Piece of Work: Philippians 3:1-11 (Guard Your Joy)

I will go ahead and make a quick announcement before we do anything that we do have plenty of coffee for everybody who said, I don't know how I feel about this time change.

Okay, we we we made it together.

We're gonna be thankful this afternoon.

We get a little bit more sunlight, but we do have all the coffee you can drink and then some.

And if you need an IV of coffee, we can't help you with that.

But otherwise, we got we can help you, okay?

It is so good to see you in the house of the Lord today, and it's gonna be a great time uh continuing to study through God's Word.

If you want to get your Bibles out, get your message notes out, get your Bible journals out, all the things, we are continuing our series called Peace of Work.

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

Some of y'all, if you don't know what we're talking about, you're like, I don't know how I feel about that, right?

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.

And here's the thing, I just need to let you know on off just off the jump, and that is it is scientifically proven that if you help me preach today, you're gonna have a good time, okay?

And so make sure that you help me today because I know some of us we we feel like we didn't sleep at all last night, even though we only missed an hour, but it's gonna be good and we're gonna have a good time.

And if this is your first time joining us, we do want to say thank you so much for being here.

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We have a free gift for you today.

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And so you can stop by the Welcome Center and say, hey, you got room for one or ten more, and we will let you know, and it'll be a good time, all right?

I want to ask you this question as we get kind of moving on to this, kind of bring us all back in the same room.

We've been asking this before, and that is, how many of you know somebody that is best described as just a just a Debbie Downer, right?

Just a negative Nancy.

They can they can rain on any parade.

If somebody gave them a million dollars, they want to know why it wasn't a million and one.

You know any of those people, right?

How many are sitting by one of those people right now?

I see that, absolutely, praying for you in Jesus' name.

But now, here's the thing.

How many of you know the exact opposite person?

Like they just they just bring their own sunshine with them.

They're they're happy even this morning, and they're going, you know, it's it's fine, it's awesome.

As a matter of fact, this is a meme of their life right here.

The world is on fire, and they're going, This is fine.

What everybody else is trying to figure out, you know, which hole to to to jump into.

They're just walking around, you know, God is good all the time.

If he ain't, then you lie in in the rain, in the shine.

God is good.

Oh there they are, there they are, right there.

Okay, yes.

That that's that's what we want.

Like, here's the thing.

Seriously, I want people to look at real life church and say those people are just a bunch of pieces of work right now.

I'm not sure what to make of them.

Why everybody else is trying to figure out what hole to jump in?

We sit in there going, This is fine, this is fine, because we're a piece of God's work.

And that's the point that we're trying to make.

And we have to realize, because some of y'all are going, how in the world can you be singing, Pastor?

Have you been watching the news at all?

And to which I would say, Yes, I have.

But we also got to remember the Bible wasn't written like in a coffee shop somewhere.

Paul was not sitting on a beach somewhere, you know, sipping his smoothie with his umbrella, just telling about the goodness of God.

We got to remember Paul was in prison during a time of great persecution.

He's literally basically on death row.

At any moment, Caesar could just say, just go kill him.

And so he has no idea what his future holds.

He does know who holds his future.

And in the middle of all that, he is writing back to some of his oldest friends who've also got their 99 issues that they're dealing with.

And the guy who's sitting in prison is telling the people who are free, he's telling them this, and that is that we can have joy.

Somebody else say joy.

We can have joy because God is working on us.

We can have joy because he's still working on me to make me what I ought to be.

Did you know 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.

That it's gonna take him the rest of my life, but he's still working on me.

And he's telling them that we can have joy because we know that God is working on us.

Because here's the thing that Paul knew, and you you know this as well, and that is that there are many different kinds of prisons.

Only some have walls that we can see.

A famous theologian once said it like this everybody you know has got a private battle that only they know about, right?

Look at your neighbor and say he needs to stop talking about that, right?

I'm not going to, because it is one of the most true statements there's ever been.

But here's the thing that God's word teaches us is that it is possible to feel as though the world is in chaos, but still have joy.

Somebody say amen.

And the reality of that is that there are some people who are saying, but Pastor, you don't understand.

How could you possibly say that we can be happy about what's going on?

How can we have so much happiness with everything?

Well, I'm not saying that we got to be happy.

As a matter of fact, that's not the definition of joy at all.

This is the definition of joy.

It is a sigh of contentment because we know that God is in control.

It is the ability to look at everything else going on around us and just take a I want you to do that with me when I count to three and try not to cough.

You ready?

Deep breath in and out.

One, two, three.

There's a couple.

It's fine.

It's fine.

All right.

But but in your soul, but in your soul, because the problem is that we try to, but it seems like there's constantly more things that's coming along.

And so we try to take a deep breath in, but before we know it is, and before we know it, we we got anxiety because we keep trying to take a sigh of relief, but before we can, we're hyperventilating because there's a new thing that's going on.

When what God's word is saying is, is this being able to take that full sigh, not because everything's all right, but because Jesus is alright, and that means everything's gonna be all right because God is in control.

And that's what uh Paul is talking to the Philippian church about today is he is telling us something that we have got to realize.

And if there's ever been a message that I think that God ordained for a day like today, it is the scripture we're gonna go through today.

So let's read it right now.

God's word says this He says, Whatever happens, look at somebody and say, whatever.

Look at somebody else and say, Whatever.

Whatever happens, my dear brothers and sisters, which means everybody, rejoice in the Lord.

Sure.

Okay, yeah, all right.

I never get tired of telling you these things, and I do it to safeguard.

We don't use that word anymore, but it's a good one.

Safeguard your faith.

So watch out for those dogs, those people, he's being so nice, those people who do evil, those mutilators who say that you must be circumcised to be saved.

For we who worship by the Spirit of God are the ones who are truly circumcised.

We rely on what Christ Jesus has done for us, and we put no confidence in human effort, though I could have confidence in my own effort if anyone could.

Tell us about it, Paul.

Indeed.

If others have reason for confidence in their own efforts, I have even more.

So he's about to give you his testimony.

He says, Listen, if we want to have confidence, I was circumcised when I was eight days old.

I'm a pure-blooded citizen of Israel and a member of the tribe of Benjamin, a real Hebrew if there ever was one.

I was a member of the Pharisees.

That is, the people who demand the strictest obedience to the Jewish law.

I was so zealous that I harshly persecuted the church.

And for as for righteousness, I obeyed the law without fault.

I once thought that these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done.

Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord.

For his sake, I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him.

I no longer count my own righteousness as though obeying the law.

Rather, I have become righteous through faith in Christ.

For God's way of making us right with himself depends on faith.

And I love this.

He says, I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead.

I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection of the dead.

Wow.

Paul is telling us something here that we really need to hear.

He goes through this whole thing and he is saying that we have got joy, but that joy does not go unchallenged.

That there's always going to be some whatevers that are trying to steal our joy.

But the good news is this the basic principle of what he is trying to say is he's saying God's work teaches us how to guard our joy, how to not let the bullies of life, the whatevers in life, take our joy, but how to guard our joy.

Now, this was not the first way I was wanting to put this, just in case you want to take extra extra notes.

We need to guard our joy, also known as get a little kingdom kung fu up in here.

Okay, that is your dad joke for the day, okay?

Little, little, little extra there, because the reality is that many of us think that when we get saved, we don't ever have another battle we have to fight.

But can I tell you, it's when you get saved that you enter the battle of your life because you have a spiritual enemy that is trying to steal everything he can, and at the least of which he's trying to steal your joy.

That sigh of contentment where you know that God is in control.

And so what Paul is telling them is he's really telling them one thing and then how to go about doing the thing.

He says this, he says, Whatever happens, look at somebody again, say whatever.

Look at somebody else and say it twice.

Whatever, whatever.

Whatever, whatever happens, whatever happens, my dear brothers and sisters, which means I'm talking to everybody, rejoice in the Lord.

And he's like, I never get tired of telling you these things because these are the things that you do to safeguard your faith.

And so he's saying, watch out.

He's saying, watch out for the whatevers or the joy busters.

And he's just letting them know they're there, that we are all in a spiritual battle.

We're on the winning side, but that doesn't mean the devil's not gonna try.

And in any given moment, we have three different enemies that are always coming against us the world, the flesh, and the devil.

And we have power over them, but we got to recognize that they are there or they will steal our joy.

Let me let me give you a couple.

This is real life church, so we're just gonna get really real for just a moment.

Let me give you a couple of whatevers that the enemy will use to try to steal your joy.

I ran.

Praise the Lord.

Social media, if you want to lose your joy in five seconds flat, go to any social media, okay?

Any of them.

The border, however you feel about it, it's a joy killer.

Politics, praise the Lord.

Conspiracies.

There's conspiracies on top of conspiracies.

There's a conspiracies about the conspiracies.

They're everywhere.

The transitions of life, finances, relationships, marriage, and this.

Some of us lost an hour's sleep last night.

Even that, the devil will try to do to steal your joy if he can possibly do it.

He doesn't care.

He'll use the Iran conflict, or he'll use the fact that your long claw didn't go off.

He'll use whatever he has to in order to steal your joy.

Look at somebody and say, whatever.

Your thing may not even be on this list.

And I'll be honest with you, the enemy likes to give us problems we don't even need to have.

That's why I almost didn't do this because some of y'all had no idea.

And now you're like, wait a minute, what should I be worried about, right?

It's always something.

But the truth of it is, is that God has the ability to teach us how to safeguard.

Safeguard is to protect, to protect and prepare against attacks.

Remember, we talked about a couple of weeks ago that God's God's word tells us that He gives us the grit and the power to do everything that God has called us to do to please him.

Therefore, that means that God gives us the dignity of standing up against the enemy, that we are nobody's victim, including the devil.

And that when the world, the flesh, and the devil try to bring some kind of whatever into our lives to steal our joy, we're not just sitting there letting him take it, but rather we can do a little kingdom kung fu on the devil and just say, No, you can't have my joy.

Because what God's word says, He says, no matter what happens, whatever, whatever, make sure and rejoice in the Lord.

So here's the question of the day, and that is this how can we guard our joy in a world that seems to always have a new disaster?

How is it possible?

Because here's the thing, there may not be a disaster in the news headlines right now that bothers you at all.

Wait a week, and there'll be something else if you let it.

And God's Word gives us this amazing promise that He says, I can give thanks to God with joy.

Why?

Because I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished.

The reason why we can rejoice, whatever, whatever.

The reason why is because we know that God is doing a good thing.

God is doing a good work in our lives.

We know that he is active.

God's not busy overseas somewhere to the point that he can't still be focused on you.

God's amazing like that, that he can do all these things at the same time.

And it doesn't matter how wrong we get it, God's not going to change his mind about you and about me.

That's why Paul says, whatever.

If the worst thing happens or if it's something silly, but still tries to steal our joy, whatever, whatever.

Don't stop rejoicing in the Lord and guarding that joy because God is doing more than we can imagine.

And so the thing would be is it would have been kind of discouraging if Paul said, just rejoice in the Lord.

And then he ended the letter.

But that's not what he did.

He said, Rejoice in the Lord, and then let me show you how to guard our joy in a world that seems to always have a new disaster.

And he went through all of this, and of course, because my name's Pastor Brandon, he did three different things.

All right.

He did three different things.

And here's here's the first one, and that is this that God's work teaches us how to protect our joy from confusion.

The first thing, if we're gonna battle against the enemy, is we got to have a good defense.

The the con the the kingdom kung fu we gotta have is that before we do anything else, we gotta know how to have a defense, and that is we gotta be able to protect our joy from the different things of life that wants to confuse the goodness of God.

And that's exactly what Paul was talking about.

He was talking to these people, and he says, You gotta watch out, and he tells them what to watch out for.

He says, Watch out for those dogs, those people who do evil, those mutilators who say you must be circumcised to be saved.

But we are the ones who worship by the Spirit of God, and we are the ones who are truly circumcised or saved.

We rely on what Christ Jesus has done for us, and we put no confidence in human effort.

Now, what he's talking about is after Paul would leave an area, there were these people who would come in behind him called the Judaizers, and they would try to tell a different gospel than what Paul had been preaching, and he is trying to show them that there's a difference here.

And if you don't figure out who you are worshiping, if you don't figure out what true Christianity is, then what the enemy will do is he will come in and he will make it so fuzzy and so confusing that if you're not careful, you'll start to think that Christianity is who you voted for.

Christianity is what your opinion about something, that your Christianity has actually absolutely little to do with God and everything to do with public opinion.

And that's what the Judaizers would do.

They almost destroyed the churches in Galatia because they came in and they kept trying to add other things to the gospel and they confused it so that the people were losing their joy.

And what Paul is doing is he is saying, listen, I know they're out there.

They didn't send me a letter, I didn't get a Facebook invite, but I know that they're out there.

So let me tell you what they're doing.

And he called them dogs, workers of evil, and mutilators.

Now, what he meant by that, by dogs, is what they would do is they would go in and they would scavenge because he's not talking about dogs like today.

He's he's not talking about Fluffy the puppy, all right?

He's talking about Rufus the wolf.

Okay, that's what he's talking about.

Back then, most wolves would they think more like a wolf that would be on the outskirts and there'd be scavengers.

And as he's saying that's exactly what the Judaizers would do.

They would confuse the center with the edges.

They would take someone who was who was not really sure about what Paul was saying, and he would, they would get them off by themselves so that they could think confuse them and corrupt their doctrine.

Can I tell you so many times, if we don't keep our eyes on the center focus of what God's word says, the enemy will confuse us with the dis with the edges and all these things over here, not saying they're not important, but they're not central.

Another thing he said is he called them people who do evil, that they would confuse the truth so sin becomes fuzzy.

In other words, they would say, Well, really the gospel is this or this.

And so after a while, you didn't know what honored God and what didn't.

You didn't know what was actually supposed to be Christian and what wasn't Christian because they just got all fuzzy.

It got confusing.

And then he called them mutilators.

The reason why that was is because they said that if you truly want to be a Christian, you've got to become Jewish, which meant circumcision.

If you don't know what that is, I'm not gonna tell you, okay?

Don't look it up in Jesus' name.

Just trust me, it was not a good thing.

All right, it would make any man second, second think or think think over again about the goodness of God, but just for a second, right?

But he would say, these people try to tell you that they would confuse relationship with legalism.

That Jesus doesn't love you because he loves you, he loves you because you performed properly and because you did all the right things.

And what they did was is they confused what was supposed to be happening, and it was robbing the joy, that sigh of the soul that God was in control.

And so Paul says, You gotta know the difference and realize he said that that's the wrong way to do it.

The right way to do it is to realize that the true people of God are those who worship by the Spirit of God.

In other words, those who live for God, those who worship by the Spirit of God.

He is the gas that runs the engine.

That we constantly come back to the middle and go, I'm not living for myself, I'm not living for the opinions of others, I'm not living for the news headlines, I am living for the Lord.

And he said, that's what true Christianity looks like.

He's saying not only that, but they rely on Christ Jesus and what he has done for us.

He said, We live for God and we trust in God.

We realize that we can't make a difference, but he can.

And so we trust that he is doing more than we realize.

And he said, when I realize that we live for God, that restores that sigh of contentment because I know that when I trust in him, even when I can't always see what he's doing, it gives me a sigh of contentment.

And then it's those who put no confidence and human effort, which means I lean on God.

I give myself a break to not have all the right answers.

I tell I'm I'm able to tell people I don't always know what to do, but I'm so glad that Jesus does.

And so the more confusing the world gets, the more I lean on him until I'm not even leaning, I'm laying.

Because I need as much of the Lord as I can possibly get.

And he's saying that if you can notice where the confusion is and make sure that you line up with where Jesus is, he says, that's how the whatevers don't steal your joy.

And I love how he teaches them what to do in this situation, but he also teaches Timothy what to do.

We we read earlier that Timothy is currently with Paul when he's writing this, but a little bit later he teaches him how to have a good defense as well.

What happened just a couple of years later is that Timothy actually left from Paul and he goes and starts pastoring the church at uh at Ephesus.

And while he is there, he is having to learn from Paul how to do these things.

And he is coaching up Timothy on how to not lose his joy as well.

And he says this, he says, Timothy, here are my instructions.

Based on the prophetic words, may they help you fight well in the Lord's battles.

Cling to your faith in Christ and keep your conscience clear.

And I love that he includes this.

He says, For some people have deliberately violated their consciences, and as a result, their faith has been shipwrecked.

Hymenaeus and Alexander are two examples.

In other words, he's saying this doesn't maintain itself.

There's a real enemy out there who is trying to steal your joy, and for those who don't guard their joy, their faith is shipwrecked.

And he said, Hymenaeus and Alex are two examples.

They would not guard their joy, and because of that, it shipwrecked their faith.

Can I tell you so many times you and I could probably have so many examples?

And the examples would be people that we know that used to follow God with joy, and now they don't know what to do anymore.

And you know, one of the reasons why is because at some point they lost their joy, because they lost their sigh of contentment that God is in control.

And Paul was teaching Timothy how to keep the confusion away.

He said this: he said, You got to know God's word, you got to trust in God's word, and you got to follow God's word.

He's saying, You got to keep God's word close to where you are, because you got to make sure that you're filtering every whatever through God's word.

Because if you don't, then there's so much confusion that's going to happen.

The reason or the way we're able to keep it straight on what God wants from us and what doesn't want from us is we ask him and we walk with him as we walk through his word.

And that's why it's so important that we read God's word every day.

If you're gonna read a headline every day, read God's word every day.

If you're gonna go on social media every day, you gotta go to God's word every day.

If you're gonna talk about any of it, you gotta do that because you gotta have something that's filtering, because we have a spiritual enemy that's trying to steal our joy, and he's gonna send whatever, whatever that he possibly can.

And he's gonna do that, and he's gonna slowly but surely try to confuse our joy.

So here's my question for you, and that is what whatevers are trying to confuse your joy, and what will you do about it?

You're not a victim, you're not alone, you have the ability.

God has given you the ability.

He said, I give them the grits and the power to do everything that pleases me.

And what pleases me is when whatever happens, you rejoice in the Lord.

So you have the opportunity to stand up against whatever happens in your life and say, I'm not going to let what you are doing define what I believe about God.

I'm not denying things are going on.

I'm just denying their ability to define what God can do.

And instead, I'm going to allow God to tell me what He can and can't do.

And when you start doing that and realize that God's word clarifies God's faithfulness, that's when you can take that full sigh and let it out without any enemy able to steal it from you because you know that God is in control.

Look at somebody and say, Whatever, whatever.

Whatever, whatever.

And I look back at him and say, protect your joy.

Remember it's scientifically proven you'll have a good time if you join me.

Look at somebody and say, protect your joy.

See, science.

There it is.

There it is.

Absolutely.

Or God, and we're having fun.

Okay?

The idea is that we are protecting our joy from whatever happens because our defense is that we keep confusion away.

Here's the second thing he was teaching us, and that is to protect our joy with our testimony.

We protect our joy with our testimony.

I love it.

I love it how he was teaching us the idea of rehearsing the wonders of the Lord over and over and over again.

And he's saying, you gotta remember that if you want to remember the problems, remember that wasn't the end of the story.

Remember that there were more that was actually happening.

That we remember that our testimony is how we defeat the enemy, that we keep confusion away by noticing it, and then we push the enemy back by remembering God's faithfulness.

He said it like this, and he said, If I could have, if anyone could have confidence, I could have confidence even more.

And he just starts telling them I was circumcised on the eighth day, I was a pure-blooded citizen of Israel, tribe of Benjamin, member of the Pharisees, so zealous that I was hurting folks.

I was, I once thought that these things were valuable.

In other words, he's like, I was the best of the best.

And I thought that's why God loved me.

But now I consider them as worthless because of what Christ has done.

Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord.

For his sake, I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage.

We're gonna talk about that word in a second, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him.

That word garbage, depending on the translation you're reading, it says garbage, it says it's worthless, useless.

That word, the Greek word is called scubala.

You want to try that word?

When I count a three, I want you to say scubala.

One, two, three.

Um, put it this way.

When they were reading this in front of the whole church, when he said that that is all scubola, everybody would have gone, what did he say?

Can you say that word in church?

Because that word means manure.

It means poo.

Okay, that's what it means.

Okay, it means it means the the chocolate smiley face.

Okay, it means it means poo.

Okay, that's that's what it is.

He's saying God's goodness is so good that everything I thought was great is less than nothing compared to his goodness.

Let me put it to you like 21st century.

He was, it would be like saying, listen, I was a TikTok influencer.

I rose to the top of my profession, I received the best education, I was cooler than Chuck Norris, and I never even owned a cat, okay?

He's saying, that's how awesome I was, and all of that is scuba.

All of it compared to knowing Christ.

And so what he's saying is, is he saying, listen, church, whatever happens, rejoice in the Lord.

Well, Paul, that's hard.

That's why you've got to safeguard it.

That's why you've got to protect it.

Well, Paul, how do we protect it?

Well, first of all, by making sure you know where Jesus is and where he's not.

Make sure you keep the confusion down.

And then, second, remember God's faithfulness.

Remember where he brought you from.

This was his testimony, as he said, I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done.

He was saying, I was, but now because of Jesus.

I was, but now I'm because of Jesus.

Can I tell you one of my favorite things to do whenever I'm sitting with somebody and we're we're struggling, we're processing through a whatever in our lives, and we start thinking about these things, and we say, okay, now let's talk about the goodness of God.

Let's let's talk about something.

And it starts off with, I don't know what you're talking about.

You know, I had this, that, and the other is all it was.

And we start talking and said, okay, that's what was.

But what's but what did God do?

Well, he did exactly.

God was faithful.

Even when we didn't realize it at the time, we realize now God was faithful.

If you ever want to have a testimony that you can hold with you, because I've had people say, How in the world can I put my entire life story into something that people will pay attention to?

Because the honest truth is, is telling your story to someone is kind of like telling someone one of your dreams.

You know, the only person that cares about a dream is the one telling the dream.

You know, nobody else cares.

And we try, we try, but we get lost when like cows are flying and stuff like that.

We don't know.

And many times that's what happens when we're talking about our story.

And so we simplify it.

And we say, okay, well, listen, I'm not gonna tell you about all the different things and whatever.

I'm just gonna tell you that I was, but now I'm because of Jesus.

And here's the thing that you need to understand is that everyone has a story.

Look at your neighbor and say, you have a story.

And every story can become a testimony.

One of my favorite stories in the entire New Testament is during the time of Jesus, there was a man who was born blind.

And back then, during the time, if you were born blind, people thought either you sinned before you were born or your parents sinned.

But either way, it was somebody's fault.

And so not only were you blind and you'd have to beg, but you were also considered disgraced because something went wrong, and that's why God didn't favor you.

And so they asked Jesus at one point, who sinned, Jesus?

Was it this man or was it his parents?

And Jesus just says, of nobody sinned, but watch what God can do.

And he goes over to this man and he heals him.

Can you imagine?

All your life you get to hear about what the trees look like, you get to hear about what people look like.

You want to see the face of your parents and your children or your uh your brothers and sisters, but you can't.

And now, in a moment, Jesus opens your eyes and you can see what a wonderful moment that would have been.

But the problem was he wasn't even able to enjoy it because as soon as that happened, all of a sudden all the enemies came around.

What are you doing?

Why are you dancing and excited?

Well, because I've been healed.

Who told you you were healed?

I can see.

And they were so busy trying to be mad at Jesus that they told him he didn't know what he was talking about.

But I can see.

And so they started asking him questions that he didn't have any answers other than I can see.

And so they brought his parents in and said, Listen, you guys must have sinned because this was the deal.

Is this him?

Yeah, that's him.

What happened?

You should ask him.

They threw him all the way under the bus so they could just back out of it.

And so they're saying, Listen, we don't know what Jesus is or is not.

He's a sinner, he's not healing anybody.

So just praise God for your healing, but that must not have been from God.

And I love his answer.

He says, I don't know whether he's a sinner, but I know this.

I was blind and now I can see.

He's like, Look, you're telling me he's a sinner.

I'm just telling you that he changed my life.

So you may be mad at him, but man, I'm I'm loving him more every second.

And I don't have it all figured out.

I don't know what to do.

You guys have become the biggest whatever in my life I've ever seen.

All I know is I was blind and now I can see.

Can I tell you, when the whatevers of life come in and you don't have all the answers, I don't know exactly what to do.

You can always come back to, you know what?

Devil, you're not gonna steal my joy because you're right, I don't have all the answers to these questions.

All I know is I was blind, but now I can see.

What about you?

What would yours be?

You know why this is so important?

It's because they say it is impossible to truly be thankful and worried at the same time.

Try it.

Start coming up with a list of things you're truly thankful for and see how quickly your mind cannot focus on all the bad while you're focusing on all that God has done.

And that's why it's so very important.

And it takes time.

I wish we had time today just to take like a five-minute praise break and you just kind of take a moment and you just write down what yours might be.

And it's not just salvation, it could be any time that God has brought you through a difficult season.

God, let me give you mine just as an example.

Mine is I was dead in religion, but now I'm alive in relationship because of Jesus.

My story is, if you've heard my story before, I grew up in church.

I knew everything about God, I knew how to quote the scriptures, I knew how to sing the songs, I knew when to stand up and sit down.

I could, I could do it all, but I didn't know God.

And my terrible fear is I didn't think God was would love me.

I didn't think he was real, and if he was, why would he love me?

And so I knew all about religion, but I didn't know Jesus.

And one day I was sitting in a church service and a guy quoted John 3.16, and it changed my life forever when he said, Now take out the word world and put your name in.

That's how much Jesus loves you.

And I did it in my head because remember, I knew all about God, but I didn't know him yet.

And I said, for God so loved Brandon that he gave his one and only son that if Brandon would put his trust in him, he would not perish but have eternal life.

And it finally clicked in my mind.

Jesus did all of that for me.

Jesus died and rose again for me.

Well, what else can I do but give him my life?

Whatever it costs, Jesus, you can have it, only to find out that he gave me life in return.

And so now I realize that God is not just up in the sky, just pulling the strings, but he's with us even in this moment.

And so when I hear about all the things, I don't know what to do.

And when there's 99 whatevers in the world, I don't always know what to do in these situations, what I do have the ability to say is, I don't know.

All I know is there was once when I was so confused that I didn't know which way was up.

And then Jesus found me.

And if he found me before, he'll find me again.

He'll never let me walk this path alone.

And so here's my question for you, and that is, how can you use your testimony to battle the whatevers for you and for others?

How can you use your testimony to battle the whatevers for you and for others?

Because the Lord has been faithful and will be faithful.

The reality of it is, is sometimes it's for you, sometimes it's for somebody next to you.

Sometimes you need to share your testimony with somebody else because the enemy is stealing their joy.

The enemy is letting the whatevers get a little bit too big in their life, and sometimes they don't remember their story.

So let them borrow yours.

And let them be reminded that when you didn't know what else to do, God rescued you.

And because of that, you now have the ability to take a sigh of contentment because you know that God is in control.

Look at somebody and say, whatever, whatever.

Whatever it is, whatever it is, man, I'm gonna protect my joy.

And the reason why is because there is joy that can give us a sigh of contentment when we remove the confusion, realize where the enemy is, and realize where he's not, when we rehearse our testimony, rehearse the goodness of God over and over again, and then here's one more, and that is to protect our joy by truly knowing Jesus.

We protect our joy by truly knowing Jesus, by where we place our focus, by where we give the attention of our thoughts.

God's word says it like this.

I love this.

He says, I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead.

I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection.

I I told Autumn this past week there's there was a part of me that just wanted to put this on the screen and then just go sit down.

Because that's amazing.

Paul is sitting in prison, waiting to find out if he is going to be put to death or not.

He's writing back to his friends at Philippi who also have their 99 issues, and they're talking about all this, and he's saying, Do you know what I want more than anything?

Do you know what I want more than I want my freedom?

What I want more than I want another happy day.

You know what I want?

I want to know him.

I want to experience that mighty power.

And you know what?

If it means suffering, I'm there for it.

As long as it's with him.

If it means sharing in his death, I'm here for it.

As long as I'm with him.

That word no is the word gnosko, which doesn't mean ahead knowledge.

It means to know from the bottom of your heart.

It means to truly know.

It's the difference between having a relationship with somebody on Facebook and being married for 25 years.

Like my wife and I, we we celebrate 25 years of marriage this year.

And do you know I can tell if she's mad at me by the way she sighs with a sigh of relief because God is in control.

She has a sigh that I know it is time for me to go check the trash, because that's my chore of the house, go do whatever.

I I've been married long enough.

I know.

I have been married long enough that I can tell by her smile if she's upset about something.

Because we've gotten to know one another over the years.

We've been through good days, we've been through bad days, we've been through days we don't remember because they were so boring.

We've been through everything in between.

And now I gonosco her.

And you know what Paul is saying?

He's saying, that's the kind of relationship that we got to focus on.

I don't want a Sunday romance with God.

I want to invite him into my home.

I want to get to know him.

I want to go through the good days, I want to go through the bad days, I want to suffer with him, I want to share in all the different seasons of life.

I want to do all of it because I want to focus my attention on the Lord.

Here's the reality: our focus determines our joy.

Why?

Because we often find what we're already looking for.

We often find what we're pursuing.

And so if you're not finding Jesus, can I ask you this?

Are you pursuing Jesus?

Are you looking for him?

Are you trying to find his goodness in a world of chaos?

Or are you clicking the next headline, looking for the next dopamine rush?

Instead, are we looking for Jesus?

Because we will find what we're looking for.

And what Paul is saying is, as he is saying, yes, I get that there's 99 issues, there's whatever, whatever's all over the place, and we need to do things about that, but my focus has got to stay on Jesus.

And I love how he he reminds us this again.

If you're reading God's word with us, we are reading through the book of Ephesians right now, and you you could join us by texting uh RLC Bible to 94,000 or scan that QR code.

And Ephesians was probably written about the same time as Philippians.

And he's telling the Philippians that, man, I want to know Christ.

I want to share in his sufferings if that's what I need to do.

I'm gonna share in his death if that's what I need to do.

I just want to know him.

Whatever it costs, I want to know him.

And he writes the same similar thing to the church at Ephesus, but he takes it one step further and he says, this is where our focus needs to be.

He said, I pray from the glorious, unlimited resources from his that he will empower you with inner strength through his spirit.

And then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him.

Your roots will grow down into God's love and keep you strong.

And may you have the power to understand as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is.

May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully.

Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

And now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.

He's saying, No matter what we experience in this life, when we keep our focus on the Lord, the enemy can't steal our joy.

And so I want to ask you this question as we get ready to end.

Which one of these whatevers is the enemy trying to use to steal your joy?

Yours might not be on this list.

Or that, or this might be your list.

Pastor, I got every one of these.

Well, you know what the enemy's gonna do?

If he can't use one of these, he'll find another one.

He'll keep working, he'll find a whatever until he finds the right whatever that'll start attacking your joy in a way that starts to remove your joy.

And instead of going, I trust in the Lord, instead of having a sigh of relief, you start hyperventilating because you're not so sure if God's gonna do something this time, you're not so sure.

Can I tell you, if you're wondering if God is faithful, that's not from God, that's from the enemy.

And he's trying to change the story because all along God's always been faithful.

And so, whatever your whatever is, Paul, in spite of the Holy Spirit, says, Whatever, whatever it is, my brothers and sisters, don't let it steal your joy, but instead protect it and guard it by having a clear vision and removing the confusion, seeing what is of God and what's not, then having the opportunity to remember his faithfulness, rehearse the wonders of the Lord with your testimony, and then make sure you keep your focus on Jesus, not on drama, and make sure, and his promise is this that despite all these whatevers, despite all of them, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ who loved us.

Overwhelming victory is ours from Christ who loved us.

The reality is, Jesus said, In this world, you will have trouble.

Look at your neighbor and say, That's good news.

You didn't mean that at all, did you?

Yeah, you know.

I don't either, but it is good news.

You know why?

Because Jesus said, But take heart, I've overcome the world, I've overcome every single difficulty, I've overcome it.

Therefore, there is no whatever that can destroy us, even those.

There is no single whatever that can destroy us, and I'm not in any way trying to make light of anything that you may be going through in life.

I want to make sure and make that clear.

I'm just saying, whatever it is, the enemy cannot stop someone who has decided to have joy.

We're not we're not saying that it's not a big deal, we're just refusing to let it define God's faithfulness.

It was it reminded me of this week.

I was thinking about, I don't know if you've ever heard of this lady.

There's a lady named Corey Timbuk and she um she's been passed away for several years now, but she was in a concentration camp during World War II.

And the reason why is because her and her family were Polish and they were hiding uh Jewish people as they were being rounded up, and when it was found out what they had done, they didn't just take the Jewish people to the to the concentration camps, they took her family as well.

And they separated their families, and she was just there with her sister, and they were there, and she said that she was having a really hard time, obviously, with all that she was having to go through.

But she said her sister was just so thankful.

And she was like, What is your problem?

Why are you so thankful?

We're in a concentration camp.

I mean, it was it was horrible stuff.

You read her book, it was horrible.

It's called a hiding place, and it was terrible, and and her sister was just so thankful, and she would tell her all the time things to be thankful for.

And I was I was thinking about this, and she said, She was thankful for fleas.

How can you be thankful for fleas?

And her sister told her, you know, I'm thankful for fleas because they're everywhere.

They said they were just all over the place.

She said, I'm so thankful for fleas because there's so many of them in here, none of the guards will come into our barracks.

And so we get to be away from them for more hours than anybody else because they don't want to get a flea.

Thank God for fleas.

It's like, okay, all right, that that's the glasses half full.

Then she said, Thank goodness that we're overcrowded.

In a barracks that there should be 30, there's like 80 of us in here.

Thank goodness.

How can you be so thankful for all these other people?

Because we're so crowded that we can hide our Bibles.

Because they can't look everywhere, and they were able to actually hide their Bibles and have Bible studies with the different ladies in there, and they could hide them because there was people everywhere.

So I'm so thankful that it's overcrowded.

She said, Her sister said, I'm so thankful for suffering.

Okay, you got to help me on this one.

How can we be thankful for suffering?

Because it's in the dark where the light shines the brightest.

She said, Can't you can't you see Jesus everywhere?

It's so dark in here that all I can see is Jesus because he's the only one keeping us going.

And she said that then one day when her sister found out that she was dying, she said, I'm so thankful that my journey is almost over.

How can you be thankful?

She said, Because number one, I'm getting out of here.

I'm about to go see Jesus.

And she said, I'm thankful because you're gonna learn how to stand on your own two feet.

You've been dependent on me.

It's time for you to start depending on Jesus.

And she says she lost her sister in the concentration camp.

And she said it was in that moment she realized how powerful God really was.

And out of it, she had this quote where she said, If we look around, we will be distressed.

If we look inward, we will be depressed, but if we look up, we'll find rest.

And she said it was in the darkest place imaginable that I saw how good God really was.

Because when God is all you have, you realize that He really was all you ever needed.

And can I tell you, I'm I'm not in any way trying to say that what you're going through is not important.

I'm not trying to compare, I'm just trying to help us all remember that the same God that was with her is the same God that is with you right now, and in every one of the whatevers that you're going through, maybe you're not.

Worried or concerned at all about what's going on in the world because there's enough inside your own house that's keeping you plenty occupied.

Can I tell you?

God is faithful, God is good, and God's word loves us enough.

He loves us enough that through his word, he tells us you got to guard that joy because the enemy's coming after it.

Because the enemy doesn't have to destroy you, he just needs to distract you.

And if you get so distracted by losing your joy, then you can't tell other people about the goodness of God.

And so sometimes the enemy will not try to defeat you, he just wants to discourage you.

Because then you're on the sideline instead of in the game.

And can I tell you, I still believe it's the greatest time to be alive because people are beginning to realize more than ever that nothing else will satisfy only Jesus.

Only Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.

Only Jesus can make a way out of no way.

Only Jesus can satisfy the longing in our soul.

That's the message that you and I have.

So realize the enemy is gonna do everything he can to stop that by stealing your joy.

Don't let him have it.

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

And I'm gonna ask you this question: What is the number one whatever in your life?

What is the enemy trying to use to steal your joy?

He's not trying to destroy you, he's just trying to discourage you.

He's trying to distract you.

What is that?

In just a moment, we have an opportunity to pray.

I want to encourage you just to just to take it to the Lord.

He's the only one that could do anything about it anyway.

Maybe you just need to just to raise your hands and all we worship and say, God, just symbolically, I just give you my finances, I give you my worries and my fears, I give you my concerns, I give you my complaints, God.

I'm not happy with what you're doing right now.

I just trust you anyway.

Just be honest with God because He already knows.

And what if instead of letting that whatever steal another moment of your joy, what if you gave it to Jesus and let him let that joy overflow?

The book of Nehemiah says it's the joy of the Lord that is our strength.

In just a moment, as we do that, also there may be somebody else in here today that if you're honest, you don't have joy, and it's because you don't have hope.

And the reason why you don't have hope is because you don't have Jesus.

Can I tell you you've been trying everything else?

There's a reason why nothing else will satisfy.

It's because only Jesus can wash away all of our sin.

Only He can forgive us, wash us clean, and make us new.

I don't even know how you make it to Walmart nowadays without Jesus.

But with him, you can go through the deepest, darkest valley and come out on the other side.

Is it time to come home to Jesus?

Inside your worship God on the back of that connect card is the plan of salvation.

And when we pray here in just a moment, it's gonna be your time.

While we're praying and worshiping the Lord and we're giving our whatevers to God, I wanted you to take this with you.

I want you to stand up in just a moment, and I want you to take it to our prayer table, and we want to talk to you about what salvation is.

It's not just about giving God your bad days, it's about giving God all the days.

Jesus, I want all of you.

You take all of me.

I want to repent of my sin.

I want to I want to turn to you.

And if you will do that, God will take all those whatevers and He'll give you life.

Is today the day to come home to salvation?

Let's pray together right now.

God, thank you so much for today.

Thank you, God, that you see us and that you know us.

Thank you, God, that you're not ashamed of any one of us in here, you're not mad at us, you're in love with us.

And that Lord, maybe the whole reason why we came here today is for you to say to us one more time, You love us.

You're never gonna give up on us.

Today is a new day that when all the things happen, I'd still dare to have hope because the love of the Lord endures forever.

Your mercies never cease.

They are new every morning.

Great is your faithfulness.

God, I pray as we worship you here in a moment that you will bring to our attention that biggest whatever in our life and remind us that you are bigger still.

Lord, I bind in the name of Jesus every voice that would try to steal our joy, try to lie to us in Jesus' name.

And I release you, Holy Spirit, to speak to every heart.

Remind us that you are bigger than any whatever that we come across.

And I pray your joy will overflow in us.

And Lord, I pray for somebody that today is the day of salvation.

I pray you will silence the voice of the enemy.

Let your voice be the only one they hear and remind them that they are still loved and that in your presence is where they belong.

We celebrate you in this place.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

Would you stand with me all over the house this morning?

The band is going to lead us through the song of worship, and it's your moment.

I don't know what it is, but I'm praying for you during this time.

The Holy Spirit will bring to your attention that biggest whatever in your mind.

And then as you worship the Lord and make room for him in your heart, you'll realize that it's not bigger than Jesus, that he is the author and finisher of our faith.

If you're in here and you are like one on one prayer, maybe it's just real heavy right now.

That's also what the prayer table is for.

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

And if today is the day of salvation, don't let anything stop you from making Jesus the Lord of your life today.