ALL THINGS

Hey everyone, this is Charlie from Encounter

Church Henley and thanks so much for tuning into

our podcast. Our prayer is that through this

podcast, you can have an encounter with Jesus

that will change your life. And now get ready

for an inspiring message from our preaching team.

Today's reading comes from Philippians 4 .13.

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens

me. Got it right. This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks, Carly. Awesome. Glad you're managing

to get through that one. Hey, really good to

be here, everyone, if we haven't met before.

My name's Mike. I have the privilege of being

the senior pastor of Encounter Adelaide with

my wife Jenny, which means we get to come and

hang out at Henley sometimes, but we're mostly

based at our Enfield location, which is lots

of fun. Hey, the guy who was up uh before with

um jasmine uh what's your name in the front row

can you come up for a sec it's is it's sex right

because i feel i've seen you around the gym a

bit yeah i've been there i haven't seen you but

yeah well i'm not on the machines i'm sort of

like yeah i tend to like drink smoothies from

behind glass but you're the one they call flex

right i love it But don't, like, as you've been

working out, notice this guy's got some ink,

man. You got some, you know me? Oh, so what does

it mean? Tell us about it. This is unbelievable

by Mike. Uh, okay. This is, this is not just

Bad Tribal. This is actually, okay, so that is

the symbol of a band that I used to play in,

which I assumed would be forever. Here we are

and then this one is actually a matching tattoo

I got with a mate on his 30th birthday And it

says we're loyal like brothers, and it's a song

lyric from our favorite one of our favorite bands

Bro, I love that Can I talk to you about some

ink I've been thinking about getting? All right,

so there's there's a few there's a few right

and so the first one is like Like it's it's small,

but obviously obviously I'm a Christian. So yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, so it's small. It's a butterfly on

the lower back but it has reborn in it like or

born again i was thinking because it like as

because like christianity and a butterfly is

a symbol of rebirth because it used to be a caterpillar

you get it yeah but i'm finished but but coming

up like roses all up my back right and in them

like each of them i was thinking like one of

the bits of the Lord's Prayer, like not all of

it, just like the fun bits. Like daily bread

and like, I mean, like all the cool bits, but

like in roses and then, and then sort of like

bicep, like barbed wire. That would be awkward.

Barbed wire, just barbed wire, but like around

it, you know, be strong and courageous. Yeah,

and then in a wrist But right what I want is

John 3 16. Do you know John 3 16? I read it last

week It's about like I think it's about Jesus,

but anyway, I was gonna get it written in the

original Hebrew Yeah, but I just I just I don't

know what it is, but someone told me Hebrew is

in the Bible and it looks cool Yeah, yeah, and

I'm gonna have the Chinese symbol for respect

on my Anyway, doesn't... These are great. These

are great. Hey, thanks, Flex. You can take a

seat. I just think... Isn't it great that we're

more willing to get tattoos of Bible verses than

we are to live them out? Here we go. Here we

go. It's really good to see you all. You're genuinely

so happy to be here. out of all the stereotypical

one -liners that I could have gotten, this is

the best one. Like I got, I got gold here. I

struck gold in Philippians 4 .13. When I was

a young Christian, this is genuinely, this was

my favorite Bible verse, Philippians 4 .13. It's

the first verse I ever learned. I was 19 years

old. I came to faith, didn't know anything except

who God was. And I sort of was generally pro

-God but not in any way that I would have to

live out whatsoever and so I got a mentor which

was probably the smartest thing I could have

done and the mentor just kept feeding me Bible

verses one at a time like a mother bird with

a baby bird just going take this one verse and

so Philippians 4 .13 was the first one. I can

do all things through Christ who strengthens

me, which is why I got Carly to read the King

James version before, because for whatever reason,

it was the new King James version that I got.

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens

me. And it's a banger verse, isn't it? Because

every time you say it, you're like, yeah, I'm

doing great. I can do this. And you just don't

want to overthink it or maybe think at all. You

just want to read it and say it. It took me a

little while longer to actually start living

out. some of the Christian values that I was

learning. Still learning some of those. But Philippians

4 .13 was the first one and it stuck in my brain

the way it sticks to some of your Instagram bios

right now. It's a verse of encouragement. It's

a verse of hope. Why wouldn't it? It's a verse

that speaks of the power of God in our everyday

life. It just also feels super passe. It feels

incredibly cringy, but it's the Bible. How does

it do both these things at the same time? How

does it feel passe and incredibly meaningful

at the same time? Part of the problem is the

way we read these things. Now, apologies if you

guys have gone across some of this ground before,

but I think it's really important we consider

the ideas of proof texting and the whole counsel

of God. Okay, let me explain what I mean by this.

In Acts chapter 20 verse 27 the Apostle Paul

Acts 20:27

is speaking to a church in Ephesus and he says

to them that I do not shrink from declaring to

you the whole council of God. Now this means

that Paul didn't come up to teach people single

verses. He came to tell the whole story of God

as revealed by God to his people through the

law, the prophets and the histories and ultimately

fulfilled in Jesus who lived, died, was resurrected,

ascended to the right hand of the Father and

is coming back again to judge the living and

the dead. There is an entire arc throughout this

beautiful book from Genesis to Revelation and

we need to understand the whole Council of God.

And so even though Paul would tackle the issues

of his day and he would look at context, he would

look at it through the lens of the entire biblical

story. What does this thing mean in the lens

of the whole story? Now this is important. Because

sometimes if you read the Bible, maybe because

you're new to it, the Bible is an incredibly

confusing book to read if you're new to it, by

the way. You have all my sympathy. I'd love to

help you with that. We forget that there's no

such thing as chapters and verses. They don't

exist. They are things that we have made up.

In 1551, the French printer Robert Estienne made

up chapters and verses so that it would be simple

for you to get a memory verse tattooed on the

inside of your wrist. It's much, much easier

that way. So we've got to remember that individual

verses, you don't want to get stuck on them.

It's not that they're bad. It's not that they're

unbiblical. Of course they're biblical. Of course

they're good. You just don't want to get caught

in placing kind of all your life on this one

verse. That's called proof texting. A proof text

is when you take one verse and you like it so

much you tend to build everything off of that

one verse. right? So, we all do this from time

to time, like John 3 .16 is an example of that,

for God so loved the world that He gave His one

and only Son so that whosoever believes in Him

should not perish but have eternal life. Now,

the beauty of that is it's a summary, right?

And as you read backwards and forwards, you're

like, oh yeah, that's a pretty good summary of

the whole Gospel. Romans 10 .9 is another one.

Believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord and

say with your mouth, He's risen from the dead

and you'll be saved. But the key is, when you

look at the rest of the Bible, does that match

your interpretation? So I'll give you one example.

In 1 Timothy chapter 2 verse 12, Paul is writing

1 Timothy 2:12

to his disciple Timothy, and he writes this,

I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise

authority over a man. Rather she is to remain

quiet. Okay, well that sounds pretty clear. That

is pretty clear. Until you actually read the

Bible. Then when you read the whole Council of

God from Genesis to Revelation, including Paul's

letters, what you realise is that women are consistently

encouraged to preach, speak, share the gospel

and have apostolic authority over men. Again

and again, planting churches, leading leaders

and being the first people to bear witness to

the resurrection of Jesus. So rather than saying,

here's one verse that says one thing, I guess

everything I believe to be true has to come from

that. We work out what does the entire Bible

say, okay, this one verse is tripping me up.

How do I work out how that fits into inside the

entire narrative that I see from start to finish?

You with me? Now it's kind of logical, but we

don't like to do it because it's much harder.

It's much harder. We don't want to do it because

we actually have to put some work in when we

do that. We would much rather just have the one

verse and go, oh yeah, okay, I know that, so.

thumbs up, I'm kind of on my way, right? Like

it's just an easier thing to do. So when we read

a Bible verse that we don't understand, or we

don't know how to deal with it, which I've got

to be honest, happens to me like every second

day. I'll read a chapter of scripture, I'm like,

that's interesting, I don't remember reading

that last time, and it just sticks in my mind.

So when you do that, you've got to read it against

the rest of the Bible. Not against our preferences.

not against our life experience, not against

our cultural constructs, that is the currents

of culture that are encouraging us to think and

believe a certain way, but instead we ask ourselves,

what does this Scripture mean given the rest

of Scripture? You with me so far? Okay, this

is much harder. So today I'll give you a freebie

and I'll do the hard work for you. Let's open

up Philippians. If you've got your Bible with

you, I really want to encourage you to open up

to Philippians chapter four. We're going to spend

a bit of time in that. And any time you're reading

the word, that's going to be better than anything

I've got to say anyway. So open it up. Now, Philippians

comes from the word Philippi, which was a city

in sort of near the Turkish Greek border. That

was probably written in around AD 60, this letter

to the church in Philippi. Paul is a fairly old

man by the time he writes this. He's under house

arrest in Rome. He's waiting for his trial before

the Roman emperor. So we believe he's under house

arrest for about two years and that meant he's

under constant guard. He's sometimes in chains

but it also means he's free to write letters

and communicate with people. So it has its pluses,

it has its minuses. So he was communicating with

the churches he planted around the Mediterranean.

The church in Philippi was one of the first ones

he ever planted, probably around 1853 or so,

on his first mission trip. He went around, I'm

going to Europe with my family in a couple of

months, can't wait. First time Paul went to Europe

with his family, he just planted churches everywhere.

I haven't told Jenny yet, but one of the things

that made this special, visiting Philippi for

the first time for Paul. It was a special moment

in a young man's life when he gets thrown in

jail unjustly for the first time. Always a special

moment. He's thrown in jail for casting a demon

out of a slave girl. Again, our trip to Europe

is gonna be, you just watch Instagram. He and

Silas, his friend and co -apostle, they're flogged,

they're jailed, but at midnight there's a violent

earthquake, the whole prison is shaken, the shackles

fall off. and he ends up leading the jailer and

his family to Jesus and he's set free. Just a

standard Tuesday for the Apostle Paul. So that's

why the Philippian Church holds a special place

in Paul's heart. There was a lot happening there

and this letter is often called the letter of

joy. Now Paul is a straight shooter. He will

come straight at you and tell you what he thinks.

So the beauty of Philippians is again and again

you hear these verses of encouragement. These

verses of love and joy lifting people up. He

spends the whole letter in thanks to God and

blessing others and then he gets to chapter four

and then before we get to verse 13, I just want

to unpack a little bit of what he says before

he gets there. Before we get to the verse that

reminds us that God can get us the carpark we

need, all things through Christ, Paul gives us

this, listen to this, verses 10 to 12. How I

praise the Lord that you're concerned about me

again. I know you've always been concerned for

me, but you didn't have the chance to help me.

Not that I was ever in need, for I've learned

how to be content with whatever I have. I know

how to live on almost nothing or with everything.

I've learned the secret of living in every situation,

whether it's with a full stomach or empty, with

plenty or little. Paul thanks the Philippians

for their generosity towards him but as you read

through this chapter you realize that he's kind

of just being polite to them a little bit. He

seems genuinely not bothered about whether he

gets financial support from them or not and most

scholars think it was pretty substantial financial

support that they were giving him. But listen

to verse 12, I have learned the secret of being

content in any and every situation. Can I tell

you something? This is behind just about every

prayer request I get given as a pastor. The secret

of contentment. Inner peace. Paul has discovered

true inner peace. Everybody wants that and Paul

knows it. Only a few verses earlier we hear him

gently encouraging the Philippians church not

to have panic attacks. This is how he puts it.

Verse 6, don't worry about anything, instead

pray about everything. Tell God what you need

and thank Him for all He has done. Then you'll

experience God's peace, which exceeds anything

we can understand. His peace will guard your

hearts and your minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

Now this is like an echo of Jesus' famous Sermon

on the Mount. But even more than that, it's a

sign of a pastor who knows his people. He knows

that what his church is looking for is inner

peace, true contentment. And Paul claims that

he has it. And what's more, verse seven tells

the Philippian church that... they can have it,

then you will experience God's peace. And that

means we can have it. We can have it. So how

can we have it? Well, Paul goes on to say it

next. Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever

is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is

just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever

is commendable, if there is any moral excellence

and if there is anything praiseworthy, dwell

on these things. Do what you have learned and

received and heard from me. and seen in me, and

the God of peace will be with you." And honestly,

his explanation is not very complicated, is it?

Not really. Obey the teachings of Jesus that

Paul brought to the churches. Model your life

after people like Paul, who you've seen them

live lives of God the character, lives worth

following. And when your thoughts stray, make

sure you focus them back on things of holiness

and goodness, not of sin and selfishness. It's

not that complicated. I actually think any of

us here could instinctively teach this. Obey

Jesus, be like Jesus and control your mind in

a peace boom simple. If it's that simple, the

laughter is here already, why are we in a society

of full -on anxiety attacks at all time? If it's

that simple, why do all of us as followers of

Jesus seem riddled with anxiety? Isn't that a

problem? or at least it's something that doesn't

seem to add up. One plus one does not equal two.

The problem is we don't want to do all those

things. Like even as Christians, most of us would

prefer not to do them. These things require real

effort, small things that require massive life

change. Massive life change. They sound easy,

but have you ever tried to shift your mind from

focusing on sinful things or lazy things onto

the things of God? I have. like all the time,

like every day. It's hard, man. And I've been

doing this for a while now. It's still hard.

So that quotable verse, Philippians 4 .13, what

we want it to mean is this, when things are hard

in life, God's going to pick me up and carry

me through. Now, is that true? Yes. However,

the question I have for you is this, have you

trained and forged a spirit? that relies on the

strength and presence of God, not on just what's

going on from day to day. Will you have the presence

of mind when things are going badly to pour yourself

out and look to God instead of just going, oh,

I hope this works out. I'm an optimist. I understand

what that means. I hope it works out. That's

often been my approach to life budgeting. Our

treasurer is here in the front row twitching

from his life experiences with me, managing finance

that way. But if you have the sort of heart that

has been shaped by God, longing for the things

of God, dwelling in the presence of God, working

for the kingdom of God, you can start to experience

that sort of true inner peace. Or you can live

a life based on self -satisfaction and self -fulfillment.

And usually, I've got to say here, usually not

because you're a horrible person. but because

our natural default is to do whatever is easiest.

Water runs downhill. We look for the easiest

path naturally. Our brains, we're making these

neural pathways up there. We want it to be as

easy as possible so we keep doing the easy things,

not the good things. Our strongest desires are

not our deepest desires. If your life is centered

around you, don't be alarmed. It's super common.

Super common. But we don't want to normalise

that. We want to recognise that it's common,

we don't want to say it's normal, because it

will not get you the peace of God. It might get

you financial security, it might get you the

peace of a relationship, it might get you the

peace of a job, but these pieces cannot get you

through times of suffering. Only the peace of

God can carry you through a time of suffering,

which means you've got to forge in your spirit

the peace of God. When I think about Philippians

4 .13, a verse that has genuinely meant a lot

to me over the years, all jokes aside, I think

of athletes with it on their armband, wanting

to win a race. I think of politicians trying

to win votes in specific states and demographics.

It feels like a catchphrase people say to sound

Christian rather than something we want to live

out because it's not really a verse about victory.

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens

me. We're like, let me clench my fist and on

I go. I've got this. No you don't. That's the

whole point. That's the whole point. You don't

have this. Paul is in jail under house arrest.

He's got nothing good going on. He's old. He's

got other pastors in Rome gossiping about him.

He has to pay for his own house arrest which

is pretty egregious really. given that he's kind

of unjustly arrested in the first place. And

on top of all this, the guy who was meant to

bring him the letter from Philippi, Epaphroditus,

he gets there and nearly dies. Paul has to nurse

him back to health while he's under house arrest.

It is not going well for Paul. And then Paul

turns around and writes the letter back to the

church in Philippi saying, I'm good, fam. Genuinely,

I'm fine. Thank you so much. Listen to the language

he says. He's like, I love that you were looking

out for me like this. Thank you so much. I don't

really need it, like I'm fine, but thank you

so, so much. His heart, his joy is not found

in receiving stuff from others. He's joyful to

receive stuff from others because he knows what

that says about the hearts of the people in the

church. He's saying, I know you are going so

well with God the Father and becoming more like

Jesus because of the way you long to give good

gifts to me. I don't need them. I don't demand

them. But when you give that to me, I feel so

thankful because it tells me how you're going.

Let me just fast forward a little bit towards

the end. I love this church so much. I love it.

Verse one, I read, I always go through the full

chapter when I'm processing and doing my sermon

planning, and verse one says this, and I thought

of you straight away. I swear this is the first

thing I thought. Therefore, my dear brothers

and sisters, 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. I

feel when I come to Henley like a grandparent

who gets to hang out with the grandkids and then

hand them back to the parents like Tex and Tim

and Ash. Like it just makes me so happy to see

how healthy and thriving this church is. I walk

in this room and I'm like there's heaps of people

I don't know and that is the best news. That

is so good. What a sign of a life. and growth,

that is. And then I come and see, I see old friends

as well. I'm like, this is so good. This is what

the Church of Jesus Christ is meant to look like.

Healthy things grow. And so I think about Philippians

4 .13 and I think of the way that Paul is speaking

as the things that in the West, we want to focus

about. Most of us aren't looking around trying

to tell everyone, I want you to be impressed

by me, but we want to feel self -satisfied, don't

we? We want to feel a sense of pride in our own

accomplishments. And Paul looks at all that and

he pushes it aside and he says, my greatest joy

is you, is your growth, is the spirit of God

at work in you. Now in case... You don't fully

understand what Paul's speaking about here or

where he's coming from. Let me tell you this.

This is the contentment of a man who can confidently,

joyfully write to a church and tell him, I can

do all things through Christ who strengthens

me. But all the things he's talking about is

having a joyful endurance when things are hard.

In 2 Corinthians, his second letter to the Corinthian

church, this is what Paul says, he goes, oh,

here's a few of the things that's happened to

me over my life. As I shared Christ with others,

I've been beaten a few times by the authorities.

Stoned twice, that was bad. Whipped, got the

40 lashes minus one. It was only 39, luckily

they minus one. That was public as well. Starved,

I've been starved a few times. Shipwrecked twice.

What? No, no, not three times. No, because the

third time I was just stranded for a night and

a day at sea. I didn't go up on land, so it's

technically not shipwrecked. So shipwrecked twice,

night and a day at sea once. It's fine. It's

fine. Bitten by snakes. He actually doesn't say

that in Second Corinthians. It's in Acts, so

we know he's been bitten by poisonous snakes

as well. He doesn't even bother to mention it.

He's like, oh, it's not as bad as the other stuff.

Anyway. Suffering is not abstract for the Apostle

Paul. Suffering is not not getting into the uni

course I wanted. Suffering is not even getting

into a bad car crash. Now that sucks. That is

real suffering. We had this incident a couple

of years ago where my wife was parked at an intersection

and two cars in front of her had a crash so bad

that one of the cars came up and landed on her

bonnet. She got whiplash and both her and my

daughter watched their lives flash before their

eyes before it dropped just short. That is not

nothing. Paul says, when that happens, I have

learned the secret to contentment in that time.

I'm okay. No matter what comes my way, I am okay.

The Spirit of God is in me and with me. Paul

has been forged by fire. How has he been forged

by fire? It's not just the events that have occurred

to him. Because friends, in your life, some of

you will go through worse stuff than I will.

I'll go through worse stuff than some of you

will. We can't necessarily control that, can

we? We can't control what happens when we walk

outside and what somebody else chooses to do.

Sometimes we can't even control what we choose

to do, it seems. But we can choose our spirit.

And we can only choose our spirit consistently.

If we work on our spirit, if we forge it, how

do we do that? How do we do that? Because I think

so often we behave as if this verse is about

winning with God's help instead of losing without

it, but it is much more about patient endurance

with inner peace. We call it multiplying resilient

disciples, overcoming with joy. It is about forging

your spirit in a way that no matter what comes,

you can say with joy and truth, I can do all

things through Christ who strengthens me. I'm

not talking about winning a race here. I'm talking

about I can get through tomorrow with an incredible

joy, no matter what comes my way. My joy and

the depth of me is not affected by my circumstances.

Happiness comes and goes. But the sense of joy

I have from the presence of Christ in me lasts

forever, amen? Amen. So how do we do that? If

you want to have the peace of God, you need to

prepare yourself with God for the sufferings

of life. Now, some of this is the most obvious

boring stuff in the world. You read your Bible

and you pray. and you are present and serving

in a local church. If you're new in this church,

plight yourself. Plight yourself here. Make it

a weekly rhythm for your life that you are part

of this community because what this community

does is they will shape you. There's a verse

in Proverbs chapter 27 verse 17 that like iron

Proverbs 27:17

sharpens iron so one person sharpens another

and what you find if you try and be a Christian

on your own outside of a church community you

can have the belief system but slowly but surely

your life does not reflect Christ. It will just

start to wither away because you're not planted

into a vine, into something living. So I want

to encourage and beg of you, plug yourself in.

The thing about this is it's not about picking

up your Bible and reading it. It's about the

discipline of being in the Word every day and

some of them are really good and some of them

don't feel very good and sometimes you think

I heard from God today and sometimes you think

I heard nothing at all today but day after day

after day you are in the Word of God, hearing

from it. We have a 7am prayer meeting on weekdays

for Encounter Church. I am almost never on there.

Just being honest. But I tell you who is, my

friend Jonathan, almost every single day, week

in, week out, 7 to 7 .15, praying day after day

after day. Some of those days are great prayer

sessions and some of them are less great. Would

that be fair Jonathan? Yeah, some are great and

some are less great because that's life. But

do you know what it does over time? It forges

your spirit towards prayer. Reading scripture

over time forges your spirit towards reading

the Bible. One thing I came here to say with

an agenda is this, if you want to grow, sign

up for internship. We run an internship at Encounter

Church. It's mostly based out of Enfield, but

we come down here from time to time, from both

locations. We have Tom Golden, he's one of our

interns. He's somewhere up the east coast of

Australia at this point in time. Dan's done internship.

He's the people here have done internship. Talk

to them for one year of your life on a Friday.

If you can sacrifice that time, 9 .30 to 3 .30,

it will change your life. Not because we are

that gifted. Believe me, I am not. But because

over time, you are choosing to position yourself

every week to hear from God surrounded by other

people doing the same thing as you, the same

life stage, the same age, who are asking the

same questions, who are pursuing God in the same

way, and challenging one another to grow. And

so three weeks in you're like, you can be saying,

I'm having a terrible week, but six months in

you turn around and go, holy smokes, I've come

a long way. That's how it works. It's like climbing

a mountain slowly. After a couple of weeks, you're

like, I don't know, I'm having a bad day today.

But as you turn around and look back, you're

like, oh, I've come a long, long way. If you

are here and you want to talk to me about internship,

please do it. We've just started. We just had

our first week, which means it's really easy

to sign up. You haven't missed much at all. OK,

please, please talk to me about that. All right,

enough of that. That's my agenda stuff. What

you need to do in all this. as I come to a close,

is to put on the full armour of God. All right,

this isn't about proving yourself, this is about

your best life. The problem is we have convinced

ourselves that our best life comes from the decisions

that we make and the things that we think are

good for us or the things that everyone in culture

tells us to do. But our best life comes when

day after day we prioritise the things of God

ahead of everything else. If you're a single

person here in this room, wait to find someone

who loves Jesus more than they love you, and

then make sure they love you more than anything

else except Jesus. That's the order. That's the

order. And then when you have kids, make sure

you keep them third, because if they move up

in any way, it all goes haywire. You've got to

love Jesus the most. You've got to love your

partner second most, and then you've got to love

those kids third. After that, the world's your

oyster. Go for it. But if you can do that in

that order, you will start to structure some

things in your life. This is about putting all

things through Christ, laying everything down.

Let's just quickly go back to Paul's visit to

Philippi and then I'm going to finish up. Paul

is unjustly thrown in jail, like I said, and

we hear that in the middle of the night. Paul

and Silas, prisoners for the first time in Paul's

life, he's never experienced this. They're praying

and singing hymns together. Just normal prisoner

behaviour on your first night in jail. Really

normal stuff. And the Bible tells us the other

prisoners were listening to them. They weren't

stopping them and they weren't participating,

but they were listening. They must have been

just like, what are these people on about? I'm

just going to watch. And then comes an enormous

earthquake. The cell doors fly open. God provides

Paul and Silas the route to escape. I can do

all things through Christ who strengthens me.

I can escape from prison. And Paul and Silas

rush to do nothing at all. They stay right there.

And the jailer wakes suddenly. It's the middle

of the night. He doesn't have to stay awake,

so he's been sleeping. And he rushes, he sees

all the doors open and he knows the prisoners

will have left. So he takes out his sword so

as not to shame his family and goes to commit

suicide. And before he can, Paul cries out, stop,

stop, stop, stop. We're here. We're all here.

None of us have left. And this jailer rushes

in and he drops to his knees and he said, what

must I do to be saved? And so Paul leads him.

in the prayer of repentance, teaching him how

to follow Jesus, what it means to give his life

to Jesus, and then the jailer takes him back

to his house, tells his whole family and his

whole household, they all give their lives to

Jesus, Paul and Silas baptise them all, then

they go back to jail, and the governor comes

the next morning says, you guys are free, and

Paul's like, oh yeah, I mean I've had quite the

night anyway, but uh, thanks for letting me know

mate. More adventures ensue, but... Here's what

it is. When Paul is thrown in prison, because

of what has happened to him in Christ, he does

not see discomfort, he sees an opportunity. He

doesn't go, I am doomed and I need to get the

fastest way out. In fact, we know that because

when he has a way out, he doesn't go anywhere.

He goes, all right, that's pretty interesting.

Should we keep singing hymns? Should we pray?

And then something starts to happen. He's like,

okay, this is why I'm here. Do you ever wonder

that? Why you're in a particular place at a particular

time when you've got the Spirit of God forged

in you. When you start to chase after that, you

won't wonder that so much. You will know because

you will be listening to God, you will be responding

to God. All of that will be easier. If you take

time to be in the Henley prayer room regularly,

you'll hear God's voice easier. If you're on

the 7am prayer regularly, you'll hear God's voice

easier. It's all about doing the boring things

with love over time to cultivate the presence

of God. in you because that is the source of

life, love and peace. And that, that is what

you want for your life. That is what all of us

truly desire, to be tapped into the perfect source

of love, the perfect source of life and the perfect

source of peace. But unless you can take your

time, those times when we are wanting desperately

to do anything else, either because we think

we've got too much to do or we just want to disconnect

entirely, give that to God. Trust Him with it.

If I could give you one practical thing right

now, I would say this. When you are at a time

of complete exhaustion, do not pick up a device

with a screen on it. Just pause. Rest in an analogue

way. The way our forefathers did. And when you

do that, do you know what you cultivate? Silence

and stillness. And in silence and stillness can

come the voice of God. I'm not telling you inevitable,

you know, I love a movie. I'm a big movie buff.

I love it. But cultivate silence and stillness

first. You will be surprised what happens. The

irony, right? What you can hear. Hey, would you

just stand with me as we finish? God is constantly

calling us to respond to His voice. Paul, who

wrote, I can do all things through Christ, who

strengthens me, completely means it because he

knew that he was a living temple, that he had

cultivated the very presence of God in himself.

I just wonder, as we're in this moment, preparing

to go back into worship, would you just close

your eyes with me for a moment? and just stretch

out your hands before you. This is a thing I

like to get people to do because it's something

we do when we're receiving a gift. And our God

wants to give us a gift, the gift of His presence.

I just wonder, would you just begin to pray?

To ask for what you need from God. Don't worry

about if this feels selfish. This is you starting

to forge that time, that relationship with God.

Maybe right now you're in a time of real work

stress. You're God's child. Tell Him what you

need. He loves you. He's listening to you. Maybe

there's a relationship that is feeling frayed

at the moment. For whatever reason, I've got

mother -daughter relationships in my mind here.

If that's you, I think God is speaking to you.

Give that to Him. Trust Him with it. Listen for

His voice. Some of you here as we go back to

that Philippians chapter 4 verses 6 and 7 about

Philippians 4:6

anxiety. That's the real thing. Every time you

start getting some traction you get anxious and

it all starts to fall apart. God is here today

to say Jesus is the Prince of Peace. Place your

trust in Him. Give your burdens to Him. Receive

the Spirit of God. Receive the Spirit of God

today. Thanks so much for tuning into this week's

message. If you felt challenged or need prayer,

we'd love to hear from you on Instagram, at encounterhenley.

Or if you're interested in how you can support

this ministry, please go to our website encounteradelaide

.com .au. Thanks again for listening. God bless

you.