Piece of Work: Philippians 4:1-9 (Courage to Hold the Line)

Look at somebody and say, You're just a piece of work.

Only at Real Life Church.

Is that a compliment?

Yes, absolutely.

Everywhere else you might get hit in the mouth for that.

But here at RLC, we absolutely love it.

And so we are going to talk about what that is.

And while you are getting all of that kind of figured out, if you this is your first time joining us, thank you so much for being with us today.

It is an honor to worship the Lord with you.

And if at some point before you leave today, we would love for you to fill out your connect card.

You can drop that off in the Welcome Center.

And we've got a free gift for you today to say thank you so much for being with us.

And we want to invite you to the craziest party you're going to be part of all month long called RLC Connect.

And I noticed some of you have already noticed this, but we also have got the Wizard of Oz filling out a connect card today.

The Wizard of Oz came and joined us today.

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtains, right?

Absolutely.

Those of you who have not seen Wizard of Oz, that was lost on you completely.

Okay, yes, I I did notice so many people pointing to my left and to my right and whispering with slight apprehension as to what was going on.

Don't worry, this is not a message prop today.

This is just our attempt to always try to make it better at our church, and we just wanted to try these to see if they work.

So if you like them, it was all my idea.

If you don't like them, it was Pastor Derek's idea, and you can talk to him after church, okay?

All right.

Also, if you don't already know this, I want to tell you, it's almost the end of March.

It seems like we just got through celebrating Christmas.

But in two weeks, it's Easter.

That is something we are so excited about.

Can we put our hands together and celebrate the fact that Jesus is alive?

Absolutely.

And so we would love for you to invite somebody to our Easter worship experiences.

And so to your left, to your right, or you might be sitting on some Easter invite cars.

We would love for you to do this with your Easter invite cars.

And that is, we would love for you to give these to somebody and say, I would love for you to come and attend our RLC worship experience.

And then tell them this.

Tell them you get to pick the service.

And I will come and I will attend that service with you.

And I say that because we have three services on Easter.

Everybody say three.

One more time, say three.

We have got an 8 a.m.

service, a 9:30 service, and an 11 service.

The 11 doesn't change.

For some of you, you come to the 9:30 service anyway, right?

15 minutes on the regular, right here.

It actually does begin at 9:15, but you come to the 9:30.

Well, guess what?

This is your dream come true.

Please don't be here at 9:45.

Okay.

It's going to be the 9:30 service, but it's also the opportunity when we get to ask you, to ask God, if he would have you go on a missions trip with us to the 8 a.m.

service just one time.

I know for some of you, you are surprised.

Yes, 8 o'clock does come twice in one day.

Absolutely.

And we are asking you, what would it look like for you to pray and ask the Lord to drink an extra cup of coffee and come to the 8 a.m.

service?

Because we need to borrow your seat, if you don't mind, just for one Sunday, and it's going to be great.

We're going to do the same thing for all three services, and it's going to be wonderful.

And even if you don't, it's going to be a great day.

I love the fact that Jesus isn't dead, Jesus is alive.

And we get to celebrate that every Sunday.

But what we say is on Easter Sunday, we take it up a notch and just worship him just a little bit more, okay?

All right.

Well, we've been asking this question as we've been kind of just always want to put ourselves back in the mindset of the biblical text as we are, we're almost done with the book of Philippians and kind of remind ourselves as what's going on.

We've asked this question every week.

We've said, Do you know anybody in your life that can rain on any parade?

Do you know a negative Nancy?

A Debbie Downer?

Do you know somebody that even if, even though the fact that it is sun shining outside, they said, just wait.

Because in Kentucky, you get all four seasons in one day.

There's that kind of Debbie Downer.

How many sitting beside that Debbie Downer right now?

Just be honest, and we're gonna help them pray.

I see a couple of you.

All right, you're gonna have to find an Uber to get home because you just got in trouble.

On the other side, how many of you would just be so humble and be so honest with yourself and just say, you know what?

I'm the exact opposite.

I bring sunshine to every rainy day.

If someone says it's 80 degrees outside, I'll say, bless the Lord, the flowers are gonna grow.

This is a meme of your life, all right?

It can be fire all around, and you're looking around going, This is fine.

How many humble people will say that's you, right?

Can I see that?

Couple of you, a couple of you.

Kent's definitely like that.

Absolutely.

The reality of it is, is we have these people in our life, and we just they just get on our nerves.

Sorry, Kent.

They just get on our nerves so bad because they can always find something good.

I was having a really good pity party and then they told me to bless the Lord.

I was like, ah, I was doing so good having a bad day, right?

But we've got these kind of people, and if we're not careful, we can read the book of Philippians and think to ourselves, that must be Paul.

He must be somewhere on a beach drinking his smoothie with his little umbrella, just having the time of his life, which is why it's important for every message.

We remember Joker's in prison.

He is on basically death row.

Any given moment, Caesar could say he is guilty, go ahead and put him to death.

And therefore, not only is he in jail, he has no idea what tomorrow is going to look like for him.

Very easily, could be put to death.

And a Roman way of putting a Roman soldier to death is by beheading.

So you don't have to do anything special for that.

You can just take him out back to do that.

So anything is possible.

And what's amazing is right in the middle of being on death row, he is writing back to some of his oldest friends, a church that he had helped start 10 years earlier, and he knows they've got their 99 issues as well.

And so while he is sitting in prison and he's writing back to them, the overall idea of the series, and if you've been with us for all nine weeks, you've probably already got it written down, and that is that we can have joy.

Somebody say joy.

Say it slightly louder in somebody's ear.

Say joy.

You actually did it.

That was so great.

We can have joy because God is working on us.

We can have joy, not because of everything going on around us, but because God is on the throne.

And that God has got his eye on you, and that God is working on us.

And the reason why the apostle Paul is in the perfect place to be able to be inspired of the Holy Spirit to write this to all of us, is we've been saying every week, and that is that there are many different kinds of prisons.

Only some have walls that we can see.

Everybody's got a private battle that nobody else knows about.

Just like we say around here, unless you have a toddler, then you have a public battle that everybody knows about, right?

You do, but here's the truth, and that is but it is possible to live in a world filled with confusion, but still have joy.

It's possible for your March Madness bracket to be totally destroyed and still have joy.

It's possible to have had the worst week of your life and still have joy.

Well, how is that possible, Pastor?

It was because joy is not happiness.

Joy is a position of the heart.

It's a sigh of contentment.

Because God is in control.

It's the ability to look at all the craziness of all the world around us and still be able to step back, take a deep sigh of contentment, and say, Man, I am so glad that God is in control.

Because it doesn't look like anybody else has got any ideas, but God sure does.

Not only is he in control of the world, because he is in control of our world and in our life, and he's always doing amazing things.

And so what I love is that the Apostle Paul has taken us on this journey about how God works in everything.

He works to heal our perspective, he works to bring humility in our life, he works to guard our joy.

Last week he said we can never stop moving forward.

And then after all of that, he is finally beginning to close his message.

This would be the same thing as if I were up here preaching and all of a sudden the pad comes on.

You ever notice that that happens?

And all of a sudden the the keyboard comes up here.

Like this is the moment when he's beginning to close his letter and he says this.

Therefore, what do you mean, Paul?

Everything I've said, because of that, my dear brothers and sisters, so everybody stay true to the Lord.

Look at somebody and say, Stay true.

Stay true to the Lord.

I love you and long to see you, dear friends, for you are my joy and the crown I receive for my work.

In other words, every time I think about you, I have a sigh of contentment because I just get to think about how the Lord is in control.

And then he says this.

Now I appeal to Eurotia and Syntechy.

Please, because you belong to the Lord, settle your disagreement.

They're having a public battle that everybody knows about.

All right.

And I ask you, my true partner, to help these two women.

For they worked hard with me in telling others about the good news.

They worked hard along with Clement and the rest of my coworkers, whose names are written in the book of life.

Always be full of joy in the Lord.

And I say it again, rejoice.

Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do.

Remember, the Lord is coming soon.

So don't worry about anything.

Okay, fine.

No, no problem, right?

Don't worry about anything.

Instead, pray about everything.

Tell God what you need and thank Him for all He has done.

Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand.

His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

Now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing.

Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right and pure and lovely and admirable.

Think about the things that are excellent and worthy of praise.

Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me, everything you have heard from me and saw me doing, and then the God of peace will be with you.

Wow.

As he is finishing up this text, he is saying, Because of everything that has come before, we now have an opportunity.

And he is standing up almost in front of him as he's writing kind of mentally, and he is saying, one more thing.

And he's talking about what it means to stay true and how to continue moving even after he finishes this letter.

And this is basically what he said.

And that is that as God's work continues, as they continue, after he is finished writing this letter and he sends it with Timothy and Epaphroditus back to where he's from, as he does that, continues, his joy, God's joy is gonna build a lasting courage.

That as God's work continues, his joy builds lasting courage.

Courage to never stop moving forward and courage to stay true.

I love this.

He's gonna get super, super practical today.

And so we're gonna get super practical along with him because what Paul understands is that all of this stuff is really good, but if we don't step forward and do something with what God has called us to do, we can have so much knowledge of God yet live in bondage.

It's not about what we know, it's about what we do with what we know that makes all the difference.

And so the very first thing he says is he says, Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stay true to the Lord, because you are my joy.

Every time I think of you, man, I just get that sigh of contentment because I know I'm not in this thing alone.

I know that God is moving and he is in control.

And what I love about this is this phrase, stay true, is a military phrase.

Now remember who he's talking to.

The city of Philippi was primarily full of military people and retired military people.

They would give them free land to live there because it was an outpost toward the edge of Rome's territory.

And so they knew that if they gave them free land, they would be loyal to Rome.

And so they're already on the edge.

And Paul is saying, just like you're on the edge in the Roman Empire, I'm giving you this idea of saying stay true.

That Roman uh phrase actually was a military term that meant to stand firm, to stay in the fight, and stay at the front.

Basically, what Paul is doing, the mental picture is Paul is doing his best rendition of Maximus, okay?

That's what he's doing.

Actually, it turns out Maximus lived after Paul.

Maximus was actually trying to do a rendition of Paul because he is literally standing up in front of the troops and he is saying, you got to stay true.

This is what stay true means.

It means a willingness to continually hold the line.

Continually hold the line and to stay in the front of the battle and not allow the battle to get past you, to not give in, to not give up.

He starts to tell them there are so many battles left to fight.

So I am encouraging you to stay in the battle.

Because what happens was they would have the Roman military would have all of their uh their arrows and all their other things, and then they would have their infantry, and they would have at some point the bravest, most courageous guys would stand on the very front line, they would lock their shields.

And what would happen before a battle is right behind them would be their commander, and their commander would remind them to stay true, stay on the front line, here and no further.

The enemy does not get another piece of land, and so Romans were known for never retreating, dying rather than retreat.

But rather they would stand, and then when the when the the military commander would tell them, they would take a step forward, and they would take a step forward, and their whole goal was to hold the line, to never let the enemy get one inch of territory.

And that's what Paul is saying.

That's what they would have understood when he said, stay true, is they would have understood that Paul is encouraging us to plant our feet and not give the enemy one inch of ground, but continue to hold the line in our lives.

And how is it that we can do that?

We can hold the line because of all the things that God is doing.

Remember at the very beginning, Paul said, I give thanks to God with that sigh of contentment, because I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished.

And Paul is saying, when you realize that God is doing a good work in you, when you realize that he is actively doing that work, and you realize that he is never gonna change his mind about you, that's when we can plant our feet and never take a step backward, but to hold the line and to always move forward.

And so here's the question of the day, and that is how does knowing God is in control give us the courage to hold the line?

Here's the thing is that Paul tells them you got to stay true.

And it's and it's almost as if he's just kind of giving them this pep talk.

All right, hold the line.

And then he says, because there's some battles coming your way, some specific battles and some general battles.

But the thing is, is that because God is filling you with his joy, knowing he is in control, you don't have to give an inch.

You can hold the line with whatever.

And then he starts getting really practical when he says, hold the line in these very specific ways.

And I don't know which one of these that the Holy Spirit may be wanting to challenge you with today.

You can almost take a personal inventory and say, okay, I'm good with this one, I'm good with this one, and I don't want to talk about that one.

Let's just let like he didn't mention that one at all.

I don't know which one it is.

But my prayer for you is that no matter what the enemy is trying to do to get you to back up in your life, that you will be encouraged by God's word to hold the line, to not give the enemy an inch, but rather move forward with all that God has called you to do.

Look at somebody and say, hold the line.

That was horrible.

All right, you gotta act like you're Maximus for just a moment.

Look at somebody else and say, hold the line.

That was great.

I did hear the octave get a little bit lower on that one.

That was good.

Here's three things that he says literally, the battle is coming.

You gotta hold the line.

Here's the first one, and that is God develops joyful courage to help us walk daily in.

Let's pray, y'all.

Let's not talk about that one at all.

Let's talk about something else.

I mean, if there's ever, if there's ever an invisible prison, everybody's got a private battle that nobody else knows about.

Most of us have multiple battles, and at least one of them might be the battle of unforgiveness, the battle of bitterness.

Look at somebody and say, He's not talking about you.

And then you just lie.

There's forgiveness in Jesus' name, all right?

Because absolutely it is.

I love this.

And here's the thing that hurts my feelings.

Let's just get to it.

Okay, here it is.

He says, Therefore, stay true to the Lord.

I appeal to you, Eurodea and Syntichy.

Please, because you belong to the Lord, settle your disagreement.

And I ask you, my true partner, to help these two women, for they worked hard with me in telling others the good news whose names are written in the book of life.

Here's the problem it's one thing when you are dealing with somebody who doesn't know the Lord.

It's absolutely normal for people who don't, who aren't saved, to not act like they're saved, right?

They're not supposed to act like a Christian, they're not one.

The problem in this text is these are two Christians in conflict.

They're two people that are good.

As a matter of fact, Eurodia means sweet.

Syntache means pleasant.

They're sweet and pleasant to everybody but each other, apparently.

And I'll tell you, if your name was Eurodia and Syntiche, you'd be in a bad mood too, okay?

And what Paul is doing is he's saying, listen, ladies, and notice how he is not saying one of y'all just go ahead and just win the fight and get it over with.

He's not saying that.

He's saying resolve your conflict.

Don't try to see who can win.

Try to see how you can resolve and save the relationship.

And he even says for a third party.

He said, Hey, third party, my true partner, help these two ladies because they're at an impasse right now.

And I'm gonna tell you something, maybe this is not your story, but it's one thing to have an issue with somebody who doesn't know Jesus.

It hurts a little bit more when I have an issue with somebody who's supposed to love Jesus.

That someone who's supposed to have my back, I'm supposed to have their back.

It hurts a little bit more when all of a sudden my issue is with somebody who's supposed to love me.

And now I have this issue, and I've got a battle that's coming on.

That's why Paul says, hold the line.

Hold the line, because the enemy doesn't play fair.

He's not gonna sit there and attack you with people that don't know you.

He's gonna attack you sometimes with people that do know you who are just as human as you are, and we all make mistakes, and now the the battle you're fighting is right here close to you.

And one of the reasons why I think we struggle with this idea of forgiveness is because somehow another we end up having an incorrect definition of what forgiveness is.

Let me tell you what forgiveness is not.

Forgiveness is not saying it's okay.

Forgiveness is not saying it didn't hurt.

Forgiveness is not saying it didn't happen, it's not saying that I trust you again, and it's not saying we will ever be best buddies.

Somebody say amen.

I heard this illustration one time that said that unforgiveness is like setting yourself on fire, hoping the other person dies of smoke inhalation.

Think about that for a moment.

This used to be my favorite tantrum that my girls would throw.

They would get really mad if I got on to them and they said, Okay, Dad, I'm mad at you.

That's great.

I'm not talking to you anymore.

Promise.

They get so mad at me because it didn't work.

But the reality is, is when we live in unforgiveness, the only person that gets hurt is ourselves.

And that's why Paul's saying, you gotta hold the line because it's a sneaky one.

And it's gonna come for all of us.

From the moment you are born till now, you're gonna have plenty of opportunities to get offended.

The first time somebody takes away your pacifiers, the first chance you get to walk in forgiveness, okay?

Because you get upset with somebody.

This is what forgiveness is.

It's saying it's having the courage to give it to God.

It's having the courage to say, you will not be defined by what they did.

It is saying, I'm not gonna allow the past to control me.

It is deciding every day to live in freedom.

That's what forgiveness looks like.

Is it's not saying that it wasn't a big deal.

It's not saying that justice shouldn't come to the other person.

It's saying I am not gonna be defined by somebody else's bad example, but rather I am gonna give them to God, and it's a decision you have to make every single day.

I don't know about you, but I used to do it like this.

I said, Well, of course, I walk in forgiveness as soon as they do.

If they'll approach me, I'll forgive them.

I'm not going first.

They need to go first.

Well, you know, that was great until I read this scripture one time that said, Be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.

It's like, oh, Jesus went first.

That's great.

So he's already gone first.

And so, since he is already gone first, now what's left for me?

My my next step is to go first as well.

And so here's the question: Paul is saying you got to stay true, you got to hold the line when it comes to unforgiveness.

Okay, how?

What I love is the very next verse he says, always be full of joy in the Lord.

And I say it again, rejoice.

Let everyone see that you are considerate and all you do, and remember, the Lord is coming soon.

And I think in that we can get the beginning steps of what forgiveness looks like.

Here's the first one The beginning steps as he says, always be full of joy in the Lord.

So, in other words, the very first step, if you want to begin to walk toward forgiveness and you want to hold the line against unforgiveness as it tries to attack your life, is before you can do anything else, you got to give it to God.

You had to trust the Lord.

Stop acting other, stop, stop trying to make other people be God and realize that they're human, that they're gonna make mistakes.

And so we lower our expectations of man and we raise our expectations of God and say, God, there's no way that I can forgive this person, but I can trust you every morning to help me make a new decision.

Before you can do anything else, we rejoice, we get our joy, our sigh of contentment because God is in control by taking it to God first.

Here's the second one that is He says, make sure that everyone can see you are considerate and all that.

You do.

In other words, if you want to hold the line and not let unforgiveness ruin your forward momentum, it takes a lot of courage to go first.

It takes a lot of courage.

And I don't know exactly what that looks like.

And you got to use wisdom with that.

If you're in a situation where you don't feel comfortable going to that person by yourself, you need to take somebody that you know loves you and someone who's praying for you, and you go with somebody else.

So use wisdom on how you go first.

But at the same time, Paul knew exactly what he was talking about when he said, I need you to hold the line.

And I can almost hear the Philippians going, Yes, we're going to.

Are you sure?

Yes.

Okay, here's the first battle.

The first battle is that the enemy doesn't play fair.

He's going to attack you sometimes with people within your own camp.

And so you got to be careful to trust God to go first.

And then one more, he says, Don't forget that the Lord is coming.

One of the beginning steps of forgiveness is to trust God.

You go first and then keep an eternal perspective.

In other words, what we can do is we can get so locked in on what they did that we can forget that God is bigger than that.

Therefore, God can forgive that.

God can heal us of that because if He can save us in eternity, He can heal us in the present.

But it's a decision that we have to make.

Forgiveness is not an emotion.

As a matter of fact, I will tell you as many times as I've had to walk in forgiveness, the first time I take a first step, I feel the exact opposite of forgiving.

It's almost out of anger.

It's like, okay, fine.

In name of Jesus, I'm gonna do my best to forgive them today.

It's a decision you make every single day.

But that's why Paul says you got to hold the line.

And God's gonna give you the courage to continue to grow in all the things that God is doing in your life and to hold the line against unforgiveness.

So here's my question for you, and that is is it time to start the long, hard journey toward forgiveness?

Have you let the enemy cause you to lose your joy for long enough?

Boy, it's quiet.

Is it time to take the first steps toward forgiveness?

Can I tell you it's possible?

There's healing on the other side of deciding one day at a time that I'm no longer gonna let what they did to me define who I am.

I'm a child of the king.

I've been washed in the blood of the Lamb.

I'm on my way to heaven.

I'm not gonna let what they did to me determine my future.

That doesn't mean you forgive in a day, you forgive daily.

And you say, I'm gonna take this journey.

Is it possible that the Lord is wanting you to hold the line and you go first in walking in forgiveness?

Look at somebody and say, You better hold the line.

You better hold the line.

Don't let the enemy have a single moment of your joy.

Don't give that to him.

He hasn't earned it, he don't deserve it.

It all comes from Jesus.

And so we're gonna hold the line with courage and we're gonna walk in forgiveness.

Here's the second one.

This one I really don't want to talk about, and that is we're gonna live daily without worry.

I got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart.

Where?

Yeah, down in my worried heart.

Yes, absolutely.

I'm so worried about this one.

No, I'm not.

That's right.

If we're gonna live daily without worry, look at what he says.

He says this.

He says, Therefore, stay true to the Lord and don't worry.

Thanks, Paul.

All right, don't worry about anything.

Instead, pray about everything.

Tell God what you need and thank him for all he has done.

Then, notice there's a condition.

Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand, which exceeds anything we can understand.

I said it twice.

That's amazing.

Editing, right?

His peace will guard your hearts and your minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

You know that word worry?

Have you ever asked somebody what the word worry means, and you can get a different definition from everybody?

It depends on their flavor of worry.

The actual definition of that word means to have a divided mind.

What Paul is saying is, is you got to be so very careful not to live your life saying, I know God is faithful, but it's all up to me.

I know God can do it, but I can't trust him to do this one.

I know God is faithful to pick up the pieces, but only I can do something with it.

He's saying, Don't do that.

But rather, in everything, he says, to tell God what you need, pray about things and thank him.

And he says, then you will experience.

And he says, I he says, experience this, and he said, it will guard your hearts and your minds.

You know what I love that?

Is that is another military term.

And the military term is someone who is standing watch over a treasure.

He's saying that that God's peace will stand guard over you as you give it over to him.

And what I love about this is he is not saying that there's not things that we need to be concerned about.

He is saying that if it's big enough to worry about, it's big enough to pray about.

Look at somebody and say, Amen.

If it's big enough to worry about, it's big enough to pray about.

And he's saying, so don't allow a divided mind to destroy you because here's the thing the enemy doesn't play fair.

He's not gonna show up to you with a pitchfork and horns on his head and go, err.

That's not what he's gonna do.

Instead, he's gonna show up as unforgiveness.

He's gonna show up as worry where you know God is faithful.

That's not the problem.

It's that you also think it's up to you.

And what I love about this is that the king says it best.

Imagine the king of the universe speaking through prophets for years and years and years, talking to his people, sharing his word through them.

And finally, the king steps out of eternity into time.

And he is now surrounded by his people.

And for the first time, he can physically say with a mouth of his own exactly what he's been saying for so many years.

And he says it like this when he's got all of his people around him, he's sharing it.

And I wonder if he kind of cuts a glance over at Matthew every once in a while, make sure he's paying attention because he's gonna write this down later.

And he's looking at everybody and he says, This I tell you not to worry about everyday life.

This is from Jesus.

Whether you'll have enough food and drink or enough clothes to wear, isn't life more than food and your body more than clothing?

Look at the birds.

They don't plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly father feeds them.

And aren't you more valuable to him than a bird?

Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?

So don't worry about these things, saying, What will we eat?

What will we drink?

What will we wear?

These things dominate the thoughts of those who don't trust in the Lord.

But your heavenly Father already knows all your needs.

So seek first the kingdom of God above all else and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.

So don't worry about tomorrow.

He's not saying you don't need to be concerned.

He's saying don't be double-minded.

Don't trust God, but also think it's all up to you.

But instead, trust God.

Let me give you a statistic.

I have no idea if this is true, but I've heard it for years, so we're gonna add like it is.

Here we go.

And that is this that 90% of all your worries are never gonna come true.

Do you know that?

Out of the 10% that do, 8% are out of your control.

So therefore, worrying is only 2% effective.

To which some of you are going, but that 2% though, that 2%.

I get it.

I get it.

But think about it.

If if there's anything else in your life, if I told you, man, there is a sure thing bet, you need to bet your house on it, it's a 2% chance of success rate.

Would you bet your house?

No.

But yet we live that way.

I trust God, but I live as though it's up to me.

It is only 2% effective with this, but it's 100% effective at destroying your joy.

And so, therefore, that's why Paul is saying that is one of the sneaky things the enemy is going to do is you got to hold the line because he's not gonna show up with a pitchfork.

He's not gonna show up growling at you, he's gonna come at you sneakily, going, Hey, are you sure?

Are you sure?

Are you sure that you're sure?

I know God's faithful, but it's all really up to you.

And so Paul says, instead of that, instead of having a double-minded thing, he says, do this.

He says, Don't worry, instead, pray about everything, tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.

So he actually says there's three things that you have to do, and then the peace of God will come.

He says, first of all, to pray.

Second of all, to be honest, and third, to be thankful.

Can I tell you?

If if you've been been around anybody very long or if you've gone through anything, can I tell you when there's worry, you usually don't have to tell people to pray.

Have you ever been on an airplane and there's all of a sudden there's turbulence?

I don't care what their background is, as soon as that plane drops like 20 feet, it's like, Jesus! Everybody prays, okay?

That is fine.

It is fine.

All right.

So so here's the thing.

I think that a lot of us, we're doing pretty good at the prayer part.

But here's one, be honest.

That's another one.

I've never seen anybody going through a crisis quoting in the King James English.

I see them going, I need help and I need it right now.

This person's driving me crazy.

And they will call them by name if you give them half a chance, okay?

They they need some help.

You know which one I think a lot of us struggle with?

Is where he says, pray about it, tell God about it, and then be thankful for all he has done.

Be honest with me for just a moment.

Would you agree with me that it's it's it's easy to pray when we're going through problems?

It's easy to be honest when we're going through problems.

But man, if it's not hard to be thankful when we're going through problems.

So, this is what I want to encourage you to do is to hold the line.

And we're gonna call it a seven-day thankfulness exercise.

Here's the thing: this every single day I want you to find a sheet of paper.

For some of you who are younger, it's this paper you can buy at the store and you have this pen that you write on.

It almost looks like your iPad and your and your and your pencil, but it but it's a real one.

All right, try that.

And I want you to do is I want you to create a journal entry.

And for seven days, I want you to be thankful for three things.

Here's the first one, and that is something general.

Here's mine.

I'm thankful I don't own a cat in Jesus' name.

All right.

I'm thankful for that every day and twice on Sunday.

All right, come on, I'm so thankful.

Something general.

I'm thankful for air.

I'm thankful for March Madness.

I'm thankful, God, that you kept me safe on the way to work every day.

There's the first one.

Be thankful for something general.

Here's the second one is to be thankful for something recent.

Within the last 48 hours, something.

I'm thankful, God, that I was at Life Group this past week.

I was able to walk with my brothers and my sisters.

I was thankful that after Life Group, I was able to get kind of get over to the side and talk to my brother, and we were able to talk through some of the things that was going on in our life.

Sometimes that we have so much to be thankful for, but the reason why we talk about something recent is because sometimes the battle seems so strong that we forget that God's working all the time.

He didn't just work 20 years ago, he's actively working right now.

And sometimes we have to take our eyes off of the mountain and look around to realize that good things are happening right now.

So think of something general, something specific.

And then here's one that's hard something new.

Something new that you're thankful to God for.

Can I tell you this is a hard one for me?

I've been thankful for socks, I've been thankful for a cup of coffee because after a while you start to run out a little bit.

But what it causes you to do is to stop and go, man, I may have 99 problems, but God isn't one of them.

And God is doing stuff all around me.

So he's saying, don't be double-minded.

Hold the line and don't allow worry to destroy your life if it's big enough to worry about, it's big enough to pray about.

And so we're gonna pray, we're gonna be honest, but then we're gonna be thankful and remember that if you only knew the miracles that God had done in my life and that God had done in your life, it would be silly to not trust him now.

Because every single time he has come through.

Now, let's be honest, he's real creative on how he comes through.

But he always comes through.

And as we begin to be thankful, it doesn't, it's not for God.

God doesn't need a pep talk, it's for us to remind us how faithful the Lord is.

And so here's my question for you, and that is this what is the greatest worry that you need to hold the line and give to God?

What is the greatest worry in your life?

The thing that as soon as I said that, you thought of it.

How can you move forward with everything you have and trust God with all the things that you don't have?

Because here's the thing the enemy is not gonna show up at your front door with a pitchfork and with horns and with a fork tongue, and he's gonna yell at you.

And instead, he's gonna come in sneakily.

He's gonna come in through unforgiveness, he's gonna come in through worry because 2% of the time it works.

And so he's gonna come in with that.

And you gotta be willing to hold the line and say, no, this far and no further.

I'm gonna hold this front line.

I'm not gonna back up, but I'm gonna move forward.

And I'm not gonna let the enemy destroy my forward progress and all the things that God is doing in my life because of unforgiveness.

I'm not gonna let him do that because of worry.

And then here's one more, and that is this that I'm gonna fight daily with purposeful, focused thinking.

Because the enemy is gonna try to attack us, not just with worry, but in our minds.

So we've got to hold the line.

Somebody say out loud, hold the line.

Hold the line.

The most practical stuff that you can imagine is that Paul is saying, hey, listen, God's got a plan for your life, but so does the devil.

And that he wants to destroy your life.

And you got to hold the line because he's coming.

I wish you'd be more positive, Pastor.

Okay, I am positive.

He's coming.

He's already defeated, but that doesn't mean he's not gonna attack.

And so we get ready and we hold the line so that he can't get a single inch in our lives.

And we're gonna hold the line against unforgiveness, we're gonna hold the line against worry, and then we're gonna hold the line by thinking about what we think about.

He said it like this.

He says, Stay true to the Lord, and one final thing: fix your thoughts.

Somebody say fix.

Fix your thoughts on what is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, admirable.

Think about these things that are excellent and are worthy of praise.

What he's saying is he's not saying like self-hypnotize yourself and just act like everything is all right, there's not a problem in the world.

Because the very first thing he says is think about the things that are true.

He's saying, I'm not, I'm not telling you to just talk about just random.

He said, But what is what is true in your life?

Because the reality is, is that many times what the enemy will do is he will come in and and reveal to us, help us to see all the bad things.

But the thing is, is that's not all that's happening.

Yes, there's bad things happening in our world, but there's so many other things that are happening as well.

And so what the enemy wants to do is he wants to have a way to hide all of that.

So Paul says, I want you to find the things that are true.

I want you to find the other things.

And so what he's saying is, is you got to be so careful because the number one place the enemy is gonna attack you and me is in our mind.

He's gonna attack us in our thoughts.

He's gonna try to distort our identity in Christ.

And so he said, literally, the only way you can do this is you got to create a filter.

He said, Take all your random thoughts, TikTok videos, YouTube videos, comments that people say, random stuff all over the place, all these different things.

And he said, put a filter on this and run it through the filter.

Is this something for me to think about?

So, in other words, you just say, okay, when when you watch a TikTok video that says that the world is coming to an end in three days, you put it through the filter.

Is it true?

No.

Okay, but let's just say it passes that one.

Is it respectful?

Is it morally clean?

Is it kind?

Is it good news?

If it gets all the way through that, that's good thinking.

And here's the reason why it's because there's more information coming through our lives than ever before.

And you need to think about what you think about because not every thought is worthy of your attention.

But what the enemy is going to do is he is gonna try to cloud that out because slowly, while he is doing that, he's getting you to not hold the line, but back up a little bit more and back up a little bit more.

And that's how so many times he is sneaky, is because he will take away your joy because of thoughts that don't even deserve your time.

And so what the apostle Paul is saying is he's saying, I need you to hold the line.

I need you to stay true.

And God is gonna give you the courage as he moves in your life so that when the battle of unforgiveness begins, you can hold the line.

You can trust God, you can go first, you can have an eternal perspective.

And then when the enemy comes in and he comes in talking about all this other stuff and how he is going to try to destroy your life with worry, you can hold the line and say, No, I'm gonna take it to God.

I'm gonna be honest, and I'm gonna be thankful.

And then when he wants to cloud your mind with all these other thoughts and everybody else's opinions, everybody else's hot takes, he says, No, I'm gonna create a filter in my life and I'm gonna learn how to trust God.

He says, if you do this, he says, if you keep putting into practice all that you learned and received from me, everything you heard from me and saw me doing.

So, other words, everything I just wrote to you, then the God of peace will be with you.

He said, if you just keep moving forward, keep allowing God to work on you.

Continue allowing the joy of the Lord to come into your life.

He says, I got the best news ever, and that is this the best news is we don't hold the line by ourselves.

God is with us every step of the way.

He says, as you do this, the God of peace is right there beside you.

He is on the left, he's on the right, he's in front of you, he's behind you the whole time.

He is holding the line with you.

And that's why Paul is saying this, you gotta hold the line.

I love it.

We get to see this in the book of Nehemiah.

I love the idea that God is with us in the battle, in the exhaustion, and in the confusion.

I don't know if you ever read the book of Nehemiah in the Old Testament, but the nation of Israel had been destroyed.

Jerusalem's walls had been destroyed.

70 years later, they come back and they're wanting to build the walls of Jerusalem all over again.

And it was a very difficult journey.

They had all these different other nations that didn't want them to rebuild the walls, and so there was all this propaganda that was going on all the time and all of this, and they were saying, if you rebuild the walls, we're gonna come and destroy them and destroy you.

And they were threatening all kinds of other stuff.

And so the Bible literally says that those who are building the wall, they had one hand stacking bricks and another hand was a sword, just doing the best that they could, just constantly in the threat of war and the threat of violence and trying to hold the line.

And the Bible said that when they finally got the wall built, that they were supposed to celebrate and that we're gonna read the law of God out, just celebrating what was going on.

And out of just exhaustion, out of just hearing how much further they had to go, the Bible said that they couldn't even celebrate God.

God, how in the world are we supposed to hold the line when there's so many things we've still got to do?

There's so many battles we still have to fight.

And I love how Nehemiah told them, and this is maybe God's word for you today, and he said this he said, Go and celebrate and share with other people this sacred day before the Lord.

Don't be dejected and sad, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.

He's like, I know we still got a long way to go.

I know that God is still working on you and he's still working on me, he's still working on us as a community.

But if you ever thought we were gonna do this by ourselves, that's why you're so exhausted.

It was never supposed to be all about you doing this by yourself, but it was actually the joy of the Lord that was strengthening you along the way.

And that's my hope for you is that as we continue to move forward, because this series is almost over, that you won't forget that God is still working on you.

And that as He is still working on you, He never intended for you to do this by yourself, but always intended that you would do it with Him.

That's why I love the fact that if you've been reading God's Word for us, we finally are beginning Genesis today.

If you if you haven't been reading God's Word with us, but you would like to, you could text RLC Bible to 94,000.

And when we were all the way back in the book of Leviticus three years ago, the first two books people asked if we were going to do is Revelation and Genesis.

I was like, we got a long way before we get all the way back around to Genesis.

Well, here we are, three years later, and it actually begins today.

And the the reason why I love the book of Genesis is because you remember who God was writing this to.

God was writing the book of Genesis to a nation that had just been set free from slavery.

For 400 years they had lived in Egyptian bondage, and while they were holding on to the hope that one day God was going to set them free, they were surrounded by a nation that believed in all these other gods.

And they thought that creation happened by a whole bunch of gods getting together.

Ra created the sun, Osiris created this over here, and all this kind of stuff.

And so they had living in this other world, they'd forgotten about who was really the author and the finisher of all of this.

And so the very first words out of God's mouth to them is in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

The number one thing, the reason why God wrote Genesis 1 was to tell them it was always me.

I was always the one who created all of this.

And if I can create all of this, don't you think I can take care of you too?

It reminds me of that wonderful song.

He's still working on me to make me what I ought to be.

It took him just a week to make the moon and the stars, the sun and the earth and Jupiter and Mars.

How loving and patient he must be.

If it takes me the rest of my life, he's gonna keep working on me.

And that's what I love about it is when you read about creation, it took him six days to make everything.

I love how C.S.

Lewis said when he said, Let there be light, that everything spun into being, and we still live on the echo of his voice.

That we're still living in the echo of the glory of God, and if he could do all of that.

What do you think he can do in our life?

That is why he looked at all of these things that he created and he said, That was good.

He looked at us and he said, That is my masterpiece.

Created anew in Christ Jesus so that we could do the good things that he planned for us long ago.

You ever thought about that?

That when God created the sun, moon, stars, Jupiter, Mars, the oceans, the seas, all of those things, he said, This is good.

But when he looked at me and you, he said, Now that is my masterpiece.

The Bible says that all of heaven's angels, all of hell's demons look on at the church and wonder.

Look at how much he loves them.

Look at how much he does for them.

That's truly his work of art.

His work of art, I know we talk about it all the time.

His work of art is not primarily the sunset, even though it's beautiful.

His work of art is not primarily the animals that you see, even though they are wonderful, other than cats.

And can I tell you that as he is working on you, it's a good thing.

About you.

And so as we get ready to pray together today, as a masterpiece that God is still working on, here's my question for you, and we're gonna pray, and that is this where is God asking you to hold a line?

Where is God asking you to not give up?

I know many times it's not it's not the big moments that define us, it's the daily re-engagement with hard things.

It's not giving up one more time.

And Paul said, he said, Listen, I'm about to tell you some hard stuff, but first of all, I need you to stay true.

I need you to stay on the front line.

Don't give up, don't give the enemy one inch of ground.

Stand strong, hold the line.

And then he said, the hardest battles you're gonna fight is holding the line with forgiveness, holding the line and not letting worry destroy your joy.

And hold the line and not allowing thoughts to change your view of God.

Here's my question for you: where is God asking you to hold the line?

Is he asking you to hold the line in a difficult relationship right now?

You used to be friends, but but something happened, and now it's that that wedge is getting bigger and bigger and bigger, and you've been waiting for them to go first.

Jesus already went first.

What would it look like if you initiated forgiveness to not let the enemy, not let him have that upper hand?

Is it possible that because of what's going on, there's some situations in your life and worry is trying to push you back?

And instead you go, you know what, I'm not gonna have two minds.

I'm gonna trust God, I'm gonna do the best I can and I'm gonna move forward.

Is that where God is asking you to hold the line?

Is God asking you to hold the line in your family?

It seems like everything is falling apart.

Is God calling you to be the one to step in and go, I'm not gonna let this thing fall apart?

I'm gonna hold the line.

What about in your marriage?

What about in your singleness?

What about in the classroom?

What about in the office building?

Where is God calling you to hold the line?

I don't know what that is, but what I do know is that God has given you everything you need to do everything that God has called you to do.

In just a moment, the band's gonna lead us in a song of worship.

And honestly, I really believe that everybody in here, God is calling you to hold the line in some area of your life.

Not let the enemy take away your joy anymore, but to realize that God is giving you everything you need to stand up against the enemy.

But I don't know what it is.

Maybe that is that needs to be what you do for the next couple of moments is just to say, God, what where is it that you need me to hold the line?

Where do you want me to trust you more than ever?

I don't know what it is, but I know that God is faithful.

Let's pray together right now.

God, thank you so much for today.

Thank you, God, that you're with us and that you're for us in all things.

I'm thankful, God, that even now and even in this moment, you're challenging some of us to not give up, but rather to dig in, to take a step of faith, to maybe go back into a difficult place or a difficult relationship, to trust you in an area that we had given up on.

I don't know what it is, God.

Maybe it's to not give up on freedom, to not give up, to not let worry distract, deceive, and destroy us, not to let the enemy just run havoc in our minds, but for us to control our thoughts, to bring every thought to the captivity and the obedience of Christ.

Lord, I don't know what it is, but I trust you.

I trust that you are able to speak to every heart right now.

God, I know that just as there is everyone has a private battle, I know that there is a victory for everybody in this place.

And it's on the other side of surrendering ourselves to you.

I pray, God, that as we worship you, you will have your way.

And God, I pray for maybe somebody in here today that the best way they can hold the line is it's time for them to give their lives to you.

It's time for them to repent of their sins and to walk, to run toward you.

And as they do that, God, they're gonna experience the love of God like never before.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

And would you stand with me all over the house this morning?

The band is gonna lead us in a final song of worship.

I don't know what your next step needs to be.

Maybe right where you are right now, you know exactly what that thing is that the enemy is trying to destroy your life with.

And you just need to take a few moments, just give it to the Lord.

Maybe you'd like someone to pray with you.

That's what our prayer team is in the back for.

We'd love to pray with you about anything that's going on.

Maybe today is a day of salvation for you.

Can I tell you?

Jesus loves you and he has a plan for your life.

On the back of your connect card is the plan of salvation.

We would love to meet you at the prayer table.

We'd love to talk to you about what salvation is.

But whatever your next step is, let's take a few moments and just do business with the Lord today.