Rejoice Always?

And so this morning we're going to be looking at a passage in Philippians 4, a couple verses, really, really short, I would say really simple, but it's not. It's actually incredibly difficult to truly comprehend. And in fact, I'm going to tell you, we're beginning the section in Philippians 4, which is incredibly meaningful to me. You know, a lot of people look at me and it's like, well, I am optimistic. I am my perspective in a lot of ways.

God's really worked some of these things throughout the whole chapter four of Philippians that has been so instrumental in helping me to be able to live with a sense of hope. So these passages, these coming weeks, are incredibly meaningful to me and I hope that you'll see that even in some of what we share. But I'd like to invite you to keep your Bible open there, to open it up. It's just a couple verses. I'm going to start by reading these verses again.

They seem really simple, but it's not. Philippians 4, starting in verse 4. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say rejoice. Let your reasonableness be made known to everyone.

The Lord is at hand. And that's it. Let's pray. Father, thank you for the privilege that we do have to be here this morning, Father, to be able to dive into your word. Thank you for the things that you continue to stretch me on, that you teach me.

And Father, how this passage and these ideas have been instrumental to me and my wife and our family throughout the years. And Father, I pray that you would speak through me and in spite of me. Father, help us to. Help us to not only understand this, but each one of us to apply it no matter where we're at in life. Father, to be able to embrace these incredible truths.

We pray in Jesus name, Amen. A number of years ago, before we moved here to Ohio, Sandy and I had gone through a period of time that we would both agree was probably amongst the most difficult and painful that we have been through in our life together. And I don't want to spend a lot of time this morning talking about the details of our story. But the short version is that we went through a two year period of time where it was just one crisis after another. And it seemed like every month or two there would be another problem, another thing that would happen.

And it would not only build on the things that happened, but it would often make it worse. And it seemed like in that time that you know God through these different trials, kind of knocked out about every sense of security, identity that we had in our lives. And you know, things were just one thing after another. And I remember Sandy and I would take, we do a lot of prayer walks in that time and we would talk and we'd pray, just crying out to God for his leading and provision. And I remember at one point part of our prayers we need to say, you know, how do we not only see God's provision, what can we thank him for?

And I remember one time in particular, you know, we said, okay, one of the things we could look at is with everything that has happened, you know, our health has been protected. We've had some health, small things, but we haven't had any major health problems. And there were some small things in that two year period. That's when our son David was diagnosed with autism. But it wasn't a new problem.

We had health or, you know, behavioral things that we'd seen and it was just kind of an explanation. In that time, I developed skin cancer for the first time and but we were thankful it was caught early and we were hopeful that it would on the whole, that I would and be able to recover. And so while there were problems, we didn't have that major thing. And I remember praying about that. And about two weeks later we're at home and we had our son who we thought had was sick with the flu.

And he comes down and before bed he starts, he starts seeing things and then he gets really woozy. And we said, okay, this is something serious. And I remember telling Sandy, okay, I'm going to take him to the hospital. You know, she stayed home to try to find somebody to come and, and watch our other kids at home. So she was gonna join me as soon as possible.

And so I'm driving him there and he just started losing it, literally. And by the time we got to the hospital, he was pretty much comatose. I'm carrying him in the hospital and just in panic. And they saw that it was a significant need. They got to him right away and they're doing all these tests and about an hour later he's out of it.

And the doctor comes in and he tells us, okay, here's what's happened. He's developed juvenile diabetes, but it's really late and we haven't, we should have caught it way sooner. He's in a crisis state. And he said, okay, we're gonna give him some medication, but there's a threat that they could have some brain. It could result in brain swelling and if it does, it's Gonna be fatal.

But if we can make it through the night, you know, then you're gonna, you know, he's gonna be okay, but we're gonna have the juvenile diabetes.

And when I look at that and I think about and remember that circumstance and if I think about where I was at that day and I read if I opened Philippians 4, if somebody turned here and said, okay, you know, the Bible says rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say rejoice. And if I read that and said, okay, how in the world am I supposed to understand that verse when going through a series of trials, when I'm sitting in the hospital hoping our nine year old son's going to make it through the night? I mean, to rejoice in the Lord always. Really?

What if some well meaning Christian came up to me and said, you know, the Bible says rejoice in the Lord always. You know, you need to claim this verse. And I don't think I would have responded to that person very well. What is it calling us to practice? You know, sometimes we can look at it and it seems simple, but it can be simplistic.

There's an artist that we found and they take some scripture verses and put pictures to it. And I, and I like what they did with this one. You know, here's a little goat, you know, be joyous always. And it's kind of like, okay, it's really cute, it's funny, but is it really that simple? See, on the one hand it seems to be simple and straightforward, but in practice it's anything but.

So what is God calling us to here? Is it an unrealistic command or is it just some kind of wish? You know, wouldn't it be nice if we could rejoice in the Lord always? And when we look at this, it gets even harder because when you look at what Paul says, if he just said rejoice in the Lord, okay, that's a challenge. But the kicker is then he says, always rejoice in the Lord in all circumstances.

I mean, that's tough. And I think Paul knew it was tough. That's why he repeats it again. I say rejoice. I think in a sense he's saying, okay, I'm telling you, rejoice in the Lord always.

And yep, you heard me right. Yeah, that's what I'm saying, you know, let me tell you again. Yeah, rejoice. Again, I say rejoice. And I think as we look at this, if we're honest, we've got to say how in the world, can we hope to achieve this?

How is it possible for someone to always rejoice? And just in case we might think, well, Paul's writing from a theological perspective. It's unattainable religious theory, not set in reality. Remember where Paul was when he's writing this. Think about his context of his teaching.

He's writing from prison. He's in a Roman prison, chained to a card. He's been in prison for at least two years on false charges. He has no privacy. In fact, if you were with us a couple months ago when we first started the book of Philippians, I mean, we looked at this in greater detail and we saw.

I mean, there's all these things happening in Paul's life, and he's responding to these Philippian believers who are worried about him because they're sure he's got to be depressed and discouraged. You know, this long imprisonment and, you know, he's waiting trial before Nero, it could result in his execution. People are turning on him, betraying him. And we saw that in his response to that in chapter one. He said, you know, I'm not depressed.

No, I'm confident. I have joy. In fact, that's probably the primary theme. Joy is repeated 14 times in this little letter. He says, I have joy.

Why? Because I know that God is in charge. I know that even here, God's opening up doors. Even. Even in prison, I'm getting a chance to share the gospel with these guards that are coming.

But here's what we need to realize. This was not an emotional response. It's not like he got up in the morning and said, what a beautiful day in the prison. Man, I love waking up to the smell of human waste. This is wonderful.

I wonder who my guard's gonna be today. Because I love being with people that see me as this worthless prisoner. If I just had a cup of coffee, it would be perfect. No, that's not what happened. That's not where.

It's not an emotional response. There's nothing to be excited about. See, what he's able to do is he's able to make a decision to say, I'm choosing to focus on the truth of who God is and see that as being more real than the experience that I feel. This joy, even this perspective on God's control wasn't something that was easy or natural. That's why, again, he had to repeat it a second time.

It's something that is not emotional but mental. And in fact, it's the same idea that Paul or that James talks about in James, chapter one says, count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet various trials and it's not like, oh, you feel good. But notice he doesn't say, feel joy, have joy. He says, count it joy. Consider it joy.

It's a thought word, not a. It's a mental action, not an emotional response. And so here's what's happening. We've got to see beyond Paul's ability to have joy while he's writing from prison is him saying the attitude of joy doesn't come from the horrible circumstances, but it comes because there's something that transcends those. And in the beginning he says, now I'm able to have this joy.

And now at the end of the letter, he comes back and he's basically saying, now apply these truths to your own life. Now I'm telling you, rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say rejoice. But again, if you're like me, there's going to be times we struggle with this. There are going to be times that we struggle and we wonder, how in the world can I do this?

I mean, I've talked to several people today that have just lost family members in the last month or two, and it's like, how do you do that when you just lost a loved one? How do you do that when you've lost your job? How do you do that when you're struggling with a rebellious teenager? How do I do it? Personally, when I'm going through this two year period of struggle and I'm sitting in the, in the emergency room hoping my son makes it through the night, I didn't feel like rejoicing.

But my friends, we've got to take Paul's word seriously here because again, these are words that I think he wrote is led by the Holy Spirit. They are the words of God to us. But at the same time, we have to take seriously the struggle of applying these words. Now, I think one of the reasons that we struggle and something that's key is understanding, is that we misunderstand the whole nature of what joy is. So when we talk about joy in our culture, we're thinking of something little more than an emotional response to circumstances.

When good things happen, we feel joy. When bad things happen, there's no joy.

How many Cleveland sports fans, how many Guardians fans, how many can relate to joy and no joy this week? Right? I mean, we all went through that a week ago today. I mean, the Guardians come off, you know, walk off, home run, they win the Yale Central. They come back from 15 and a half games back, man, there's a lot of joy.

There's celebration. They get in the playoffs, and then Tuesday they fight, face the Tigers, and the Tigers close game. They beat them, and the Tigers are rejoicing, but there's no joy in Cleveland. And Wednesday we come back and boy, we win. And there's a celebration.

There's hope. We've evened it up. Thursday, deciding game to go to the next round, we lose. And again, there's no joy in Cleveland. Our only hope is, as any Cleveland fan, wait until next year.

That's our only hope. Now, that's the cultural view of joy. It's this emotional response to circumstances. But the biblical view of joy is something that's far deeper, and it's hard for us to understand because it's so different. See, it's something that's far deeper.

In fact, to help you understand it, let me not only put joy but love in the same way, because we make the same mistakes with understanding love culturally as we do with joy. In both cases, we see both love and joy as a victim of our emotions, while the Bible teaches that both love and joy should be a servant of our wills. So let me take the illustration of love. Okay? I've talked to people at times, and they'll say, okay, they're married, and, man, I never planned to go through a divorce, but I think, man, I'm.

We're just headed towards divorce. And I said, what happened? Well, we've just fallen out of love. Well, I'll talk to someone. I never dreamed that I'd have an affair, but, man, I just met this person and we just fell in love.

And next thing you know, and you know what they're saying in each case, I don't have any control over this. I'm a victim of my emotions. This came, this happened. Love came, and I just had to go where it led me. Now, if I come back.

And I said, but you promised to love the other person till death do you part. And, well, you know, I can't promise to feel a certain way. You know, things happened, and I have to respond. And that view of love is incredibly common in our culture. It's this emotion, and it drives us.

We're just a victim to what happens. But the Bible says this is a completely wrong view of love. The Bible defines love as a decision. It's not dependent on our emotions. It's a servant of our will.

You know, somebody would say, well, what about the feelings of love? Well, if you understand biblical love, there's a place for feelings. But it's not what drives it. It's actually something that results from actions of love. You see, true commitment is a commitment or true love is a commitment to act regardless of how you feel.

In fact, the true nature of your love isn't revealed until you don't feel it. It's only then you find if you really love each other, if you're really willing to do something other centered and sacrificial that shows the true nature. But the key thing is this. If you treat the other person with love, if you persevere in that commitment, even in the hard times, in time, the byproduct will be the feelings. They'll return.

But if you're relying on feelings to be the engine that drives your marriage, sooner or later that engine is going to run out of steam and you're going to end up in a disaster. And what happens is that people make it their feelings. And then the next thing you know, because I don't feel in love, then they don't act in love and they spend less and less time together. And you know what? It's almost like, okay, we're not feeding it anymore.

You're actually feeding the doubts. And then in time, the thoughts follow, hey, we're out of love and we just got to. Let's go towards divorce. So I've got this person I fell in love with. And so what you believe follows your emotions.

See, what we've got to see here is that the issue is that there's a putting together the ideas of the relationship between feeling, action and thinking. Now, these three are related, but the question is, how are they related? What order do they come with? What is the engine that drives your love? What is the engine that drives your joy?

Well, let's first of all consider, I think, a natural perspective. The way that our world views it, the way that it's natural for all of us, the natural perspective. Let's go to the illustration. When I talked about love, I used the illustration of a train. So let me use that.

And like I said, in marriage, if you rely on your feelings to be the engine that drives your marriage, sooner or later it's going to run out of steam and it's going to fall apart. So let's expand on that. So you think of a train. I'm going to have three cars. I've got the engine.

I've got the coal car which follows the engine, which feeds the steam, you know, feeds the fuel to the engine. You've got the caboose. That's Kind of following where the engine and the coal car are going. Now, from a natural view, both love and joy, according to their world. The engine is our feelings, it's our emotion.

If the emotions are, you know, are good, if, you know, I feel in love, and, man, we're great. If good events happen, you know, if the Guardians win, you feel joy, bad things happen. You know that it's there's out of steam, that it's nowhere to go. The coal car is the actions. And so when we look at this, when we feel love, we act in love.

When we feel out of love, we try. And when we feel joyful, we act in love. When we don't, we withdraw, we get depressed, we sulk. And here's what I want you to realize. In some sense, it's a coal car that we feed that.

So in love, it's like, okay, if you don't feel in love and you don't spend time with your spouse, you're kind of feeding that so that you're going to fall more and more out of love. If you get depressed, if things are really tough, if you go sulk, if you withdraw, if you kind of withdraw from the world, what's going to happen? That's natural. You're following your feelings, but it's only going to make those grow. And not only that, but then the last part, that caboose, is your thoughts.

And so I don't feel a certain way, I act a certain way. And then you believe something. Oh, we're out of love. We need to be divorced. Oh, you know, I'm depressed.

And so I believe that. And increasingly, even spiritually, I'll talk to people. And I can't really believe God. Is God good? Is God reliable?

I believe prayed. I don't see God's answers, and I can't trust God. And so we begin to think in a way that's following our feelings and our emotions and our actions. But I will say that's the natural order for all of us. But I believe that order is wrong.

It's actually reversed. And when we do this, we're going on this roller coaster and it leads to disaster. The biblical perspective, when it talks about both love and joy and reverses both of those things, it inverts the relationship. So you think about it. First of all, you have the engine, and the engine shouldn't be our feelings.

Your engine should be truth. What we know to be true, not what we feel to be true. What we know to be true. And ultimately, what we know to be true. Is what God's word says.

No matter what happens, no matter how we feel about it, the truth of God's word, the truth of God's character doesn't change. And that should be what drives our life. And when our thoughts are then driven by the teaching of his word, what God says about himself, what he says about our call, you know, the will, our actions will follow so that we start doing the right things. And marriage. I don't feel out of love, you know, but I know God's called me.

I've committed to this. I'm going to treat my spouse with love. And you know what happens then? It starts to. Then it starts to align.

It feeds that. If you act well, I know that God is good. I know that God is. The more that we act in a way that is consistent with that. I need to go out and I need to interact with other people.

I need to serve other people. It begins to feed the truth. See, but ultimately the problem is that we want to put emotions first. And that's what Paul is saying. No, don't do that.

And says if we do, but if we put our thoughts first, the actions follow, then the feelings or the emotions will in time align. It doesn't mean that we won't have times that you feel out of love, that you won't have times that you feel depressed and discouraged. No, you will. We all will go through that. But the fact is we've got to fight this battle where I say what I know to be true is what's going to drive me.

I'm going to try to act on that. And in time, the caboose is going to line up and the emotions are going to follow. Let me try to illustrate this a different way. Okay, Let me use the illustration of a mountain climber. Now, this is wholly hypothetical.

I have never climbed mountains, so I may not, you know, I don't know anything I'm talking about. But here's the truth and something we kind of understand. Okay? When you see someone climbing and you see a mountain climber, let's say you see them and you see them slip a little bit and they come down and they said, well, you know, were you scared? If they're honest, the answer is yes.

I mean, of course you're way up there. You look down and you slip and, and that's scary. But no mountain climber would ever be able to climb any mountain if they allowed their feelings to be the engine. Think about that. What would happen if they were up there and their feelings would drove them Suddenly they slip and they're.

Suddenly, it's like, that wasn't a good grip. And you look down and you see this fall and you suddenly, like, I feel fear. And what happens if they feel fear and they let that be the engine? I can't act, I can't step. I'm not sure what's going to happen.

And next thing you know, they believe that and suddenly they're headed for a disaster. Now, the only way to climb the mountain is again, is to look there and say, what do I know to be true? They look at. Now, I'm not gonna focus on what I feel, but I know there's another hold here. And if I grab this hold and if I pull myself up and if it's one step at a time, I can climb to the top.

I'm gonna control my emotions. I'm gonna focus on what I know to be true, and then let my actions follow my thoughts. Now, my friends, when we're talking about rejoicing in the Lord always, it's often we're facing the mountain and we're on the mountain and we're slipping and we're sliding. And the question is, are you gonna look at the fall? Are you gonna look at.

Are you gonna let the emotions define you, in which case you're gonna get frozen, or are you gonna sit there and say, no, I'm gonna choose to focus on what God calls us to know is true, that I'm gonna. It's not natural. It's a battle that we fight, you know, because why, when your job's on the line, when you lost someone, when you know, when your relationship is fractured, when you. When you get that callback message from the doctor, I mean, it's, you know, how do we rejoice then? If you let your emotions go, you know, it's.

You're going to freeze up. But if you sit there and say, God, help me to focus on what is true, help me to put the engine and the truth, you see, then we're going to find that it's actually possible not necessarily to always feel it right away, but to have joy. So what are the truths that should define our thinking? And now I can go through and say there's a ton of things in the Bible, but I want to look at three that are here, right in this passage, right in this context. And again, I want to acknowledge that this doesn't mean it's easy.

He repeats it twice. Rejoice in the Lord always, because it's not easy. And there's A battle that we need to fight for our own heart and mind to believe the things that we know to be true. And we're going to see in the next couple weeks there are more that it builds on. So next week we're going to look at.

And don't be anxious about anything but prayer. And prayer is part of this. And the next week, you know, think on these things, the things that are excellent, pure and praiseworthy. And so he's going to build on this. But in these verses, I want you to see he's not just saying, rejoice.

He's calling us to, you know, not, you know, be hat, don't worry, be happy. Saying, focus on truth. And what are these transcendent truths, these things that will stay true no matter what else happens? Number one is remember your identity in the Lord. If you have your Bibles open, you know, look to Philippians 4 and go a couple verses up to verse 4.

1. Paul says, Therefore, my brothers, whom I long love and long for my joy and my crown, stand firm in the Lord, my beloved, stand firm no matter what happens. We can stand firm. How do you stand firm? What's it say?

Stand firm in the Lord. Now go to verse 4. Look at what it says there. Rejoice in the Lord always again, I will say, rejoice. How do we rejoice?

What is the basis of that rejoicing? Rejoice in the Lord. And this is the truth that is foundational to all. If you have a relationship with Jesus Christ, then that should change your perspective on everything. That's something that cannot be threatened, that cannot be taken away.

It should be the ultimate sense of security. Now, I want to say that there may be some here that if you're not sure, you have that and you come to church and you're like, well, I'm trying hard, and I don't really know where I stand with God. And you might even be thinking religion. Well, I'm trying and I'm performing. And see, God isn't calling you to perform.

God isn't calling you to do. He's calling you to a relationship with him based on acknowledgement of your need and your sin and accepting what Christ has done for you through the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. That today is an invitation. So if you don't have this, you know, then if you don't stand firm in the Lord, then you're missing the very foundation. You're going to struggle.

Things will be bigger than you and I, and I can't tell you where to find hope. Ultimately, the only place to find hope is. It starts with this relationship with God. And so there may be some that. Today's the day that you say, God, I need that ask you to forgive me.

I want to be your follower. And I invite you to pray that prayer today. And God will meet you. And if you've done that now, your faith in Jesus Christ changes everything. You know what the Bible says about you now?

It says you have been forgiven. And all the things that you think that make you disqualified, that make you un, you know, that make you ugly, that make you are a failure. No, they're forgiven in Christ. They're washed clean. They're no longer at all on your record.

You are a child of God. You've been adopted by God. You have been chosen. You are deeply loved by Him. He cares for you as his child.

You are co heir with Jesus Christ. God makes you holy and blameless before him, so that you are without stain. Nothing can take away that identity. Nothing can take away that acceptance. Nothing can take away your position.

Nothing that's going to happen is in any way going to threaten that. You are loved, you are cared for. God is graciously as a child, watching over every event in your life. So even though bad things may happen, you can know that we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good. For those who are called according to his purpose, God will work everything out.

It's not that everything is good, but God will bring good purposes and will not allow anything to happen except that which he can use for good. And not only that, but you understand that God loves you as his child. And that relationship came through him dying on the cross. While you were a sinner, he died on the cross for you. And now that you are his child, don't you think that you can write?

It doesn't cost him anything to care for you. Can't you rely on Him? What does it say a few verses later in Romans? What shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

Do you believe that? Not only that, but he who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also, along with him, graciously give him all, Give us all things? You know, if he's given a son, don't you know that you are loved, that you are valued, that you are safe no matter what happens? That's a truth that will never be shaken. Not only that, but we also need to remember the perspective of eternity.

You know Whatever happens, it can feel overwhelming at the moment. But what if we really understood that the moment is only temporary, that a real home is in heaven, that our time here on earth is short, and ultimately what we really long for will be fulfilled, but not necessarily here. In fact, if you go to a couple verses right before this, again, look at the context. This is what Paul is teaching, truths that we need to remember in this context. Look what he says in the end of chapter three.

Our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him to subject all things to himself. Our citizenship is in heaven. That's where we belong. And even when our body is wasting away and all these things are happening, no, he's going to transform that. I mean, that's an incredible truth.

See, one of the reasons that we can be defeated by events in our world is that the world seems so insecure. We think about it, isn't it? We worry. Everything's changing, everything is being threatened. We see events happen and what's going to happen.

And we look at things in our own life and even the things that we value. It's like, no matter how much your marriage is, how good it is, one of you is going to die. No matter how beautiful you are, you know, it's. Gravity's taking place. I mean, it's.

You know, we're falling apart. You know, when we look at this, no matter how many friends you have, you know, people move, nothing lasts forever. You got a great job, the economy changes, and deep down we know we're made for something more secure. And what does Paul say? Yes, you were.

Your citizenship is in heaven. And if that's there, it's not that. Just a place where it's safe. But you know what the Bible says? God says, no.

There, behold, all things are made new. Now think about what this means, because it's incredible. In the presence of the King of Kings, God doesn't just keep things safe and the same they get better. They're constantly getting better. They get newer, they're improving, they're fresher every second.

That's not a place where we not only are able to hold on to love and joy and the good things we have, but where they're eternally new. And there's this place that's like that. And so when we realize that, it's like, yeah, bad things happen here, but this isn't my home. This isn't my identity. That's Only the temporary circumstances of today doesn't at all threaten my eternal destiny.

In fact, it's not only here, but if you go to the verses right before this, we looked at this last week. Paul challenged these two women who were, you know, arguing about stuff. And you know, he says, you know, he says, you know, these Utoche and Sydney, you know, I agree in the Lord and he doesn't then get into it. And he says, okay, well, you know, here's the problem. He doesn't try to mediate.

He doesn't, you know, point out the problem. He doesn't give him a method. Here's how to solve conflict resolution. What does he say? Here's what you need to remember.

Your names are in the book of life saying, remember where you're from, you're citizens of heaven. And if you know that, then why are you arguing about stuff that really doesn't matter? The problem isn't the conflict. The problem is that you're looking at the wrong things. Lift up your eyes.

Remember your identity. Don't get discouraged and defeated by the little events of life, my friends. We need to remember that. We need to remember that as a believer, you know, this side of eternity, we live in the fallenness of the world, but this is as close to hell as a believer is ever going to get. That's incredible.

And the good news as a believer is that one day we get heaven. The bad news is we don't get heaven until we get heaven. So this side of eternity, we're living longing for that heaven. But there are times that we see the brokenness and the fallenness of the world and we say, I'm made for something better. Part of us wants heaven on earth.

I don't need heaven on earth because I get heaven and heaven. And if I remember that, I can accept and live through and persevere through the fallenness of this life experience. The last truth that he tells us to remember is that we need to remember the sovereign goodness of God. Look at again in verse four, what does he say? Rejoice in the Lord always.

Again I will say, rejoice, Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand. And when it says the Lord is at hand, he's basically the Lord is at work. He's saying, you know, rejoice always. And let your endurance, your kind of perseverance, your step, steadiness be known in one because you know that ultimately God's in charge.

And you may look at it and say, this is, you know, this is happening. And this is happening in the world. And this and Charlie Kirk, you know, assassination and sickness and my loved one died and all that happens. I understand. And there are times that we don't see God at work, but he's saying, no, God is at work.

There are times that we stress out because we. We don't see God's hand. But he says, no. Trust his heart, trust his character. I love what it says in Hebrews 11.

And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone. What is faith? Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him. And you know what it's saying.

Here's what it means to have faith. Number one, there is a God. He exists. You're not Him. He's in charge.

But number two, that he's good. And that if I remember that there is a God who's in charge and that he is good. And that even though it seems like things are out of hand, no, it's actually the Lord is at hand that God is going to set things right. And even in this immediate when I don't see it, don't let that defeat you. Have confidence that the day is coming.

So when you believe this, he's calling us to say, these are transcendent truths. But we need to make the choice of our foundation, of our faith. We need to make the choice. Okay, what is the foundation? It's natural that the foundation is our feelings.

It's our emotions. Bad things happen. I've fallen out of love. I feel defeated. I feel that's a natural force.

That's the way the world does it. But there's a battle. See, when he looks at this, when he says, again, repeat it. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say, rejoice.

This is not easy. It's a battle for our heart and for our mind that we have to choose to focus on God's character rather than what we feel. We need to choose to focus on the unseen promises of God and believe that they're more real to us than what we experience and feel right now. Going back to Hebrews 11, I love the definition of faith. Now, faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the convictions of things not seen.

You know what that means? Faith is again, when I have the assurance of hope for the promises of God that I do not see. And they're more real to me than what I feel and what I see right now, that when I look, and it's not that I'm on the mountain and I Slip a little bit. That's what I feel. But when I know the promises of God that there's a handhold every step of the way and when I do that, that God is going to care for me, he's going to carry me through.

It's believing in the unseen, even when it seems to disagree with what I feel and experience right now. It's a battle and, and that's why I think with Paul and his story and he can say, I'm writing this from prison. I'm not writing this in a nice comfortable office. Or no, I'm writing this from prison. Rejoice in the Lord always.

Because that was his story and I shared in the beginning. This whole section is so important to me because it's been a part of my story. When I think about waiting there at that hospital overnight and wondering if our son's going to make it through the night, it's again, I wasn't thinking rejoice in the Lord always. I wouldn't have responded well to that. But you know what?

That's what I needed. In God's grace and patience. He helped me understand that. I think about in that time, in that two year period of time, we're going through a crisis and we didn't see God working. I remember literally times that I would come in on Sunday morning and we would have worship time and I would be like, I don't want to sing that song because I don't feel it's true.

I can't sing that. I'm saying things that I don't see. And it was a battle. And I remember in those times of that battle of the mind is saying, no, God is bringing the song because I have to sing it. Am I going to put my feelings first and let that drive me so that I'm not going to worship and then my thoughts are going to follow?

Or am I going to say, here's what I know about God to be true and I'm going to claim what I know to be true and sing the song that I don't feel I'm going to do the action. And you know what? In time, God is going to allow that feeling to start to follow. And I remember that. And those things can be hard, they can be difficult.

And we need to be gracious with each other and be open to saying, that's great that you're struggling. Don't pretend that you feel it. No, let's struggle and be open and honest. I can remember being in the hospital and being there overnight and listening to worship songs. And not because I wanted it, because I desperately needed it, because I needed to hold onto what was true.

And you know, in all those times, there have been things that have happened, not all things that I can understand, not all things that I would choose. But God is good and God's character has proven himself to be good. And in all the difficult and all the painful things, I can look back and I can say, yes, there is reason to rejoice, not always to be happy. And my friends, there are some here that boy, it's an encouragement kind of in the context of neutrality. There are some.

This is a challenge for you. You know that you're sitting there saying, I don't like this message now because it goes against your feelings. I don't want to sing that song. And there may be some that this is what you desperately need to hear because it's hard. It's real.

It's real only not because God calls us to express, to apply this stuff into our lives, but it's real because when we do, it actually changes us. It changes how we think, it changes what we do. It changes who we are. I hope and pray that you're willing to hold on to Christ, to these incredible truths, no matter what mount you're on, no matter how many times your feet have slipped. God will meet you there.

If you have a question about the message, Community Church or Jesus Christ, send us a text to 330-400-3242. You can learn more about our events and community groups at CCPL Life Connect there. You can also send in a prayer request. We would love to pray for you. Have a blessed Lord's Day and we'll see you on Sunday.