]: And the broken times you got to rejoice.

[SPEAKER_02]: And the week times you've got to rejoice.

[SPEAKER_02]: When pain is going on, you've got to rejoice.

[SPEAKER_02]: When your family is crazy, you've got to rejoice.

[SPEAKER_02]: When your money is funny, you've got to rejoice.

[SPEAKER_02]: When everything is going, hey, why are around with you?

[SPEAKER_02]: You want to find yourself a reason to rejoice.

[SPEAKER_02]: Why is not because, and hear the difference between rejoicing and happiness?

[SPEAKER_02]: Because happiness, the Greek word, the root origin of the word happiness is the word

[SPEAKER_02]: And for a hat to occur, that means it is predicated upon external environment.

[SPEAKER_02]: But rejoice, which means inner joy, helps us to understand that I am not predicated or controlled by what's happening around me.

[SPEAKER_02]: But there is an inner joy that I have that no matter what the circumstances are, no matter what the environment may look like.

[SPEAKER_02]: There was something on the inside of me that can find a reason to rejoice in spite of my situation and spite of my brokenness and spite of my pain and spite of my hurt.

[SPEAKER_02]: I have a reason to rejoice.

[SPEAKER_02]: rejoicing is a response that comes from our walk with God.

[SPEAKER_02]: Joy, listen to these in German.

[SPEAKER_02]: Joy is an inside job.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm gonna say that one more time for the people in the back.

[SPEAKER_02]: I said, joy is an inside job.

[SPEAKER_02]: I don't need my environment to change in order for me to have joy.

[SPEAKER_02]: Joy is something I decide to have.

[SPEAKER_02]: Watch this now.

[SPEAKER_02]: Not because of what's going on, but because of who I have inside of me.

[SPEAKER_02]: Paul encourages them to rejoice in the Lord always.

[SPEAKER_02]: But I would be honest, there are sometimes in life where it's hard to rejoice.

[SPEAKER_02]: Can I just get a, can we be real for a moment?

[SPEAKER_02]: I know we in church.

[SPEAKER_02]: I know some young like to fake the funk and church sometimes, but sometimes it's hard to have joy.

[SPEAKER_02]: I move far too often.

[SPEAKER_02]: We encounter many people who, no matter what's going on, everything is always okay.

[SPEAKER_02]: You know, you know, how you doing?

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm blessed and highly favored in the Lord.

[SPEAKER_02]: You know, how you feeling?

[SPEAKER_02]: God is good all the time.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, I understand that bless your heart baby good for you.

[SPEAKER_02]: But there are some people who like me who understand that yes, God is good, but guess what?

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm still disappointed.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, God is good, but I'm

[SPEAKER_02]: frustrated, yes, yeah, I won't joy, but my heart is broken.

[SPEAKER_02]: I won't joy, but I'm frustrated.

[SPEAKER_02]: I won't joy, but I'm discouraged.

[SPEAKER_02]: I won't joy, but guess what, my money is acting crazy.

[SPEAKER_02]: I won't joy, but my house is in disarray.

[SPEAKER_02]: I won't joy, but my family is riding my back.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I won't joy, but the reality is, there was sometimes when I, the joy I won't

[SPEAKER_02]: doesn't match the reality I have.

[SPEAKER_02]: So I have to encourage myself.

[SPEAKER_02]: Come here David for a moment.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm recalled David in the place called Zicklag.

[SPEAKER_02]: And there was a season of David's life where he was in a constant battle with Israel's armies.

[SPEAKER_02]: He was in constant battle with the Philicat, with the Philistines, and with the Amalachites, and it seems like he will go to war, come back home, and go right back to battle.

[SPEAKER_02]: He would go fight the Philistines, and then come home, eat it, get you to good meal, and go right back to fighting again.

[SPEAKER_02]: And for the Philistines, there was the Amalachites, and

[SPEAKER_02]: War and battle and rest and war and battle and rest and war and battle and rest in the Bible says that that that that one time why David and his meat were out fighting a war gets to finish times while they're out doing battle out there

[SPEAKER_02]: at home the Amalachites came into the camp and started kidnapping the women and the children.

[SPEAKER_02]: And when David and his men returned from war and they came home expecting to hear the sound of kids running around the camp.

[SPEAKER_02]: And they came expecting to hit the smell, the aroma of fresh big bread in the oven.

[SPEAKER_02]: But when they came home, the wines and the children were gone.

[SPEAKER_02]: And when they realized that the enemy had came in and kidnapped, the families, all of a sudden, they was mad and the same people that he was fighting with began to want to fight him.

[SPEAKER_02]: And now he just came back from fighting their filestimes.

[SPEAKER_02]: home and their malachites are having to have come in and wrong the captain now them now his men want to fight him and all of a sudden David got so overwhelmed and so weakened by what was going on I'm tired I'm overwhelmed

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm frustrated.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm count on the sleep and the Bible said that David looked around for somebody to support them David looked around for somebody to help him and he couldn't find anybody.

[SPEAKER_02]: So guess what David did?

[SPEAKER_02]: The Bible said that David found himself a corner in his little tent city and he said that David encouraged

[SPEAKER_02]: himself because there are some times in your life when you're gonna look around the wonder when my help is gonna come from with my people at when my support system is and they're returned but I don't have what it is I think I need Robert so guess what I gotta do I gotta find something on the inside of me and I got to get to my history with God and I got to get to a place where I got to encourage myself

[SPEAKER_02]: Does anybody ever had to encourage yourself?

[SPEAKER_02]: And I know a few of the good ones you have people around, but sometimes, it's just going to be you and God.

[SPEAKER_02]: And you're going to need to find and rely upon the history with God.

[SPEAKER_02]: That's why your history with God is so important.

[SPEAKER_02]: because there's gonna come times in your life where the people are silent.

[SPEAKER_02]: And those who you thought will be there.

[SPEAKER_02]: I know where to be found.

[SPEAKER_02]: And all you have is a memory with God.

[SPEAKER_02]: All you have in your arsenal is there was a time way back when.

[SPEAKER_02]: when I felt like this before.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I know what it felt like to be by myself.

[SPEAKER_02]: And that's when I experienced what God said when he said, I stick closer than a brother.

[SPEAKER_02]: That's when I felt like I experienced what it means when God said, I don't have a leave you.

[SPEAKER_02]: No, when I forsake you.

[SPEAKER_02]: I got a memory.

[SPEAKER_02]: Sometimes your greatest weapon to discourage me is going to be a memory with God.

[SPEAKER_02]: Sometimes your greatest weapon of this warfare is going to be a memory with God.

[SPEAKER_02]: God, no matter what happens, don't let me lose my memory.

[SPEAKER_02]: Don't let me lose and forsake the things.

[SPEAKER_02]: Now here's two with you.

[SPEAKER_02]: Give me back my memories.

[SPEAKER_02]: Verse five, Paul tells them to let your gentleness be made evidence because the Lord is near.

[SPEAKER_02]: In other words, how you treat others ought to be a reflection that you have the Spirit of God inside of you.

[SPEAKER_02]: This word gentleness describes the heart of a person who knows what it feels like to let the Lord fight their battles.

[SPEAKER_02]: This kind of person is really free to let go to the anxieties of life.

[SPEAKER_02]: Why?

[SPEAKER_02]: Because they know enough about God that I don't have to fight my battles by myself.

[SPEAKER_02]: That the Lord Himself is near.

[SPEAKER_02]: And when Jesus returns that he's going to write every wrong, he's going to settle every score, Robert.

[SPEAKER_02]: He's going to correct everything that has been wrong.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so why fret myself over what Jesus has said.

[SPEAKER_02]: to understand before you, and vengeance is mine, says the Lord.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so this chintunist that Paul talks about is, listen, I need you to have the kind of patience, the kind of long suffering, the kind of understanding that knows that you and gotta do a thing.

[SPEAKER_02]: God already got that thing handled.

[SPEAKER_02]: Does that make sense in here?

[SPEAKER_02]: And so as we move forward into this letter, Paul,

[SPEAKER_02]: begins to shift gears a little bit into some additional exhortations and he begins to deal with some of the additional matters that this body of people are being impacted by that I'm sure we ourselves can relate to.

[SPEAKER_02]: In verse six and seven, Paul says, don't be anxious about anything.

[SPEAKER_02]: Don't be anxious about anything, but by everything, with prayer and supplication, let your request be made known to God, and the peace of God will guard your hearts and minds.

[SPEAKER_02]: Here's the reality, ladies and gentlemen.

[SPEAKER_02]: We can't always make sense of what life brings away.

[SPEAKER_02]: There are moments where our words fill us and our hearts are heavy and the mind wrestles to find answers.

[SPEAKER_02]: Can I get a witness?

[SPEAKER_02]: But it's in moments like these that God does his best work because it is here in these moments the valley seasons of life that God reminds us that his presence is enough.

[SPEAKER_02]: that his spirit is near and that his peace is available.

[SPEAKER_02]: The apostle Paul is writing from a Roman prison and he is writing this letter and he is encouraging the people in the Philippian church, be anxious for nothing.

[SPEAKER_02]: And it's interesting because, you know, sometimes when I reach scriptures, I read it like an HBO Hollywood film because, you know, it has to kind of play out in my mind like an action movie at times.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I'm like, how in the world could Paul writes, don't be anxious for nothing while he's locked away in a prison.

[SPEAKER_02]: How is it that Paul could have enough goal, enough strength to tell other people not to be anxious about anything, but you're just pray about it, why he himself is locked away in a prison, not sure or understanding what's going to happen with his life.

[SPEAKER_02]: And it's interesting for us to understand here is because Paul was able to say that why?

[SPEAKER_02]: Because Paul tapped into a power on the inside of him in a piece that was not rooted in circumstances, but a piece that was rooted in Christ.

[SPEAKER_02]: Paul tapped into something on the inside of him.

[SPEAKER_02]: He had a different foundation.

[SPEAKER_02]: He had a different root system.

[SPEAKER_02]: He had a different system of understanding that no matter what the circumstances are, no matter what the situation is, guess what?

[SPEAKER_02]: My piece isn't predicated about the external environment.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I just believe church that in this moment, in this time, in this space that we are in, that the Lord Himself has a gift for you, and that gift is His surpassing peace.

[SPEAKER_02]: How many people want the peace of God in your life?

[SPEAKER_02]: I believe that God has some peace that he wants to release today.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so I just want to encourage you for a moment about the peace of God.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I got a few points I'm going to leave to you with that I'm going to get out your way and take my seat and drink some more coffee.

[SPEAKER_02]: Is that all right?

[SPEAKER_02]: All right, I hit the first thing I want to say to you, put number one of you taking notes right this down.

[SPEAKER_02]: Peace is not the absence of trouble, it's the presence of God.

[SPEAKER_02]: When you're looking at the Old Testament, anytime we talked about peace, peace was often referred to in military term.

[SPEAKER_02]: It was often described a time in national history where they were without war.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so it was almost like when almost as if a peace treaty had been signed.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so the people, the nations were not in conflict with each other.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so that indicated that we were in a state of peace.

[SPEAKER_02]: That's old testament.

[SPEAKER_02]: But when you go to the new testament, you understand, the additional origins of the word, peace you understand that peace has a less to do once again with external situations and factors, but peace is something that comes on and from and through God himself.

[SPEAKER_02]: It is a state of being a man.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so the reality is

[SPEAKER_02]: We often pray for peace, and we think that peace means everything is gonna be calm and easy.

[SPEAKER_02]: But Jesus said Himself, He said, over in John, chapter sixteen verse thirty three, He said, guess what?

[SPEAKER_02]: Just so just so you won't be confused here.

[SPEAKER_02]: He said, in this world, you're gonna have some trouble.

[SPEAKER_02]: Let me just let me just let it all right now.

[SPEAKER_02]: So you won't be surprised when it comes.

[SPEAKER_02]: You won't be taking a back by it.

[SPEAKER_02]: In this world, you're going to have some troubles.

[SPEAKER_02]: Jesus did us a favor.

[SPEAKER_02]: Because there is this misnomer out there that when I have Jesus, I have that means I have the absence of problems.

[SPEAKER_02]: Oh my, listen, if only if only if only that were true.

[SPEAKER_02]: But Jesus said, but now I didn't say that you were having a problem, but then this one he followed up, but he said listen, but take heart.

[SPEAKER_02]: Why?

[SPEAKER_02]: Because I have overcome the world.

[SPEAKER_02]: You are had some problems, no way.

[SPEAKER_02]: But I guess what?

[SPEAKER_02]: Take heart.

[SPEAKER_02]: because the problems that you gon face, I've already taken care of them.

[SPEAKER_02]: The problems that you will have, I've already dealt with them.

[SPEAKER_02]: The issues that you haven't even had yet, I've already figured out the problem.

[SPEAKER_02]: The things that you haven't even come against you take heart.

[SPEAKER_02]: I've already saw that.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so he said, in this way, you're going to have these things, but take heart because I've already overcome the things that are trying to overtake you.

[SPEAKER_02]: Peace doesn't mean no storm.

[SPEAKER_02]: Peace just means that in the storm, I don't piece.

[SPEAKER_02]: Think about it like this, when the disciples were on the ship, the Titanic, which we want to call it, whatever they had in those times, the most rugged boats.

[SPEAKER_02]: And the disciples and Jesus were selling on the water and the winds and the waves begin to overtake them.

[SPEAKER_02]: And the disciples got a little scarred.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so they began to be a little weary.

[SPEAKER_02]: And while they out there acting, probably they lose.

[SPEAKER_02]: They everlasting mine.

[SPEAKER_02]: Jesus has the nerve to be sleep.

[SPEAKER_02]: While they are about to lose they mind.

[SPEAKER_02]: And they look and they said, Jesus, do you even care about us?

[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, we out here, but we out here try to fight these things and try to overtake these things and you're back here just not out.

[SPEAKER_02]: Jesus rakes from his slumber, wipes his eyes, and only thing Jesus, Jesus before he even speaks to them.

[SPEAKER_02]: He looks at what's overtaking them and he says, peace, be steel.

[SPEAKER_02]: Jesus was not just talking to the storm that they were in, but he was also calming the storm that was within them.

[SPEAKER_02]: The reality is, is that every person in this room are going to have some times where you're going to be either in a storm, you're coming out of a storm,

[SPEAKER_02]: or you're gonna be walking through a storm.

[SPEAKER_02]: And when Jesus says peace be steel, He's not just talking about the storm that is around you.

[SPEAKER_02]: But how many of you know what it feels like to have a storm on the inside of you?

[SPEAKER_02]: And when Jesus says peace be steel, He's also going to calm the anxieties and the fears and the worries and the concerns that are causing you to be distracted by what's going on around you.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so there are times in your life where God

[SPEAKER_02]: not only calm the things that are around you let me calm you down for a moment peace be steel God's peace doesn't just wait for everything to be fixed here's a great thing about God's peace God's peace shows up in the middle of chaos

[SPEAKER_02]: You don't really know God's peace until you're in the midst of chaos.

[SPEAKER_02]: You don't really understand what it feels like to have the peace of God until everything around you is going haywire.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's hard to really know what the peace of God is until you end times of confusion and the heartbreak and pain and discouragement and frustration.

[SPEAKER_02]: And then it is in those moments where people around you are looking at how in the world

[SPEAKER_02]: Are you able to stand firm?

[SPEAKER_02]: How in the world is this thing not killing you?

[SPEAKER_02]: How in the world are you sleeping at night?

[SPEAKER_02]: It's because just what God didn't stop being Emmanuel just when the Christmas Carol was over just because he was he was Emmanuel then and he's Emmanuel now.

[SPEAKER_02]: What does that mean?

[SPEAKER_02]: God is still with me

[SPEAKER_02]: He is still the God who was with me and even in these moments in these moments of chaos and these moments of confusion in these moments of pain and a heartbreak and fear.

[SPEAKER_02]: Guess what God is still Emmanuel and guess what he is then predicated or relegated to us to a Christmas season.

[SPEAKER_02]: But God is Emmanuel yesterday.

[SPEAKER_02]: He's Emmanuel today.

[SPEAKER_02]: He's Emmanuel forevermore.

[SPEAKER_02]: And God will be the very thing that you need Him to be in every season of your life.

[SPEAKER_02]: He is still with you.

[SPEAKER_02]: I love when Paul, when David writes in Psalm, forty-six verse one, that God is ever present help in the time of trouble.

[SPEAKER_02]: In the moment what I need something God is exactly who I need him to be.

[SPEAKER_02]: Point number two, I want to share with you is this, peace comes to God the heart and the mind.

[SPEAKER_02]: Peace guards the heart and the mind.

[SPEAKER_02]: Paul writes here that the peace of God will garner hearts in your minds.

[SPEAKER_02]: In other words, it will guard your emotions and your faults.

[SPEAKER_02]: That word guard is important for us to understand is a military term.

[SPEAKER_02]: And it paints a picture of a soldier standing watch and protecting something valuable.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so when you understand how military tactics used to work back in those times, there would be guards that would be stationed at strategic entry points of vulnerability.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so these guards would be there to protect and to watch against hostile invasion from the enemy.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so in other words, peace is not some passive thing.

[SPEAKER_02]: Peace is an action.

[SPEAKER_02]: And peace is actively working.

[SPEAKER_02]: Peace is not something just that you're that is a fragmented, stagnated thing that happens in your life.

[SPEAKER_02]: But peace is something that is working.

[SPEAKER_02]: day in and day out peace is something that is a working on when you wake up and when you go to bed at night peace is at a work on your heart and your mind it is not something that just comes and it just sits there but peace has a job to do and his job is to make sure that no matter what's going on around you I'm standing guard and at the moment at the pace of the vulnerability in your life and when the thoughts of fear come no fear can stay here

[SPEAKER_02]: Nope, anxiety can't stay here.

[SPEAKER_02]: I know the person can come in here.

[SPEAKER_02]: Nope, discourage me can't come in here.

[SPEAKER_02]: Why?

[SPEAKER_02]: Because peace is standing like a guard and he's guarding my heart and he's guarding my mind and guess what?

[SPEAKER_02]: I may go through some things, but guess what peace says?

[SPEAKER_02]: Nope, no can't sit here.

[SPEAKER_02]: Peace.

[SPEAKER_02]: God's your heart and your mind.

[SPEAKER_02]: When your heart is heavy, and your mind feels scattered, peace stands at the door.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so now, anxiety can't come in here.

[SPEAKER_02]: I fear no, fear is not walking me here.

[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, no, discouragement.

[SPEAKER_02]: No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no

[SPEAKER_02]: And I'm going to protect it against all type of hostile invasions.

[SPEAKER_02]: No matter what the enemy tries to throw at you, there's a peace that is guarding your mind.

[SPEAKER_02]: And even in a place of vulnerabilities, there's a peace that is guarding you.

[SPEAKER_02]: And even when I think I'm getting ready to get to a place of sunkenness and in the place of despair, peace stands up.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so no baby, I need to do right back up in here.

[SPEAKER_02]: Why?

[SPEAKER_02]: Because I'm guarding you.

[SPEAKER_02]: Peace is working for you.

[SPEAKER_02]: And some of us wonder how it is, why it is that we can still stand in the midst of what you've gone through when the real eye in the reality is this is a thing called peace.

[SPEAKER_02]: There was something there were things that you've happened that have happened in your life that you've won and how when they heck.

[SPEAKER_02]: I've been able to still make it through.

[SPEAKER_02]: How in the heck am I still able to stand here?

[SPEAKER_02]: How in the heck am I still here?

[SPEAKER_02]: And I haven't lost my mind.

[SPEAKER_02]: Well, it's because peace has been keeping you.

[SPEAKER_02]: Peace has been guarding you peace has been watching over you and you thought it was because you just went to church every Sunday you thought it was because you just been that good of a person you thought it was because just because you just that wonderful of individual now, baby, it's because the peace of God

[SPEAKER_02]: has been guarding you, and even in the times where you didn't deserve it, and even in the times where you weren't thinking about God, his peace was dispatched, and while you were inside your slumber, peace was guarding your mind, and that is the reason why, in the Psalm, David can write something like, that your mind can be protected from the air blows of night, and from the thoughts and the torment that come into your mind at night, why, because peace has been keeping you.

[SPEAKER_01]: Peace.

[SPEAKER_02]: May God station his peace over this church like a fortress.

[SPEAKER_02]: May God station his peace around your hearts and around your minds and even in this hour and in this season may you experience what it feels like to have the peace of God.

[SPEAKER_02]: May the peace of God station and keep you and fortify you.

[SPEAKER_02]: in this moment and made the peace of God overtake you and made the peace of God begin to keep you in a place that no matter what is happening, I can stand still and I can see the goodness of God, why?

[SPEAKER_02]: Because the peace of God has been keeping me.

[SPEAKER_02]: Third thing, peace surpasses human logic.

[SPEAKER_02]: peace surpasses human logic that works surpasses means to excel or is it's greater than our human understanding.

[SPEAKER_02]: In other words, it just doesn't make natural sense.

[SPEAKER_02]: I have no words for it past all this.

[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know.

[SPEAKER_02]: I can't really describe what is God doing.

[SPEAKER_02]: Maybe you tell me.

[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know, I don't have the words for it.

[SPEAKER_02]: I don't, I don't know how I'm still standing.

[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know how it is that I haven't gone crazy.

[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know how it is that I haven't cut you yet.

[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know how it is that I haven't got you there yet.

[SPEAKER_02]: Listen, the only thing I can do to explain this is that there's a power working because if it was me, baby, you would've got cut a long time ago, but the peace of God.

[SPEAKER_02]: Listen, listen, sometimes the people around you better think God for the peace.

[SPEAKER_02]: Because if it had not been for the peace of God on my side, where would I be?

[SPEAKER_02]: Or would listen over in loose terror, right now in self-block to it?

[SPEAKER_02]: Because the peace of God is what has been keeping me.

[SPEAKER_02]: And if I be honest, he's kept you.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's the peace of God.

[SPEAKER_02]: and these moments where people they expect you to give up.

[SPEAKER_02]: Pass them a listen.

[SPEAKER_02]: There are times where you go through things and people are watching just to see how you go respond.

[SPEAKER_02]: They're watching to see, they're waiting for you to give up.

[SPEAKER_02]: They're waiting for you to throw in the towel.

[SPEAKER_02]: They're waiting for you, Robert, to just be like, yep, I knew it's gonna just be one more thing.

[SPEAKER_02]: All of it's gonna take it a one more thing, one more disappointment, one more frustration, one more hot break, one more pain.

[SPEAKER_02]: One more betrayal, one more sad moment.

[SPEAKER_02]: And all of us go take it.

[SPEAKER_02]: And guess what?

[SPEAKER_02]: He's going to lose his mind.

[SPEAKER_02]: She's going to go crazy.

[SPEAKER_02]: That's all I've been waiting for this time to happen.

[SPEAKER_02]: But yet they don't realize that even in those moments when I felt I was getting ready to get there.

[SPEAKER_02]: There's been something that has gone on inside of me that has been keeping me.

[SPEAKER_02]: And just what I thought was all my way to going crazy, but the piece of God has got in my mind.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I don't know why it is.

[SPEAKER_02]: I can explain it, but all I know is that he did.

[SPEAKER_02]: and I'm grateful and I would rather have the peace of God than my human understanding.

[SPEAKER_02]: I would rather have God's peace than my old logic.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'd rather have God's peace than my old depiction.

[SPEAKER_02]: Give me his peace.

[SPEAKER_02]: I don't need to be able to explain everything.

[SPEAKER_02]: Just give me peace.

[SPEAKER_02]: I don't need to have all the answers.

[SPEAKER_02]: Just give me peace.

[SPEAKER_02]: I need to tell people all the time.

[SPEAKER_02]: You have to get to a place in God where you are at peace with His jest and His no.

[SPEAKER_02]: Sometimes we pray for things from God and we think that every time we pray to God, it's always going to be a yes.

[SPEAKER_02]: But sometimes the greatest yes that God can give you is no.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so we have to be at peace with God's yes and his nose.

[SPEAKER_02]: There was a peace that God sends that stabilizes you when everything else is shaking and it comes from this place of understanding that I don't need to understand the why as long as I understand the who.

[SPEAKER_02]: I don't need to have explanation for everything as to why is happening.

[SPEAKER_02]: All I know is he is.

[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know why, but he is.

[SPEAKER_02]: I don't have an answer, but he does.

[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know which way I'm going left or right.

[SPEAKER_02]: but he does.

[SPEAKER_02]: I don't understand what the next step is, but guess what?

[SPEAKER_02]: He does.

[SPEAKER_02]: I can't fathom why I'm in this situation that I'm in, but guess what?

[SPEAKER_02]: As long as he does, I'm all right, because as long as I keep following him and staying at step with him, and then I obeys the words of a Galation to five or twenty-five, then I keep in step with the Spirit of God.

[SPEAKER_02]: The no matter what is going on around me, no matter my complexities, no matter my perspectives, as long as somebody knows the answer, I'm alright.

[SPEAKER_02]: Number four, peace is sustained.

[SPEAKER_02]: Watch this by what we think.

[SPEAKER_02]: Peace is sustained by what we think.

[SPEAKER_02]: Paul Testament verse eight, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is just pure, lovely, of good report, admirable.

[SPEAKER_02]: He says, think on these things.

[SPEAKER_02]: Ladies and gentlemen, one of the most often unchecked areas in our life is our thought life.

[SPEAKER_02]: Would check every other area, would check, would check our health, would check our relationships,

[SPEAKER_02]: We'll check our finances, we'll check your husband and your wife, you'll check them, they'll check you, whatever you goes on your house, whoever whatever.

[SPEAKER_02]: But one of the areas that we often fail to rotate the time to really check is our thought life.

[SPEAKER_02]: In other words, we don't often pay enough attention to thinking about what we're thinking about.

[SPEAKER_02]: And if we're not careful, and we don't have a regular rhythm to our lives of paying attention to our thought life, then it is easy for your mind to overwhelm you and to overtake you, especially in dark times.

[SPEAKER_02]: And the reality about peace is peace operates at both the emotional and the mental level.

[SPEAKER_02]: On a emotional level, peace helps your heart.

[SPEAKER_02]: It goes your heart.

[SPEAKER_02]: It helps your stabilizer emotions.

[SPEAKER_02]: It helps you to be emotionally regulated.

[SPEAKER_02]: But at the same time, on the mental level, it helps by correcting your faulty thinking patterns.

[SPEAKER_02]: It helps in the mental level by helping you and teaching you that you have to watch over your inner anxieties.

[SPEAKER_02]: You have to address the negative statements that you allow to come into your mind.

[SPEAKER_02]: The thing that you allow your mind to rehearse and regurgitate over and over again, the piece of God tells you that there are certain thoughts that you just can't think.

[SPEAKER_02]: Peace isn't just something we receive in a moment of prayer, but it is sustained by aligning our thoughts with the truth of God.

[SPEAKER_02]: Does that make sense?

[SPEAKER_02]: Because if it can still your focus, he can still your peace.

[SPEAKER_02]: What you magnify in your minds will multiply in your emotions.

[SPEAKER_02]: What you make bigger in your head will multiply it in and through your life.

[SPEAKER_02]: What you get the most attention to mentally will eventually give birth and breed to your reality.

[SPEAKER_02]: And that is why it is important that you pay attention to what it is that you pay attention to.

[SPEAKER_02]: And to remain in a place of peace, we must regulate and keep guard over our thought life.

[SPEAKER_02]: Does that make sense in here?

[SPEAKER_02]: Peace requires, right this down.

[SPEAKER_02]: Peace requires the right environment in order for it to exist.

[SPEAKER_02]: Peace requires the right environment in order for it to exist.

[SPEAKER_02]: in chapter four, Paul lists things like noble, whatever is noble and pure and just and amable.

[SPEAKER_02]: He's a think on these things.

[SPEAKER_02]: He's telling us that there is a proper environment that is necessary for you to sustain the peace of God in your life.

[SPEAKER_02]: You may not be able to control and dictate your circumstances, but you can control your environment.

[SPEAKER_02]: Does that make sense?

[SPEAKER_02]: And one of the reasons why sometimes our peace in our life and our hearts and our minds that our emotional stability is impacted is because we don't take enough time to rearrange our environment.

[SPEAKER_02]: The reality is, there were just some places in your mind that you should not be.

[SPEAKER_02]: And people, one thing they used to work for me and I thought you said to tell myself, and I noticed about myself,

[SPEAKER_02]: It is dangerous for me to spend too much time in my head by myself.

[SPEAKER_02]: I know me.

[SPEAKER_02]: I can go down, forget a rabbit hole, I can go down a ditch.

[SPEAKER_02]: Because I can spend so much time in my own head past the Austin.

[SPEAKER_02]: And those thoughts in my mind can overwhelm me to a place of dehabilitation.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's hard to move because it was going on in my head.

[SPEAKER_02]: And we, after we pray for the peace of God, things like that, and that's beautiful.

[SPEAKER_02]: But ladies and gentlemen, don't pray for the peace of God without asking for God to regulate your thought life.

[SPEAKER_02]: God, if you're gonna give me peace.

[SPEAKER_02]: Don't just give me peace in my heart, but I need you to give me peace in my mind.

[SPEAKER_02]: I need my thoughts to be regulated.

[SPEAKER_02]: I need my money, my thoughts to be kept in order.

[SPEAKER_02]: I need your support and ensuring that the thoughts in my head don't overwhelm me and overtake me.

[SPEAKER_02]: I need my mind to be regulated as anybody, no God.

[SPEAKER_02]: As a mine regulator, I'm talking about the time when you wanted and you thought you were getting ready to lose every marble you had in your head.

[SPEAKER_02]: But God kept your mind and he kept you from looking from thinking those things that when you thought you were getting ready to go crazy and when you thought people were on your head.

[SPEAKER_02]: And people were getting ready to drive you to a place that you don't deserve to be, but God kept your mind.

[SPEAKER_02]: He is a mine regulator.

[SPEAKER_02]: And when I was growing up, my mum used to pray with me before I would go to school.

[SPEAKER_02]: And she would lay her hands on my head.

[SPEAKER_02]: And she would say, Lord, keep it mine.

[SPEAKER_02]: And be a mine regulator in the schools.

[SPEAKER_02]: And when I was younger, I didn't understand what she meant until I got older.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I had to spend some time with knowing my thoughts.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I think God, that he's a man.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I think God, that in the times when my thoughts were going to kill me, I am glad for God to be a mine regulator.

[SPEAKER_02]: Come on, Lord.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's a fire.

[SPEAKER_02]: I was wondering why y'all weren't moving, I say, look.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's a fire.

[SPEAKER_02]: I watch it for y'all.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm falling y'all.

[SPEAKER_02]: We don't have time to be distracted by what goes by anything that takes our mind off the truth of God.

[SPEAKER_02]: The reality is, yes, you may experience heartbreak, but the truth is, he says he's near to the broken hearted.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, you may experience discouraged me and disappointed me, but the truth is, he's a lifter of your head.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, the truth is, you may encounter pain and suffering, but the truth is that he is a healer.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so you can't afford to be distracted by anything that takes you off the truths of God.

[SPEAKER_02]: And even though those things come towards you and they can come your way, I pray to you today that you will not lose your focus off the truths of God.

[SPEAKER_02]: In other words, I don't have to live in it.

[SPEAKER_02]: But with Jesus, I can live through it.

[SPEAKER_02]: I, there's something I just can't change in my life.

[SPEAKER_02]: There's some things I won't be able to stop or control.

[SPEAKER_02]: But to get the part that the reality is, I don't have to sit there and let it affect me and impact me in such a way to where it causes me to become sunken and overtaken.

[SPEAKER_02]: I can live through it.

[SPEAKER_02]: Last point that we'll be done is young coming up.

[SPEAKER_02]: Peace is expressed by how we live.

[SPEAKER_02]: Verse nine, Paul ends by saying, the things you learned and received and heard and saw in me, he says, do these things and then the God of peace will be with you.

[SPEAKER_02]: Peace isn't only about what we pray and what we think, but it's also about what we do with what we know.

[SPEAKER_02]: When we live out the Word of God and we live out the truth of God, peace follows.

[SPEAKER_02]: When we practice what we've been taught through the Word of God, peace abides.

[SPEAKER_02]: The reality of that is in gentlemen that the right contents of peace influences the appropriate conduct of peace.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's impossible, ladies and gentlemen, to live out the truths of God when you spend more time rehearsing the lies of the enemy.

[SPEAKER_02]: I think it's interesting to notice something here when you get down to the last few verses of this Paul shifts from talking about the peace of God and he concludes with the God of peace.

[SPEAKER_02]: This teaches us that peace isn't just something that God gives as who he is.

[SPEAKER_02]: When we walk with God, his peace walks with us.

[SPEAKER_02]: Peace isn't a thing.

[SPEAKER_02]: It isn't a figment of our imagination.

[SPEAKER_02]: It isn't an abstract concept.

[SPEAKER_02]: It is the very nature of who God is.

[SPEAKER_02]: God is.

[SPEAKER_02]: Peace is the prince of peace.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I just want to speak for a moment to you over this house that the God of peace himself is walking with this house in this moment right now.

[SPEAKER_02]: And then now only when he comforts you, but he's going to guide you forward step by step and with his peace being your companion, he's going to give you the power to think another thought.

[SPEAKER_02]: I declare over you the words of Second Corinthians chapter ten, verse five.

[SPEAKER_02]: That through the grace and the power of Jesus may you cast down every imagination.

[SPEAKER_02]: And every high thing that exalts itself up against the knowledge of God in your life.

[SPEAKER_02]: And that may you bring into captivity, every thought that tries to that every thought took your obedience of Christ, his reality, ladies and gentlemen, the pain is real, but so is his healing.

[SPEAKER_02]: Think again.

[SPEAKER_02]: The heartbreakers overwhelming, but also with his peace.

[SPEAKER_02]: Think again.

[SPEAKER_02]: The enemy won't you to think that it's going to always be like this, but I challenge you in this moment to think again.

[SPEAKER_02]: It may feel like you're by yourself, but I want you to understand that God says, I'll never leave you, nor will I forsake you.

[SPEAKER_02]: I need you to think again.

[SPEAKER_02]: These thoughts are just imaginations.

[SPEAKER_02]: They're not even real.

[SPEAKER_02]: Think again.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I just want to encourage some mind that I know your mind is all over the place.

[SPEAKER_02]: And it's hard to gather your thoughts.

[SPEAKER_02]: But in this moment that the peace of God is going to allow you to think another thought.

[SPEAKER_02]: He's going to call you to think again.

[SPEAKER_02]: He's going to call you to look at the situation that you're experiencing.

[SPEAKER_02]: And he's going to call you to think again.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's not what it looks like.

[SPEAKER_02]: Think again.

[SPEAKER_01]: Think again.

[SPEAKER_01]: Think again.

[SPEAKER_01]: Think again.

[SPEAKER_01]: Think again.

[SPEAKER_01]: Think again.

[SPEAKER_01]: Think again.

[SPEAKER_01]: Think again.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for listening to today's message.

[SPEAKER_00]: We pray you were inspired, challenged, and marked by the word you heard.

[SPEAKER_00]: If this message blessed you today, we encourage you to subscribe to the Church of the City podcast.

[SPEAKER_00]: There you can find more faith-filled messages to uplift you and help you on your journey of faith.

[SPEAKER_00]: For more information about Church of the City, head on over to www.cotcdfw.com.

[SPEAKER_00]: And until next time, remember this, the best is yet to come.