Remember to Fight

Hey Church of the Grove, it is awesome to be with you this morning.

I hate that we cannot be together in person as we continue to meet online amidst this pandemic that we're all dealing with.

As a matter of fact, if I can just maybe let's have a little fun and laugh a little bit.

A couple of weeks ago, we were still planning to meet as a church before the governor asked for the faith communities not to meet in person.

And so and so here's a funny thing.

We were out of hand sanitizer at our church buildings, both in Social Circle and in Walnut Grove.

And so I found myself during that week driving around trying to find a hand sanitizer.

Isn't that crazy?

We finally pulled the plug and decided that we shouldn't even attempt to gather and said, hey, you know what?

We're gonna meet online and we're gonna honor and consider those over us in authority and also just consider one another.

And let's be safe.

Here's the beauty of technology is we can meet just like we are right now.

But here's the funny part.

In the middle of this pandemic, what becomes the one symbol of lack of what people are missing the most in their life?

And it's this.

Toilet paper?

We're in the middle of a pandemic, and the biggest thing that people are making a fuss about online is toilet paper.

Of all things, toilet paper.

And that's just funny to me.

It reminds me of when I went on a mission trip several years ago to a third world country.

They told us when we packed, they were talking about whatever everything we had to pack, they said, you better pack toilet paper with you for this mission trip.

And I thought, that's kind of strange.

I mean, toilet paper?

I need to pack my own toilet paper?

You know, and here's the other thing.

They said when we when I got to the actual third world country that I was in, they said, there's a custom.

You don't shake hands with your right hand in this country.

And I said, why don't we shake hands with our right hand with people in this country?

It's because they don't have toilet paper.

Oh, I got it.

I got it.

Now here's what I thought in my mind.

I said, we're all about taking the gospel.

Man, we're bringing Jesus to these people.

We're trying to advance the kingdom of God.

And that's what our central focus was.

But I was like, man, can we not bring these people toilet paper?

I mean, let's give them Jesus, but could we bring them toilet paper too?

And that was a little bit funny to me.

And I hope it's funny to you right now, in the midst of everything that we're lacking, that's been the one thing that seems to have caught people's attention at the beginning of this pandemic crisis.

Here's the reality.

I think we're in a time of great lack.

We're missing out on all types of things.

Man, think about seniors in high school, seniors in college that are missing out on all of the activities, all of their gatherings, all of their sports, potentially missing out on their graduation.

I miss my family.

I miss my physical family, my biological family, the people that I can't see right now, that I'm not spending time with.

I miss my church family so badly.

I miss being able to watch a ball game on television.

I miss being able to go to a high school baseball game in our community.

And I would say you are missing out.

You're missing out on seeing your kids in their activities and dancing and playing ball.

We're missing out on a lot of things.

Probably more important than all those things is what we are missing out on in the deepest level.

Many of us have been gripped by fear, by anxiety, by worry, and it's crippled us emotionally.

And we're missing the security, we're missing the hope.

We're missing out and lacking the joy that God wants us to have.

And so here's what I want to address this morning.

This is what I want to bring to you this morning is we're gonna we're gonna spend a little time in the book of Philippians.

And so if you've got your Bibles at home or you've got a phone, whatever, pull out Philippians.

We're gonna be primarily in chapter four, and we're gonna listen to what the Apostle Paul says to us in a time of lack, in a time of need.

It's interesting that Paul is writing from the confines of a prison.

And he had gone to Philippi on one of his early missionary journeys, and he had he had one of his customs was to go to the local synagogue, and he would find a place to preach the gospel, and he found no Jewish men, it says, in the city of Philippi.

So he went outside the city and he found a group of women down by a stream.

And he began to preach the gospel, and it says that people, Lydia and her friends and her family, they turn to Jesus.

Paul leaves them there, that's the young church, to continue to take the gospel.

And he finds himself years later in prison.

And he writes one of these, what we call prison epistles, to this young church at Philippi, and he addresses a bunch of stuff.

He addresses the need for unity in the church.

I mean, he's he's correcting them about some issues.

He lifts up the name of Jesus and he talks about this significance of Jesus coming in humility, coming wrapped in human flesh, humbling himself even to the point of death on a cross, so that at the mention of his name, Jesus, that his name would be exalted, that his name would be glorified, that his name would be lifted up, and that at the mention of his name, every knee would bow, every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

So Paul, Paul, then he moves into chapter three and he addresses some theological issues and this whole tension between faith and grace and our human works and how we should uh uh you know balance all of that.

Then he gets to the end of the letter in chapter four.

Man, this is this pumps me up.

Because here's what he says.

He said, in times of lack, in times of need, in times of want, when we're missing out on things, here's what he says.

He mentions three things specifically.

He says, and it's it's part of this series of remembering.

We got here, Nathan last week doing an incredible job of helping us remember our identity in Christ.

And so Paul says, I want you to remember three things.

Remember that you can choose joy, remember that you can experience peace, and then remember that God's presence and provision is available to you.

Three things.

Listen, let me go back over this.

You you remember that you can choose joy, remember that you can experience peace, and that God's presence and God's provision is available to us.

So let me let me read.

Let me let's just dive in and look at these three specific promises that Paul mentions in Philippians.

And I'm gonna start in chapter four with verse four.

The first few verses he's speaking specifically to a couple of people in the church about some unity issues, but he gets to verse four and he says this he says, rejoice in the Lord always.

Again, I will say, rejoice.

Let your reasonableness be known to everyone.

That word reasonableness, it could be translated gentleness or patience.

Let it be known to everyone.

The Lord is at hand.

So Paul, stuck in a prison cell, writing to people that are free, now they're probably experienced oppression from the Roman Empire and difficulties and struggles and maybe persecution as the early church experienced.

But Paul says, in the midst of all that, rejoice in the Lord.

Rejoice in the Lord.

You know what he's saying?

He's saying, choose joy.

He said, we had this opportunity, regardless of the circumstances we're in, regardless of a pandemic, regardless of a virus that has confined us, we can choose joy.

There is no lack of joy.

I love this quote out of this book that Victor Frankl wrote.

It's a book titled Man's Search for Meaning.

He says this we who lived in the concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last pieces of bread.

They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man.

Listen, but one thing.

The last of his freedoms is to choose his own attitude in any given set of circumstances.

Choose joy.

Choose joy.

Listen, you might be watching us at 9.15 on Sunday morning or at 11 a.m.

or 5 o'clock, or you might be watching this as it's replayed on the internet, but I'm telling you, choose joy.

Even in the midst of difficult circumstances, you have the power to choose joy.

Here's the picture.

Picture a child, picture a five-year-old or a six-year-old in the middle of June chasing fireflies, lightning bugs.

And there's this determination in that five or six-year-old man, I'm gonna grab, I'm gonna grab one of those fireflies, I'm gonna grab one of those lightning bugs, I'm gonna get after it, I'm gonna go after it.

And that's that's the example that I think that God has for us is let's fight for joy.

But he doesn't stop there.

He says, He says, you can also experience God's peace.

And he's look at what he says in verse 6.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication.

With thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

And the peace, listen, the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Can I just ask you, I mean, do you need some peace this morning?

I need some peace.

Do you need some peace today?

I want peace.

I don't want anxiousness.

I don't want, I don't want nervousness, I don't want to worry.

He says, listen, you can experience God's peace.

Paul writes and encourages us, and he says, hey, you you find peace through prayer.

Prayer in this context, it's just this idea of communion with God, being with God.

It's like Adam and Eve walking with God in the cool of the day in the Garden of Eden.

It's like Moses encountering God at the burning bush.

It's this idea that God is available.

Jesus pulled away, and he spent time with his heavenly father.

And so we fight anxiousness and we experience God's peace through prayer.

And prayer is just talking to your father, it's talking to your heavenly daddy.

And he uses this word supplication.

The supplication is a little different than prayer.

Supplication is pleading with God.

I mean, it's this, the picture is Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Father, not my will but yours, but if it be your will, let this cup pass for me.

It's this idea of this him sweating drops of blood, but you can come before God and plead.

God, I have needs.

I have things that are I'm lacking in my life.

I need you to come meet me where I am.

Maybe it's financial, maybe it's maybe it's emotional, maybe it's relational.

What is it that you're lacking and that you're anxious about that you can come to God in prayer and supplication and experience the peace of God?

The picture here that I think about in history is in 1914, on Christmas Day in World War I, for one day they stopped fighting.

There's this battle that's raging, and then from one trench to another, there's Christmas carols.

They start singing back and forth.

And so this idea of peace is in the midst of war, there's rest.

Now I'm gonna tell you, the scripture tells us that we're in the middle of war.

As a matter of fact, Paul says in another let another letter to the Ephesians, he says we war not against flesh and blood, but we war against the powers and the principalities in the air.

So we are in a battle, and the battle is over your emotional well-being.

It's over your anxious heart.

And I'm telling you, the enemy wants you to be gripped with fear, but I'm telling you that Jesus wants to set you free and to tell you that you can experience his peace.

So choose joy.

He reminds us to choose joy, he reminds us to experience peace, but he also reminds us with this third promise that we can rest in the presence and provision of God.

Listen to this.

He says in verse 8, he says, Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there's any excellence, if there's anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

I rejoice in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me.

He says, You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity.

And he says, listen to this, verse 11.

Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.

And so here's what Paul is saying.

We can rest in the presence and the provision of God.

And I can't help but think, when I think of that, I think of the 23rd Psalm where David says, The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

And see, see, here's an interesting thing is you you take verse 11, it says where Paul says, For I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content, and you and you take David's words, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

And there's this common denominator that in the presence of our shepherd, we lack nothing.

We have no needs.

We can be content.

And so that's what I want to encourage you with this morning or this afternoon, whenever you're watching this, is to find your rest in the presence and the provision of God, and that God offers you whatever you need spiritually, emotionally.

Here's something David and Paul both had in common is that they had a personal relationship with the shepherd.

John 10 refers to Jesus as being the good shepherd.

David, in his foresight, was in a relationship that's personal with the shepherd Jesus.

Paul looking back at the cross and the empty tomb is in a personal relationship with his Savior Jesus.

Listen, you want to choose joy, you want to experience peace, you want to rest in the presence and provision of God, then you enter into a personal relationship with the good shepherd.

And you can say with Paul, I will be content in every situation.

You say with David, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

So what does that mean for us?

What does that mean for us?

Church at the Grove or whoever is listening, let me encourage you with a couple of things.

Number one, be the church.

Be present where you are, in your families, in your neighborhood, in your community.

Be the church.

Number two, if you see a need and you can meet it, then meet it.

We keep sharing with you, listen, if your income hasn't been affected, I want you to give because we haven't seen the greatest needs yet.

There's going to be some greater needs coming in the coming weeks and coming months.

And so if you can meet a need and you see a need, you meet it.

And if you can give faithfully to the work at Church at the Grove, please continue to give.

Let me encourage you, church, wherever you are, whatever your situation is, be the church.

Look for needs and meet them.

And then you fight for joy, you fight for peace, you fight for the presence and provision of God.

Listen, and let's fight for our family, our church family, our community.

Let's fight for it.

So I'm gonna pray with you right now.

Heavenly Father, you are the good shepherd.

And we thank you for being our shepherd, our heavenly father.

And Lord, I lift up people right now that are watching, listening.

Those that need a personal shepherd, that need a personal relationship with you, the good shepherd, I want to encourage you that it's as simple as ABC.

You admit that you need, you need a Savior, that you need rescuing, you believe and you trust in what Christ provided in his life and his death and his resurrection, and you confess Jesus as your Lord.

Now, if you're a believer, let me encourage you, keep joining with us, keep connected in your communities and be the church.

There is joy to be fought for.

There is peace to experience.

Listen, listen.

And you can rest in the presence and the provision of your